Page - 179 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

Bridging Real and Virtual: A Spiritual Challenge | 179www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 159–181 adventure, discovering new facets of the landscape, the dead ends, the block- ages, the puzzles solved. head movement and eye focus have been doing all the walking and problem solving, all the movement through space. Helmet off and settled now with feet on the ground, I decide whether to walk in fantasy (subjective daydream) or to walk slowly across the room and then step outdoors for a slow walk around the block comparing and contrasting the familiar environment that grounds my daily life and the virtual world of Land’s End. As t. s. eliot recorded, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” CONCLUsiON While some questions about Vr from the 1990s may seem overblown when seen through the viewfinder of today’s gear, some of the larger questions – such as those raised by the two essays discussed – still hang over the technol- ogy. in fact, these big questions concerning escapism and body amnesia seem headed for a showdown in the coming decades. the intense usage of technol- ogy is on the rise, and contemporary culture has already begun to wobble when it comes to dealing with these issues. Looking at two entry-level Vr experiences, this essay has drawn out threads from contemporary archetypal psychology – four-elements theory – in order to produce some samples of a spiritual healing process. the process uses as- pects of virtual architecture to enact a conscious bridge connecting nodes of experience across virtual and real worlds. the background and rationale for this procedure were sketched historically and philosophically. While the conscious skills and self-control needed to enact procedures like these may seem rare in today’s environment, the growth momentum of virtual technologies may press the next generation to develop if not these, then similar skills. BiBLiOGrAPhy Anon, John, 2015, New samsung video highlights the Gear Vr being used for live virtual reality birth, Android headlines, 15 March 2015. http://www.androidheadlines.com/2015/03/new-samsung-vid- eo-highlights-the-gear-vr-being-used-for-live-virtual-reality-birth.html (accessed June 10, 2016). Cavalli, thom f., 2002, Alchemical Psychology. Old recipes for Living in a New World, New york: tarcher/Penguin. Davis, erik, 2015, techGnosis. Myth, Magic, and Mysticism in the Age of information, Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.