A Virtual Reality Trip Report

This is a trip report I wrote after experiencing Android Jones' Microdose Virtual Reality program at the MAPS Psychedelic Science Conference in Oakland.

I entered the busy Marriott convention hall marketplace and found myself situated near the front of the large congregation that had assembled eager to be entertained and delighted by the demonstration of Android Jones’ new psychedelic virtual reality experience with commentary by dharma comedian Duncan Trussell and psychonaut scientist Bruce Damer. After an introductory spectacle, I was asked by Android, who I had helped the day previously in his workshop on virtual reality content creation, to demonstrate his digital neurobending opus Microdose, which would be projected behind Android, Duncan, and Bruce during their live podcast conversation. I’m no virgin to VR, owning and frequently experimenting with an HTC Vive at home, and, after having my consciousness sufficiently decimated and reassembled by Android’s Microdose VR at Boom Festival in Portugal, I’m also one of the beta testers and private users of Microdose before it’s official public release. That said, however, I had spent three months unplugging in the jungles and mountains of South America, barely using a laptop let alone any virtual reality, and so my mind was likely to be shocked by the dazzlingly real and disorientingly consciousness altering effects of this emergent technology which I had not used now in months. Let’s also say (theoretically…) that given the fact that I had slept a sum total of 4 hours over the past 3 days combined, I may or may not have also had a bit of pharmacological supplementation to keep myself alert and active, whose name may or may not be alluded to in the title of Android’s project...

Thus the set was primed for a good old fashioned mind blowing.

From the minute the bulky headset was fashioned over my eyes, I was plunged into a soaring cyberspace that resembles a fractal microcosm of a molecular universe. It’s as if I was peering out from the point of view of a white blood cell but flying through the archetypal corridors of the psyche instead of the human body. Neon rainbow 3D geometry mingled with morphing mechanical luminescent flowers, shooting gracefully from my triggers as I flew through what is probably a pretty accurate depiction of the inside of Android's mind. And from my vantage point, I was really flying, actually flying. As the shackles of my body were thrown aside, I embraced my newfound liberation of existing as mere awareness, floating in a psychedelic universe which to my mind appeared totally real. It was only moments before my perception fully adjusted to this space, and I took it for granted, in a joyous momentary forgetting, that I was just this floating awareness, casting aside any knowing of conference hall or audience. This is also where things got kind of weird because while I was using a digital wand to spray fractal streams of bejeweled dragons into the space around me, I was still trying to listen to the conversation that was taking place between Duncan, Bruce, and Android. Evidently, the experience of Microdose was so encompassing of my perception that I found it impossibly difficult to subjugate my concentration on both being inside of a molecular psychedelic VR universe and listening to a live podcast at the same time! The RAM of my perception was effectively maxed the fuck out! (And I still don't really recall hearing what they talked about...)

After some time of wizarding kaleidoscopic shapes around Microdose's prismatic virtual universe, it was time to cast off the goggles, and head back to default reality. The taking off of the headset is always a shock. I’m not sure how long I was in there, maybe 15 or 20 minutes (there was a timelessness that encapsulated my experience - something that often happens in VR,) but it was enough for my mind to conform fully to its virtual environment. I wish there was a more gradual way to transition from flying through Android’s acid dreams to a crowded convention hall lit with garishly bright fluorescence. Especially the first few times I journeyed into VR, both over an hour in length, the shock of the return and instantaneous come down from the experience was profound. Needless to say, I felt a bit weird and found socializing to be especially odd, as my brain grappled with the confusion of having flown through giant multicolored mechanical flowers only moments before to the cold harsh reality of being back inside a bipedal fleshbag maneuvering a human environment. Also, as rich as our default simulation is, there’s always a bit of “put me back there” in my mind, the liberation from physical form and psychedelic eye candy so enticing as for me to immediately hanker for more. Thankfully I have the Vive and Microdose at my disposal anytime I want to access those dimensions, and this journey at the MAPS Conference will certainly not be my last.

Overall a ++ experience. Would gladly repeat the experiment.