Artificial intelligence brings the dead back to life. Funeral guide warns why to let the deceased sleep
Companies today promise us that they can recreate our deceased mother, daughter, brother, father, grandmother. In other words, they will create a digital avatar with whom you will write, talk, see each other on video, and in virtual reality you can even meet. The death of a loved one affects us like few other things. We miss their presence, we want to talk one last time, see each other one last time, comfort each other, say what we didn't manage to, or correct old wrongs to ease our conscience that everything is okay between us and the deceased.
Funeral guides call it a digital ghost. Just fill in personal data, upload photos, videos or voice recordings, answer a few questions, share profiles from social networks and pay a few dollars. And look, after a few clicks, the loved one "comes back to life" and is there for us again. Is it science fiction, a dream, reality? A real innovation would be if we stopped being so afraid of death and were able to say goodbye to our loved ones in peace and understanding. But no, we also want to physically involve technology in it. Funeral guide Oleg Vojtíšek warns mourners against this, he sees it in his practice every day, digital ghosts do more harm than good.
How to support parents who have lost a baby? And what phrases should you avoid? Adriana Kábová writes for Maminka.cz
In the Czech Republic, the topic of death is often swept under the rug, and the death of an infant is almost doubly taboo. But for many parents, it's a harsh reality. The following tips are based on the experiences of funeral guides, and especially on the recommendations of many parents who have experienced the death of a baby and have encountered various reactions from those around them. Some reactions were very helpful, while others rubbed salt into the wound. Keep in mind that everyone experiences the loss of a child differently, and the points mentioned below are not a completely universal guide.
But you won't mess anything up by talking to the parents honestly and asking them what they find pleasant and what they don't. They will surely appreciate that more than if you were to remain completely silent about the death of their baby or even start avoiding them. It is also important to mention that each parent probably grieves differently, and it is possible that different things from you will help the mother and different things the father of the baby. And don't be afraid of their emotions and tears, they are often the main healing path to healing the rawest grief.
Kateřina Svobodová is a guide to Prague cemeteries.
Kateřina studied art history, and cemeteries are full of art.
Art in its original location, in a natural space, not in a gallery according to a curatorial intention.
In a beautiful space, in nature, in silence, in harmony with nature and the city around.
But today, funeral sculptures are almost never made. What to do to bring them back?
And can preparing a statue for a grave help process the death of a loved one?
After all, we had several clients who made the Coffin themselves, and it helped them.
We made urns from LEGO with the children.
And while we're on the subject of children, we see it as a big problem that they have never been to a funeral, nor have they seen anyone dead - and that's where the whole societal repression of death begins.
So, what if we helped them get acquainted with death by taking them to the cemetery?
For example, in history class: Let them see Božena Němcová and Neruda and Čapek and Dvořák with Smetana at the Vyšehrad Cemetery. And everything else with them.
It sounds natural and even cheap.
So, while recording the podcast, we came up with the project "Children in the Cemetery."
Anyway, come for a tour of the cemetery with Kateřina, you can find the dates in her Facebook group "For all Taphophiles", or on the Hrbitovy.cz website.
Czech Radio Radiožurnál: Adriana Kábová as a guest of Lucie Výborná. After a bizarre experience with a funeral service after the death of my child, I decided to change the funeral industry in the Czech Republic.
Adriana Kábová is an anthropologist and funeral guide.
Already during the research of Indonesian cultures, she got to traditional funerals, during which animals are sacrificed. "Even though my topic was not originally funeral service, in Indonesia I participated in funerals in the front row," she describes.
After her own experience with the death of a baby, she decided to change the funeral industry in the Czech Republic and became a funeral guide.
What does this work entail?
And how did she cope with the loss of a child?
Death isn't the opposite of life, it's a part of it, says funeral guide Oleg Vojtíšek on Czech Radio Plzeň.
The Funeral Guides association often organizes funerals in nature, but also in a villa or lounge. "Planting trees is already a great tradition. A tree is a beautiful living memory, it gives us shade and moisture, we have to take care of it a little, and as it grows, we come to terms with the loss. Or we have clients write down on paper what they didn't get to say to the deceased, we fold the papers into boats and let them go down the river. Messages can also be written on balloons, which we release. Our specialty, for example, is that in a balloon we can release the ashes of the deceased into the stratosphere," described Oleg Vojtíšek.
An ecological funeral only in a shroud: is it possible, or not? A debate in Ekonews.
Oleg Vojtíšek, the founder of the Funeral Guides company, is convinced that burial in the ground is legally possible in the Czech Republic even without a coffin.
According to him, the solution is to dig a shallow underground wooden tomb instead of a grave, reinforce it with planks and close it with a solid board made of hardwood. Then place the body wrapped in a scarf made of natural materials in it.
According to the ministry, nothing prevents a funeral without a coffin.
This department has had a working group for two years that deals with so-called green funerals. Recently, the ministry also presented the results of its work to regional hygiene stations. The law does not see any legal obstacle to placing bodies without a coffin.
According to Jiří Královec, spokesman for Cemeteries and Funeral Services of the City of Prague, the Louky vzpomínek (Meadows of Memories) cemetery regulations are currently being created and there is a lively discussion about them. "No responsible cemetery administrator will rush into this (options without a coffin, editor's note) a priori. A stamp from the Ministry of Regional Development will not be enough, many partial powers in the funeral industry are held by other authorities, and one of them is the hygiene station," says Královec.
According to him, the result of the negotiations will most likely be that burials in wooden coffins will begin in the meadow.