Thanks so much for having me on to do a little bit of my routines :D It was a fun time. Amazing video, I was actually super excited when VirtuaLily brought up proprioception. I was going to go off on a long tangent of proprioception and also kinesthetic sense and use an example of throwing a ball from one hand to another with your eyes closed, and how easily we are able to do that, but it felt a little out of scope :D Which is why I went into more of closeup magic, slight of hand, and fooling the senses like a magician guides your eyes.

One of the best deep dives into this phenomenon. Great video Phia!!

I don’t think this’ll get noticed, but I never got to actually thank you for helping me out with my research paper. I passed the class with flying colors and did a 30 minute presentation on the subject. All of it was started off of your data from the previous survey so thank you so much! ^^

I actually experienced Phantom touch my first time in VR. I am one of those who is interested in experiencing more and developing it further. My first interaction with it was, ironically, hitting my head on a virtual counter top as I was reaching for an object.

Haptic feedback is also crazy, its amazing how we have made sound waves into a feeling of immersion in VR

If ASMR works that well regularly through a 2D screen I can only imagine how MUCH stronger the feeling must be in VR, the brain is quite interesting

Having written a (non-professional, non-published) paper on the effects of Virtual Reality on physical and psychological health a few years ago, I can confirm that finding any useful research regarding the psychological effects of VR is incredibly hard. It’s a shame, because it’s such an interesting topic, and with the expectation that VR will become more and more accesible over the coming years, it’s important that we understand what it does to our body and mind. I greatly enjoyed your video on this subject, and I hope to see more videos like it!

This is great information about phantom touch. You give us data, your own personal research, expert's opinions, everything! Thank you very much for this video. (I never even knew about phantom touch before this, but this is cool!)

Really excited to hear your take on the giant update to vr chat! With eye and face tracking being added it's going to be wild

I had been trying for almost two years to get Phantom Touch, 2 Rift S headsets and 1 Valve Index later, I tried hypnosis on multiple accounts and training, and I had basically given up. Recently I got Tundra Trackers to go along with my Index, and I also ended up getting an avi commissioned that I can no longer change out of, she's extremely helpful for my dysphoria and has helped me in my transition! The first day of Full Body and using this avi, I finally felt it, feeling touch without actually being touched. VRChat has changed my life over these two years and I only see it getting better from here on out~ Thank you for the video!

man see your intro make my heart so delight haha wish i can experience this too in VR when i get VRheadset too

Something I've noticed when being in VR, if I'm in a quiet room no sense of reality it normally helps me stay immersed and the more I am in VR it allows me to feel and touch. I've done many experiments and the environments play a big part in being immersed, well atleast to me and other subjects I have used to back up my research.

Honestly this is amazing. So informative and thorough. Honestly amazing job, blown away with your last two vids!

Wow Phia, your content has been 🔥🔥🔥 lately! Packed full of high quality information but also funny and entertaining. You and SadleyitsBradley deserve honorary PhDs!

Just wanna say this: phantom touch/sense will start differently for people, for me it was out of nowhere, but for others (like the demo) it was very slow and gradual. I've also seen people lose phantom sense by not playing VR as much or playing VR in ways that moved away from reality (teleportation movement, flying, etc.) but the latter doesn't always get rid of your phantom sense.

