Cremation or Burial

Originally posted by xyankee
I was just thinking about what I would like to happen to me when I die. I know that there are many different religious opinions about how this should be handled, but I was wondering if anyone on ATS has some "inside information"

Possibly a medium?

I am not a medium - not in the traditional sense. BUT I do KNOW that life is not contained in our physical bodies. They are merely 'vehicles.' And like your car, they eventually wear out (that is unless you never drive it but then your tires rot

). When they do, we just exit them and return to the GREAT light that resides in the darkness of mystery. And, then, we can choose, then, our next vehicle - what, when, and where. The why is what usually governs our choices regarding what, when, and where.

I KNOW this because I have accessed my 'inside information.' (We all have it - we just don't believe it and that prevents access).

I know that we all believe that when we die our sole leaves the body, and there is no pain, but no one really knows for sure because no one has come back from that point to tell us.

A few have told me - not that they 'come back' - they don't really 'leave' other than their bodies. My adoptive dad and my natural dad and my son and my brother-in-law have all crossed over but they communicate with me in ways that leave me no doubt it is all real and things that only they would know were the initial ways they 'broke through.'

Break on Through to the Other Side!

It's interesting that I just came across this thread, I've just completed all the paper work for the disposal of my body when I don't need it anymore.

I've updated my Will and done a Power of Attorney to ensure my wishes are carried out.

I've signed an agreement with a local University that turns out some of the best doctors in the world.
I've had family study there, and do teaching and research. Some very cutting edge genetics goes on there, very important work. So I've decided to donate my body to the University's medical department.

I'd be quite content if my body could be put out on garbage collection day with the rest of the trash, but that's not an option. By donating it to a medical school it will at least be put to good use and be a benefit to other members of society by training future health care providers and current researchers.

The agreement provides the school with the right to keep my body entirely or parts for up to five years, and to use any parts for whatever purpose they choose. After the five years all remaining parts are to be cremated and interred at the Universities body donation mausoleum.

Our schools and teaching hospitals have a shortage of donated bodies, I think it's something more people should consider. What better gift could you leave behind to help the future.


I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea of paying thousands of dollars for a funeral, this way my friends and family can spend a few hundred dollars on booze. They can sit around a pub for a few hours and remember me and have closure without buying flowers, a coffin, plot, or funeral services.

reply to post by WiseSheep


So everybody who dies is once again reuinited with their physical being after death? Why are there still billions of bodies in the ground? Why would those who are already in heaven have to be reunited with their bodies if they've already made it to heaven before the day of reckoning? And also, what is the person of any physical existence in the spiritual world?

I'm not being childish, and I usually stray from these conversations, but things obviously need to be cleared up for me to understand this kind of nonsense.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
reply to post by WiseSheep

 

So everybody who dies is once again reunited with their physical being after death? Why are there still billions of bodies in the ground?

And what about all those whose bodies were destroyed in their death - such as by fire or even by being lost at sea to feed the fishes?

And also, what is the person of any physical existence in the spiritual world?

EXACTLY.

And no man puts a bit of new cloth on an old coat, for by pulling away from the old, it makes a worse hole. And men do not put new wine into old wine-skins; or the skins will be burst and the wine will come out, and the skins are of no more use: but they put new wine into new wine-skins, and so the two will be safe.
Matthew 9:16-17

Wine = soul
Wine skin = body

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
So everybody who dies is once again reuinited with their physical being after death?

Yes. Yet not until the appointed resurrection time which no man knows the day nor hour of.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
Why are there still billions of bodies in the ground?

They are asleep. At the sound of his voice one day they will wake. By the same power that said let there be light and there was.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
Why would those who are already in heaven have to be reunited with their bodies if they've already made it to heaven before the day of reckoning?

The day is not yet.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
And also, what is the person of any physical existence in the spiritual world?

Well the crowd freaked a little when Jesus showed up in is resurrected body and thought they saw a spirit and he let them feel him, saying "a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones."

They are very real bodies, yet eternal.

I suppose you I and everyone have come in contact with angels, probably interacted with them quite closely. You wouldn't tell them apart from a man and they are eternal.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
I'm not being childish, and I usually stray from these conversations, but things obviously need to be cleared up for me to understand this kind of nonsense.

While it may sound like nonsense. It will be made real sooner or later to everybody who ever has been.

reply to post by WiseSheep


I guess to each their own. The contradictions and the absurdities are astounding. I guess another chapter of "stuff I will never understand or at least find no use in."

I'm sure you'll have a better seat in the house than I will if what you believe is true. Though, I'm not afraid one bit.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
I guess to each their own. The contradictions and the absurdities are astounding. I guess another chapter of "stuff I will never understand or at least find no use in."

I'm sure you'll have a better seat in the house than I will if what you believe is true. Though, I'm not afraid one bit.

There are no contradictions. If one repents and seeks the truth with a pure heart, the LORD will reveal it to him when he chooses.

If the ears who hear have no faith, it's all foolishness to them, line upon line, little here, little there, and eventually trapped and captured.

I want to be frozen. And in my will, it'll say that if the technology is ever invented to bring people back to life, then unfreeze me and bring me back to life.

reply to post by WiseSheep


I didn't throw the usual Atheist retort at you, I don't think I need the cliche little Christian one from you.

Religion
Failed

If you'd want to go over that for a minute and get back to me, I'd be more than happy to discuss those things with you.

And the contradictions seen above are nothing like the direct contradictions that you and your fellow, yet opposing Christian have presented to me and to one another.

I'm not a basher of any religion, but if you want to throw it in my face like that, I'm ready for some critical, no holds barred discussion. One that ultimately ends in the sentence "that's where faith comes in." So, to be respectful, I'll let you look at those links and bow out gracefully. If you'd like to further discuss religion and those who disbelieve, feel free to U2U me if you want to spare everybody with your run of the mill argument on whether or not "it's all real."

