X-Message-Number: 751
Date: 19 Apr 92 01:11:25 EDT
From: Steve Bridge <>
Subject: Alcor Indiana Newsletter #3

TO: Kevin

ALCOR INDIANA NEWSLETTER #3
March/April 1992
Editor:  Richard Shock


CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?

    How about SEVERAL dimes?  ALCOR INDIANA NEWSLETTER is free of charge 
and will remain so for the foreseeable future, but ALCOR INDIANA members 
have yet to win the lottery, make a killing on the stock market, or 
publish that best-selling novel.  CONTRIBUTIONS FOR PRINTING AND POSTAGE 
OF THIS NEWSLETTER ARE MORE THAN WELCOME.

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EDITORIAL ANGST

    Because AIN is bimonthly, you may not have noticed that it's a full 
week late.  Fear not:  your editor hasn't succumbed to the evils of 
procrastination.  He HAS been on a cross-country trip at a crucial time in 
newsletter production, however.  On April 4 I had the pleasure of 
attending ALCOR's 20th Anniversary banquet in Ontario, California 
(unfortunately, I traveled there by train, slashing 96 hours from my work 
schedule).  Depending on coverage of the event in CRYONICS, a summary may 
appear in AIN #4.

Also. . .

    Over the last few months a number of people have attempted to call me 
at the business number listed toward the end of these newsletters.  
Through a series of unfortunate and maddening coincidences, I've managed 
to miss every one of these calls.  The individuals in question have my 
most profuse apologies.  Be assured, I'm NOT avoiding anyone!

    Be further assured that if you call either of those numbers and I'm 
not present, the person who answers will be a member of my family and will 
keep your communication in the strictest confidence.  In other words, 
please don't hesitate to leave your name and a number where I can reach 
you.

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GETTING IN TOUCH WITH OURSELVES

    Members of ALCOR INDIANA are happy to acknowledge officially the 
exchange of newsletters with other ALCOR affiliates and cryonics 
organizations, including the CRYONICS SOCIETY OF CANADA, ALCOR NEW YORK, 
and through electronic media, ALCOR NORTH.  ALCOR INDIANA NEWSLETTER is 
regularly made available on Kevin Q. Brown's Cryonet system.

    In local developments, ALCOR INDIANA wishes to announce the public 
opening of a small electronic bulletin dedicated to cryonics and 
immortalist thought.  ALCOR INDIANA COMMUNICATIONS BOARD can be reached at 
(317) 870-5780 from 7:00 PM through 9:00 AM. (Indianapolis is currently on 
Central Time, but we don't change our clocks during the year.  Everyone 
else does, so the effect is that for 6 months we are on New York time and 
then the other 6 months on Chicago time.  Right now it is Chicago time.  I 
hope this helps you -- it doesn't help us.)  (Note that calls during the 
day will simply reach a business voice phone.  Unless you're a retailer 
who needs arts and crafts supplies, PLEASE confine calls to night hours.)  
While AICB is still developing, it currently carries ASCII listings of 
ALCOR NORTHERN CALIFORNIA meeting notes, Kevin Q. Brown's Cryonet files, 
and the Venturist Monthly News.

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ALCOR INDIANA OPEN MEETING!

    While ALCOR INDIANA considers every meeting potentially open to 
nonmembers, we would like to offer a special invitation in June to anyone 
interested in cryonics.  If you're free on June 14 around 1:00 PM, contact 
Steve Bridge at (317) 359-7260 or write to ALCOR INDIANA NEWSLETTER at 670 
S. St.Rd. 421 N., Zionsville, IN 46077 to reserve a spot and find out 
where we're meeting.  Lunch or dinner may be part of the schedule, 
depending on the number of respondents.  We're looking forward to seeing 
you!

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FIFTEEN YEARS IN CRYONICS
By Steve Bridge

    During the first weekend in April, 1992, Richard Shock and I traveled 
to California for a dual celebration:  the 20th Anniversary of the 
founding of Alcor Life Extension Foundation and the 25th Anniversary of 
the first cryonic suspension, that of Professor James Bedford.  I hadn't 
considered until I returned home that this was also a major anniversary 
for ME:  15 years in cryonics.  Even calculating the beginnings of 
cryonics from 1964, when Robert C.W. Ettinger's book, The Prospect of 
Immortality, was published, I was surprised to suddenly realize that I 
have been involved in cryonics for more than one half of its existence.  
I'm dangerously close to being an "old-timer."

