Wtf is a Death Cafe?
- Thread starter Spyxos
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Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Visit death cafe dot com for more info
Spyxos
Member
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Gotchu fam:
What is Death Cafe?
At a Death Cafe people, often strangers, gather to eat cake, drink tea and discuss death.
Our objective is 'to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives'.
A Death Cafe is a group directed discussion of death with no agenda, objectives or themes. It is a discussion group rather than a grief support or counselling session.
Our Death Cafes are always offered:
- On a not for profit basis
- In an accessible, respectful and confidential space
- With no intention of leading people to any conclusion, product or course of action
- Alongside refreshing drinks and nourishing food – and cake!
If you're interested in holding a Death Cafe please see our how-to guide.
Death Cafe is a 'social franchise'. This means that people who sign up to our guide and principles can use the name Death Cafe, post events to this website and talk to the press as an affiliate of Death Cafe.
Death Cafes have spread quickly across Europe, North America and Australasia. As of today, we have offered 15871 Death Cafes in 83 countries since September 2011. If 10 people came to each one that would be 158710 participants. We've established both that there are people who are keen to talk about death and that many are passionate enough to organise their own Death Cafe.
The Death Cafe model was developed by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid, based on the ideas of Bernard Crettaz.
Death Cafe has no staff. It was run on a voluntary basis by Jon Underwood in Hackney, East London until June 2017. Jon died suddenly on 27 June 2017 and Death Cafe is now run by Susan Barsky Reid, Jon's mother and his sister Jools Barsky. Also, Lizzy Miles who ran the first Death Cafe in the U.S. and Megan Mooney who runs the Death Cafe Facebook pagehave played a significant role in Death Cafe's development.
We remain energised by the amazing quality of the dialogue at our events and are overwhelmed by the interest we have received.
People often ask why we're doing this. Everyone has their own reasons for getting involved in Death Cafe. In the video below, Death Cafe Portland organiser Kate Brassington gives hers.
Our History
In 2010 Jon Underwood decided to develop a series of projects about death one of which was to focus on talking about death. In November Jon read about the work of Bernard Crettaz in the Independent newspaper. Inspired by Bernard's work, Jon immediately decided to use similar model for his own project, and Death Cafe was born.
Bernard Crettaz
The first Death Cafe in the UK was offered in Jon's house in Hackney, East London in September 2011. It was facilitated by pychotherapist Sue Barsky Reid, Jon's mum. It was a wonderful occasion. We went on to offer Death Cafes in a range of places including funky cafes, people's houses, cemeteries, a yurt and the Royal Festival Hall.
Jon and Sue Barsky Reid produced a guide to running your own Death Cafe, based around the methodology Sue developed. This was published in Feb. 2012 and first person to pick it up outside of the UK was Lizzy Miles in Columbus, Ohio. Subsequently hundreds of people have worked with us to provide Death Cafes across the globe.
Death Cafe has received some lovely media coverage including:
- Death Be Not Decaffeinated: Over Cup, Groups Face Taboo New York Times (front page!)
- Death Cafes Breathe Life Into Conversations About Dying NPR
- The death cafe movement: Tea and mortality Independent
- 'Death cafes' normalize a difficult, not morbid, topic USA Today
We are currently working to establish a real Death Cafe in London. Read more.
Death Cafe is also:
- On Facebook: facebook.com/deathcafe
- On Twitter: @deathcafe
Shout outs
Many thanks to:
- Sean Legassick of Datamage who hosts the Death Cafe website for free
- Phil Cooper of Petit Mal who designed the Death Cafe logo.
- The very talented team at Flexible Films for voluntarily creating brilliant short films for us since 2015!
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Spyxos
Member
All right, I understand. Strange that it does not show me the page.
MudoSkills
Volcano High Alumnus (Cum Laude)
I mean, it tells you right there on the poster.
Spyxos
Member
A friend of mine recently killed himself and I mean he briefly mentioned something like that before it happened. So I thought about it right away.I mean, it tells you right there on the poster.
jezhumphrey75
Banned
its a cafe where you can talk about death or dying whilst eating cake and drink tea/probably coffee to.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
What is up with the guy at the bottom of the pole. What is his deal?I saw it today in Berlin. Is it some kind of cult?
Spyxos
Member
No idea.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
Go back to the pole and figure it out please.
Spyxos
Member
I pass by there almost every day, if I do not forget then you will be enlightened.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
If my joke harassments pays off I will be entertained.
Toots
Member
I wanna know what kind of service he's offering too !!
It seems he has a more closed-up portait directly to the left of the pic we see.
You really need to do a 360° shot of the pole op, with translations for those of us who do not speak german please. I mean wtf is a "spermüll", and why should i "abrissarbeitein" it ??
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
This guy knows what's up.
kanjobazooie
Mouse Ball Fetishist
You guys have GAF bookmarked? I just go to google each time and search "neogaf" like a caveman.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
I just begin to type it in and let it autocomplete.
Cyberpunkd
Member
May I interest you I some Cyclone B leaflets?
Jk, but it was too easy with this being in Berlin.
Days like these...
Have a Blessed Day
I stopped at "increase awareness of death".
Let's make sure those poor hapless people out there know they're going to die. As if someone out there really thinks they're going to get out alive.
Beastclaw Raider
Banned
Probable ends well for people going there.. wtf
RJMacready73
Simps for Amouranth
This guy death cafes
LegendOfKage
Member
Yeah, that. Wait, what? It is?
Don't drink the tea! Stay away from the tea! Don't drink it!
kanjobazooie
Mouse Ball Fetishist
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
Not enough hoops to jump through right.
Patrick S.
Banned
Ewww you live in Berlinabad 
That URL works over SSL.
That URL works over SSL.
Happosai
Hold onto your panties
Cults make it too easy to join. I mean, the sign even specifies it's in English before reading the drop-downs. They have a universal target.
They'll rue the day though if they're serving Salmon mousse for the grand opening...
Skip to 5-minutes or watch the whole thing for context of Death Cafe
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Hell yeah, my pick up.line would be "Are you unsure about killing yourself? Have sex with me and remove all doubt!"
PuppetMaster
Member
I reverse image searched and it appears to be some meditation guru named Sri Chinmoy
www.srichinmoy.org
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Spyxos
Member
Hehe thank you. Good thing I don't have to go there anymore.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
You said you go there all the time.
E-Cat
Member
HeavensGatev2.0
Spyxos
Member
Yes I go by there often, but not on weekends. And by Monday he could have died of old age.
AJUMP23
Parody of actual AJUMP23
Almost as thoughtful as the meditation.
Spyxos
Member
Is it something you should have seen? Intro looks fun.
01011001
Banned
it's pretty good yeah. although the vibes of the opening aren't exactly the same as the actual episodes
the first pilot episode is called Death Billiards, which was shown at some anime convention, and got enough traction online that the studio made a full season out of it.
every episode is about 2 people who play a game in this bar, and then after they finished playing, the bartenders decide who gets reincarnated and who gets send into the void.
I think it's on Netflix, at least in Germany, but I also think they only have the Death Parade season, and not the Death Billiards pilot
