How to FEEL TOUCH in VR (no haptics)

hey guys welcome back to the virtual reality show where we talk about any and all things related to virtual reality inside virtual reality I'm your host via phantom touch you've probably heard of people who can experience physical sensations of being touched while inside virtual reality without the need of a haptic suit it's scary exciting and just plain weird that our bodies can produce a physical response to something simulated so what's going on what does it feel like and what is happening inside the brains of people who do experience this phenomenon I decided to put together my own research in search of answers firstly I knew I needed to talk to people who do experience phantom touch to understand what it is I put together a survey to collect my own data answering the questions that I had about it but while I waited for data to roll in I went ahead and grabbed some friends and pulled them into VR chat to have them explained to me how they experienced phantom touch when I got into VR like my first my first reaction for some reason was just give a lot of people hugs and what I did like I had a war I had a weird feeling on my chest every single time I had someone and it I didn't really associate it with anything but the more and more as time went along like the more physical interactions I had with people the more times I've given head pads or high-fives anything like that I started noticing a pattern like Anna correlation between the game and my physical body reactions I found them to that yeah but like the whole thing for me started is that I started feeling when people stood next to me and I felt like when they went through me and then I advanced it the whole touch thing because I felt their arm next to mine and eventually they'll be like oh hello or something and say and touched and I would feel that mmm I mean started like that that's what I explored it so you say explored it so after you like experienced that what did you what was like your reaction like you were obviously intrigued um but like what what did you do to explore that first of all I was shocked and then of course I was like can you touch my arm again because I was curious I'm always curious and of course like people join and touch your head and pads and everything because your avatar is cute then I told that too so it was about like asking people like can you try this because I don't understand and I'm I looked it up online as well and then it was called phantom touch or sense or whatever so I explore quote exploited by just meeting people that also have that or are curious about just touching others and then someone actually came up to me while I was in like that um dog saloon where wise people like to hang it around the mirrors and that's kind of like when I found out I had something like phantom touch I didn't know like what it was but they were like putting their hands like close to my face I'm just like and I can kind of feel that they're like what your phantom I'm like what's that and then they just kind of swarms like a round B and they're just kind of poking and booping and just kind of abusing it so I personally I find it a little uncomfortable when it's like around people like other people I choose not to tell them unless it's like closer friends it's interesting but it's definitely open for abuse strangers do you like actively kind of avoid telling people about phantom touch when you're like out and about because you're because people will start like touching you and stuff oh yeah they take advantage of it mmm all the time it's something you don't want to tell people unless you're like into that kind of thing it definitely has a connection with how mercy you are so say for example I am somewhat new to VR or something like that and like I'm just poking you but I'm still aware that I'm around in the real world with other people the effects of phantom touch are going to be very little to none because you don't allow yourself to be immersed you don't allow yourself to mmm like be part of the game sometimes it catches me out of focus like I don't expect it so it just throws me off well how would you describe like what what the sensation is like because you said you could like almost feel it kinda like when they were getting close to you um so what does it feel like um yeah like on your body like what is it expecially you can't literally feel it but it's almost like a tingling like fuzzy sensation and like the spots that you would expect something to touch you on like you punch their note it touched your nose you would like my nose would feel like um warm fuzzy or like found my arms it would be like kind of like that the hugs like you said kind of like it's a weird like fuzzy sensation you're like wow this is crazy it doesn't feel like anything's actually there but it just feels like some sort of chemical reaction it's very strange once why I lose my immersion I kind of like feeling for it like today I explored this with a friend who just picked up a brush a hairbrush in the room and I was like oh your hair looks nice and I had another avatar with really long hair and he actually touched me with a brush and I felt the bristles which was so weird so now what I when it comes to say the our chat and like how it makes you feel on the game for a lot of people phantom touch is something that's really uncomfortable having any physical kind of reaction they've had IRL whether it's abuse or anything like that and then when somebody goes to touch them in VR it can cause them a lot of discomfort so they actually keep the personal space option checked in you're in the game settings so I've heard a lot of people say it's discomforting but a lot of people say that it helps out with anxiety and anything else like that and it definitely helps with any like stressful stressful thoughts consent is important even in VR it's nice if people ask if