In Pictures: Frozen in Time
Photographer Murray Ballard catalogues the world of cryonics, which involves freezing a dead person’s body in liquid nitrogen until technology has advanced enough to bring them back to life.

Photographer Murray Ballard’s Best Shot
‘This is a cryonics lab. Four whole bodies can be frozen in each vat. But just getting your head done is cheaper’
Kate Abbott, The Guardian (August 15, 2011)

One day, in the future, the people who chose to have either their heads or their whole bodies cryogenically preserved will look back at these photos as the in-between-time in their lives.

So the theory of cryopreservation and eventual reanimation suggests.

I’m still not sold on the idea that cryopreservation will work but I am fascinated by the people who opt for the procedure.

Photo by Murray Ballard

I am also curious what happens when people who died a century (or more) ago find themselves in a world which has moved on without them. That specific problem fascinates me the most.

But we are not here today to discuss the practicalities of cryopreservation. No no. We’re here to discuss photography. It just so happens that a new photography exhibition by Murray Ballard has opened in Bradford, England and it captures how the cryopreservation process appears to the non-cryogenically preserved individual.

Ballard’s images, which can be seen in the articles at the top, show how industrially heavy the cryopreservation process becomes. I was also struck by how low-tech the entire process looks in these photographs.

Robert Ettinger, the man considered to be the ‘father of modern cryogenics,’ recently died and you can read his obituary here. His body was cryopreserved after he died.

The Death Reference Desk has run a series of articles on cryogenics and you can read those here.

And here is a little 1990′s era cryopreservation humor….

Reviving a Ritual of Tending to the Dead
Paul Vitello, The New York Times (December 13, 2010)
A new generation of Jewish volunteers is learning how to prepare a body for burial using techniques that attend to “the feelings of the dead.”

It has been a good year for people who want to re-discover the roots of Jewish funereal practices. Last March I posted a story about a documentary film which documented a group of Jewish women preparing a dead body.

What is really interesting to me is how Jewish (and Muslim) customs are being studied by non-Jews and non-Muslims for their own dead. Indeed, a good number of Natural Burial and Home Funeral proponents borrow ideas from both Islam and Judaism.

Credit: The New York Times

This New York Times is a variation on that theme, where non-Orthodox Jews living in Brooklyn want to learn what is done when a person dies. I also find this situation more and more, where a certain religious group suddenly realizes that most of its members do not know what to do when a member of the faith dies. I’ve spoken with funeral directors who have been asked point blank what a certain religious faith requires– from members of that faith.

Everything eventually gets sorted out but it still makes for awkward conversations.

I wouldn’t mind knowing, either, what these funeral practices look like in 1000 years.

That to me is the most important point to contemplate: what stays and what goes.

What does it all morph into since dead bodies will most certainly still be around.

Interesting article in last Sunday’s NY Times Magazine about cryonics; or more to the point, cryonocists and the people who love them. The article is fascinating for the fact that it delves not so much into the science informing cryonic preservation (as our last cryonics post did) but rather, about how differing beliefs about the practice in the context of marriage can be problematic. It’s he said/she said taken to a whole new level. Ba-da-bing!

Peggy and Robin, the couple primarily featured in the piece is especially interesting because wife Peggy (the unenamored one) is herself a hospice care worker, well-versed in end-of-life issues but vehemently opposed to husband Robin’s plans for the final disposition of his head after death. Peggy finds the quest “an act of cosmic selfishness.” Robin, an economics professor, is “a deep thinker, most at home in thought experiments” but sensitive enough to understand the potential abandonment issues. Apparently, this type of discord has a name—and could be confused for the punch line of an Andy Capp cartoon. According to the article:

Peggy’s reaction might be referred to as an instance of the “hostile-wife phenomenon,” as discussed in a 2008 paper by Aschwin de Wolf, Chana de Wolf and Mike Federowicz.“From its inception in 1964,” they write, “cryonics has been known to frequently produce intense hostility from spouses who are not cryonicists.”

