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VR’s answer to relaxation? Meditation experiences

VR’s answer to relaxation? Meditation experiences

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The videos capture what it’s like to come to a meditation center

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Mindfulness has become a flourishing industry, worth some $1 billion, and now, a New York production company called m ss ng p eces (the spaces are deliberate) has launched VR meditation experiences, including one that puts users straight into a guided session, reports Fast Company.

The experience was produced by the company, along with Jack Kornfield, the founder of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Northern California. Ari Kushnir, m ss ng p eces’ founder, was a fan of Kornfield’s podcast and worked with him to put together a 360-degree video for YouTube, the Daydream, and on YouTube’s VR headset feature.

“VR really is the future–it will become widespread as a way for people to experience something they didn’t know before,” Kornfield told Fast Company. “It’s a particularly beautiful way to capture what it means to be on a retreat or to come to a meditation center. For a lot of people, those experiences are quite foreign–they may think that it’s out of their comfort zone, or not for them.”

The experiences include meditation talks, a “nature meditation in the hills of Marin County,” and a walking meditation (though the user is advised to sit in the headset).

“Hopefully it inspires more creators to explore the interesting tension, which is that we have such amazing technology, but it’s making us miserable,” said Ivan Cash, a contributing creative director at m ss ng p eces. “We want to keep figuring out how to make the right kinds of content and resources to support people being happy and fulfilled, and holistically in a better place.”

It’s not the first time mindfulness and technology have crossed paths, with countless smartphone apps designed to help users relax already available. Earlier this year, The Verge’s Lauren Goode found that her Apple AirPods were the perfect accessory to meditation apps.

Technology — simultaneously the stressor and de-stressor of our lives.