MEET AMANDA BLEVINS he’s the Personnel Officer in our unit. And Shannon Jr.

is a
Cadet Master Sergeant. I’m also an Emergency Services offi-
cer with a Technician rating.

I have a kitten in cryopreservation at C.I. The kittens name is

Lucky because we just happened to have money for the pur-
chase of a safe. But when the kitten deanimated, I used the
$1,000.00 to store the kitten so, therefore, the kitten was
“Lucky”.

I created a YouTube Cryogirl which is intended to be an ani-

mation of the cryogirl on the cover of LONG LIFE . I created
her on Smackdown vs Raw 2009. And she is dedicated to Long
Life magazine and the Cryonics Institute. I hope that everyone
who saw the video enjoyed it. Anyone wanting to see it can see
it on You Tube.

For those of us technically challenged Amanda has given us

instructions on how to view it. Go to www.youtube.com Look
for the ‘search” box on the Home page. Type “Smack Down vs
Raw Cryogirl” She adds it has a “cool” soundtrack that she
feels is cryonics related.
L to R:Abby, Briana Brown, (Amanda’s sister,) Shannon
Blevin, his wife, Amanda, and Shannon Jr. The little guy
in the middle is Joshua

At CI’s recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) Shannon &

Amanda Blevins attended with four family members. All but
one, a toddler, were wearing cryonics themed T shirts from
CafePress Just before the meeting she sent out e-mails contain-
ing her new video, Cryo Girl. We asked her where she learned
the video animation necessary to make Cryo Girl, she replied
playing video games! She said the whole family plays them. We
asked if we could profile her in this issue. She was delighted to
be asked, and this is her submission.

I
got involved in cryonics when I was 16. I heard about it
from my husband, Shannon. He found out about it when
he was 10 years old. I joined C.I. in July 2002. All of my
family members are C.I. life members. They are myself,
my husband, Shannon, Shannon Jr., Josh, and Abby. We really
love cryonics and believe in all the science behind it. We
strongly believe cryonics will work and we’ll be a family again
in the future. My sister, Briana Brown, heard about it from me
about 7-8 months ago and she hopes to be a member very soon.
She’s excited about it. My other sister, Chelsea Brown, 13,
thinks that cryonics is really cool. At this time she wants it for
herself. God’s biggest gift is the gift of life and I intend to pre-
serve the lives of the ones I love most.
About myself, I go to Somerset Community College in London,
Kentucky. I’m about 2 classes shy of enrolling In the registered
nurse program. I love the medical field and hope to one day be
able to aid CI in some way.
I’m also a First Lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol a U.S.A.F
Auxiliary. I joined CAP in August of ‘05. We specialize in air
and ground. search and rescue. Shannon is also in the CAP,
9
Amanda with one of her Cafe Press T shirts
My father, Johnny Brown, believes in the science behind
cryonic suspension. He supports my decision. He does not try
to stop me or tell me what I’m doing is wrong. But, unlike me,
he can’t seem to reconcile cryonics and religion. He wishes to
be buried. My Mother doesn't pressure me too much, but she
thinks it’s a waste of money. She doesn't want to get suspended
because she said that she's sick of living and that one lifetime is
enough.
I feel I have a very big heart. I love animals and people and I
donate to charities. I’ve donated to C.I. in my husbands grand-
mothers name, Avonell Hicks, also Paralyzed Veterans of
America, our local Humane Society, Cystic Fibrosis Founda-
tion, and I’m a member of P.E.T.A.
I feel honored to have met so many cryonicists at the meeting.
 MEET JOHN BRADDOCK
Somewhere back in time a young boy watches televised images
of three men discussing a strange idea. The images are in
shades of grey; indistinct, low resolution renditions of a bygone
era. The men are debating a concept that very few at the time
had heard of. One of the men is an American wearing a soft hat.
He says that he believes that the concept will work. Another
wears a suit and has medical credentials. He says that it will not
work. The third man wears a permanently blank face, tries to
stay neutral, and is there to keep the argument from stalling.
Soon time runs out. No consensus is reached and the segment
of the program finishes with the question unresolved. The
young boy viewing the program is intrigued. The lingering
question inspires a lifelong interest in the subject being dis-
cussed. It also triggers a larger than life quest to find an answer.
The television show was a current affairs program, broadcast in
Australia in the 1970s. The presenter was Mike Willesee. The
American was a young man called Thomas Donaldson. The
third man could very well have been any conservative medical
professional of the day. The subject being discussed was cryon-
ics. I was the young boy watching. Most people at the time
would have agreed that the concept of cryonics was absurd,
unnecessary or both. Leaving aside the subtleties of argument
that we consider today when debating the merits of cryonics,
the arguments back then focused mainly upon such topics as ice
forming in cells, and the observation that it is not currently pos-
sible to revive frozen tissues.
Meanwhile I had more immediate issues in my life. Graduation
from high school, a university honours degree in physics, and a
steady job were my primary concerns during this time. After a
short stint in marine sciences, I soon found my place in the
workforce as a computer programmer then as a systems analyst.
I think this is the time they call the “busy years”.
20
Years passed, and without any contacts, or readily available
access to non-mainstream information, it was difficult for me to
garner any more information on the subject of cryoncs. Then
around 1990 the internet started to become accessible to most
of us. I went to a library one day to find out about this freezing
business. I didn’t even know what it was called. I picked up a
book about the internet. At the time the internet was so new that
the book I picked up claimed to be an index to all the available
internet sites. It looked like an ordinary telephone book. I won-
der how many such books it would take to list all the internet
sites available today. Anyway, I flicked through this directory
and looked up cryogenics. Next to it was an entry for cryonics.
At last I knew the name of what it was that I was looking for.
Progress then followed rapidly.
Armed with an internet connection and a link, I was able to get
onto the internet sites for the cryonics providers, all of whom
were located in the USA. Letters and international phone calls
were next. Soon I had a good collection of printed materials,
and I took my time to study what was at the time an over-
whelming bulk of unfamiliar material. After much thought I
was convinced. I soon became a member of CI, and before too
long I had paperwork notarised, and a life insurance policy in
place. I was now a fully signed up cryonicist!
Marriage was the next big adventure in my life. I met my wife-
to-be in 2001 and was married the following year. My wife
Linda does not share my enthusiasm with cryonics. At first she
was somewhat bemused by it, but now she not only tolerates it
but can see the logic behind it, although she hasn’t gone so far
as to sign up for suspension herself.
For those of us who are confirmed cryonicists, it is very hard to
understand why it is that others do not share our enthusiasm for
what we see as a perfectly sensible option. While understanding
that there is certainly no guarantee that it will work, it offers a
chance of survival, and surely a chance, no matter how small, is
better than no chance at all. Especially so when it can be funded
through life insurance for just a couple of hundred dollars a
year. It’s such a small amount that nowadays it’s hard to buy a
decent shirt and pants for that much! Not much to pay for the
chance of a second ride on this fabulous merry-go-round called
life.But then again the subject not as simple as that. My wife is
very well informed about cryonics. Yet she raises some very
sound arguments supporting her own choice not to be frozen.
Nothing to do with technicalities, basically social and philoso-
phical arguments. Her arguments are an insight into the reasons that
so few people are actually convinced enough to buy a cryonics ticket
themselves. Cryonics is not a popularly practised option. It is not
something that is in your face every time you confront the media. It is
something that you basically have to search for. And even then, you
must be motivated to begin the search in the first place. What is it that
triggers an interest in cryonics, and what is it that maintains that inter-
est? I don’t know, but I do put some thought into trying to understand
the reasons.
By chance, I was that young boy all those years ago who first heard of
cryonics through a tv show. I wonder how many other people watched
that same show and if any of them were so profoundly affected by it
as I was.