Even though the article is intended as a serious look at the marital strife that can be caused by deeply held beliefs about death, life and what comes after, I couldn’t help but think about Woody Allen movies and imagined New Yorker cartoons—and my own marriage. While my husband has no plans for cryonic preservation, his vague plan involving the reanimation of his skeleton, a large glass vitrine and the gerryrigged ability to emit recorded voice clips with the push of a button, has generated much discussion and debate in our marriage. My husband is a bit of a joker, but in this he is dead serious (pun intended). All I can say is, I love you honey, but I hope I die first.

Anubis, God of Death

Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, has joined the ever-growing population of deathly artworks at the Denver International Airport (DIA).

Denver’s local ABC affiliate, KMGH, reports that horrified travelers are now greeted by the 26-foot tall statue upon arrival in the main terminal.

Anubis is being erected in anticipation of the Denver Art Museum’s upcoming King Tut exhibit. The jackal-headed god now joins Mustang, also known as the “Bluecifer” or “Demon Horse” statue by Luis Jimenez and Leo Tanguma’s Nazi-inspired two part mural entitled Children of the World Dream Peace.

Bluecifer

DIA has garnered much praise and criticism over the years for its extensive public art program which has featured a wide variety of paintings, murals and sculptures, in addition to various commemorative plaques and parquetry.

Children of the World Dream Peace has probably garnered the most attention, inspiring multiple conspiracy theories about its message and meanings. With its gun-wielding, sword-brandishing, gas-masked soldier figure, you may be able to see why. The giant blue mustang with the glowing red eyes and popping black veins has also struck fear into the hearts of travelers—although more for its ominous presence—than any overtly death-inspired message. Although, the fact that the artist, Luis Jimenez, DIED from being crushed under the sculpture when it fell on him, may also add to the creep-out factor.

Yours truly at DIA

But now Denverites and weary travelers can gaze upon and contemplate the newest addition to the airport—Anubis—the Egyptian god of the dead and embalming. According to Ancient Egypt Online:

Anubis is the greek version of his name. The Egyptians knew him as Anpu (or Inpu). Anubis was an extremely ancient deity whose name appears in the oldest mastabas of the Old Kingdom and the Pyramid Texts as a guardian and protector of the dead. He was originally a god of the underworld, but became associated specifically with the embalming process and funeral rites. His name is from the same root as the word for a royal child, “inpu”. However, it is also closely related to the word “inp” which means “to decay”, and one versions of his name (Inp or Anp) more closely resembles that word. As a result it is possible that his name changed slightly once he was adopted as the son of the King, Osiris. He was known as “Imy-ut” (“He Who is In the Place of Embalming”), “nub-tA-djser” (“lord of the scared land”).

The interpretation and criticism of art is a heady business. Assigning meaning is never cut and dried—even when the artist him/herself explains the creation. Despite observations by sanctioned or unappointed art critics, we are all ultimately left to our own devices in this process. Much as in death, it’s a solo trip. So if you have visited or will visit the DIA and have any extreme feelings one way or another about their art collection and its possible deathly implications, drop us a line and give us your insights.

A bull sarcophagus in which a member of the Ubud royal family was cremated burns during the funeral ceremony Tuesday July 15, 2008 in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)

What does a cremation sound like? Most of us in the Western world would be hard-pressed to answer that question. Cremation is something that takes place out of sight, and for most, out of mind. The fiery furnaces are lit, the body is rolled in and a few hours later, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It is sterile, it is discreet and it is solitary.

But if you could hear it, what would it sound like? If you could see it, what would it look like? And, indeed, what would it smell like? Seattle visual and sound artist Jesse Paul Miller and his wife Linda Peschong, a photographer, visited southeast Asia in the early part of 2008. Planning to stay only until June, they were able to extend their stay in Bali an extra month. July in Bali is cremation season. And to their delight, the largest of such public ceremonies involving cremation of royal family members was about to begin.

What follows is the narrative of Jesse’s experiences while in Bali, retold here in his own voice. Through field recordings, you can experience the aural intensity of the cremation ceremony itself. The rich, sonic landscape features crowd noises, gamelans, drums and chanting as the procession takes place. Specific tracks of interest are noted at the end of the narrative.

