Virtual reality (VR) is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. Furthermore, virtual reality covers remote communication environments which provide virtual presence of users with the concepts of telepresence and telexistence or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus, and omnidirectional treadmills. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world in order to create a lifelike experience—for example, in simulations for pilot or combat training—or it can differ significantly from reality, such as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult to create a high-fidelity virtual reality experience, due largely to technical limitations on processing power, image resolution, and communication bandwidth; however, the technology's proponents hope that such limitations will be overcome as processor, imaging, and data communication technologies become more powerful and cost-effective over time.

Virtual reality is often used to describe a wide variety of applications commonly associated with immersive, highly visual, 3D environments. The development of CAD software, graphics hardware acceleration, head mounted displays, database gloves, and miniaturization have helped popularize the notion. In the book ''The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality'' by Michael R. Heim, seven different concepts of virtual reality are identified: simulation, interaction, artificiality, immersion, telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication. People often identify VR with head mounted displays and data suits.

Background

Terminology and concepts

The term "artificial reality", coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since the 1970s; however, the origin of the term "virtual reality" can be traced back to the French playwright, poet, actor, and director Antonin Artaud. In his seminal book ''The Theatre and Its Double'' (1938), Artaud described theatre as "''la réalite virtuelle''", a virtual reality in which, in Erik Davis's words, "characters, objects, and images take on the phantasmagoric force of alchemy's visionary internal dramas". Artaud claimed that the "perpetual allusion to the materials and the principle of the theater found in almost all alchemical books should be understood as the expression of an identity [...] existing between the world in which the characters, images, and in a general way all that constitutes the virtual reality of the theater develops, and the purely fictitious and illusory world in which the symbols of alchemy are evolved". The term has also been used in ''The Judas Mandala'', a 1982 science-fiction novel by Damien Broderick, where the context of use is somewhat different from that defined above. The earliest use cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is in a 1987 article titled "Virtual reality", but the article is not about VR technology. The concept of virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies such as ''Brainstorm'' and ''The Lawnmower Man''. The VR research boom of the 1990s was accompanied by the non-fiction book ''Virtual Reality'' (1991) by Howard Rheingold. The book served to demystify the subject, making it more accessible to less technical researchers and enthusiasts, with an impact similar to that which his book ''The Virtual Community'' had on virtual community research lines closely related to VR. ''Multimedia: from Wagner to Virtual Reality'', edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan and first published in 2001, explores the term and its history from an avant-garde perspective. Philosophical implications of the concept of VR are systematically discussed in the book ''Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality'' (1998) by Philip Zhai, wherein the idea of VR is pushed to its logical extreme and ultimate possibility. According to Zhai, virtual reality could be made to have an ontological status equal to that of actual reality. ''Digital Sensations: Space, Identity and Embodiment in Virtual Reality'' (1999), written by Ken Hillis, offers a more critical and theoretical academic assessment of the complex set of cultural and political desires and practices culminating in the development of the technology.

Timeline

Virtual reality can trace its roots to the 1860s, when 360-degree art through panoramic murals began to appear. An example of this would be Baldassare Peruzzi's piece titled, ''Sala delle Prospettive''. In the 1920s, vehicle simulators were introduced. Morton Heilig wrote in the 1950s of an "Experience Theatre" that could encompass all the senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. He built a prototype of his vision dubbed the Sensorama in 1962, along with five short films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple senses (sight, sound, smell, and touch). Predating digital computing, the Sensorama was a mechanical device, which reportedly still functions today. Around this time, Douglas Englebart uses computer screens as both input and output devices. In 1966, Thomas A. Furness III introduces a visual flight stimulator for the Air Force. In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, with the help of his student Bob Sproull, created what is widely considered to be the first virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) head mounted display (HMD) system. It was primitive both in terms of user interface and realism, and the HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling. The graphics comprising the virtual environment were simple wireframe model rooms. The formidable appearance of the device inspired its name, The Sword of Damocles. Also notable among the earlier hypermedia and virtual reality systems was the Aspen Movie Map, which was created at MIT in 1977. The program was a crude virtual simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which users could wander the streets in one of three modes: summer, winter, and polygons. The first two were based on photographs—the researchers actually photographed every possible movement through the city's street grid in both seasons—and the third was a basic 3-D model of the city. In the late 1980s, the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier, one of the modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research in 1985, which developed and built some of the seminal "goggles and gloves" systems of that decade. In 1991, Antonio Medina, a MIT graduate and NASA scientist, designed a virtual reality system to "drive" Mars rovers from Earth in apparent real time despite the substantial delay of Mars-Earth-Mars signals. The system, termed "Computer-Simulated Teleoperation" as published by Rand, is an extension of virtual reality.

