Transcriber: Amanda Zhu Reviewer: Hiroko Kawano
So, I want to begin with this
by talking about the exact moment of inspiration for this topic.
Now, it all began on Instagram
when I received a message from some anonymous middle-aged man,
asking, "Can I ask you a question?"
And with all general enquiries, I replied, "Sure, what's on your mind?"
I did not anticipate what he said next, though.
He asked me,
"When I die, can you take my skeleton,
turn it into a lamp, and give it to my wife?"
(Laughter)
Well, what would you do?
Would you reply? Would you ignore it?
Would you report him?
What would you do?
(Laughter)
Well, I replied. I did.
I said, "Yes, of course.
But first, I need to research how to clean human bones."
See, my art, my Instagram is @catacombculture.
All my social media's @catacombculture, where I post images of my art,
my art being hyper-realistic human bone décor
that I make out of hyper-realistic bone sculptures I make.
These are some examples of my chandeliers that I've made,
some table lamps I made as well,
some art installations that I've done over the years,
and then some of my favorites -
my food-safe skull bowl, great for eating and drinking out of,
and then my skull night light.
And I also do all kinds of expos and conventions
all throughout the United States.
But I've got to say this art series of mine
has given me a wildly unique perspective on life, death, dying, and the dead.
And this conversation with Mr. Random has thrown me down a rabbit hole
filled with curiosities, corruption, infinite potential,
sounds of flies, and smell of decay.
And so I've consolidated all my findings
into what I refer to as "post life legacy."
This is essentially what will happen to your body
after your lifeforce, or whatever you refer to it as,
leaves your body.
And I've also developed a website, RestingGrounds.org,
that allows you to search throughout the United States
for various body donation programs near you,
as well as alternative and post life options as well.
So, let's take a tour through our truly final metamorphosis in this life.
Now, what's going to happen to your body when you die?
Typically, as we see here,
a traditional burial or perhaps even a cremation.
But are those truly our only options?
Today I'll be proposing three alternatives,
three paths to post life legacy.
We'll be exploring
path number one, body donation -
this is literally saving lives and enhancing all the sciences;
path number two, artistic embodiment -
this is general anatomical studies for the public;
and path number three, nature burial -
this is the most environmentally friendly way to decay.
Now, back to traditional burials.
Now, 99% of us,
unless where we have a contagious disease inside of us
or we want to do something special,
we don't need most of what we see here.
Now, no disrespect, in most states,
we do not need a funeral director, and I'll get back to that.
We do not need embalming fluid.
Embalming fluid is used to give better skin tone to the corpse
and also delay the decay.
This is a manufactured chemical.
It's toxic. It's carcinogenic.
We also do not need the casket.
We do not need the burial vault.
The burial vault's like a concrete enclosure
that the casket goes in.
It ensures that the topsoil stays level so it's easy to cut the grass.
And the polished monument, as well, is not needed.
Essentially, all we need is the deceased in the cemetery.
Now, back to funeral directors.
Funeral directors are required by law in these nine states.
What's happening there?
Well, we should understand that the funeral industry
is a 17-billion-dollar industry on the rise.
I would assume that is good -
job security.
And the industry, for sure, has influence.
Now, in addition to that,
the cemetery industry is an additional 15-billion-dollar industry.
Now, as we saw,
all those unneeded aspects of a traditional burial
create a tremendous amount of waste.
Now, to visualize this, take your average swimming pool.
It's a 20,000-gallon swimming pool.
Now, let's replace the water with embalming fluid,
and now times that one pool by 260.
That is the amount of embalming fluid
that we are putting into the ground each year,
again, a manufactured man-made toxic chemical.
Now, let's take all the concrete from these burial vaults and lay it out.
We can build a brand-new highway from right here in Scranton to Chicago.
That's 700 miles; it's an 11-hour drive.
We could be doing that each year to somewhere new.
Imagine that: a flat, brand-new, paved highway.
And with the extra,
hey, we could even fill in some of the potholes around town.
(Laughter)
Now, with all the metal in the caskets,
let's take all that, we could build a brand-new Golden Gate Bridge each year.
Literally doing anything else with these materials
will be useful and beneficial to society.
Just building new bridges, building new schools.
All for what?
What are we doing this for?
For us to visit grave sites?
How often do we visit grave sites?
Will these younger generations visit grave sites?
Who's going to visit your gravesite?
Now, don't think too much on that.
Moving along to cremation.
Now, as cremation does not directly pollute the ground
but it does directly pollute the air,
I will not be covering the toxins released by burning a body
but I will be talking about the emissions used to burn a body.
And that's the equivalent of over a 500-mile road trip.
That's like saying, "Let's take a round trip
to Old MacDonald's body farm outside of Pittsburgh
just to observe some rotting corpses in a field."
