X-Message-Number: 1363
Date: 27 Nov 92 03:42:56 EST
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: CRYONICS: Amplification of My Posting #1333
What follows is a detailed amplification of the reasons for
terminating my suspension contract with Alcor which I stated briefly
in posting #1333.
>since the termination of Alcor's contract with Mike Darwin, it is not
>possible for Alcor to provide the quality of suspension for which I
>contracted
I stated earlier in that same posting that I believe that Alcor's
suspension capability without Mike Darwin is still better (and I might
add *much* better) than that of its competitors. Who can deny,
however, that suspensions would have a far better chance of preserving
the suspendee's identity and memories if the world's most experienced
and knowledgable cryonics scientist is participating than if he is
not. Furthermore, I believe that at the present time, and in
comparison to the other individuals that are actually doing
suspensions, his presence is indispensable. His knowledge and
experience are so important, that if it is a choice of having him
doing suspensions or having the people who do not like working with
him doing suspensions (it is my understanding that these are mainly
Tanya, secondarily Hugh and thirdly Ralph in deference to Tanya, his
lover), then they must be taken off suspensions or at least told to
put up with it or quit suspensions. His knowledge, experience and
suspension capabilities outweighs the sum of theirs. Even Steve
Bridge, since becoming President-elect has stated that he doesn't want
Mike to be involved with suspensions at the present time and into the
immediate future. I think this is ridiculous! When will we wake up
to the fact that we are no longer a dozen cryonicists and if one goes
there will be no one to replace him. There are many people out there
in cryonicsland who would be happy and eager to come and work at Alcor
if given the chance. There are many who are eager to work with Mike
Darwin whom most of them admire greatly for his many accomplishments
and his decades of dedication to cryonics. If Directors and
management don't believe this, then I say let's find out by
advertising the Alcor job positions to an open competition by anyone
interested and choosing the 'best' applicant (which may well be the
current holder of the position). That's what I was trying to
accomplish when I asked for the formation of a Presidential Search
Committee. That's what I was trying to accomplish when I questioned
the completely closed non-competitive hiring of Derek Ryan. I was not
saying that there was anything wrong with Derek, but that there might
be people even better suited to the job out there who we did not know
about and how could we know if we didn't let them know that the job
was open.
>The continuing tenure, as President, of a man who has, I believe
>shown gross incompetence in that position and, in addition, gross
>lack of personal integrity.
Not much to say about this now that he's been fired as President.
It looks like more that half the Board of Directors, not to mention
dozens of Alcor clients, agree with me. He had already been removed
from being chairman of the Board (one of my recommendations in "Its
Time For A Change"). I've said for months that Carlos is not all bad.
On many issues he has had some very good ideas and he may be a useful
member of the Board until someone better comes along. There, he won't
have to lie so much to cover his incompetence. Since he won't have
any specific duties, he won't be able to damage Alcor by his
procrastinations, laziness, disorganization, managerial ineptitude,
and ass-covering deceit. He should be happier in that position since
he will still be able to play the part of an omniscient sage without
having to actually produce anything. His removal makes me happy
because I am that much closer to being able to renew my suspension
contract with Alcor.
>The continuing presence, on the Board, of Keith Henson, Dave Pizer,
>Carlos Mondragon, and Hugh Hixon each of whom (for very different
>reasons) I consider unfit for service on that body. In addition, I
>believe there are very good reasons why the Board of Directors should
>not include *any* employees. The Board must also commit to changing
>the method by which it is elected to allow for regional and member
>participation. Both the present method and a fully democratic method
>of choosing board members are unacceptable.
