## 4 Discussion  
According to the research data, the user experience regarding this method is generally positive and the application studied caused positive mental health effects to the study population, which consisted of a diverse but relatively balanced participant group that did not have much prior experience with virtual reality applications. The immersiveness and sensory conformity of the experience was higher than the participants expected, which implies a technically solid design where visual and audio elements are well balanced. However, this can be considered a somewhat excepted result from a participant group that is inexperienced with the technology. The use of novel technologies such as virtual reality applications for the first time is likely to be a positive experience on its own, and that causes limitations to the interpretations of these research results. Furthermore, according to the PSS-10 results and supported by CSOM results, it can be stated that the stress levels of the participants were lower than in the general population, which is especially noteworthy as this research was conducted during stressful times of the Covid-19 pandemic. In other words, these results apply only to this study population, which was inexperienced in VR and had relatively good mental health, and the results could be somewhat different with other study populations. Both objective and subjective measurements used in this study point towards positive mental health effects. According to CSOM results, the subjective feelings of anxiety and tension decreased and feelings of relaxation and resources increased among the research participants after using Binaural Odyssey. Likewise, HRV results state increases in SDNN and RMSSD levels and a decrease in Stress Index, implying a more relaxed state of mind after exposure to the method studied. This all indicates potential for therapeutic use. It seems like the methods the application uses have potential to produce similar relaxing effects as virtual natural environments [9, 10, 21]. However, several research participants stated that they would have preferred either only relaxing content, or only activating content, and felt that the current mixture of the two lessens the therapeutic qualities of the application studied. The study results indeed point to the direction that the user experience of Binaural Odyssey is both an art experience and a therapeutic experience--but leaning towards art due to unstructured presentation and mixture of both relaxing and activating content. In order to harvest the full potential of this method for therapeutic use, more thoughtful use of colors and shapes, a more structured approach to the design of the experience, and development done in collaboration with mental health professionals would be recommended. In addition, elements that can disturb the experience, such as the fast white line in Binaural Odyssey, should be avoided. When considering which factors made the fast white line disturbing, it can be noted that it moved much faster than any of the other elements in the application, and it also seemed to come closer to the user in the 3D space than the other elements. In addition, it did not work well together with the auditive experience, as the soundtrack did not include similarly fast-paced elements and sound design did not seem to be directly in synchrony with the animations, being rather a smooth spatial ambient background with only thematic connections to the visual presentation. Hence, the fast white line could have been disturbing to the experience due to being thematically misplaced. However, for activating content such a solution could be justifiable, but as the application had mostly relaxing content and the participants were told to try to relax with the application, this element seemed to only disturb the process. For artistic experience, the mixture of soothing and surprising elements is a valid choice. However, when art is used in a therapeutic way, it usually involves the process of creating the art as a key element of the session.