Jesse Paul Miller:

July in Bali is cremation season. This is the month when it’s flooded by tourists, there to see cremation rituals. Cremation processions take place during other times of the year and one will undoubtedly see a procession any time they are visiting.

In all of the banjar (meeting places) around Ubud, people were creating spirit guide animals for others who were to be sent away in a mass cremation of 54 people on July 19. There was a 100-meter tower being constructed in the middle of the town for the big ceremony on July 15. During the first couple of weeks in July we watched as the creation of these guides and the tower grew. Every day, large groups of people worked on building them by carving and cutting paper and other materials into beautiful patterns. Alongside this they were creating many kinds of smaller offerings. The Balinese are incredible artists and craftspeople.

When a person dies in Bali, they are sent away according to the rules of the Balinese Hindu Trimurti. Many things in Bali are done with specific reasons in mind and in threes. Black, white, and red represent Brahma (the deep base of all knowing energy of the universe god), Wisnu (the god of life and existence), and Siwa (the god of death and rebirth). Accordingly, after a person passes away, they are buried for five years in the earth so that this part of their body and spirit may go back to the earth. Then, their bodies are exhumed, and carried in the aforementioned processions with their guardian animal (bull, dragon, fish, tiger), and burned, so that this part of their spirit goes to the skies or heaven. After the body is burned, the bones are gathered, made into a mini version of the deceased and ceremonially wrapped and brought to the sea for that part of the spirit to join the ocean. If royalty, they even do a fourth part where some part of the body is brought to the top of the mountain, the holiest place.

The cremation of royal family members Tjokorda Gde Agung Suyasa, Tjokorda Gede Raka, and ashes of Desak Raka became international news due to the importance of this ceremony. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has a terrific archive here.

The day of the procession, the small town of Ubud became inundated with thousands of people and press from all around the world. We arrived on the street four hours earlier, stood and waited while it became more and more packed with people, until we were sandwiched up on a little ledge against a wall, while more filled in.

They had cut power lines so the tower could move down the street. Alongside this, people were completely packed in, 1 street wide, 2km long, 30 thousand people. It was dense indeed! The procession happened very quickly, and with an overwhelming human energy that I can’t really describe, but which must be felt. Gamelan baleganjur, or marching gamelan troupes preceded. These were first designed for battle but now used for cremations to frighten bad spirits.

Neighboring village groups, wearing matching polo shirts emblazoned with village-specific logos walked the giant bull, dragon, and finally the massive tower with a priest in a trance at the top and the body by us and down the 2 km road to the cremation site. The various groups passed along these big objects. It is said that it’s impossible to carry the tower, due to the weight, but that the spirits of the dead help the living carry it. The manifestation of energy was truly powerful. As they approached, there were ecstatic shouts from everyone and the charging gamelans ahead of them. It all went by very fast.

That evening, we watched the Burning of the Bull. Mobbed with international photographers and press, Balinese royalty, foreigners and citizens, this area was packed. Before the burning, a man said on the speaker system “Be very careful! It can get crazy!” When they burned the bull, big pieces of molten fabric drifted down, sending people scattering. At the end, we watched men blast the bodies with flame torches to clean the bones.

Four days later, we experienced a less hyped and more traditional cremation ceremony, in the graveyard within the sacred monkey forest in Ubud. Every 5 years, groups of people are cremated. In this case, there were 54 people in their attendant animal (the ones we had witnessed people creating all month), all lined up in a relatively small area.

If a family is too poor to have a member cremated, the community has a pool of money to help so that everyone gets sent to the gods in equal manner. To one side of this long and narrow plot was a fenced off area with an open building, segmented, with each body in one. There was a priest incanting over a loudspeaker; the crowds of people who came to witness and the families were wearing ceremonial sarongs. At one end of the fenced-off area perhaps 3 or 4 gamelans were arrayed. On these, children were allowed to play whatever they wanted. The sounds created were an abstract and confusing mash of all kinds of bell sounds. I think of it as ‘free gamelan’ (as in ‘free jazz’). I wondered if this was done for a spiritual manner, but people there said it was just so the children could have fun. It added a beautiful and surreal audio background to everything. Over this a man would call out the family name in the speaker system.

