Why do I care so much what happens to my body when I die?

[DyingJules]

I ask this question because it seems I care more deeply than most. I really want to be buried without chemicals, just placed in the natural earth, no frills, wrapped in a light blanket I loved in life. Let the earth feed on what is left of me when I pass. Some beautiful trees and meadows where the earth will hold me until disintegrated by nature. I feel like I need, I have to, I must, feel like I have to. To feel like I have died well. My way of giving back to nature. I can not shake it, I have already taken steps to find places that bury in this way. While it is not common, I hope it becomes more natural for death of those we love.

Why do I care so much about this? Everyone else I have talked to are like....body is dead, no use ...so whatever to it. Shell and nothing left so toss it out like old garbage.
I just cant bear the thought of that, I want my resting years to be beautiful in a place that is beautiful. Giving back, as the earth has given to me.

Your thoughts?

 

[JustGeorge]

I guess I don't care too much what happens to it; its just a shell to me.

Cremate me, hopefully someone will say the right things so as to help my spirit have better luck next time, and move along.

 

[DyingJules]

I guess I don't care too much what happens to it; its just a shell to me.

Cremate me, hopefully someone will say the right things so as to help my spirit have better luck next time, and move along.

This is what I get most times, most folks don't care. But I care so much that I want to make sure it is in a will of sorts, to make sure my wishes are followed. It bothers me how much I care, and I guess that is what I was asking. Why do I care? Does my sub-conscious know something I don't? My real fear is being cremated or filled up with chemicals, just don't want that for my body after death.

 

[JustGeorge]

This is what I get most times, most folks don't care. But I care so much that I want to make sure it is in a will of sorts, to make sure my wishes are followed. It bothers me how much I care, and I guess that is what I was asking. Why do I care? Does my sub-conscious know something I don't? My real fear is being cremated or filled up with chemicals, just don't want that for my body after death.

I don't know you, so I don't know why you care.

It's fine that you care, and you oughta take appropriate steps to assure your wishes are carried out.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I ask this question because it seems I care more deeply than most. I really want to be buried without chemicals, just placed in the natural earth, no frills, wrapped in a light blanket I loved in life. Let the earth feed on what is left of me when I pass. Some beautiful trees and meadows where the earth will hold me until disintegrated by nature. I feel like I need, I have to, I must, feel like I have to. To feel like I have died well. My way of giving back to nature. I can not shake it, I have already taken steps to find places that bury in this way. While it is not common, I hope it becomes more natural for death of those we love.

Why do I care so much about this? Everyone else I have talked to are like....body is dead, no use ...so whatever to it. Shell and nothing left so toss it out like old garbage.
I just cant bear the thought of that, I want my resting years to be beautiful in a place that is beautiful. Giving back, as the earth has given to me.

Your thoughts?

It isn't/wasn't your body to begin with. Everything in nature is just an extended loan. ;O)

 

[Quintessence]

As a biologist, I'm somewhat acquainted with how death is never the end. In particular, of the extreme usefulness of the dead. Those who think the dead are of no use don't understand some very basic things about how our universe works - it all works in cycles and everything serves some purpose.

If you want to understand the importance of death and the dead, study forest ecosystems. In particular, study trees. The common folk think the role of a tree to a forest is over when it dies, but nothing could be further from the truth. Standing dead trees - or snags as they are often called in forestry - support a panoply of organisms. They are part of the greater whole just as the living are. One's role in the whole does not end in death.

Part of why I dislike many modern funerary customs is that the spit in the face of the natural cycles of which we are all part. So I had to smile a bit at the opening post, because it is respectful of the role all things play when they die. It feels quite selfish to try and defy the flow of things, as if nothing greater than yourself matters. Wishing to be of service even in death is honorable in my view.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Completely uninterested in what happens to my body when it has ceased to support the consciousness that is "me."

 

[Jimmy]

I ask this question because it seems I care more deeply than most. I really want to be buried without chemicals, just placed in the natural earth, no frills, wrapped in a light blanket I loved in life. Let the earth feed on what is left of me when I pass. Some beautiful trees and meadows where the earth will hold me until disintegrated by nature. I feel like I need, I have to, I must, feel like I have to. To feel like I have died well. My way of giving back to nature. I can not shake it, I have already taken steps to find places that bury in this way. While it is not common, I hope it becomes more natural for death of those we love.

Why do I care so much about this? Everyone else I have talked to are like....body is dead, no use ...so whatever to it. Shell and nothing left so toss it out like old garbage.
I just cant bear the thought of that, I want my resting years to be beautiful in a place that is beautiful. Giving back, as the earth has given to me.

Your thoughts?

I’ve always thought that’s the way it should be but I understand the law and why people can’t do that. I think cemeteries should do it that way though.

 

[Quagmire]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: when I die, cover me in A1 sauce and drop me over a wildlife reserve.

Since that's probably not going to happen, I would be down for the same method that you're planning on using @DyingJules.

Most of us spend our lives polluting this planet and when we finally have something worthwhile to give back to it, most of us wind up polluting that too.

Not for me.

 

[JustGeorge]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: when I die, cover me in A1 sauce and drop me over a wildlife reserve.

Since that's probably not going to happen, I would be down for the same method that you're planning on using @DyingJules.

