Immersive Cave Environments in VR: A Tool for Exploring Altered States of Consciousness and Creativity in Archaeology
Applied Sciences December 19, 2024 Nicola de Pisapia, Gabriele Penazzi, Ignacio Ibarra et al. 2 citations
Immersive virtual reality cave environments can induce higher emotional arousal, spiritual engagement, and improvements in creativity and flexible thinking compared to virtual open spaces. Participants performed pareidolic tasks in both settings, and the cave setting led to changes in semantic network organization and subjective experience. These findings support the hypothesis that ancient humans used caves for rituals involving altered consciousness, and demonstrate that VR can reconstruct early human experiences to investigate psychological and cognitive states. The work bridges cognitive archaeology and immersive VR technologies.