I Tried Five VR Meditation Apps, and One Was the Best
There are a surprising number of meditation apps available in virtual reality, and I’m their target audience. I want to make progress on the Noble Eightfold Path and/or experience the stress reduction and other benefits that meditation provides . On the other hand, I find meditation exhausting, and I think I could get the same relaxation benefits sitting in a dark room listening to Hawkwind anyway. But maybe VR is the answer? I tested a bunch of VR meditation apps to see if they could be helpful, and rated each on a scale of 1 (wandering ego trapped in a prison of self) to 5 (liberation from the cycle of suffering and rebirth).
First, the expert weighs
I know a lot about VR, but less about meditation, so I talked to Shauna Thibodeau , a meditation teacher and spiritual mentor, about it. She explained that there are different schools of meditation, and her description of “focused meditation” sounds a lot like what the VR experiences I’ve tried are trying to achieve. “With focused meditation, we focus our attention on what’s called an anchor, like your breath,” Thibodeau said. “When you focus your attention on something other than your thoughts, you become aware of your thoughts. And then, each time you return to your anchor, you’re training your mind to come into the present moment.”
But there’s a major obstacle between the VR meditation apps I’ve seen and most traditional forms of meditation: visuals. If you start Transcendental Meditation, say, step 2 (right after “get comfortable”) is “close your eyes.” But Reality Is Not Virtual with your eyes closed. According to Thibodeau, visualization/manifestation meditations may be better suited to the virtual world:
“What we’re doing is shifting the state of energy that we’re sitting in… the state of energy that we’re sitting in actually impacts reality,” Thibodeau explained. “If you’re in a state of abundance or expansion, that energy will start to impact your outer reality, and you’ll actually start to see changes in your outer world. Synchronicities can come to you, new opportunities can come to you, and your life can actually start to change in a really interesting and kind of magical way.”
I asked Thibodeau to visualize a virtual reality meditation app that used this practice, and she said, “There has to be a visual representation that basically helps you get into this elevated state, right? So I don’t know, maybe they could show you winning the lottery and then have you think, ‘How does that feel? Get into that state.'”
Putting aside the effectiveness of meditation for manifestation, it seems to be better suited to the virtual world than traditional meditation, but it also seems that virtual reality (and video games) already put people in a state where they are completely absorbed in the experience they supposedly want to manifest: most video games are power fantasies. Whether that power manifests in the real world is the bigger question.
Tripp
Tripp is perhaps the best-known of the VR relaxation/meditation platforms. It covers a range of experiences designed to encourage users to practice mindfulness, improve concentration, or enter a state of “calm.” There are guided meditations, visual breathing exercises, psychedelic “focus journeys,” and trippy abstract visuals that pulse and swirl, all set in a new-age-meeting-technobro aesthetic that’s rife with drug-fueled suggestions. Some of the experiences are directly inspired by psychedelic experiences—there’s a series called “Machine Elves” that’s clearly based on DMT visuals, and the app itself nods to that vibe in its marketing, referring to “inner space,” “expanded states,” and “digital psychedelics.” Tripp is loved by many, but I found it overwhelming. The sessions were smooth, but left me feeling “zen” at best. It was meant to be calming, but it actually made my inner critic stronger. It’s like taking drugs without feeling like you’re taking drugs, if that makes sense. It’s also expensive: a monthly subscription costs $9.99.
Best for: Psychedelic lovers who are afraid of taking acid.
Enlighten-o-meter rating : 2.5 out of 5
Meditate
Unlike Tripp, and true to its business name, Meditate doesn’t offer a ton of gimmicks. It includes five 10-minute “experiences” designed to provide mental clarity, calm the mind, and “renew your body through healing sound frequencies.” In practice, this involves a soothing voice telling you to relax and just sit there, monotonous “music” (I really can’t stand music that’s synonymous with spiritually charged relaxation), and graphics of caves, volcanoes, and other natural phenomena that look like they’re from Minecraft . It’s relaxing, I suppose, but mostly because “relaxing” and “boring” are practically roommates. But hey, it’s only $1.99, so you can try it out pretty cheaply.
Best for : Beginners on a budget
Enlighten-o-meter rating : 2 out of 5
Liminal
Liminal is much more ambitious than Meditate, with graphics that are fully up to par with the Xbox 360. It offers a ton of different interactive and non-interactive VR experiences, grouped into rough categories. “Awe” and “Energy” seem to be the most popular, and feature some cool tech demos/minigames, but I was interested in “Tranquility,” which features meditation minigames. The ones I tried weren’t particularly innovative. One was meant to hypnotize me, but it didn’t. Another had this humming “spiritual” music and a reverb-soaked female voice telling me to breathe slower while I looked at digital birds.
Best for: Gamers who want to relax .
Enlightenment scale rating : 3 out of 5 (but mostly for the non-meditative experience)
Flowborne VR – Biofeedback Breathing Meditation
If you’ve ever tried to meditate and weren’t sure if you were breathing from your belly or not, this app will give you the answer! You “play” Flowborne VR by placing a controller on your belly. It tracks how much your belly expands and contracts as you breathe. Taking deeper breaths from your diaphragm causes you to move faster through semi-abstract landscapes. In other words, this app gives you a way to track how well you’re breathing and a reason to focus on it. I can finally get better at breathing! Personally, I don’t like thinking about my breathing because it feels like one more damn thing I have to worry about, but if breathing is your thing and you want to get better at it, this app will do the trick.
Suitable for: those who enjoy breathing exercises
Enlighten-o-meter rating: 3 out of 5
Pillow
Pillow doesn’t make any grand claims about increasing consciousness, mindfulness, or calm, but I found it to be a more calming and meaningful experience than any other meditation app I’ve tried. Pillow can be played while lying on your back in bed, which is itself a more relaxing experience than other apps. Among its five mini-games (called “dreams”) is “The Meditator,” the best meditation app I’ve tried overall. It uses the same controller-as-breath-monitor as Flowborne VR, but the soundtrack has relaxing little indie loops instead of weird drones. It’s so much better. Another Pillow standout: “The Fisherman,” an experience that lets you fish virtual fish from the ceiling. Each fish contains a recorded voice from another Pillow user, answering questions like “What would you most like to do in your life?” or “What moment would you like to relive?” I found connecting with another person’s thoughts while falling asleep to be far more meaningful/spiritual than being told to look at outdated graphics and imagine a connection. It’s a show, not a story, and $9.99 is a small price to pay for such a strangely beautiful experience.
Suitable for: eccentrics and people suffering from insomnia.
Enlighten-o-meter rating : 4 out of 5