Loved the video! It's definitely something I've taken interest in both due to various friends talking about their experiences, and wanting to experience it for myself. For anyone who reads this, I have a few more tips to consider: 1. Practicing regularly seems to get better results. Try training it for 10-15 minutes each time you hop in VR before you visit friends. Slow, predictable movements seem to be the best for practicing, as they're the easiest to anticipate. 2. Physical stimuli, similar to the Rubber Hand Experiment, has helped others and myself feel phantom touch in areas where it's difficult to notice. Soft textures worked best for me, like a long-handled paint brush you'd find at a craft store. Use the brush in combination with a soft-looking prop in VR and try to synchronize the VR prop and IRL prop as closely as possible, brushing slowly over your body for a prolonged period. You can find a good brush in Tony_Lewis's map "What could be VR Sense". 3. Expanding on the first tip, you can use your breath as a substitute for a paint brush. Blowing gently on sensitive parts of the arm can move the hairs and, in combination with a soft-looking prop like before, you can synchronize the pull of a brush with the movement of your breath over your arm. 4. The world "Camera Test" by Μerlin is fantastic if you don't have a practice partner. You can do the same slow, deliberate movements to yourself by turning on the Rotation Mirror. I find this makes the effect stronger than normal as you're better able to anticipate what should be happening since you're the one deciding what actions to take next, how fast they move, and even how much "pressure" you should be expecting. 5. ASMR prop worlds are a great tool for training as the use of audio can really enhance your experience. "VR ASMR V․2․0" by Mosco_あしもす has some well-made tools, and I find the cotton swab (aka mimikaki) is especially good at triggering sensations around the ears. If your avatar's ears don't line up with your IRL ears, it can even help calibrate where your ears feel like they should be. If you find you're sensitive to pressure, use can use the flip side of it to try and get a feeling of, say, a pencil pressing on your skin. 6. I find the most likely places to feel it among friends are around the head and especially the face, the arms, chest, and thighs. People who are particularly sensitive also say they feel tails, ears, and even wings sometimes. 7. Use this tip at your own risk! Some people I've spoken to have mentioned that after sleeping in VR, they felt things more strongly just after waking up, almost like they're in another body entirely. Just be careful if you're going to try sleeping in VR. It can strain your neck, it can be difficult to get comfortable, and you absolutely can snap things on your headset by rolling the wrong way.

My first time in vr I was just having a blast. I was playing SuperHot and I was going all over the place because of how much fun it was to physically dodge projectiles and hits. I ended up taking cover behind a shelf/ block thing and sort of leaned into it, to the point where my actual left arm would be inside the object. Immediatly along the left side of my body, totally engulfing my arm I felt this weird physical tingling feeling. I've never forgotten it and it's so weird, I havent gotten to use vr much since so I havent had another run in with phantom touch, so idk how much I natrually feel or not.

Thank you for deep diving into the phenomena, I've had phantom sense for a while since 2015 actually. One of my buddies induced it and made it a reality for me very early on before it was even known to be a thing. Since my time in VRC I've had multiple people abuse it to the point where I keep to myself in Friends+ worlds but I've gotten back out of that, I just tell my friends not to tell others about it. But I do enjoy it, it's comforting being able to feel another's touch, body heat, environmental things and so much more. It's truly something I've enjoyed being able to feel. It was weird at first and I didn't like the sensation but I've grown to love it, except for the jerks that walk through, shoot me, and ignore the fact I'm uncomfortable. I've gotten so well versed with it that I've even started helping friends who began feeling it with the processes to make it less jarring and scary, it's a slow process but I usually always help my friends overcome that.

PLUR PHIA! This is my favorite episode you have created so far. I love how open you are about substances. Timothy Leary said" In the future every drug will be a computer and every computer will be a drug".....this was in one of his books named, Neuropolitique

2:26 This has to still be Phia's most watched and most KZfaq recommended video ever XD

Phia, this was an awesome video! It was structured perfectly, and hit all the major points. As someone with synesthesia, phantom sense was one of the first things I experienced in VR. It was a crazy experience, and something I'll never forget. I had no idea people actually tried to train this stuff, and it was very eye-opening.

It definitely seems to me things like Phantom Touch and ASMR has a body sensitivity correlation. It is awesome to me witnessing the science and exploration of these subjects that historically hasn't really been explored too much!

0:14 Glad to know Phia isn't the only one to have been frightened by this in Phasmo XD I scramed bro XD

It makes sense when you look into phantom pain that people who've lost limbs often experience. Super interesting topic

Yesterday, me and a group of friends were playing Prison Escape in VRC, and one of my friends, who have phantom pain/touch, kept on getting shot at to the point where they needed to take a break from the game. I helped out by grabbing an avatar with ice on it, and used it to help numb the pain, which I think helped.

I love your content and it keeps on getting better and better everytime. I even got to see TFMJonny

You deserve so many more subs, you are such a very informal and great teacher for things like VR chat, and I look for all my tutorials on your videos, great job!

