Death Becomes Us
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Death on a pale horse - Gustave Doré, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Ahh, death. One of two things in life that are unavoidable.
Every one of us is born, and we will die. A prospect many find terrifying. Perhaps it’s because in modern first world countries, we are far removed from death. It’s not a part of our daily lives like it was for our ancestors.
They contended with plague-ridden corpses piled high in the streets during the Black Death of the 1300’s. They lived with the horrendously high rate of death for mothers in childbirth and their newborn infants.
In Victorian times, it was even normal for nana Margaret’s pallid body to be laid out in the parlour for a few weeks after her fatal bout of consumption.
It's fair to assume that a greater familiarity with death would take some of the terror out of the process. But there’s still that nagging uncertainty: What happens after we die? What about my body? My soul?
The Body
The question of what happens to one’s body can be answered in life. All you need is a will to specify what should be done with your remains, and today there is a wealth of options.
You could go for the classic coffin burial and store your skeleton underground. Or have your body cremated and the ashes planted with a tree or blended into a twenty-foot-tall concrete statue of your likeness. Immortality anyone?
Let’s not forget pulverization and liquification. There’s no better way to remember Uncle Joe than with a human smoothie on the mantlepiece!
Then there’s my personal favourite, the sky burial.
Vultures - FishOil at English Wikipedia. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sky burials were practiced in regions of Tibet, India, China, and Mesopotamia for millennia before religions like Zoroastrianism were marginalized. Zoroastrians and Buddhists believe in the transmigration of spirits—a cycle of rebirth—which means that the body need not be preserved after death as it is merely an empty vessel.
The body of the deceased is left exposed to the elements and the scavenging of wild animals, particularly carrion birds like vultures. Nature helps return the corpse quickly and efficiently to the earth, limiting the potential spread of disease.
Tower of Silence - Inside the tower of silence, Bombay. Flickr
The ancient Persians even erected special structures called dakhma, or Towers of Silence, where bodies were left exposed to scavengers on a raised dais. Once the bones had been picked clean, skeletal remains were deposited into a central pit to decompose further.
Human lives are expensive. We take a tremendous amount of resources from the earth to sustain ourselves. In death, a sky burial allows us to give something back. The body decomposes, fertilizing the soil, and nourishing the animals that eat from it.
No burning of fuels or expensive real estate required!
Sky burials are an appealing option for those conscious of the footprint they leave behind, but there’s a small problem. Under Canadian law, a sky burial is viewed as desecration of a corpse…
Well, we’ve all got a friend willing to do a couple years in the clink for us right?
The Soul
For 5000 years or more, religions from all corners of the globe have tried to answer the soul question. No matter what belief system you adhere to, a common thread is that there’s a part of us that is immutable and will persist in some form after we die.
Whether that’s rebirth in a new body, the continuation of life in heaven (or hell), or something else entirely is dependant on the beliefs of the individual. Whatever you believe, having faith dispels some of the uncertainty of death.
For the devout, they need only concern themselves with living according to their religious tenants to be guaranteed a safe place for their soul to reside.
But what if you’re an atheist? You’ve got no faith in a higher power, no promise of life eternal. You may even baulk at the idea of a soul.
Consciousness should be your main concern if that’s the case. Will it be lights out and the end of all perception? Or could our consciousness rejoin the collective oneness of the universe?
You’ll just have to wait to find out!
Universe - Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Nicholas Kungl - is a Professional Writing student at Algonquin College who has always been fascinated by the darker side of life. He started out writing scenes for tabletop RPGs and his friends got a kick out of it. Eventually, he wondered if anyone else would too. He spends his free time doing yoga, listening to music, and wandering green spaces with his dogs.