Let me say right off that I also consider *myself* to be unfit to
be on the Alcor Board of Directors. Stating this obviously shows that
the phrase "unfit for service on that body" is not meant to imply that
those who I have named are contemptible individuals devoid of any
redeeming characteristics. For example, let me state unequivocally
that I think that Keith Henson's act in violating member
confidentiality to alert Mike Darwin that a friend of Mike's was
imminent for suspension was an act of heroism. I might have done the
same thing. I have certainly done similar things in the past. My
moral values are such that I generally ignore rules and regulations -
certainly any Laws - in favor of doing what I believe is *right*. For
that very reason, I am not fit to work in a formal relationship with
others, where I have to suppress my own values in favor of those of
the group. My only argument with Keith concerning his breaking the
rules is related to the old adage "you can't have your cake and eat it
too"; he should have enough consistency and self-esteem to resign from
the Board. But, of course, he has shown many times in his actions and
in his writing that he does not.
Keith Henson:
In addition, to the above named admirable character attribute
which makes him unfit to be on the Board, he has, I am sorry to say,
many less than admirable characteristics which have the same result.
Before I describe them let me state that I believe that Keith *is* a
cryonics zealot. He contributes a huge amount of his life's time and
energy to cryonics. The amount which he contributes is not the
problem and much of it, especially in the technical area, is very
valuable. I would by no means want him to leave Alcor altogether.
Just get off the Board!
Keith is one of the most unobjective people that I know (that
often, unfortunately, comes with being a zealot). Charles Platt's
posting #1339 stated this very well in a sarcastic manner. He also
clearly suffers from a God complex, apparently believing that it is
his sacred duty to pontificate to his flock concerning each and every
statement posted on the NET which is contrary to his narrow and rigid
world-view. He is also often a mean and nasty person. As is again
often true with true believers, he will use slander, innuendo, snide
remarks, lies, threats, betrayal, etc. - whatever it takes - to slay
the dragons and right the wrongs as he sees them. He has shown some
very basic misunderstanding of moral principles. When he wrote
excusing Carlos for being a liar by giving examples of how we should
and had to lie to the courts regarding the Dora Kent affair, he showed
that he totally misunderstood the fundamental difference between lying
to someone who is about to use the force of the gun to harm you or
those you care about, and lying to someone with whom you have a
relationship with respect to which your freedom and personal rights
are fully acknowledged and unabridged.
To me, Keith is a real disappointment as a Director. His
experience with other organizations, his obvious intelligence, and his
technical knowledge could have made him a real asset. However, it has
become clear that he has certain character traits which are
incompatible with his directorial functions. Among these are his
closed mindedness to alternate organizational ideas, his arrogance,
his emotionalism, his jumping to conclusions, his use of insinuations
and innuendo in attempts at character assassination, his belief that
unless you have been active in Alcor for more than 3 years and are on
CRYONET, you just don't count. He also appears to bring with him from
his troubles with the L5 society, considerable unresolved emotional
baggage which he insists on applying to the unrelated problems in the
cryonics movement. He should be encouraged to continue to contribute
his technical excellence and his valuable service as a very active
volunteer.
Dave Pizer:
Dave has been an active member of Alcor for many years. He visits
the facility regularly, talks to the staff, and generally keeps in
tune with what is going on. He gets some good ideas, and he doesn't
just suggest them and wait for others to implement them, but has the
energy and drive to carry them out himself. However, all that having
been said, I do not believe that Dave has the objectivity and moral
character required to be a Director. After seeing and hearing him in
action many times, I do not believe that Dave understands what
absolutes and principles are, what it even means to be logical and
consistent. I have never met anyone like him in my life. I am
astonished that such people can exist. He seems to be a complete and
utter pragmatist, his position, on people especially, is like a flag
in the wind. To him the universe of human action and relationships is
nothing but shifting sand whereupon all things are possible and in
fact probably take place. Whereon, no grounds exist for judging good
from bad. Where, for any human act, the arguments for it being the
right act are just as strong as the arguments for it being the wrong
act. I recommend that Dave Pizer be encouraged to continue doing those
things that he has done well in the past. His job as Treasurer of
Alcor should be assigned to someone else.
