You think you know what cryonics is. But you probably don’t.

We aren’t just saying that. In a recent survey, most people who described themselves as ‘better informed than average about cryonics’ said they thought an average cryonics suspension cost around $300,000 dollars. They were wrong. In fact, through insurance funding, an average middle-aged man in average middle-aged health may be able to arrange a suspension with CI at a cost lower than his monthly cable bill.

But their mistake was understandable. After all, most people first hear about cryonics on Star Trek or in a science fiction novel. And the general idea they get there isn’t always totally wrong: a cryonics patient is cooled down to the point where all physical life functions, and all physical decay, completely stops. Then, at some point in the future, when medical science has developed enough to bring them back in good health, the person is restored to good health. That’s pretty much correct.

There’s only one problem with the way cryonics is presented in science fiction. Cryonics isn’t fiction. It’s science -- the logical conclusion to a growing accumulation of hard scientific facts.

Such as?

• The fact that several types of living creatures have been already frozen to liquid nitrogen temperature and below, where they exhibited no signs of life and experienced no signs of decay -- and were then restored to functioning normal life.

• The fact that human tissues, including brain tissue and sperm and even human embryos, have also been cooled on literally thousands of occasions to a seemingly non-living state, and have been again restored to life.

• The fact that scientific procedures for the avoidance of freezing damage (through a process called vitrification) and for the repair of freezing damage (through nanotechnological cell repair) have been developed in theory and are even now being developed in practice.

• The fact that research which could make cryonics a reality is even now being funded in the millions and even (in the case of nanotechnology) well over eighty billion dollars.

• The fact that increasing numbers of reputable and respected mainstream scientists have not only flatly stated that cryonics can work, but have even signed up to receive cryonics services themselves.

• The fact that cryonics organizations like CI not only exist in the real world today, but have shown themselves able to keep patients safely in cryostasis for decades.

True, reversible cryonic suspension for adult human beings is not quite here yet. Only the very tiniest human embryos put into cryostasis have been restored. But it’s impossible to look at the growing tide of facts and developments and not conclude that the technological capacity to restore people in cryonic suspension is approaching closer and closer on the scientific horizon. Organizations like CI can actually take you to that point on the horizon - and may save your life, and the lives of people you care about. And our existence isn’t science fiction but fact.  We’re here right now, ready to help. And joining us can mean the difference between life and death.

But if that was all that cryonics was about -- the abstract idea that one day in the not-particularly-distant future, science will be able to repair frozen human tissue - to cure frostbite, basically -- then cryonics wouldn’t be controversial at all. No one - no medical doctor or scientist anywhere - has published even one single formal paper claiming that cryonic revival breaks any physical laws, or is scientifically impossible. Whereas numerous papers and statements by doctors, scientists, and researchers either state explicitly, or lead to the unavoidable conclusion, that cryonics is in fact possible - and is coming.

But the cryonics thesis is not just that cryonics is possible. It is possible, but it is also desirable. Cryonics is a worthwhile and admirable endeavor. It’s not only a smart thing to do -- it’s a kind and good thing to do. Something in harmony with, and even dictated by, a responsible, moral, humane outlook on life.

Some people have called cryonics ‘wrong’. How can working for a life-saving medical technique to save the lives of men, women, and children be ‘wrong’? People who join cryonics organizations are sometimes called ‘selfish’, or ‘afraid of death’. What’s hearty and generous about suicide? What’s brave and admirable about standing by helplessly as you watch your spouse and children and friends suffer, decay, and die? There is nothing admirable about it. Yes, people involved in cryonics really do hold to the ‘extraordinary’ view that frostbite may be curable. In an age of clones and artificial intelligence, of mechanical hearts and H-Bombs, of lunar landings and martian landscape photography, of Deep Blue and the World Wide Web, is that really so improbable? But though the implications of cryonics for the individual are plain and simple -- a chance at life, rather than death -- its implications for society are not selfish, but compassionate and humanitarian in the widest imaginable sense.

Imagine for a moment that cryonics worked perfectly, right now. Imagine that you could simply turn a person off, like a light switch, and turn them back on again days or months or years later, perfectly healthy, as though not a moment had gone by. What would it mean?

