Burial Or Cremation? What Do You Choose?
By M. K. Albus
@MKAlubs (455)
United States
August 31, 2016 1:19pm CST
There are numerous different customs and traditions from around the world in regards to what is done with the body after death. In the Western World burial is by far the most popular tradition. I'm not sure there are any towns in America without at least a tiny cemetery.
Of course, before the White Man invaded the most popular tradition among the native people of North America was the funeral pyre. The dead body was placed upon a pyre of logs and then set on fire. As the body burned, its essence traveled with the smoke up to the heavens.
Cremation is becoming more popular in America these days. It's less expensive than burial and you get to keep an urn full of the dead person's ashes on your mantelpiece--unless the dead person requested their ashes to be spread somewhere. I know a woman with 6 urns on her mantelpiece; one with the ashes of her dead husband and the others with ashes of her pets.
Personally, I would hate to be buried in a cemetery with a headstone that people can visit and place flowers on. To me that's creepy. The person's soul is long gone and the only thing in the grave is a decomposing corpse. Wouldn't it be better to honor someone's life through your memories of them and through your expressions rather than at some head stone?
Then there is the tradition of the ancient Zoroastrian religion. They also build a pyre of logs then they strip the dead body naked and place it atop the pyre. But instead of burning the body they just leave it on the pyre for buzzards to come and pick the bones clean of flesh. This is like the ultimate form of recycling. Personally, I think it would be cool to have my dead body dumped out in the middle of the desert so it can be devoured by coyotes and snakes and bobcats and vultures, leaving nothing but bones to be bleached by the hot desert sun. Seriously, I think this is the best option--for me.
Have you drawn up a will that indicates your preferred method of dealing with your body when you kick the bucket? Burial or cremation? Or burial at sea? Or the Eskimo custom of putting you on an ice flow and letting you flow out to sea? How much thought have you given this? What do you want to happen to your body once you disengage from it?
3 people like this
4 responses
@CaptAlbertWhisker (32760)
• Calgary, Alberta
31 Aug 16
I will choose cryonics. My body will be frozen with liquid nitrogen for centuries until the technology to resurrect me is there.
3 people like this
@MKAlubs (455)
• United States
31 Aug 16
That's a fun thought, Your Highness, but once I'm done with a body I don't want to come back to it. While technology might be able to find a way to resurrect a body I doubt they will find a way to bring the consciousness and the soul back to that body. We mistakenly believe that we are our bodies and that the consciousness that we are resides in our noggins. The consciousness that we are existed long before we entered a body and it will continue to exist long after we exit the body. Resurrecting a body is just that. It doesn't resurrect the consciousness that we are, which has moved on to other things (and other bodies). Centuries from now your consciousness will be too far evolved to want to return to a body conditioned to hold a lesser-evolved consciousness. It's much better to just find a new body to enter and inhabit for another brief adventure. Anyway, that's why I don't care for cryonics. Once I'm done with a body I want that body to return to the cycle of life and be food for the critters and soil. Bodies are temporary vehicles consciousness uses to experience itself and evolve. Of course, now I can't stop thinking about Austin Powers.......
2 people like this
@innertalks (23734)
• Australia
1 Sep 16
@MKAlubs I tend to agree with you here. I even apply this to my current life, in that I do not like to go back and revisit old memories or repeat experiences that I have already gone through. I like to move on past them to other things.
I certainly would not want to come back into a past body again either!

@CinnamonGrl (7086)
• Santa Fe, New Mexico
31 Aug 16
I have a prepaid cremation plan. I am going to be planted with a tree.
3 people like this
@MKAlubs (455)
• United States
31 Aug 16
I'm a tree lover so I really like that idea, @CinnamonGirl
2 people like this
@arintellect007 (533)
• Kolkata, India
31 Aug 16
It does not make much of a difference.But what really matters for me is that my soul secures a place where it actually belongs
3 people like this







