OT:After this... what?

**Otto66** · 11-02-2006, 08:18 PM

Found a nifty new web site: http://www.findagrave.com/
Its got listings of the famous and infamous and were they've been
laid to rest and even future plans of some of those still with us.

So, for this thread to serve a dual purpose, I'll ask:
What, if any, are your plans for the hereafter?

Myself? After reading Mary Roach's book "Stiff: The Curious Lives
of Human Cadavers" plan on leaving my body and organs to
medical science. No coffin or crematorium for Uncle Otto.;)

As for my spirit? Well, guess I'll follow that brightlight when I
come to it.

**Gary_B** · 11-02-2006, 08:53 PM

I don't have big plans for the hereafter but I should probably make a few basic plans to spare my loved ones having to make it up on the spot.

I read "Stiff" a couple of years ago and was amazed at how perfectly balanced it was. Mary Roach managed to write an informative book about many of the things that cadavers have been subjected to with an amazingly sensitive blend of humour and respect. It is up there as one of my all time favourite reads.

**Catlin** · 11-02-2006, 11:52 PM

Depending on how old I am when I die, and in what condition, I'm donating all usable parts to others, to give them another shot at life, then the rest, if there is any, is getting cremated and tossed into the ocean.

And if my relatives do not do what I ask, I will come back and haunt them the rest of their lives!

**Hellmistress** · 11-03-2006, 12:28 AM

Well, they can remove any body bits they can use, and after that I want someone to throw my rotting carcase on a large bale of straw in the nearest field, pour some fuel over me and I go out in the biggest BBQ you can think of, as my friends roast marshmallows in the flames and tell stories about crazy ol' Hellmistress. I've asked Doug Jones to sing at my funeral, but he has indignantly refused as apparently I'm not allowed to hit the dust first. I am patently ignoring him and have already put in a request for a show tune - but I haven't decided which one yet. Any suggestions? I have a penchant for SPAMALOT at the moment.

The argument with Mister Jones is still ongoing, BTW.

HM

**parrish** · 11-03-2006, 06:25 AM

I think I'd like to be cremated when I die, after they harvest any usable organs.

I would hate the idea of having a building built over my body somewhere down the road. When I was in Charleston SC on a ghost tour the tour guide told us that some bank down there had paved over a few feet of a graveyard to make room for their drive thru.

**chiaroscuros** · 11-03-2006, 06:27 AM

there is an photograph burned into my head that i would like to share....

imagine endless rows of trees, easily reaching hundreds of feet into the air and so densely canopied that the forest floor is a foot deep in dappled brown leaves. each tree is spaced at least 50 feet from all the other trees (like the columns supporting a stone cathedral). like the bayuo tree, the massive roots of these trees start about five feet above the ground and spread out in all directions. now picture hundreds of stone needles (marking each grave) spread among the huge horizontal roots of the tree in the foreground... and as your eye focuses, you realize that each tree in the forest has its own collection of stone needles...

somewhere in china, they bury you vertically between the roots and let the trees take nourishment from your remains.

THAT is how i would like to go. but sadly, you can't be buried unembalmed in this country. and you have to be embalmed to be shipped out of the country... so damned if you do, damned if you don't...

so clearly the best thing is to donate my body to science and hope that my skeleton ends up in a high school science lab. until pranksters steal it and put me in a halloween fun house! oh, and maybe someone might get some use out of my corneas.....

**Neil Hill** · 11-03-2006, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by chiaroscuros

so clearly the best thing is to donate my body to science and hope that my skeleton ends up in a high school science lab. until pranksters steal it and put me in a halloween fun house! oh, and maybe someone might get some use out of my corneas.....

Well, at least you'll still be wanted Michael- even upon your demise. :)

**Otto66** · 11-03-2006, 07:20 AM

Mary Roach is a hell of a writer. Reading "Spook: Science Tackles
the Afterlife" now. She has been on NPR on several occasions and
shows the same wit and smarts in her interviews as she does in her
writting.

Thanks, everyone.

**Mike Cross** · 11-03-2006, 08:28 AM

Otto, love the Non

Wifey wants to be cremated, i prefer burial as i would like to come back when the meteor flashes overhead and we all walk the earth again

**hellboyone** · 11-03-2006, 09:01 AM

I don't care what's done with my corpse when I die. I'll be dead. :)

**Agent Helix** · 11-03-2006, 09:03 AM

I'll hold you to that, Rick. ;)

**Catlin** · 11-03-2006, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by hellboyone

I don't care what's done with my corpse when I die. I'll be dead. :)

So you don't mind necrophiliacs? I mean, if you don't care, let those poor guys have some fun ;)

Sorry, could not help myself.

**hellboyone** · 11-03-2006, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by Naiad

So you don't mind necrophiliacs? I mean, if you don't care, let those poor guys have some fun ;)

Sure. Let 'em have it. I don't care. I won't be able to care!

**MackSztaba** · 11-03-2006, 07:08 PM

I want to be cremated and my ashes spread in the forest. Not sure where yet, just a natural environment that has some kind of meaning for me. Perhaps my homeland: Poland.:D