Burial vs cremation

I don't care about what happens to my body after it dies - it ain't that nice being in it anyway and when it dies I doubt I'll miss it. BUT much more importantly for me is that my body isn't kept working when by rights it should be allowed to stop working and in so doing allow me to escape this dimension again.

There will always another time if I want to take another stab at life in-the-body.

[aimtobe]

I'm hoping to donate my whole body for either research or to help someone else. Makes me wonder though, if I reincarnate...

Originally Posted by aimtobe

I'm hoping to donate my whole body for either research or to help someone else. Makes me wonder though, if I reincarnate...

If you were to decide to return to another life here you wouldn't be using your old body anyway. The body doesn't reincarnate.

[Starman]

Your last remains, for lots of people, mean more to their loved ones than they do to the deceased. I was reading about how when the U.S. Secretary of State is in North Korea he will try to get them to release about 200-last remains of American military who died during the Korean War, which ended 65-years ago, and there are American families who really want those remains. It means a lot to them.

But an unclaimed corpse, especially the homeless here in the U.S., are often donated to medical schools, buried in a mass grave with other unclaimed bodies, or cremated; depending on the policy of the locale, city, county, etc. Because they are the ones who foot the bill if the body is unclaimed, there are no private means available, or they may not have cremation facilities available, so they may only have one way of disposing of unclaimed bodies in their jurisdiction.

I have worked in outlying rural areas in towns that only had a very small hospital, or no hospital at all, and the funeral home was in the next town over. The nearest medical school was 150 or more miles away, and families had no money to transport the body of a loved one, so they left it up to the local town government's policy to dispose of the body.

Unless you have left a means for disposing of your body, the disposal of your last remains may not be up to you. Most probably it was not the wish of those American Korean War military members to have their last remains stay in North Korea for 65-years after their death, but like I said, their remains most likely mean more to their surviving loved ones, and our country, than it probably meant for some of them.

Originally Posted by Starman

Your last remains, for lots of people, mean more to their loved ones than they do to the deceased. I was reading about how when the U.S. Secretary of State is in North Korea he will try to get them to release about 200-last remains of American military who died during the Korean War, which ended 65-years ago, and there are American families who really want those remains. It means a lot to them.

But an unclaimed corpse, especially the homeless here in the U.S., are often donated to medical schools, buried in a mass grave with other unclaimed bodies, or cremated; depending on the policy of the locale, city, county, etc. Because they are the ones who foot the bill if the body is unclaimed, there are no private means available, or they may not have cremation facilities available, so they may only have one way of disposing of unclaimed bodies in their jurisdiction.

I have worked in outlying rural areas in towns that only had a very small hospital, or no hospital at all, and the funeral home was in the next town over. The nearest medical school was 150 or more miles away, and families had no money to transport the body of a loved one, so they left it up to the local town government's policy to dispose of the body.

Unless you have left a means for disposing of your body, the disposal of your last remains may not be up to you. Most probably it was not the wish of those American Korean War military members to have their last remains stay in North Korea for 65-years after their death, but like I said, their remains most likely mean more to their surviving loved ones, and our country, than it probably meant for some of them.

good points - The bereaved need a way to come to terms with their loss and their needs are most important. After all for us it won't matter a scrat anyway what happened to our mortal remains after we passed over.

All our wishes and preparations really don't matter a jot.

[Starman]

I remember working in a hospital with a terminally ill patient who only had a day or so to live, and I would go into his room to see how he was doing, and he would crack jokes, we would laugh together, and I believe that he had accepted his death and had accepted that he only had a day or so to live.

His relatives came to visit, and I left the room to give him some privacy with his loved ones. They crowded around his bed, they were all very sad, and some of them cried out loud. After they left I went back into the patients room and asked him “how are you doing; to which he replied, I was doing great until I saw my relatives.

He had accepted his death but they had not. At least in a terminal illness people have a chance to say goodbye, if they want to. Unlike other, more immediate, methods of dying. People react differently to a loved one who is murdered than they do to a loved one who commits suicide, or a loved one who dies in an accident. However, death does the same thing to our body no matter how we die, it kills our body.

The thing about watching a terminally ill patient die is that you can feel, and maybe even see, their presence leave the body at the time of death. 24-hours or so before a terminally ill person dies there is a lot of sublime activity around their body. Even if they are in a coma there is a lot of activity in their eyes, a lot of energy surrounding them. Lots of nurses and doctors, as well as loved ones, have noticed this and it is a topic of discussion among some who work in the medical field or at a hospice. Sort of like a ground crew that has come to help that person with their lift-off.