you're okay with being touched not just run by and know yeah it's done expected of course my survey I mentioned before was up for a couple weeks and I got a hundred and twenty eight unique sets of data from those people who can feel inside virtual reality I'm now gonna walk through the results step by step so we can understand phantom touch better and see if there's any trends that we should take from it the first question I asked was how often do people with PT experience it the results are fairly evenly distributed with the largest majority weighing in at some or most of the time while in VR next I asked about what kind of sensations people would have a whopping 70 percent of people said they experienced tingling making it the most common feeling people had in my sample group about half had the fuzziness my friends explained to me and about a quarter said they had a numb feeling what was particularly surprising to me was the pleasure section if you remember back to my ear PE video I explained how some people are able to feel pleasure using phantom touch a whopping 25% of my respondents admitting to having experienced sexual pleasure well over half said that they felt just pleasure in general about a tenth of respondents even said they had experienced pain feeling temperature was also common heat being the most prominent versus cold other respondents put in feeling things like heartbeat squeezing weight pulsing scratching and throbbing there was a wide variety of different sensations that people seemed to get and these sensations greatly varied from one person to another the most common stimulus for phantom touch is player 2 player interaction coming in at 6% have a respondents said that they could feel projectiles such as gunshots coming at them now the most interesting piece of data I found was this has your phantom touch sensitivity increased over time I figured that over time people would get immune to these sensations I thought maybe your body would wear out or your brain would become more aware of the illusion but the results showed me just the opposite while a large portion was unsure if their sensitivity had changed 42 percent of respondents said that their sensitivity had increased over time while only seven percent said it had gotten worse quite opposite to my initial guess it was a pretty even split on whether or not people actively searched out triggers and a similar split on whether or not they choose to share this information with others and of course here's the most juicy results I'm not gonna linger too much on this one but here's the graph so feel free to pause the video and scope this one out for yourself what all of this led me to was trying to find out what was happening inside the brains of people who experienced this phenomenon it reminded me a lot of a previous discussion I've had on tbrs with Wacom from alt V or about identity in inhabiting a virtual body where he talked to me about the rubber hand experiment our brains are capable of simulating sensations that we see even if we do not actually feel them our brains identify with our virtual avatars and those perceptions can be taken to that physical level this is closely related to something called mirror-touch synesthesia a type of synesthesia that occurs when someone feels a physical sensation while watching someone else being touched for example if you tap your cheek someone with mere touch synesthesia would also feel a similar sensation on their own sheet just from watching you well I think it's really similar to like the phantom touch except it's more of like a visual stimulus when it comes to like seeing somebody else receive that sort of physical input like even if like through a TV or like a picture or like whatever like I mentioned in your Google Doc like if I watched somebody like getting a shot at the doctors you know I feel like a little pinch on my arm it's weird but yeah how often would you say that you do that cuz I feel like it would be very hard to live like day if every time you saw someone being touched you felt that so it's gotta be like um like I'm sure you don't feel it every single time right um I mean it's usually if I'm like really like honed in on that thing and I I think it's more of an anxious response like you know when you're like watching a movie and like they're underwater you feel like it's kind of harder to breathe because you put yourself in their shoes so it's kind of deform like it's kind of a form of empathy if you will scientific american describes synesthesia as an anomalous blending of the senses in which the stimulation of one modality simultaneously produces sensation in a different modality commonly this produces effects like seeing colors when listening to music or associating certain personality traits with numbers but synesthesia includes the blending of any senses which in this case would be sight and touch I believe the phantom touch her Z stimulus in their brain associates that with physical sensations in a type of touch synesthesia there's even smaller examples of these quote misperceptions like phantom phone vibrations which brings me to think that maybe the way we determine reality is not as clear-cut as we once thought the truth about what we see and feel can be simulated through virtual stimuli and suddenly it is our perceptions that become real after all this talk with those who have phantom touch I started getting jealous I wish my brain would do this kind of immersion it's exciting and fun and something I want to experience firsthand and for a lot of you watching I'm sure you feel the same way luckily during my research I stumbled upon a surprising YouTube channel I'm a new guy a virtual hypnotist now the video I found was of AMA new guy hypnotizing a group of your chat users into feeling phantom touch and I immediately knew that I had to try this out for myself the fact that I could have a shot at experiencing this