The Astonishing Magic of a Brain At Play
Back in the early 2000’s, researchers at the University of Washington began wondering whether a group of burn patients experiencing intense pain could titrate down on their morphine if their minds were engaged in a highly distracting, playful experience. So they partnered with a Virtual Reality (VR) company, had their patients enter a virtual winterscape called SnowWorld, then measured the patients’ responses to the pain that normally accompanied wound care, typically an excruciating ordeal for burn victims.
Amazingly, the patients reported a dramatic decrease in pain when they were wired up and playing in SnowWorld.
What was going on?
The researchers reported that “while a patient is engaged in a virtual-reality program, the spotlight of his or her attention is no longer focused on the wound and the pain but drawn into the virtual world.”[1] Let’s pause to take that in, shall we? A brain engaged in a virtual reality experience is by definition a brain no longer able to process pain the same way. Once it swings its attention spotlight over to something gameful, the brain focuses allll its cognitive resources on that.
Yes, the pain can still be there, but the attention is fixed on PLAY.
Meditation-as-Play
Maybe you don’t immediately think of play when you think of meditation. In fact, maybe you’re tempted to wonder whether a serious meditation practice could have any real rigor and authenticity if it feels playful, gamelike, VR-like.
News flash!
Play is transformative. It’s therapeutic. It needs no apology. It is its own reward.
Your sitting practice can be playful and still have deep integrity. You can dive inward, start exploring, even reckon with the demons that routinely show up to trigger you. And you can savor the sensation of being the Journeyer-avatar, setting off to build worlds, working around obstacles, touching in to deep creativity, and claiming the wisdom waiting for you at the journey’s end.
In short, your sitting practice can do you plenty of good and also send you into imaginal experiences which feel one hundred percent gameful, engaging, and lived.
What This Means For Journey Meditators
So, okay, maybe you’re not dealing with a burn. Fair enough.
But what about psycho-emotional pain?
Increased anxiety and fear triggered by a worldwide pandemic?
The loss of a job?
The deterioration of a relationship?
Some other crisis which has left your nervous system dysregulated and your moods five shades darker?
If you’re dealing with any of this pain, then you could benefit from a meditative journey experience so immersive that it grabs your brain’s attention spotlight and doesn’t—let—go!—until you’re in a totally different frame of mind.
Yessir. Meditation can be gameful. And it also can seriously impact mind and mood, doing you a world of good while you practice the ancient and beautiful art of sitting.
Body goes still. Mind goes on a journey. (VR headset totally unnecessary. ;))