At times Dave acts like a blustering, blundering fool. In my
opinion, he single handedly brought into the forefront the current
conflict within Alcor, when he unreasonably judged an uncritical (and
even flattering) document suggesting the establishment of a committee
to search for a successor to Carlos Mondragon as President of Alcor,
to be an attack on Carlos and demanded that specific criticisms be
produced. In one insensitive, blundering move, he completely negated
the hours of work and thought that I had put into that document just
in order to make it noncontroversial and universally acceptable.
Logically, it was clear that there must be some end to Carlos'
presidency. The document did not ask for his removal and gave no
timetable for his replacement. On the contrary, it made out a valid
case, based on Carlos' publicly expressed desires, that the board was
being neglectful of its gratitude for Carlos' years of service by
*not* seeking out a successor. The purpose of the document was to
communicate the requirements of the job to the membership and to
attempt to find one or more Alcor members who were equal to that task
and would be willing to assume it if/when Carlos should ever leave.
If Dave hadn't ruined the whole plan Alcor might well not be in the
turmoil it is today.
Carlos Mondragon:
Many of the reason's for removing him from the Presidency also
apply to his to his position as a Director but with less urgency.
These have been elucidated in great detail elsewhere.
Hugh Hixon:
It is hard for me to write this because I like Hugh as an
individual and regard him as a friend. However, the Alcor Board of
Directors should not have any Directors who are also on the staff and
Hugh Hixon is a prime example of why this is a wise rule for
organizations to follow. He has great difficulty separating his
function on the board from his function as a staff member. In
addition, Hugh does not appear to be a very independent minded
individual. He is too easily swayed by the arguments and opinions of
others to properly fulfil his function as a Director.
Ralph Whalen:
I now add Ralph's name to the list of Directors who should not be
on the Board. He was, of course, on the list indirectly before since
he is an Alcor employee. But some of his recent actions, the details
of which I wish not to report, and his reply to Mike Darwin's
departure statement show that there are enormous gaps in his
understanding of many fundamental issues involving Alcor and the
criticisms which many have levied at its current principles of
operation. In addition, I believe he is not able to be objective
concerning his own shortcomings or those of his lover and Alcor
staffer Tanya Jones.
>The continuing absence of technically competent transport and
>suspension personnel including anyone suitable to organize and
>conduct transports and suspensions. Mike Darwin is currently the
>only person in the world competent for that job. He must be given
>full responsibility, authority and cooperation to do that job and
>to build a professional team for that purpose, including
>replacements for himself. Any Alcor Directors or employees who
>are not fully honest and cooperative must get out of the way.
>There are sufficient qualified Alcor members who *are* happy to
>work with Mike to replace those who have wanted him gone.
Currently, it appears that Tanya Jones is the de facto head of the
suspension team at Alcor. (Although if you ask some at Alcor you hear
that Hugh Hixon is in charge. The problem is that nice guy and useful
person to have around that he is, Hugh is hardly capable of being in
charge of himself let alone anything requiring the organizational and
interpersonal complexity of a suspension team). Although Tanya Jones
is a hard, productive worker (40 hours a week that is) and has
accomplished at lot in written documentation organizing the suspension
and transport equipment and supplies and through Standard Operating
Procedures (SOP's) the current suspension and transport methods, she
completely and continually fails to understand the depth of knowledge
and experience that is required to be the technical leader of
transport and suspensions. She has consistently refused to take, or
even acknowledge the necessity of, any formal technical or university
biological or medical training. Instead, she is working on a
correspondence course MBA (hardly something which will make her more
competent at transport or suspensions). She has this totally
unrealistic and arrogant attitude that by watching Mike Darwin and
reading and mimicking what he does, she somehow becomes as qualified
as he is at transport and suspensions. What does she think 20 years
of experience and massive reading of the literature do for you? It is
right and correct to not be in awe of someone who has vastly more
knowledge and experience and to not accept what they say by the
authority argument, but it is quite a different thing to think that in
just a few months you can be their equal. Tanya is just simply too
arrogant and too incapable of responding positively to any criticism
to be in charge of suspensions. In part, I terminated my contract
because I refuse to let her do my suspension. She could be a valuable
Alcor employee in other areas and she could be a valuable part of the
suspension team if she learns to accept construct criticism. Ralph
Whalen has argued that Alcor suspension capability is better now
because Tanya has done so much work organizing it and it was totally
organized before. What he fails to realize is that the procedures,
equipment and consumables involved *were* totally organized previously
- in Mike Darwin's head - as witness the fact that he could put
together a complete duplicate suspension capability at our Colton
facility in the space of 2 months. Again I give her full credit for
writing these down and organizing them on paper and computer. Because
I was paying her 'under the table', it has not come out before that
this, essentially, (as Mike Darwin's assistant) is the job for which
I, Paul Wakfer, paid her salary from October 1991 to March 1992.
