Jari Laarni
ABSTRACT
If interactive computer media is engaging and immersive, it may trigger similar feelings that people experience when they, for example, are wandering in nature, participating in high-risk sports or listening music. These experiences have been often characterized by words like 'transcendence', 'peak experience' and 'spiritual experience'. We conducted an experimental study in which the participants rated their feelings of transcendence after browsing and navigating through a hypertext or watching a film. The results showed that different types of media stimuli elicited different degrees of transcendence. It also seemed to be that the more immersive the stimulus was the higher the sense of transcendence the participants experienced. Both individual characteristics of users (i.e., the ability to focus on enjoyable activities) and properties of media stimuli (i.e., sensory engagement, sensory fidelity and interactivity) seemed to contribute to rated transcendence.
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