Losing your sense of what’s real

Ever had one of those dreams where, on waking, you cannot, for perhaps a few seconds, know if the dream was real or not? People having hypnotherapy sometimes confuse dream memory or fantasies with what really happened. Usually the difference between what really happened and what you imagined can be thought through, reality reaffirmed.

When I was 10 or so, I saw a movie on Broadway called Smell-O-Vision with a documentary on China. Here’s the official description: “Smell-O-Vision was a system that released odor during the projection of a film so that the viewer could “smell” what was happening in the movie…. The process injected 30 odors into a movie theater’s seats when triggered by the film’s soundtrack.”

The sense of smell is a very powerful prime element in memory. That film’s memory impact has stuck with me ever since, all 62 years.

Now, imagine that, instead of watching television or even watching 3-D projections in the movies, you can wear a full headset that places you inside the action depicted on the binocular screen goggles. You have 3-D impressions. The sound is stereo. You can move your hands, feet, you can speak and interact with whatever you are experiencing.

Experiencing, that’s the key word here. Not merely watching, but actually experiencing.

The gaming goggles of today are like the small B&W TV sets of the 1950’s compared to what’s coming. People testing the newest goggles and hand gloves have been vomiting, have been almost comatose with sensory saturation after an hour of “play.” People in these new video worlds are touching, feeling, experiencing feedback -— visual, aural and, yes, touch.

Who can then say what memory is real? If the experience inside these virtual worlds impacts the memory centers of the brain, what new memories will be stored, thought of as real? Are they actually real, could they be said to be? And if so, where does reality, truth and fact fit into the human experience.

Now, imagine if they add smell to the experience. Imagine if they add sexual stimulation to the experience. Imagine if they add true dangers and rewards to the experience? Our minds are perhaps not equipped to sort out the differences between this reality and real reality. Remember that dinosaur dream you had as a kid, being chased? Wasn’t that a real memory, didn’t it evoke fright and fear? Those emotions are still really part of you, stored as your memories even while you, as an adult, know they are but a dream. Nevertheless, they shaped your thoughts and reactions.

So will the new gaming goggles and controllers and they could take you down a path of never again knowing what is real or what is projected/implanted memory.

Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now resides in New Mexico.