Cremation vs Burial: The Pros and Cons You Need to Know to Make an Informed Decision

In this video, Alexandria, Virginia Estate Planning Attorney Misha Gill will discuss about the pros and cons of cremation versis burial.
For more details, read our blog article: speedwelllaw.co...
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Estate planning is a generous act of care for your family in Virginia. It’s a forward-thinking and compassionate gesture that ensures clarity at a time of confusion and preservation at a time of loss.
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Speedwell Law PLLC
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[@johno4521]

My wife asked my wishes and, having no preferences either way, I just told her to surprise me..😂

[@electricelectric1500]

Love the conversational tone of this video. Really informative as well.

[@awhig2474]

*What is better, cremation or burial?* Lets leave Cremation or Burial aside for a while. I ask you, will you allow your loved ones to become food for scavengers like dogs, hyenas, vultures etc? Most will feel horrid and disapprove. Next I will say what if we leave the human dead body away from our eyes in a jungle enclosure to become food for some scavenger. I still expect a lot of disapproval, that whether in front or away from our eyes, getting our loved one torn and devoured by scavengers is awful. Right? But have we ever realised what happens to dead bodies under the soil, away from our sight? They become food for beetles and maggots, apart from releasing a lot of toxins and gases in the soil. Are we willfully preferring beetles and maggots over vultures and hynas and dogs?Actually we are "inadvertently" making our loved ones into food for micro-organisms and insects, without ever realising this.many ancient cultures, both systems (burial and cremation) are prescribed, but cremation is considered a superior method. Why? Read on. The ancient easterners had long analysed that body is empirically composed of the 5 elements - viz - earth (minerals), water (80% by weight of us is water), air (gaseous components), fire (body is continously generating energy which is symbolised by fire) and Ether (a media that transcends and pervades the entire universe). So they thought, to 'properly' end the body, we must process it in "the fastest possible way" to "disintegrate" and "escape" into its basic emperical entities. Any other method, which is slow, subjects the dead body of the loved one to abuse (like being eaten and consumed by maggots). Also, the theory behind choosing cremation cannot be understood in isolation. We have to understand the eastern theory of Transmigration of the soul. The soul changes bodies like we change clothes, unless it achieves Moksha or Nirvana. This cycles of transmigration into variois births is called sadgati in Sanskrit, which, at its extreme maturity, culminates into Nirvana or Moksha both of which mean liberation from a cycle of births. The eastern time is cyclic (it repeats), in contrast to Abrahamic timescale which is linear, wherein you (the soul) comes from somewhere ( I don't know from where), spends a lifetime on earth, dies, rests somewhere (I don't know where it rests), and then its given an afterlife of perperual indulgence or perpetual damnation or suffering, based on what God judges on a judement day. (Nothing repeats). The Japanese Zen theory says, we (the souls) are waves upon the surface of the ocean, such that, while always being part of the ocean, we (the souls) get a "transient" existence and identity, till we merge back into the ocean. Here, ocean is that supreme God or supreme power or supreme consciousness, and the wave is a soul or your conciousness, the act of merging with the ocean is Nirvana or Moksha. So, our real identity is our consciousness (actually called Turiya, which merely means 4th state), and a corporality or body is of no real importance. Its like a cloth which the real us (our self or soul or conciousness) wears for a lifetime, then discards to find a new lifeform (a new covering or cloth) Now since the body left behind has no value once the soul leaves it, the first thing is to remove any and all attachments with the dead body, which was never the real self. This is followed by rituals which symbolise the "detachment" of the family members with the departed soul, allowing it to move forward to its onward journey (sadgati) , towards a new life in a new body (or Moksha or Nirvana as the case may be, depending on the acts and deeds in past lives). Detachment is an important concept in Eastern thoughts. A soul gets faster and easily detached with the body which had housed it for one full life term. A cremated body looses all form and tangibility very fast. And hence it becomes easier for the departed soul as well as family members to get "detached" with the lifeless body. Many will find it horrific to see their loved ones burn during Cremation. Its like torturing a loved one. But such feelings arise out of attachment to the corporality and a false sense that the Body is of any permanence or the body itself is the true identity and true self. The body is lifeless and has no sense of pain when we burn it. Many religions and cults preach that a burried body will resurrect itself with bones and flesh intact on some judement day. All such notions lack depth of understanding. Whether we cremated or bury, the body simply disintegrates and decomposes. In Cremation, there is fast disintegration into its constituents - viz - earth, water, air, fire and ether, and the body of the beloved departed is not defiled by insects or animals. In burial the body is consumed by various bacterias, maggots and beatles, under the cover of the soil, and it finally, after a long torturous decomposition, is left mere bones. Such bones are often dug and used for occult practices, believed to recall and control the deceased, to gain superhuman powers. Any lifeform which dies, the act of decomposition starts immediately. The cells in the variety of tissues of various organs stop getting any oxygen. Blood circulation stops and diffusion of gases at cell level is curtailed. The cell's cytoplasm retains the carbondioxide, and becomes toxic. The lyzosomes inside the cell, break their membrane in a toxic cytoplasm, and thus release their extremely strong digestive enzymes. These enzymes from the burst opened lysosome digest the cell itself, and then continue to digest other cells. The resultant toxic fluid of this rampant internal digestion turns the body blue (unless it is kept in ice). Micro-organisms within our body, also start eating the body inside out. All these actions result in toxic effluents (which are enzymes) and building up of gases. The body swells due to this gas and gives a very repulsive odor. This odor attracts external micro-organisms, maggots, flesh eating beetles, small and large animals to eat the body. Burying a body saves it from not being eaten by large animals but small animals and insects find their way to the body in a grave too. As the body decomposes, a lot of toxic effluents (digestive enzymes) start oozing from the eyes, nose, ears, private parts or any holes made by maggots. These are very strong enzymes. They mix with the soil and severely decrease its fertility. Plants near a self-decomposing body start decaying itself. Even after many days of the end of self-decomposition process, plants do not grow in the vicinity of a dead corpse. Gradually the soil regains its fertility in few weeks and the plants can regrow. So this is what happens in a burial. In addition to the above, a burial uses valuable earth for decades and centuries, which otherwise could have been used for cultivation or other uses. Apart from this burial involves masonary and construction, which has very high carbon footprint. Burial also promotes attachment to the body, which, if we think deeply is, impermanent and perishable. Detachment is important. We need to move on and accept death as a reality. Some may say, I don't mind a maggots eating my loved ones. It makes their body useful for something. For that, I woukd6 suggest, apart from severe toxins effused inside a grave during burial, we are just giving preference to maggots and beetles. The Zoroastrians, just like Hindus, understand that the body is not the real Self. So they also have a good way to give back to the nature "without discrimination". They take their dead and hang them on a tree in a jungle, where any and every scavenger, "without discrimination" feasts on the dead body. Vultures, kites, hawk, mest eating birds, hyenas, jackals, foxes, rodents, maggots, all eat without discrimination. Isn't it better?

