MEET AMANDA BLEVINS

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,

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.

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.

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

Amanda with one of her Cafe Press T shirts

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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”.

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 JOHN BRADDOCK

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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

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-

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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 *************************************************

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

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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 . 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

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 blowing fans in the summer. Relatives 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.

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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-

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

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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,

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

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.

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!

MEET BRUCE RAPPAPORT I live in Saratoga Springs NY. I entered private practice as a Chiropractor in 1976 at age 23. In 1989 at the high point of my career I was injured in a snowmobile accident and had a cervi-cal spine injury that required surgery. While being transported home several days later the vehicle I was in was struck at high speed at a traffic light. A temporary problem became permanent with added complica-tions. A few years later I had to have both hips replaced from avascular necrosis of the hips. That was caused by being treated with steroids for a rash. It seemed I went from terrific health to worsening disability as different conditions kept piling on. For instance I have lost 2 inches from spi-nal fractures due to osteoporosis. That in turn seems to stem from having a very low testosterone level. In any case I find my-self alive several times over due to advances in medical care. I guess you could also say I also lost my health in part from using modern health care. I've been an avid reader of science in general with a personal 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 although I am lacking in a good understanding of the inner workings of high tech. I believe that we have the potential to create wonderful, unimaginable future technologies.. I also have a rather pessimistic view of human tendencies. Like there are more dogs than bones at this point. If we don't kill ourselves then the sky is the limit. My fantasy of what reanimation would be like is like waking up. I would like to deanimate without too much suffering and then like waking up the next morning, I would open my eyes and instead of the next morning it would be 500 years in the future. I think it will take longer to accomplish this rather than a shorter time period like 100 years.

I am just finishing Youniverse by Robert Ettinger. I really en-joyed it. It reminds me how I wish I had spent more time in my younger years learning about the great thinkers. My eyesight currently lends itself more to magazine reading than to books. Honestly it probably has more to do with my mental capabili-ties. I am very impressed with the brain power fellow members display in the group discussions.

There isn't anyone in my circle of family or friends that is comfortable with the Cryonics idea. I even have a sentimental objec-tion when I think my de-composed body won't be in a local cemetery that my loved ones could visit. That's a bit tongue in cheek. However, it does bother me a bit but they could cut my hair and put it in a box and put a head-stone above it if they want a place to meditate on my DNA, I guess. I try to keep my eye on the prize though. It is a great adven-ture to be in. My wife is Buddhist. I tell her that if she is right then a bit of ice shouldn't keep my soul from reincarnat-ing. Other family mem-bers think a good Jew let's himself become one with the dirt again, the Catho-

lics think how selfish an idea it is. If I could have my "druthers", I would like to be downloaded into a new younger brain and body The only other cryonist I know personally is the person who originally introduced me to it. I haven't seen him for about ten years however. When I first met him he was married to a woman from another country. I was interested in that and one slightly eccentric activity turned into discussions about another slightly eccentric idea that immediately agreed with me. I don't have a contract with SA. I have been thinking about it for several months now and hope to come to a decision soon. I hate to think about things like how to get my life insurance pol-icy back to my children if it isn't used as I understand that any money that goes to CI helps insure my own survival. I have limited resources being on disability income all these years and 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.

“This is me, my wife Ota, our two sons and one of my daughters. I have one son and 4 girls by two previous marriages. Ota and I have been mar-ried for ten years.”

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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.

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

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-

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.

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 “

Mike’s cat Dina. The caption for this photo: “Don't forget me in your travel to eternity .”

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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

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

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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 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.

DAVID & HIS FIANCEE, ELLEN

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