It is my understanding that when Mike Darwin chose Ralph Whalen to
become the team perfusionist after Jerry Leaf's deanimation, he knew
that Ralph had the intelligence to do the job and he hoped that Ralph
would become keenly interested, certainly to the extent of doing
extensive reading and studying on the subject of perfusion (there are
dozens of books and several current journals devoted to the subject)
and hopefully to the extent of taking perfusion certification courses
and getting some actual hospital experience. Instead Ralph has only
and exclusively learned the necessary button pushing and operational
rules to do the standard suspension perfusion procedures. To his
credit, he appears to know that there is more that should be done, but
his real interests at Alcor lie elsewhere. Still in my book, we need
an interested, experienced perfusionist or at least someone in charge
who has experience (Mike Darwin) before the Alcor team can be
considered adequate in this area. Again to his credit in contrast to
Tanya, Ralph, I believe, would gladly relinquish his suspension team
job if such a person came along.
Hugh Hixon is too (unconsciously) irresponsible and incapable of
thinking farther than the end of his nose, to have any 'position' on
the suspension team. With his vast knowledge of equipment of all
types and his excellent fix-it abilities, he is a great man to have
around when thing go wrong. He should always be included in
suspensions in that context. He is also good at producing technical
modifications or building new things if they don't need to be done on
schedule and are generally designed by someone else. He is also very
well read scientifically (perhaps too much to ever be able to
specialize and to actually accomplish any of his professed research
goals) and sometimes makes useful scientific contributions.
>The Board's official sanction of the use of Endowment Fund
>principal for operational needs and the rejection of the advice
>and concern of the Endowment and Patient Care Trust Fund advisory
>committees which led to their mass resignation. Alcor must
>institute an inviolable policy to never again use anything except
>the real dollar earnings of the Endowment and Patient Care funds.
Both the Endowment Fund (EF) and the Patient Care Trust Fund (PCTF)
should be made into arms length trusts. By this I mean that the Board
of Directors should appoint trustees to manage them and that these
trustees should have a similar relationship to the Board that, for
example, the Supreme Court has to the Presidency. The board can
appoint them for a certain term, but cannot remove them except for
explicitly enumerated breaches of fiduciary trust. The trustees have
total control over the investment of the trust, they decide what real
dollar gain has been produced by the trust and thus what amount to
returned to Alcor each quarter. The Board only has the power to
appoint new trustees if vacancies occur by attrition or at end of
appointment term, to contribute more money to the trust and to receive
any real profits which the trust produces. In extreme emergencies,
when all other recourses had failed, the trustees (not the Board)
would have the power to 'save' Alcor by using some of the EF
principal. Only if the patients themselves were in mortal danger,
would the trustees (not the Board) be allowed to use any of the PCTF
principal.
>The overcharging of the Patient Care Trust Fund for operating
>expenses and the consequent virtual theft of funds from helpless
>patients to get more money for Alcor's wasteful operational
>purposes and the continuing negligence in making that fund a fully
>independent trust.