Impact

There has been an increase in interest in the potential social impact of new technologies, such as virtual reality. In the new book (2011) Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution, Blascovich and Bailenson review the literature on the psychology and sociology behind life in virtual reality.

In addition, Mychilo S. Cline, in his book ''Power, Madness, and Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality'', argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life and activity. He argues that:

Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity, and will be used in various human ways.

Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal communication, and cognition. As we spend more and more time in virtual space, there will be a gradual "migration to virtual space", resulting in important changes in economics, worldview, and culture. The design of virtual environments may be used to extend basic human rights into virtual space, to promote human freedom and well-being, and to promote social stability as we move from one stage in socio-political development to the next. Virtual reality can also be used to induce body transfer illusions.

Heritage and archaeology

The use of VR in heritage and archaeology has potential in museum and visitor centre applications, but its use has been tempered by the difficulty in presenting a "quick to learn" real time experience to numerous people at any given time. Many historic reconstructions tend to be in a pre-rendered format to a shared video display, thus allowing more than one person to view a computer generated world, but limiting the interaction that full-scale VR can provide. The first use of a VR presentation in a heritage application was in 1994, when a museum visitor interpretation provided an interactive "walk-through" of a 3D reconstruction of Dudley Castle in England as it was in 1550. This consisted of a computer controlled laserdisc-based system designed by British based engineer Colin Johnson. One of the first users of virtual reality was Queen Elizabeth II, when she officially opened this visitor centre in June 1994. The system was featured in a conference held by the British Museum in November 1994, and in the subsequent technical paper, ''Imaging the Past - Electronic Imaging and Computer Graphics in Museums and Archaeology''.

VR reconstruction

Virtual reality enables heritage sites to be recreated extremely accurately, so that the recreations can be published in various media. The original sites are often inaccessible to the public, or may even no longer exist. This technology can be used to develop virtual replicas of caves, natural environment, old towns, monuments, sculptures and archaeological elements.

Fiction

Many science fiction books and movies have imagined characters being "trapped in virtual reality".

A comprehensive and specific fictional model for virtual reality was published in 1935 in the short story Pygmalion's Spectacles by Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the story, the main character, Dan Burke, meets an elfin professor, Albert Ludwig, who has invented a pair of goggles which enable "a movie that gives one sight and sound [...] taste, smell, and touch. [...] You are in the story, you speak to the shadows (characters) and they reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it." A more modern work to use this idea was Daniel F. Galouye's novel Simulacron-3, which was made into a German teleplay titled ''Welt am Draht'' ("World on a Wire") in 1973. Other science fiction books have promoted the idea of virtual reality as a partial, but not total, substitution for the misery of reality, or have touted it as a method for creating breathtaking virtual worlds in which one may escape from Earth.

Stanisław Lem wrote a short story in early 1960 called " IJON TICHY'S MEMORIES", in which he presented a scientist who devised a completely artificial virtual reality. Among the beings trapped inside his created virtual world, there is also a scientist, who also devised such machines creating another level of virtual world. The Piers Anthony novel ''Killobyte'' follows the story of a paralyzed cop trapped in a virtual reality game by a hacker, whom he must stop to save a fellow trapped player slowly succumbing to insulin shock. This novel toys with the idea of both the potential positive therapeutic uses, such as allowing the paralyzed to experience the illusion of movement while stimulating unused muscles, as well as virtual realities' dangers. Vernor Vinge's ''True Names'', published in 1981, imagines a virtual world which is probably the first to represent a metaverse. In the story, characters interact with each other in a complete world, where they own homes and are represented using avatars. This type of virtual world was later to be realized as Second Life, which was launched in 2003.

