Yes, you can arrange to be mummified after death, though the options are limited and require advance planning. Modern mummification services exist, but they are rare, expensive, and involve significant legal and logistical coordination that you’ll need to set up while you’re still alive.
What Modern Mummification Actually Involves
Modern mummification borrows from ancient preservation principles but uses updated techniques. The core idea is the same one the Egyptians perfected thousands of years ago: remove moisture from the body quickly and thoroughly so that decomposition cannot occur. Ancient Egyptian embalmers used natron, a naturally occurring compound of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate found in dry lake beds. A modern experiment replicating their process took 35 days to complete a full desiccation using dry natron packed around human tissue.
Today’s mummification providers typically combine desiccation with chemical treatments that go beyond standard funeral embalming. Standard embalming, the kind funeral homes perform, uses formaldehyde-based solutions injected into the arterial system. This slows decomposition enough for an open-casket funeral but does not preserve a body indefinitely. Mummification aims for something more permanent, using longer soaking periods, specialized drying environments, and wrapping or sealing techniques designed to last centuries rather than days.
The process can take months. Some providers describe timelines of several months to over a year, depending on the method and the condition of the body at the time of death. The result is a preserved, desiccated body that can be stored in a casket, crypt, or other container without ongoing refrigeration or chemical maintenance.
Who Offers This Service
Very few organizations offer true mummification to the public. Summum, a religious organization based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the most well-known provider in the United States. They developed a modern mummification process that involves immersion in a proprietary chemical solution, followed by wrapping and encasement. The cost has historically ranged from tens of thousands of dollars into six figures, depending on the specifics.
Outside of Summum, your options thin out quickly. Some independent embalmers or preservation specialists may take on custom projects, but there is no industry standard or licensing category for “mummification services.” You would need to research providers carefully, verify their capabilities, and ideally visit their facility before committing.
Alternatives to Traditional Mummification
If permanent preservation of your body is the goal rather than the specific mummification process, plastination is another option. This technique replaces water and fat in the body with durable polymers, resulting in a dry, odorless, permanently preserved specimen. The Institute for Plastination, known for the Body Worlds exhibitions, accepts body donations from people 18 and older. Existing illnesses, old age, or amputated limbs do not typically disqualify a donor.
There is one major catch: the Institute currently accepts new donors only from within Europe. You register while alive by filing a written consent form that includes a waiver of traditional burial. Either party can revoke the agreement at any time. If your relatives might object, the Institute recommends having your signatures notarized on the consent documents. Plastinated bodies, however, are typically used for educational exhibitions rather than returned to families, so this path serves a different purpose than keeping your preserved remains with loved ones.
Legal and Logistical Hurdles
Getting your body to a mummification facility after death involves navigating a tangle of regulations that vary by state. In most U.S. states, transporting a body requires a formal disposition permit issued by a local registrar. If the body needs to cross state lines, it must be accompanied by a burial-transit permit issued in the state where death occurred, confirming that all requirements of the receiving state have been met. Common carriers like airlines have their own additional rules about transporting human remains.
Timing matters enormously. Mummification works best when started soon after death, before significant decomposition begins. Natural mummification in the wild requires very specific conditions: temperatures above 86°F (30°C), humidity below 50%, strong airflow, and intense solar radiation. In a controlled facility, conditions can be managed, but the body still needs to arrive in reasonable condition. Any delay caused by permit processing, family disputes, or long-distance transport works against the quality of preservation.
You should also know that the cause of death can complicate things. If a medical examiner or coroner needs to investigate, disposition permits may be delayed, and an autopsy could alter the body before it reaches the preservation facility.
How to Make It Legally Binding
Simply telling your family you want to be mummified is not enough. A letter of instruction, the document where most people note their burial or cremation preferences, is not legally enforceable. It provides guidance to your loved ones but carries no legal weight if someone challenges it.
To give your wishes the best chance of being honored, you should take several concrete steps. First, contact the mummification provider directly and complete any enrollment or pre-arrangement paperwork they require. Second, include specific disposition instructions in your last will and testament, naming the provider and the process you want. Appoint an executor you trust to carry out unconventional wishes. Third, pre-fund the process if possible, either by paying the provider in advance or setting aside designated funds in a trust, since an executor who faces a six-figure bill with no allocated funds may default to a conventional burial.
If your next of kin might object, consider having your documents notarized and discussing your wishes openly while you’re alive. Courts have sometimes sided with family members over a deceased person’s stated preferences when disposition instructions were informal or ambiguous.
What It Costs
Mummification is expensive by any standard. Summum’s pricing has been reported in the range of $67,000 and up, with costs varying based on the complexity of preservation and the type of encasement chosen. Custom bronze or steel caskets designed for long-term preservation can add significantly to the total. By comparison, the median cost of a traditional funeral with burial in the U.S. runs around $8,000 to $9,000, and cremation is typically a few thousand dollars or less.
Factor in the cost of transporting your body to the facility, any legal fees for setting up enforceable estate documents, and potential storage arrangements for the finished mummification, and the total can easily exceed $100,000. Plastination through the Institute for Plastination, by contrast, is free to the donor, though the body becomes part of the Institute’s collection rather than something your family keeps.
What Your Family Should Expect
The timeline for mummification means your family will not have a body to visit or display for months after your death. There is no traditional viewing, no graveside service in the usual sense. Some families hold a memorial without the body present and plan a later ceremony once the mummification is complete.
Once finished, the preserved body needs a permanent home. Some families keep mummified remains in a private mausoleum or crypt. Others have explored home storage, though local ordinances on keeping human remains in a private residence vary widely and can be restrictive. Sorting out where the mummified body will ultimately rest is something worth deciding in advance rather than leaving to grieving family members.