By: Dagger

Last weekend I was afforded an opportunity to engage in virtual reality for the very first time. I was also given liquid psilocybin to enhance the experience. Let me tell you, it was next-level.

For many of us, virtual reality is still a dream of the far future. But if you’re willing to try the current technology, you’ll find that we’re not as far from Ready Player One as you’d expect. Even in its relative infancy, virtual reality impressed me quite a bit. And to those brave psychonauts looking to take their minds into unique and fantastic spaces: it’s a whole new world.

Sober VR is a treat all its own, as I discovered. It puts you in a headspace that isn’t really available anywhere else. Your body becomes almost a part of the game mechanics. Your hands are floating in a fever dream reminiscent of Rayman. Your entire world is smashed into the 8’x8′ carpeted grid on the floor. It’s like being thrown into an Imax movie that’s built around your every move. Colors and textures are still in a video game style, but the encapsulation of your entire view and peripherals really cranks up the immersion. Pair that with VR’s use of space behind, beside, or above you, and you’ve got a lot to take your mind off the world outside.

You might be familiar with The Tetris Effect; let me say, it takes hold strong. Taking off a VR headset, your entire world shatters. And the jagged little pieces that made it so cool are still begging you to not leave the carpet, or compelling you to move your hands to shape reality.

Dosing up, and getting back into the virtual world, however, you find the experience even more powerful. For my trip, Tilt Brush was the game of choice. As someone with an interest and connection to art, it was a fantastic decision. Tilt Brush is essentially a 3D Photoshop, complete with backgrounds, fun effects and brushes to play around with, pregenerated 3D models, and a music synch ability, which causes all your brush effects to dance in time to music.

When the drugs hit, I was the god of my own 3D universe. Creating things at a whim, and watching my creations squiggle, dance, and squirm in space as I walked, flew, or teleported along to find the best places to conjure. Even when the art was just doodly lines, the experience of creation was powerful. Half machine, half god, the immersion of the VR was complete. I was gone from the earth as we know it and living my new life in the virtual world.

For even an amateur artist with limited time in the program, being able to draw along that third axis is a game changer. Instead of working along 2D space, I could create tunnels of light and electricity, or twinkling stars in a dance all around me. I made a minimalist 2D mountain, complete with falling snowflakes. It stood towering at the end of a spiral of neon purple glow. I painted a sunset, with a hazy smoke brush for clouds. The majesty and beauty of creation were intense with the psychedelic enhancement.

Of course, there was the absurdist touch as well. A 3D modeled pug with top hat, bling, and a cape. A pile of spaghetti. Almost nothing was erased, so by the end of my trip, I was operating in an EDC-esque tangle of flashing lines and bizarre spectacles in the enormous universe I’d called home for the last several hours. I couldn’t tell where the tools of the game ended, and where the scintillations of hallucination began.

But alas, all things come to an end. My experience, while wild and intense, was temporary. Problems like battery power and connection errors had occasionally cropped up, shunting me back into the darkened room of reality. But when the ‘shrooms had worn off, and the hour had grown late, it was time to leave the virtual world behind. But not without fond memories, and an anticipation for the future.

As the tech will only get better, I’m starting to looking forward to throwing my brain in a tank, plugging into the Matrix, and spiking my cranial punch with 200 mics of LSD. Cheers to the future.