For one thing, it would mean would be the end of immense, global, human suffering. Cancer would no longer mean the agony of surgery or amputation or certain death. Alzheimer’s would no longer mean years of humiliation for the elderly, devastating their incomes and that of their families and children. Severe retardation wouldn’t mean a lifetime of torment in an institution. Prison wouldn’t mean years of ineffective brutalization. The pain and horror of terminal illness would be replaced by -- a moment’s sleep. Followed by care and comfort and health.

Cryonics isn’t only a matter of saving your own life. Becoming a member or a supporter helps research and action towards a goal that could save the lives of literally billions of human beings. That could reduce or erase the suffering and anguish and grief of billions of people. Now we donate millions to cancer research - and, cure or no cure, in a few decades those same patients die. We give for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, stroke, birth defects - yet the victims continue to suffer, and to suffer inevitable death. Yes, we know a cure is possible, but we just can’t reach it yet. And so the sick and afflicted bear the burden. Does this make sense? When reputable scientists are increasingly supporting a breakthrough method - cryonics - which could not only lift that burden, but give the sick and dying new healthy lives, and possibly centuries of time in which to enjoy and make the best of them?

Nor is it only the sick who would benefit. What would our world be like if we had Jefferson and Franklin, Churchill and Gandhi, Shakespeare and St Paul, Plato and Newton and Einstein here today to lead and advise us? We don’t, of course. They’re dead. And their insights and justice and strength died with them. Why do we have only nine symphonies from Beethoven instead of ninety? Because Beethoven died. Had he lived two hundred years instead of barely fifty, who knows what he might have given the world? In a world of cryonics, the productivity of our greatest artists, scientists, statesmen, would reach heights and lengths which we can’t imagine - but which we can bring into being, by supporting cryonics and working to save and preserve such lives, for all our benefit.

Cryonics isn’t just a way to live better tomorrow, either: it’s a way to improve your life today.

The British philosopher Thomas Hobbes described life as ‘nasty, brutish, and short’. It’s ‘nasty and brutish’ because it is short. Because death cuts it short. Death doesn’t just cripple and diminish the dead - it cripples the living even more. The death of a child can break not only a heart but a marriage. The death of a parent can destroy a bereaved family. The death of a medical researcher can mean thousands of deaths that might otherwise have been cured. The death of a scientist can set knowledge back decades. How would you feel if that person who is closest to you were to die today? How would they feel if you were suddenly gone? How much longer will you and they have together? A few years? A few hours? How many things would you like to see and learn and do that you know you never will -- because you may not have the time?  The lurking consciousness of death, the weight of grief and loss, limit and injure the living more than the dead.

The only thing we have that promises to end such pointless human waste is cryonics. Cryonics is the only real ‘life insurance’: the only reasonable hope that if your child becomes sick, or your spouse is struck by a car, or your parents’ health declines, or something strikes you down, that all these precious lives can be preserved. You can save them - and yourself - from the pain and grief that age and death impose. And not only save them, but give them and yourself a chance to live the sort of life we all want to live -- learning new things, trying new paths, making up for mistakes, enjoying a second chance.

Only cryonics can give you that chance. The only alternative to cryonics is certain physical death, and all too little time before it comes. Cryonics can give you back that time - it can give you that second chance, that open vista. And you can help give it to the whole world.

What is cryonics? Something that can save your life. Something that can save the life of your family and friends. Something that could help extend all your lives for hundreds of years. That could reduce human suffering and boost human productivity beyond imagination. That could replace the fear of death and separation, with hope and anticipation and purpose. That can give you a good cause to fight for, and a bright future to live for.

And the cost of admission? Maybe less than your monthly phone bill.

It sounds like a good deal - because it is. To support cryonics is to take part in a great activity, something that could change the course of human history. For the better.

It’s the smart thing to do. And it’s the right thing to do.

Find out more about it. And then contact us. And make a decision -- for life.

CRYONICS:

A Basic Introduction

Q: What is 'cryonics'?

A: Cryonics is a medical technique designed to save lives and overcome illness and suffering.  It involves cooling patients to the point where molecular physical decay completely stops, in the expectation that scientific and medical procedures currently being developed will be able to revive them and restore them to good health later on. A patient held in such a state is said to be in 'cryonic suspension'.

Q: Can cryonics be performed on living people?

