New perspectives on technology-facilitated meditation

The interesting thing that this paper offered was that it used a virtual world to deliver a mind-body intervention. In this virtual world, known as Second Life, people represent themselves as an avatar and through that interact with others. In this study, participants could go to a virtual teaching area where they could do yoga and meditation and similar exercises. They could do this from the convenience of their own home, and they were completely anonymous. Nevertheless, the study showed that those people that participated showed a decrease in self-reported psychological distress. Nevertheless, the study has many limitations: there is no control group, so it is hard to know whether this was not just a placebo effect. Importantly, of course only people who have an affinity with Second Life participated.

Nevertheless, this study raises some interesting questions: is it actually possible to follow a course in mindfulness in a virtual environment? How crucial is the contact with other people? Should What Meditation Really Is go on Second Life? What do you think?