Presence in Virtual Reality and Everyday Life: Immersion within a World of Representation

Experiencing high-quality virtual reality for the first time, whether it be computer-generated or the result of streaming video and audio from a remote location, elicits a compelling experience of presence (being within a realistic 3D environment). Presence in virtual reality is indeed fascinating and, as a result, has become the focus of scientific and philosophical inquiry. But even more fascinating is the presence experienced in everyday life. The primary concern of this essay is to provide evidence for the representational nature of ordinary perception and to show that ordinary perception and perception with virtual reality share a common phenomenology. © 2016 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.