Discussion cremation is terrifying

[aramir]

I was wondering how other people feel about the practice; but for me the idea of not being able to go back and dissolve into the earth for whatever natural processes to happen terrifies me . we don't know what happens after death , and it is my belief that you're intended to die and dissolve and for your consciousness( or at least fragments of it ) wherever it hides to move to somewhere/ something else. but cremation puts you through an unnatural amount of heat and I quote "the cremation process destroys all traces of organic, carbon-based matter and all bodily fluids evaporate and escape through the cremator's exhaust ". you're essentially erasing yourself from existence without leaving any room for doubt or speculation; even if some form of consciousness were to hide in some deep dark corner of the brain, cremation just pulverizes every tiny corner to ash .

 

[Thereisnothing]

I personally do not like cremations, all seems so unnatural. Body should be laid to rest back with nature and then what happens, does. I know Cremation seems popular these days but not for me, but is a personal choice. I have my burial plot ready for when I go, right next to my parents. I would hate so much to be cremated, I need to be lowered into the earth and be with nature. I dont even like attending cremations, burial seems so much more easy and natural to accept.

My belief is that our spirit leaves body and goes on to the afterlife, next planes, but there is no proof how soon this happens and varies in person to person. They do say that a spirit comes back to view their body and also their home surroundings before the funeral, I dont know if this might be right or not.
But for me I am with you regards cremation and dont like it one little bit. I dont think some people really worry about what will happen to their body, but for me its very important and believe we should respect one anothers views and beliefs.

 

[highlyvolatile]

I thought about wanting to be cremated. It was my first choice. After the stress and grief of burying my mom i'd decided on it rather soon. We have still yet to get her a headstone .. they're quite expensive in the us

 

[Soulless_Angel]

anyone seen this video?

 

[aramir]

anyone seen this video?

oh my god why do people do this , I love how at the end they say it's eco-friendly, how can that be when you deny the earth its nutrients and burn fuel in the process haha, isn't natural gas fracking a significant problem how would increasing its demand be eco-friendly . to me this looks so commercialized and undignified, like someone just trying to get rid of a body in the most efficient way possible.

 

[TAW122]

I'm not really bothered myself, because I presume I'd be dead and unconscious, therefore, I wouldn't feel any pain or discomfort. While I'm on the topic, I would also prefer to not have a funeral as I think my notes and closure would be more than enough, but alas, what the survivors choose to do (or don't do), I don't have any control or input towards their actions (as I would be dead).

 

[Soul]

In many cultures shooting a corpse full of chemicals, putting make-up on it and doing numerous fiddly procedures to prevent normal corpse behaviours (open eyes & jaws, bloating etc) then sticking them in a box in a vault in the ground to either rot or undergo saponification is what seems unnatural. I can't think why.

I personally want my whole corpse turned over to a teaching hospital for whatever uses can be made of it, after which they can dispose of it any old which way. I've stipulated that in my will and advance directive, and I encourage anyone who cares what happens to their body to specify your preferences in an advance directive.

 

[mesohappy]

oh my god why do people do this , I love how at the end they say it's eco-friendly, how can that be when you deny the earth its nutrients and burn fuel in the process haha, isn't natural gas fracking a significant problem how would increasing its demand be eco-friendly . to me this looks so commercialized and undignified, like someone just trying to get rid of a body in the most efficient way possible.

As far as earth getting nutrients,your buried 6 feet deep so its not like your body is fertilizing plants or contributing to top soil or even feeding living organisms.Besides in a traditional burial you are pumped full of harmful chemicals anyway.So as you decay you are actually polluting the earth.Unless you opt for a green burial.Is that what you are doing?

anyone seen this video?

That was a cool little video,thanks for sharing.Im opting for cremation myself.I recently watched an interesting documentary on youtube called "A certain kind of death" about people who live and die alone and what happens after as far as locating next of kin, what happens to their belongings and remains etc.It was very interesting and thought provoking/eye opening for me and my situation. I highly recommend it.
I like what certain native American tribes used to do with their dead,where instead of burial grounds they would place the remains on a sort of scaffolding out in nature where the elements can have their way with the body and living creatures could even feed on it.I would like to do that but unfortunately in this backward ass society/world that would be frowned upon and even illegal.So I opt for cremation.

 

[Thereisnothing]

No thats not true you dont have to be embalmed to be buried, alot of people are and its silly and I dont agree with it, but thats just a modern thing, since the beginning of time people have been laid to earth naturally with nothing.
My mum and dad neither were embalmed, we used a small scale funeral home who do natural things. No embalming, no make up, nothing done to body, except wash the hair and body. Noone needs to be preserved with chemicals before cremation or burial its not natural and not needed, the cold storage keeps body fine. I can attest to this as seen both my parents. Its wrong to bury someone who has been embalmed, the natural process cant start. The Victorians are to blame with all these funeral methods, they started with embalming etc on big scale, before that your neighbour just used to lay you out and you'd be in your front room/parlour until the burial.

