As I mentioned before, video games are staring to be used for more than just entertainment. Now I’ve seen some strange uses of video games to help people out, but when I first heard about Sound Self, I thought “Ok this is some hippie type of stuff”.
But first what is SoundSelf? SoundSelf is, its described in the press release we received: “A Technodelic, First Truly Psychedelic Gaming Experience”. When I arrived at their booth, Robin Arnott, one of the founders of Andromeda Entertainment, explained what he wanted to accomplish with SoundSelf (which you can see here in this short interview). Then it was time to get strapped in.
They had me lay down on their vibroacoustic sound lounge bed (bed that uses sound to vibrate and massage, the stronger the sound the stronger the vibration) and strap on a VR headset (Occulus I think). I was told to just follow the voice prompts and relax. The “game” had me laying down under a leafless tree looking up at a clear sky. The prompt then instructed me to take a couple of deeps breaths to steady my heart rate and then to chant “Ooommmmm”. As silly as it sounded, I took a deep breath and chanted “Ooommmm”. As I did I started to be lifted up into the air. Depending on how loud and long my “Ooommmms” were, I was lifted higher and higher. It was actually both trippy, yet soothing and relaxing as I was shut out of the chaos of PAX South and floating up into the sky. As time pass and my “Ooommmms” got louder, the sky and tree started to change and warp colors. This kept going and going. Honestly I was so zoned into the experience that I lost track of time and didn’t realize that what I thought was going to be a ten to fifteenth minuet demo turned out to be a thirty minuet experience. Or was it the other way around? Either way in that short amount of time I felt fresh and not as tired.
Final impressions: With mental health started to be talked about openly more and more, I can see SoundSelf being a useful tool in helping those who need slow down and collect their thoughts. Cause sometimes we do need to do an internal audit of ourselves and just get away from everything, even if its just for a few minutes a day. If Andromeda Entertainment ever comes back to PAX South, they should really have some setups of Sound Self in the AFK Room. That would really help con goers unwind and recharge themselves. SoundSelf is set to release sometime this year.
