Virtual Hallucinating Device Drives Police Insane for a Day

[Beeker]

from Wired:

Being crazy is hard, but it's worth the effort. Especially if you're a cop, paramedic, or social worker who may someday need to deal with a person having a psychotic episode. At those times, empathy can be crucial.
That's where Virtual Hallucinations comes in. The training device, created by Janssen L.P., is a rig with earphones and goggles that plunges the wearer into the mind of a serious schizophrenic.


The system offers two interactive scenarios. In one, you're riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, "He's taking you back to the FBI!" The other features a trip to the drugstore, where the pharmacist seems to be handing you poison instead of pills, and hostile customers stare at you in disgust.


Developed with psychiatrists and endorsed by advocates for the mentally ill, Virtual Hallucinations is being used by law enforcement, corrections, and health care professionals in at least half a dozen states.



"It's very effective," says Margaret Stout, executive director of the Alliance of the Mentally Ill of Iowa, who's tried it herself.



"It really allows you to feel like your mind is just not working well." For cops who have gone through the training, she says, that can make all the difference when it comes to understanding what a mentally ill person is going through. And there's nothing crazy about that.

Reputation Comments on this post:

	good find
	good artical

[Raw edge]

Swim has expressed his skeptism in regards this story. While swim has never been under the impression that people are trying to posion him the other scenario are common to him. He is far from a scitzoprenic.

Reputation Comments on this post:

nothing wrong with being a skeptic

[hoodabudda]

they sould just make the pigs smoke some 40x salvia out of a gravity bong.at first swim ment this as a joke but sience its legal and you cant die from it and its short acting it might be a good idea..

[Nagognog2]

In my old town there was a pharmacist named Himey (high-me) Doodlesack. One day some guy tried to rob his store. Himey gave the guy poison instead of the drugs he wanted. The guy died. I don't think the guy was a schizophrenic though.

Himey lost his license.

[fnord]

Originally Posted by hoodabudda

they sould just make the pigs smoke some 40x salvia out of a gravity bong.at first swim ment this as a joke but sience its legal and you cant die from it and its short acting it might be a good idea..

nah screw that,salvia wont cause the desired effect,id randomly slip them some datura during police training that would cause the paranoid/delusional effect,or maybe some ayauscha wouldn't mimic schizophrenia but it would be fun!

[Veteran Joker]

Hopefully after the Ayahausca they'd realised they are citizens just like everyone else, there to protect and serve. They are not serving people by arresting potheads.

But they just steal pot so they got something good to smoke with all those damn doughnuts. It's a bully organisation.

[snapper]

SWIM thinks that they should be asked to take something like LSD (LSD would actually be a good choice) and then deal with a supermarket trip. SWIM encounters a good amount of mentally ill people in SWIM's line of work and schizophrenics amongst them. When talking to them, SWIM is reminded of taking LSD. SWIM doubts any virtual reality can adequately replace the real effect. SWIM has immense compassion for the mentally ill, and gets very frustrated when the staff SWIM works with makes fun of or becomes frustrated with them. SWIM just remembers the last bad trip SWIM had and becomes much more patient. It is sad that most societies stigmatize and abuse those with mental illness. SWIM sees droves of them walking the street homeless and talking to themselves all the time. It's sickening that SWIM has to give money to the government to slaughter a bunch of Iraqis, but has to deal with homeless people that should be institutionalized walking the streets and begging for money. This demonstrates a severe lack of humanity, which is what SWIM expects from the current adminstration in the US.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by snapper

SWIM thinks that they should be asked to take something like LSD (LSD would actually be a good choice) and then deal with a supermarket trip. SWIM encounters a good amount of mentally ill people in SWIM's line of work and schizophrenics amongst them. When talking to them, SWIM is reminded of taking LSD. SWIM doubts any virtual reality can adequately replace the real effect.

Many early psychedelic researchers thought the same, and a few suggested that ALL psychiatrists / therapists should have to take lsd before they can start their work, so they can understand better the plight of some of the patients they are dealing with.

Swim agrees. There is no better way to understand others than to put yourself in their shoes the best you can. For schizophrenics, an acid trip is one of the best ways to get into their shoes. Bad trips shouldn't be necessary, but at least trying to do normal, routine tasks and seeing how hard they are should be.

