The research supports something Woolsey has observed first-hand in her work with The Hydrous. "When people come out of the VR headset, it reminds me of people taking off a dive mask, when you're floating with your buddy on the surface of the water, and they just want to tell you what they saw," she says. "Sometimes, people have tears in their eyes when they come out of the VR.”

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, hundreds of thousands of residents fled, many never to return. Saket Soni did the opposite: He relocated to the waterlogged city—a seemingly confounding choice to anyone who doesn’t know him.