A: Legally, not yet. Obviously, it would be better to cool a patient before illness causes so much physical damage that it results in death. But it's not presently allowed by law, even for someone in great suffering or with a terminal illness. We expect that one day it will be, under carefully controlled conditions, once revival from cryonic suspension can be demonstrated.

Q: How do you know revival is even possible?

A: Our web site contains articles and links to an immense amount of scientific and medical evidence that leads to that conclusion. Indeed there are so many studies, often written of such a technical nature, that a quick summary is impossible: you need to study it - and you should, since doing so could help you make a decision that could save your life, and the lives of others.

But, in essence: revival seems likely because: (1) Many biological specimens have been frozen, stored at liquid nitrogen temperature where all molecular decay ceases, and revived; these include whole insects, vinegar eels, many types of human tissue including brain tissue, entire human embryos which have later  grown into healthy children, and a few small mammalian organs. (2) A large and growing number of respected mainstream scientists, researchers, and medical doctors, particularly in the field of nanotechnology, have looked at cryonics and developed specific ideas and strategies as to just why and how reviving a person safely from cryonic suspension is possible, in spite of the damage from old age, disease, accident, ischemia, and the freezing process itself.

In short: ever-increasing scientific advances, growing experimental evidence, and informed and reputable scientific opinion is coming together and telling us that it can be done. And the technology that will allow us to do it is being developed. Rapidly.

But don’t take our word for it. Find out for yourself. Read. Get the facts. We’ve got them available free on our web site, and we can point you to where you can find out more. You’ll come to the same conclusion that reputable mainstream scientists, researchers, and doctors have come to: that cryonic revival is not only possible, but may very well be here within a matter of decades.

Q: Why all this emphasis on reading and information?

A: Because many people have a very inaccurate idea of where cryonics is today. Some still think of it as a sort of wild science-fiction gamble where people are frozen and ‘someday, somehow’ some as-yet-unknown brand of Amazing Science will miraculously put them together again.

Q: Well, isn’t that the case?

A: No. It isn’t. What’s changed about cryonics is the development of a new form of technology called ‘nanotechnology’ -- the manipulation of individual atoms or molecules to build or repair virtually any physical object -- including human cells and biological tissue. One of its projected applications is the repair of precisely the sort of damage to human tissue caused by freezing at liquid nitrogen temperatures - not to mention cellular and organic damage caused by disease and aging. A substantial and growing number of the most reputable and knowledegable scientists, molecular biologists, cryobiologists, and medical doctors have reached the conclusion that once nanotechnology is more fully developed, the restoration and revival of patients held in cryonic suspension is not only possible but inevitable.

When will that happen? The 1996 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Dr. Richard Smalley estimates that cellular devices will be in existence as early as the year 2010.  Robert A. Freitas, author of three-volume text Nanomedicine -- selections from which are available via our Links page -- has publicly stated, "I would not be surprised if the first cryonics revival was attempted by 2040-2050." Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that someone frozen today will be revived that year, but it does mean cryonics is not some sort of speculative million-to-one gamble, or a matter of blind faith. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Hard scientific studies and extensive ongoing formal research by eminent reputable mainstream scientists who have examined the problems in detail, has led to a growing belief among the best qualified researchers: success in cryonics is achievable.  Patients placed in cryostasis today can – in what we believe to be sound scientific theory – be revived by future technology. Researchers and doctors have laid out detailed scenarios as to precisely how cryonic healing and revival can be achieved, and some even feel confident enough to give a rough time frame as to when. And it isn't terribly far away.

Nanotechnology has already seen major breakthroughs in its development. Academic research is taking place at Yale, Princeton, MIT, Washington, Hamburg, Switzerland, Japan, and dozens of other places and institutions. Government research is being done by the departments of the U.S. Army and Air Force, NASA, the National Science Foundations, the National Institutes of Health, and the Departments of Commerce and Energy. A British parliamentary report states that some 80 billion dollars in private corporate funding alone will be pouring into nanotechnology applications by the year 2000. Not surprisingly, most scientists involved put the development of major applications within the next ten to forty years.

Q: Do you mean that cryonics is guaranteed to work?

