The secret's out: You're doing to die. We know, it's tough to hear on any day, and even worse on a Monday. But, if you're curious about the process of dying, you can now try out a death simulator, reports Vice's Motherboard.
Funded through the Chinese equivalent of Kickstarter, the death-simulator project comes from Hand in Hand, an oncology-focused hospice-care organization. The simulation, which opened last fall in an amusement park in Shenzhen, China, starts with a game in which the penalty for losing is dying. And, yes, everyone eventually dies in the game.
From there, players are put in a coffin and experience a "cremation" in which they're heated up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, complete with fiery lights and sounds. Then, players are "reborn," Motherboard explains:
After the cremation, the players see a womb projected on the ceiling and hear a heartbeat. Soon, they see a bright light which they must crawl toward so that they might emerge in a white, padded area, which is supposed to represent their rebirth.
Sure, it might be the most morbid thing we can think of right now. But, it's also an opportunity to confront death, potentially making it easier to tackle those big, end-of-life decisions that we tend to put off way longer than we should. And, the creators of a similar South Korean service say the experience may help curb some terrifying suicide rates — although others disagree. Even though we've got a large selection of things to do with our bodies after we die, what it's like to actually die is still a mystery for the living. What we know from near-death experiences is that people commonly experience time speeding up or slowing down, followed by a sense of peacefulness. We're not sure whether this death simulator produces a similar effect, but come on — how accurate do you really want it to be?
After the cremation, the players see a womb projected on the ceiling and hear a heartbeat. Soon, they see a bright light which they must crawl toward so that they might emerge in a white, padded area, which is supposed to represent their rebirth.
Sure, it might be the most morbid thing we can think of right now. But, it's also an opportunity to confront death, potentially making it easier to tackle those big, end-of-life decisions that we tend to put off way longer than we should. And, the creators of a similar South Korean service say the experience may help curb some terrifying suicide rates — although others disagree. Even though we've got a large selection of things to do with our bodies after we die, what it's like to actually die is still a mystery for the living. What we know from near-death experiences is that people commonly experience time speeding up or slowing down, followed by a sense of peacefulness. We're not sure whether this death simulator produces a similar effect, but come on — how accurate do you really want it to be?