Why VirtualReality games will increase anxiety and depression, according to the Cognitive Principle Matrix.

The following example of how visualization works has been confirmed by 50 years of research. These facts were reported in Maxwell Maltz’s book “Psycho-cybernetics” in 1960.

The study showed that using visualization by one group of basketball players, improved their performance almost the same as actual practice, whereas those that did not practice [the control group] did not improve at all.

This study confirms the following:

• When you visualize something in your conscious mind and produce the same amount of emotion as the actual event, then the outcome will be transferred, either electrically or chemical, to you subconscious brain and it will accept it as though it was the truth.
• The subconscious brain has no logic to challenge thoughts and feelings produced by the conscious brain. However, if the subconscious brain has “existing files” which are contrary to what the conscious brain is transmitting, then the subconscious brain will transmit those back.

VirtualReality games becomes “active visualization”, because the subconscious mind will not be able to distinguish between what is real and what is not real. This is significantly different to using your six senses for processing transactions taking place outside your body eg watching a movie.

Reports and researchers are starting to list the benefits of VirtualReality training, such as that shown below.

The benefits of virtual reality in medical training

August 26, 2015, by Kevin McCarthy  [website: NueMD]

“One of the major benefits that have come from virtual training is increased information retention rates, Fortune magazine reported. In Miami Children's Health System, for example, Dr. Narendra Kini, CEO of MCHS, reported that the system found that a year after training, participants retained 80 percent of the information from virtual training compared to just 20 percent when participating in more traditional methods. Kini said that this is likely due to the fact that the participants created actual memories of performing the tasks.”

"The level of understanding through VR is great because humans are primarily visual and VR is a visual format," Kini told Fortune. "We believe that there are numerous opportunities where repetitive training and skill set maintenance are critical for outcomes. Since there are not enough patients in many cases to maintain these skill sets, virtual reality is a real addition to the arsenal. Imagine also scenarios where we need to practice for accreditation and or compliance. In these situations virtual reality is a god-send."

Effect on our top emotions

While VirtualReality will bring many benefits it will cause massive disruption to one of human beings top six emotions, one that has never been previously exploited, which is the emotion of “surprise.”

The connection between fear and surprise:

New research [2014] from the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgow, published this week in Current Biology, says that conventional scientific wisdom recognizes six "classic" emotions: happy, surprised, afraid, disgusted, angry, and sad. But the Glasgow scientists studied people's facial expressions, and the emotions they signal, by showing people computer-generated facial animations. They asked the observers to characterize the faces based on those six basic emotions, and found that anger and disgust looked very similar to the observers in the early stages, as did fear and surprise. 

Fear is the most powerful emotion, and if surprise starts out as fear, then changes, when it is not fear, but only surprise, the initial charge is very powerful. In the Cognitive Principle Matrix, when fear enters your subconscious mind it combines with other emotions to make things "personal". This causes rumination, blame  and eventually mental illness, if a negative predictive-comparative loop is formed.

In June, 2015 Professor Lisa Feldman Barrett at Northern University proved that the predictive mind is activated before the comparative mind. With Virtual Reality the brain will become conditioned to predict fear, then eventually surprise. Like all addictions it will require ever increasing levels of stimulus, that is, surprise to generate the same “good feeling”. The outcome will be:

• The brain will change much faster, than ever before, due to the amount and powerful content of the stimulus and the manner in which it is received by the subconscious brain.
• The brain will become addicted to the stimulus because of the power of “surprise”. This emotion is not one we see every day. We can be happy, fearful, disgusted, angry, but how many times have you been “surprised” compared to these other emotions, yet surprise is equal to the most powerful emotion [fear]
• Our expectation from real life will not be able to match this continuous dose of “surprise” and real life will seem flat and boring. Apathy and hopelessness will rise and anxiety and depression will increase.

VirtualReality will be the highest generator of profits we have every seen, and there will be no restrictions on the content that becomes available to society and great numbers of people will not be able to resist it.

“Pokemon Go” was a teaser into virtual reality. If not managed properly Virtual Reality will make people vulnerable in many ways.

That’s what happened to Pokémon Go players in O’Fallon, Missouri. Over the first weekend after the game’s release, a lot of people found themselves playing at night; the time of day affects which Pokémon you might find, and with fewer people playing, developer Niantic’s overtaxed servers seem to run a lot better. But some clever crooks used the nighttime draw of Pokémon to their advantage. According to police, using Pokémon Go, suspects watched for other players to use “lures” at Pokéstops in secluded locations late at night, and then robbed them. Police arrested four suspects, including a juvenile, but lesson learned: Be careful when you Pokémon alone at night.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/pokemon-go-consequences/#ixzz4IcWIgpan