delusions
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Virtual reality helps paranoia patients face their fears
Virtual reality has vast potential for therapy, since it can put folks in stressful situations without any fear of harm. Researcher at Oxford University have demonstrated how effective it can be for treating severe paranoia in patients. The team selected 30 subjects receiving treatment for "persecutory delusions," a serious form of the disease. They were then outfitted with a $24,000 NVis SX111 head-mounted display built for military and other types of training, and placed into typically stressful social locations like elevators and subway trains.
Storyboard: The lies we tell ourselves
We all have our delusions. Some of them are very conscious decisions, like ignoring the fact that Superman Returns is a thing that actually exists. Others are more unconscious, like people who genuinely believe that the ancient Mayans put together a calendar predicting the end of the world in a few weeks. But they're always there, and all of us have a full set of them bred into us from years of social interactions and peer groups. We ignore, we obfuscate, and we reject facts that do not line up with our opinions. Make your own joke there about gamers declaring a game is or was a failure. Our characters often see the world with a lot more clarity. It's not that they're devoid of opinions; it's that they tend to base those opinions on the real story instead of what they saw or felt or thought. That's all well and good, but perhaps it's time for reasonable things like facts to take a hike in favor of some good old-fashioned delusions. After all, if we're all deluding ourselves in real life, shouldn't our characters get to occasionally stick their fingers in their ears and declare they can't hear anything?
