Brennan Spiegel - VRx

W HEN VIRTUAL REALITY FIRST TOOK HOLD OF ME , I THOUGHT I was going to die. Walter Greenleaf, a leading virtual reality (VR) scientist from Stanford University, visited my lab at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2014 with a team of programmers to demonstrate their supercharged tech. They placed a headset over my eyes, and the world disappeared into blackness. It felt as though I were sitting in an unlit cavern awaiting some unwelcome surprise. Suddenly, a bright scene ignited into crisp reality, and I found myself standing outside on a shaky window-washing rig, slowly ascending the side of a fifty-story building. I heard creaking cables and the sound of a steady breeze. I felt the butterflies of anxiety and began swaying in rhythm with the teetering platform beneath my feet.

The rig stopped at the top of the building. I stood looking out upon a downtown cityscape, perched hundreds of feet in the air above a concrete sidewalk. It felt dangerous, even though I was standing in a familiar conference room. My heart was palpitating, nerves were firing, and tendons stiffening. A few seconds passed. I settled in long enough to register the beauty of the scene and note details, like the signage atop buildings, the glint of sunlight reflecting off windows, and traffic patterns in a far-off rotary.

Without warning, the rigs protective railing suddenly detached, plummeting end-over-end and crashing into the street far below. I nearly panicked. Some inner spirit took control of my limbs. I reached back in desperation for the window behind me (which was a whiteboard on the conference room wall). I shut my eyes to escape and think. This would all be fine if I could only reason my way through it. My feet knew they were standing on carpet, but how could I get my brain to know this as well?

Okay, now jump off the platform, said Greenleaf. Just take one big step into the void.

Not a chance. There was no way I was going to leap off that building. It made no difference that I knew I was in a conference room. This virtual world had commandeered my brain. I was paralyzed with fear.

Reading about VR is like reading about space travelyou might imagine the effortless glide of floating in zero gravity, but until you are in space, well, youre not. Unless you have been inside virtual reality its hard to imagine how powerful it is. So the next best way to experience it is to watch others try it. Here is one of my patients using VR while suffering from the severe pain of sickle cell anemia. Before taking this picture, he was doubled over from body aches despite taking powerful painkillers. At

This book is about why he isnt in pain and what that means for how we treat some of our most pressing health threats.