VIDEO. “Coffin therapy, the idea of ​​the century”: she organizes fake funerals in Montpellier to help you get your taste for life back

MeetEnd is the very first company of its kind in France. It was created by Jessica Djaout, a 41-year-old entrepreneur in a cozy apartment in the center of Montpellier. A story less macabre than it seems…

A bright and well-decorated room in a cozy apartment in the city center of Montpellier. The atmosphere is soothing, even Zen. In a small room, a coffin is on the floor and a small sign shows a photo of a deceased person… You might think you're in a chic funeral home, but in reality, the person in the coffin is not really dead.

The concept here is to organize a funeral… while you're still alive: “The principle is to allow a personal immersion and provoke a burst of life. This concept immediately appealed to me. For me, it's the idea of ​​the century”, assures Jessica Djaout, the 41-year-old entrepreneur at the origin of this unique concept in France. And yet rather developed in Asia (read elsewhere).

Based on the novel by David Foenkinos

However, nothing predestined her for this adventure. It all started during confinement. A permanent graphic designer, the young woman got out of a toxic relationship and created an association around sexual, psychological, financial violence… and accumulated countless testimonies. Shortly after, she came across David Foenkinos' book “La vie heureuse”. A novel that describes the journey of Eric Kherson, a disillusioned character who gradually loses his taste for life who, while wandering in Seoul, discovers a strange ritual, a real phenomenon in South Korea that really exists, allowing everyone to experience their own funeral. A way of giving yourself a second chance. To say to yourself: what if I came back to life.

“I immediately liked the idea and from then on, I had only one obsession, to get started and create a company”. Jessica Djaout took a mutual termination and threw herself body and soul into creating her company. It will be called MeetEnd (“meet the end”). She is doing a double training: a first in psychotherapy and a second as a funeral counselor, which she has just received validation. At the same time, she found her premises in this apartment in a bourgeois building on the Place du Marché aux Fleurs in Montpellier: “I really wanted to start here”, says this Parisian who lived in the Var for a long time and who fell under the spell of Montpellier where she now lives. Then communicates on social networks.

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“We agree on the cause of death and the ceremony can begin”

MeetEnd recently received its very first clients. For €190, your funeral is carefully organized with a preliminary meeting and questionnaires to fill out. A file is created. Everything is done on site: the photos, the clothing of the deceased, the decor of the room… We can organize secular or religious funerals: “We agree with the client on the cause of death and then the ceremony can begin”. The entry into the coffin operated, begins a period of meditation for the client which can last up to an hour. Everything takes place as if you were actually attending your funeral. The client can even be accompanied (up to two people).

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“We feel a little anxious when the coffin is closed”

Obviously The concept is aimed at people who are experiencing a situation of vulnerability. “We must overcome emotional blockages”, agrees Jessica Djaout who tested it on herself: “We feel a little anxious when the coffin is closed, then very quickly we feel very calm. The brain understands that something extraordinary is happening” . And unusual to say the least. And once symbolically returned to life “it allows us to better understand our life choices” .

The former graphic designer intends to develop this new approach. She is already targeting Paris and Bordeaux. But wait to make sure it is economically viable: “I am convinced of it, even if I am aware that culturally, there are many obstacles. I do not know if the market is ready, but it will be one day”. Because as Charlotte Salomon says, in “Charlotte”, another great success by David Foenkinos:“We should even, to love life even more, be dead once”.

Learn more about MeetEnd by clicking here.

A business like any other in South Korea or Russia

Non-existent in France and generally in Western countries, the concept of fake funerals or "burial therapy" is very developed in Asia. Particularly in South Korea where tens of thousands of Koreans have been tempted by this simulated death. Over there, it's a business like any other.

More surprisingly, it's in Russia that the concept has boomed, without anyone knowing whether it has anything to do with the war: over there, they even go so far as to bury the coffin where the client can stay for several hours. And the Russian tabloid Moskovski reminds us that you need the approval of a shrink in advance and specifies that these funerals can cost up to 35,000 rubles, or 1,500 euros!

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