With respect to the independent trust idea see above. As for the
overcharging, first I have never seen, and I don't think anyone has
*ever* produced, an accounting which shows how much the fund has grown
by its earnings in terms of real dollars (or, for example, that the
real dollars per patient in storage in growing - taking into account
that heads need less than bodies). Certainly, when the board voted at
its last public meeting to transfer moneys that operations had
expended on patient care from the PCTF to operations, nothing was said
about how this amount of money was related to the real dollar earning
of the PCTF and no review was taken of the details of the accounting
and assignment of patient care expenditures. Without these facts
which are not available, it is nevertheless my understanding that in
recent years major changes have taken place in the assignment of
expenses to the PCTF and in the contributions from Alcor general funds
to the PCTF. This, I believe, is a major reason why Alcor can afford
the number of staff it has today. Certainly, the large yearly
donations for staffing and other needs have all but dried up. Carlos
has been very crafty and creative at using all the funds under his
control to suit his purposes and a rubber stamp board offered no
resistance.
>The absence of staff and volunteers who are passionate zealots,
>who eat, sleep and breath cryonics, eagerly working day and night
>seven days a week, and ready to move heaven and earth to thrust
>cryonics and immortalism into modern society, and to win the
>battle with deathism.
Here, I plead guilty to, with emotion packed prose, attempting to
explain a problem which needs a much longer statement and analysis.
The best elucidation that I have written to date of what I mean was
included in "Its Time For A Change".
"What sold me on cryonics was the sincere, heartfelt, open,
honest, starry-eyed yet down-to-earth articles and reports that
appeared in almost every issue of Cryonics. These few zealots and
visionaries were actually talking of defeating death and were doing
research on a shoe-string to prove their point."
---and---
"I visited Alcor for the first time when I came to the Venturist
July 4th weekend in 1991. I returned several times in the fall before
moving here Feb 1, 1992. I worked at Alcor most days spending 12 to
14 hours for about 3 weeks in the fall and from Feb 1, 1992 until
about mid April when I began working with Mike Darwin. In tune with
the mission that Alcor has (a revolutionary change in society's view
of death), I expected to find a tightly knit, dedicated, efficient
band of zealots working long hours, largely independent of normal work
standards except as they needed to communicate with the rest of
society, people with starry eyes, radiant faces, fervent minds, and
passionate hearts."
---and---
"To make cryonics a 'success' (ie. reach a large enough size and
level of societal clout for suspensions to become medical procedures,
for cryonics societies to be major institutions surviving and growing
over the centuries, and to begin to resuscitate the present and future
suspension patients), requires an enormous amount of dedication,
efficiency, zeal, organization, intelligence, planing, just plain hard
work, and, after all that, a fair amount of luck. You can't do it
with the 40 hour work week, good enough will do, don't worry we'll do
it tomorrow, we're doing the best we can, mentality. We need staff
who breath, eat, sleep, and (excuse my vulgarity) even shit cryonics.
Many will say that I'm asking too much. Well I'm not asking anything
that I can't deliver, I'm not asking for something which others have
not delivered to cryonics in the past (namely Mike Darwin), and what's
more, I'm not asking for something which isn't necessary for cryonics
to succeed! The enormous extension of our individual lives is worth
it, and the total remolding of society which the immortalist idea
requires to be successful demands it! In my estimation, very damned
few of the current Alcor staff match this picture."
>The conciliatory, try to please everyone, bandaid approach taken
>by the new Directors, when wholesale changes are needed *now*.
The Board seems to have snapped out of this approach and are making
wholesale changes. I earnestly hope that they continue.
>The irresponsible hiring of new staff when the present ones are
>not working nearly effectively enough and there is no money to
>pay for the new staff.
Here I meant the hiring of Tanya Jones and Derek Ryan without recourse
to advertising the availability of those positions and without
budgetary planning concerning the need for, and the payment of, those
jobs. Of working harder I have written elsewhere in this document.
