This paper will explore a fundamental set of questions related to the technological and cultural trajectories that the path of virtualization in society could take. Will VR become an "enabling technology" for the evolution of consciousness, or will it become a hypermodern detour, throwing us deeper into nihilism? Will VR stimulate a new cultural renaissance, a new aesthetic, and collective dialogue on the nature of our being-in-the world—a path of "conscious virtualization"--helping us to become more conscious of the virtual nature of identity and appearance? Or will VR technology result in a "virtualization of consciousness," amplifying personal and collective fragmentation, feeding regressive drives, and radically altering our sensibilities to such an extent that it leads to a gross dimunition of human intelligence?

In this paper, I differentiate between two modes of virtualization, which are mirrored in the design and conception of different trajectories of Virtual Reality (VR) technology, what I refer to as "VR1" and "VR2." The first mode, VR1, as we shall see, is a further amplification of the hyperreal trajectory of cyberspace. In this mode, VR1 accelerates the dynamic of virtualization, but in a direction which spirals downward, into further chaos and fragmentation. This trajectory will lead us further astray into a hyperreal world-into the depthless and nihilistic void of pure simulacra. In fact, I argue that with VR1, we enter a closed world with a proliferation of commodified images, while human consciousness becomes even more fixated and one-sided. The very meaning of human intelligence descends to a functionary level, ruled by the hyperrational logic of algorithmic reasoning. This latter pathway—a virtualization of consciousness—is already occurring on a microcosmic scale within the cultural milieu of Las Vegas, Nevada. I will explore the symptoms associated with this pathway, and argue that the typical Las Vegas gambler has regressed to a mode of cognition that is lacking consciousness. The gambler, the slot machine player, even the gawking tourist, functions and appears to resemble one of Dennett’s "zombies," or Julian Jayne’s "bi-cameral," pre-conscious human beings—who can go about their daily affairs, but be completely lacking consciousness. In effect, a hyerrational structure dominates, while our consciousness contracts into a solipsistic, disembodied subject, and compliant instruction follower. In other words, consciousness is progressively automatized.

The other alternative, VR2, has the potential for bringing about a process of "conscious virtualization," triggering liberating forms of cultural expression. VR2 could become an enabling technology in the sense that it would serve as a new cultural aesthetic, potentially having the effect of intensifying human intelligence and our capacity for aperspectival vision by challenging the nature of reality as substance. This new aesthetic would make us more conscious of how we represent the world, offering opportunities for observing how we construct a privileged viewpoint. This shift in consciousness would legitimize and support a new form of discourse, fostering a collective inquiry into the processes by which we construct and call the world (and self) into being. In other words, VR2 would inspire a "transparentizing" aesthetic in culture that is akin to a state of lucid dreaming. Stimulating an ecstatic experience, an intensification of consciousness, appearance, whether one was inside or outside VR2, would appear as a "magical display." In other words, appearances within such a virtual world would appear and be experienced as projections of light, as phantoms, including the appearance of the observer that is watching. That which appears to the observer in a VR2 world would be recognized as not being the ultimate reality, but as having virtual substance, vivid but transparent, like an apparition, like a mirage, like an echo, like a dream object. Appearance, including that of the observer, would be felt and experienced as just that: appearances that appear to made of substance, but, in truth, are seen and known as "virtually real," phantomasgorical in nature—empty of inherent and independent existence. Virtual worlds in VR2 are evocative, requiring the user to consciously become aware of their participation in the figuration of appearances. Rather than repressing or disengaging the user’s consciousness, VR2 "turns the lights on," intensifying awareness and active imagination.

The wizardry of VR1 is a "wizardry of wrong notions," an entrancement to a magical display which results in a proliferation of spatio-temporal displacements, time-space compression, and a dimming of Being. The texture of experience in VR1—excitation, nervousness, and acceleration—is very different in quality from that of VR2. Just as Las Vegas symbolically represents the emergence of a VR1 mode of consciousness, Lhasa, Tibet symbolizes the potential of the VR2 cultural aesthetic. In comparison to the typical Las Vegas gambler whose consciousness has been progressively virtualized, I will describe the day in a life of a typical Tibetan Buddhist monk in Lhasa. In VR2, we are allowed to enter a world that has become more spacious, where time can be slowed down as well as speeded up. We are granted the ability to exercise our imagination and intelligence, to observe the observer, and to use VR technology to help us witness and pay attention to the subtle process of proprioception, both at the level of our body and our thoughts. In this virtual world, the habitual reflexes of mind can slow down, allowing us to cultivate our awareness, to deepen our capacity for knowing, and to seed the ground for insight to grow.