I wont be embalmed and having a natural burial........just as nature intended. What some these funeral homes do is just not needed, sewing mouths shut, eyes held down etc etc. I closed my fathers mouth the morning he passed and it stayed closed naturally then, its actually barbaric what can and does happen behind closed doors with todays funeral 'trade'.

 

[aramir]

As far as earth getting nutrients,your buried 6 feet deep so its not like your body is fertilizing plants or contributing to top soil or even feeding living organisms.Besides in a traditional burial you are pumped full of harmful chemicals anyway.So as you decay you are actually polluting the earth.Unless you opt for a green burial.Is that what you are doing?

you'd have to specifically ask to be embalmed in order for that to happen. also I don't think the depth of the burial matters , it's not like there's no life 6 feet under , earthworms alone can dig until 6.5 feet deep , even if you were buried deeper for some unknown reason, fungi and other forms of bacteria will eat you and transfer your nutrients to the surrounding soil that will feed other organisms at those depths; even embalmed bodies eventually decompose, for your body to pollute the earth someone would have to maliciously stuff you with enough polluting stuff that go beyond the scope of embalming.

the earth will reclaim the body in most depths , except if we throw the body in magma depths , at that point I would venture to say we're going out of our way to screw the earth lol.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

As an archaeologist I've been involved with the excavation of and studied of many ancient burial practices, both inhumation and cremation. Practices have varied over the centuries depending on lots of societal factors and possible perceptions of the afterlife. I can only really comment on the UK though as that's where I've worked and studied.
In many areas of Britain in the earliest neolithic, inhumation was common, but bones were interred in jumbled piles mixed up together, usually in long barrows. You'd get all the heads in one chamber, all the long bones in another etc. They were also open monuments so the bones could be taken out and passed round then replaced.
In the later neolithic and further into the bronze age, intact inhumations were often mixed with cremations buried in pottery vessels, all interred in a round barrow, often in a barrow cemetery.
There have been various periods in prehistory where cremation has been prevalent, and though it can be identified, the remains would be more ephemeral. The thought is (and its a theory, like most archaeological musings), that inhumation or burial tied the deceased to the earth, possibly descending into the underworld where the ancestors lived. Cremation, on the other hand, released the deceased into the air to ascend to the heavens and be with the ascended ancestors. Whilst cremation then internment of the ashes allowed the release of the spirit to the heavens but then gave the mourners a physical presence to memorialise the deceased.
These practices also changed over time, almost as changing fashions, depending on how the living perceived death. Today, we have a mix of all of it.

 

[aramir]

As an archaeologist I've been involved with the excavation of and studied of many ancient burial practices, both inhumation and cremation. Practices have varied over the centuries depending on lots of societal factors and possible perceptions of the afterlife. I can only really comment on the UK though as that's where I've worked and studied.
In many areas of Britain in the earliest neolithic, inhumation was common, but bones were interred in jumbled piles mixed up together, usually in long barrows. You'd get all the heads in one chamber, all the long bones in another etc. They were also open monuments so the bones could be taken out and passed round then replaced.
In the later neolithic and further into the bronze age, intact inhumations were often mixed with cremations buried in pottery vessels, all interred in a round barrow, often in a barrow cemetery.
There have been various periods in prehistory where cremation has been prevalent, and though it can be identified, the remains would be more ephemeral. The thought is (and its a theory, like most archaeological musings), that inhumation or burial tied the deceased to the earth, possibly descending into the underworld where the ancestors lived. Cremation, on the other hand, released the deceased into the air to ascend to the heavens and be with the ascended ancestors. Whilst cremation then internment of the ashes allowed the release of the spirit to the heavens but then gave the mourners a physical presence to memorialise the deceased.
These practices also changed over time, almost as changing fashions, depending on how the living perceived death. Today, we have a mix of all of it.

that's so interesting , thanks for sharing.

 

[Berlin76]

I was wondering how other people feel about the practice; but for me the idea of not being able to go back and dissolve into the earth for whatever natural processes to happen terrifies me . we don't know what happens after death , and it is my belief that you're intended to die and dissolve and for your consciousness( or at least fragments of it ) wherever it hides to move to somewhere/ something else. but cremation puts you through an unnatural amount of heat and I quote "the cremation process destroys all traces of organic, carbon-based matter and all bodily fluids evaporate and escape through the cremator's exhaust ". you're essentially erasing yourself from existence without leaving any room for doubt or speculation; even if some form of consciousness were to hide in some deep dark corner of the brain, cremation just pulverizes every tiny corner to ash .

I am getting my euthanasia in march.
. Today i had my viewing of the cemetery and stray field where they trow the ash.
I also had the chance to see the cremation oven.

