Are avatars real people?

By: Peter (pcnewtone)

On a Bahá'í forum, one member recently asked, “Are you teaching virtual people a virtual Faith?” I imagine this was prompted by the poster’s knowledge of games such as World of Warcraft, which include a lot of interacting with scripted ‘Non-Player Characters’ (NPCs) who give out tasks or ‘quests’ and provide various inworld services.

However, in "3-D immersive social networking environments" such as Second Life, InWorldz, Avination, Kitely, OpenSim, etc., the situation is quite different. While some regions or ‘sims’ make limited use of ‘bots’ (robots) as greeters, auto-responders and the like, the great majority of avatars have real people behind them who are having real experiences, albeit through the instrumentality of a ‘virtual world’.

But aren’t their avatars just fictions? Interestingly, studies have shown that people tend to design their avatars to express certain facets of their inner selves, and can even come to identify with their virtual ‘bodies’. Some who have ‘alts’ (alternate accounts) have even noted that their personality changes to match the avatar they are using. This is similar to how we come to identify with our physical bodies, how we dress and fix them up to reflect the ways we see ourselves, and how we feel and act differently according to our outer appearance, whether chubby or slim, grubby or clean, formally or informally dressed, etc.

As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “…the face is the mirror of the heart.” In fact, experiencing a virtual world through an avatar can be seen as an fitting analogy of our relationship to the ‘real world’. The Bahá'í Writings make it clear that what we call the ‘real world’ is not all that real after all, but only a fantasy, a representation or semblance of true Reality, much like a ‘virtual world’. For example, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “Whatever objects appear in this world of existence are the outer pictures of the world of heaven.”

“This present life is even as a swelling wave, or a mirage, or drifting shadows. Could ever a distorted image on the desert serve as refreshing waters? No by the Lord of Lords! Never can reality and the mere semblance of reality be one, and wide is the difference between fancy and fact, between truth and the phantom thereof.

“Know thou that the Kingdom is the real world, and this nether place is only its shadow stretching out. A shadow hath no life of its own; its existence is only a fantasy, and nothing more; it is but the images reflected in the water, and seeming as pictures to the eye.”

Bahá’u’lláh confirms this interpretation in similar terms:

“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality… Verily, I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion."

The Sanskrit term “avatara” means an incarnation or appearance of the spirit in a physical form, which the soul takes upon birth onto this mortal earth. In this sense, our physical bodies are not our ‘real selves’ either, but only avatars, mere fictions of who we really are. If this is the case, then to identify with our bodies of flesh and blood, our “temples of the spirit,” is no more an illusion than to identify with an avatar of pixels and code.

It is not surprising that many residents in virtual worlds have intuitively understood this and conveyed it in various ways: "[My avatar] is what I would be without the… constraints of the real world. It is the 'real me'. It is my soul." "The avatars are the 'real' people, we're just the meat and bones that allow them to exist." "The body is different but the mind is the same." And my personal favorite: "In SL I both lose and find myself."

So in sum, to the forum question I answered simply, “The people behind the avatars that attend are real people, the prayers they say are real, and the Faith they learn about is also real.” For those interested in exploring this interesting issue, there are many posts on the Web, but here are some good starting places:

“Second Life vs Real Life (Just a Game?)” by Alexxis Zabelin

"How Second Life Affects Real Life" by Cristina Dell


Note: The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of VirtualBahai or any institution of the Baha’i Faith.