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Tribune News Service

When the University of Minnesota offered to let me experience what it’s like to die, naturally I said yes.
Aren’t we all morbidly curious about the undiscovered country, as Hamlet put it, from which no traveller returns?
Except this time, happily, I would get to return because it would be a virtual death, an experience in a VR studio that’s part of the American university’s Health Sciences Library system.
The dying experience is part of a series of VR simulations developed by a nine-year-old California-based company called Embodied Labs.

It has created immersive, first-person experiences of what it’s like to have dementia, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease; to have lost vision or hearing; to be socially isolated; and to experience ageing as an LGBTQ person.
And what it’s like to die.
Admittedly, these experiences don’t sound as fun as using VR to play a video game or pilot a jet plane. Instead, the simulations are designed as training tools to foster empathy and understanding for carers of older adults.
At the University of Minnesota, medical school students have been using an Embodied Labs experience to understand the perspective of a woman named Beatriz, who is dealing with frustrations, confusion and family dynamics as she experiences advancing stages of Alzheimer’s.
Students at the university’s Mortuary Science programme have experienced an Embodied Labs simulation where they take on the role of a 74-year-old man named Alfred who has age-related macular degeneration and high-frequency hearing loss. He struggles to hear and understand what relatives and carers are saying to him.
The students who experience the Alfred Lab “feel frustrated and annoyed that they’re treated like a child”, said Janet McGee, an instructor at the Mortuary Science programme.

McGee said the outcome for students may be better empathetic listening skills, which will be useful when they do funeral arrangements for clients with age-related perception issues.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever be a carer, or if I’ll experience Alzheimer’s or macular degeneration myself.
But I do know that someday I’m going to die. Which is why I wanted to try the end-of-life Embodied Labs experience called the Clay Lab.
You take on the role of a 66-year-old man named Clay Crowder who is coming to terms with a stage-four terminal lung cancer diagnosis.
“Strong emotional reactions are common,” warns an introduction to the VR experience.
“That one is intense,” said Carrie Shaw, Embodied Labs’ CEO and founder. “We wanted to portray what active dying is like.”
The experience includes one scene where your wife and daughter are taking you to a doctor’s appointment.
“I’m afraid it’s not good news,” says an oncologist. “The latest scan that was repeated unfortunately did not look good.”
My daughter is in denial. “You’re going to repeat the treatments, correct?”
But the doctor says continuing treatments is likely to do more harm than good. She gently guides us to accept that palliative care is the best option now.
Next, I’m in my final days, seeing myself lying prone in bed, looking down at my feet and torso.
For a brief period, my skin becomes transparent and I see my struggling organs and my rib cage moving as I’m panting in discomfort. If I hold up my hands, my fingertips look bluish. But I get some pain medication and my breathing and heart rate ease.
I look around the bedroom in my home. My loved ones are gathered around me, watching me intently, but sadly. I hear them talking about diapers, catheters and the rattling secretions from my lungs.

A hospice nurse recommends against giving me a feeding tube, which will get in the way of the “natural process” of my journey.
“At this stage, he’s really not hungry,” she says of me.
I fade in and out of consciousness.
“Your eyes are open. Good morning, Clay. How are you feeling?” says the hospice nurse at one point. Apparently, not so hot, I’m thinking.
My daughters remark about how cold my body feels. Then at one point, the hospice nurse sends for my wife in the room because “it’s time”.
“Have you told him that it’s all right for him to go?” she asks everyone.
One of my daughters is tearfully reading aloud from a poem as my vision fades. Then everything disappears, and all I see is a bird – a blue heron, I think – flying away toward a white light.
I didn’t create these images in my head – they’re all part of the VR program.
“Our intent, from an emotional standpoint, was to give some space,” Shaw said of that scene.
Next, the VR program shifts my perspective. I seem to be floating somewhere near the ceiling of the room. I’m looking down on my own body. My loved ones give me final hugs and kisses. I can hear the carers talking to me.
“We’re going to bathe you and put some lotion on your skin,” they say. I watch my body being wheeled out of my home on a gurney and placed in a vehicle.
McGee said she could see the Clay VR experience being used by mortuary science students because morticians see the need to collaborate with end-of-life carers.
“I don’t think a lot about death,” said Ryn Gagen, a 29-year-old medical school librarian. But trying out the Clay experience made Gagen empathise and wonder about the loved ones and carers who might be by their side at the end of life.
“I think about me in the future in that situation,” Gagen said. “I should think about what I want to happen, what I want around me.”
Seeing my future dead self has also prompted me to take a continuing education class to finally write a will.

Shaw, who studied biomedical visualisation and game development at the University of Illinois Chicago, said Embodied Labs grew out of her background being a carer for her mother, who suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Shaw used tape to obscure part of the lens of a pair of safety goggles and asked other people who were caring for her mother to try them on so they could understand the vision problems her mother was having.
She said the videos with real people have greater impact for the viewers than computer-generated scenes. The goal is to remind carers that they’re dealing with a person, not just a disease.
She said users of the Embodied Labs VR experiences include medical schools, nursing schools and social work programmes at universities.
The VR experiences feature videos showing real people – actors portraying relatives and carers – interacting with users, not computer-generated imagery or animations.
“We’re really trying to capture the narrative of real lived experiences,” Shaw said.
Richard Chin is a feature writer for the Minnesota Star Tribune.
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What’s it like to die? Emotional VR experience depicts terminal cancer patient’s end

The dying experience at the University of Minnesota is part of a series of immersive, first-person VR simulations developed by Embodied Labs that also cover what it’s like to have dementia, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease; to have lost vision or hearing; to be socially isolated; and to experience ageing as an LGBTQ person. Photo: Shutterstock

As part of Embodied Labs' VR experience of dying, the user looks across the bed and sees his loved ones gathered around him, watching him intently but sadly. Photo: embodiedlabs.com

Janet McGee is an instructor at the University of Minnesota’s Mortuary Science programme. Photo: Linkedin/janetmcgeemba

In the dying experience, users take on the role of a 66-year-old man named Clay Crowder who is coming to terms with a stage-four terminal lung cancer diagnosis. Photo: YouTube/VirtualRealityNews-u5v

Another of Embodied Labs’ VR experiences sees users take on the perspective of Beatriz, a middle-aged Latina woman, as progressive Alzheimer’s disease causes changes in her brain. Photo: embodiedlabs.com

How a daughter’s love for her mother with dementia is captured in emotional memoir

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Yang co-founded Hong Kong’s Brain Health Initiative in 2015, a dementia support group that provides a network for carers. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Yang (right) with her parents in Hong Kong. Photo: Dominica Yang

Yang, aged about four, with her mother. Photo: Dominica Yang

The cover of Yang’s book. Photo: Dominica Yang

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A participant in a virtual dementia tour experiences the sensations and challenges someone with dementia might have. Photo: Second Wind Dreams

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Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

Developed by Embodied Labs, the experience at the University of Minnesota comes with a warning that ‘strong emotional reactions are common’


Developed by Embodied Labs, the experience at the University of Minnesota comes with a warning that ‘strong emotional reactions are common’.


What’s it like to die? Emotional VR experience depicts terminal cancer patient’s end

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Developed by Embodied Labs, the experience at the University of Minnesota comes with a warning that ‘strong emotional reactions are common’

Developed by Embodied Labs, the experience at the University of Minnesota comes with a warning that ‘strong emotional reactions are common’