[fnord]

never really thought acid would be simmaler to schizophrenia,my poker buddy swim has tried this "lsd"stuff and he says he gets very happy bubbly no real confusion/delsions and would prefer to be on acid 24/7 as opposed to the unseasoned plain reality he has to deal with every day.i dont think many schizophrenics would claim to enjoy there view of things at all.i has 3 friends that range from mildly to heavily schizophrenic and i dont think acid is anything that could be compared to it.datura on the other hand,minus the side effects swim thinks would more depict a true schizophrenic state

[MrJim]

There is actually a helmet that has been around for quite some time used in Psychology that sends magnetic pulses into your brain (seriously, I'm not making this shit up) that essentially causes hallucinations of a positive nature. I will try to track down some information. I think that that would have probably been the inspiration for the device mentioned in the first post.

[fnord]

see!! it old them i wasent crazy for duct tapeing magnets to my head!!!

@mrjim if you can find the link it would be much apreciated.

[snapper]

Fnord.
It's all about set and setting. People who take LSD know they are taking it and have the right setting to enjoy it. Now imagine taking LSD and then having to do something stressful and important - that would be more like what a schizophrenic would have to live with. Dature would be a poor choice due to the amnesia associated with the trip. SWIM likes lsd though, don't get SWIM wrong.
SWIM would like some of those magnets, though.

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by fnord

never really thought acid would be simmaler to schizophrenia,my poker buddy swim has tried this "lsd"stuff and he says he gets very happy bubbly no real confusion/delsions and would prefer to be on acid 24/7 as opposed to the unseasoned plain reality he has to deal with every day.

Tell your buddy to take a couple of hits of lsd and then try to go to work and get through the day then come home and cook dinner and play with the kids and etc. etc. etc.

If you take the time out to trip and are prepared, it shouldn't be a bad time, extraneous circumstances notwithstanding.

If you try to go about your life on acid and do the normal things that you would usually do, the same ones that often stress you out, well... have fun with that.

[fnord]

swims done many of things while on lsd,worked a telemarketing job,been briefly detained and searched by police,had to conduct illicit business with sketchy people,dealt with overdosed and self destructive freak outs of others and everything been fine for him,maybe swims brain just works different,o way to tell but he still dosent think lsd mimics schizophrenia in any way besides it lets him make looser asociations with words/thoughts.take into consideration swim has been maybe stressed out 2-3 times in the past 6 years of his life and then only briefly.but i think im getting offtopic here.

anybody have reports form the police that have been trained useing this?

[Nagognog2]

Come on! The concept of psychedelics being "psychotomimetics" went out the window by 1962.

A person tripping on LSD knows they are tripping. A person suffering schizophrenia knows they are Napoleon. Big difference. And that's why the concept that LSD et al were psychotomimetics was thrown in the trashcan.

Nice to see the police are now wearing 45 year old garbage! LOL!!

[Bajeda]

Originally Posted by Nagognog2

Come on! The concept of psychedelics being "psychotomimetics" went out the window by 1962.

A person tripping on LSD knows they are tripping. A person suffering schizophrenia knows they are Napoleon. Big difference. And that's why the concept that LSD et al were psychotomimetics was thrown in the trashcan.

True, though take enough lsd or shrooms and you can forget that you are tripping! Depends on experience as well. I'll bet that if you have a green police recruit eat 10-15 grams of shrooms he won't know what the hell hit him! Then again, he wont be able to function at all either. Still, it would just be funny to watch

[Rio Fantastic]

I think Datura or Salvia would be a good substitute for it. The almost instant ego-loss associated with Salvia would be perfect, and people on Datura usually have completely raw hallucinations.

[Alicia]

there is no substitute for being unwell mentally. it is unique to the individual who is having a episode at the time well there are certain characteristics that can have similar effects, hearing voices, hallucinations, delusions of grandeur,delusions in general. etc depending on classification but this will depend on individual . but the fact they designed a device that mimics schizophrenia is impossible as it is entirely different for different people. Agree with nag. next there'll be teaching them how to perform lobotomies for the nuts that dont comply..

although if swia would have to say perhaps a mixture of pcp and datura with a long run of being up all the time were your hearing voices and cant trust anyone.. due to sleep deprived states combine all of that and maybe u could but this only swia idea on comparing possibly.

Of cause theres always drug induced psychosis

[Bio-Cellular Enigma]

Fwiw, SWIM thinks it's worth a few extra tax dollars if there's a chance of police officers being a bit more sympathetic (in any way whatsoever, not only to the plight of the mentally ill).