This article from the BBC has left me feeling pretty queasy. Apparently some researchers at the University of Washington have designed a virtual reality simulation in order to plunge arachnophobes into a world filled with spiders.
While flooding techniques have been shown to be effective, if someone made me reach out to touch a virtual tarantula and then touched my hand with a fake one I know it would take years before I’d leave whatever mental institution I’d have been sectioned to. I’ll stay afraid, thank you very much.