Original story
SatWeb 12.12.2013
Beyond Passion experience-expanding hypnostimuli trigger epileptic seizures
More than 900 people have been taken to hospital in Acapulco, Mexico after mysterious epileptic attacks. According to police reports, all the sufferers were users of Virtual Playmate’s latest hyperexperience, the “Beyond Passion” sexual alterworld.
Acapulco is one of the world’s 41 designated amusement free-zones. Practically no national or international limits are placed in these locales on virtual arcades, chemical stimulants, or other forms of entertainment and amusement. Residents and visitors alike in free-zone cities are able to undergo any and all experiences they wish to try, by any means at their disposal. And there is usually no lack of means. The only restrictions in force concern the inviolability of real persons and real property. Acapulco attracts upwards of 140 million visitors each year, and the pursuit of entertainment at all costs is not always without its dangers. For example the death toll last year in the bordellos of the city’s famed Virtual Erotic Center was 76, as people “pushed the silken virtual envelope” beyond their natural physical limits.
In recent months, Acapulco has attempted to retain its position in the top five “no holds barred” cities through the spread of what are referred to as “hyperexperience raves”, a blend of virtual worlds and experience-expanding hypnostimuli. In such raves, state-of-the-art virtual worlds - involving the full sensory palette - are experienced in a trance-like state where the subject has been exposed to psychophysical hypnostimulants of one kind or another.
Chemical hypnostimulants are often smart-drug derivatives, providing an increased plane of concentration and intensifying the experience. Physical hypnostimuli, on the other hand, can for instance take the form of regular flashes of bright light at specific wavelengths, various scents, acupuncture, and pulses of sound or white noise at certain frequencies. By combining all these factors, the virtual experience goes far beyond even the most heightened normal sensitivity, for instance in the case of a sexual encounter.
Tens of thousands have already become addicted to the life in the fast lane that the hyperexperiences offer, and doctors have repeatedly urged a ban on their use. Nevertheless, the economic importance of the free-zone cities is today so huge - and so vital for numerous otherwise struggling countries - that there are no plans to introduce restrictions. Furthermore, several councillors in such cities have argued that the services and experiences provided are in fact therapeutic. The matter was succinctly summed up by Adolfo Hiller, Marketing Director of the Acapulco Dunes entertainment complex, who said: “Surely you must accept it is better for a man to kill his wife or his mistress virtually, and not in reality?”
Yong Tan, Deputy Secretary-General of the WHO, has observed that the recent epilepsy seizures reported in Mexico pose a sufficiently serious threat to health that psychophysical hypnostimuli should not under any circumstances be allowed onto the open market, as many manufacturers have demanded, but that they should be permitted only in the semi-controlled environments of the free-zone virtual arcades.
Toteuma-arvio 2026
Toteuma lyhyesti
- Ilmiön toteuma: 4/5
- Toteuma viiden vuoden tarkkuudella: kyllä; arviointi-ikkuna on 2008–2018
- Toteuma väljemmällä aikahorisontilla: kyllä, erittäin vahvasti
- Ilmiön ydin: voimakkaasti stimuloiva digitaalinen tai virtuaalinen sisältö voi aiheuttaa neurologisia ja psyykkisiä haittoja, myös kohtauksia.
Välkkyvä kuva on aiheuttanut valoherkille epileptisiä kohtauksia, ja VR-laitteissa varoitetaan pahoinvoinnista, desorientaatiosta ja kohtausriskistä. Tuhansien käyttäjien yhtäaikaista tapausta ei ole tarvittu ilmiön todentamiseksi.
Johtopäätös: digitaalisen aistiärsykkeen terveysriski toteutui vahvasti ja ajoissa.