Then, the family would escort the body, beautifully wrapped to the animal. Next, with the aid of a priest they would give small offerings to the deceased–little bits of food and other sundries to bring along for their use in the afterlife. When this was done, they were all burned at once. Groups of people sang traditional songs around small offerings, and a cloud of nasty black smoke wafted over everyone. Afterwards, the fire truck arrived with a hose, watering down the remains. Finally, they placed small white bamboo frame fabric boxes and placed them over the remains.

This day, as all days in Bali, was chosen according to the Balinese calendar. This day was Kajeng Kliwon, the day of every month when there’s a full moon. This day to the Balinese is the day the bridge is narrowest between life and death, making it easiest for the spirit to pass to the next world. That night, all of the dogs howled and barked like mad into the night, more than any other night we spent in our two months in Bali.

I found the cremation rituals in Bali (as well as all of their culture) to be incredibly refreshing. They’re a living demonstration of living life without fear of death. Balinese don’t worry; they’re Hindu-Buddhist and will be re-born again! They have developed their passing rituals into something flowing, beautiful, disciplined, and celebratory.

People carry the black bull sarcophagus and a tower prior to the Balinese royals cremation ceremony in Ubud, Bali ilsand on July 15, 2008. (BAY ISMOYO/AFP/Getty Images)

Audio tracks of interest (Limited edition CDs are available for purchase):

The big cremation procession (track 13)
Children playing the gamelan at the mass cremation (track 12)
The hosing down of burnt sarcophagi with fire truck hose after burning at the mass cremation (track 2)

To properly describe every aspect of my experience, I’d need to write a book. If you’re interested in finding more about Balinese death rituals and all other aspects of the world of the Balinese, I highly recommend the excellent and thorough Bali: Sekala & Niskala, by Fred B. Eiseman, Jr., vols. 1 & 2

A beautiful book of photos, Vanishing Presence, by Linda Peschong documents our travels to Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, and Japan.

Episode 27: The Sisters Fox
Nate DiMeo, The Memory Palace (March 12, 2010)

In his latest podcast at The Memory Palace, Nate DiMeo tells the story of the Fox Sisters in mid-nineteenth century America. These girls spooked their parents and neighbors with tales of communing with the dead. Naturally, this turned into a sell-out show in New York City, where the teenager sisters wowed the rich and famous with their necromantic talents.

While there were plenty of skeptics, believers abounded. Why? Says DiMeo:

They wanted to believe. This was the 1850s — people just died all the time from diseases, minor flu and infections. Things that don’t kill us now. Their family members, their friends, their kids would die in childbirth, in accidents at work and at home, why wouldn’t they want to believe they weren’t gone? That those they lost could be found.

Soon people were holding séances like we hold dinner parties. They were putting their faith in tarot readers and mystics. Some were just scam artists, others were just wrong. They were just seeing things that weren’t there. But all of them together were changing America, in the way its people thought about death and life. And this modern spiritualism… stayed at the center of American life for decades to come.

Listen to the podcast!

Robert C.W. Ettinger

The January 25 issue of the New Yorker features an amusing article about cryopreservation of bodies, a.k.a. cryogenics or cryonics. The article doesn’t so much shed light on the science of this controversial procedure; but rather, it spotlights Robert C.W. Ettinger, one of the founders of the cryonics movement.

The ninety-one year old Ettinger gives journalist Jill Lepore a tour of his Cryonics Institute, about 20 miles northeast of Detroit. Ettinger is matter-of-fact as he dodders around the facility and explains the processes and pitfalls of cryopreservation. Ettinger’s two wives and his mother are frozen at the Institute as part of the current total of 883 members, not including the 64 pets also in cryostasis. Several pictures are here from the Immorality Institute’s forum page.

In his youth, Ettinger was a reader and writer of science fiction which informed his interest in and ultimately his career choice as a cryonicist. And indeed, he has an interesting take on what the future holds. Regarding the idea that if no one ever dies, won’t there be too many people on the planet? Ettinger posits:

The people could simply agree to share the available space in shifts and could “go into suspended animation from time to time to make room for others.” There will be no childbirth. Fetuses will be incubated in jars. Essentially, motherhood will be abolished. Then too, eugenics will help keep the birthrate down, and deformed babies could be frozen against the day that someone might actually want them.”