A: Unfortunately, nothing in life is certain. There are obstacles to the development of cryonics. They’re just not technically insurmountable ones (at least in the opinion of scientists and researchers who have examined the issue). The real obstacles are social.

You might compare cryonics to the idea of a manned colony on Mars. We don't have a colony there at the moment, and there's no 'absolute guarantee' that we will -- there might be a thermonuclear war or a plague or some end-of-the-world cataclysm setting the project back decades or even centuries. But the informed consensus among scientists working on the project is that, yes, such a colony is entirely possible. Yes, we've already made any number of breakthroughs and successful approaches. Yes, there are sound scientific and social motivations for going there and setting one up. Yes, plans are being scheduled and are on the drawing board. And -- yes! Barring something totally unforeseen, we will undoubtedly be there within a few decades. If there's a severe economic downturn and funding is cut, it may take a bit longer. Or, if funding is raised, or there's a technical breakthrough, it may be sooner.  But it's unquestionably attainable -- and it's coming. Soon. It's exactly the same situation with nanotechnology. And so, with cryonics.

But we don't ask you to take our word for it. We know that people these days are a bit suspicious about the claims they see companies making. If you’ve got a cold, you don’t ask the cough syrup company that stands to profit from your purchase whether or not their cough syrup works. You ask an independent doctor. Well, go see what some independent doctors with no financial connection with CI whatsoever have to say -- and what independent scientists, and professors, and biologists, and PhD’s have to say too. Judge for yourself. Look into the reports and writings of the many qualified experts and researchers who are working on the technology right now. Our web site can link you to hundreds of papers, books, research facilities, universities, corporations -- to all the sources and debate on the subject, pro and con.

Q: But isn't freezing a deceased person pointless? Once you're dead, you're dead. And even if you could revive them, they'd just have the same fatal disease they had before.

A: If by 'dead' you mean 'clinically dead', without heartbeat or breathing, then 'raising the dead' is done every day, thousands of times every year, in hospitals all over the world. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR – developed in the 1950’s -- quite commonly restores life to people who were once considered (wrongly) to be absolutely and irretrievably dead, throughout all of previous human history. Yet now such a technique is standard practice. If we can restore life to people who have been dead for several minutes, and even hours in some drowning cases, why should we assume that doing the same after months and even years is impossible? Especially if we can prevent further physical decay during that time? 'Absolute' death may only be said to occur when the brain is completely destroyed - and brain preservation is precisely what cryonic suspension achieves.

As for having a fatal disease -- as medical science progresses, fatal diseases become formerly fatal diseases. Polio or bubonic plague was fatal once; they - and hundreds of other diseases -- are not fatal now. No reputable medical doctor will claim that any disease is eternally incurable, and many qualified people think that cures for currently fatal diseases - including old age - may arrive in the very near future indeed.

Q: Do you really think it will become possible to cure every disease, even reverse the effects of aging, and repair all freezing damage as well --?

A: It isn't necessary to wait till 'every' disease imaginable is cured, all at one stroke. All you really need to do to make cryonics itself work is simply to cure or prevent "frostbite" – freezing damage. And as previously indicated, there is reason to think nanotechnology will be capable of this.

With improved freezing methods, or improved methods of "vitrification," there will be less burden on future technology, hence probably earlier revival. "Vitrification" means formation of a glasslike solid as temperature falls. This stops the formation of  large ice crystals that may damage tissues. Reputable researchers have speculated that without that ice damage, reversible organ cryopreservation - including brain cryopreservation - could occur in as little as ten years. And as for freezing damage done to cells for those currently in suspension? Dr. Richard Smalley - 1996 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry - has announced that he expects that cell repair machines should be developed as early as 2010.

No, we don't expect an instant cure of every possible disease overnight; we expect that what we see happening around us every day will continue – knowledge and technology will keep growing, and illnesses will keep becoming curable, one by one. When the particular problem that required cryonic suspension is solved, the patient will be revived – and made healthy and well. After all, scientific knowledge is growing rapidly, and with an increasing rate of growth; technological breakthroughs are occurring almost daily; rapid progress is clearly taking place in every medical field, and cryonics is no exception. We are guardedly optimistic - because we have good reasons to be.

Q: If it's not a sure thing, why should I even consider it?

