Even though the first consumer-available attempts at virtual reality were done back in the early 1990s, the idea and the tech didn’t really gain audiences’ appeal until the 2010s.
However, what if I were to tell you that virtual reality was already being predicted as early as the 1950s when Morton Heilig, a filmmaker and pioneer of virtual reality technology, wrote about Experience Theater as a machine that could stimulate all human senses to draw the viewer into onscreen activity?
While everyone and their mothers were talking about how the cinema and other media experiences would become much more engaging, there were a few who were focusing on other, more practical uses of VR. Simulated military and flight training aside, VR has proven to be very useful in the fields of medicine and mental health.
A Korean woman stepped into virtual reality to once again see her daughter who died four years ago
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
Korean television show Meeting You recently aired a segment about a mother Jang Ji-sung who lost her 7-year-old daughter Nayeon to an unnamed illness back in 2016. Through the power of virtual reality, she was reunited with her daughter and was able to spend time talking and interacting with her.
The Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC for short), the television company behind the show Meeting You, designed the entire virtual reality setting seen in the video, paying extra attention to designing Nayeon’s face, body, and voice to be as accurate as possible.
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
Their entire interaction was televised in the South Korean show called Meeting You
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
Mother Jang Ji-sung and her daughter Nayeon spent their time together talking and interacting. The two held hands, picked flowers, posed for photos, and even celebrated Nayeon’s birthday—sang the birthday song, made wishes and everything.
Nayeon made a few wishes, namely that dad would stop smoking, that her older brother and sister would not fight, that her younger sister would not get sick, and that her mom would not cry.
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
The two talked, held hands, picked flowers, and even celebrated the daughter’s birthday
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
Throughout the entire visit, Jang Ji-sung and her family, who were watching outside the green room, were sobbing and crying. The father reminisced about how Nayeon liked the green and pink round rice cakes served at the birthday party—she said she wanted to have some when she was in the hospital.
The video ended with Nayeon reading her mother a letter, which said “Mom, we are always together right? Next time we meet, let’s play a lot, okay? I will cherish and remember you for a long time too.” Then she asked Jang Ji-sung to stay with her beside the bed until she fell asleep and turned into a shining white butterfly.
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
The mother of 3 explained that she did this to help other people going through loss of a loved one
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
The video went viral, garnering nearly 10 million views with 120,000 upvotes since its publication on YouTube. While most people found it extremely tear-jerking to watch and were amazed by how positively VR tech can be used to help people grieve, others noted the potential of it becoming an addiction, of people not being able to let go and impeding the grieving process. Yet others also argued the ethics and morals behind the whole situation, but everyone involved knew the situation they were in, that it would be televised, and the issue remains situational.
Jang reportedly wears a necklace with Nayeon’s ashes placed in a charm. She explained that she did this to help other people going through loss. She believes that now, four years since the death of her daughter, she should start loving her more than missing her and feeling sick all the time.
Here is the full video detailing their entire interaction
Image credits: MBCdocumentary
Here is how the internet reacted to the heart-wrenching video…
Just my amateur opinion but this doesn't seem very healthy. Reality tv gone off the rails.
This might have some therapeutic value in the case of a sudden death, but the way this was used is flat out sick. Constantly picking at grief, seeking out things that keeps the pain fresh is not just maladaptive, it's cruel, not only to the person grieving, but to the people around them. ...///... Humans need to move on. ...///... Putting this person on display for entertainment is exploitative and sick. Anyone who chooses to watch this is their own secret squirrel. Only someone who's not quite all there would find this entertaining.
I saw it at a different portal and watched like first 20 seconds and went "Oh hell no, that is absolutely too much". You are 100% right
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I just know I couldn't bear that. I'm a 40 yo man with two healthy kids and I'm crying right now. It would hurt too bad, I couldn't do it. I respect the bravery here, I really do. But the fact that this mother can't touch her baby and the moment she takes those goggles off the baby is gone... it would kill me.
