High on VR: Virtual experience boosts mood similar to psychedelics

On this week's show, our host Brian McGleenon is joined by David Glowacki who is studying how virtual reality could help people achieve a well-earned break from the constant chattering of their own minds.The study created a VR experience that has much in common with the feelings of transcendence that can occur when people take psychedelic substances such as psilocybin or LSD. The mood-boosting effects of a transcendent experience is now being taken seriously by the medical establishment. At present, regulators are grappling with how to safely administer powerful psychedelics for treating depression and other mental health problems This study developed by David Glowacki does not set out to replicate a psychedelic experience, instead it attempts to use VR headsets to give individuals a greater sense of interconnectedness and ego transcendence, or attenuation.