X-Message-Number: 8149
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 17:19:51 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CRYONICS More Old Scandal

Here are some final excepts from the interview with Robert 
Nelson conducted in 1992. See my message one day previous
to this one, for explanatory information.
____________________________________________________________ 
 
Intrerviewer: I understand that Michael Worthington--the 
attorney who represented the people suing you--actually went 
to Boston to find out if you had a criminal record. 
 
Nelson: Worthington did everything he could, which crossed 
every line. What if I had a criminal record? So what? It had 
nothing to do with it, these weren't criminal charges. I had 
a--yeah, I had--one of the reasons he was very concerned, my 
father was a Boston gangster. One of the biggest holdups of 
all time, you know, the Brinks robbery, famous, they made a 
movie out of it. He was the person who held the money, hidden 
in a wall for years and years. Worthington found out about 
that. My father was a gangster, his life was ended the way 
gangsters' lives get ended, he got shot in the back of the 
head. But so what, that doesn't have anything to do with this 
case. 
_____________________________________________________________
 
Interviewer: Did the sudden death of your father have 
anything to do with your getting interested in cryonics? 
 
Nelson: Possibly, because I saw him, you know, in the casket. 
I was 21. Actually he was my stepfather. But he adopted me 
when I was, I think--3. No, he married my mom when I was 3. 
He adopted me when I was 15, because I got married at 15, was 
a father at 16, had three kids, and stayed married for 28 
years, or something like that. My wife and I stuck together, 
and we're dear friends right now, still very very close. 
_____________________________________________________________
 
Nelson: My interest in astronomy, when I was a kid, this was my 
father's reaction to it: "You want to see stars, I'll show 
you some stars. Forget it. You gotta learn how to make money. 
That's what it's all about. I'll show you how to make money." 
Every time I saw him, he was either getting out of jail or 
going into jail. And my mom was an alcoholic, I just went 
from one foster home to another with my younger brother. At 
the age of 11 years old, I was on my own. I had a place to 
sleep, I would get on the train, go in town, shine shoes, 
pick up flowers where the trucks pulled in and go into bars 
and sell them, and I was able to make money. Then I fooled 
around at 15 and she got pregnant, I was already ready to 
take care of the family. I knew how to survive. So there 
wasn't any opportunity for me to study anything. I never went 
to high school. But when I came to California I went to UCLA 
and took class after class, writing, business, everything I 
wanted to know about. 
_____________________________________________________________
 
Interviewer: Are you religious? 
 
Nelson: I have always had a very strong faith in an almighty 
source. I don't necessarily have to call it God. When I moved 
into this house, I had a very strong religious experience. I 
stood out there one night and said to myself, well, I've got 
my business back, and eight or nine people working for me, 
I've recovered my life, I own my own home, I've weathered the 
cryonics storm, and I looked at the sky and said, what in 
hell am I doing here? What is this all about? Am I here to 
make love to as many women as I can, to eat as many gourmet 
meals as I can, or is there some other purpose to it all? 
Please, please tell me! And I got a very, very profound 
answer. I had for years been going to a place in Pacific 
Palisades, the Self Realization Fellowship. It's a man-made 
lake, it has a one-mile path, you walk around it. When I was 
younger, I came to California, I used to smoke pot, my wife 
and I were separated, together, separated, so whenever I had 
a new girlfriend it would be a very normal routine, wining 
and dining these ladies, take them to the self-realization 
place, smoke a joint while we walk around looking at all the 
flowers--you know, isn't this beautiful! And right after I 
had this experience in my back yard I went back there, and I 
looked around and said what is this place all about. Yogis. 
What the hell is a yogi? So I bought a book and I followed 
this self-realization fellowship, which is basically 
meditation. 
 
So now I realize the difference between cryonics and this: 
they're almost at complete odds. Because the yogi way of 
looking at life is that the purpose of being here is to get 
out of here. This life is a very painful experience, I nearly 
lost my life many times, I was attacked once in Boston, when 
I was 19, stabbed seven times and shot twice. I got mixed up 
with some very bad guys, got taken for a ride out into the 
woods, I managed to fight my way out of the car, and the guys 
that did it were sent to prison for 200 years. 
_____________________________________________________________
 
Interviewer: If you had a life-threatening condition today, 
would you make cryonics arrangements? 
 
Nelson: Yes. Although the financial aspect of it is a big 
consideration. And I do believe in reincarnation. I was 
brought up a Catholic, and all through my studies in self-
realization, which take 3-and-a-half years, and I'm about 2-
and-a-half years through these lessons. If you have ever felt 
what the yogis call bliss--which I have, just for a moment--
you will never in your life want anything more than that. So, 
I practice meditation, I would say I'm a Christian, a 
Buddhist, and also a cryonicist. 
_____________________________________________________________
 
Interviewer: How did you first learn about cryonics: 
 
Nelson: I weas 31, driving on the freeway, there was a 
bulletin about Bob Ettinger's book. I didn't catch its name, 
but a few days later I read an article in the National 
Enquirer. [Note: Nelson is possibly the ONLY person ever 
recruited to cryonics through the National Enquirer.] 
_____________________________________________________________
 
end of interview excerpts 

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