I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I get it, being able to "see" your child again but to know that once you take the goggles off she's gone.... I just don't know if I could bear it.
This just seems like another way to get people addicted to something unhealthy. Death sucks and it hits everyone. Having a VR version of a deceased loved one might stop people from actually processing and dealing with the pain and loss. I wouldn't have anything to do with this and hope no one I love will either.
This is....I dunno....I don't feel its right, but at the same time if my children died and seeing them again, it would probably be just too painful to go through and would hinder the grieving process IMO. Make it harder to deal with. I'm not sure this is a good idea at all
I do not agree with this at all!! No no no....next stop is cloning??? Ughh...
This is so so so beautiful. I am glad this lady got so say goodbye one last time. I cried the whole video. This lady might have lost her before she got the chance to say goodbye. This might not be the best for some, but it is still amazing!
I don't know that this is such a good idea, it isn't really them...just a talking photograph and I can see how it could impede someone's ability to move on.
I lost my 9 year old daughter almost 4 years ago to cancer. She passed at home laying in my lap with her sister and step father also by her side. She was terminal and wanted to be home where she felt comfortable knowing it was coming. She fought so hard. Her little body wanted to give up for months and I have such guilt that she still tried to hold on. If I manage to sleep at all, I still wake in tears hysterical from dreaming of her and the reality she is gone hits as soon as I open my eyes or my mind punishes me and replays our final day and her last breath in my arms. I talk about her as often as I can. I speak her name so she hears me and know she is still so loved and missed but the memories from photos and videos where I can remember holding her are already so difficult. Seeing her again like this, not being able to hug her, smell her, hear her heartbeat would probably take the last bit of sanity out of me. I pray this grieving mother felt some comfort, I couldn't handle it.
That's reeeeaaaaally creepy and almost psycopathic because it goes along the thinking that as long as someone is "cloned" they are still there even tho they (to them) are not whereas psychopaths think that everyone else is simply nonexistent and that everything is like a dream Also it's bad for her mental health
I'm a software developer and I love VR/AR so a few years ago, I thought it would be nice to create a service where you can upload pictures of you, record bits of audio of your voice and have a 3D representation of you made automatically and uploaded. Then, if you died, people could still interact with "you". I gave up the idea because of the complexity of legality around private data.
My 11 year old Sydney died suddenly in a crash. Mothers never move on from grief losing a child is different than any other loss. I dream every night to have a visit from my girl. I wish I could have this
I can only imagine the pain of losing a child (thank God). But this seems like a very unhealthy way to avoid dealing with it. Grief is a process, albeit a painful one. You never really "get over" the loss of a loved one, but you do move past it. This just seems like a way to prolong the agony.
Sometimes i wish i could do that with my late wife. Just to be able to talk to her one more time. Damn.... :'-(
Yeah, I don't think so. If anyone thinks this would help someone who has lost a child, I'm here to tell you that is b******t.... this is not grieving, this is trying to pretend something isn't real when it is totally, irreversibly real.
I don't speak the language but understood everything they were saying to each other. I can see how healing this could be if used under the proper supervision. You wouldn't want a loved one to get themselves trapped in this world by their own devices but, I also couldn't say that I wouldn't seek out refuge there myself. Many Blessings to the mother and the family.
There is no therapeutic value for this at all. It's F'd up is what it is.
That's super rascist not all Koreans and Japanese are super dramatic
Load More Replies... Just my amateur opinion but this doesn't seem very healthy. Reality tv gone off the rails.
This might have some therapeutic value in the case of a sudden death, but the way this was used is flat out sick. Constantly picking at grief, seeking out things that keeps the pain fresh is not just maladaptive, it's cruel, not only to the person grieving, but to the people around them. ...///... Humans need to move on. ...///... Putting this person on display for entertainment is exploitative and sick. Anyone who chooses to watch this is their own secret squirrel. Only someone who's not quite all there would find this entertaining.