Originally Posted by Starman

I remember working in a hospital with a terminally ill patient who only had a day or so to live, and I would go into his room to see how he was doing, and he would crack jokes, we would laugh together, and I believe that he had accepted his death and had accepted that he only had a day or so to live.

His relatives came to visit, and I left the room to give him some privacy with his loved ones. They crowded around his bed, they were all very sad, and some of them cried out loud. After they left I went back into the patients room and asked him “how are you doing; to which he replied, I was doing great until I saw my relatives.

He had accepted his death but they had not. At least in a terminal illness people have a chance to say goodbye, if they want to. Unlike other, more immediate, methods of dying. People react differently to a loved one who is murdered than they do to a loved one who commits suicide, or a loved one who dies in an accident. However, death does the same thing to our body no matter how we die, it kills our body.

The thing about watching a terminally ill patient die is that you can feel, and maybe even see, their presence leave the body at the time of death. 24-hours or so before a terminally ill person dies there is a lot of sublime activity around their body. Even if they are in a coma there is a lot of activity in their eyes, a lot of energy surrounding them. Lots of nurses and doctors, as well as loved ones, have noticed this and it is a topic of discussion among some who work in the medical field or at a hospice. Sort of like a ground crew that has come to help that person with their lift-off.

The reasons that folk react so differently are - as you will already know - because they're sad they'll be losing a loved one but equally importantly that they may have no understanding of death or about life eternal. They see a physical person die and probably fear that's the last time they'll see the person they knew. Their misery may last the remainder of their own lives.

There's little we can do to console them unless we can show that we are eternal beings, that their loved ones aren't lost forever. Easy to say but it can be decidedly hard to do.

[Native spirit]

I have to agree with starman I used to work with the elderly in a home.then I took time out of work to care for friends until they passed there is a lot of activity around them.you can smell death and hear the death rattle.
when my mother passed she was in hospital.doctors all told my dad and siblings she would be coming home.
I knew she wouldn't I saw my brother waiting for her she was in an awful amount of pain a day before she passed the pain lifted.she sat up and was speaking to everybody. until she saw me.and the look of hate on her face said it all. she didn't like me and the feeling was mutual. then she turned away looked at everybody in the room and passed away.

Namaste

[linen53]

What horrible scars Native Spirit.

[Starman]

Native Spirit, I have seen that surge in energy/activity right before a person’s death many times, and sometimes it fool’s many doctors who are not on that enegy sensitive level.

Two days before my mother died we had a big argument over the phone; I was in Denver and she was in New York. The argument was about my father, who had died years before, and it got so heated that my mother hung up the phone on me while I was in mid-sentence, and then she unplugged the phone from the wall.

I heard two days later that she had passed away from a heart attack, and my older sister who had heard about the argument blamed me for my mother’s death. I was not allowed to attend the funeral of my own mother because my siblings were so angry with me, and even today my sister will not speak to me. Family has a way of leaving scars on us in ways no stranger ever could.

I was glad when my mother died, because she had so much anger and rage about my father dying and leaving her behind. There was nothing no one could say that could console her, and she got very upset at anyone who tried. It seems my sister, who prides herself on being like my mother, has taken on some of those traits.

WALK ON,
By an American Native, Jyota

“Good morning, Grandfather. I entered this life a ways back and put skin on to walk two-legged on this creation – and what a glorious time it has been.

It taught me about breath and about sensing and feeling and caring through my heart. And I walked on around that Red Road, looking and trying to understand more about the mystery and the secrets she holds.

And you spoke to me through the wind, and you sang to me through the birds, and you bought challenges forth so that I might listen to the message you bring me more sincerely, and I kept walking down that road. And I came ‘round this bend, at the middle of that curve in the road, and I began to find a secret, in the Spirit of my Self. And still I walked on, sometimes blind and deaf, and sometimes with pain. But I fought with my fears and I embraced my unknowingness – and still I walked on…

And I kept on walking on this road towards you, towards that other world that grew closer to me with each step. And as the door of the Great Spirit world came closer, my fear loomed up inside sometimes…

But something called me forth – the Morning Star rose with each day – and my prayers became a centering – and still I walked on, until I began to hear the song of the Mother, and her arms embraced me so, that instead of walking, She carried me right to the door. And as the door opened, I heard her song, and her song lifted me up, so I could soar.”