MEET PETER GOURAS, M. D.,
Ph.D. h.c.
It was in the 1960’s that I read an article in the Washington Post
that announced a cryonics meeting to discuss the possibility of
freezing human subjects at their death with the hope of reviving
them in the future when the cause of death could be corrected.
This struck a sympathetic cord that made me attend the meeting
organized by Ev Cooper. From that time on I was a fervent
supporter of Cryonics. I was born in Brooklyn New York to
immigrant parents, a mother from Ireland and a father from
Greece, which made us outsiders from our root cultures. Now
it turns out that I belong to a small group of doctors of medicine
who have figuratively speaking, come out of the closet in their
endorsement of cryonics,. making me again an outsider. Why
so few M.D.s espouse this idea is an intriguing question, the
understanding of which is of considerable importance to the
evolution of Cryonics. I think that clues to my views were al-
ready predictable from childhood. I was
fascinated by science especially the idea
of understanding the nature of reality as
perceived by our brain.
But what disturbed, even terrified, me
was a fear of death, which stood to de-
stroy my following of science as it ex-
plored the unknown. What troubled me
most was the utter finality of death. This
fear no doubt played a role in my choos-
ing a career in medicine. But it was not
medicine alone that appealed to me, it
was also scientific research. After my
medical degree from Johns Hopkins
University, I interned in surgery at Johns
Hopkins Hospital but left Hopkins to
satisfy my draft duty at the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH was
a turning point in my career. It was the
halcyon days of this institution where
research and its support of young scientists were bountiful. I
found myself surrounded by some of the most distinguished
scientists in the world, many from Europe and Asia. I was in
the Neurological Institute where scientists spent the time trying
to understand the nervous system.
I became immensely jealous of their life style and their oppor-
tunity to investigate nature by experimentation using the most
sophisticated instrumentation. This was a dream world never
thought possible by a Brooklyn boy. I decided to pursue a ca-
reer in research. This was captivating but competitive because
one had to lock horns with brilliant directors and equally clever
peers.
My first research involved determining how cooling affected
transmission at the neuromuscular junction of frog sartorius
muscle. This was an off-shoot of my work on hypothermia in
medical school, which at the time was having an impact on
22
heart and brain surgery. It led to my first publication in the
American Journal of Physiology and from that I received an
invitation to join Michelangelo Fuortes, a highly regarded Ital-
ian neurophysiologist, who had a new laboratory in the ophthal-
mology branch of the neurological institute. This shift to oph-
thalmology determined my life long career in retinal and vision
research. In the new laboratory I made a novel discovery, that
injury or electric current or drops of potassium could produce a
wave of neural activity that was self-propagating , moving
across the retina at a few millimeters/minute.
But what was most remarkable about this transient neural wave
of activity was the fact that it produced an optical change that
allowed one to follow its progression by eye. This was the
counterpart of a similar process that had been discovered earlier
in the cerebral cortex by a Brazilian scientist Aristides Leao at
Harvard. But in the brain this wave of neural activity was in-
visible. In retrospect I did not fully appreciate that this was the
first time that neural activity was found to produce an optical
change.
Today optical change from neural activity
is a hot area in neurobiology allowing sci-
entists to monitor the behavior of groups of
neurons rather than only one. From there I
went on to a fellowship at the Physiologi-
cal Laboratory in Cambridge, England to
further my scientific career. I later returned
to NIH to continue my research as Chief of
a Section of Physiology. Many publica-
tions can be seen on the internet at Pub
Med. In 1979 I left NIH to become a Pro-
fessor of Ophthalmology at the Edward S.
Harkness Eye Institute of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia Uni-
versity in New York City to be closer to
my aging parents, still in Brooklyn.
There are a few noteworthy highlights in
my career. I described the parallel optic
nerve channels that go from the retina to the brain in non-
human primates, which led to a life- long interest in the neural
circuitry of vision and color vision (see Chapter on Color Vi-
sion at Webvision.org). I was the first person to reverse a form
of retinal blindness in a hereditary condition, abetalipoproteine-
mia, and the first to stop the progression of a retinal degenera-
tion in an animal model of a human disease by the use of retinal
cell transplantation, demonstrated the feasibility of retinal cell
transplantation, especially its epithelial monolayer. The retinal
epithelium is an ideal part of the central nervous system for
cellular reconstruction because it is a single layer that works by
simple membrane to membrane contact with photoreceptors.
Because of my pioneering of transplanting retinal epithelium, I
was invited by the Retinal Service of the Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm Sweden to try the technique for treating the late
stages of age related macular degeneration, a leading cause of
blindness in elderly human beings. This Swedish clinical trial
was foiled by host/graft rejection and the lack of micro-
techniques needed to work in the delicate fovea of the human
retina. But the approach continues to be developed in Ger-
many, England, Italy, Austria and Holland . If it were to suc-
ceed it would represent a breakthrough for repairing a small
part of the central nervous system.
I am the author of several hundred papers and many chap-
ters and books, particularly concerning color vision and reti-
nal information processing system.
The major question that interests us in Cryonics, however, is
why so few accept the basic tenets of cryonics. I think that
most physicians are much more cautious. They are insiders
and not outsiders. They have not risked their careers to delve
into basic research, which is not a clear route to success, ei-
ther financial or through reputation.. Cryonics at present is
only a dream because it cannot be done with current technol-
ogy and is open to dishonest exploitation of a naïve public.
But why not support such a movement especially if it dem-
onstrates overt honesty from its members and directors. Cry-
onics is a revolutionary idea challenging man’s ability to
control the reins of nature.
This is at the heart of all modern medicine, which fights dis-
ease and degeneration indiscriminately disseminated on us
by nature’s use of trial and error to achieve superiority of one
species over another. This blind strategy is demonstrated by
children with cancer, young men and women with AIDS,
golden years destroyed by Alzheimer’s disease. Medicine
attempts to fight and eliminate these tragedies. Why not
attempt to eliminate aging and death itself if one so desires it.
Cryonics offers solace to the most tragic element in life,
death and in contrast to the traditional methods of burial rests
its case on science and not myth.
I am not the only Columbia professor to espouse Cryonics.
My friend, the deceased Gerald Feinberg, a Columbia profes-
sor of Physics, also supported and wrote about the rationality
of Cryonics (see Physics Today Nov. 1966 pp 45-48). Al-
though Gerald failed to be cryo-preserved, he remained an
enthusiastic proponent of the movement. If we can attract
two professors there must be others, perhaps not all from
Columbia, who might wish to join Cryonics. My son, a Pro-
fessor of Neurology at another major medical center in New
York City is not adverse to the idea. Perhaps there is a ge-