Other popular fictional works that use the concept of virtual reality include William Gibson's ''Neuromancer'' which defined the concept of cyberspace, Neal Stephenson's ''Snow Crash'', in which he made extensive reference to the term avatar to describe one's representation in a virtual world, and Rudy Rucker's ''The Hacker and the Ants'', in which programmer Jerzy Rugby uses VR for robot design and testing.

The ''Doctor Who'' serial "The Deadly Assassin", first broadcast in 1976, introduced a dream-like computer-generated reality, known as the Matrix.

The first major American television series to showcase virtual reality regularly was ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Several episodes featured a holodeck, a virtual reality facility that enabled its users to recreate and experience anything they wanted. One difference from current virtual reality technology, however, was that replicators, force fields, holograms, and transporters were used to actually recreate and place objects in the holodeck, rather than illusions.

The New Zealand post-apocalyptic soap opera The Tribe (TV Series) shows Virtual Reality being used by an advanced enemy tribe named the Technos.

Cult British BBC2 sci-fi series Red Dwarf featured a virtual reality game titled "Better Than Life", in which the main characters had spent many years connected. Virtual reality has also been featured in other Red Dwarf episodes, including "Back to Reality", where venom from the despair squid caused the characters to believe that all of their experiences on Red Dwarf had been part of a VR simulation. Other episodes that feature virtual reality include "Gunmen of the Apocalypse", "Stoke Me a Clipper", "Blue", "Beyond a Joke", and "Back in the Red".

The popular .hack multimedia franchise is based on a virtual reality MMORPG dubbed "The World" The French animated series ''Code Lyoko'' is based on the virtual world of ''Lyoko'' and the Internet. The virtual world is accessed by large scanners which use an atomic process, and breaks down the atoms of the person inside, digitizes them, and recreates an incarnation on ''Lyoko''. The Saban show VR Troopers also made use of the concept.

Motion pictures

Steven Lisberger's 1982 movie ''TRON'' was the first mainstream Hollywood picture to explore the idea of virtual reality; transporting real-life characters into an alternate, computer-generated world.

One year later in 1983, the Natalie Wood / Christopher Walken film ''Brainstorm'' revolved around the production, use, and misuse of a VR device. The device could record a person's feelings and experiences, and share these with anyone else.

A VR-like system, used to record and play back dreams, figures centrally in Wim Wenders' 1991 film ''Until the End of the World''.

The 1992 film ''The Lawnmower Man'' (which bore little resemblance to the Stephen King story on which it was ostensibly based) tells the tale of a research scientist who uses a VR system to jumpstart the mental and physical development of his mentally handicapped gardener.

Outside the genre of science fiction, 1994's ''Disclosure'', starring Michael Douglas (based on the Michael Crichton's ''novel'') depicts a VR headset being used as a navigation device for a prototype computer file system.

In 1999, ''The Matrix'' and later sequels explored the possibility that our world is actually a vast Virtual Reality (or more precisely, Simulated Reality) created by artificially intelligent machines.

Ryan Chester's ''Virtually Reality (2011)'' depicts a future world in which most natural wonders have been destroyed and developed upon, and virtual reality systems provide the only way for humans to experience the nature they never knew for real.

Radio

In 2009, British digital radio station BBC Radio 7 broadcasted ''Planet B'', a science-fiction drama set in a virtual world. ''Planet B'' is the largest ever commission for an original drama programme.

