> And as hard as it is to articulate the effects, it may prove even harder to identify its cause.

How is this sensation any different from any other existensial crisis? There are many causes for that, widely discussed both in Western and Eastern Philosophy.

E.g. Sartre's most known work, Being and Nothingness, is very much focused on this. Sartre's Nothingness is, despite what you might think, a positive force and ultimately what provides for our free will; it resembles somehow the tabula rasa of Aristotle, the mind being a clean slate. You can imagine anything you want, completely unconstrained. This is in sharp conflict with Being; as a human in the physical world you are bound by external constraints: time, money, family etc. Most people will deny the conflict, believing that the constraints of their Being are compatible with their Nothingness. Acknowledgement of the conflict provokes existential crisis.

When we step into a VR world, we are brought away from the Being and closer to the true experience of Nothingness. We can literally experience anything, unconstrained. Thus when we return, we are forced to reconsider the Being, to reacknowledge its conflict with our inherent Nothingness.

Accordingly, the difference between this crisis and the ones experienced after the end of any immersive escapist experience, be it cinema, books or even music, is at best a matter of degree.

I'm struggling to find the exact passage, but in Thomas Metzinger's Being No One, he brings up a similar concept in regard to lucid dreaming. There we find ourselves with access to the full spectrum of experience that we are capable of mentally modeling without regard to what is physically possible. I found this concept interesting but it wasn't explored fully, thanks for linking it back to Sartre, perhaps I should read some of him next.

Unbelievable to stumble on this comment. I just started Being and Nothingness. It isn't an easy read but really fascinating and now I have more motivation to get through it as I also make VR games as a hobby.

> Ok, I know Inception was technically about dreams and not "strap a screen on your face" VR, but really? "No one predicted"?

ExistenZ predicted exactly this, except with more advanced technology. I don't know if the author of the article just didn't do much pop-culture research, or if ExistenZ just happened to slip by her radar - as I recall, it wasn't very well received (unfortunately!)

Here's the scene... https://youtu.be/-rdG7ug_icw?t=1m18s

eXistenZ is paused!

This reminds me of the time I was asleep and realized I was dreaming, and freaked out and wanted to wake up. Luckily, I did, and stayed awake for a few minutes before going back to sleep.

The next morning, I remembered this and realized I had never actually woken up, I just dreamt I had woken up. Unsettling.

I've had similar experience. Had a dream about my dead grandpa (at some point I realized he's dead and he turned into a zombie along with other people around - not very nice dream). Then I dreamt that I've woken up, I've seen the dormitory in which I really slept, went to open door cause somebody wa ringing, and it was the zombies :/, at which point I've woke up again, for real this time. My friend from the room said I've sat up on the bed and "looked at him" with closed eyes for like 5 minutes, before waking up.

It might have sth to do with drinking like 2 liters of strong tea and studying for exam whole night and day before.

I experience conscious dreaming, where I am aware of my activities during my dreams and can shape them at will - rather than being subject to events dreamed. I remember everything that happens in them.

This has been one of the side effects of my meditative practice.

Oh right, I've seen that movie! Not nearly as memorable as Inception, but more technologically analogous.

eXistenZ is better

No its just the comapny behind those steel tops is advertising very heavily. I must have seen those ads like at least 100 times last few weeks.

Well, you've been in the simulation so long that the only way we can safely bring you out is through subtle hints like that. I am kidding, of course, and those ads seem to be everywhere these days.

The Matrix is literally this

At least the first movie seemed to make it pretty clear that there was the Real World, and The Matrix.

The sequels did blur the line - Neo's abilities outside the Matrix seemed to hint that there was a higher level above ours.

Well if that was a hint, The Architect was practically screaming about multiple levels of The Matrix, but it was lost in his (intentionally?) verbose dialogue with Neo.

> The ad I got to the right of the article is a steel top straight out of Inception. Anyone else, or is that just a weird coincidence?

Spooky - but it's just a targeted google ad. Somebody who reads about existential shenanigans will most likely have seen and enjoyed inception - and there's the top.

The ad even says memorable, could be a savvy marketer content matching VR or some other phrase in the article.