Sanity and mental health in an age of augmented and virtual realities.

Abstract

In this paper I discuss an approach to examining the boundary and border crossings and breakdown between the real and the virtual. To address questions like "How do gamers and inhabitants of virtual worlds manage these transitions? What are the short and long term effects of these border crossings?" I report on the development of two survey instruments to begin to investigate these questions. The results of these studies have implications concerning how virtual realities may induce dissociative experiences or lead to a blurring of boundaries of the real, of the virtual, of dreams and even identity.