Want To ‘Experience Death’ In Virtual Reality?

A new exhibit lets people experience ‘death’ in virtual reality.

Artist Shaun Gladwell has created an interactive art installation at the National Gallery of Victoria in Australia called “Passing Electrical Storms,” which “guides participants through a simulated de-escalation of life, from cardiac arrest to brain death,” the Daily Star reports.

Despite all the things science tells us about life, nobody really knows what it’s like to experience death.

However, people who have undergone near-death experiences often come back with tales of what happened after their hearts stopped—from leaving their bodies and seeing themselves from above to waking up in a meadow.

Upon entering the exhibit, you’re asked to lie down on a replica hospital bed, where you’re hooked up to a heart rate monitor. Staff are on hand to ‘pull you out’ if things get too intense. 

@croom12

Its Actually pretty hectic. Doctors trying to revive you, vibrating bed and floating into space.

♬ original sound – Marcus

“I can see how people would say it causes anxiety and panic. It definitely borderlines that—they do put your finger on a heart rate monitor and then tell you to raise your hand if you’ve had enough and want to quit,” said Marcus Crook, a Melbourne resident. “What happens is you’re laying down, the bed vibrates, you flatline. The doctors come over the top of you. You can see yourself in the goggles and they try to revive you—it doesn’t work. Then you float up out past them into space and it keeps going.“

The exhibit will be available to check out during the Melbourne Now festival which runs until August.