was too good of an opportunity to miss out on so I reached out and he agreed to filming a demo with me so that not only could I learn about being hypnotized and so phantom touch but you guys could be introduced into it as well hello so again I'm a new guy I'm a virtual hypnotist I do hypnosis in virtual reality as well as other games I combine the effects of gnosis to give the feeling of touch in VR feeling of a fire from explosions and in other video games basically enhancing the general gameplay experience all across the board so tell me about the effectiveness of hypnosis and because I feel like a lot of people would be watching this video and probably be kind of skeptical that like something like this can actually work so what would you say to the skeptical type people well hypnosis is a pretty much a skill that anybody can practice and like any skill there's there's levels of you know from beginners to average to those really skilled what people were mostly familiar with on like TV on TV shows and on stage shows is like the top percentage of people who you know instantly drop who instantly do all these things but everyone else is more on the average kind of kind of ends so the effect the effectiveness is finished like that but the more you practice it the more effective against like it's learning it's like learning to ride a bike the more you but the better you get it the more smoothly be able to ride and the more extreme kind of passing thing so I came to you today specifically because I've been creating this episode about phantom touch and for me I have never really experienced it I've never had that like oh you know that aha moment where I feel like I was feeling it but um I've been researching and I conducted a survey and I had a whole bunch of people you know answer that I had some friends that I interviewed who do have it and talked to them about it and so I was really excited to kind of learn that there is actually a shot that I possibly have you know phantom touch are good to experience it and they my viewers could also also be introduced into that possibility as well you agreed today to go ahead and do a hypnosis demo so if you want to go ahead and get started with that for me that'd be amazing yep pretty much so there's a pre talk basically just gonna quickly explain how it gnosis works so hypnosis is a very focused natural state of mind your mind it naturally goes into states of trance all throughout the day whether you're reading a book you're watching a movie or you're really intensely playing a video game any of those moments where the background naturally fades away and you're super focus on one thing is trance we receive a suggestion to experience something in that state of mind that's called hypnosis together so all you need to do to be enticed is again to be willing to be able times and to be able to follow along with very simple instructions and of course helps if you can hear me clearly and if you're able to be in a safe relaxed and comfortable position either sitting back laying back or lying down normally what I do notice in real life I'm able to physically catch that person if if by any chance they go under while standing up but for anyone doing this at home or fall along a home that's just you said you sit down and make sure you're safe okay alrighty okay so if we're doing this from your point of view I want you to do is make sure you have something to focus on so you could beam then wipe all right there or anywhere else whatever it grabs your attention if you like we can begin and as a reminder if you do not want to be hypnotized you don't have to be you just sit back relax and enjoy so as you focus right now on the center of that object you just take a nice big deep breath all the way in and then all the way out just like that and again breathing all the way in nice slowly holding and all the way owns deeply and seeing those lungs and then one more time breathing all the way in holding and then all the way out deep Blaine you doing absolutely grains and absolutely fantastic and all you need to do is just keep that focus and keep taking those nice big deep even BRABUS and naturally you can notice you can still hear things around you you still feel things beneath you your bedding or your chair and that's absolutely natural because hypnosis is not sleep it's not fully unconscious it's a state of mind where you're so focused on my voice focused on that point to everything else like those things naturally fade away and the more closely you focus and you take those nice deep even breaths the more relaxed you can naturally feel your chest muscles those nerves naturally release tension and naturally the more better you relaxed the better you can feel the better you can feel the more closely you can listen to the sound my voice more closely you listen to the sound of my voice more powerfully you can find yourself focusing even more clearly on every single word on every single syllable you doing absolutely great and absolutely fantastic they you just think about all those times where you might have had a daydream we were just zoned out or you can Zone in and I saw my words right now all those times we had so much fun we were just watching those movies playing those video games reading the book when time just flew by so fast just like that that's feeling even more so all the times when you're going to sleep all the times where you're waking up from bed we were just feeling groggy and still like in a dreamy like stains that feeling you can just remember but bringing back even more clearly even more powerfully you doing absolutely great and absolutely fantastic you just take another nice big deep breath all the way in in all the way owns they just aren't just slowly slowly slowly start to close your eyes only as fast as you allow yourself right now to relax even more deeply to feel even better to listen even more closely