Dissociation : Vol. 3, No. 4 (Dec 1990)

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Dissociation : Vol. 3, No. 4, p. 222-233 : Multiple personality, altered states and virtual reality: the world simulation process approach
(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Multiple Personality and Dissociation, 1990-12) Tart, Charles T., 1937-
A new technological model of consciousness is that of computer-generated virtual reality. By wearing goggles containing color TV sets and earphones, a computer can control a person's main sensory input, coordinating it with actual body movements tracked by sensors, giving the "traveler" a virtual body that can interact with virtual objects. More than one person can enter the same virtual reality and interact with other travelers there. Given psychological identification, a virtual reality can quickly become an almost total reality. Developing applications, such as those in architecture, are discussed. Contemporary neurology and psychology show that we already live in one or more internal virtual realities, generated by neurological and psychological processes. Stable patterns, stabilized systems of these internal virtual realities, constitute states of consciousness, our ordinary personality, and multiple personalities. Computer-generated virtual realities offer intriguing possibilities for developing diagnostic, inductive, psychotherapeutic and training techniques that can extend and supplement current ones.