    So I'm going to tell you my personal cryonics history.  I realize here 
that you might have visions of the character of Ted Baxter from the Mary 
Tyler Moore Show, who kept trying to win an award so he could tell his 
long-rehearsed life story -- "It all began at a little 60-watt radio 
station in Fargo, North Dakota . . ."  But there is a use to this.  
Through my experiences I hope to give you some perspective on the past of 
cryonics to compare with what you learn about today.

    It's odd what simple events can coincide to change a person's life.  A 
date with another woman, a different subject taken in school, an alternate 
choice of jobs, or a simple invitation rejected and I might never have 
come into personal contact with the idea of cryonic suspension.  In 1975, 
I was a children's librarian at the Warren Branch of the Indianapolis-
Marion County Public Library.  I was recently divorced and pretty lonely, 
and I was spending a lot of time at home reading science fiction and 
fantasy and wondering how soon I could apply to be the first librarian on 
the moon.  When Mark Sharpe, a science fiction fan and library patron, 
asked me if I wanted to accompany the local science fiction club to a 
preview showing of "Space 1999," I certainly had nothing better to do.  
The show was not too good, but the people were a lot of fun, so the 
following month I became an official member of the Indiana Science Fiction 
Association (ISFA).

    On a snowy February Saturday evening in 1976, Mark brought two other 
people to ISFA.  Floyd Tolle was a quiet, thoughtful engineer at RCA, and 
Mike Darwin was an intense young man who worked at McDonald's Restaurant.  
As usual, the evening's conversation ranged from books to politics to 
science to economics.  After a couple of hours, I was in the middle of a 
heated conversation with Mike and several others about economics in the 
world of the next century.   I no longer remember the comment that 
prompted his answer, but Mike Darwin said, "But that won't be true when 
cryonics becomes widespread."  Some clever person in the group pointed 
out, "Oh, that's just science fiction."  And Mike replied, "No, it's not.  
I've frozen two people myself."

    You've never seen such a stunned group of people (including Floyd, who 
had only met Mike the previous week).  Science fiction had become truth 
right in front of our faces, as surely as if aliens had walked through the 
front door.  As you can well imagine, we spent the REST of the evening 
arguing about cryonics and hearing Mike's incredible tales of being a 
teenage cryonicist.  As a Junior High School student In 1967, Mike had 
heard about the freezing of Dr. Bedford in California and immediately 
began learning all he could about this new technology.  In high school, he 
had traveled to New York to help the Cryonics Society of New York with a 
suspension and had been horrified by the primitive equipment and lack of 
medical knowledge.  Several years later he had gone to California and 
apprenticed under Fred and Linda Chamberlain, the founders of Alcor.  Mike 
had only recently moved back to his home town to take stock of his life.

    Over the next few weeks and months, Mike and I became very close 
friends, spending hours together and on the telephone discussing life in 
general and "staying alive" in particular.  Floyd, Mike, and I, along with 
young science fiction fans Anna Schoppenhorst and Carolyn Doyle, (and a 
few others on occasion) formed a core group of friends as intense as any I 
have ever had.  I quickly realized that the idea of an indefinite lifespan 
fit many of the ideas I had had since I was a child.  Like many children, 
I saw nothing good about death and assumed it could be overcome.  I told 
friends as a child that my goals were to live to be 100 and change the 
world.  After talks with Mike Darwin, I suspected I might have been 
setting my sights too low.

    Also at this time, my family had been experiencing a high number of 
deaths and hospitalizations.  In 1974-1975, my father's parents and older 
brother had died, my mother had broken her leg and HER mother had broken 
her hip, and the family dog had died.  My mother's sudden death in the 
fall of 1976 was extremely hard on us all, but my new friends (including 
Linda Sannita, a teacher I had just begun to date) helped me get through 
it.  These deaths and the presence of friends who were actively interested 
in combating death combined to give me a new awareness of what I could do 
in the world.

