X-Message-Number: 15393 Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 07:21:49 -0500 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: re: secretiveness in cryonics Hi everyone! I must admit, though I still have a liking for Ettinger, that Grimes in his message of 20 Jan 2001 on Cryonet has raised a substantive question about the Cryonics Institute... and so, by implication, about Ettinger himself. Basically it may well clear the air if we can learn just what the Institute's current methods may be, especially since they recently did some suspensions. This problem, however, is not unique to the Cryonics Institute. Alcor was once much more open about their own techniques, complete with printing reports of suspensions. This has gone down after Alcor decided ONLY to print CRYONICS 4 times a year, while the former situation involved printing CRYONICS a bit more often together with the publication of a newsletter for members which discussed in detail just how the latest suspensions had been done and further work to improve them. Yes, Alcor has tried to set up a separate organization to do suspensions, too, and that makes discussion of the technology in detail even harder to get. Alcor so far isn't quite as secretive as the Cryonics Institute, but as someone who does not live close to their facility it's now quite difficult to know exactly what methods Alcor is using. I know that they are attempting to bring vitrification on, because it may well do much less damage than straight freezing, and I've tried to follow such research myself. Even so, research and actual suspensions are hardly the same. We may collectively all wake up one morning to discover equal secretiveness in all the societies ... and if so, that would be a severe long term loss, even if it takes a while to show itself. For the immortality we seek, it does not help to keep our methods secret at all. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15393