System and method for temporal manipulation in virtual environments

A system includes a first and a second hand tracking device, the first and second hand tracking devices being configured to provide position information associated with hands of a user; hardware processors; a memory; and a temporal manipulation module. The temporal manipulation module is configured to perform operations including recording changes made in a virtual reality (VR) environment involving the user, thereby creating a recorded content, detecting a first revolution gesture performed by the user with the first and second hand tracking devices, the first revolution gesture including the first and second hand tracking devices revolving in a circular motion about a common axis, stopping the recording based on detecting the first revolution gesture, rewinding through the recorded content based on the first revolution gesture and, during the rewinding, displaying the recorded content in the VR environment, the displaying including altering the VR environment based on the recorded content.