My sister made a picture while standing at the oven i turned and put my thumb up, lol. It shocked my mom and sister but i am happy the end is coming and i am out of suffering and endless restless and depression.

So from what you say, it shows you are not willing to die and clearly not ready to leave this world and still holding on to life.

 

[aramir]

I am getting my euthanasia in march.
. Today i had my viewing of the cemetery and stray field where they trow the ash.
I also had the chance to see the cremation oven.

My sister made a picture while standing at the oven i turned and put my thumb up, lol. It shocked my mom and sister but i am happy the end is coming and i am out of suffering and endless restless and depression.

So from what you say, it shows you are not willing to die and clearly not ready to leave this world and still holding on to life.

oh not at all , my plan is set and I'll be ready in a few days , but it's only natural to want to discuss these things when we're close to death. I'm getting buried so I'm not worried about it, I just saw another post talking bout cremation and that concept was so foreign to me I thought it would make for an interesting discussion is all.

 

[Melkus2020]

Decomposing is pretty scary aswell.

 

[Berlin76]

oh not at all , my plan is set and I'll be ready in a few days , but it's only natural to want to discuss these things when we're close to death. I'm getting buried so I'm not worried about it, I just saw another post talking bout cremation and that concept was so foreign to me I thought it would make for an interesting discussion is all.

aah so its part of your culture that cremation is not that normal as a way of preserving some physical ashes for the family that they can hold on to?

 

[aramir]

aah so its part of your culture that cremation is not that normal as a way of preserving some physical ashes for the family that they can hold on to?

yes but I am also trying to look at it objectively which is why I was asking to see what its appeal is , I mean for the purpose of having something to hold on to doesn't visiting the burial spot serve the same purpose , no ? it also doesn't involve obliterating the being.

 

[Soul]

No thats not true you dont have to be embalmed to be buried, alot of people are and its silly and I dont agree with it, but thats just a modern thing, since the beginning of time people have been laid to earth naturally with nothing.
My mum and dad neither were embalmed, we used a small scale funeral home who do natural things. No embalming, no make up, nothing done to body, except wash the hair and body. Noone needs to be preserved with chemicals before cremation or burial its not natural and not needed, the cold storage keeps body fine. I can attest to this as seen both my parents. Its wrong to bury someone who has been embalmed, the natural process cant start. The Victorians are to blame with all these funeral methods, they started with embalming etc on big scale, before that your neighbour just used to lay you out and you'd be in your front room/parlour until the burial.

I wont be embalmed and having a natural burial........just as nature intended. What some these funeral homes do is just not needed, sewing mouths shut, eyes held down etc etc. I closed my fathers mouth the morning he passed and it stayed closed naturally then, its actually barbaric what can and does happen behind closed doors with todays funeral 'trade'.

It depends where you live, actually; many places do require embalming before a corpse can be put in the ground. Where I live it's illegal to bury a corpse without a box and vault.

@Underscore, thank you for the fascinating insights into UK customs. I'd love it if you could someday tell me about trees being "planted" upside down. Which I think isn't related to disposing of dead bodies, but it fascinates me and makes the hairs on the back of my head writhe around.

I think I recall reading that there were times/places in the UK where bodies were cut up and placed in tree branches. Something like the Tibetan "sky burial", which I'm a big fan of.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Tree henge! Yeah that was an odd one and surprised the whole archaeological community.
There have indeed probably been sky burials but they most likely wouldn't survive in the archaeological record. I'll refresh my memory tomorrow when I'm on the pc again (phone now) and more able to type/think.

 

[a_strange_day]

I just can't stand the thought of a slow and long decompositon process. It's like things are left unfinished. At least with cremation my body will be disposed of immediately.

 

[k75]

I have a very irrational fear of cremation. I know all the arguments for it, and I know I'll be dead, but just thinking about it scares the hell out of me.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Better to release carbon into the ground too rather than the atmosphere but... where do you put all the bodies?

 

[Darkhaven]

I want to be cremated. But it is indeed a terrifying thought.
The flames and heat blazing your body, the skin melting away and all the flesh shrinking untill nothing is left but dust.
On the other hand, being buried also seems horrible to me, because you will be a stinking, rotten corpse getting all green, oozy and bloated.
Slowly being consumed by parasites and nasty creatures under the ground.
It's basically a choice of a quick and brutal destruction or a slow and pesty one.
Presuming that we will be unconscious, it doesn't matter in what way our bodies are disposed of.
Burning a corpse ends up being the same as burning some other material. There is no live left in it. It's just dead and rotting flesh.
I would like a open sky cremation though. Feels more dignified somehow. I hate the idea of being confined to an enclosed coffin and incinerator, or whatever they call those places they burn the bodies in.

