My mushroom burial suit

Here's a powerful provocation from artist Jae Rhim Lee. Can we commit our bodies to a cleaner, greener Earth, even after death? Naturally -- using a special burial suit seeded with pollution-gobbling mushrooms. Yes, this just might be the strangest TEDTalk you'll ever see ...

So I'm here to explain

why I'm wearing these ninja pajamas.

And to do that, I'd like to talk first

about environmental toxins in our bodies.

So some of you may know

about the chemical Bisphenol A, BPA.

It's a material hardener and synthetic estrogen

that's found in the lining of canned foods

and some plastics.

So BPA mimics the body's own hormones

and causes neurological and reproductive problems.

And it's everywhere.

A recent study found BPA

in 93 percent of people six and older.

But it's just one chemical.

The Center for Disease Control in the U.S.

says we have 219 toxic pollutants in our bodies,

and this includes preservatives, pesticides

and heavy metals like lead and mercury.

To me, this says three things.

First, don't become a cannibal.

Second, we are both responsible for and the victims of

our own pollution.

And third,

our bodies are filters and storehouses

for environmental toxins.

So what happens to all these toxins when we die?

The short answer is:

They return to the environment in one way or another,

continuing the cycle of toxicity.

But our current funeral practices

make the situation much worse.

If you're cremated,

all those toxins I mentioned are released into the atmosphere.

And this includes 5,000 pounds of mercury

from our dental fillings alone every year.

And in a traditional American funeral,

a dead body is covered with fillers and cosmetics

to make it look alive.

It's then pumped with toxic formaldehyde

to slow decomposition --

a practice which causes respiratory problems and cancer

in funeral personnel.

So by trying to preserve our dead bodies,

we deny death, poison the living

and further harm the environment.

Green or natural burials, which don't use embalming,

are a step in the right direction,

but they don't address the existing toxins in our bodies.

I think there's a better solution.

I'm an artist,

so I'd like to offer a modest proposal

at the intersection

of art, science and culture.

The Infinity Burial Project,

an alternative burial system

that uses mushrooms

to decompose and clean toxins in bodies.

The Infinity Burial Project

began a few years ago with a fantasy

to create the Infinity Mushroom --

a new hybrid mushroom

that would decompose bodies, clean the toxins

and deliver nutrients to plant roots,

leaving clean compost.

But I learned it's nearly impossible

to create a new hybrid mushroom.

I also learned

that some of our tastiest mushrooms

can clean environmental toxins in soil.

So I thought maybe I could train an army

of toxin-cleaning edible mushrooms

to eat my body.

So today, I'm collecting what I shed or slough off --

my hair, skin and nails --

and I'm feeding these to edible mushrooms.

As the mushrooms grow,

I pick the best feeders

to become Infinity Mushrooms.

It's a kind of imprinting and selective breeding process

for the afterlife.

So when I die,

the Infinity Mushrooms will recognize my body

and be able to eat it.

All right, so for some of you,

this may be really, really out there.

(Laughter)

Just a little.

I realize this is not the kind of relationship

that we usually aspire to have with our food.

We want to eat, not be eaten by, our food.

But as I watch the mushrooms grow

and digest my body,

I imagine the Infinity Mushroom

as a symbol of a new way of thinking about death

and the relationship between my body and the environment.

See for me,

cultivating the Infinity Mushroom

is more than just scientific experimentation

or gardening or raising a pet,

it's a step towards accepting the fact

that someday I will die and decay.

It's also a step

towards taking responsibility

for my own burden on the planet.

Growing a mushroom is also part of a larger practice

of cultivating decomposing organisms

called decompiculture,

a concept that was developed by an entomologist,

Timothy Myles.

The Infinity Mushroom is a subset of decompiculture

I'm calling body decompiculture and toxin remediation --

the cultivation of organisms that decompose

and clean toxins in bodies.

And now about these ninja pajamas.

Once it's completed,

I plan to integrate the Infinity Mushrooms into a number of objects.

First, a burial suit

infused with mushroom spores,

the Mushroom Death Suit.

(Laughter)

I'm wearing the second prototype

of this burial suit.

It's covered with a crocheted netting

that is embedded with mushroom spores.

The dendritic pattern you see

mimics the growth of mushroom mycelia,

which are the equivalent of plant roots.

I'm also making a decompiculture kit,

a cocktail of capsules

that contain Infinity Mushroom spores

and other elements

that speed decomposition and toxin remediation.

These capsules are embedded in a nutrient-rich jelly,

a kind of second skin,

which dissolves quickly

and becomes baby food for the growing mushrooms.

So I plan to finish the mushroom and decompiculture kit

in the next year or two,

and then I'd like to begin testing them,

first with expired meat from the market

and then with human subjects.

And believe it or not,

a few people have offered to donate their bodies to the project

to be eaten by mushrooms.

(Laughter)

What I've learned from talking to these folks

is that we share a common desire

to understand and accept death

and to minimize the impact of our death on the environment.

I wanted to cultivate this perspective

just like the mushrooms,

so I formed the Decompiculture Society,

a group of people called decompinauts

who actively explore their postmortem options,

seek death acceptance

and cultivate decomposing organisms

like the Infinity Mushroom.

The Decompiculture Society shares a vision

of a cultural shift,

from our current culture of death denial and body preservation

to one of decompiculture,

a radical acceptance of death and decomposition.

Accepting death means accepting

that we are physical beings

who are intimately connected to the environment,

as the research on environmental toxins confirms.

And the saying goes,

we came from dust and will return to dust.

And once we understand that we're connected to the environment,

we see that the survival of our species

depends on the survival of the planet.

I believe this is the beginning

of true environmental responsibility.

Thank you.

(Applause)