"Your perception of what's real is your reality, damn , that's deep

Huh. It's really interesting to see a video on this. I've been experiencing this phenomenon since I first got my hands on my O.G. Rift CV1, though I've never known what to call it or how to describe it until now. I actually have a very strong memory from my first time playing the Oculus demo, and being able to "feel" a butterfly as it landed on my finger. It was amazing. Glad to see I'm _not_ just crazy, and other people get it in VR too, lol. Great video!

I get Phantom Touch from ASMR and the idea of VR being able to give me a more immerse experience really makes me happy. The only problem is I can't afford a VR headset XP

11:52 I felt a variety of chills watching this sequence. That's trippy.

Holy crap VR on substances sounds amazing... I need to try this next time I'm home from college and have access to VR

I would love to get phantom touch, and everytime I say that, there is always someone that says : "No you don't, there is a lot of bad stuff about it" When someone says that, I'm pretty sure that they've got phantom touch right away and basically always had it, they think i don't understand what they feel but they actually miss the point that i've never experienced it and how frustrating it can be to me For me, experience is very very important, and I'm able to experience a lot through VR and feeling touch would basically make me discover and rediscover VR What I would like to try is training phantom sense in VR and also by lucid dreaming, don't know how effective it is but I want to experience both so will be hitting both targets at once Quick vent before going to bed, i wish I could just stop time to work on all of the projects I have in mind and have fun with them with others as fast as possible Time goes by way too quickly and I wanna do the stuff that I want like i should've done when I was growing up but didn't got the chance and the courage to do so. Regrets regrets regrets but we move on! Wish me luck for phantom touch & lucid dreaming 🤞 ~ R e v e

Phantom touch is also an expectation and is a dream factor. In dreams you can feel something, that is called a imaginary sensation.. Phantom touch is expectation that you will feel something and then the imaginary sensation that occur in dreams will appear if you expect yourself to feel that.

I experienced it once recently because I was interacting with someone I knew IRL and was familiar with how they felt and such, I hadn't really experienced it much yet, but I'm looking to focus on it more to see how it might increase.

had this happen playing Propagation, the zombie game, scariest thing that's happened recently. I guess I can say I've been bit by a zombie and survived.😅

i really want phantom touch, hope this helps!

The first time I was hanging out with some people in vr (was on desktop previously for vrchat) I was sitting next to my now boyfriend while he was streaming and the avatar he was playing as had a tail that kept hitting me in the face and I kept instinctively putting up my hands to push it away. I didn't realise what was happening in that moment but later on I booped his nose and he reacted to the sensation, so we had a conversation about phantom touch and realised it was something I experienced too. I was super fascinated with it. I still think it's pretty hecking cool. One of my favourite things to do in vrchat worlds is sit in water that has some wave movement and feel the rise and fall of it around me. It's super calming.

I was actually looking on phantom touch just today, and this video came out 5 hours ago, thanks!!!

"Honey, wake up, new VRShow episode just dropped, it's phantom touch again" AYE?!

The first (and so far, only) time I've had phantom touch was in Echo VR. No player to player interaction, but the buttons that hover above the little stand in the center of the lobby. I used my pointer finger and felt a little fuzzy touch. It was so cool and I'm trying to do it again!!

You should totally do a "what happens when you are high in VR" and talked about experiences of pleople with marihuana in VR, Maybe do survey too. Like, will that increase your inmersion? make feel pantom touch even more probable?

Phantom touch is for sure real, it definitely has something to trick the brain, I remember having my head rubbed lol, sounds weird but I felt it, wasn't so physical, but it was like ASMR tingles, just on my head

Just found this channels, I never done vr but these videos are so immersive

"There's no haptics. All we rely on is the strongest piece of technology ever" Oh okay that seems fine :)