If you wish to learn more about Mr. Ettinger’s postulations, visit your local library or retailer and take a gander at some of his books:

Prospect of Immortality (2005)
Man into Superman (2005)
Youniverse: Toward a Self-Centered Philosophy of Immortalism and Cryonics (2009)

Funeral Pyres judgment Reserved
BBC News (January 18, 2010)

Hindu Fights for Open-Air Cremation
UKPA (January 17, 2010)

Last week, a really interesting and potentially important court case appeared before a British Appeals Court. A British Hindu man, Davender Ghai, wants permission from the Newcastle City government to have his body cremated on an open air pyre.

Here is the BBC’s background on the story:

Davender Ghai, 70, was seeking to overturn a decision by Newcastle City Council in 2006 preventing such pyres.

He believes they are essential to “a good death” and the release of the spirit into the afterlife. Judges at the Court of Appeal said that all he had to show was that what he wanted fell within existing law. In February 2006 Mr Ghai, from Gosforth, Newcastle, and the founder of the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society

(AAFS), was refused a permit for an open-air cremation site in a remote part of Northumberland. Newcastle City Council said the burning of human remains anywhere outside a crematorium was prohibited under the 1902 Cremation Act, a ruling the Ministry of Justice agreed was correct.

There are several interesting angles to this story. First and foremost, every reason that the UK Courts have given as to why the open air cremations should not go forward is suspicious. Health and safety concerns can be easily monitored and controlled. Indeed, a health and safety officer could be dispatched to make sure that the law was followed and that the public health codes were not violated.

Perhaps the most significant (and unspoken) reason that the UK Courts have sided against Mr. Ghai is squeamishness. Given the fact that any number of UK Death Professionals (and I know of which I speak) could make sure that any open air cremation followed any and every conceivable best practice, the resulting reason seems to be that Court officials find the basic concept distasteful.

Unfortunately, that is not a legal reason to ultimately block Mr. Ghai’s funeral pyre wish.

The Appeals Court is expected to rule later in 2010.

Questions and Answers about Moment of Death: AWARE Project Uses Technology to Investigate “Out-of-Body Experiences”
Today – MSNBC.com (September 28, 2009)

According to the Today show’s Q&A, the Awareness During Resuscitation study — AWARE for short — is investigating “what happens to the human mind and consciousness during clinical death and the relationship between consciousness and the brain.” The hope is improved research will inform better resuscitation practices — though I suspect it’s also attempting to lasso the afterlife moon. As the video shows, part of the experiment involves putting a sign on a shelf high above hospital beds with the idea that astral travelers will see it and be able to relay messages once resuscitated. Shout backs, anyone?

Though I find this less than rigorous, the research protocol has been peer reviewed, as will be the results, and the study also uses technology to measure the flow of blood to the brain for a more technical analysis of what the heck is going on during and after death.

…And I suppose it would be pretty cool if someone, floating above his or her dead body and the heads of the doctors and nurses as is often reported, reads and relays the message of the sign. But assuming this study will not prove the existence of an afterlife, I’m just as jazzed to know we have such amazing, imaginative, immersive-experience minds.

We at DeathRef will keep our eyes skinned on this one.

Radiolab: Proof
originally aired August 10, 2009.

It appears Radiolab had more great death meditations than they knew what to do with. Following up on their July 27 episode, “After Life,” all this week they will be releasing short podcasts with additional thoughts on death.

Monday’s segment features Mary Roach, author of Stiff and Spook, discussing spiritualist Thomas Lynn Bradford’s quest for proof of an afterlife in 1921. His scheme involved committing suicide then shouting back to a psychic, who would then relay to the world the good news that death does not exist, only Summerland — the Spiritualist post-life realm of lush rolling hills, beauty and peace. But, as the New York Times reported, “Dead Spiritualist silent.” Alas.

(We won’t be posting all of Radiolab’s death segments this week — we just wanted to get the word out. In case you’re wondering, yes, DeathRef has a crush on Radiolab.)