How Virtual Reality Will Change Your World - Reinventing and Reimagining Education

What's going on here? Right, so Microsoft bought Activision in January 2022 for a shocking $68.7 billion. That's their biggest historical purchase. And if you're not familiar, Activision is the largest gaming company in the world. Facebook announced Meta and pledges 10 billion a year towards immersive technologies. They're onboarding 10,000 employees worldwide. So what, there's a race, a sprint to create the Metaverse. So the Metaverse is basically a promise of a VR space in which players can connect with computer generated environments and other players across multiple platforms. So that definition is broadening, but you can kind of see a picture there. You can take your sneakers into the next Metaverse.

Do you remember the last movie you saw in a movie theater? What was that like for you watching that movie? Was it exciting, scary, thrilling, or just entertaining? Now just imagine if instead of just watching that movie, you're actually in that movie. That's exactly what virtual reality is today. Using computer technology to create a simulated environment that you can experience using a virtual reality headset. This technology is going to be the future of media, entertainment technology, art training, communications, and most of all, education. This is the technology that Lyle Maxson and Nick Janicki are experts in. They are co founders in the company Genius X. I'm also one of the co founders. So you know, both are experts in virtual reality as a learning tool. Lyle is co founder in two other virtual reality companies. One is a VR publishing agency distributing games for good across Games for good. Let me repeat that. Across multiple platforms and continents. The other is a digital therapeutics company featuring the revolutionary biofeed meditation experience Sound self. Nick is the founder of the True Rest Float Spa, the largest flotation therapy franchise in the world with over 100 plus locations sold across 17 states. Nick created his first VR app back in 2014, the Art of Courage, showcasing 35 immersive paintings in virtual reality. Which means instead of looking at the painting, you're actually in that painting. That's what he first showed me to and I was like, wow, this is amazing. I want to do this. That was my first intro to it. Lyle and Nick are going to share with you the impact these immersive technologies are making on the world and how virtual reality becomes the classroom of the future. A number of your fellow members are already completing courses in their educational VR program called Retreat. The title is how virtual reality will change your world. Please welcome Lyle Maxson and Nick Janicki.

All right, thanks Joe.

Oh wow. This is cool up here. Nice. All Right. So I am Nick Janicki. This is Lyle Maxon. Our Brangelina name is Lick Jannison. If you look at our Instagram, it's not a real thing. Don't try to look it up. But how virtual reality will change the world is our talk. We're very passionate about this subject and as Joe said, it's very much like stepping into the movie. And this is thrilling. There are actually Emmy award winning VR movies now, and there's one called Wolves in the Walls. And this is an audio, visual and kinesthetic experience with full immersion. And what you're doing is you're basically looking through a little girl's eyes as her imaginary friend. So you're looking at her fears, her tribulations, and how she overcomes these via her Heroes journey. There you go. Oh, still me. So this is a good slide to take a picture of. This is a whole nother 10 minute talk, which is the science of what's happening in VR. But the key point I want to get across here is learners are three to four times more focused, more emotionally connected, they train faster, and they are more confident to apply their skills.

So we believe that VR is the greatest evolution of storytelling since the written word. And with this comes the responsibility to uphold this technology ethically for the experience creation machines that it is. So really the big focus of this talk is to move you from fear to inspiration. And, you know, ultimately we look at society and where technology is going and we see the overconsumption, we see the, the privacy infringements, we see the escapism and the addiction. But ultimately, and eventually leading to what we see as the AI overlord takeover. Right. We're buying new phones every single year. What is this all leading to? And we think that this could actually improve human life and access places within our highest selves. Yep.

So what is the backbone of this virtual revolution? So this really started in the 1970s. You had Pong, Pac Man, Penny arcades. I'm old enough to remember, certainly 12 teenagers packed into a room doing quarter arcades. But it has progressed significantly in the last 50 years. Yeah.

And now it's become one of the world's largest phenomenas. So a great example is 100 million viewers of a single esports tournament. And for those of you who do not know, esports is electronic sports. It's professional video game players. So we're seeing these. And, oh, a good thing to mention too is that this year in 2020, the Super bowl had 98 million viewers. So there's actually a Single esports tournament that had more viewers in the Super Bowl. So we're seeing packed stadiums, sold out, fans screaming and cheering for their favorite computer game players. Just so you know too, this is one game of probably 20 games that have these massive tournaments competing for millions of dollars in cash prizes and a giant World cup trophy.