Hey just wanted to add my Phantom sense experiences i had in VR which seem quite special atleast regarting to my vr friends i talked about this :p The first time i got in VR was with the index with Half Life alyx, the first syringe with that healing thingy inside it i pooked it into my thump and at that moment when i heard the noise and saw it active i felt a really intense spot on my thump just spme sense of a sharp object or point on my thumb, i had to physically take the headset of at that moment just to make sure i dont for real have something in my thumb that how real it felt. Following that event the first few days my dreams were so weird, i had dreams of visions that vr was reallife and i thought in my dreams that halflife or vrchat maps were real, seeing stuff i saw in vr just with the added twist that they were really vivid dreams (which for me as a really strong non dreamer, meaning that i really rarely get dreams that i remember after waking up, was quite facinating), when that happened i searched the phenomenon and found a few reddit posts of people experiencing the same effect, not many tho which supprised me. (this doesnt have much to do with the phantom sense itself but i thought i'd still include it because its still something i felt and experienced and because the mind is one big piece of meat its not far apart from the sensing stuff so why not include it :D ) I will never forget the first few days of playing vr mainly just half life alyx and vrchat because i had nothing else in the beginning, and im pretty sure that vr will change my live going on forward because im just currently starting to study and want to do something in the direction for contibuting to the vr scene like hardware or software or anything tech/vr related. This was my small take on how i get Phantom sense and touch in vr. i still have these feeling and i still have phantome sense and touch just now that i know its virtual and got used to it, i dont freak out like i did the first time i pooked my thumb in HL: Alyx, its still alot of fun tho and people in vrchat always say that i like to give alot of headpets, hugs and nose boobs, which is true just because i like the "feel" of touching my friends, and i always ask people who i dont know that well before because i dont want to make them unconfortable. Thats it for my small piece i wanted to add to this video, i didnt know there was a new google form on this, because i would also have put in my votes and thought in but maybe this helps too :3 Make peace, not war, stay save and have a nice day, evening or night whoever is reading this rn :)

I’ve felt some weird shocks when shot in Superhot. It wasn’t necessarily painful, so honestly it was pretty cool.

Used to experience it. If a block passed by me in beat saber, it would feel like a stampede trampled my body.

Great work, PHIA!

As an ADHD fellow, Phantom Touch has been interesting. The ADHD means EVERYTHING is interesting, and I know enough about anatomy and biology to have an idea of what different things would feel like. Extra fingers, arms, tails, wings, you name it, and I have a sense of what musculature would be engaged, what moving it in tandem with other limbs and even what damaging it would be like. It is quite interesting. I once had a time when I was new to VR chat, and I stood in a corner of some club world. Something felt off, but it took me a minute to look down and notice that I was standing in someone. Now that is a bizarre feeling. Also, the quest's gaurdian boundary feels warm, and so do the Beat Saber sabers.

This reminds me of the phenomenon of phantom itch, when even if a limb is missing you can still feel a sort of itching sensation

that session was just hypnosis lol. It's always so fun to see people's first "wtf" reaction to hypnosis haha

I love watching stories about vr. I have it but my social anxiety kicks in when I play haha. It's hard for me to enjoy vrc because of that. Honestly this would be interesting if I could get past the anxiety to find out if I do have phantom touch.

I have extreme phantom touch, and it sometimes can be a pain, literally, though it mostly happens to me in the way of being able to "control" or "feel" limbs that don't exist, although I also have really good environmental phantom touch.

In dreams you can feel the same sensation of touch you do in real life, in fact sometimes it's more enhanced. Honestly dreams are better than VR. I highly recommend lucid dreaming to everyone

