“I believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance, their outlook would be fundamentally changed” - Michael Collins, Apollo 14.
VROE =
Virtual Reality
+ Overview Effect
+ Well-being
Optimising well-being through virtual voyages to space
VROE recreates the Overview Effect using VR, meditation, workshops and haptics so that the beneficial effects of the overview effect can be more widely experienced.
Research
The Overview Effect is a well documented effect that has a growing mass of research behind it. Dr Nezami's research focuses on understanding the effect and if transforming emotions such as awe, gratitude, reverence, humility and wonder can be experienced by people on earth as well as astronauts. Here is a summary of Dr Nezami's own research, future research and useful links.
Dr Nezami's Research on the Overview Effect
Dr Nezami interviewed NASA astronauts as part of her doctoral research to investigate their experiences of Earth gazing. Her aim was to understand the Overview Effect, it's underlying psychological mechanism and if the experience could be used to promote individual and societal well-being.
Astronauts found the experience to be spiritual, it was accompanied by positively transforming emotions such as awe, gratitude, reverence, humility and wonder. The experience induced a sense of global and cosmic oneness, a deeper existential understanding and a belief that we live on a “living breathing biosphere". The astronauts reported becoming familiar with Earth’s faces, her dark and Light passes, Earth’s vulnerabilities, the positive and negative signatures of human civilization and a sense of unity with other humans and life.
For astronauts the experience of Earth gazing strengthened emotional attachment to earth as an entity and a fragile, vulnerable oasis. They experienced a sense of physical detachment from the earth, a sense of loss. The physical distance also allowed them to dissociate from everyday problems and focus in on larger global issues
Dr Nezami's research also focused on the mechanisms of this multi faceted experience, how it was bought about, the psychological processes behind the experience and finally if it is possible to bring the experience back to earth and to a wider audience.
Future Research
We intend to continuously improve what we do
We will use customer feedback to generate data on user and attendee experience. This will help us continuously improve our workshops and programmes. We believe in our product so much that we will also invite independent researchers to conduct tests on efficacy and outcome.