netic factor that determines one’s interest in Cryonics.
Let’s not fool ourselves, however. Cryonics is a far out cru-
sade that has enormous barriers to success in addition to pos-
sible untreatable freezing damage. It requires assumptions
about the world of the future, threatened by climate change,
terrorism, over population, ignorance and war. But if man
were to be discouraged by pessimism few of the greatest
advances in history would have ever been made. Our goal
may seem Quixotic but it is rational and this is its greatest
strength. Dr. Gouras is a member of the Cryonics Institute
and it’s Scientific Advisory Board
*************************************************
23
NEW YORK CRYONICS MEETING
Cryonics meeting at Stonehurst on the Hudson River in New York
City (Riverdale) was attended by the following five persons, all
committed to cryonic preservation: Peter Gouras, CI, Bronx, NY-
Stuart Levine, CI, New Jersey- Janet Moody, CI, Manhattan,
NY-Eyad Mozes, ALCOR, Bronx, NY-Ronald Havelock, CI,
Shady Side, MD, observer on behalf of Washington DC area
group in development.
Two others sent their regrets but very much wanted to attend. The
main goal of the meeting was to establish rapport between cryoni-
cists which could eventually involve helping out in an emergency
death of one of the members of the local group. Members were
encouraged to find sympathetic morticians in their immediate ar-
eas. This action is particularly important for CI members because
the CI model leans more heavily on mortuary professionals to as-
sist in handling most cases, and the history of cooperation in re-
cent cases has been good. ALCOR members may have different
needs because of the way ALCOR structures its services with the
promise of some stand-by support for all members, a service
which CI does not provide. Much time was taken up in a discus-
sion of what should be the preferred method of local treatment of a
deceased member.
Dr. Gouras quoted an email from Ben Best stating that wet ice
cooling should be instituted as soon as possible, targeting the head
especially. The patient should be placed in a Ziegler box and
shipped to Michigan for perfusion. There was some debate
whether air or a land vehicle would be the preferred method of
transport. Dr Havelock noted that his local mortician saw no prob-
lem in shipping patients directly to Michigan from Maryland in
one of his vehicles at modest cost. The question remains as to
what type of vehicle would be needed and whether the New York
area is too remote from Michigan for adequately speedy delivery.
Dr. Gouras cited an article in a recent issue of the Johns Hopkins
Hospital Magazine describing research on the best treatment for
cardiac arrest. Cooling of the brain as soon as possible was recom-
mended because neural deterioration is far slower at lower tem-
peratures. The heart can usually be restarted but the accompanying
brain damage is often severe if head cooling is not done. The most
remarkable statement in the article was that head cooling can still
be beneficial even at 24 hours after cardiac arrest. The accuracy of
this time scale requires further validation because it seems to vio-
late long-held assumptions about hypoxia and brain damage. This
article supports Ben Best’s current preferred protocol of surface
cooling and shipping without perfusion at the local site.
Such handling would present fewer complications and obstacles
than previously stated requirements for a circulation producing
thumper immediately after death either at the hospital (not easy to
do in most local hospitals) or at a hospice or the mortuary.
ALCOR?s preferred protocol requires full wash-out and perfusion
at the local site before shipping to Arizona. It is not clear what
Suspended Animation’s protocols would be for CI patients with
SA contracts. The meeting was adjourned after about 2 hours. An-
other meeting is planned in the near future when some data on
friendly morticians are obtained.--Peter Gouras
of these fortresses with cryonics in
mind. He was previously unhappy with
Alcor management and was considering
starting his own cryonics organization,
but now he is joining Alcor.
Alcor Director Ralph Merkle described
the Alcor Wealth Preservation Trust,
which is still work-in-progress. Many
Alcor Members wanting a perpetual
trust for their post-reanimation assets
want to hitch a ride on Alcor's organiza-
tional stability and commitment to the
interests of cryonicists by associating
their trust with Alcor. More details are to
emerge of the plan by which this can be
done
Bill Faloon described how the Reanima-
tion Foundation lost their Lichtenstein
bank in 2006 because of the Wall Street
Journal article about cryonics wealth
preservation (-- and had to fight the gov-
ernment in court. They won the battle
and found another Lichtenstein bank for
the Reanimation Foundation, but are
restricted in their ability to publicize.
Bill lamented the fact that so few
wealthy cryonicists put their assets in the
Reanimation Foundation, but he would
not reveal the number of Reanimation
Foundation participants other than to say
it is too small. He said that the invest-
ment practices of the Foundation are so
conservative that asset growth is barely
a b o v e i n f l a t i o n .
Rudi Hoffman is a fire-and-brimstone
preacher -- sermonizing on salvation of
money. He stressed the importance of
creating a trust that could be dissolved if
reanimation technology is developed so
quickly that the donor/beneficiary is
reanimated within a few years after
deanimation.
Lori Rhodes was also concerned about
the time when reanimation becomes a
reality and cryopreservation is no longer
treated as death. Modified death certifi-
cates would be issued for those who
choose cryopreservation, and revival
certificates would be issued upon reani-
mation. Lori works for the wealthy cry-
onicist Dr. Martine Rothblatt. Martine
offers Alcor Membership cryopreserva-
tion as an employee benefit for all her
employees *and their families* (!).
James Clement is trying to give new
meaning to the phrase "up yours" with
the Interspace Foundation and an X-
Prize for uploading minds into com-
p u t e r s . blowing fans in the summer. Relatives
My own presentation was largely a re-
hash/update of my previous presentation
stressing the importance of saving your
ass as well as your assets. I mentioned
the fact that three wealthy donors are
contributing $150,000 each ($450,000
total) per year to improve Alcor man-
agement and cryopreservation case
readiness.
I mentioned that CI Director Alan Mole
is donating $10,000 to help Aschwin &
Chana de Wolf start a research labora-
tory in Oregon (with directions for the
research he wants done). And I men-
tioned the fact that Nick Pavlica is
matching donations for William O-
Rights made through the Cryonics Soci-
ety website.
I said that just as diversification of in-
vestments is prudent for asset preserva-
tion, it is prudent to not invest all re-
sources in one cryonics organization. I
described how a number of cryonicists
have cryopresevation arrangements with
both Alcor and CI, with CI as the
backup. Nick Pavlica is arranging to use
a second insurance policy for funding a
CI/Suspended Animation backup for his
Alcor Membership. Another wealthy
Alcor Member has funded his CI backup
with full prepayment. Yet another CI/
Alcor Member has a $200,000 life insur-
ance policy which distributes 60% to
Alcor and 40% to CI.
One of the seminar participants wants to
fund CI/SA backup arrangements using
the same insurance policy as he is using
for his Alcor Membership. This could be
complicated, but Rudi Hoffman has of-
fered to help try to make it work.— Ben
Best
23
MEET GUY GIPSON
I
was born on September 26, 1944,
in Magee, Mississippi. Before she
died, my Mom told me all about it.
I weighed over 10 pounds and
came out backwards. The hospital was
quite informal - windows open for
would come by the dozens and just walk
in and out any time they wished.
My father was in the US Army Air
Corps, stationed in Biloxi, MS. He