A: Driving to McDonalds isn’t a sure thing – you could get hit by a car. Or even a meteorite. But do you let that stop you? You’re reasonably sure you’ll get there, so you give it a try. It’s the same with cryonics: a look at the facts will lead you to see that there is a real and reasonably likelihood that you’ll make it safely. After all, what's your alternative? Certain death. Isn't a chance at life better than sure physical obliteration - not just for you, but for your family, your friends, and the people you know and respect? Why not give yourself and them a chance – a solid fighting chance?

Just because it's 'possible' that a cryonics patient may not make it to future, it doesn't mean the odds are against you: if anything they're for you. The oldest patient currently still being held in cryonic suspension is a Dr. James Bedford, who was suspended in 1967, almost 33 years ago. He's survived the Cold War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, 60's race riots, the 70's recession, Watergate, and the collapse of the Soviet Union - which is more than a lot of his contemporaries can say. If he can make it 33 years, you can too. After all, the world is (relatively) stable at the moment, global world war doesn't seem likely, and the economy is flourishing. And if vitrification or cell repair really are developed within ten years, in thirty-three years cryonic revival may be as commonplace as vaccination. Of course we can't guarantee that. But we can and do guarantee this: that at CI we'll give our very best efforts to see our member patients are restored to life and good health. Because the life of every director and officer and member of CI depends on those efforts too.

Q: What about the cost? I heard cryonics is supposed to be incredibly expensive.

A: Good news: you heard wrong! With CI, the minimum fee for cryonics suspension at CI is $28,000 -- a one-time fee, due at time of death. And though it can be paid in cash, usually a member has a life insurance policy made that pays the amount to CI upon death. And according to Quotesmith, an insurance policy search engine available free on our web site's Links page, in some places in the U.S. a middle-aged man in good health can get a life insurance policy for less than $140 a year. Which means that, far from being expensive, cryonics membership and suspension can cost you no more than twenty dollars a month, if that - less than your monthly Cable bill!

A member who wishes to become a Lifetime Member can make a single membership payment of $1250 and doesn't have to pay any annual dues at all after that. If a new member would rather pay a smaller amount up front, in exchange for funding a slightly higher suspension fee later on ($35,000), he can join without paying any membership fee at all, and pay annual dues of only $120, which are also payable in quarterly installments of $35. (And such a dues-paying member can upgrade to Lifetime Membership at any time, saving himself $7000 and any dues ever again.) Members at a distance may have to pay local and transportation costs in the case of a suspension, but not to CI. Take a look at our Becoming A Member FAQ and the membership application forms to find out more. And if you’ve got any questions, or want to talk about making special arrangements? Give us a call or drop us an email. We’re more than happy to help.

Q: What if I can't get life insurance?

A: If you have--or expect to have--sufficient assets in any form, we may be able to work something out. Our members include attorneys and estate planners who are no strangers to creative financing.

Q: What's the "neuro" option? And why don't you offer it?

A: "Neuro" is short for neurosuspension, and it refers to the practice of removing and freezing only the head of a person declared legally dead. The theory is that only the information contained in the brain is of any importance, and that a body to contain the revived brain could be easily cloned or regenerated at some point in the future.

Neurosuspension is popular - at other organizations - because heads alone, being smaller, require less space and maintenance, and so save money for those organizations. CI, however, doesn't offer it. Partly because saving money at the expense of patients isn’t the criterion at CI -- our price for whole-body is already lower than theirs for ‘neuro’ -- but mostly because of neurosuspension's negative effect on public relations and, especially, on the families of patients.

Journalists and horror novelists invariably have a field day with ‘frozen severed heads’, and focus not on the scientific, medical, or humanitarian sense of cryonics, but on making cryonics look grotesque or ridiculous. And as human beings we understand that it just borders on the impossible for a person to go to the parents or children or friends of someone who has just passed away, and have to explain that the head of that person, whose loss has broken their heart, is going to be cut off and frozen in a tank with a dozen others somewhere. Nerves are frayed, families are grief-stricken, some of them may never even have heard of cryonics much less the scientific plausibility of it, and outbursts, arguments, and threats of lawsuits are inevitable. Why ask for such trouble - trouble that can put a patient at risk?