    Soon after we met, Mike Darwin began work at a local blood plasma 
center, where donated blood is treated to remove red blood cells and 
stored as plasma for burn and accident victims.  Mike had always been 
drawn to medicine and this increased his interest tremendously.  As Mike 
became more confident in himself, he grew increasingly intent on starting 
an Indianapolis cryonics organization, so he could put into practice the 
various medical ideas he had.  Again and again he would say, "Steve, if I 
just had a hundred dollars, I could start a cryonics group here."  I date 
my identity as a cryonicist from February, 1977, when I finally wrote Mike 
a check for $100.00 and said, "Here, now shut up."

    Now it was Mike Darwin's turn to be stunned  -- for about 10 seconds.  
Then he shifted gears. . . and pronouns.  "Great," he said, "now, here's 
what we have to do."

    Did you notice that word, "we"?  So did I.  By the end of the evening 
I had agreed to get some books from the library on non-profit corporations 
and to determine what it took to start a cryonics group.  Not for the last 
time, I wondered what I had gotten myself into.

    We needed three adults to form a corporation, so we talked Floyd into 
joining us as a director.  Floyd soon convinced us to hire an attorney to 
help us with the incorporation, and that "just a hundred dollars" suddenly 
had another zero after it (MY money, of course.)  Mike actually wanted to 
form two corporations:  the expected non-profit one and a second, for-
profit corporation which could protect Mike's ownership of some equipment 
he had already purchased with his own money and protect any future items 
he might purchase or patents he might produce.  (This was reasonable to 
me.  I certainly wasn't planning to do any medical or technical work, and 
I could not imagine I would ever help perform a suspension.)

    The attorney, predictably, thought two corporations was an even better 
idea than one ($$$!);  but now we needed TWO sets of officers to avoid 
conflict of interest.  Floyd and I managed to persuade Judson Horning, an 
ISFA member only mildly interested in cryonics, to be director #3 for the 
non-profit.  Mike would be the president of Soma, Inc., the for-profit 
corporation (which only required two people).  But we needed one more.

    Fortunately, about this time Allen Lopp, a computer science student at 
Indiana University, 60 miles to south of Indianapolis, became interested 
in cryonics and wrote to Bob Ettinger.  Ettinger told him to call us and 
we very quickly added him to our circle of friends.  He agreed to be the 
second Soma board member.

    Now all we needed was a properly scientific (but open-ended) name for 
the non-profit group, an application to the IRS for tax-exempt status 
(like magic, more of my money disappeared), the completion of the forms 
for the State of Indiana, and we were ready to change the world.

    On July 1, 1977, the Institute for Advanced Biological Studies, Inc. 
(IABS) drew its first legal breath with Steve Bridge (say, what?) as its 
President.  The sum total of my cryonics knowledge was from reading The 
Prospect of Immortality (once) and a couple of issues of The Immortalist, 
the newsletter of Robert Ettinger's own Cryonics Association, a visit in 
May from Robert Ettinger himself, and whatever Mike told me.

    Ettinger wrote about us in his newsletter at the time, "The Indiana 
people are mostly young, energetic, and enthusiastic.  As reported in an 
earlier issue, they plan both a non-profit and a commercial organization, 
the latter to provide the actual services. . . . In addition to assets and 
equipment previously reported, they have an ambulance and a plot of land.  
They hope eventually to have not only a storage facility, but also a 
nursing home where terminally ill patients can receive optimal care and 
preparation for freezing."  [The Immortalist, June, 1977, Vol.8, #6]

    The "ambulance" was actually an old hearse with at least 200,000 miles 
on it.  I have no idea what "the plot of land" referred to was, since we 
had not yet begun looking at buildings, to the best of my recollection.  
The storage facility and nursing home were wild ideas far ahead of our 
ability to accomplish.

    The irony of the big goals mixed with little experience in the 
paragraph quoted above is not lost on me.  This was actually fairly 
typical of new cryonicists in the 1970's and not that much different from 
many newcomers today.  We certainly were "enthusiastic," though.  Even at 
that young age, Mike's charisma and energy were unmistakable.  I was more 
cautious but still excited about participating in an adventure.  I had 
never known anyone involved in an undertaking this bold, and here I was 
doing it!  But, oh, was I naive.