made Master Sergeant before he got out.
He was good at typing and filing, so
they would not let him go overseas. In
1946 we moved to a 5-acre mini-
homestead near Danville, Illinois. My
father went to work for the Railway
Express, and shortly after my parents
divorced. My father moved to Montana
and Idaho, working in the mines. In
1954 he came back to visit and I went
back with him to Idaho, where I gradu-
ated high school in 1962.
I moved to California, where I went to
college, got a B.A. degree, and met my
first wife. We got tired of the jungle
there, and moved to rural Kentucky.
There were not a lot of jobs there, but I
did things like pick apples, cut tobacco,
and drive a school bus, to feed my wife
and two little boys. Finally I landed a
job with the State of Kentucky as a so-
cial worker, doing child welfare cases.
The pay was regular but dismally low.
We had a daughter there, and adopted
another one of about the same age later
on. We had difficulties, and I left to
move to Pennsylvania. There I did tem-
porary jobs and had a newspaper deliv-
ery business going, until I got a job in
1977 with the US Postal Service as a
mail handler (dock worker). A year
later I became a city letter carrier, and in
1985 got promoted to a supervisory
position. In 1991 I got promoted to
Postmaster at Lafayette Hill, PA, which
position I occupied until I retired.
At one of the temporary jobs mentioned,
I met my second wife. We were walk-
ing around a table picking up papers
from stacks to collate them, and I was
following her. The rest was history.
We got along well, married a couple of
years later, and had one son. About five
years from then, she left for other pur-
suits, and I became a single parent .
During my youngest son's youngest
years, I had been taking temporary as-
signments at work to higher levels, and
also went back to college and got a Mas-
ters of Business Administration (MBA)
degree on a nights/weekends program.
No advancements ever came of those
activities and the degree, as It was a very
rewarding experience raising this son,
and I have no regrets not being able to
trade that for more of the stress and rat-
race of the business world.
In the early 1990s I read a newspaper or
magazine article about Alcor and cryon-
ics. For whatever reason, I had gone the
first approximately 40 years of my life
never having heard of cryonics, or at
least not given it conscious notice. The
idea was appealing, so I dug up Alcor's
address from somewhere and wrote to
them for information, which they sent.
This was before the world wide web was
popular and useful to find almost any-
thing. Eventually I learned of the exis-
tence of Cryonics Institute, as well as
American Cryonics Society and Trans
Time. I wrote all three for information,
and only heard back from CI.
It was during this early 1990s period I
had been handed the responsibility of
being a single parent, and was also
working fulltime and sometimes more in
US Postal Service management. That
afforded little time to really focus on
signing up for cryonics, although I could
see from the first time I heard of it the
logic of it being a better alternative than
burial or cremation. Also during this
time I had learned of CryoNet, and
started reading it fairly regularly.
The hot topic of the time was the forma-
tion of CryoCare and the loss of dozens
of Alcor members to it. This gave me
cause to wonder if something was wrong
with Alcor to cause this "split". I re-
quested by mail and received a signup
package from CryoCare. I had also
considered CI at the time, but concluded,
correct or not, that Alcor's preservation
procedures were more advanced, and I
knew I could get insurance to cover
Alcor's higher fees if I went with them.
I further procrastinated on signing up for
cryonics for several more years. In the
latter part of the 1990s I was starting to
develop an interest in living fulltime in a
RV after my probable retirement date in
2005. I realized that an RV was an ex-
tremely practical way to spend time with
family in four states, do sightseeing in
between, and spend the winters in the
south and the summers in the north. At
the time this tipped my decision in favor
of Alcor over CI, because CI did not
have standby response service that might
come and help me anywhere in the USA.
CI's use of local funeral directors where
the members live works fine for people
who almost never travel, but I was pro-
posing to myself to travel all the time.
In the summer of 1999, I attended a
week-long business convention in Tuc-
son, Arizona. During that week, I found
time to drive to Scottsdale and get a tour
of Alcor. I met most of the people there
including Steve Bridge, on his last day
as President of Alcor. I went back to my
hotel room in Tucson and got the signup
papers organized, and the next day re-
turned to Scottsdale and got the business
done on the spot. Mike Perry and Jerry
Searcy helped with witness signatures,
and Jerry drove me to a notary public for
those signatures. Steve was gone, and
Fred and Linda Chamberlain were there,
so I got to meet them on their first day
back.
Thus, I became a member of Alcor, and
remained so until September, 2008. I
had funded my arrangements with Alcor
via term life insurance, not preferring
the much higher cost of whole life poli-
cies at my age, and their relatively low
returns. I knew the premiums on my
policy would jump to an unaffordable
level in September of 2008, and all
along was planning to do cash funding at
that time, and drop the term insurance.
In the months before that, I had been
seriously reconsidering Cryonics Insti-
24
tute because they now have standby re-
sponse available anywhere in the USA
via Suspended Animation, Inc., and the
quality of their preservation methods
had vastly improved. In spring of 2007,
I visited Cryonics Institute for the first
time, and met Ben and Andy. Andy
gave me a superb tour, printed out a
membership application on the spot, and
I wrote a check for a lifetime member-
ship. I also did tissue samples and
watched Andy prep them up and pop
them in the liquid nitrogen tank.
"I continued with Alcor for cryopreser-
vation arrangements a few months more
until September, 2008, when I switched
to CI and SA, along with the air trans-
port option." I prefer the less bundled
approach that CI has for these services.
Alcor receives a large sum ($120,000 for
me at the time and it is now higher) if
they cryopreserve you, no matter what
other services they actually do. I have
money on deposit guaranteed to CI and
SA, but if I move near CI and make lo-
cal arrangements, I might decide not to
need SA's services, so they would not be
paid that money, nor part of the funding
for CI that CI has to pay SA if they per-
form services, nor for the air transport if
it is not needed.
I have been living in and traveling full-
time in my RV since I sold my condo-
minium in Pennsylvania and moved into
the RV in summer of 2005. My young-
est son was off to college, and I hit the
road. Everything has worked out well as
planned, including the transition to CI/
SA. My necklace tab, wallet cards,
driver's license sticker, etc. for CI/SA
are all in order.
I feel great! And I anticipate many more
years of enjoyable travel before I settle
down into one or more relatively fixed
locations, one of them possibly being the
condominium apartment I purchased in
Michigan, 4 miles from CI and 1 mile
from Walsh. It is being used as a rental
now, but that status can be easily
changed after a lease expires. Mean-
while, I occasionally work into my trav-
els a visit to CI, such as for an Open
House or the AGM.
I have met many of you and hope to
meet more in future years.—Guy Gipson
MEET BRENDA KOVRIG
This feature is usually reserved for CI or IS members. But we noticed Brenda at the AGM held last September, and remember seeing
her at another AGM a couple of years ago. After we heard that she was back at CIHQ last month gathering material for a
documentary, we thought members would like to learn more about this intelligent , interesting Canadian!