5:13 I love Phia's data XD

Interesting subject, I'm super tired so I want to ramble. Here, have a wall of text for anyone that is curious enough to reach it! =p I spend a lot of time in VR, so my phantom sense is incredibly strong. Sometimes even making me aware of things I wasn't paying attention to before. Usually the claws on the paws of some people using animal avatars. I was expecting a nice soft boop, then all of a sudden uncomfortable hard spot in a small area because of the claws that surprises me. Phantom sense very rarely feels bad, it almost always feels good. It usually is only annoying if my avatar's limbs get twisted in a way I don't like, or someone/something lodges something into my avatar. I've only ever felt pain from being stabbed by sharp objects, but it's not too strong, just very uncomfortable. Luckily I don't have to worry about being shot, my brain doesn't make the connection with guns, buuut I can't go underwater without feeling discomfort because I had a cousin that tried to hold me under water all the time when I was a kid. Luckily I don't have to deal with this stuff often. I will say I find it very amusing how strongly headpats effect me though, I get so relaxed by them and I don't know why. In my early days in VRChat where I had tons of anxiety all the time, sometimes I'd panic, and then someone would just start headpatting me and it just calms me down instantly. If someone headpats me too much, it really does just put me to sleep (can be a pain since it can leave me drowsy if they stop if I'm trying to stay awake). I just so happen to have a heart rate monitor because I do a lot of exercising, but it goes down by 20 rather quickly whenever someone starts to headpat me, then shoots back up when they stop. I don't have the massive anxiety anymore, so I haven't been in a panicky situation in a long time so I dunno if that still would happen to me. Though I will say, does surprise me to have so many friends that also get sleepy. They've gotten a little grumpy from time to time because I accidentally made them drowsy/put them to sleep with headpats. I'm sorry, I see a fluffy animal thing, and I gotta pat it! I do think that phantom sense is based off of your mind trying to piece things together using memories you've had in the past in the real world. Then when it can't figure out how to interpret it, it does that tingling sensation, which is probably why that is so common. Definitely stealing a few of these techniques when trying to help people strengthen their phantom sense though. Hand tracing is one I default to often, but sometimes I poke a little, and it seems to work better if you have an avatar that has a point like claws or something, seems to make people's minds focus more on the smaller spots. MIrror touch is interesting and I will definitely try that on the fly, but I definitely suggest going to a world called "Beyond Reflection". It's a world where it creates a mirrored avatar. It can really get people's phantom senses going. If you have some friends who are very sensitive, expect to see a strong reaction from them if you bring them there. One of my friends was having fun bringing the sensitive people there to see people go "WTF!?" especially when they go to touch the mirrored avatar and get touched by that avatar at the same time. So I've definitely seen it enough in that world to recommend it. I will have to test out hand clasping for sure. I've met a few people who only feel heat, so that might be able to bridge the gap a bit. Face touching I'd be a bit nervous to do to some people, but I could see why it'd work. Funny that the example here is touching under the chin because that's a very very sensitive spot for me for some reason. Only found out because there were a few people that like testing out how everyone's person's phantom sense works. Definitely got to experiment to find out where the sensitive spots are. Most people usually feel phantom sense better on their body, but I've met a couple people who only feel phantom sense in their tail/ears and it's very sensitive there.

I only have about 80 hours in VRC so far but I have occasionally felt it when players get very close (typically when someone reaches towards my head for a headpat), its a very interesting experience. I wonder if the type of headsets people are wearing and the FOV affects phantom touch at all.

I don't have much of a stance on phantom touch, I get shot stabbed or exploded in vr and I'm just "owch dude". This video did help to find out that its actually a minority of people that feel mirror-pain and an even smaller portion that feel mirror-touch synesthesia. Thought everyone felt literal physical pain when they see their fellow main suffering but I guess that just makes me a cool dude.

Me and my boyfriend are long distance, so we usually spend time together through video games. We started using Vr headsets to play VRChat a few months ago, and I had no idea what "phantom sense" was. After a while of playing it(he played more often than I did) he started saying he was developing it, and explained that he could feel things like leaning against walls or people touching him. That was the first I had ever heard of it, and so whenever we played I would try and focus more to see if I could start feeling it, and turns out I can! It's pretty cool, although it's mild. I can't really feel anything in the hands or hips-down because the fact that I'm sitting and holding the controllers throws me off. Other than that though, it's so nice to be able to hug each other, touch each others faces, give head pats and actually be able to feel it even if it's slight. I figure as we play more it'll get better. I even practice sometimes by doing the arm tracing thing on myself, or just out of boredom, because it really is a cool concept. Geez, if I explained any of this to my parents they'd probably send me to a mental hospital.. but oh well. Maybe in the future when I live with him we can get better tracking and more space to move around so we can test it out more.

Nice one, great subject. I have a basic level of phantom touch. I do feel something and thermal changes. The fluffiness of certain textures. your mind makes it real or just feels something. 👍😁💕😎

7:17 "I SEE DEAD PEOPLE"

I actually studied this massively myself. This also goes into the doll hand experiment. I actually learned a lot of the interactions responses and so on.

First video I’ve ever watched on your channel and you 100% think you pass the vibe check

As I said in the form you posted, I feel phantom touch far more often when using hand tracking on Oculus Quest 2. I don't know why, but I could feel every detail when using hand tracking, but not when using controllers!

