The mummification of a terminally ill man for a Channel 4 documentary might arguably stretch the boundaries of taste, but it's not the strangest option for those who want to 'live on' after they die.
Mummification, though a form of embalming, is a very specific form of post-death pursuit. Embalming only seeks to prevent the body from decay for the short period of time before the body is buried or cremated, whereas mummification seeks to permanently prevent decomposition.
A spokesperson from the British Institute of Embalmers explained why embalmed is chosen by many families:
“If the family want to view the body then [embalming] is a good option because if you just deep freeze [the body] then someone can lean down to kiss them and get adhered to the corpse. An embalmed body can be at room temperature”
Eastern monks chose to ‘self mummify’ in the past, eating roots and seeds and undertaking a gruelling physical regime to rid themselves of all fat before death. They would then drink a poisonous tea in order to dehydrate themselves. Locking themselves in a chamber not much larger than themselves and airtight apart from a straw, the monk would ring a bell every day to let the other monks know he was still alive.
When the bell stopped ringing, the monks would place a large stone over the air-hole, locking the dead body in the chamber until it would be revealed whether the mummification had worked. The process was meant to illustrate their symbolic, and extreme, levels of self-control.
A more modern scientific practice allows the eco-friendly to live and die in accordance with a ‘green’ philosophy.
Swedish company Promessa provide an organic burial service, freeze drying the body till it crumbles into powder. Buried in a shallow soil, the remains feed the soil and become compost within 12 months.
Susanne Wiigh-Mäsak, head of operations at Promessa, said “The method is based upon preserving the body in a biological form after death, while avoiding harmful embalming fluid.”
“Then it can be returned to the ecological cycle in a dignified manner as a valuable contribution to the living earth.”
Going out with a bang is a dramatic preference for which Heavens Above Fireworks aims to cater.
The company incorporates cremation ashes into the fireworks in order to make the remains part of the vaulted display.
Offering a range of packages to match different personalities, clients can choose a ‘simple farewell’, ‘a gentle farewell’ or ‘a spectacular goodbye’.
Looking similarly skyward is memorial spaceflights, which offer frustrated astronaughts the chance to take their final journey in a satellite.
Launches take place year-round, offering relatives the chance to come and witness their send off. The launches they offer cost up to $12,000 or just over £7000.
Designer Nadine Jarvis has designed a pencil made with ashen remains to commemorate a loved-one. The pencil box comes with 240 leads and a pencil with the deceased's name on it.
This can be continually resharpened and the box containing the ashes can be used as an urn after the leads have run out.
Cryonics, the practice of keeping keeping a body preserved at very low temperatures after death was made famous by an urban myth that Walt Disney had chosen to be frozen.
Saying that they aim to “maintain patients in liquid nitrogen for as long as is necessary”, the body isn’t actually frozen but preserved in chemicals in the hope that future technology will restore them back to health.
Some bodies are kept whole, whereas some are merely preserved as brains. They are interred in freezers with up to fourteen other bodies. By 2010, at least 200 people had undertaken this post-mortem procedure.
"I like to think of the whole process as something akin to the Egyptian mummies who were preserved thousands of years ago," he said.
"Since I have signed up I am less concerned about what happens to me because I feel I have a second chance at life. They can't be brought back to life but who's to say we won't be able to be?"