A Virtual World That Can Get You Pregnant: OUR STORY

Hi Friends,

I've been working in Computer Based Instructional Design and Certification since 1991, and like most of you SL drew me in so deeply I became an addict with my first AV (the now retired Whistle Pinion). I spent literally 10 - 12 hours a day on, mostly in Korea, a very popular infohub.

I had just returned to my hometown in Pennsylvania (USA) for family issues after a year long stint on the Hopi and Navajo Reservations doing, among other things, renewable energy development work, and was thrilled (wait, let me restate that) THRILLED to find something as engaging to take my mind off of *sighhhh* being back home again.

Last June, when I started, I met a man who became part of my friends list, then two months later my "SL boyfriend", then five months later the reason I had sold my stuff to finance a shot at RL love on the other side of the planet, literally, Down Under. I had already reversed my sleeping to accommodate the 12-14 hour time difference, and we spent about ten hours a day/night on Skype video calls around his work schedule.

Within three or four days of what can only be called a "successful" first RL meeting near Sydney, I became RL PREGNANT, and while we both have much less time for SL than we did when we sailed ships together, set up house, or worked on our builds together, I do miss it.

A lot of people hear the horror stories about online meetings, and of course, I myself know many that have failed. But because he was a part of a much larger circle of SL friends, and I felt a certain pull to his AV from the moment I saw "him", I believe that this initial epistolary/text-based relationship grew like so many others during historic distances of wartime, or far away work and family commitments. By the time I got here "we" had enough value through the kajillion hours we were glued to the computer in fascination with what is really an unusual paring, but one that even his conservative and kind mother quickly came to terms with when we had a chance to talk. YES of course it's not exactly what I thought it would be. Even when it's tough, it's STILL better to be RL!

At a quantum level, it's energy, and I believe strongly at this point that the "short connection" I felt to the man I am now going to marry was there to get me here. I believe from this and other experiences that the manifested reality so much easier demonstrated here will be the greatest learning tool for "movements" created by the likes of the movie What the Bleep Do We Know and authors such as Eckhart Tolle. Even if people don't agree with the neuroscience or somewhat Buddhist views of the "you create your own reality" philosophies, there's no way to argue that that's exactly what Linden Labs says you're doing.

If anyone else has stories similar I would love to hear them, particularly when the two people hadn't had a trial meeting in RL before one decided to give it all up and go to the other. I have heard from several other people "trying" to move to their SL/RL love, and a few who have but ended up splitting. I think perhaps some younger people looking for travel (OK, yeah, I'm almost 39) will use their SL friends and lovers to more conveniently tour the globe. That wasn't my point, of course, but there is a familiarity phenomenon specific to SL romance I have never found on ANY dating site, chat room, or other online game.

Best, Randoym Randt