The documentary I'm working on is called Forever. It's a creative film

about Life Extension for Canadian television (and hopefully American
television eventually). I became interested in the Life Extension
movement about 3 years ago, and came about it in a very uncommon way.
I was adopted, and met my biological mother in 2001. I made a
documentary about my experience - called Relativity - in 2004. Since the
meeting and the film , I became very interested in identity, genetics, birth
and ultimately, death - basically, the existential questions of life. It was
during that period of inquiry that I discovered the life extension movement
- including cryonics.

Actually, I guess I re-discovered it. I remember as a young girl

contemplating my own mortality and couldn't really wrap my head around
it. Around that time, I remember hearing about cryonics and thought it was
interesting, but forgot about it...until recently.

So about 3 years ago I hooked up with the Toronto Cryonics meet-up

group, joined the Cryonics Society of Canada, and eventually met Ben.
Through him, I met Mr. Ettinger who I was very impressed with. He struck
me as a kind of reluctant philosopher. I say reluctant, because he's a pretty
laid back guy, and mainly an engineer or mathematician in terms of his
personality, but because of cryonics, he's had to discuss some pretty heavy
philosophical questions over the years and has a very unique and refreshing
perspective on life and death.

I knew immediately he'd make a great interview, and I was right. He was
fabulous.
************************************************************************************************************
CRYONICS INSTITUTE (CI) is a non-profit Michigan corporation, but not tax exempt. Headquarters address, phone: and e-mail
address are the same as for The Immortalist Society (IS): (586) 791-5961. FAX: (586) 792-7062. The corporations are separate
entities. CI members are not automatically members of IS, unless suspension contract is pre-funded. Cl offers cryostasis (cryonic
suspension, cryopreservation) services for members on a long-term contractual basis, including storage of pets and tissue/DNA. CI
also conducts and supports research in cryogenic storage, cryobiology, and other aspects of life extension.

CI membership requires a one time lifetime membership fee of $1,250 or $1,875 for a couple, with no additional membership fee for
minor children. Membership allows you to execute a contract for cryonic suspension and long term storage, funded (by life insurance
or otherwise) to a maximum of $28,000. This is a one-time fee, payable upon or before time of death. The bulk of the money is
invested to pay for indefinitely long storage. Cl also offers an "Option Two" membership, with a $75 Initiation fee and dues of $120
per year or $35 quarterly. For Option Two Members the minimum suspension fee is $35.000. (An Option Two member can switch to
Option One at any time by paying the membership fee of $ 1,250.)

