Co-creator for the Meditation on Wheels initiative. Developed a seamless Meditative Experience using the Meta Quest Headsets. Internship at Brahma Kumari’s Centerville, VA.
vr immersive meditation
BrahmaKumaris Internship
The vision
Meditation is losing ground to noise. Screens, notifications, and constant stimulation have pulled people further from stillness, even as the need for it has never been greater. The Brahma Kumaris have spent decades trying to close that gap, offering meditation to as many people as they can reach. My role was to build a bridge for the generation that responds to technology first and tradition second. VR gave us a way in: a headset on, and suddenly someone who would never sit for a guided meditation is floating above islands of light, choosing their own atmosphere, and staying far longer than they meant to. The goal wasn't to replace traditional practice. It was to make the first step feel irresistible enough that people come back for the rest.
The process
Each environment started in Unity, blocking out low-poly terrain and floating islands, then layering in custom skyboxes, baked lighting, and particle effects until the space felt alive. Every asset had to stay light enough for Meta Quest's standalone hardware, so a lot of it was trial and error: adding detail, then pulling it back until frame rate and visuals both held up.
The bigger challenge was getting multiple headsets to run a guided meditation together, in sync, without anyone drifting ahead or behind. Aligning playback across devices took a lot of testing, especially live, with kids and adults putting headsets on and off mid-session.
For a simpler option, we also built 360 degree guided meditation videos. No menus, no choices. Put the headset on and drop straight into a guided session. We made these by taking 360 degree nature footage from YouTube as a base and running it through AI to match the tone and visual identity of the rest of the experience.
INside the headset
Each of the four meditation environments was built in Unity using low-poly terrain sculpting, custom skyboxes, and baked lighting to give each scene a distinct mood — warm amber for Sunrise Glow, deep purples for Mystic Twilight, soft whites for Zen Garden, and a crystal-lit sky for Celestial Night. Particle systems added subtle environmental life through drifting light orbs and glowing foliage, while the ambience selection UI was kept minimal to avoid breaking immersion. Every scene was optimized for Meta Quest's standalone hardware, balancing visual richness with the smooth frame rates essential for a comfortable VR experience.
