Presence is Reality: Rethinking Virtual and Real-World Consciousness

The sense of presence and the sense of reality are often treated as distinct phenomena—presence as the feeling of "being there" in a virtual environment and reality as the ability to discern ‘real’ from ‘false’ phenomena. We argue that these concepts are identical both conceptually and mechanistically, despite much VR research defining presence as something which much necessarily take place in VR. We then introduce specific instances of converging evidence between the fields, suggesting that presence and reality are likely to be constituted by the same integrative theoretical models, psychophysical mechanisms and neural architecture. Evidence from neuroimaging supports this claim, revealing overlapping brain regions involved in both presence and reality perception. This reconceptualization of VR presence as reality has implications for research on consciousness, psychiatric disorders involving reality perception, and the use of virtual reality as a tool for studying and modifying perceptual experience. Future research should directly compare presence and reality mechanisms to explore their functional and neural equivalence, potentially redefining how we study consciousness and perception.