I have a very good imagination and I can just think about being touched somewhere and it will tingle in there. Feels useful :>

love tripping people out sometimes when just putting a straight hand through their head

Phia that was absolutely amazing... When you were demonstrating the video on Phantom touch training... And the individual was stroked on the hair and face I was having mirrored touch my chin was itchy my hair felt weird and all sorts of things like that... Can't wait until I get a VR system.... Keep up the good work I love episodes like this

Just watching the clips kinda gave me a slight feeling of it, especially at 1:54 wtf ig that's the mirror touch synesthesia you talked about Quite fascinating to have such a vestigial experience considering it has little to no weight in evolution, as in it's not quite advantageous or disadvantageous to have phantom senses.

I already experience mirror touch synesthesia so I'm curious as to how I'd react to VR. still haven't gotten a headset myself but the few times I've played VR at arcades I definitely felt myself becoming incredibly immersed, so I'm eager to try phantom touch stuff someday.

best joke to tell in vrchat "my spidey senses are tingling" refering to phantom touch

12:06 I got the asmr tingle thing when they started the phantom touch training.

I've never felt phantom touch but hear from so many people about it, I've always wanted to feel it and it fascinates me, even tried the phantom worlds in vrchat but still can never feel anything, I wonder why that is....?

I can only feel temperature and rarely smell when in VR. I find it interesting that specific parts of phantom sense can apply, not being all or none.

It’s really cool and also unpleasant at the same time. At least I feel the touches sooo hard, it’s just so weird and cool at the same time.

imagine, your really lonely irl and need a hug so you go on vr and get hugs by your friends and you actually feel that holyy-

Phantom touch LIKE vegan food. GOT IT.

You know TFMJonny, Phia?

I actually felt phantom touch at times while playing RE4VR during that sewer level with those bug enemies. Scary shit

I experience phantom touch and sense all the time while in vrc. I can't be booped or I sneeze sadly, I don't hang out in public worlds do to that fact, because once someone I don't know finds out they'll keep harassing me till I block them. I can feel phantom touch all over my body. Fun fact: depending on the avatar I'm using at the time, I can feel some of the clothing it's wearing. This is one reason why I like having different types of avatars just so I can see what it will do to my senses. I loved your video and how well in depth you went into this subject.

Bro that musician shirt that Exxo was wearing made me so happy!

If I may give an input, my phantom has gotten so strong over the year that I've been playing vrchat that I can taste things in VR, feel temperatures in specific biomes and settings, and even have intricate feelings with avatars. A good example of what I mean is that with worlds that include pools of water you can swim in, I always feel like I'm swimming in jello-like substance, like say slightly dry water. But an interesting thing I've noticed is that with one of the few avatars I use all the time, this one having a robotic arm, the water feeling doesn't affect that specific arm at all.

There's a german philosopher called Thomas Metzinger who also talks about this (not VR specifically but rather the 'virtual model' of our bodies). Very detailed and interesting explanation if you're interested (although much of it is the same stuff you mentioned in this video).

I felt phantom touch from witnessing Cen's routine. I can't wait to play vrchat with a headset on.

Mirror touch scenario: a man getting kicked in the not so bright side of the moon and every man in a 1 mile radius feeling it

i was once playing a hand tracking demo and i pressed a button and i could feel the shape,texture of the button like it was there

Great video. Tbh first time I felt this was not even in VRChat. It was the frst time I played Skyrim VR. I got so immersed in it that after some time playing I went to the snow mountains and felt as if snow was falling onto my face and not realizing it. Just after few minutes of this sensation I was like "Huh?...Its not even real, how do I feel it. And it went away in the instance". it was weird experience but it was the first one for me.

Never come across this channel before but I must admit this was a surprisingly well researched and put together video. I’m definitely impressed

it's good to know more about phantom touch because i have it a lil like anytime i go into water in vr i start to feel cold like how you feel first getting into a pool.

A year ago, this inspired me to start a research project about phantom sense. Thank you!

Im a noob to VR, got my quest 2 recently and played a roller coaster ride and ohhh man, I cant explain it but YES i felt it, from when the ride dropped down to every twist and turn to going upside down, its so bizarre! and I LOVE IT!!

