Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DTGv2cqgD1K/Putting on a virtual reality headset to experience a short virtual reality experience could be the key to allaying your fears.  So say sleep scientists at Texas A&M University in a report of their pilot study in Frontiers in Virtual Reality. They studied 61 young adults who donned Oculus Quest 2 units and watched scenes inspired by commonly reported near-death experiences including an out-of-body sensation following a car accident, traveling through a tunnel of light with memory flashbacks, and arriving at a calm, scenic landscape that symbolizes a boundary between life and death.The data demonstrated that participants experienced an average 75% drop in death anxiety after a single 12-minute VR session. Most participants reported feeling calmer afterward and said the experience prompted reflection on life priorities and relationships. A small number, however, reported increased stress or anxiety.Larger studies are on the drawing board to determine if VR co