Fake your own dying, now in 4D

The Samadhi - 4D Experience of Death - which opens in Shanghai next month - uses dramatic special effects to simulate a feeling of dying in an "escape room"-type game.

Players compete in a series of challenges to avoid "dying", with those who are not successful laid down on a fake crematorium conveyor belt, which uses hot air and lights to create an "authentic experience of burning".

The "cremated" players are then taken into a soft, womb-like capsule to simulate "rebirth".

The winners in the game "also have to die, of course" as "everyone will die eventually, no matter what they've survived", says Ding Rui, one of the creators.

He and co-founder Huang Weiping put themselves through a real-life cremating furnace with the flames off during their research for the game.

"Ding went in the crematory first and it was stressful for me to observe from the outside," says Huang.

When it was his turn, he found it "really hot. I couldn't breathe and I thought my life was over."

The creators were motivated to build the game following their own "soul searching".

Huang found himself pondering the meaning of life after a lucrative but unrewarding career. He later studied psychology and worked as a volunteer during the 2008 earthquake.

"China made me rich, but it didn't teach me how to live a rich life. I was lost," he says.

Ding began talking to "life masters" from different religions on the subject of death and the meaning of life.

"I did that for two years before realising that, instead of sitting here and listening passively, I could also do something," he says.

The idea for the Samadhi - 4D Death Experience was first posted on jue.so, the Chinese version of Kickstarter, to raise funds, and received RMB 410000 (about R710000) in three months.

"It turns out many people in China are curious about death," says Huang.

He and Ding hope the death-simulating experience will provide "life education" and help people to confront their mortality.

Earlier this year, another Shanghai-based firm began offering a simulated experience of death by putting participants through their own funeral service.

China isn't the first country where death-simulating experiences have been used to motivate people to re-examine their lives.

For about R265, people attending seminars at South Korea's "Coffin Academy" are placed into a closed wooden casket for 10 minutes.

In there they are "confronted with total claustrophic darkness, left alone to weigh their regrets and ponder eternity", according to Jung Joon, the former insurance company lecturer who runs the seminars.

"It's a way to let go of certain things. Afterwards, you're ready to start your life all over again, this time with a clean slate," says Jung.