From: Michael Century Subject: APPS: Mental Health Researchers Organization: McGill Research Centre for Intelligent Machines Keywords: mental health, VR, ethics Summary: looking for researchers from mental health field I would be grateful to hear from or receive recommendations about people in mental health or therapy professions, working actively in uses of Virtual Environments technologies, especially immersive head-mounted display type systems. Michael Century CITI - Centre for Information Technology Innovation Laval Quebec 514-973-5737 Internet: mcentury@condor.citi.doc.ca [Michitaka Hirose, University of Tokyo, during his presentation in the Plenary session at VRAIS '93, showed a video tape of various projects from his lab. One of those projects, I believe, was the Virtual Sandbox. The "Sandbox" (I could have the name wrong, my handwriting is notoriously illegible) is type of test that they give mental patients. The Virtual Sandbox allowed the patients to take the test, which appeared to be drawing, in the virtual world. Charles Tart, a psychologist famous for his studies on altered states of consciousness, has written an article that suggests that virtual environments would be an excellent way to help therapists understand their patients inner mental state. Tart also states that we all carry our own mental "virtual realities". Tart, Charles T. (1991, Dec.). On the uses of computer-generated realities: A response to Begelman. Dissociation: Progress in the Dissociative Disorders. Vol 4(4) 216-217. Tart, Charles. (1990, Dec.). Multiple personality, altered states and virtual reality: The world simulation process approach. Dissociation: Progress in the Dissociative Disorders. Vol 3(4) 222-233. -T.E.]