Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, May 29, 2023

From Mecca to the Vatican, exploring sacred sites with VR

From Mecca to the Vatican, exploring sacred sites with VR

Click and gape at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel ceiling up close. Click again and join thousands of pilgrims praying and circling around the cube-shaped Kaaba at Islam’s most sacred site. Or strap on a headset and enter the holy city of Jerusalem.

There you’ll hear the murmur of Jewish prayers at the Western Wall or thousands of worshippers saying amen in unison at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. You can even light a virtual candle at the site where Christians believe Jesus rose from the grave.

All without ever leaving home.

Worshippers, tourists and visitors from around the world are increasingly joining virtual reality religious activities and pilgrimages to some of Earth’s most sacred sites. Such experiences are among the many evolving spaces in the metaverse, an immersive virtual world where people can connect via avatars, that have grown in popularity during the pandemic.

“We believe that virtual reality is, if you like, the new internet, the new way for people not to watch things passively on the screen and just to click on photos and videos, but to actually teleport themselves,” said Nimrod Shanit, CEO of HCXR and Blimey, the producers of The Holy City, an immersive VR experience that allows people to visit Jerusalem’s holiest sites.

Participants “get a sense of the different rituals, culture, architecture, get a sense of the world without the need to actually spend tons of money on travel and contribute to global carbon emissions,” Shanit said.

Using a 360-degree camera, a lidar scanner and his training as a photojournalist, Shanit in 2015 began to capture videos and photos of Christian, Islamic and Jewish religious festivals and holy sites in his native Jerusalem. He then stitched the footage and images together digitally to create a visually immersive experience.

Virtual pilgrims can follow Orthodox clerics as they emerge from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Holy Fire ceremony, with candles lit by a fire that the faithful view as a divine message. They will also hear bells tolling and chants of “The Lord has risen!” in multiple languages. They can tuck a prayer note into a crack of the Western Wall, or follow the steps of thousands of worshippers during Ramadan at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.




To accurately render details of Jerusalem in the virtual space, developers scanned the holy sites and a large physical model made in the 19th century that is on loan at the city’s Tower of David Museum. Users can hover over this digital model leading to full-scale scans of the city entering through different gates that lead to the Cathedral of Saint James and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Shanit, who is Jewish, and his two partners — one Muslim, one Christian — hope The Holy City can foster dialogue and understanding between faiths.

Many Americans — some traditionally religious, some religiously unaffiliated — are increasingly communing spiritually through virtual reality. Around the world, people are also able to experience sites sacred to Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths through 360-degree videos, virtual maps and 3D temples.

Experience Makkah uses 3D modeling to let users circle around the Kaaba building, meet praying pilgrims dressed in white terrycloth garments, learn about rituals and explore other significant landmarks. They include Mount Arafat, the nearby desert hill where the Prophet Muhammad delivered his final sermon nearly 1,400 years ago.

This immersive VR experience was launched in 2015 but became most popular when it was updated in 2020, said Ehab Fares, chief executive of the digital agency BSocial, which created Experience Makkah.

During that first pandemic year, the hajj pilgrimage — which drew about 2.5 million people a year earlier — was limited to as few as 1,000 already residing in Saudi Arabia because of restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“In less than a month, we had more than 20,000 users from the Middle East and the rest of the world,” said Fares, whose company is based in Cairo.

Fares calls Experience Makkah a “digital good deed” with a particular focus on young people. The latest version can be explored through Google Cardboard, a low-cost cardboard attachment that turns smartphones into virtual reality viewers. “There’s a young generation which is glued to the mobiles, and I wanted to reach that generation and introduce Islam using technology.”

Fares said he has been pleasantly surprised by the positive response from people across the world. But he cautioned that he’s not trying to substitute the hajj, which is one of the pillars of Islam.

“The intention was to give you a feel of what you will experience on the ground,” he said, “but it’s definitely not a replacement to the actual experience.”

The Sistine Chapel reopened to the public in early 2021 after closing the previous November due to the pandemic. But even while in-person access was shut off, Michelangelo’s breathtaking frescoes could be experienced through a virtual tour on the Vatican’s website.

The 360-degree panoramic projections of the basilicas and papal chapels are part of a collaboration between the Vatican and computer science students at Villanova University who travel to Rome as interns.

“It’s a great opportunity for … our students to get involved with the church, with religious experiences, because our computer science majors are working alongside Vatican developers to create these experiences,” said Frank Klassner, a computer science professor at Villanova who runs the project with the Holy See.

“And the folks at the Vatican, dare I say, are also getting to know the next generation of churchgoers and pilgrims,” he said.

Faith-based VR projects are also making inroads in academia.

This spring at the University of Miami, students strapped on VR headsets to watch 360-degree videos of a Haitian Voodoo ceremony, a Hindu funeral rite and a Christian baptism. They explored Barcelona’s Sagrada Family Basilica, the Parthenon in Athens and Mecca for a course called Religion and Sacred Spaces in the Era of Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence.

Matthew Rossi, a 21-year-old math and computer science major who served as teaching assistant for the course, grew up Catholic and now counts himself among the religiously unaffiliated. But the class, he said, gave him a new appreciation for religious traditions and rituals.

