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While working in the lab late one night…..no actually I was just embalming a body in the middle of the night a few years ago. I was mainly concerned with doing a good job, getting done and going back home to bed. The person was an elderly man who was presenting no particular problems for me. There was nothing out of the ordinanry. I had the radio on to a rock station. It was on fairly loud so i could hear the music over the din of the exhaust fan and the embalming machine. Next to the embalming table was a waste receptacle. There are a lot of different things you pitch during the whole process. Used supplies etc… This receptacle had the type of lid on it that swung up and down. At one point I looked up and the lid was swinging by itself. I stared at it for a minute and it stopped. It had been swinging pretty hard, but not violently. The only possible explaination I could, and still can, come up with is this: A few minutes before I had tossed away something. I don't remember what it was. It is possible that what ever it was sat on top of the lid without actually going in until just before I looked up, causing the lid to swing. When it did drop in, I just happened to be looking. Maybe it was just that…..and maybe it wasn't. I'll never really know.
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I think you're basically right about the lid swinging because you dropped something into it a few minutes prior, but the whole setting and creep factor would make it spooky for me.
Also, think about this, if, on some off chance it was something other than what you thought, why would a spirit or ghost, or whatever, pick the trash can to mess with? If it were me, and I were a spirit in that environment, I'd have me a ton of fun with the workers.lol
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I think your right too, about something being on top of the swinging lid.
Funeral Parlors just scare more than anything. I can barely go in one.
I have to get meds to go to a funeral. Death it's self does not bother me, my dad died in my arms, and some of pets have.
Cemeteries, I'm fine with. The whole funeral process just flips me out.
I would have ran, if that was me, but I would of been on drugs to be there! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' />
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Tunnel vision. When we get busy on our job our vision narrows and we focus on only one thing. It's very possible the explanation you found is the correct answer.
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Very spooky experience given the situation!
You could be dead on with the explanation /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' /> (sorry, I couldn't help it) … or, maybe it was something else as you said.
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I agree with the lid theory. How strong is your exhaust fans? Could that have enough force to prolong the swinging of the lid? In my prep room, the exhaust is pretty strong, anything within 12 inches of it would get sucked in easily….
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Sounds like a case of late night embalming jitters. It was probably something that slid down later and the circumstances may have had you on your toes without you realizing it. My uncle has a similar late night cemetery story, sometimes an average unusual circumstance can seem like much more depending on our state of mind.
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Yeah sounds like what you think it was, but keep your eye on it /unsure.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' />
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Do all of you funeral/mortuary guys do all of your embalming at night? The local funeral director here does it at night too, then gets drunk and comes home, or comes home and gets drunk, before crashing into bed. The whole trash can thing, you may be right, especially if nothing like this has ever happened before. No doors opening and closing, etc?
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Sounds like a case of late night embalming jitters. It was probably something that slid down later and the circumstances may have had you on your toes without you realizing it. My uncle has a similar late night cemetery story, sometimes an average unusual circumstance can seem like much more depending on our state of mind.
Late night jitters? Not so much. Except for the sanitary aspect of it I could eat a sandwich with one hand and embalm with the other. I tried not to be on my toes. Late at night I just wanted to finish and go back home to bed. Dead people don't bother me in the least, it's the live ones that give me cause for concern.
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Do all of you funeral/mortuary guys do all of your embalming at night? The local funeral director here does it at night too, then gets drunk and comes home, or comes home and gets drunk, before crashing into bed. The whole trash can thing, you may be right, especially if nothing like this has ever happened before. No doors opening and closing, etc?
Your local funeral guy may embalm at night because he's busy during the day with funerals and seeing families, or maybe goofing off. Who knows. /dry.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='
' /> Actually for best results it's better to embalm as soon as possible before the mortis brothers set in (rigor, algor and livor). Rigor is lactic acid in the joints and usually easy to dissipate. Algor is the cooling of the body to room tempature, and livor mortis is the pooling of the blood to dependent areas of the body. There are many factors that go into embalming. As we are all different in life, we are also all different in death. As for swinging doors, bodies sitting up etc…..sorry….doesn't happen. I worked for a high volume firm for several years and have seen literally 10,000 bodies. Not one ever moved a muscle. The only strange occurrence I ever saw was the one I described in this thread. Here's a web site that gives an overview of the some of the process.
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Your local funeral guy may embalm at night because he's busy during the day with funerals and seeing families, or maybe goofing off. Who knows.
/dry.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':huh:' /> Actually for best results it's better to embalm as soon as possible before the mortis brothers set in (rigor, algor and livor). Rigor is lactic acid in the joints and usually easy to dissipate. Algor is the cooling of the body to room tempature, and livor mortis is the pooling of the blood to dependent areas of the body. There are many factors that go into embalming. As we are all different in life, we are also all different in death. As for swinging doors, bodies sitting up etc…..sorry….doesn't happen. I worked for a high volume firm for several years and have seen literally 10,000 bodies. Not one ever moved a muscle. The only strange occurrence I ever saw was the one I described in this thread. Here's a web site that gives an overview of the some of the process.
That is usually the first question I get from people…"Have you ever had one sit up on you." I guess most people don't think about the reasoning behind the process of how a dead body would actually sit up…its literally impossible. All of my years doing this, I have had one body "twitch" on me. The big toe on the right foot twitched from side to side for maybe 10 times in a row, and in the right forearm I saw a slight twitching. (From the pronouncement of death to the embalming was approx. 2-3 hours) I may never see another instance of that again, so I consider myself fortunate that I saw it….
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That is usually the first question I get from people…"Have you ever had one sit up on you." I guess most people don't think about the reasoning behind the process of how a dead body would actually sit up…its literally impossible. All of my years doing this, I have had one body "twitch" on me. The big toe on the right foot twitched from side to side for maybe 10 times in a row, and in the right forearm I saw a slight twitching. (From the pronouncement of death to the embalming was approx. 2-3 hours) I may never see another instance of that again, so I consider myself fortunate that I saw it….
Gene, did you freak out when the twitching started?
What caused it?
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Gene, did you freak out when the twitching started?
What caused it?
No, I did not freak out, it was more fascinating then anything else….it has to do with nerve impulses, lactic acid, and a bunch of other scientific jargon that I will bore you with at another time….
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No, I did not freak out, it was more fascinating then anything else….it has to do with nerve impulses, lactic acid, and a bunch of other scientific jargon that I will bore you with at another time….
Ahhh, IC. Well, I think I might jump a few feet at first. lol
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That is usually the first question I get from people…"Have you ever had one sit up on you." I guess most people don't think about the reasoning behind the process of how a dead body would actually sit up…its literally impossible. All of my years doing this, I have had one body "twitch" on me. The big toe on the right foot twitched from side to side for maybe 10 times in a row, and in the right forearm I saw a slight twitching. (From the pronouncement of death to the embalming was approx. 2-3 hours) I may never see another instance of that again, so I consider myself fortunate that I saw it….
I wouldnt like that. I have also heard that the bodies sit up and also they make a hissing/growling noise. I never believed it, but some argue with me.
I've also heard that when they are cremated, they sit up and scream in the oven. something about muscles tightening and air leaving the lungs. idk kinda a creepy weird thing to think of though
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