To present the survivors' family with a 'burial in ice', though inaccurate, is infinitely more tolerable and less troublesome than neurosuspension, and might after all be more acceptable to them than a burial in the ground among the worms. When you consider that the cost of suspension with CI is not really that much more expensive than some of the more ornate funerals, cryonic suspension can be presented as what it is – a better alternative, and reasonable, compassionate, appropriate gesture, not full of grief for the past but full of hope for the future. But not if we add the element of gore and horror through practices like neurosuspension.

Q: Exactly what is the freezing procedure?

A: Specific details change according to our latest research and capabilities. As in every other field, there's progress, and when there is, we upgrade what we do. But in general, the procedure involves initial cool-down with use of anticoagulant, removing the blood, and replacing it with a cryoprotectant - a solution that minimizes freezing damage. This is followed by further cooling, and then long-term immersion in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of - 196 C. We have many more details on other segments of this site.

Q: Do you have a traveling team that will go to members at a distance in an emergency?

A: Yes. We can send a travelling team out. But for various reasons – quickness of response, anatomical expertise, familiarity with local paperwork and hospitals, experience in handling grieving relatives, and more - CI greater prefers to use its unique system of training and utilizing funeral directors located as close at hand to our members as possible, so they can be there immediately as needed. We contact the director nearest your home, explain and train them in all the necessary procedures beforehand, and have them work under our instructions. Why this emphasis on funeral directors? Because traveling teams -- even ours -- can suffer long delays, and such delays can mean disastrous damage for the member.

In addition, there's the question of qualifications. Travelling team members at other organizations may include qualified individuals, but may also include individuals of greatly limited qualifications and experience. It isn't widely known, but in striking contrast, funeral directors are often state-certified and reviewed professionals who are required by law to have college degrees in mortuary science in subjects stretching from anatomy to microbiology to pathology. They regularly perform a procedure that is extremely close to cryonic perfusion (removing the blood and replacing it with solutions to prevent decay), and they have vastly more experience in dealing with grieving relatives, local doctors and hospitals and officials, arranging flights for the deceased, and so on. Even medical doctors do not have as much day-to-day experience in performing a concrete cryonics-like procedure as funeral directors: cryonic perfusion is not (yet) a standard medical technique, and no medical institution formally instructs any doctor in it. Doctors -- like funeral directors -- have to adapt related techniques. But no doctor practices those related techniques repeatedly, over and over, the way funeral directors do.

Yes, we do have a travelling team, and we will send one out, if a member specifically requests it. But in terms of time, we have found from experience that training and using funeral directors is a much safer and better option for our members, and we strongly recommend it. Travelling teams at other organizations consist of individuals trained in cryonics procedures who have to be contacted, assemble, get equipment, make arrangements, and travel hundreds if not thousands of miles to reach a member. CI trains a people that are right there next to a patient, and can arrive in minutes. That's the main difference between our approach and other organizations.

Q: Can relatives view the patients?

A: Relatives are always welcome to visit. The patients are held in cryostats in protective apparel, and so can't be directly viewed. We do have - and welcome - photographs of our patients, which we display in the Institute conference room, to remind us daily of the people we're caring for.

Q: Is Walt Disney frozen?

A: The available documentation (Walt Disney's death certificate) indicates that Walt Disney was cremated.  However, even if that were not the case, it is the policy of the Cryonics Institute to keep the names of patients and members confidential unless they specifically allow us to do otherwise. So we do not as a rule answer questions about who is or is not in cryonic suspension.

Q: Have any celebrities been frozen?

A: The same unofficial rule applies. A number of prominent people have publicly indicated sympathy and interest in cryonics - not just Walt Disney, but actor Peter Sellers, talk show host Larry King, boxer Muhammad Ali, General Omar Bradley, Timothy Leary, science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke, Frederick Pohl, Gregory Benford, Damien Broderick, and Charles Platt, and best-selling novelists like Gore Vidal and James Halperin. (Halperin, in fact, is not just a signed-up cryonics member but author of The First Immortal, one of the best and most readable fictional treatments of the subject around.) But who of the above, if any (apart from Mr. Halperin), have signed up where, is anyone's guess. All current cryonics providers assure privacy.

