Take the leap - It's an experience of a lifetime

ReadWrite is looking for rare experiences and companies in the tech world that we can recommend for highly motivating encounters. Our team was invited to "take the leap" to Limitless Flight in SLC, Utah. Jump is a highly technical VR experience, and we decided that due to the technological world we work in, for a team-building and mind-expanding event, we would travel to Utah and try The Jump.

My experience at JUMP has been the most emotionally freeing and uplifting experience I have had in my life.

I have participated in many experiments in my life that some would call "bold", but I cannot adequately express what my feelings were directed towards Jump. I read and watched a few YouTubes on wingsuit jumping as well as skydiving and anticipated that it might give my heart a little jump or (or a thump).

A few of my buddies had been skydiving (as beginners) in the weeks leading up to the Jump; so I asked one of them to come along and give an unbiased account of their experience with Jumping and how it related to skydiving - and how close the two experiences and feelings were.

> I was blown away by the complexity of the whole operation

When you enter the lobby, there is a huge window in front of you (I called it "the window of the soul"). The soul window is about 12-15 feet of glass and looks like a movie is unfolding. But you see the person in front of you “in flight”. You see what they see as they fly.

The whole interior is like a movie set that prepares you to step into the experience.

You go up a ramp to the right, where there are all sorts of basic jump wing suits and other thought-provoking objects and planes. Then you receive instructions on what you are going to do, how to dress, and how to put on the wingsuit and helmet.

We brought about ten people with us - (I wasn't going to go it alone on something this big). Several of my mates lined up - and that was fine with me. After the brief instructional video, we entered a space where many wingsuits were hanging from sliding racks. Someone came out to help me get dressed.

I was fitted into a real world wingsuit and a real world parachute harness. Somehow I thought the VR experience was going to be VR all the way - but no - the real-world setup and gear started to put me in the zone immediately. At this point, the reality of the experience began to set in.

I really do this - where am I? - how did it happen?

I was in a room where a unique VR headset was placed on my head — yes, in red, my favorite color. When I went to put the helmet on, my first thought was that I had the biggest, fattest head in all of the United States of America, and it wouldn't fit - but I put it on, and it was going very well.

Then I was guided inside the belly of a cargo plane. I looked up and down the side walls - I was really inside the plane. I shivered a little for some reason. Was I brave or not? What if I couldn't jump?

I was hearing instructions through the headset. At that moment, the door of the cargo plane opened and it became clear that I was now going to jump out of the plane and fly with my wingsuit. What my team... what? - And I was off - completely wrapped up in the experience. I overcame my fear and jumped out of that plane; my mind could not distinguish reality from virtual reality. I was completely immersed in an exhilarating, but completely scary event at the same time.

Flight experience is something I can't explain. I don't have a frame of reference. The words to express the experience are exhilarating, exciting, beautiful and inspiring.

From that moment, until my experience was over, I completely lost my sense of time and reality.

Why am I leaning? Was it the right arm higher to move right? Why am I going around in circles here? Oh yeah, I made that circle, lifted my other arm and walked out of the circle, Brad - now head for the flag. Man, I'm too close to that cliff!

The cliffs – so real. I can feel the air, I'm weightless. Am I asleep? Did I fly over this mountain range somewhere? What do I recognize? I think I've been here before.

Landing safely on the platform, I took the second leg of the jump.

There was no sense of time and space while I was in Jump. Once I was done with the Jump and got out of the wingsuit, I had to check with my mind to make sure what was happening was real again. The experience itself was mind-blowing, but I won more than expected.

I had to deal with a real fear of heights that bothered me for years - like a tightness where you don't mention it - and now it's gone. Accepting the invitation and going to bring my team was like applying for a new job on another...