    It is important here to understand the state of cryonics in 1977.  I 
did NOT understand how bad it was for several years afterward, and then 
only looking back in comparison.  It was just as well I didn't.  By 1977, 
the mini-boom that cryonics had experienced at the beginning of the decade 
had almost completely collapsed.  The Cryonics Society of New York, which 
had as many as six patients in suspension at its peak, had gone out of 
business (with all patients transferred to other organizations or 
relatives or properly buried), leaving its founders, Curtis Henderson and 
Saul Kent, exhausted and practically bankrupt.  At about the same time, 
the original California cryonics organizations -- Cryonics Society of 
California and Cryonics Interment -- were also collapsing and abandoning 
several patients, although we did not know the tragic details until 1979.

    The early cryonics organizations were poorly organized, undisciplined 
collections of "individualists" who had few ideas about how to make 
cryonics succeed.  They assumed that if they could just get things started 
with enthusiasm, then the professionals would finally come in and take 
things over.  And there were people dying out there.  They had to do 
something.  But not everyone can handle the emotional aspects of 
performing suspensions.  The pressure of being on the front-lines is 
tremendous;  there is a lot of back-breaking and sometimes lonely work to 
do;  and low-technology suspensions are not pretty to watch. (How many of 
you could easily watch even high-tech heart surgery today?)

    Technically, the situation was hardly better.  During the first decade 
of cryonics history, most suspensions were performed by morticians or by 
lawyers, writers, and teachers using mortuary pumps.  There was little 
knowledge of anatomy and physiology, no research or engineering work, and 
the concept of "sterile technique" was totally unknown.  The confusion, 
haste, and aura of improvisation which attended any cryonic suspension 
caused Curtis Henderson to refer to cryonics as "guerrilla theatre."

    As things began to go wrong -- as friends died without being 
suspended, as personal finances began to disintegrate -- most of the early 
enthusiasts retreated to a more normal life.

    Before the collapse of CSC/CI, most California cryonicists had split 
off and formed their own organizations:  Trans Time (commercial) and Bay 
Area Cryonics Society (non-profit) in Northern California;  and Manrise 
Corporation (commercial) and The Alcor Society for Solid State Hypothermia 
(non-profit) in Southern California.  In 1977 Trans Time had five patients 
in suspension, including the first patient suspended by Alcor (in 1976).  
Besides 2 or 3 patients under the care of relatives in various states, 
that was the sum total of all patients still in suspension, out of a total 
of approximately 27 people who had been frozen since 1967.  [Michael 
Perry's chart, Cryonics, Volume 11, #10, October, 1990, p. 4.]

    Ettinger's Cryonics Association in Michigan was just forming the 
Cryonics Institute to perform suspensions.  The Cryonics Society of South 
Florida (several years later to merge with Alcor) advertised "a consulting 
biologist on retainer to direct cryonic suspensions," but I doubt if they 
were ready to accomplish such a task.  [Life Extension Magazine, Volume 1, 
Number 1, March/April, 1977, p. 19.]

    In 1977 Thomas Donaldson estimated only about 60 signed-up suspension 
members total for all organizations.  [ibid., p.7]   As we learned later, 
it was probably fewer than that, since many "signed-up members" in fact 
had inadequate funding or none at all.

    In the early 1970's, Fred Chamberlain of Alcor brought engineering 
knowledge to the field by designing flow controls and other devices to 
enhance perfusion.  ("Perfusion" is the act of running a liquid through 
something.  We are all being perfused by our own blood.  In cryonics, 
"perfusion" refers to the act of washing out a suspension patient's blood 
and replacing it with protective chemicals.)  But medical knowledge and 
procedures lagged far behind.

    1977 can be seen as a watershed year for cryonics in many ways;  but 
perhaps the most important event of the year was the involvement of Jerry 
Leaf.  Jerry was a perfusionist and thoracic (chest) surgeon (but not a 
physician) at UCLA.  His knowledge of medical technology and surgical 
procedures gave an immediate boost to California cryonics.  Jerry started 
his own company, Cryovita Laboratories, and began helping both Trans 
Time/BACS and Manrise/Alcor on suspensions and research.  It is no 
exaggeration to say that without Jerry Leaf, cryonics today might still be 
"guerrilla theatre."

    The re-involvement of Mike Darwin in cryonics in 1977, via IABS and 
Soma, was also a major step forward;  but that wouldn't be apparent for 
about three more years.  You could say I was getting on the cryonics 
elevator at just the right time.  We were on the ground floor, but at 
least the elevator had climbed out of the sub-basement and basement.  Of 
course, at the time I didn't know any of this.  I just saw a good idea and 
no other choice existed for me than to go forward.

