Since its invention, virtual reality has promised strictly localized and simultaneously boundless mobility: It gives the user the impression of being in a whole new world while remaining in the same place and time. This paradox strips distant and simulated locations of their sense of danger and their exclusiveness, while eliminating the user's need to actually travel to reach them. You can practice flying a fighter jet or driving a tank without putting passengers and equipment at risk; you can engage in combat without actually risking your life; You can relax in a tropical paradise without having to fly to get there; You can fly through buildings without running the risk of falling-and all this while staying put. The cybernauts chase their phantasms from within a cube with an edge length of one meter, as if they were figures in a painting by Francis Bacon. Vir-tual reality is the only technologically possible method of immersing into com-puter worlds that remains thoroughly paradoxical. How this is possible and where this leads are the focus of this essay.