I saw it at a different portal and watched like first 20 seconds and went "Oh hell no, that is absolutely too much". You are 100% right
Load More Replies... I just know I couldn't bear that. I'm a 40 yo man with two healthy kids and I'm crying right now. It would hurt too bad, I couldn't do it. I respect the bravery here, I really do. But the fact that this mother can't touch her baby and the moment she takes those goggles off the baby is gone... it would kill me.
I don't know how to feel about this. On one hand I get it, being able to "see" your child again but to know that once you take the goggles off she's gone.... I just don't know if I could bear it.
This just seems like another way to get people addicted to something unhealthy. Death sucks and it hits everyone. Having a VR version of a deceased loved one might stop people from actually processing and dealing with the pain and loss. I wouldn't have anything to do with this and hope no one I love will either.
This is....I dunno....I don't feel its right, but at the same time if my children died and seeing them again, it would probably be just too painful to go through and would hinder the grieving process IMO. Make it harder to deal with. I'm not sure this is a good idea at all
I do not agree with this at all!! No no no....next stop is cloning??? Ughh...
This is so so so beautiful. I am glad this lady got so say goodbye one last time. I cried the whole video. This lady might have lost her before she got the chance to say goodbye. This might not be the best for some, but it is still amazing!
I don't know that this is such a good idea, it isn't really them...just a talking photograph and I can see how it could impede someone's ability to move on.
I lost my 9 year old daughter almost 4 years ago to cancer. She passed at home laying in my lap with her sister and step father also by her side. She was terminal and wanted to be home where she felt comfortable knowing it was coming. She fought so hard. Her little body wanted to give up for months and I have such guilt that she still tried to hold on. If I manage to sleep at all, I still wake in tears hysterical from dreaming of her and the reality she is gone hits as soon as I open my eyes or my mind punishes me and replays our final day and her last breath in my arms. I talk about her as often as I can. I speak her name so she hears me and know she is still so loved and missed but the memories from photos and videos where I can remember holding her are already so difficult. Seeing her again like this, not being able to hug her, smell her, hear her heartbeat would probably take the last bit of sanity out of me. I pray this grieving mother felt some comfort, I couldn't handle it.
That's reeeeaaaaally creepy and almost psycopathic because it goes along the thinking that as long as someone is "cloned" they are still there even tho they (to them) are not whereas psychopaths think that everyone else is simply nonexistent and that everything is like a dream Also it's bad for her mental health
I'm a software developer and I love VR/AR so a few years ago, I thought it would be nice to create a service where you can upload pictures of you, record bits of audio of your voice and have a 3D representation of you made automatically and uploaded. Then, if you died, people could still interact with "you". I gave up the idea because of the complexity of legality around private data.
My 11 year old Sydney died suddenly in a crash. Mothers never move on from grief losing a child is different than any other loss. I dream every night to have a visit from my girl. I wish I could have this
I can only imagine the pain of losing a child (thank God). But this seems like a very unhealthy way to avoid dealing with it. Grief is a process, albeit a painful one. You never really "get over" the loss of a loved one, but you do move past it. This just seems like a way to prolong the agony.
Sometimes i wish i could do that with my late wife. Just to be able to talk to her one more time. Damn.... :'-(
Yeah, I don't think so. If anyone thinks this would help someone who has lost a child, I'm here to tell you that is b******t.... this is not grieving, this is trying to pretend something isn't real when it is totally, irreversibly real.
I don't speak the language but understood everything they were saying to each other. I can see how healing this could be if used under the proper supervision. You wouldn't want a loved one to get themselves trapped in this world by their own devices but, I also couldn't say that I wouldn't seek out refuge there myself. Many Blessings to the mother and the family.
There is no therapeutic value for this at all. It's F'd up is what it is.
That's super rascist not all Koreans and Japanese are super dramatic
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