Project VELUM — Neuro-integrated entertainment

(This landing page offers a deliberately light overview of Project VELUM. A more complete site is in development—if you’d like to stay close to the work as it evolves, we invite you to reach out)

Immersive entertainment that creates measurable shifts in the human nervous system.

Project VELUM is building the science behind immersive storytelling that delivers both powerful emotional experiences—and measurable nervous system regulation.

The problem

People aren’t just stressed—they’re living in sustained states of “fight or flight.”Across neuroscience, psychology, and physiology, evidence is mounting that chronic nervous system dysregulation is becoming a widespread condition.When this becomes the baseline, it doesn’t just affect how we feel—it limits access to essential human capacities: imagination, creativity, trust, collaboration, and the ability to think clearly and act with purpose.

A shift in the wellness economy is underway.

Within the $6.8T global wellness economy (source: Global Wellness Institute), a clear shift is underway: toward nervous system regulation as the next frontier.The Global Wellness Summit highlights a move toward non-clinical systems that help people feel better, recover more effectively, and function in everyday life—all governed by the human nervous system—driving demand for embodied, “felt-sense” relief. In this emerging landscape, immersive experiences are becoming a powerful new medium.Yet despite its cultural influence, entertainment has rarely been examined through the lens of how it shapes the human nervous system—until now.

Global Wellness Summit — The Future of Wellness 2026 Trends: Trend #3 Rise of Neurowellness

A new paradigm: immersive entertainment as health infrastructure.

For large-scale immersive entertainment—from flying theaters to dome experiences to next-generation venues like Sphere—VELUM’s scientific models enable creative teams to design spectacle-driven experiences that are not only emotionally powerful, but scientifically validated to be biologically restorative—supporting nervous system balance and building emotional resilience.This creates a direct path for entertainment companies to extend into the wellness economy—efficiently and directly through their core offerings.At the same time, these same evidence-based design methodologies extend beyond entertainment into the built world—applied to programmable, narrative-driven environments across hospitals, workplaces, and residential spaces.Unlike traditional environments, these spaces are digitally programmable—continuously evolving and updatable without the cost and constraints of physical redesign.They also create shared experiences—moments where people can regulate together, reset together, and arrive differently to whatever comes next.Together, these two applications point to a new model: immersive experiences as a layer of health infrastructure—delivered through culture, grounded in science, and designed to scale across the spaces where life actually happens.

Interested in contributing?

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The founders

Deron Triff

Co-Founder & Executive Director

Deron Triff is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Project VELUM, where he conceived the initiative and leads its vision, strategy, partnerships, and execution. Based in Los Angeles, he is responsible for shaping VELUM's vision and roadmap to establish a new category of immersive, neuro-integrated experiences that bridge storytelling, the science of well-being, and the built environment.

Deron spent many years on TED's executive team, co-leading its global media platform and helping scale its reach to over a billion people through 100+ partnerships that generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. During that time, he founded and helped launch initiatives including TED Radio Hour (NPR), Sincerely, X, and TED English Learning.

Shani Tal

Co-Founder & Head of Research

Shani Tal is Co-Founder and Head of Research at Project VELUM, where she leads the scientific design and measurement strategy for studying how immersive environments shape the human nervous system in real-world settings. Based in Tel Aviv, her work sits at the intersection of neuroscience, physiology, and experience design, translating biosignals into insights that inform how environments are created.

She holds a Master of Science (M.S.) in Neuroscience from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Faculty of Health Sciences, Inter-Faculty Brain Sciences School), where she conducted research and taught electrophysiology, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and brain sciences. Her expertise spans EEG, HRV, EDA, and PPG, combined with machine learning to understand how the nervous system responds to stimuli and environments.