And by "your" argument, I mean "our" argument. Takes two to have the same stupid discussion that everybody has heard since middle school. I really don't want to get into it myself, because nothing ever seems to get solved, opinions aren't changed, I feel like a bully, and it's overall a monotonous conversation.

I believe that every living thing on the planet (and in fact in the universe) has both its physical and spiritual place in the world. At death, the soul/spirit/whatever you want to call it returns to the realm of existence from which it came (I don't have a way of describing this place), while the body returns to the earth as part of the cycle of life and death.

Having said that, my thoughts on cremation v. burial are as follows:

I am weirded out by the thought of my body being burned. I know how the cremation process works, as a relative of mine owns a crematorium for animals. It's pretty much the same as the process for people. Knowing how the process works still creeps me out, though. Just the whole burning in fire thing... I have had two of my dogs cremated, though, and I would never do anything to them that I wouldn't do for myself.

As far as burial goes, I don't like the idea of being in a coffin. I want to return to the earth, and resume my part in the life cycle. Being separated from the earth by a box doesn't seem natural. Under NO circumstances do I want to be entombed in some mausoleum. You don't even go in the ground then, which is what I want.

As long as I go in the ground, I don't care whether I am cremated or buried... I just want a flimsy coffin, I guess, so it decomposes quickly.

What really bothers me (and I am completely serious about this) is the thought of what might happen to my body in a funeral home prior to burial. I don't want some necrophiliac messing with me. I know that probably isn't that common, but I don't want to be one of the few that are "used" in that fashion. I would rather be cremated quickly so my body can't be abused.

It will be up to my family, ultimately. They know all of my concerns, and I trust them to make the right decision. Whatever happens, I wish to be buried with the ashed of my deceased pets. My most loyal companions in my life will also be my companions after death. That is actually the most important thing to me.

As far as needing to be reunited with my body later... I don't believe that. Once I am dead, my body is not important. Bodies are only useful once you are alive. I believe that my life force/spirit/soul will live on, and that is all I am concerned about.

Sorry... this is a complex subject for me, and it is not so easy for me to write a simple explanation of this.

i want to be frozen then broken into pieces by sound vibrations..it's possible check this out


promession

reply to post by TheBadge


I have never heard of that before, but now I am intrigued.

That, and/or the ashes into the reef idea both make me happy.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
If you'd want to go over that for a minute and get back to me, I'd be more than happy to discuss those things with you.

There's no point really. As was mentioned, when the word is to you, dead letter, a little here and there, you may find yourself trapped and captured.

It takes care of itself, and doesn't return void.

Originally posted by DeadFlagBlues
I'm not a basher of any religion, but if you want to throw it in my face like that, I'm ready for some critical, no holds barred discussion.

A good bashing or a no holds barred discussion will not save you. Salvation is only found in Jesus Christ. Seek him.


Even if I were to reprove all the supposed contradictions, that wouldn't save you. No point in seeking that, seek him.

reply to post by WiseSheep


I have never needed him, why start now? You and your religion can threaten me with all the nightmares you can muster. Say they are real, I'm still unafraid and unimpressed. Bring what they've got. I'm stronger. I promise you.

Is there no one else willing to donate their body to science

What better gift could you leave behind for your fellow man than to train doctors that will in turn help others ???

Is there a creep factor that your empty shell will be chopped up like a frog in biology class ?

reply to post by anxietydisorder


I think what you've decided to do is awesome. Definitely has a place for it. Better that than have our relatives spend incredible amounts of money to encase us in a shiny tomb, only to sit and rot.


When I first read it, it reminded me of all those old stories of early surgeons who would pay off the gravediggers to provide them with fresh corpses because they had outlawed the study of post death experimentation, because they considered it desecration of a corpse and deemed it "Sacrilegious."

Religion means well, but sometimes it comes off as a trip wire instead a set of wings.

Originally posted by anxietydisorder
Is there no one else willing to donate their body to science

You know, oddly enough, I had never thought of it. I definitely do NOT want to be pickled and boxed only to become a useless waste of real estate...my ideal would be something along the lines of the traditional Tibetan burial.

What better gift could you leave behind for your fellow man than to train doctors that will in turn help others ???

Actually I agree. Totally. I'm sending you an U2U.

Is there a creep factor that your empty shell will be chopped up like a frog in biology class ?

Well, those frogs DID stink.... JK

The only creep factor for me is the idea of NOT being allowed to return to my Mother Earth's womb from whence I came! And then there is a personal ethical factor for me regarding the preposterous expense of traditional casket burials.

This is something I wrote on my personal sentiments regarding this subject:

Mourning Glory
Marble masons make millions
On man’s mission to memorialize
With monstrous, meaningless, monuments
Meant to manufacture memories
By means of morbid maintenance

Thank-you to both of you.

I thought long and hard about the choice I made and it was the expense and hardship I've seen other family members go through after a death that closed the deal.

I watched $7,000 dollar coffins being lowered into the ground for the sake of the family showing off their wealth and it made me sick. I saw my mother-in-law go into debt to bury her husband in a fashion that would impress others.

After I die my body is no use to me, but if the left over meat and bones is of any use to those still living, it's the last gift I can give.

I've received some negative feedback from a few family members after making my wishes known, but most have been supportive because of the many members of the family involved in medical research.

I can assure most people that bodies donated to research are treated with the utmost respect and receive a proper cremation, a service, and burial after the 5 year limit runs out on the agreement you sign with the University.

Family is invited to attend if they choose, and religious wishes are respected.

I can only hope that someone learns something from my death, it would give it a little more meaning for me. More meaning than just rotting in the ground.