Now, in case you don't know,
this is how much it costs on an average basis
across the United States.
For a traditional burial, it's about 8,000;
for cremation, 6,000;
for nature burial, 2,000;
and body donation is zero thousand.
It is free.
Now, back to my three paths of post life legacy.
Let's dive into path number one:
body donation.
Now, I slice this into two parts.
Part one is organ donation - literally saving lives -
and part two is full-body donation.
When it comes to organ donation, again, it is literally saving lives.
You will be saving lives.
And these are the most coveted organs within our bodies.
Now, best-case scenario,
one can save eight people's lives and enhance 40 other people's lives.
But the very sad reality is that each day,
15 people on this waiting list die because there's not a donor for them.
But at the same time, throughout the United States,
there's 153,000 Americans die each day of various causes,
but yet there's not enough organ donators?
Instead, we'd rather pump them full of toxins
or burn them up in a cremation machine.
Imagine if it was your child on that list.
Imagine if it was your loved one.
Imagine if it was you on that list.
Are you an organ donor?
I am.
Next, full body donation.
To me, this is the most exciting.
For sure, infinite potential is going on here.
Now, the way it works is while you're still alive,
you find a local body donation program, typically a medical school,
and you sign up and just live your life normally,
and then once you die,
then your loved one will call them up, and they'll come get you.
And in some cases,
the medical institutions will actually cremate your remains
and return them to your family once they're finished.
Now, these directly help education for medical students,
also for forensic and law enforcement's training,
and then even for medical professionals,
where they can try new surgical techniques and develop new medical devices,
and on and on -
the list is endless.
And then with the power of the internet, ideas spread exponentially.
One researcher's finding can potentially change an entire industry.
And for us vegans and animal lovers,
there'll be a less need for animal testing and corporate animal sacrifices.
So essentially, the perks of full-body donation is it's free;
no death debt -
you know, shouldn't death be free to begin with? -
helps forensics;
allows them to find bad guys a lot faster;
advances medicine;
saves lives;
and allows for speedy recovery;
also improves safety -
this is better air bags in our vehicles, this is better bulletproof vests;
replaces animal testing -
no more animal sacrifices by major corporations.
Moving along.
Path number two, artistic embodiment.
Here, I'll be covering plastination, skeletal articulation,
and general bone arts.
When it comes to plastination,
this is when a technician poses a body
and then replaces all the water in the body with plastics,
and this permanently preserves the tissue and stiffens the body into that pose.
This is very common;
you find them perhaps in museums and traveling exhibits.
Now, when it comes to skeletal articulation -
definitely the most common here -
it's when a body is completely cleaned and sterilized from its tissue
and then re-articulated into the true human form
using like general hardware and wires to hold it all in place.
We find this very common in medical schools.
Now, general bone arts.
So back in the 19th century,
there was a church in the Czech Republic who had too many bones lying around,
so they hired a local artist to come in to figure out what to do with them.
So he started articulating them in fun and fascinating ways -
as we see here,
a representation of his house bone seal
and his breathtaking human bone chandelier,
definitely on my bucket list and a huge personal inspiration.
Path number three, nature burial.
So if being a skeleton celebrity isn't quite for you,
then nature burial may be perfect.
When it comes to nature burial, it goes by a couple of different names.
It could be natural burial, nature burial, green burial, eco burial, on and on.
But what sets nature burials apart?
There's no embalming fluid,
no concrete burial vault, no polished monuments.
This is only biodegradable burial containers.
Sometimes they're hand dug,
either by staff or by the family members themselves.
It's ultralow-cost, conserves natural resources.
It's simple.
And it's a natural way to decay.
Now, like I said, there's no burial vault,
so that would make it very difficult to landscape.
So these cemeteries feel less like locker rooms
and much more like natural woodland walks.
So these are my three paths to post life legacy.
There is body donation,
which is, again, literally saving lives and enhancing the lives of many.
There is artistic embodiment, general anatomical studies for the public,
and nature burial -
the most environmentally conscious and friendly way to decay.
Now, regardless of whichever path you decide,
it is crucial that you talk to your loved ones about your decision.
Now, if talking to them directly is a little too difficult for you,
try writing them a letter,
make them a little video with your iPhone or something,
or just get creative.
It's important that we become more conscious
of the time that we spend with those we care for and that we love.
I guarantee that we've all lost someone we loved,
and their headstone will never replace their faces in our memories.
So I ask you:
When you die,
when your lifeforce leaves your body on Earth,
will you choose to burden the living,
or will you choose to save the living?
One more thing,
also, and Mr. Anonymous, Mr. Random,
if you're in this audience, watching this video,
check your inbox.
Thank you, and memento mori.
(Applause)