How do you feel about cremation as opposed to being buried in a coffin?

I once have been told that they are exactly the same, in that in both cases your remains burn away.
Only the one way the burning goes much faster.
To me, burying sounds more ‘romantic’, especially if i can be buried with my girlfriend (when it is her time, of course) and mine.

Honestly, I’d like to be buried in something biodegradable and inexpensive. I’d rather become mulch and feed a tree or something than be isolated. But I won’t have any opinion on it after the fact.

As long as I’m dead before either of them happen, then it hardly matters. To me, anyway.

I’d prefer to be cremated. I see no point in taking up space when I’m gone.

I will be cremated when I pass away. My decision has no links to spirituality whatsoever. There’s a wonderful chapter in The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera about a woman named Sabina who felt that burying was heavy and cremation was light. I too feel as though burial creates this heaviness. My body will only be a thing – it’s the memory of me I want to remain. I am not a corpse, a coffin, or a cemetery. I’d rather my loved ones scatter my ashes and tell my stories instead.

Money has been allocated in my will for my mummification.

Or I don’t give a shit and eat my skinny corpse if it helps you.

Dead is dead. Unless you come from a family of people that like tending family graves, being buried in a box in the ground really serves little purpose. I think it was different when people stayed in the same town as their ancestors, and were buried in the churchyard.

I will be cremated and have my ashes spread at a certain spot with my husband’s. I don’t want to have a grave site that people go to and sit at in order to feel connected to me. I want them out living their lives.

the process of cremation kinda creeps me out buttt i’d rather be cremated and spread around… and my family and friends will think of me always, because i’ll be everywhere. plus, they’ll be able to have my most prized possessions forever and frequent the spots i loved to go! like what @seaofclouds said above, i’d want them out living their lives too.

I’d rather be cremated. I don’t like the idea of taking up space and something about being buried creeps me out…

@JilltheTooth and I have talked about this many times. Not only does burial take up space, it’s also expensive. I told my momma straight up that I’ll pony up to get her cremated but then she’s not getting a funeral; instead, I’m having people over to my house to remember her. You know what she said? “Oh, honey, take a little money for catering so you don’t have to cook for all those people!”

I want to get the exact same treatment after I die. Burn my body and use the funeral money to send my grandchildren to college.

@KatawaGrey; Stuffed mushrooms would be nice…

I’m not sure yet. I’ve thought about it a ton of times, but.. I don’t know.

-the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out shivers

The worm plays pinnacle on your snout…

I would like a full blown Viking funeral pyre, please.

I want to be cremated.and put in a meatloaf instead of the more traditional urn ;)

I don’t have a burning desire.

I want to be cremated. I have a fear that I really won’t be dead and wake up in a coffin. If I do get buried, I want one of those bells that you can ring incase you’re alive, haha. :P

I want to be cremated because my body is just a shell – I don’t want to think of it staying around and slowly rotting in the ground. Eww. ~shudders~

I have no desire to be cremated at all. Burial doesn’t sit well with me either. I mean, i’m scared of the dark for one thing. Not to mention all those bugs eating my rotting corpse, shudders!! No all things being equal I think i’d rather be preserved. Yeah like a giant pickle for all to point at & stare :¬)

I would hate to be cremated and just left on someones self or stored in a garage. I think my aunt has my grandparents and uncle’s ashes in storage. No thank you! I rather be buried. though, it would be nice to be made into a diamond:)

I’m glad this question has come up, because it allowed me to think about this more than I have in the past.

I’ve decided that my first choice for personal body disposal would be to be eaten by wild animals (or pigs; I understand that they don’t miss a morsel). This would be after death, of course, and not to cause it. No, not that.

In case the animals are unwilling or unavailable, then composting would be a suitable alternative.

Burial at sea is a moderately attractive option, provided I could be buried in a warm part of the ocean, or eaten by sharks. How cool is that? I might be reappearing on Discover! Shark Week annually—maybe my estate could get residuals!

I’m not opposed to being blasted into space.

Anonymous and hidden burial in the concrete pour of a major sports arena would be okay, but I’d want it to be a winning team not from New York or New Jersey. And not soccer. (Beach volleyball sounds cool, but I don’t think there’s a lot of concrete in those places.)

Being ground up into lunch meat or hamburger wouldn’t be so bad. Not dog food, though.

I don’t care, stick a bone up my ass and get the dog to bury me in the back yard. This is one of the biggest waste of money and real estate in the world.

I really don’t care how I’m disposed of, my only concern is that funeral directors don’t try and rip off those I leave behind. I find it disgusting when someone tries to make money out of someone else’s grief. e.g. “do you want the standard coffin for $500 or the eternal love model for $3200?”

If I die on the island I’m living on at the moment, I have the option of going in a lime pit for about $30, that’s the option I will be taking. they take your clothes off, and your body goes in a big pit of lime and water to be dissolved. (2 guys just throw you in, not even any lowering gadget, or sometimes they roll you so you don’t splash lime)

Having said that, any option is quite cheap here where I live. they don’t seem to do all the things they do in the UK out here in Spain. they don’t march down the street with everyone dressed in suits and top hats with flowers everywhere and all that, it tends to be much more discrete.

But really, seeing as I’m dead and the funeral is not technically for me but for those still alive, if they do want to give me some crazy little ritualistic burial and spend some money, its up to them really.

Maybe you could amuse me by letting me know before I die that yes, you will be playing some certain songs or videos. some AC/DC, maybe Carl Sagan’s pale blue dot and things like that.

@CyanoticWasp You might want to consider The Body Farm.

For me, take what is salvageable for anyone else and torch the rest. The ashes can go in the flower garden or in the woods.

Here is an interesting option for those of you interested in cremation. http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-08/27/and-vinyly

@Austinlad : G2

i want to be buried and scattered in the Wisconsin river. There is a awesome fishing spot next to this big rock where I use to sit and fish when I was a kid.Spent many hours there. My best friend knows where it is. I want to be scattered there. So I guess I will be fish food. LOL.

@Pied_Pfeffer I’ve read the book—I’ve read all of Patricia Cornwell’s books—and I know about the Body Farm. I sort of had that on my mind as I was writing my last response.

Cremation and have my ashes buried in the ground (in a small grave). Saves room.

Not to sound morbid (and this is difficult to say), but, my Mom was cremated and her ashes buried in a cemetery. And, I feel better knowing that she was cremated as opposed to having her body decomposing in the ground. I visit there often.

Yes, I would want a place where family members could go and “visit” and me.

@CyanoticWasp I think Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard is fairly close to The Body Farm. Maybe he can be an escort and give a gun salute when the time comes.

@Pied_Pfeffer he can only hope; I plan to outlive him.

@CyanoticWasp I love your attitude. :)

There’s a beautiful, historic cemetery in my old home town that I’ve always wanted to be buried in. My grandmother was cremated, and her ashes put in a mausoleum… I didn’t like visiting a cold wall of marble, her name etched next to many others. I like the idea of an old-fashioned headstone (again, not sleek marble) to visit, but wouldn’t mind being cremated first and placed in a tiny grave. I may change my mind some day, and have my ashes scattered, but for now… a headstone it is.

My grandparents were cremated (as were, and will be, everyone else in the family) and the ashes buried in a family grave just like anyone who gets buried. Except we take up less room. :)

I prefer it. Getting buried is a waste of space, IMO.