Fine art

David Em was the first fine artist to create navigable virtual worlds in the 1970s. His early work was done on mainframes at III, JPL, and Caltech. Jeffrey Shaw explored the potential of VR in fine arts with early works like ''Legible City'' (1989), ''Virtual Museum'' (1991), and ''Golden Calf'' (1994). Canadian artist Char Davies created immersive VR art pieces ''Osmose'' (1995) and ''Ephémère'' (1998). Maurice Benayoun's work introduced metaphorical, philosophical or political content, combining VR, network, generation and intelligent agents, in works like ''Is God Flat'' (1994), ''The Tunnel under the Atlantic'' (1995), and ''World Skin'' (1997). Other pioneering artists working in VR have include Luc Courchesne, Rita Addison, Knowbotic Research, Rebecca Allen, Perry Hoberman, Jacki Morie, and Brenda Laurel. All mentioned artists are documented in the Database of Virtual Art.

Music

Immersive virtual musical instruments build on the trend in electronic musical instruments to develop new ways to control sound and perform music such as evidenced by conferences like NIME and aim to represent musical events and sound parameters in a virtual reality in such a way that they can be perceived not only through auditory feedback, but also visually in 3D and possibly through tactile as well as haptic feedback, allowing the development of novel interaction metaphors beyond manipulation such as prehension.

Therapeutic uses

The primary use of VR in a therapeutic role is its application to various forms of exposure therapy, ranging from phobia treatments to newer approaches to treating PTSD. A very basic VR simulation with simple sight and sound models has been shown to be invaluable in phobia treatment, like zoophobia, and acrophobia, as a step between basic exposure therapy such as the use of simulacra and true exposure. A much more recent application is being piloted by the U.S. Navy to use a much more complex simulation to immerse veterans suffering from PTSD in simulations of urban combat settings. Much as in phobia treatment, exposure to the subject of the trauma or fear leads to desensitization, and a significant reduction in symptoms.

Other research fields in which the use of virtual reality is being explored are physical medicine, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. In adult rehabilitation, a variety of virtual reality applications are currently being evaluated within upper and lower limb motor rehabilitation for individuals recovering from stroke or spinal cord injury. In pediatrics, the use of virtual reality is being evaluated to promote movement abilities, navigational abilities, or social skills in children with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, or other disabilities. Research evidence is emerging rapidly in the field of virtual reality for therapeutic uses. A number of recent reviews published in peer-reviewed journals have summarized the current evidence for the use of Virtual Reality within pediatric and adult rehabilitation. One such review concluded that the field is potentially promising.

Implementation

To develop a real time virtual environment, a computer graphics library can be used as embedded resource coupled with a common programming language, such as C++, Perl, Java, or Python. Some of the most popular computer graphic libraries are OpenGL, Direct3D, Java3D, and VRML, and their use are directly influenced by the system demands in terms of performance, program purpose, and hardware platform. The use of multithreading can also accelerate 3D performance and enable cluster computing with multi-user interactivity.

Manufacturing

Virtual reality can serve to new product design, helping as an ancillary tool for engineering in manufacturing processes, new product prototypes, and simulation. Among other examples, Electronic Design Automation, CAD, Finite Element Analysis, and Computer Aided Manufacturing are widely utilized programs. The use of Stereolithography and 3D printing shows how computer graphic modeling can be applied to create physical parts of real objects used in naval, aerospace, and automotive industries, which can be seen, for example, in the VR laboratory of VW in Mladá Boleslav. Beyond modeling assembly parts, 3D computer graphics techniques are currently used in the research and development of medical devices for therapies, treatments, patient monitoring, and early diagnoses of complex diseases.

Urban design

3D virtual reality is becoming widely used for urban regeneration and planning and transport projects.

Pioneers and notables

Maurice Benayoun

Mark Bolas

Fred Brooks

Edmond Couchot

James H. Clark

Doug Church

Char Davies

Tom DeFanti

David Em

Thomas A. Furness III

Scott Fisher

William Gibson

Morton Heilig

Myron Krueger

Knowbotic Research

Jaron Lanier

Brenda Laurel

Michael Naimark

Randy Pausch

Mark Pesce

Warren Robinett

Dan Sandin

Susumu Tachi

Ivan Sutherland

Artists using Virtual Reality Technology

Rebecca Allen

Maurice Benayoun

Sheldon Brown

Char Davies

David Em

Myron Krueger

Jaron Lanier

Brenda Laurel

Michael Naimark

Jeffrey Shaw

Nicole Stenger

See also

AlloSphere

Cyberneum

Augmented reality

Mediated reality

Augmented virtuality

CAVE - Cave Automatic Virtual Environment

Flight simulation

Head-mounted display

Lifelike experience

Methods of virtual reality

Omnidirectional treadmill

Simulated reality

Wired glove

Virtual Reality Modelling Language

Virtual worlds

Virtuality Continuum

Technology and mental health issues

Notes

References

Blascovich, J Bailenson, J. Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution, Harper Collins, 2011.

