‘Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter’. In 1980, during the premiere of the second instalment of the ‘Star Wars’ saga (‘Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back’), Master Yoda invited Luke Skywalker to ‘feel the Force’ in the energy around him. Just a few years later (1986), quantum physicist David Bohm wrote towards the end of his life that ‘mass is a phenomenon of connection of light rays that come and go, as if freezing them into a pattern. Thus, matter, so to speak, is condensed or frozen light’. An idea scientifically studied, in turn, sixty years earlier (1926) by physicist and philosopher Erwin Schrödinger in his famous wave equation, which described the evolution of matter waves over time to understand the wave behaviour of subatomic particles.

Four decades after the reflections of David Bohm and Master Yoda, and almost a century after Schrödinger's equation, a new research project at CiTIUS (Singular Research Centre in Intelligent Technologies at the University of Santiago de Compostela) will delve into the study of the same idea -matter as ‘energetic essence’- to help people with terminal illnesses and their loved ones face the final stage of life, with the aim of alleviating the pain and anxiety caused by the proximity of death.

It will do so through Virtual Reality (VR); a transversal research field and extremely familiar territory for David Glowacki, PhD in Quantum Mechanics, who explores the different possibilities of this technology from Santiago de Compostela (Spain) with his research group at the Intangible Realities Laboratory (IRL). Glowacki, who joined the USC research centre in 2022 through the Oportunius Talent Programme of the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN - Xunta de Galicia), also leads the project ‘NanoVR’, currently under development and funded with approximately €2 million by the European Research Council (ERC) through one of its prestigious Consolidator Grants.

The scientist, originally from Milwaukee (Wisconsin, USA), celebrated the achievement of the new project, describing it as “cutting-edge research.” “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead a project with the potential for global impact originating right here in Santiago de Compostela, a city renowned as a place of spiritual contemplation,” he said. “It is very poetic,” he continued, “that this new project, which aims to use technology to help us contemplate our own mortality in a constructive way, has its roots here. I look forward to seeing what emerges from this work,” stated David Glowacki.

The new scientific challenge is named NUMADELIC ("Experiences to Improve Mental Health Outcomes in Patients Facing Life-Threatening Illnesses") and is supported by the U.S.-based Tiny Blue Dot Foundation, which has allocated a budget of more than $900,000 over the next three years. This ambitious initiative will employ virtual reality technologies to recreate near-death experiences (NDEs), aiming to reduce anxiety and foster emotional well-being in terminally ill patients and their loved ones. This type of experience is something Glowacki has personally lived through, as he recounted in an interview ahead of his incorporation into CiTIUS.

Researcher David Glowacki narrates his near-death experience in an interview prior to his incorporation into USC in 2022. / CiTIUS

An Immersive Experience Against Anxiety

Perhaps more than any other experience, death holds a fundamental significance due to its inevitability. However, near-death experiences (NDEs) seem to rapidly and dramatically reduce the anxiety associated with this final process. Many people who have lived through these experiences have claimed that consciousness persists beyond physical existence.

The name of the new project (‘NUMADELIC’) derives from the idea of the ‘numadelic approach’: a term coined by the Intangible Realities Laboratory, which combines the Greek words pneuma (meaning "breath," "spirit," or "soul") and delein (meaning "to reveal" or "to manifest"). Thus, the numadelic flow can be considered a flow that "manifests the spirit," and in this project, it symbolises the use of virtual reality to design experiences inspired by the accounts of those who have lived near-death experiences.

This approach, which evokes a Tibetan Buddhist concept known as Clear Light (CL), allows individuals with terminal illnesses to experience fundamental aspects of NDEs, such as the perception of consciousness beyond the physical body. The goal is to alleviate the fear, anxiety, depression, and social isolation often faced by these patients and their families. Clear Light not only offers a transformative perspective on life and death but also has the potential to spark a new cultural debate on these topics. Through laboratory studies, interviews, and physiological measurements, the project seeks to optimise this programme to maximise its healing benefits. Additionally, NUMADELIC includes a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in collaboration with palliative care doctors and doulas (individuals who provide emotional, practical, and spiritual support to those in the dying process and their families) to assess its impact on patients' mental health, both in the short and long term.

