Echoes of Me is an expe­ri­ence that invites par­tic­i­pants into an inti­mate dia­logue with them­selves through an immer­sive XR jour­ney inspired by research on self-compassion and perspective-taking in VR. The expe­ri­ence is designed to evoke con­cep­tual change and feel­ings of self-compassion through vir­tual embod­i­ment and embod­ied inter­ac­tion. Echoes of Me is a guided encounter, not about becom­ing some­one else, but about seeing your­self with new eyes. It offers a moment of pause, reflec­tion, and recon­nec­tion, using the unique capa­bil­i­ties of XR to move beyond the head­set and reshape how we per­ceive our­selves in every­day life.

Echoes of Me is pre­mier­ing at Signals 2025 Oct 3–12. For details and tick­ets see https://signals.digibc.org/digibc_projects/echoes-of-me/

Upon enter­ing a softly lit booth, par­tic­i­pants encounter their own reflec­tion in a real mirror before being guided into a dream­like land­scape. Through breath, body-swapping, and inter­ac­tive orbs of light, they hold a con­ver­sa­tion between dif­fer­ent aspects of the self—the crit­i­cal voice and the com­pas­sion­ate one. The expe­ri­ence cul­mi­nates in a trans­for­ma­tion sequence, where echoes of past selves emerge, offer­ing a pow­er­ful reminder of con­ti­nu­ity, growth, and self-acceptance.

The expe­ri­ence is not about becom­ing some­one else but seeing your­self with new eyes. Echoes of Me aims for par­tic­i­pants to leave not just having had a VR expe­ri­ence, but car­ry­ing a gen­tler, more com­pas­sion­ate rela­tion­ship with them­selves into every­day life.

The project was co-developed with emerg­ing adults who have lived expe­ri­ence of chronic ill­ness, ensur­ing its acces­si­bil­ity and rel­e­vance to those who often face bar­ri­ers to mental health sup­port. The pro­duc­tion team includes Pouya Salehi (Visual Art & Development), Jacob Sauer (Development, Sound, Narration),  and Bernhard Riecke (Executive Producer), with research con­tri­bu­tions from Denise Quesnel, Alex Kitson, Caila Tymchuk, Jasmine Rakhra, Katelyn Watson, Peyton Crawford, and Tatiana Losev.

Echoes of Me was accepted into the Signals XR Lab 2025, involv­ing guid­ance and cura­tion from Debi Wong, Neelish Nair, and Loc Dao. 

Echoes of Me is part of Pathways to Flourishing, a larger inter­dis­ci­pli­nary ini­tia­tive explor­ing how immer­sive tech­nolo­gies can sup­port well-being. By merg­ing cre­ative design with con­tem­pla­tive prac­tices, it posi­tions XR not as an escape from real­ity but as a medium for return­ing to it with a fresh perspective.

Credits:

Director: Noah Miller
Executive Producer: Bernhard Riecke
VR Development: Noah Miller, Pouya Salehi, Jacob Sauer
Visual Art: Pouya Salehi, Noah Miller
Narrative Design: Noah Miller, Jacob Sauer
Environment Design: Pouya Salehi
Interaction Design: Noah Miller, Pouya Salehi, Alex Kitson
Sound Design: Jacob Sauer, Pouya Salehi, Noah Miller
Narration: Jacob Sauer

With research con­tri­bu­tions by:
Denise Quesnel, Alex Kitson, Bernhard Riecke, Caila Tymchuk, Jasmine Rakhra, Katelyn Watson, Peyton Crawford, Tatiana Losev.

Publications

Thanks

This work is funded in part by the New Frontiers in Research fund of the Government of Canada / Du projet est financé en partie par le fonds Nouvelles fron­tières en recherche du gou­verne­ment du Canada and is sit­u­ated within the project ‘Pathways to flour­ish­ing’ devel­oped by iSpace­Lab at Simon Fraser University, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness. Scholarly and applied con­tri­bu­tions are pro­vided through Noah Miller’s doc­toral research, Denise Quesnel’s doc­toral research and imple­men­ta­tion sci­ence activ­i­ties, and Alex Kitson’s post-doctoral method­ol­ogy; the project’s rela­tion­ship devel­op­ment and out­reach are fur­ther sup­ported by Quesnel’s PhD Vanier funded research #148297 and Mind & Life award.