X-Message-Number: 5071
Date:  Mon, 30 Oct 95 13:40:00 
From: Steve Bridge <>
Subject: Committee for an Extended Lifespan

To CryoNet
>From Steve Bridge
October 30, 1995

In response to:   Message #5065
                  From:  (David Stodolsky)
                  Subject: Committee for an Extended Life Span
                  Date: Sat, 28 Oct 95 20:54:49 +0100

>"As an amusing example of this type of phenomenon on a small scale
>is the Texas cleric who ran the Committee for the Elimination of
>Death from 1974 to 1978, attracting 200 members. In 1978 he
>formed the Committee for an Extended Life Span, and its worldwide
>membership was reported to exceed 300,000 people (membership
>fees of $5 to $1,000) by early 1979."

>Does anyone know anything about this organization?

     Bob Ettinger, Saul Kent, and I and some others will remember A.
Stuart Otto, sometimes known as Brother Stuart.  I do not know if Otto
had formal religious training; but he was widely read in religion and
philosophy.  He was a subscriber and occasional correspondent to
cryonics organizations in the 70's and early 80's, at which time he
wrote that he was retiring from the public view.  I haven't heard
anything about him since.

     Otto seemed like a nice-enough fellow from his letters, although I
would say that his vision of how to eliminate death was limited to
nutrition and positive thinking.  He seemed puzzled by the technology
of cryonics, although he sympathized with the motivations.

     I believe he was a speaker at one or more of the cryonics/life
extension conferences in the 1970's and some others here may have met
him.  I never met him.

     I don't know about the "300,000 membership" quoted above.  I doubt
that the figure ever got that high, even at $5.00 a membership.
Benefits were mostly a newsletter and kind thoughts.

     I think the important observation of the quote is that more people
seem to be interested in talking about a longer life span than in
eliminating death.  That certainly squares with my experience.  Also, it
seems true that many more people will become involved in "positive
thinking" to combat death than in speculative, hard-to-prove
technologies like cryonics.

     Not far from Alcor is a group currently named "People Forever."
The group was known several years ago as "The Eternal Flame Foundation."
The leadership is a triumvirate of a husband and wife and a third male
partner, who charge exhorbitant sums for workshops and celebratory
gatherings to think one's way to immortality.  The proper mental state
will bring on a "cellular reawakening" that will make the individual
immortal.  The leader wears a toupe' and his wife obviously has had
plastic surgery, yet they attract hundreds to their conferences, their
parking lot is always crowded, and their individual incomes are several
hundred thousand dollars a year.

     Religions and cults make guarantees.  Cryonics organizations don't.
We require contracts and a deeper level of technical understanding.  We
make people face icky issues like neurosuspension, standby, perfusion,
cracking, memory loss, nanomachines invading their bodies, loss of
continuity, and the what-the-heck-is-identity-anyway problem.

     Soap and religion sell better than philosophy and always have.
Maybe someday we'll have some soap to sell.  I hope we can avoid
becoming a religion.

Steve Bridge


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