How to turn into a tree after you die

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/how-to-turn-into-a-tree-after-you-die/

by shacharz • 12 years ago

41 36 12 years ago

spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com

jwoah12• 12 years ago

I immediately thought of the father trees from Ender's Game series when I saw this.

mildtrepidation• 12 years ago

Having just read a particular Philip K. Dick short story, that's what came to mind here.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Withered_Apples

shiftpgdn• 12 years ago

Thank you for the afternoon read.

logfromblammo• 12 years ago

Same here. My immediate response to the headline was "design a metamorphosis virus like the Descolada."

dllthomas• 12 years ago

What went through my head was "Step 1: Be a piggie."

stinos• 12 years ago

This makes me smile. These days, when most of the news is about the latest gadget and tech stuff and connecting yourself to the cloud somehow, I am glad there are still people coming up with fresh ideas involving not much technology at all. Just seed and ashes in a paper cup. Awesome!

super_mario• 12 years ago

What if you plant the tree in your back yard, and it dies, or don't make it for what ever reason?

Would that not be distressing to the surviving family members even more and re-awaken the pain of loosing someone all over again?

shacharz• 12 years ago

That's a good point, you should use Soil IQ [1] to make sure that doesn't happen.

[1] http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/soil-iq/

smackay• 12 years ago

We planted a tree (from seed) when each of our kids were born. Being the superstitious, symbol creating species that we are it was a little stressful for the first year or so in case the trees didn't make it and so foretold our childrens fate.

donutz• 12 years ago

Yeah, this is awful. Someone forgets to water the sapling, deer chews on it, etc, etc... BAM! You've just killed dad again.

qbrass• 12 years ago

If a deer eats your dad-tree, dad-tree becomes dad-tree-deer.

GotAnyMegadeth• 12 years ago

Then you could cremate the tree and use it's ashes to grow another

deletes3• 12 years ago

The correct answer. Life is a continuous process.

ballard• 12 years ago

The Fountain

caio1982• 12 years ago

Totally! For those who missed it, in the movie there's a story about how a civilization used to bury their people and they'd plant a seed in the deceased's body/chest so it could grow from the inside and take the persons' soul, or whatever there was in it, to the sky, to ascend it. And that's somehow part of the plot of the movie too. Something like that, IIRC.

nomadcoop• 12 years ago

It's one of my favourite films for its depth and its amazing soundtrack.

lttlrck• 12 years ago

Reminds me of the Russian [1] who had a tree growing in his lung

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169861/Shocked-Russ...

deletes3• 12 years ago

I didn't think about it so literally. I understood it more as a methaphor/explanation for life and meaning of life.

gpmcadam• 12 years ago

As I understood it, the "ashes" you receive post-cremation are actually the ground remains of bones from all cremations that took place that day, and thus you can't actually guarantee that it's "you" in the urn (or the tree), it's actually just a large collection of the people cremated that day.

Apart from that, I love this idea. It actually throws up all sorts of strange meta-physical questions about the self and who we really are.

Also, for added creepiness, could you be turned into, say, an orange grove? If you were, would the people eating the fruit be somehow digesting ... you? Strange.

gtaylor• 12 years ago

As long as they got a few pieces of me in there, I'm cool with that. Maybe the best way to look at this is "Turn yourself and a bunch of other nice dead people into a tree".

Sharlin• 12 years ago

I'm probably being too prosaic, but do note that plants don't actually use any matter from the soil they grow on besides water plus some minerals and micronutrients. The carbon that constitutes most of the plant matter is literally taken out of thin air via photosynthesis. Also, most of the molecules that were a part of you a year ago are already a part of something or someone else.

js2• 12 years ago

Obligatory link to Feynman's explanation:

http://youtu.be/N1pIYI5JQLE

saraid2162• 12 years ago

It's weird only if you start from being human. If you start from being, to reference the famous quote, a star, it gets rapidly less weird.

Or more weird.

johnjhayes• 12 years ago

>As I understood it, the "ashes" you receive post-cremation are actually the ground remains of bones from all cremations that took place that day

While that is, unfortunately, pretty common for pet cremations it not supposed to be that way for humans.

http://caringcremations.com/frequently-asked-questions-crema...

lucian1900• 12 years ago

Does it really matter, though? Even if they were more carefully selected, the ashes would still contain lots of atoms from other sources and lack lots of atoms.

delinquentme2• 12 years ago

Cremation: Guaranteeing that your chances of reanimation are as near to zero as possible. Personally I'd go with cryonics, but thats after you move past the coping mechanisms.

saraid2162• 12 years ago

Personally, I specify scattering ashes to the wind or over the water. Can't be too sure.

andyjohnson02• 12 years ago

Since you mentioned coping mechanisms, a genuine but slightly OT question:

I wonder what the grieving process like for the surviving friends and family of a deceased, cryopreserved person? Do they try to ignore the negative aspects of the death because of the possibility that the deceased will be brought back to life in the future? Or feel as sad as they would if cryonics had not been used, because revival is unlikely and/or even if it did occur would almost certainly happen in the far future? Or is there no difference.

I wonder because grief, while unpleasant, is important when dealing with the death of others. Failure to grieve can cause long-term psychological problems.

delinquentme2• 12 years ago

Failure to grieve can cause long-term psychological problems.

Sure. But this presumes that one is a lesser evil.

I'd defer to you which is worse: The Void, or someone having mixed emotions for a while.

AJ007• 12 years ago

Zero chances of being reanimated as a zombie, from another point of view.

yawz• 12 years ago

the tree seed is nourished by and absorbs the nutrients from the ashes of your body

What's really left after the cremation anyway? Is there really anything left that we can call "nutrients"?

andyjohnson02• 12 years ago

According to [1] its mainly pulverised bone, salts, and minerals. This appears to provide some nutrition for plants - in the UK peoiple are being urged not to scatter ashes in upland/moorland areas because the minerals are changing the local soil composition and plant ecology [2].

[1] http://www.cremationsolutions.com/All-About-Cremation-Ashes-...

[2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1508784/Cremation-ash...

rokhayakebe• 12 years ago

What if you become an apple tree and people eat the fruits?

islon• 12 years ago

I have to agree that if every human became a tree after he dies we would reforestate the whole world in no time!

JoeAltmaier• 12 years ago

Hm. People actually die slowly. If you planted a tree every time someone was born, it would be far more effective!

How to turn into a tree after you die

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