    [To be continued]

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ALCOR INDIANA MEETING NOTES

    February 23, 1992:

    The monthly meeting of Alcor Indiana was held Sunday at 6:00 PM, in 
the apartment of Angalee Shepherd and Stephen Bridge.  Present were 
Angalee Shepherd, Stephen Bridge, Margaret Schwarz, Robert Schwarz, and 
Richard Shock.

    -- Discussion resumed from an earlier meeting in regard to the 
purchase of a Michigan Instruments Heart-Lung Resuscitator unit.  Mr. 
Bridge had been informed by Alcor Central's Tanya Jones that the unit 
would cost $4930.  With this figure, the group was able to make a final 
decision on financing.  It was agreed to proceed with a loan of $5000 from 
a private source.  Mr. Schwarz agreed to handle the necessary paperwork.

    [Mr. Schwarz completed the paperwork by the following Sunday, at which 
time Alcor Indiana members met and signed the agreement.  The loan would 
be paid off from an open fund, with a quarterly minimum amount of $350.  
Mrs. Schwarz volunteered to oversee the ongoing financial arrangements.]

    -- Margaret Schwarz brought up the question of how Alcor local groups 
might have greater input with the organization's Board of Directors.  Mr. 
Bridge mentioned some of his ideas on the subject, as well as legal 
constraints in corporate structure.  Mr. Schwarz suggested that Alcor 
Indiana should obtain a copy of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation 
charter before any serious discussion could continue.

    -- Talk turned to the latest draft of proposed Alcor chapter 
guidelines.  Mr. Shock strongly protested the section dealing with 
newsletter content, calling it vague and open to possible repressive 
misinterpretation.  However, in general the group approved of what it saw.

    [Please note that "Alcor Indiana" is only a de facto chapter of Alcor 
Life Extension Foundation, since (1) Alcor Indiana's five full members are 
all Alcor suspension members, and (2) Alcor's Board of Directors has yet 
to adopt official chapter guidelines.  When official Alcor chapters exist, 
Alcor Indiana members will probably pursue that status.]

    -- Mr. Bridge mentioned that a South Bend, Indiana television 
interview with Alcor Indiana members (Stephen Bridge, Angalee Shepherd, 
Richard Shock) would air the week of February 24 - 28.  Mr. Bridge was to 
receive a videotape of the final piece.

    Mr. Shock moved that all Alcor Indiana members be made aware of media 
opportunities as far in advance as possible.  (Mr. and Mrs. Schwarz had 
been unable to attend the interview on such short notice.)

    -- Mr. Bridge disclosed two minor publicity opportunities in the near 
future.  First, he had been asked to make a cryonics presentation for a 
local highschool class (see CLASSROOM CRYONICS, later in this issue).  
Second, he wanted to include an Alcor advertisement in the program book 
for a local science fiction convention, "Inconjunction," to be held the 
first weekend in July.  Mr. Shock was working on the advertisement design.

    -- Mr. Shock called attention to the Feb. 1992 issue of CRYONICS 
magazine, where Alcor president Carlos Mondragon announced a new suggested 
policy of Total Body Washouts with the chemical "Viaspan" for patient 
transport from remote locations.  Since Alcor Indiana currently has no 
access Viaspan, Mr. Shock wondered about the practicality of acquiring it 
(cost, shelf life, etc.).  Mr. Bridge agreed to investigate the 
possibility with Alcor Central.

    -- Mr. Schwarz gave a synopsis of his Feb. 22 meeting with the 
Indianapolis mortician who aided in the suspension of Mr. Schwarz's mother 
in 1988.  Mr. Schwarz first confirmed that an "H"-size oxygen tank left at 
the mortuary was still intact, and made plans to exchange it for a full 
cylinder.  He then tested the feasibility of transporting an assembled 
Portable Ice Bath in a hearse.  (During the Alice Schwarz suspension, a 
mortician's van was used;  this same van would not be available on a 
regular basis.)  The PIB fit, but was too large to allow easy en route 
access by a transport technician.  Finally, Mr. Schwarz updated the 
mortician on Alcor suspension medications and discussed local details such 
as hospital and coroner cooperation in releasing legally dead patients.  
The mortician responded positively to these subjects, voicing no 
difficulties.

[ continued - KQB ]


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