Most of us spend our lives polluting this planet and when we finally have something worthwhile to give back to it, most of us wind up polluting that too.

Not for me.

That's what my husband wants done, too, only without the A1.

Is that even a possible option?

 

[Quagmire]

That's what my husband wants done, too, only without the A1.

Is that even a possible option?

Legally? Probably not.

Might not be such a great idea afterall anyway since you would be teaching Coyotes and mountain lions what people taste like.

 

[We Never Know]

Legally? Probably not.

Might not be such a great idea afterall anyway since you would be teaching Coyotes and mountain lions what people taste like.

Some are so full of crap they probably even taste like it

 

[Heyo]

I ask this question because it seems I care more deeply than most. I really want to be buried without chemicals, just placed in the natural earth, no frills, wrapped in a light blanket I loved in life. Let the earth feed on what is left of me when I pass. Some beautiful trees and meadows where the earth will hold me until disintegrated by nature. I feel like I need, I have to, I must, feel like I have to. To feel like I have died well. My way of giving back to nature. I can not shake it, I have already taken steps to find places that bury in this way. While it is not common, I hope it becomes more natural for death of those we love.

Why do I care so much about this? Everyone else I have talked to are like....body is dead, no use ...so whatever to it. Shell and nothing left so toss it out like old garbage.
I just cant bear the thought of that, I want my resting years to be beautiful in a place that is beautiful. Giving back, as the earth has given to me.

Your thoughts?

You really want to place what is considered biohazardous material in nature? Humans are at the end of the food chain and they are very long living. We accumulate all sorts of dangerous chemicals and heavy metals (which frequently help in our demise). If you love nature, you should go for cremation and the ashes put in a well sealed container.

 

[ChristineM]

However you are buried or cremated the first law of thermodynamics ensures your body is reused by nature. Your body breaks down to component atoms and molecules. They are taken up by the soil, absorbed by trees and plants and grasses, eaten by underground living creatures to enable them to grow and developed.
In the long run when these flora and forna have done with your atoms they are taken up by something else to help its developed. And on it goes. Eventually some of your atoms will be absorbed by a human being. In this way we are all made of dead people.

Even in the far distant future when this earth is no more, your atoms will be scattered into space, they may be used to form a new sun or new life on distant planets.

It's a bright future.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I ask this question because it seems I care more deeply than most. I really want to be buried without chemicals, just placed in the natural earth, no frills, wrapped in a light blanket I loved in life. Let the earth feed on what is left of me when I pass. Some beautiful trees and meadows where the earth will hold me until disintegrated by nature. I feel like I need, I have to, I must, feel like I have to. To feel like I have died well. My way of giving back to nature. I can not shake it, I have already taken steps to find places that bury in this way. While it is not common, I hope it becomes more natural for death of those we love.

Why do I care so much about this? Everyone else I have talked to are like....body is dead, no use ...so whatever to it. Shell and nothing left so toss it out like old garbage.
I just cant bear the thought of that, I want my resting years to be beautiful in a place that is beautiful. Giving back, as the earth has given to me.

Your thoughts?

I may be wrong, but it sounds to me that you care more about nature than what happens to your body itself. I see no issues with that.

As for this body, like anything else in this world, it is not mine. This body is nothing more than a vehicle of experience. There is nothing in this transactional reality I can take with me when I leave it behind. What is done with my body at that point is for others that remain, not for me.

 

[Arnaud1221]

Different value in life. Some don't care other do. Maybe person of class care more.

 

[Aupmanyav]

I really want to be buried without chemicals, just placed in the natural earth, no frills, wrapped in a light blanket I loved in life. Let the earth feed on what is left of me when I pass. Some beautiful trees and meadows where the earth will hold me until disintegrated by nature.

Your thoughts?

Nice thought. Make that will. Ask your family to do it your way.
With us, there is no burial, it is cremation. The only thing is that I want to be cremated on bare earth. I do not know if it is possible because we have cemented cremation pits in the cremation grounds - of course, the floor is bricks. So that is earth. But money can do anything in India. Perhaps with a bribe of USD 15, the cremation ground officials will allow my son to cremate my body on a bare patch of earth. I definitely do not want to be cremated in pits made at a higher level made for important persons (sic). I am just an ordinary guy. In less than half an hour, the water molecules in my body, which make 99% of me, will merge into the atmosphere and my son will immerse the rest in Delhi's Yamuna River. Going by % of molecules, we are just bags of water.

 

[I Am Hugh]

I just cant bear the thought of that, I want my resting years to be beautiful in a place that is beautiful. Giving back, as the earth has given to me.

Your thoughts?

Are you from and do you live in the city or country?

 

[The Sum of Awe]

Legally? Probably not.

Might not be such a great idea afterall anyway since you would be teaching Coyotes and mountain lions what people taste like.

They would be even crazier for the taste of human flesh if they were set out there with A1 sauce

 

[The Sum of Awe]

People that say yes to organ donation, which I did, have some interest in making use of their body when they die. It’s a nice idea, like you said, to have the rest given to nature. And I would much prefer that to rotting away in a box.

I guess a couple other things I think about: if I have any pets when I die, I’d like them to sniff my corpse so they know I didn’t abandon them.

Another thing, i would like to be cremated. It is just very finalizing. Especially if my ashes are tossed into the wind.