We should add that people famous in the entertainment field are not, after all, necessarily qualified to recommend cryonics -- but people in the scientific field are. And it's there that cryonics has picked up some very famous and significant names indeed. Dr. Marvin Minsky of MIT, for instance, is widely considered to be the father of the field of Artificial Intelligence in computing and is a cryonics supporter and member. Dr. K. Eric Drexler, who founded the field of nanotechnology virtually single-handed in the late 70's and early 80's, is a cryonics member whose book, Engines Of Creation, and whose various research initiatives, have provided perhaps the best current blueprint for a successful, working cryonics. Dr. Ralph Merkle of the world- famous Xerox Palo Alto Research Center is a leading cryonics activist and has produced some of the most impressive and decisive papers on cryonics in the field. His cryonics site at http://www.merkle.com/merkleDir/cryo.html is one of the most compelling collections of evidence for cryonics on the web, and lists the web pages of some 26 prominent PhD's and computer scientists who have seen the evidence and signed up for cryonic suspension.

Dr. Drexler has remarked that if the same percentage of American public had signed up for cryonics as had scientists at Xerox PARC, cryonics memberships would now number in the millions. What do scientists and doctors and PhD's know that the public doesn't? They know that cryonics really can work. That's why they've joined, and that's why they come out publicly inviting others to join too.

Q: Has anyone been frozen and revived?

A: No adult human being has -- yet. But freezing human embryos has not only successfully taken place, it's now considered almost commonplace. The first human being to successfully emerge from cryonic suspension is arguably one John Brooks, who was removed from his mother's womb and suspended in liquid nitrogen for two months, after which he was carefully thawed, placed in his mother's womb again, and emerged -- eleven months after being conceived -- a completely healthy and normal child. Thousands of embryos have been successfully frozen since. Indeed, in one case, a human embryo was frozen at liquid nitrogen temperature for seven full years - and then brought to term, and is now a healthy young child. Granted, reviving a mature adult is different from reviving an embryo. But not in principle. Progress is taking place, freezing methods are improving, and successes are accumulating. We have little reason to doubt that the technology of the near future will be equal to the task.

Q: Has anything living at all been successfully frozen, stored at liquid nitrogen temperature, and revived?

A: Many things. Dozens of specimens, including planaria, newts, various insects, human tissue (including brain tissue), human sperm, human embryos, and apparently a few small adult mammalian organs such as rat parathyroid and rat uterus. The main point to remember is what is not revivable today may be revivable tomorrow. Human embryos were not revived in the 1940's, though they could easily have been placed in liquid nitrogen and kept there till the 1960's, when it was another story. Freezing and reviving embryos today is quite common and unremarkable.

The thing to remember is that damage from freezing is not the critical question: the question is whether or not such damage is repairable. Cell and tissue structure is the main thing, and structure may be preserved even if full function (for the moment) is not. If, for instance, temperatures fall way below zero in the winter, your car may very well may not start, and if it's left that way long enough, damage may occur and it may not start even when things warm up. But that doesn't mean your car is utterly and completely demolished and unrepairable, as though it had been buried and rusted into particles over the course of centuries. Studies indicate that freezing damage is rather like that: it disarranges brain cells somewhat so that brain activity stops. But it doesn't pulverize a brain cell into dust, so totally that its original, functioning, form is completely obliterated and unrecoverable. On the contrary! It preserves the original structure, which is precisely why the cell - and the brain -- is repairable. Not quite at the moment, granted; but methods currently being developed are bringing that moment closer and closer..

Q: Are there any alternative methods of preservation to cryonic suspension? What about arctic burial?

A: Some low cost alternatives to cryonics have been proposed, such as interment in arctic permafrost and chemical preservation with powerful fixatives such as those used to preserve organ and cell specimens for scientific study. The Cryonics Society of Canada has published an extensive collection of articles about permafrost burial and other low cost preservation methods on its web site. Included in this information is a list of funeral homes in northern Canada and Alaska which appear to be willing to perform permafrost burials. Three permafrost burials are known to have been performed to date in the Canadian arctic for preservation purposes. There is also a fledgling cryonics group in Russia which hopes eventually to offer permafrost burial in the Russian arctic, but this service is not currently available. To our knowledge no organization at present offers chemical preservation services.

