Story highlights Françoise Huguier photographed people experiencing their own funerals while still alive

After the emotional, personal experience, some seemed to leave feeling happier, she said

(CNN) Men and women in funeral dress stare straight ahead as they sit inside wooden coffins.

They are wide awake and very much alive, but they're attending their own funerals.

French photographer Françoise Huguier photographed them this year at the Hyowon Healing Center in Seoul, South Korea. It's where groups of people who might be struggling with depression, stress or suicidal thoughts go to act out their own funerals. There isn't any additional mental health treatment around the funerals, Huguier said, but participants told her they believe it could make them feel better.

South Korea has the highest suicide rate among the 34 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. For young people, especially, there's pressure to ace schoolwork and exams to land a good job at a big company, Huguier said.

Photographer Françoise Huguier

People she met came to the center on their own or because their doctors recommended it. They, like the center's founders, believe it offers an "experimental death in order to better appreciate life."

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