For members convenience in making dues payments, or donations, CI now accepts Visa, MasterCard and American Express. No CI
officer or director is paid for being an officer or director. Members own and control the corporation, but membership entitles
members to no financial remuneration or benefit. Cl owns its properties free and clear, has no debt, and a policy of never having any
debt. Cl has never raised its prices, even in the high inflation years of the late 70s and early 80s. Cl has no landlords, no creditors,
and no stockholders. It is run for the benefit of its patients and members (prospective patients).

BUT DON'T WAIT UNTIL SOMEONE IS DYING. We may sometimes accept patients who do not have contracts at time of death,
but such cases risk serious delays and adverse conditions. To maximize your chances, and for your own sake and the sake of the
people you love,

23

MEET ERON HENNESSEY
Eron in front of one of CI’s cryostats. He was at CI for
the Cryonics Rescue Course held this past May 18.
B
orn in the late 1960's in San Francisco, I grew up
with and around people with highly variant views on
life, politics, science and religion. Open-
mindedness, curiosity, and a voracious appetite for
experience and learning were instilled in me at a very young
age, and allowed me the freedom to study, on my own, topics
that excited and intrigued me.
Encounters with the ideas of both death and immortality came,
also, at a young age. The music of Peter, Paul and Mary being
one of the staples of the era, I remember distinctly, and with
great interest, listening to the words of "Puff The Magic
Dragon". The lyric: "Dragons live forever, but not so little
boys", seemed to me to be a most unfair situation. I remember
thinking: "I will have to die someday?", and this thought irri-
tated me. To give up this? To never have the chance to experi-
ence anything again? If only... if only I could become a dragon,
and live forever!
In the meanwhile, I resolved to live my life with fullness: en-
joying each moment and all of the wonderful sensations and
experiences it brought. Even today, this passion drives me to
explore and enjoy the arts, literature, travel, cuisine, physicality
and movement, and also the quiet and reflection that comes
with moments of stillness. Whether I'm experiencing love, ex-
citement, or even bits of pain and sadness--I feel that every mo-
ment has something to treasure, to learn and grow from. Life
itself, to me, is the most precious thing that I possess.
However, I have digressed a bit. My interest in cryonics began
with my reading of a book on "fringe science" called Great
Mambo Chicken and The Transhuman Condition, by Ed Re-
gis. The tone of the book is somewhat disapproving of the top-
ics he covers, but the idea that there was even a possibility of
living beyond the normal span of years brought me back, again,
to my childhood and the wish that I could grow from a little boy
into a dragon. Perhaps I didn't need to become a dragon, after
all? Perhaps all I needed to do was to live long enough, or pre-
serve my body long enough, for science to catch up and create
the conditions necessary for me to continue to enjoy my life for
as long as I wished. I was intrigued, rather than amused, by the
idea.
However, I was young, I was strong and healthy... I felt that
these technologies needed improvement and that I'd have lots of
time before I'd need to worry about death, anyway.
Well, I felt that way until the seizure. A number of years ago, I
had a grand mal seizure after exercising in my home. Whether
it was brought about by lack of sleep, the intense exercise, de-
hydration, my diet, or a family predisposition to migraines and
epilepsy has never been determined. After a number of MRI
and EEG sessions, blood tests and the best efforts of an es-
teemed neurologist, the cause remains unknown. What is
known is that I was in a tranquilizer-induced coma for 48 hours
after the seizure, and needed a breathing tube and artificial res-
piration in order to survive. Death had suddenly become a
very, very real concern to me.
Soon after that episode, I began to seriously consider and ac-
tively look for ways to extend the life that I so enjoy. The idea
of cryonics that I had entertained many years before was
again prominent in my mind, and I began to scour the internet:
arriving at the CI and Alcor websites, and also reading through
articles that had been posted by Ben Best on his own web-
site. Shortly after reading Robert Ettinger's "The Prospect of
Immortality" (and wondering why I had waited so long to do
so!), I became an "Option 2" member of CI, and began taking
the steps necessary to secure my suspension contract. I have
since become an "Option 1" member.
I was also honored to take part in the preparation of CI patient
#72. I hope it is not my last such assistance. Taking part in the
recent cryonics rescue training seminar demonstrated to me
quite well how effective well-trained cryonicists can be in aid-
ing the preparation and transport of their peers. I feel that a
mutually-supportive community of cryonicists would go a long
way toward improving the chances of survival for all of us. In
addition to such rescue support, contributions to the community
can be financial, academic, scientific, or even verbal. Just
speaking about the ideas of life extension and cryonics to others
will help increase the viability and mind-share of these ideas,
and will help loosen the death-grip of pervasive defeatism in
our culture with regards to mortality.
All of the cryonicists I've met so far I've found to be unique and
delightful individuals. I sincerely look forward to meeting
many more of you in time... and time again!
 I am just finishing Youniverse by Robert Ettinger. I really en-
MEET BRUCE RAPPAPORT joyed it. It reminds me how I wish I had spent more time in my
younger years learning about the great thinkers. My eyesight
I live in Saratoga Springs NY. I entered private practice as a currently lends itself more to magazine reading than to books.
Chiropractor in 1976 at age 23. In 1989 at the high point of my Honestly it probably has more to do with my mental capabili-
career I was injured in a snowmobile accident and had a cervi- ties. I am very impressed with the brain power fellow members
cal spine injury that required surgery. While being transported display in the group discussions.
home several days later the vehicle I was in was struck at high
speed at a traffic light. There isn't anyone in my
A temporary problem circle of family or friends
became permanent that is comfortable with
with added complica- the Cryonics idea. I even
tions. A few years have a sentimental objec-
later I had to have both tion when I think my de-
hips replaced from composed body won't be
avascular necrosis of in a local cemetery that
the hips. That was my loved ones could visit.
caused by being That's a bit tongue in
treated with steroids cheek. However, it does
for a rash. It seemed I bother me a bit but they
went from terrific could cut my hair and put
health to worsening it in a box and put a head-
disability as different stone above it if they want
conditions kept piling a place to meditate on my
on. For instance I have DNA, I guess. I try to
lost 2 inches from spi- keep my eye on the prize
nal fractures due to though. It is a great adven-
osteoporosis. That in ture to be in.
turn seems to stem
from having a very My wife is Buddhist. I tell
low testosterone level. her that if she is right then
a bit of ice shouldn't keep
In any case I find my- my soul from reincarnat-
self alive several times “This is me, my wife Ota, our two sons and one of my daughters. I have ing. Other family mem-
over due to advances one son and 4 girls by two previous marriages. Ota and I have been mar- bers think a good Jew let's
in medical care. I ried for ten years.” himself become one with
guess you could also the dirt again, the Catho-
say I also lost my health in part from using modern health care. lics think how selfish an idea it is. If I could have my
"druthers", I would like to be downloaded into a new younger
I've been an avid reader of science in general with a personal brain and body
interest in health care and archeology. I became a member of CI
after being introduced to it in the 90's. I have always loved SiFi The only other cryonist I know personally is the person who
although I am lacking in a good understanding of the inner originally introduced me to it. I haven't seen him for about ten
workings of high tech. I believe that we have the potential to years however. When I first met him he was married to a
create wonderful, unimaginable future technologies.. I also woman from another country. I was interested in that and one
have a rather pessimistic view of human tendencies. Like there slightly eccentric activity turned into discussions about another
are more dogs than bones at this point. If we don't kill ourselves slightly eccentric idea that immediately agreed with me.
then the sky is the limit.
I don't have a contract with SA. I have been thinking about it
My fantasy of what reanimation would be like is like waking for several months now and hope to come to a decision soon. I
up. I would like to deanimate without too much suffering and hate to think about things like how to get my life insurance pol-
then like waking up the next morning, I would open my eyes icy back to my children if it isn't used as I understand that any
and instead of the next morning it would be 500 years in the money that goes to CI helps insure my own survival. I have
future. I think it will take longer to accomplish this rather than a limited resources being on disability income all these years and
shorter time period like 100 years. love all seven of my children very much. I have to decide how
much I can devote to my own goals and my desire to help them.

