It is obvious that activities within the virtual realm play a larger role than simply exchanges and communication via an avatar. While opinions are controversial on whether online experiences are genuine or an illusion, I have discovered that humans are capable of feeling empathy and healing in the virtual world. This is due to a feeling of immersion. How much practical experience can the Metaverse provide people with through a strong sense of immersion, even though it is a fictional space? In 1998, Dr. Matthew Botvinick conducted an experiment called “rubber hand illusion”[figure 1]. In this experiment one of the subject’s hands was hidden from view, and a fake rubber hand was placed on the table. The subject's gaze was directed at the rubber hand, and both the hidden hand and the rubber hand were stimulated at the same time. It was found that the subject was synchronized with the rubber hand and mistook it for their own hand. When the researcher pretended to stab the fake rubber hand with a pointed object the subject responded as if his hand had been hurt. This means that rubber hands are included in one’s neural network, and this study has broken the stereotype that human nerves only work in the body and shows that they can expand outside of the body. In other words, because the nerves expand and operate when a person is immersed, the sensation of hitting through digital devices is actually a type of pain perceived by the brain, and what an avatar experiences in a virtual space has a direct impact on humans. This demonstrates that memories and feelings within virtual space are not so different from those in physical space.

Virtual space is expressed from the human desire to break away from the limitations of physical existence, which is the form of traditional space; that is, to transcend matter. The claim that this desire started quite a long time ago can be found in the book, “Humane Interfaces: Questions of Method and Practice in Cognitive Technology.” Since the existence of human beings, we have lived with the mind, consciousness, and senses in the inseparable space of the body, and this tight physical bondage has created a desire for “body transcendence” in human unconsciousness. Attempts beyond the body can be seen by the development of power assembly technology. With the development of trains, ships, cars, and airplanes equipped with power devices, humans have made physical and geographical movements. However, mobility through transportation devices still presupposes physical restraint, so there is still an unresolved desire for us and it has become a reason for another advanced development.

“Biocca, Kim, and Levy argue that the goal of virtual reality, presence, is part of an ancient desire to use media for transportation and experience "physical transcendence" over the space we live in and to experience an "essential copy" of some distant place, a past experience, or the experience of another person.”

-Humane Interfaces: Questions of Method and Practice in Cognitive Technology

The virtual world that we detected while expressing human desire is now like a new continent to us. In the 15th century, Columbus discovered New World America, and European countries made great technological advances by accumulating enormous capital. Now people believe that new opportunities will exist in the Metaverse, a new continent with endless potential. Many companies are competing for leadership in vast areas that have not yet been pioneered into a new ecosystem, and new worlds, cities, and spaces are rapidly expanding in the Metaverse.