Virtual Reality as a Transformative Technology to Develop Empathy

Empathy as a human trait has been a bit of an enigma to characterize from a socio-neurobiologic perspective. The debate of nature vs. nurture has been at the heart of this discussion and now science has turned this debate on its head with the new understandings of epigenetics. Epigenetics has demonstrated that empathy has not only a genetic role but also involves the dynamics of pre-conception, in-utero, early life, and even transgenerational. From hard coded genes, to DNA methylation patterns, to RNA’s (lnc-RNA, miRNA, and others) passed parentally. In addition, we are finding that our DNA is a memory bank of generations before us and carries memories of life events of our ancestors that impact the expressions of our genes. Just as ancestral, pre-conception, in-utero, and early life events all play a role in stress responses, these can also impact our ability to experience empathy and other positive human emotions. Additionally it is important to delineate a practical plan to leverage the power of epigenetics to strategically promote enhanced and expanded empathy pre-conception to create a rapid shift in human evolution within two to four generations.