16

MEET MIKE SOLOVIEV
I
was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1964 and until
2001 I lived, studied and worked there.
In my early teens I decided to devote my life to the quest
for immortality mainly as a consequence of my desire for space
travel, which I thought could not be realized within my life
span. Though I might have another possible reason -- general
curiosity in the world and its future.
I decide to contribute to the quest via participating in relevant
scientific research. I have two main ideas in my mind regarding
what approaches to getting immortal can be fastest-- first, via
redesigning human body to make it resistant to age-related
changes, and, second, via mind (or personality) transfer to an
age-tolerant substance (i.e. mind uploading). During my career
I switched few times between them. For example, entering the
university I thought of anti-aging research, but later I decided in
favor of mind uploading and graduated as a computational bio-
physicist from St. Petersburg State University with my B.S.
thesis on neural network simulation.
Mike at Quinte's Isle, Lake Ontario. We used Mike’s suggested
captions for these photos. For this one: “It could be a place for
the Immortalist Village “
Soon after that I started to explore the possibility of reverse
engineering of the mind -- i.e. finding an answer to the ques-
tion: Can I describe myself with enough precision to infer the
structure of my brain neural networks from the description?
Also in that time I started to develop a virtual reality environ-
ment for the purpose of self-description. However then I never
had enough time to complete this project.
After my graduation I started to work in the Computational
Biology Group of St. Petersburg State University. The main
topic of our research was artificial neural networks and cellular
12
automata. We worked as an academic group until 1991, when
we visited a neural network conference in Prague (where I pre-
sented an outline of my mind reverse engineering project).
There we had a talk with a well-known American scientist
about possible commercial applications of neurocomputers.
Soon after this talk we created a private company with the goal
to develop and market a hardware accelerator for simulation of
neural networks. We created a working prototype of our accel-
erator, but big economic changes, which happened in Russia in
the beginning of the 90s, put our project to the end.
After that I returned to academia to complete my PhD on the
system analysis in computational biology with focus on compu-
tational biology of aging and related modeling and simulation
of biological networks. Then I joined the most prominent
gerontological lab in Russia, where I developed my own theory
of aging -- postulating that aging is a chaos-driven process and
providing an explanation of the Gompertz equation based on
the assumption that the system of gene regulation is essentially
a chaotic one. Also I was a co-author (together with the Presi-
dent of the Russian Gerontological Society) of the book
"Evolution of Concepts in Gerontology" (1999, in Russian),
where among other things I outlined an engineering-based ap-
Mike’s cat Dina. The caption for this photo: “Don't forget me
in your travel to eternity .”
proach to anti-aging via gradual redesigning and/or replacement
of human cells and biomolecules via their (semi-)artificial ana-
logues by using nanotechnological methods. Around that time I
became aware of cryonics and started my efforts to promote it
in Russia.
I wrote and published several articles on cryonics -- many of
which appeared in leading Russian magazines and newspapers.
Even an outline of my business plan for a cryonics company
was published in a leading Russian business magazine. Also I
participated in several TV broadcasts on most seen Russian TV
channels and personally contacted some businessmen and poli-
ticians. I created and maintained the most comprehensive web
site on cryonics in Russian. However after all my attempts to
establish a cryonics organization in Russia failed I decided that
my time is running out and the only option for me is to move to
a more cryonics-friendly country. Anyway I'm very glad that
finally cryonics was started in Russia and I believe that my ef-
forts contributed significantly to this.
When I decided to move abroad I started to look for a job and
my first intention was to join the Starlab -- the first and only
transhuman research center in Belgium (its history is described
in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlab). I was in-
vited for an interview (apparently they were more interested in
my anti-aging project proposal, though I sent them my mind
reverse engineering project as well). However my interview
was canceled at the last moment because the Starlab faced
bankruptcy. As a result I accepted a software engineer position
at a Swiss bioinformatics company, which develops and sells its
gene expression analysis and genomics-based drug discovery
software to many largest pharmaceutical companies.
I worked in Switzerland almost 5 years, but my failure to get a
cryonics-related insurance there and potential problems with
cryonics logistics influenced my decision to immigrate to Can-
ada, where I continued my bioinformatics career working at the
University of Toronto and later as a self-employed consultant.
While being in Switzerland I met a Swiss scientist, who is the
author of the neuro-quantum memory concept. Our discussions
on hybrid neural-quantum computation stimulated me to re-
sume my work on the mind reverse engineering project and I
continue to work on it in my free time. Currently I'm finishing
software development part of the project and looking for possi-
ble business applications.
I'm a CI member, though not yet having a cryonics suspension
contract. However, my pet cat Dina, who died few years ago in
Switzerland is a CI patient.
In my near future I would like to live in a kind of "Immortalist
Village" -- a community of cryonicists, who decided to settle
together nearby a cryonics facility in order to get a fast and reli-
able cryonics service. Besides obvious advantages in cryonics-
related logistics and mutual support the village can provide
such opportunities as establishing community-run businesses
and maybe even scientific research in cryonics and life exten-
sion. As first step toward this project I created the "Immortalist
Village" group on Facebook to unite people who could be inter-
ested in living in such village and to discuss related problems.
As of August 2008 the group had 10 members, including
CI President, Ben Best
13
NEAR MISS CASES
A
ndy and I recently spoke to the son-in-law and
daughter of a California woman who had gone into
anaphylactic shock as a result of a bee-sting. The
patient had been declared brain dead a week previ-
ous, but remained on a ventilator. The patient's husband was
reportedly in favor of cryonics -- and was not concerned about
cost -- but the family wanted to know if cryonics would be of
any value under the circumstances.
By my understanding, "brain death" means lack of brain activ-
ity, but not necessarily loss of brain tissue:
I was told in this case that there was no EEG activity. The
daughter seemed somewhat medically informed so I asked her
to get an evaluation from their physicians as to whether there
would be surviving brain tissue being maintained by
the blood supply. Even if brain activity is gone, if brain tissue
was nonetheless being preserved, "information theoretic
death" (a cryonics criterion of "ultimate death" precluding any
value for cryopreservation) may not have
occurred.
I tried calling the phone number I had for the family, but repeat-
edly got a "customer not available" cell-phone type recorded
message. I had been told by family members that the physi-
cians had been planning to remove life support soon, so I
thought the case was closed.
But Saturday morning at 2 a.m. the son-in-law phoned saying
that the patient could not remain on life support more than three
more hours (I am unclear why). When I asked him if the family
had spoken with physicians about brain tissue, he said that they
had not. Instead they had consulted a psychic who had informed
the family that the patient would recover. The family had just
concluded that the psychic was wrong.
It was not too late to sign-up his mother as a Member, but I was
reluctant to recommend it. The son-in-law wanted to know
what guarantees there would be that cryonics will work and if
any cryonics patients have been brought back. I said that no
cryonics patients have been brought back, that there are no
guarantees and that in this case the prospects looked very bad. I
suggested that he could have a funeral director get a tissue sam-
ple preserved for possible future cloning (although CI does not
currently advocate human cloning). He said he would call back
with a credit card, but he has not done so.
Also, on Friday I received a phone call from a man in Califor-
nia whose father had died in the morning. I told him that the
best that can be done is to put his father in dry ice. He was con-
cerned about the destructive effects of freezing. He phoned me
several times, asking where to find dry ice in Southern Califor-
nia, and how financing could be arranged. I told him to look in
the Yellow pages for ice cream shops or dry ice, and I told him
that CI requires full payment and does not do financing. We get
 MEET DAVID STYLES