TechCast Article Series, Mateo Fernandez, Metaverse

TechCast Article Series, Aaron Druck, When will Virtual Reality become reality?

Brooks Jr., F. P. (1999). "What's Real About Virtual Reality?", ''IEEE Computer Graphics And Applications'', 19(6), 16

Burdea, G. and P. Coffet (2003). ''Virtual Reality Technology, Second Edition''. Wiley-IEEE Press.

Goslin, M, and Morie, J. F., (1996). "Virtopia" Emotional experiences in Virtual Environments", ''Leonardo'', vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 95–100.

Oliver Grau, (2003) ''Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion'' (Leonardo Book Series). Cambridge/Massachusetts: MIT-Press.

Hayward V, Astley OR, Cruz-Hernandez M, Grant D, Robles-De-La-Torre G. Haptic interfaces and devices. Sensor Review 24(1), pp. 16–29 (2004).

Hillis, Ken (1999). ''Digital Sensations: Space, Identity and Embodiment in Virtual Reality''. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Kalawsky, R. S. (1993). ''The Science of Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments: A Technical, Scientific and Engineering Reference on Virtual Environments'', Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, England ; Reading, Massachusetts

Kelly, K., A. Heilbrun and B. Stacks (1989). "Virtual Reality; an Interview with Jaron Lanier", ''Whole Earth Review'', Fall 1989, no. 64, pp. 108(12)

Klein. D, D. Rensink, H. Freimuth, G.J. Monkman, S. Egersdörfer, H. Böse, & M. Baumann — Modelling the Response of a Tactile Array using an Electrorheological Fluids - ''Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics'', vol 37, no. 5, pp794–803, 2004

Klein. D, H. Freimuth, G.J. Monkman, S. Egersdörfer, A. Meier, H. Böse M. Baumann, H. Ermert & O.T. Bruhns — Electrorheological Tactile Elements. ''Mechatronics'' - Vol 15, No 7, pp883–897 - Pergamon, September 2005.

Krueger, M. W. (1991). ''Artificial Reality II'', Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts

Lanier, J., and F. Biocca (1992). "An Insider's View of the Future of Virtual Reality." ''Journal of Communication'', 42(4), 150

Monkman. G.J. ‑ An Electrorheological Tactile Display ‑ ''Presence'' (''Journal of Teleoperators and Virtual Environments'') ‑ Vol. 1, issue 2, pp. 219–228, MIT Press, July 1992.

Monkman. G.J. - 3D Tactile Image Display - ''Sensor Review'' - Vol 13, issue 2, pp. 27–31, MCB University Press, April 1993.

Joseph Nechvatal, ''Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances''. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. 2009

Rheingold, H. (1992). ''Virtual Reality'', Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y.

Robinett, W. (1994). "Interactivity and Individual Viewpoint in Shared Virtual Worlds: The Big Screen vs. Networked Personal Displays." ''Computer Graphics'', 28(2), 127

Robles-De-La-Torre G. The Importance of the Sense of Touch in Virtual and Real Environments. IEEE Multimedia 13(3), Special issue on Haptic User * Interfaces for Multimedia Systems, pp. 24–30 (2006).

