NATURAL PASSAGE
P.O. BOX 33284
Minneapolis, MN 55433

Who are we?

     We are a group of people dedicated to reviving the custom of
natural (ecological) burial.

What is "Natural Passage"?

     "Natural passage" is a system whereby, after death, the body's
nutrients are given back to the Earth for return to the life cycle.

Why Natural Passage?

     Throughout our lives we take sustenance from nature.  Our high
technology and standards of creature comfort put considerable stress on
natural resources and nonrenewable energy sources.  To illustrate how
grave is this drain on land and resources:  the U.S., with 5% of the
world's population, consumes 30% of the world's resources.
     Natural passage is a means by which we can give back some of what
we have taken, reclaim land for nature, and provide new life from death.

Why not traditional methods?

     Modern burial convention requires that trees be killed, land be ill
used, energy be wasted, and considerable expense be incurred by the
deceased's family.  This system continues our drain on nature after our
deaths.
     Local and state laws often require elaborate containment systems.
these may consist of tightly sealed caskets, cement vaults or slabs to
prevent soil or water contamination from communicable disease or
embalming fluid (formaldehyde).  The body's own bacteria is the only
benefactor of this system.  Eventually, it too dies.  By the time these
high-tech burial canisters decompose, the resulting matter is nearly
inert.  No nutritional value remains to return to the life cycle.
     Cremation, though less expensive, fares little better from an
ecological standpoint.  It requires vast amounts of energy (usually taken
from nonrenewable sources) and the resulting product is of little
ecological value.

Our Proposal:

     Imagine a nature sanctuary, filled with trees, flowers, and native
wildlife -- living mememorials to those interred beneath the soil.
     Work toward these life cemeteries would begin with the purchase of
unused farm or pasture  and.  Sack cloth or a simple pine box would serve
as the repository for the deceased.  Visitors would be encourages to
donate living plants (rather than cut flowers) to be transplanted at the
burial site.  A young tree could be planted in place of a headstone.  New
graves would be dug with low impact machinery so as to minimize damage to
surrounding vegetation.  When all the plots have been filled the 'life
cemetery' would become a nature preserve, serving as an eternal monument
to the renewal of life.

How will this be accomplished?

     First, we need dedicated people to organize a core group and begin
the necessary paperwork for establishing a legally recognized non-profit
organization.
     Ne t, we will need to increase public awareness and gain general
public support for natural burials.  This will be accomplished through
education and advertising.  Additionally, we hope to solicit support from
other organizations sympathetic to our cause.  Ecologists, naturalists,
animal rights activists, and certain religious groups might be sources of
support.
     We must lobby to enact legislation and/or relax laws and ordinances
so that natural burials will be permissible when the deceased has not
died from communicable disease and the body has not been embalmed.
Additionally, laws requiring the emblaming of bodies transported over
state lines must be relxed.
     Finally, we hope to purchase land for 'life cemeteries' to be
maintained and preserved as nature sanctuaries.

How you can help.

     Our immediate need is not for money but for people willing to
devote time and energy toward legal research and networking.  We do not
know the exact costs that will be incurred for printings, mailings, and
legal paperwork; but we expect they will be minimal.  Only after we have
legal recognition do we plan to launch a contributions campain.
Hopefully, most of these contributions can be put toward the legal
battles ahead and toward a fund to purchase land (while we will gladly
accept any monetary contributions toward defraying printing costs, please
understand that, at the present, they will not be tax-deductable).
     If you support the concept of natural passage please fill out and
return the enclosed form.  Understand that this form does not necessarily
mean that you have chosen natural passage, only that you support the
philosophy and would like ti see natural passage as a legal and viable
option for those who prefer it.  If you so mark, your name will be
matched with others from your geographic area so that state chapters may
be formed.  (Many of the legal obstacles occur at either the local or
state level, so having an active chapter in each state is imperitive.)

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_____  I Support the concept of natural passage.  Please put me on your
       mailing list.

_____  I would like to become a working member of Natural Passage.  Please
       send my name to others in my area (and their names to me).

Name:      ________________________________________

Address:   ________________________________________

City, St:  ________________________________________

Zip Code:                             _____________

Telephone # (Optional):  (_____) __________________

Thank you for your support
Natural Passage, P.O. Box 33284, Minneapolis, MN 55433