The CEOLP volunteers will work with the families or friends of the deceased to plan all types of ceremonies, from small, quiet services to elaborate affairs with music, ritual, prayer and chanting from multiple spiritual traditions. Land where people can take the time to be with death in a very different and direct way and have support in creating ceremony for those who have died.If you’re unsatisfied with the run-of-the-mill funeral and burial options in your hometown, may we suggest a move to Crestone, Colorado? The town, which sits in the sweeping San Luis Valley at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, is home to the only legal, non-denominational open-air cremation service in the country, operated by the non-denominational Crestone End Of Life Project, a volunteer group dedicated to offering this ancient and inspirational end-of-life choice, “returning the body to its original fire and air elements.” It will be built on land maintained as a sacred sanctuary, land people can visit and revisit to think and feel and be quiet. It is our aim and wish to build a legal open air pyre in Maine in the midcoast area. Maine is a rural state filled with people who love this land and value their independence and agency in directing their choices in life. Open air cremation will likely never become the preferred disposition option of the majority, but it should be an option for those who seek the kind of intimate ceremonial engagement it offers. Everyone we know who have been present at open air cremations leave feeling deeply grateful for the sacred opportunity to take part. Open air cremation is a disposition option that allows for transformative, intimate and meaningful engagement with death. The Journal (UK) published an article in 2015 that is a good summary of some of his work and journey. Davender Kumar Ghai worked for years to ensure the legality of open-air cremation in the UK. The Crestone End of Life Project has years of data and testimonials about their experience of the environmental impacts of open-air cremation and the Anglo-Asian Friendship Society in the UK has also published their own research regarding the environmental impacts. Some have expressed concern about the environmental impact of open air cremation. People of all religious traditions have used the Crestone pyre, as well as those who do not identify with a religious or spiritual tradition or practice. They can sing, chant, recite prayers or verse, remain silent. People can offer flowers and fragrant substances. The pyre in Crestone is constructed to keep the cremation fire contained and efficient and to allow people to engage whatever ceremony they create or practice as the fire burns. Cremation is now more commonly chosen and as of 2016, in 20 states, the cremation rate has risen to over 50% (Maine ranks 5th highest in cremation rate at 71%) Since then, cremation has continued to be a widely accepted disposition option, and continues to be seen as simple and meaningful to those who chose it. This effort to shift cultural perceptions kicked in again in the 60s. Early cremationists helped people rework their thinking of cremation fire as concomitant with damnation to fire as purifying. ![]() It has continued to be very much a part of Hindu and Buddhist funeral traditions. In spite of falling in and out of favor historically, it become an increasingly normalized and chosen mode of disposition in the US starting around the 1870s, when there was a concerted effort to shift the cultural narrative around fire and its symbolism. ![]() Cremation has a long history. There is record of cremation being among disposition options in early Persian, Greek and Roman civilizations and in early medieval Scandinavia.
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