Postscript
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Much has happened since the first American publication of this book in June, 1964, and the reader is entitled to know how my ideas have stood the test of time and criticism, and to know the current opportunities for participation in the freezer program.
As a publisher's package, the book is already successful. It has enjoyed repeated printing in the U.S.; it will also appear in translation in Germany, Italy, and The Netherlands, as well as in France. Excerpt rights have been sold to many magazines and newspapers in the U.S., Europe, Africa, South America, and Australia.
General public reaction has been gratifying in one sense, since very little hostility or ridicule has been expressed. I have been a guest on dozens of 'IV and radio programs, and on only one did the host treat the idea lightly; there have been hundreds of newspaper articles, and only two or three have been facetious. Of the clergymen with whom I have spoken-Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish-none raised a religious objection.
In another sense public reaction has so far been unsatisfactory, since there persists an impression, mainly among those who have not read the book but only heard about it, that the freezer program is for the distant future. But this situation is beginning to change.
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No scientific errors of any consequence have been brought to nay attention. I did' err in creating radiation hazard, in not mentioning the fact that radiation damage is less at low temperatures; but this error is on the right side of the ledger-that is, the deterioration of a stored body because of radiation will be even slower than I calculated.
The comments of scientists have been mostly cautious and noncommittal. Very few, if any, deny that the idea is possible. In some cases, the biological portion of the book has explicitly been given a clean bill of health-e.g. by the eminent English biologist, Dr. Alex Comfort, in his review in the New York Herald Tribune; and this despite the fact that, for psychological reasons, he is not in sympathy with the program.
On the other hand, the majority of scientists at present regard the chance of reversing freezing damage as very small. They have no answer, however, when I make the following extremely pertinent points: (I) Such a probability estimate is not a calculation, but merely a vague expression of pessimism, since we are talking about the Indefinite future. (2) Even a small chance is better than none, and will provide additional hope for a dying man. After all, it is not uncommon for a physician to try an unproven remedy in an otherwise hopeless case, (3) The sooner the program begins, the sooner society will benefit from the long view. (4) A general, practical freezing program is the only likely way to arouse massive support for accelerated research, which is essential if those dying in later years (most of us) are to be frozen by fully perfected methods; without such a program, research in cryobiology, and also in aging, would probably limp along at a snail's pace for many decades. This point must be heavily emphasized.
The business world is beginning to sit up and take notice. it is obvious, from my correspondence and conversations, that large numbers of people will be willing to buy freezing interments as
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soon as they are available; many people, even without much confidence in the likelihood of revival, are willing to pay a little more for a cleaner and more permanent method of preserving their bodies. Independent studies by business interests have also provided the welcome opinion that my estimate of $8,500 for preparation and storage of a body is a little high.
At least one company, called Juno, Inc,, is actively preparing to build commercial facilities, with the first installations planned for California, according to my information.
There are gratifying indications that the cemetery and mortuary people will cooperate. In the July, 1964 issue of American Cemetery, publication of the American Cemetery Association, there was a long serious discussion of the book, and I continue to receive inquiries from morticians. The morticians, of course, will provide a more important service than ever before, in preparing the bodies, by methods which they can easily be taught.
Increasing numbers of ordinary people are beginning to realize that we can fight against death-we don't have to take it lying down-and organizations devoted to promotion of the freezer program are growing. One is the Immortality Research & Compilation Association, P.O. Box 4193, Panorama City, California 91412, Another is the Life Extension Society, 2011 N Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 Still another, yet unnamed, is about to be formed in New York under the leadership of a biochemist and a well known business man, according to my information. In France, an organization has been formed by Marc Coffer, Rosieres aux Salines, Meurthe-et-Moselle.
I am of course cooperating with all such organizations, e.g. supplying them with continually revised suggestions for procedures in preparing and freezing bodies. Another prospective organization, with which I may be connected, is the Anabiosis & Prolongevity Institute. Mail can be addressed to me care of Doubleday & Co., 277 Park Ave., New York, N.Y. 10017.
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Whether or not a human will be frozen before the end of 1964, it now seems nearly certain that organized facilities will exist in 1965. How early they appear and how extensive they are depend partly on you, the reader. With your active cooperation, the next death in your family need not be permanent. Dec. 5, 1964