Answer to Question #132969 in Physics for Umang Upasham

Question

I request you to help me get the right answer for the following questions.

1) What happens to the energies of our body when we are cremated or buried after death? Do these energies transfer to a new life form, living organism or transmit any other form?

2) What energies is our physio-psychological body made up of?

Answer 1

Of course, the answers to your questions will be based on physics.

1) When we are cremated, chemical energy of our body turns into light and thermal energy. These light and thermal of energies can be referred to as different kinds of electromagnetic energy. These energies simply dissipate in the environment.

When we are buried after death, chemical energy of bonds between the molecules of our body converts to chemical energy of bonds between new molecules because bacteria help to decompose the flesh. This decomposition may heat up our bodies.

Although energy can be transferred to mass according to the famous equation E=mc², this mass never represents something structurally organised in a complex way as a new life form or living organism.

Therefore, we can say that chemical energy (of bonds between molecules of our dead bodies) becomes heat (thermal energy). The heat dissipates in the environment.

There is no scientific evidence that energies of our body transfer to a new life form or living organism, although nutrients that our body contains can become food for plants, bacteria, or animals.

2) Physics, physiology, and psychology do not give definition to "physio-psychological body".

Our thought, emotions, feelings, memories and other artifacts of perception on a small scale are complex motion of sodium and potassium ions in brain cells. Also, many chemical reactions occur in our brain. Since ions are electrically charged and in motion, and since many molecules participate in chemical reactions, we can say that this relates to electromagnetic and chemical energies.