 

[Deleted member 1465]

It depends where you live, actually; many places do require embalming before a corpse can be put in the ground. Where I live it's illegal to bury a corpse without a box and vault.

@Underscore, thank you for the fascinating insights into UK customs. I'd love it if you could someday tell me about trees being "planted" upside down. Which I think isn't related to disposing of dead bodies, but it fascinates me and makes the hairs on the back of my head writhe around.

I think I recall reading that there were times/places in the UK where bodies were cut up and placed in tree branches. Something like the Tibetan "sky burial", which I'm a big fan of.

Apologies for my bad memory, it was actually called Seahenge
Fascinating site, never seen anything else like it. Its actually a timber circle not a henge monument, from the bronze age. Reminded me of this...

 

[Mizzmini45]

Rather be cremated. Seeing ur body decomposing is terrifying

 

[90sAesthetics]

I'm the other way around. I NEED to be cremated. I view my ashes as a portal for my afterlife spirit. Spread my ashes at all the places I want them to be spread, so I can portal between each location and be free.

Being trapped in a box and then placed underground to remain for 5 billion years (until the sun eats the earth) sounds like hell, if there's such thing as a soul. I'd rather mine have the ability to travel.

But either way, from a scientific point of view, it really doesn't matter what happens after.

 

[Alec]

I was wondering how other people feel about the practice; but for me the idea of not being able to go back and dissolve into the earth for whatever natural processes to happen terrifies me . we don't know what happens after death , and it is my belief that you're intended to die and dissolve and for your consciousness( or at least fragments of it ) wherever it hides to move to somewhere/ something else. but cremation puts you through an unnatural amount of heat and I quote "the cremation process destroys all traces of organic, carbon-based matter and all bodily fluids evaporate and escape through the cremator's exhaust ". you're essentially erasing yourself from existence without leaving any room for doubt or speculation; even if some form of consciousness were to hide in some deep dark corner of the brain, cremation just pulverizes every tiny corner to ash .

Being in the ground sounds scarier to me. I prefer to be burned. But it's for each their own of course.
But here's what I think, "all bodily fluid evaporate" like you said, true in the heat fluids evaporate but they don't stay evaporated forever. It's like the water that you boil it goes up into the air and disappears, but only disappears to our eyes, it's still there, in the air. It goes up and up until turns into liquid again and falls down to earth with rain for example. The same happens with bodily fluids. And about ashes from our tissue and bones, well it's the same, if it's scattered into the wind it becomes part of the world as well, just not in the same exact way as a buried body but ultimately it still becomes part of the world. Even if ones ashes are kept in a vase early or later they gonna be reunited with nature in one way or another. Think about all the trees that get burned down from the heat of the sun, their ashes are still part of the nature even if they don't fall down and decompose like other trees that died.
but these are just my thoughts, I think it's true that no energy ever actually disappears, it just turns into something else. I think it's proved in physics or one of these sciences, I'm not too much into science but that's what I heard.

 

[kamakura]

I am getting my euthanasia in march.

May I ask, you have illness?

 

[Berlin76]

May I ask, you have illness?

Mental issues
Here you can read every part and also why

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/my-euthanesia-part-3.31048/

 

[Deleted member 1465]

It depends where you live, actually; many places do require embalming before a corpse can be put in the ground. Where I live it's illegal to bury a corpse without a box and vault.

@Underscore, thank you for the fascinating insights into UK customs. I'd love it if you could someday tell me about trees being "planted" upside down. Which I think isn't related to disposing of dead bodies, but it fascinates me and makes the hairs on the back of my head writhe around.

I think I recall reading that there were times/places in the UK where bodies were cut up and placed in tree branches. Something like the Tibetan "sky burial", which I'm a big fan of.

So Seahenge was an early bronze age timber circle, not a henge (bank and ditch monument, late neolithic) at all. Timber circles usually wouldn't survive in the archaeological record, but this one was waterlogged so the timers made it. As ever, the academics have no idea what it was actually used for, but there are theories based on other sites. They always use the word 'ritual' to describe such things, which really means 'we've no idea, but it looks funky.'
Timber circles have a lot in common with bronze age stone circles. Stone circles were thought to be ritual (!) enclosures, often aligned on the stars. Interestingly, some far out research has been done on ritual circles to suggest that the ambient levels of noise and radiation within the circles drops off a significant amount.
The circle idea seems to be akin to a magical enclosure, purified and silent, to be used in some other-worldly ritual.
Your reference to sky burials is interesting. Such things often don't survive in the record, but at Seahenge we have the up-turned tree root system. The theory is that this was a possible site for sky burials, exposing bodies to the elements in a magically sanctified enclosure. The symbolism behind the up-turned roots smacks of the idea of rebirth, the roots reaching into the heavens instead of the earth. This would certainly have represented a different view of death than is often accepted as the norm in the bronze age, where internment under round barrows is common.