I had someone playing with my avatars ears one time (as my favorite bunny avatar) and, omg I finally felt it. It freaked me out in a good way. I now feel it almost every time when friends play with my ears or give me headpats. I love it!!

I love phantom touch but it can be a curse. I love that you mentioned the fake hand test, that’s what I tell everyone, who asks me, to watch. I have a Minor in Psychology right now it was one of my favorite subjects when getting my bachelor of science in Biology. My Phantom sense activated after I got an avatar that is so me. It was strange at first because I could feel the wolf ears and tail first before anything else. The avatar fit my body proportions almost exactly and I became fully immersed. Tho because it’s a female avatar a lot of people touch me without permission and it does become a curse in public lobbies.

Ayyyy, I get mirror touch so often, pretty cool to see it mentioned here!

This is so amazing to learn and crazy enough when the training demo part came. I actually felt my arm have like a feeling and i was holding something tight around my body. Awesome video

Ketamine while in VR has enhanced my touch perception to a superhuman level! I was just "in" the MALOKA app last night and I swear I feel like my memory recall and overall intelligence have been stoked!

I developed such strong phantom sense in vr over the course of 3 and half years that it spread into irl. During my time in vr I developed Phantom senses of textures,temperatures,clothing,touch,pain,motion. Eventually smelling and tasting things. However with smell and taste the what should be correct is sometimes strange. I started by smelling things in a way I perceive that thing should smell like. I started experiencing taste even if I wasn't trying to you know eat something. Eventually I learned that this was a type of Synesthesia. I also developed mirror touch Synesthesia at the same time. The shocking thing that whilst I experienced these things as a gradually increasing concept that it was sometimes starting to effect me irl just casually whilst I was watching things or playing games. Now days Its very active for me which is quite fascinating but its also kinda quite weird. In reality I like that I developed these strange new sensations because it makes not only vr more immersive but really just any game or movie or tv show so much more vibrant. Most of the times these are good sensations however sometimes I can perceive a location as a head ache inducing smell for example i once associated these reddish marble tinted spiral pillars as kinda meat looking so there was just this overpowering smell of burnt bacon so the location of a ready room in a vr place gave me such a headache i had to give feedback to the map developer who kindly changed it for me;d.

I’ve been playing VRchat for almost a year, now. I only got my headset in the start of December, though (A little birthday gift to myself). As soon as I got in, I logged on to VRchat with the headset. It was disorienting, I remember losing my balance every time I moved. It was so weird but fascinating to finally be “in” VRchat, not playing it on desktop. I only knew about Phantom Touch/Phantom sense because a lot of my friends had it. I only experienced it very faintly, every once in a while, nothing too important though. It was only a couple of days ago, when I put on an avatar that had a wagging tail, that I went into sensory overdrive. Mind you, I never wanted Phantom sense, it just happened. I got overwhelmed and kept trying to remember that I didn’t actually have a tail, but my brain wouldn’t listen. I got used to it, though XD

I have found a very interesting thing for myself. I've never played a game in VR, only on PC and secondarily on console, but I am an artist. Not just in traditional or digital art, but music, and 3D Renders. I also have a very active imagination and a strange disconnect to my normal body, but a very strong connection to a more meta-physical form I have, my soul or stream of consciousness per-se. I have found that through this intense mental control over my imagination I am given extremely vivid and often lucid dreams and can invoke feelings of touch with little to no stimuli required, even to the point that I have used it to enter the body of a wolf multiple times and imagine an angel woman gently petting me to help calm myself down from existential dread.

I tried VR chat a couple of times, without a VR headset, and I was actually surprised how much people being too close to my avatar felt like they were "too close" or looming over me. Especially when I chose a small chibi cat avatar; someone reached out and pat my head and I cringed, feeling like they were about to touch me, like a feeling of heightened sensitivity in the spot where I was expecting to be touched. Something about the way the camera position, FOV and perspective is handled makes it feel real. I'm much more of an Opensim user, and there I'm quite attached to my avatar; people standing too close feel too close, and things that effect my appearance or animations unexpectedly feel like an unwelcome interference, but it's nowhere near as strong as this.