X-Message-Number: 18140 From: Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 14:49:32 EST Subject: Re: CryoNet #18124 - #18132 In a message dated 12/10/01 5:01:11 AM, writes: << Olaf Henny >> Dear Olaf, I am very sorry that your aunt had to lose her son on the eastern front but I take the strongest exception to your interpretation of her story. The fact is that hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were dying on the eastern front at the time and as many mothers worried for the worst. How many would have had similar quasi-hallucinatory experiences on any given day? How many of these would later find that their sons died on that very same day? I would suggest hundreds if not thousands. There is absolutely no evidence for telepathic communication in your anecdote. Think about Occam's razor: let the simplest expanation with the fewest intervening variable stand as the probable truth unless the contrary can be proved by acceptable scientific standards. This point is not 'off topic' in the sense that it is important for all of us advocating cryonic suspension to adhere to a strictly scientific view of our world, understanding and accepting the sometimes harsh rules of scientific evidence. As yet there is no more evidence for telepathic communication than there is for the coutless "miracles" that fill the Bible and other religious texts. Even when anecdotes are carefully documented, they cannot stand as evidence unless and until they can be repeated and redocumented under the watchful gaze of multiple objective observers, preferably observers who have no personal stake in the outcome. As the years go by and our numbers grow, we will come under increasing attack from many quarters. There will be many in the scientific community who will join this negative chorus, but when they do, we should be in a position to come right back at them: cryonics is not religion, and its not supestition or magic. It is simple logic founded in what is already firmly established in science and science-derived technolog and medicine. We must stick to this base to retain our credibility with the few who might be persuaded. Ron Havelock, CI signed up. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18140