Roudavski, S. (2010). Virtual Environments as Techno-Social Performances: Virtual West Cambridge Case-Study, in CAADRIA2010: New Frontiers, the 15th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, ed. by Bharat Dave, Andrew I-kang Li, Ning Gu and Hyoung-June Park, pp. 477–486

Slater, M., Usoh, M.(1993). "The Influence of a Virtual Body on Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments" ''Virtual Reality International 93'', Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Virtual Reality, London, April 1993, pages 34–42. Meckler, 1993

Stanney, K. M. ed. (2002). ''Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications''. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, New Jersey

Sutherland, I. E. (1965). "The Ultimate Display". ''Proceedings of IFIP 65'', vol 2, pp. 506–508

Warwick, K., Gray, J. and Roberts, D. eds. (1993). ''Virtual Reality in Engineering'', Peter Peregrinus.

Zhai, Philip. (1998). ''Get Real: A Philosophical adventure in Virtual Reality'', Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York and Oxford.

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:Reality Category:Science fiction themes Category:User interface techniques

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Name	Esther Hicks
Birth date	March 5th 1948
Residence	San Antonio, Texas
Other names	Abraham
Known for	Author and public speaker for Abraham-Hicks teaching
Occupation	Author
Home town	Coalville, Utah
Spouse	Jerry Hicks
Children	Tracy Geer Ayers
Website	www.abraham-hicks.com
Footnotes	}}

Esther Hicks (born Esther Weaver) is an American inspirational speaker and best-selling author. She has co-authored nine books with her husband Jerry Hicks, presented workshops on the Law of Attraction and appeared in the first release of the film ''The Secret''. The Hicks' books, including the best-selling series ''The Law of Attraction'', are — according to Esther Hicks — "translated from a group of non-physical entities called Abraham." (Hicks describes what she is doing as tapping into "infinite intelligence").

Biography

Esther Hicks was born 1948 in Coalville, Utah. In 1980, she married her current husband, then a successful Amway distributor and former acrobat at a circus in Cuba, musician, MC and comedian, Jerry Hicks. She has one daughter, Tracy, by her former marriage.

Outline of Abraham–Hicks' teachings

Abraham-Hicks is a group of entities being channeled through Esther Hicks. Abraham has described themselves as “a group consciousness from the non-physical dimension.” They have also said, “We are that which you are. You are the leading edge of that which we are. We are that which is at the heart of all religions.” Abraham has told us through Esther that whenever we feel moments of great love, exhilaration, pure joy, stoned-out bliss, even the energy of sexual orgasm when we feel that Energy Flow rushing through our bodies, that is the energy of Source, and that is who Abraham “is”.

"Jerry and Esther never used the word channeling," Abraham reflects. "It is used when applied to them, but they have never used it, because it means many things of which they are not, you see."

"You could leave the channeling out of it. Call it inspiration; that's all it is. You don't call the basketball player a channeler, but he is; he's an extension of Source Energy. You don't call the surgeon a channeler, but he is. You don't call the musician, the magnificent master musician, you don't call him a channeler, but he is. He's channeling the broader essence of who he is into the specifics of what he is about."

Esther herself calls Abraham "infinite intelligence," and to Jerry they are "the purest form of love I've ever experienced." (from their website). Her teachings (referred to as Abraham–Hicks teachings) are based on this experience. The basic tenets of the teachings include that people create their own reality through their thoughts, that emotions are constantly guiding people toward where they want to go, and that life is supposed to be fun. The essence of Abraham–Hicks' teachings since 1986 has been presented as follows: Offical Website

Individuals are physical extensions of the non-physical.

People are in their bodies because they chose to be.

The basis of life is freedom; the purpose of life is joy.

People are creators; they create with their thoughts.

Whatever people can imagine is theirs to be, or do, or have.

Individuals choose their creations as they choose their thoughts.

Emotions indicate what people are creating.

The Universe adores people; it knows their broadest intentions.

Individuals should relax into their natural well-being, and know that all is well.

Life is not meant to be a struggle, but a process of allowing.

People are creators of "thoughtways" on their unique "paths of joy".

Actions and money are by-products of focusing on joy.

Individuals may depart their body without illness or pain.

People cannot die; their lives are everlasting.

A large part of Hicks' work centers around the Law of Attraction, a concept written about in the early 1900s by William Walker Atkinson (1862–1932), in his book Thought Vibration or the Law of Attraction in the Thought World (1906).

