Experienced meditators often report feeling detached from their body and current concerns. This study used virtual reality to manipulate perspective during meditation in 23 participants, comparing a third-person perspective (3PP) with a first-person perspective (1PP). The 3PP condition produced stronger feelings of detachment and disconnection, reduced awareness of body boundaries, and less identification with the body. Neural recordings showed a more negative heartbeat-evoked potential in the 3PP condition, linked to activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. These results connect changes in the sense of self during meditation to brain processes underlying bodily self-awareness, suggesting VR could help cultivate self-transcendent experiences.
Practicing meditation from a third-person perspective in virtual reality, compared with a first-person perspective, produces stronger feelings of detachment and disconnection, a less distinct sense of one's body boundary, and reduced identification with the body. These subjective changes are accompanied by a more negative heartbeat evoked potential amplitude and activation of the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. The findings link altered states of self during meditation to neural and behavioral measures of the bodily self, demonstrating that manipulating perspective in VR can modulate the sense of self during meditation.