Digital Dying By: Justin Nobel

by Justin Nobel

An old Texas jail. Many prisons take funeral attendance requests on a case by case basis but Texas has set guidelines. Certain prisoners are prohibited a release, including those in for murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery and stalking.

Kentrell Amerson is back in jail. He was released to attend the funeral of his brother Jonas, who was shot to death a few weeks earlier in Omaha, Nebraska. Amerson went to the service then hacked off his locator bracelet and fled. A fugitive task force picked him up later that night.

The issue of whether or not to let prisoners out of jail for funerals is complex. Why would a judge or warden temporarily release a criminal?  Yet, what human being would keep another one behind bars while his brother or mother is being buried? Amerson was a petty criminal, awaiting sentencing on a car theft conviction (he now faces a felony escape charge) but many funeral release requests involve criminals in for much more heinous crimes. Read the rest of this entry »

by Justin Nobel

While mating, sharks and stingrays exhibit a state of paralysis called tonic immobility, similar to the idea of “playing dead”. In South Korea, a motivational seminar called Coffin Academy allows clients to play dead in the hopes of rejuvenating their lives.

In Daejeon South Korea, for just $35, you can experience death. First is a photo shoot, then a lecture on living life to its fullest. You decorate your tombstone, write a will and say your final goodbyes. In a candlelit chapel, with your new portrait on a flowery altar, you don a yellow robe and climb into a coffin. Staff pound the lid shut, and for five minutes, you are dead.

This is Coffin Academy, a motivational South Korean seminar begun last year by a 39 year-old man named Jung Joon. The intent of the program is to inspire people to lead more fulfilling lives by simulating death. “The moment I got out of the casket I felt like I was born again,” a Korean business man told Nightline reporter Clarissa Ward earlier this month, “I'm going to go give my wife a big hug.” Read the rest of this entry »