>The irresponsible abandonment of computers adequate for their
>needs and which were largely supplied to them gratis. And the
>subsequent purchase and installation, at a cost of considerable
>time and money, of computers which are more powerful and deluxe
>than is reasonable in comparison with the money that Alcor has to
>spend and what its spending priorities should be.
Al Lopp and I supplied much of the computer equipment and software
which Alcor had up until I ceased residing at Alcor in April 1992. I
had already upgraded the last of the 8088 motherboards to 286 12 or 16
MHz. With my 10 years of experience as a provider of hardware,
software, services, consulting and teaching in the PC industry, I
consider that in relation to their needs, their funds available and
their primary goals of suspensions, patient care and research, Alcor
had at that time adequate computer power and software. To my chagrin,
it wasn't more than 2 months after I had upgraded him from WordStar on
an original IBM PC to Ventura and WordPerfect on a 16 MHz 286 with 4
MB of memory and a special 14" white screen for Ventura, that he
demanded and received a 486 with hard disk and color monitor. In
essence, completely rejecting my gift and my judgement. Mike Perry
did essentially the same thing, however, I don't blame him so much
because he is just too insensitive of human relationship in all areas
to ever think of such a thing. No suggestion was ever received from
Alcor that I could have back my donated equipment which was no longer
being used. Mike Darwin has urged me several times to go and reclaim
it. But I find the whole thing too distasteful to face. I have never
liked attempting to take back gifts however much they were spurned,
preferring instead to resolve never to be burned, at least by the same
people, again.
>The continued recruiting of clients at the expense of perfecting
>the product which they are being asked to purchase. Concomitant
>with this salesmanship is the distortion of the real, current
>possibility of actually ever coming back if one is suspended now.
The first sentence is pretty obvious. Alcor is, and has been for
years, spending at lot of time, energy and money on finding and
signing up new members. Alcor has been spending precious little time,
energy and money on reducing the damage done to the body and the brain
by its suspension procedures. I admit to having only indirect
evidence to my statement concerning the misleading of persons
contemplating sign-up. Based on the distortions of Alcor's suspension
capability, the faith of most of the Alcor staff that the magic of
nanotechnology will solve all problems (perhaps this is also why they
are not committed to further research?) and the lack of any
fundamental understanding of the problems of cryonics by both Ralph
Whalen and his sign-up successor Derek Ryan (plus also Derek's
salesman background), until someone convinces me otherwise I will
believe that prospective members are not being verbally given the
'hard and gritty truths' concerning suspension that they once were.
>The secrecy in Alcor Board meetings concerning things other than
>client confidentiality in a continuing attempt by certain
>directors to hide their real selves, and to keep the facts
>concerning the strife and turmoil encompassing Alcor, from
>suspension clients.
If Alcor Directors are proud of what they are doing, they should be
happy to let the clients be a part of it. If they are not proud of
what they are doing or not doing right, then the clients must be part
of it in order to help right these wrongs or to lobby for the removal
of Directors who can't do things right. Anything else is unacceptable
false faces, and duplicitous words.
>The continuing lack of openness, objectivity and candor in the
>pages of Cryonics. If Alcor wishes to keep Cryonics 'clean' for
>recruiting purposes, then start a newsletter for members only in
>which Alcor's problems can be fully and openly discussed.
Ralph does a great job of the production of Cryonics its appearance is
very professional and is vastly improved over what it was. However,
if he can't bring himself or isn't otherwise able to seek out and to
print the 'hard and gritty truths' that I agree used to be the
hallmark of Cryonics and are what sold me on Alcor in the first place,
then someone who can should become editor. Ralph would be great as
production manager. Even if we start a newsletter for client only
critical opinion, their still needs to be a change in Cryonics back to
the total unvarnished truth about cryonics.
Just to let you know, Alcor did immediately refund my $35,000.00
suspension prepayment plus interest. They borrowed $15,000.00 of it
from the Endowment Fund!
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