X-Message-Number: 12503 Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 11:12:21 -0700 (MST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: Normal Cryonicists I'm glad I returned to sample CryoNet just for the entertainment value of this statement by Robert Ettinger: > There are really far fewer unbalanced people in cryonics than you might > expect in a movement as revolutionary as ours. If you attend meetings of > any of the organizations--highly recommended--you will find, with > inevitable exceptions, that most are very solid citizens with a very > conventional range of views on most topics. As the saying goes: ROTFL. As a journalist I have visited many subcultures, from Mensa to hardcore militia movements; and I have found more socially dysfunctional, pig-headed, and sometimes downright sociopathic misfits in cryonics than anywhere else. Of course, this is part of their charm, and provides endless material for good anecdotes. But there is a serious side effect. Several years ago I discovered that it was pointless to hold meetings to recruit new members of the Alcor chapter of New York, because some of the long-term existing members were so _odd,_ they scared off more-normal newcomers. The meetings actually served as an anti-promotional tool and insured that in this chapter, at least, cryonics would retain its stigma. Quite possibly, CI is different. I haven't been to any of their meetings. CI members could be as "normal" as a meeting of the local chapter of the Lions or the Elks, for all I know. But based on my experience of every other subset of cryonicists during the past ten years, I'm skeptical. > They also tend to be much > better educated and better informed than average. I would rephrase this as, "They THINK they are much better educated and better informed than average." PS. For the record, personally I'm well aware that I am nowhere near the center of any imaginable bell curve. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12503