I say “almost any” because an exception may be fully immersed, bodily ritual stuff. Maybe that can hammer things down into system 1 that you simply don’t “get” the same way when you just read them.
Is VR (Oculus Rift, Sony Morpheus) a significant step in that direction?
Sure. In fact, some occultists already use VR, so I don’t see why we couldn’t.
The one interesting innovation the occultists came up with is creative design of ritual—and sometimes they do manage to see them as psychological tools rather than somewhat supernatural things. Surely some of that could be “useful psychologically/motivationally”—although psychological research into that is practically nonexistent, it is plausible that a well-designed ritual could do something to participants, such as help them to actually change their mind.
For example, most of us agree Crocker’s rules are a good idea. I’m confident that if adopting them was done as a ritual event, something pompous with witnesses, that’d:
create positive reinforcement and a more impressive memory,
help keep the rules and
advertise them, especially if the witnesses aren’t familiar with them.
Maybe VR could help heighten the experience. But I assume that recording the event, and publishing it for all the world to witness, would do much more.
Is VR (Oculus Rift, Sony Morpheus) a significant step in that direction?
Sure. In fact, some occultists already use VR, so I don’t see why we couldn’t.
The one interesting innovation the occultists came up with is creative design of ritual—and sometimes they do manage to see them as psychological tools rather than somewhat supernatural things. Surely some of that could be “useful psychologically/motivationally”—although psychological research into that is practically nonexistent, it is plausible that a well-designed ritual could do something to participants, such as help them to actually change their mind.
For example, most of us agree Crocker’s rules are a good idea. I’m confident that if adopting them was done as a ritual event, something pompous with witnesses, that’d:
create positive reinforcement and a more impressive memory,
help keep the rules and
advertise them, especially if the witnesses aren’t familiar with them.
Maybe VR could help heighten the experience. But I assume that recording the event, and publishing it for all the world to witness, would do much more.
Occultus Rift?