Film

Esther Hicks was a narrator and star of the original version of the film ''The Secret'', as well as a central source of the film's inspiration. The footage featuring Hicks was removed from the later "Extended Edition" after the film's creator Rhonda Byrne, who has been involved in contractual disputes and litigation regarding the film, rescinded the original contract covering Hicks' participation, and asked that Hicks relinquish her "intellectual property rights in these areas forever". In an open letter posted on the internet, Hicks stated that she had been "uncomfortable with what felt to us like a rather aggressive marketing campaign," and that ultimately Abraham gave her the following advice: "Whenever you are given an ultimatum that says, 'if you don't do this, then we will have to do such and such,' it is best that you just let it go and move on. Otherwise there is always another, and this, and this, and this?" The letter doesn't condemn Byrne, but clarifies why Hicks no longer appears in ''The Secret''.

Hicks has since posted a video on YouTube further explaining her discomfort with ''The Secret'' and finally, her decision to discontinue involvement with the film.

Books

Hay House, Inc. published the Hicks' best-selling book, ''Ask and It is Given'', in September, 2004. Since that book they have also published five more New York Times Best-Sellers: ''The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent'' (January, 2006), ''The Law of Attraction'' (October, 2006), ''The Astonishing Power of Emotions'' (September, 2008), ''Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth & Happiness'' which ranked #1 two weeks after its release in August 2008 and ''The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships''. A series of fictional children's books, ''Sara I'', ''II'', and ''III'', is also available. Several of their books were translated into Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Czech, Slovenian, Slovak, Serbian and Russian.

''A New Beginning I: Handbook for Joyous Survival'', by Jerry and Esther Hicks. Published by Abraham–Hicks Publications, 5th edition, 1988. ISBN 0962121932.

''A New Beginning II: A Personal Handbook to Enhance Your Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness'', by Jerry and Esther Hicks. Published by Abraham–Hicks Publications, 1991. ISBN 0962121916.

''Sara and the Foreverness of Friends of a Feather'', by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Published by Abraham–Hicks Publications, 1995. ISBN 0962121940.

''Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires'' by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Published by Hay House, 2005. ISBN 1401907997.

''The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent: Living the Art of Allowing'', by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Contributor Louise L. Hay. Published by Hay House, 2005.ISBN 1401906958.

''The Law of Attraction: The Basics of the Teachings of Abraham'' Esther and Jerry Hicks. Published by Hay House, 2006. ISBN 1401912273.

''Sara, Book 1: Sara Learns the Secret about the Law of Attraction'', by Esther and Jerry Hicks, Illustr. by Caroline S. Garrett. Published by Hay House, 2007. ISBN 1401911587.

''Sara, Book 2: Solomon's Fine Featherless Friends'', by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Illustr. by Caroline S. Garrett. Published by Hay House Inc, 2007. ISBN 1401911595.

''Sara, Book 3: A Talking Owl Is Worth a Thousand Words!'', by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Illustr. by Caroline S. Garrett. Published by Hay House Inc, 2008. ISBN 1401911609.

''Money and the Law of Attraction: Learning to Attract Health, Wealth & Happiness'' by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Published by Hay House, 2008. ISBN 1401918816.

''The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships'' by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Published by Hay House, 2009. ISBN 1401918751.

''Getting Into The Vortex: Guided Meditations CD and User Guide [Hardcover]'' by Esther and Jerry Hicks. Release date November 15, 2010. Published by Hay House, 2009. ISBN 9781401931698.

See also

Channelling (mediumistic)

Jane Roberts

References

External links

Abraham–Hicks Official Website

Abraham–Hicks officially released videos on YouTube

''Introductory Tape'' as an MP3 download on the official Abraham–Hicks site — A 75 minute introductory audio released under the Creative Commons license. It summarizes how the Hicks' were introduced to Abraham.

Category:Living people Category:American children's writers Category:American metaphysics writers Category:American spiritual teachers Category:American spiritual writers Category:Channellers Category:New Thought writers Category:New Age writers Category:American spiritual mediums Category:People from San Antonio, Texas Category:1948 births

it:Esther Hicks no:Esther Hicks