“You feel like you’re moving with the crowd,” Rossi said about experiencing a 360-degree video of pilgrims circling the Kaaba at Mecca, “and I was like, ‘this is unbelievable.’”

Students also created their own virtual sacred spaces. One team fashioned an island refuge where students, via their avatars, could silently contemplate a smiling, rotating Buddha statue. Another built a stone-like labyrinth leading to a place where sky and heaven seemed to merge.

William Green, professor of Religious Studies and Fain Family Endowed Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Miami, said faith needs to involve concrete actions, from praying or singing to meditating or fasting.

“Religion engages your mind, and it also engages your body,” Green continued. “And you can’t do that in two dimensions — but you can do it in the metaverse.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
Close
0:00
0:00
If you donated to BLM, you got played
I have a dream, MLK inspiring speech
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
Aretha Franklin, Marvis Staples - Oh Happy Day
Actor Tom Hanks told Harvard University graduates to be superheroes in their defense of truth and American ideals, and to resist those who twist the truth for their own gain
BVI Freedom Song
The Sussexes' Royal Rebound: Could Harry and Meghan Markle Return to the UK?
Billy Preston - You Can't Beat God Giving (Live)
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
VIRGIN ISLANDS REGGAE CARIBBEAN RIDDIMZ
France Arrests 10 on Suspicion of Failing to Respond in Time to Migrant Drowning
Oh Happy Day Edwin Hawkins - Anthony Brown w FBCG Combined Choir
Neuralink Receives FDA Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Study
'Stand by Me' performed by Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir
Is Saudi Arabia the holiest place in the world? Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions from "The Mount Sinai Stand" Discovered in Saudi Arabia
National Anthem of the British Virgin Islands - Oh, Beautiful Virgin
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Hello Dolly
WATCH THIS: democracy in Russia is so bad!
for KING & COUNTRY - Amen (Reborn) [feat. Lecrae & The WRLDFMS Tony Wi
Ed Davey: It is possible for a woman to have a penis
Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Yes He Can
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
What A Friend We Have In Jesus
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Unforgettable
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Touch The Hem Of His Garment
Steve Jobs introducing Apple's iPhone, exactly 16 years ago.
The Lord's Prayer
Banking Behemoth vs Ex-Boss: The PMorgan-Epstein Entanglement
THE GOD MOVEMENT...BEAUTIFUL BVI
China overtakes Japan as world's top car exporter
Siyahamba
Last Walmart in North Portland Closing Down
Ray Charles And The Voices Of Jubilaton, Oh, Happy Day
Banking Behemoth vs Ex-Boss: The PMorgan-Epstein Entanglement
Ramblin' Rose
Florida's DeSantis seeks to disqualify judge in Disney case
Protoje - Who Knows ft. Chronixx
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Pressure - Virgin Islands Nice
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
Phil Wickham - House Of The Lord
New evidence in special counsel probe may undercut Trump’s claim documents he took were automatically declassified
My God Is Real (Yes, God Is Real)
A French court of appeals confirmed former President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year jail term for corruption and influence peddling
The Lion King Circle of Life by LEBO M. — LIVE at the HAVASI Symphonic
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Louis Armstrong - When The Saints Go Marching In
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Kanye West Sunday Service - hallelujah, salvation, and glory
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Jonathan Nelson - I Believe (Island Medley
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
From The Virgin Islands Sqad Up
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
Common, John Legend - Glory
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
Anthony Evans vs. Jesse Campbell - If I Ain't Got You
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines calls the British monarchy "an absurdity" he wants to remove in his lifetime
I have a dream, MLK inspiring speech
Remarkable video from our Fox drone team
Aretha Franklin, Marvis Staples - Oh Happy Day
The official tapes of Trump's deposition in the E. Jean Carroll battery (rape) and defamation case have been released.
BVI Freedom Song
Here is the full video that the media are purposely not sharing
Billy Preston - You Can't Beat God Giving (Live)
King Charles III being crowned.
VIRGIN ISLANDS REGGAE CARIBBEAN RIDDIMZ
New York procedures cover up cold blooded first degree murder of black man by white man
Oh Happy Day Edwin Hawkins - Anthony Brown w FBCG Combined Choir
Video: Ukraine MP Punches Russian Representative At Global Meet
'Stand by Me' performed by Karen Gibson and The Kingdom Choir
El Paso mayor has declared a state of emergency
National Anthem of the British Virgin Islands - Oh, Beautiful Virgin
Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones in an attempt to kill Putin
Hello Dolly
Ahead of King Charles’ coronation, British guards rehearse in the middle of the night in London
for KING & COUNTRY - Amen (Reborn) [feat. Lecrae & The WRLDFMS Tony Wi
Dutch court orders man who fathered 550 kids to stop donating sperm
Bob Marley - Get Up Stand Up
Kim Kardashian Lookalike Christina Ashten Dies Of Cardiac Arrest, Hours After Plastic Surgery
Yes He Can
Samsung has banned employees from using generative AI services such as ChatGPT
What A Friend We Have In Jesus
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
Unforgettable
A Real woman
Touch The Hem Of His Garment
×