Though I was a doubter, I'm now a serious believer in this. I didn't want to take the chance and do harm to a sweet cymbal. so I buried a cat. Now I recorded the cat prior to tossing her into the hole and covering her up for six weeks. I logged the little cat sounds in GarageBand so that comparisons could be made.
After waiting six weeks, I dug up the cat and did the GarageBand recording. It was amazing. Before I buried her, she was very vocal with lots of lows and highs. After I removed her from the hole, she was much quieter. There was almost no perceivable sound, save for the intermittent quiet hiss of gas escaping.
I am a believer now. I can speak from experience, this really works!