A Spanish writer agreed to be buried alive on his birthday after sharing the harrowing experience that led him to start thinking about death.
It's natural to wonder about what happens when you die, but generally 'wondering' is where the process stops.
Author Víctor Amela decided to take things a step further on his 62nd birthday, when he experienced being laid to rest on the very same farm he had been born on.
Amela laid down in a coffin which was then lowered into the ground and had dirt thrown on top, and said afterwards he 'enjoyed it immensely'.
It's not exactly a theme park ride, but Amela had his reasons for wanting to be buried alive after an experience he'd gone through as a teenager.
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When Amela was 15 years old, he was hanging out with friends when they began to play with a Ouija board.
The group asked the board what age Amela would be when he died, and he was horrified to see the glass move to the number 65.
“I regretted it later, don’t do it at home," Amela recalled in an interview with Spanish TV show Horizonte.
Though 65 felt 'very far away' when Amela was 15, he remembered the experience when he was 55 years old and interviewing filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky.
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Amela said: "The memory of the Ouija board came back to me and I told him about it.
“He said ‘Victor, you are going to die at 65 because your unconscious is going to try to fulfil that mandate’.”
As his apparent 'death date' approached, Amela decided to experience firsthand what it might be like.
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Rather gathering his friends to eat cake on his 62nd birthday, they instead read tributes to him at his makeshift funeral.
"My friends spoiled me," he said. "It was wonderful...
“When they covered me and I was left in the dark, I could hear the shovelfuls of dirt landing on the coffin.
"For a second, I was gripped by panic. But it came and went away. I then started to relax and enjoy it.”
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He added: “I wished I could stay there longer.”
A priest carried out the service for Amela, and after an hour in the ground he felt like he had been 'born again'.
"I wanted to continue living for another 40 years," he said.
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“The experience of my own funeral helped me to stop thinking about the possibility of dying at 65, to strengthen the bonds of friendship with people who love me and who I love.
“And to set an example to one of my friends so he can one day be encouraged to do it. Let’s bury him too.”
While the whole experience might sound wild to those who have never heard of anything similar, the practice of attending your own funeral while still alive is common in Japanese culture, and is known as ‘seizenso’.
The practise, which is growing in popularity in the US and UK, helps people to gain a new perspective on life.
Topics: Life, Psychology, Health
Emily Brown