and the focus even harder right now even as your eyes closed and when I say sleep when the count of three it doesn't mean to fall over to fall unconscious to go asleep it just means you can close your eyes to shut down till distractions to relax everything your body your your shoulders your neck and to sharpen that focus from everything around you to the point of my voice like there's a line going from between your eyes in your mind straight to the tip in my voice a mouth and the count of three one two three clothes sleep relaxing deep all the way down all the way deep all the way fast asleep drifting dreaming floating flying to a very pleasant place and you are there and as you're there right now you still notice you're a wank in fact you might becoming more aware of your surroundings more hyper aware hyper concentrating all the small little details popping up around you even the feeling the clothing against your skin and everything else around you all those details popping up but naturally as they come you can just let them float over through nerv round you and taking all that focus all the attention all that concentration and just bring into my voice right now because as you're listening to my voice you're understanding my words because as you understand my words they're going to use a conscious right now so that's possible for you to understand them you don't think about which each my words mean because your subconscious is already translating it for you including the meanings of these following words hypnosis is a state of mind that belongs solely to you right now if I or anyone else were to say something that makes you feel uncomfortable at any point in time you have full control and no matter what suggestions are going on you can naturally find yourself waking out but so as long as you find the things I'm saying helpful to you funding for you good for you think about to all those sinking naturally deeply all the way in and hypnosis is a skill that you practice the more and more you go into the state of mind the more and more you find yourself sending out the more and more you listen like this each time you go to sleep the stronger and stronger you get when it comes to phantom touch you can find yourself noticing the boundaries of the objects in VR more clearly and how that interacts with your hands and your face even more so the more you notice how instead of passing through those objects how you touch them the more and more you immerse yourself in VR naturally the more likely phantom touch is to orion's you let that sink all the way in all with deep as you wake up in the count of five feeling nice wide awake nice and refreshed as possible 1 2 3 4 & 5 you open your eyes the air I think I actually just come back to awareness in to feel you ah well that was like relaxing it was very good so thank you so much for doing that um mm-hm I feel like even for people who don't necessarily you know are able to get like hypnotized all the way it's still such a relaxing experience that I would encourage anybody to um anybody the try just for well-being in general so I you know it's really a special thing I think yep and I do highly encourage encouragement because it's one of the best ways to kind of get in touch with your with your inner mind yourself and those resources that we often have like consciously locked back in our mind it's what actually what professional athletes do they literally hypnotize themselves to bring out the peak performance and anybody can do that with the right training for people who are interested more in what you do or maybe interested in doing up him to hypnosis themselves where can they reach you and what do you provide if you read screen ads again my name I'm a new guy I'm on Twitch YouTube Twitter most most of the places and if you're just in phantom touch I highly suggest you check out my welcome playlist on my on my youtube channel definitely perfect well I will be linking all your stuff below so anybody who's interested in that make sure you go check it out and show some support alright so after getting sucked into making this episode for a few weeks loads a research jealousy filming data collection in hypnotism I finally got my valve index in the mail I loaded up VR chat with my new headset and full body trackers and all of a sudden VR felt more alive and vivid than ever before I went into one of my favorite worlds and picked up this little rose and brushed it freely with my finger in a froze what was the Hat as my finger brushed over the petals I felt them soft damp layered I wasn't thinking about it or trying to get a phantom touch from it I was just immersed and now everything is different this virtual world is my home it's personal because feeling well guys that's it for this episode making this video led me down a really crazy journey and was a few weeks worth of work but it turned out to be well worth it if you enjoyed this video then please give it a like and subscribe to the virtual reality show channel and if you want to talk more about virtual reality related topics then make sure to join my discord link in the description anyways I have been your host fiha and I'll see you on next week's episode special thanks to my patreon members in virtual VIP top waffle

Channel: The Virtual Reality Show

Views: 167,004

Keywords: touch, virtual reality, vr, feel, haptic, haptic suit, haptics, haptic feedback, ready player one, vrchat, erp, what is erp, vrchat erp, touch in vr, rubber hand illusion, brain tricks, illusion, phantom touch, vr phantom touch, phantom touch vrchat, phantom sense, vrchat phantom sense, how to get phantom sense in vrchat, hypnosis, can i have phantom touch, ghost sense, feeling in vr, simulation, tvrs, phia, vr touch, mirror touch synesthesia, mirror-touch synesthesia, synesthesia, vroid

Id: vSTNKnl6HvE

Length: 26min 34sec (1594 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 06 2020