Death Simulator In China Is Not What You Might Think

A death simulator has been invented in China, and no, it’s not the latest video game to spark a gun control debate. It puts you on the other end of the scenario, showing you what it’s like to actually die, without killing you.

Actually, you might not experience “death”… if you’re good enough.

The interactive attraction in Shanghai opening in September this year is called Samadhi — The 4D Experience of Death. What happens is that you enter a room which uses extensive special effects to make you do whatever you can to avoid dying, and the program challenges you to “escape death.”

Would you try a “death simulator”? Here’s how you can experience death without dying: http://t.co/wmac8AqFdy pic.twitter.com/kvA71xkeGa

— CNN (@CNN) August 11, 2014

The losers are sent through a virtual crematorium, which uses hot air, bright lights, and a conveyor belt.

Creators Ding Rui and Huang Wei-ping went as far as they humanly could in order to create the death simulator. To research the virtual crematorium, they both went through the terrifying process of being sent through a real one with the fire turned off.

Huang described the experience of the research:

“Ding went in the crematory first and it was stressful for me to observe from the outside. The controller of the crematory was also very nervous; he usually just focuses on sending bodies in, but not on bringing them back out. … It was getting really hot. I couldn’t breathe and I thought my life was over.”

Their goal is to create a scenario where participants think about life and death, but some might speculate that such an experience may backfire: someone might actually die.

Ding revealed that his ultimate goal with the death simulator was to help others after a period in his own career where he felt he wasn’t going anywhere:

“China made me rich, but it didn’t teach me how to live a rich life. I was lost. … I invited ‘life masters’ from different religions and other fields to come and talk about what life is. I did that for two years before realizing that, instead of sitting here and listening passively, I could also do something.”

Ding continued to reveal that he noticed while helping with volunteer work following the 2008 earthquake, people went out of their way to avoid dealing with death. They saw their loved ones lost in the tragedy, but they allegedly refused to deal with the reality of it.

The two Chinese entrepreneurs are betting that their upcoming attraction will bring participants close enough to death to fill a need that Ding and Huang saw in the lives of their fellow man.

Would you want to try the death simulator attraction when it opens in China?

[image via mysendoff]