F
rom when I was old enough to understand the concept of death, I wanted to avoid it at all costs. I considered that if I had
perhaps a normal 80 years or so of life handed to me on a plate, then that 80 years was a springboard; it was the amount of
time I had to defuse the time-bomb of my mortality.

I searched for ways to cheat the old Reaper. When I say searched, we're talking about a pre-internet time when my age was in single
figures. It really wasn't initially more than searching my own mind at that time. My only self-propelled childhood foray into the
Christianity of my upbringing was based on the premise that if God and Heaven were real, then upon getting there I could either
make a deal with the Boss and get back down to Earth, or otherwise sneak back out. Other crazy ideas that flitted through my head
involved highly improbable brain transplants and the like.

Then in my early teens my plans for immortality turned to the possibility of nanotechnology, having been introduced to the idea by
science fiction, and seeing no logical reason why nanotech couldn't easily become science fact. Still no thoughts to anything like
cryonics; my hopes at that stage involved nanobots swimming through my living body repairing cellular damage as it occurred,
keeping me youthful.

Fast forward not too far to my late teens, and an online acquaintance (now a firm
friend), a CI member, made me aware of cryonics as a possibility, and an option that
was accessible to the general public, and easily affordable with life insurance. For me
there was never a "why do it?", no decision to make. It was a "Wow, I can do this!". I
did it. I had no negative backlash from relatives as many people do, and my relatives
treat it with mild yet distant interest.

For some years I didn't take my preparations any further than being signed up. Then I
became aware, I don't recall how, of the British standby team, Cryonics UK. I went
along to one of their meetings, and joined. Their organizer resigned around that time
due to external circumstances, and I took his place as I had experience organizing
Transhumanist meetings and activities already. Since then I've become gradually bus-
ier and busier with cryonics-related activities, from periodic cryonics emergency
standby training weekends, to PR work (newspapers, TV, etc).

I feel that it's quite important that we give cryonics the best public image we can, as
that is how it gets the support that it needs. I also feel it's quite important that we con-
tinue outreach endeavors - partly because it increases our manpower, but also because
I find a great kinship with those who are as serious about living forever as I am. We
are a small minority, and I really value those people with whom I expect to share a
very long time indeed, while the moribund majority come and go.

My hopes for the near future include augmenting the capability and numbers of Cry-
onics UK, and extending standby services across Europe, where most countries still
seem to be lacking in support, to varying degrees. I'm already liaising with cryonicists
in a lot of countries with a view to achieving this. Together, I'm sure we can do it. I
know some very proactive cryonicists in a few countries, and would love to hear from
any others who would be interested in taking a more active role to further the Euro-
pean cryonics capability as a whole.

Information regarding Cryonics UK (the UK standby team) can be found at

DAVID & HIS FIANCEE, ELLEN
www.cryonics-uk.com, and my contact address is ds@cryonics-uk.com - I look for-
ward to hearing from you!

In other news, I'm a Care Officer by profession, meaning I look after adults with physical and mental disabilities and fulfill a mana-
gerial role as required. I live in North-West England with my fiancée, Ellen, (also a cryonicist), two cats, and a snake. I practice Ai-
kido, and I also enjoy traveling as much as possible. My greatest pleasures in life include good food and drink, and good company.

19