Mr. Lyle, there's a lot of hormones in that room for sure. How does gaming compare to all the other entertainment industries? 2020 annual revenue, music industry was 23 billion. All of US sports combined, $75 billion for all US sports, you had 81 billion for movies. And drumroll, please. Video game industry blows them away at $175 billion.

So clearly. So the big thing is this isn't just about video games. What was classically defined as a video game, an arcade, a console, a PC game, is now any immersive interactive experience. So what we saw during the pandemic was this explosion of virtual concerts where popular games like Fortnite and Roblox were actually featuring celebrities like Ariana Grande, who actually transformed into a virtual avatar of herself to perform in front of millions of fans. And specifically for this concert that she did recently in, Fortnite broke the world record with 78 million viewers of her virtual concert. Another great example is what we're all talking about. NFTs and the virtual land purchase, similar to the Cleater phenomena. And we're seeing people like Snoop Dogg literally transfer his entire mansion and his actual property into a virtual world to host talks, conferences and concerts.

I think Joe, Jason and Jennifer were inspired by Snoop Dogg. So I'm waiting until they're all up here on stage with Blunts. We'll just see how this progresses. But what's going on here? Right, so Microsoft bought Activision in January 2022 for a shocking $68.7 billion. That's their biggest historical purchase. And if you're not familiar, Activision is the largest gaming company in the world. Facebook announced Meta and pledges 10 billion a year towards immersive technologies. They're onboarding 10,000 employees worldwide. So there's a race, a sprint to create the Metaverse. So the Metaverse is basically a promise of a VR space in which players can connect with computer generated environments and other players across multiple platforms. So that definition is broadening, but you can kind of see a picture there. You can take your sneakers into the next Metaverse.

Yeah. And the medium to do this, right now, people are doing it on PCs and consoles. Fortnite, for instance, is a Metaverse style game. But the Next medium is of course a virtual reality headset. Here is the quest 2, which is the most popular, cheapest and best headset around. So really we wanted to just highlight what are some positive examples of how this technology is being used. What I like to call benevolent technology. So I wanted to start with Akili. Akili Interactive made history by actually having the first FDA approved video game. So what this means is that kids were able to get off of their Adderall and Ritalin and transfer to a cell phone game that they play twice a week to create new neuro synapses and actually increase their focus. It's amazing that we're talking about ADHD and everything fits so in line and then this opened up the floodgates to applied VR. This happened a few months ago and it is an FDA approved VR experience specific to pain management. So you actually use the head tracking of the app and you focus on different parts of the environment and it relieves you of your pain, takes you away from your pain body and is now a prescribable experience. What was mentioned in the intro, this is an experience that I'm responsible for producing and publishing called Soundself. And it actually uses vocal intonations and so as you're vocalizing into the headset it creates a biofeedback loop that actually creates theta and gamma brain waves. So you basically become an Expert Meditator in 10 minutes. Another great example is for training and enterprise. What I love to talk about is this incredible use case where surgeons are actually training with VR headsets and and have a 230% increase in effectiveness versus their standard surgeon training.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video and I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video or you can Simply go to joesfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

That's right. And this is all about for me, empathy generation. So the ability to fully step into someone else's shoes. And to Joe's point, in 2014 I created something called the Art of Courage Museum, which was a physical museum in Tempe. And it's part of one of the many nonprofits I'm a part of. This was a physical learning center and featured 30 paintings by spiritual practitioners of Falun Dafa whom are currently being persecuted by the ccp. And basically we would take kids there, we'd educate them, they'd learn how to meditate. They'd learn about principles like truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, or jin shanren and Chinese. And I created this beautiful thing with one developer which was this entire recreation of a Tang style village. And you would literally go into this and walk into the paintings and experience each painting in full immersion. So what we're finding is this is a great way to share causes. VR is an amazing way to really get people empathetic about a cause we believe. Well, Joel said no one cares what you believe. So what we see is happening is gamification and full immersion and is coming to all industries and will absolutely affect every single aspect of our daily lives. This industry is moving very, very fast, and this can be overwhelming. And so what we're here to do is we want to rewrite our relationship with technology and create a positive relationship with ourselves and humanity at large. So now that we've gone through this, you know that there's options for adhd, there's options for chronic pain, there's options for education. It's just about how we consciously apply the solution. So we think you should get a VR headset. You should start experiencing the vast benefits of immersion. And what will you create in VR to uplift the human spirit? We have a booth here. Check it out. Mike's happy to talk to you, for sure. He's great. And yeah, thank you so much. I know it's time for lunch, so that's all we have. Okay.

I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here.

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Do it now. Come on. Thank you.

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