- The fear of death is an existential phenomenon
that we all go through, it's an equalizer.
- [Chase] Death exists in a weird space.
It's a universal experience,
yet no one really wants to talk about it.
- We don't like talking about things that are uncomfortable
so we gloss over them.
But more and more now,
there is a need to talk about things that are uncomfortable.
- We went to London to experience the Death Incubator,
a workshop that mixes community therapy
and a VR experience
that simulates what death may actually be like,
and ultimately, overcome our fear of death.
- We don't really choose when we die, it comes.
(ominous music)
- Are you ready?
(ominous music)
- We all handle the idea of our mortality differently.
Some people are motivated by it, some people avoid it,
and some people have an acute fear of it.
And increasing secularization
makes it even more confounding.
Throughout history, religion has offered a clear
and mostly comforting way to process death.
It's the next step in a journey.
You're moving on to a better place.
But as fewer and fewer people
identify with an organized religion,
we have fewer and fewer traditions to process death.
It's Tamara's and Jose's mission to address that.
They can't tell you what comes next,
but they've created a space
where people can come and think about death
and process it in a productive way.
- Death is a topic which is not dealt with very well
in our modern society.
And yet, there's multiple benefits,
psychological and societal,
if we can change our relationship to death.
- The two leading ways to quell the anxiety
around really anything,
are psychotherapy and exposure therapy.
The Death Incubator combines these two treatments
into one workshop.
(soft music)
To be honest, I don't think about my death too much.
But I am like most people,
I'm definitely uncomfortable talking about it.
So, I decided to give the Death Incubator a try.
While it's generally done in a larger group,
I was joined by one other participant, named Rosanna.
Tamara, a clinical psychologist,
handles the first part of the workshop
with mindfulness training and creative exercises.
- We use a variety of means including analog,
paper, pencils, Play-Doh (laughs)
to allow people to dive into this topic.
- Next is the exposure therapy part,
and this is a little less straightforward.
Exposure therapy is a proven anxiety-reducing technique
where someone is exposed to the thing they fear
in a safe environment,
then given practical techniques to manage that anxiety.
The problem is exposing people to the experience of death
is difficult to say the least.
In this case Jose, the VR artist,
has created an experience that is his interpretation
of what death may be like.
Art always conveys a deeper meaning
than what words could do.
And by conceptualizing this journey,
researching people's experience of death and dying,
allowed me to kind of gather information and data
that could kind of conceptualize
kind of like a one fit for all VR experience.
How you navigate through this experience
is by using your gaze.
You can just move around as free as you can.
- [Chase] In Jose's interpretation,
the experience tracks with most conventional religious
and spiritual conceptualizations of death.
First, the grave.
- [Tamara] Time to release from the body.
- So by dropping you down into the earth,
and dissolving you down and deeper down,
visualizing your death bed and who's there.
- [Chase] Then, into the sky.
- Taking you then out of the body.
This change of perspective allows them
to see the oneness of the planet.
- [Chase] Then, higher and higher into another realm
with other worldly beings,
- Then, follow through a transition of being pulled
into the speed of light into a black hole (laughs).
And all of a sudden, opening a portal
into a kind of transpersonal layer of the experience,
something that is a bit more psychedelic.
- [Chase] Of course, everyone has their own idea
of what death is like.
This one is colorful and immersive.
Other people envision the opposite: complete nothingness.
But having the most correct visualization of death
is not only impossible, it's also kind of beside the point.
It's more about getting people to buy into the experience,
and think about what death could be like
as a way to create space for people to talk about it.
- Welcome back.
Initial impressions? - Yeah.
- [Tamara] Speak from the soul.
- It was maybe uncomfortable,
but just overall just beautiful, I think.
Experiencing and understanding life through death,
it feel transforming for me.
I feel like there a lot I need to process.
The Death Incubator is designed
to be done with a community of people.
It's about being comfortable
and opening up about your experiences with death,
and how you view it,
despite your religion, worldview, upbringing or culture.
- Being born and raised in Mexico,
the folklore of the celebration of death and dying,
but also the cruelty around death and dying as well.
So there was a lot of that kind of confrontation
in my upbringing which made me realize that the,
the way that I change and modify my perception
and my relationship with death from that young age
helped me, actually, to appreciate life on a deeper level,
and I wanted to share that.
- [Chase] The application of the Death Incubator
goes beyond the workshop setting.
Tamara and Jose have set their sights on palliative care
or appending the hospice industry,
people who are close to death
or medical students who are preparing to see death
on a regular basis,
even taking this to some of the world's
most powerful decision-makers.
- I'm also interested in using the Death Incubator
to help people explore the concept of legacy.
So this is work with senior leadership,
people making the decisions
that affect worldwide populations.
If we can really help them to understand the footprint
that they're leaving on this planet
by inviting them to think about their death
and what stays after they've gone,
I believe this could be very helpful
to accelerate paradigm shift in our society.
- [Chase] Going through the Death Incubator,
and reflecting on the experience
as we've been putting this piece together,
did make me think about things in a different way
than I normally do.
- A big part of our intention is about helping people
to live more fully after the experience,
but it doesn't need to be something drastic.
Even small changes may have a big impact in somebody's life
and this really is important to us
because we need to make changes in how we're living
and how we relate to each other.
Death comes to us all,
so it really is something that unites us
in our common humanity.
- Those are my (laughs) initial thoughts.
- Just initial, small insights (laughs).
Fantastic, beautiful.
- Thanks for watching our series about the Culture of Change.
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