When people enter a virtual environment with virtual people, they will react to the human form and attribute meaning to it even though they know before hand that it is computer generated. This project confirms that VR can induce persecutory ideas in people that have persecutory ideas in real life. The "realnessÓ of the environment has made it possible to trigger the same set of thoughts as a real experience triggers in the individuals.

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The virtual environment triggered persecutory thoughts in some of the participants that had a relatively high level of paranoid thoughts while it triggered more neutral or positive thought in other participants that had relatively low paranoid thoughts. This indicates that the virtual environment was not entirely hostile or friendly and it indicates that the virtual environment does induce paranoia in individuals with paranoid tendencies and that the paranoid thought that individuals distort the experience in the virtual environment by misconstruing the neutral or friendly actions of the avatars as hostile or contemptuous. The fact that one of the subjects thought one of the avatars was working on a laptop indicates that the mind can put in things that are not there objectively.

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"The Internet gives you the opportunity to meet other people who are interested in the same things you are, no matter how specialized, no matter how weird, no matter how big or small," David Bohnett, founder of geocities.com

The server lag from so many people throwing up so much gunfire slows the battle to a slow motion firefight, but I manage to wade up to TonTonCarton Yue, who is strafing the FN building with a chaingun usually associated with an AC-130 gunship, than a political protest.

"Can I ask," I begin, "why are you shooting?"

"Because I hate Front National," Yue tells me simply.

"If you use violence, doesn't that reduce you to their level?"

"I don't know," Yue answers, after awhile. "I don't care. FN equals violence."