by:

York W. Porter

Immortalist Society President

When I was a young man growing up in the 1960's in a small town in Virginia, I came across the general idea of cryonics, to the best of my recollection, through trips to the local county public library. Later on, totally by accident, I was at a store in Bristol, Virginia where, on the discount rack, I came across a copy of The Prospect of Immortality. After borrowing a dollar from my Dad, I took my treasure home and, after awhile of this life changing writing sitting on my night stand, I finally opened the book up and was enthralled by what I read. Robert Ettinger's clear and straightforward logic seemed to touch a chord in my soul. His contention that the human life span of roughly "fourscore" years was totally inadequate and that, further, through the use of technology that existed even in the 1960's, we could place patient's with incurable diseases or those tragically lost in accidents into storage at cryogenic temperatures for repair, rejuvenation, and reanimation was (and is) breathtaking in its implications. The way Professor Ettinger presented this idea was also so obvious and so based on clearheaded thinking and solid evidence that I told him in later years that I was so impressed when I first came across his book that I thought "Why didn't I think of this?" (knowing all the while that I certainly would not have and literally thanking God above that Professor Ettinger had).

A second thought that occurred to me was that this idea was so beneficial to mankind as a whole that it would be "no time" before society in general would pick up the concept and change it into a working reality where physicians across the nation would, in addition to their lifesaving attempts with traditional medicine, be the caregivers of last resort by placing patients into cryonic suspension in as technological advanced a manner as could be done. The only contribution that I could see that could further this goal would be for someone to develop full fledged suspended animation to make the job of reviving and resuscitating patients that much easier. In the meantime, cryonics would serve quite nicely and would give hope and reassurance to the thousands and thousands of families that faced tragic circumstances involving a loved one each year. It was, to my young and naive self, only a matter of a short amount of time until the dream became a reality.

Alas, it was not to be and, as everyone who is involved in cryonics knows, after these forty some years of effort, we are still, in spite of the progress made and in spite of the increasing number of patients that each suspension organization has, a long way from "reaching the masses" and convincing them that what we are doing is a very rational and logical thing to do. Originally, in my somewhat isolated state in my hometown, to later in my college days in Berea, Kentucky, I tried to keep up with cryonics as best as I could and waited for the ground swell of support to occur. To this day, I remain hopeful and optimistic about our long term success, but also am still watching and waiting for the "magic words" to be said and for the time when cryonics will be considered a routine part of daily life, just as jet airplane travel, heart transplants, home computers and a thousand and one other miraculous devices and procedures are accepted today. Those of us in leadership in the Immortalist Society will continue our efforts to "educate and preach" this message of rationality and hope and I believe with all my heart that the day will come when we are, as we should be, an accepted part of society in general.

The good news is, of course, that we aren't the only ones in this endeavor. Back in the idealistic days of my youth, I envisioned one large cryonics organization where all of our efforts would be pooled together. In the more realistic days of my adulthood, I began to realize that "one size fits all" wasn't very practical in many endeavors and that cryonics would probably be no exception. Also, I hadn't allowed for the strong willed nature of cryonicists, myself included, and didn't have the maturity and experience in life to realize that the joke about cryonicists that "whenever you have two cryonicists in a room, three organizations will be formed" had more than just a grain of truth in it.

Which, given the system of liberty and freedom that we have, thankfully, in the United States, is, I suppose, as it should be. My family were strictly General Motors people and, by and large, we remain so. But, surprise, surprise, other car companies exist as well. Similarly, it shouldn't be surprising that numerous cryonics' organizations, from CI to SA to Alcor and more should arise, with each offering differing levels and types of services and options . Into this fray has also come the Cryonics Society, a creation of Nick Pavlica and David Pascal, both of whom are dedicated to the concept that this idea of cryonics can indeed be sold to the public at large. With their backgrounds in marketing, I, for one, will be watching with great interest as they try to tackle what I consider to be the toughest assignment in the field of cryonics.

In the last two issues of LongLife and this issue as well, readers should have noted an advertisement for the Cryonics Society. These ads are placed in response to an agreement made where IS will be placing an equal amount of advertising in CS' on line endeavors. The purpose of course, is for each organization to gather as much attention from each other's readership as possible and to cooperate, to the degree we can, in the effort to make information about cryonics more widespread and presented as professionally as we can and to make the general topic of cryonics more acceptable. Whether this works or not is, of course, for the future to tell. The main thing it indicates to me is, however, the fact that cooperation between cryonics organizations is indeed possible and that, at bottom, all of the organizations have much more in common than things that sometimes seem to divide us and I'm wishing great success to CS and all of our sister organizations as we all push forward to make Robert Ettinger's world changing concept a growing and growing reality.