Viscereality: A Bio-responsive VR System for Breath-Based Interactions and Coupled Oscillator Dynamics to Augment Altered States of Consciousness

We introduce a bioresponsive virtual reality system that maps users’ breathing patterns to dynamic, spatialized visual feedback. The system implements Gestalt principles, such as good figure, similarity, and symmetry, within a 3D particle-based environment to enhance the embodiment of interoceptive and exteroceptive space, aiming to blur the subjective boundary between bodily self and the external virtual space. Moreover, the system incorporates coupling kernels within a dynamic system composed of Kuramoto oscillators, enabling the emergence of geometric visual symmetries during breath retention phases. This architecture provides an experimental framework for investigating how visual–respiratory coupling of space can influence perceived bodily boundaries and peripersonal space, as well as for testing how such coupling affects positively valenced aspects of subjective experience, drawing on principles from the Symmetry Theory of Valence. A short video summary of the system is available at: https://osf.io/4enfg.