Expanding the Limits of Human Perception

NUMADELIC is one of 12 major projects funded worldwide by the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation in 2024, following a rigorous review of nearly 200 proposals submitted globally. These were evaluated through a stringent double-blind review process (a system where both the evaluator and the candidate institution remain anonymous to avoid bias or prejudice). In the second edition of this global initiative, known as ‘The Science of Perception Box’ (‘The Science of the Perception Box’), the foundation is supporting 11 additional research projects led by institutions from three countries (the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia), in addition to the CiTIUS project, the only one in Spain.

As a non-profit organisation, the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation aims to help people understand and expand the boundaries of their perception. Its primary goal is to develop safe, effective, accessible, and scientifically grounded tools and techniques that reduce suffering, increase personal and collective acceptance, and transform emotional crossroads (such as trauma or anxiety) into opportunities for growth and well-being. Through its prestigious annual call, the foundation supports international projects exploring how modifying human perception can yield tangible benefits for quality of life.

NUMADELIC fully aligns with these objectives, as it offers a transformative tool to explore the connection between life and death, marking a significant advance in how humanity understands and faces these universal challenges. The project will be developed in Galicia (Spain) and the United States (through the tech startup Anuma), in close collaboration with the Oncology Directorate of the University Hospital Complex of Santiago de Compostela (CHUS), where the first controlled trials will begin in March 2025. Although the group of patients for this initial phase has already been defined (a total of 40 people, plus a small group of patients without a medical diagnosis), "in the future, we hope to expand the control groups and, if possible, explore new possibilities for scientific and technological collaboration," say representatives from the IRL.

Living Technology (and for Life)

NUMADELIC highlights the ability of technology to transcend disciplines and improve people's lives. "Demonstrating that multi-user virtual reality environments can help alleviate the anxiety and depression faced by individuals with terminal diagnoses, such as certain types of cancer, represents a significant challenge in our research."

"It is essential to develop new ways to support the mental health of those facing illness, as well as their family members and loved ones." The IRL team explains that while modern medicine has developed a wide range of approaches to treat patients' physical bodies until the moment of death, significantly fewer resources are available to help patients manage the fear, uncertainty, and loneliness that often accompany a terminal diagnosis. NUMADELIC was born with the purpose of contributing to the development of new technologies to address this gap.

"This project has the potential to transform our attitudes towards death and the process of dying, something our culture desperately needs," says David Glowacki. "Broadly speaking, our society tends to ignore the reality of death, instead emphasising survival above all else." "This is not sustainable in the long term," he continues. "Eventually, we will need to develop tools to talk about, reflect on, and deal with death that match the level of sophistication we have achieved in other areas," explains the researcher.

Video: ‘Numadelic Flow’: the human body dissolved into energetic luminosity experiences a 'coalescence' with other bodies, as described in the prior work published by Glowacki et alia in Nature Scientific Reports / David Glowacki / Intangible Realities Laboratory (IRL).

NUMADELIC draws on previous research by the IRL, whose expertise in virtual reality has demonstrated how this technology can induce states of personal transcendence and yield health benefits comparable to those achieved with psychedelic drugs, but in a controlled and safe manner. These studies, published in high-impact scientific journals like Nature Scientific Reports, laid the groundwork for adapting these tools to medical contexts.

The new project also strengthens CiTIUS's position as a benchmark for scientific and technological innovation in intelligent technologies. David Glowacki, one of the world's leading experts in virtual reality, states: "This new grant at the centre is an important recognition of the excellent research being carried out at CiTIUS and, more broadly, within the Galician ecosystem of research and innovation. Finally, it is an excellent indicator of the success of the Oportunius Programme, promoted by GAIN to attract international research talent to the region," concludes the principal investigator of NUMADELIC, for whom this project has profound personal implications.

"Personally, this new challenge means a lot to me," confesses the American scientist. "In 2006, I had a near-death experience that transformed my attitude toward it. I did not feel fear but rather a sense of peace, curiosity, and wonder, as if I were moving toward a resting state in another dimension. The multi-user virtual reality experiences we are developing with funding from Tiny Blue Dot are based on the phenomenology of my own experience, and I hope they can help convey to those facing death the same transcendent sense of peace I experienced when I faced it." "Ultimately," concludes Glowacki, "this is what we aim for: to serve people through science and technology."