{"id":10917,"date":"2018-05-25T11:35:09","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T18:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/Becomeimmersed.com\/?p=10917"},"modified":"2019-11-25T14:09:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T22:09:26","slug":"second-chance-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becomeimmersed.com\/second-chance-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Existential Mulligan: A Review of Second Chance"},"content":{"rendered":"
Only in retrospect did I realize when I died.<\/p>\n
It was during a VR experience. My demise, perhaps my murder, was neither painful nor personal. It was abstracted and colossal, on a planetary, or perhaps a cosmic scale. Yet this death was not an end, but rather a beginning.<\/p>\n
I died during Second Chance, the first immersive experience of Bay Area art collective LavaSaga<\/a>. The experience ran as part of San Francisco\u2019s Reimagine<\/a>, a week of art and theatrical creations dedicated to death. Second Chance strove to provide participants with a new lease on life predicated on an awareness of mortality. The experience was not theatrical; rather, it was a m\u00e9lange of meditation, group therapy, and multimedia art installations. The focus throughout was on human connection and self-reflection rather than narrative.<\/p>\n Before I died, and before Second Chance began officially, I had time to spend in a twilit waiting room. One corner was draped with heavy, white, cabled yarn, through which were hung tags with writing on them. \u201cTell me you love me\u201d and \u201cLet me know you forgive me,\u201d implored the little cards, speaking the heartfelt longings of people I did not know.<\/p>\n While I waited, I was invited to take off my shoes and quiet my mind in an area filled with cushions and ottomans. I sat down and closed my eyes and felt the ceaseless waves of my breath.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n