[@awhig2474]

Wake up@@Marinebiologist9284 Wake up Smell the coffee. Read science

[@kevinwatkins6615]

Master cut and paste job

[@awhig2474]

@@kevinwatkins6615 Every word mine I know you are overwhelmed.... Drink some water and take rest Don't get consumed by Maggots and Flesh Beatles

[@johno4521]

I bet the Co-Op does get some 'unusual' requests....

[@SylvainSybaris]

My father died in 1990 when he was only 49 yrs. old.... He was cremated and kept in a Urn.... During my Van-Camping travels over the decades of business & pleasure all over North America, I buried tiny portion of his ashes everywhere in so many special places in 48 States & half of Canada, such as National & State Parks, and Points of Interest, the Atlantic & Pacific ocean, the Caribbean Sea and all the Great lakes.... I'm 60 now and planning an Alaska Van-Camping excursion driving from Florida to Alaska in the next year, so part of him will be Alaska & the Arctic Ocean and the remaining Canadian Provinces.... No, none of this was what my father ever said he wanted, but it's my way of honoring my dad.... and I know for a fact that NO ONE would spread my ashes in ALL 50 States & AKK the Great Lakes & ALL the Canadian Provinces & 3 Oceans & the Caribbean Sea.... So ya, no one would ever or could ever do that for me, so I am doing this for my father..... No worries, as I will save a portion of my dads ashes in the Urn for keeping.

[@levelup2xs]

it's been a long time, but can you speak on cryonics, freezing the dead, so that they can be alive again please?

[@joe18425]

Oh it makes their job easier ! Looks like burial for me as he who laughs last etc..... 👁👄👁🍿

[@jvlp2046]

Luke 9:60 (paraphrased) Christ Jesus had instructed and said, "Let the dead (spiritually dead but physically alive) BURY their own dead (physically dead)."... it is clearly stated not to CREMATE but to bury the dead body unless there was a contagious disease that will cause the epidemic/pandemic to the nation and also unless the person has no financial capabilities to apply proper burial lots and services to their dead love ones... then, with God's kind understanding of "reason" which is unlimited, God allowed cremation. God does not like the smell of burnt dead bodies (flesh and blood corpses), that is why God stopped Abraham upon knowing his true faith from killing his only son Isaac to be burnt for God... In the Book of Ezekiel, God allowed to "BURN" the dry bones,... why?...specifically "DRY" Bones because it has no more Flesh and Blood attached to them...

[@hnah8680]

Yeah but he's gon burn the dead in hellfire and like that smell?

[@A-list]

L0SER.