Confidentiality: The data obtained in the study will be confidential. Names and identifying information will be left out or altered to protect participants’ anonymity and privacy. Participants’ names and personal information will only be known to the researcher. Recordings and transcripts will be stored in a password protected storage, and will be destroyed within 5 years of study completion.
Do you Qualify?: The criteria for selection of participants is three-fold. Firstly participants should be healthy adults at least 21 years of age, with an interest in meditation and/or contemplative practice, and own a gaming PC and VR hardware. Secondly, they should understand the risks of VR: injury resulting from malfunction of the equipment, negative reactions to VR including, but not limited to, motion sickness, nausea, dizziness, seizures, disorientation, loss of balance, tripping, falling, and post-traumatic stress disorder responses. VR is a new technology and there may be additional unknown and nonobvious risk associated with VR technology. Thirdly, they need to consent to participation in VR meditations 3 times per week for 4 weeks, 4 weekly meetings for 1-2 hours each, 1 concluding meeting at the end of the study, and consent to data to be used and presented for this dissertation study.