Although almost no comparative research has been done on the various methods of preservation available (or potentially available), it appears that the greatest degree of both molecular structural preservation and long term molecular stability is achieved using conventional cryonic suspension in liquid nitrogen after perfusion with cryoprotectants. Other methods are not recommended except as a last resort.

Q: Some people consider cryonics a moneymaking scam.

A: That’s an understandable concern, but people who think so would do better to investigate and find out for themselves. Suffice it to say, at CI, our organization's funds go toward patient care and toward strengthening the organization. Period. Not a cent is earmarked to any CI official. All CI officials have their own private means of support, and work on an unpaid volunteer basis -- no officer or director of  CI makes a nickel out of it, or has any way to do so: officers do not receive salaries or perks at all: they donate their time and services – and sometimes their own money too. Check us out -- we make our financial statement and our policies available to anyone who asks. CI exists for the benefit of its present and future patients -- nothing else. (Incidentally, lawyers are also over-represented in CI, and they are not naïve or trusting types. If even lawyers are convinced they can trust us, maybe you should think about it too.)

Q: Isn't there a conflict between cryonics and religion?

A: There's certainly no explicit conflict. There is not a single word in the Christian or Jewish Scriptures (nor the Quran or the Dhammapada or the Tao The Ching, for that matter) that prohibits cryonics. Nor is there a Papal pronouncement, or a statement from the World Council of Churches to that effect. Some people 'feel' there's a conflict between cryonics and religion because they confuse recovering from cryonic suspension procedures with 'rising from the dead'. But a cryonics patient is no more (nor less) dead than a patient on an operating table whose heart has stopped and whose EEG is flat, or a person recently drowned. Such people are regularly returned to life from a state once considered to be irrevocable death. The only difference is that some doctors consider the usual 'dead' patient to be revivable only for several minutes, whereas some doctors consider cryonics patients is revivable for much longer.

It's much more accurate to see a cryonics patient, not as 'dead', but rather as in a coma - call it a 'cryo-coma', if you wish. No religion we're aware of advocates that people in comas should be put to death, even if that coma lasts several decades. Indeed, most traditional faiths strongly oppose such euthanasia; and in most cases where a clergyman or theologian of a major religion has made a public statement about cryonics, it has been neutral or even supportive. In one case a Roman Catholic priest actually consecrated one of our cryostats. Which is not surprising, since the avowed purpose of most major religions is to practice compassion, and to preserve and protect life. Not even the most conservative churches oppose CPR or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation: it is hard to be pro- life and advocate death.

Q: Isn't it selfish to want to linger on, instead of making way for new generations?

A: Why not help future generations by actually being there in person to help? Is our generation really better off because Beethoven, Shakespeare, and Newton died, and left us three more parking spaces instead? Most people would call that a poor trade. If selfishness means a lack of concern for others, what could possibly be more selfish than suicide? All the charity, creativity, friendship, help, advice, experience, that might have been made other people's lives better will never be given if the person who might have supplied those things chooses not to exist. You can't help future generations - or work for justice, or feed the hungry, or heal the sick, or serve God - if you're dead. Compassion requires life.

Some people do think of cryonics only in terms of personal survival. And there's nothing wrong with that. But for some of us the heart of cryonics is humanitarianism, not selfishness. Nowadays people may be born severely retarded, deformed, crippled, blinded; their bodies may be dismembered or shattered in accidents; they may be paralyzed or torn apart by years or even decades of chronic intolerable pain; their brains may be eaten away by cancer or Alzheimer's as their life savings and their families' future with it are drained away on ineffective medical techniques that do no more than prolong their degradation and agony. And even those who survive are crippled by grief and loss, by the fear of illness and the swift approach of death. Any human being may end up being debilitated by accidents or debased by illness. And even those who aren't will be destroyed by old age.

Why does this have to be? It doesn't. Thanks to cryonics. Cryonics is the most life-saving, pain-relieving medical technique ever conceived. The waste, agony, and loss of terminal physical decay can simply be suspended, along with the patient. The sick and aged and dying can simply close their eyes, and wake up healthy in a new and extraordinary world. That's what cryonics promises, and why scientists and laymen, Christians and Jews and agnostics, prominent authors and simple volunteers, are working to make that promise real. The benefits of cryonics for one person is immense – the promise of hundreds more years of life. But even that is nothing compared to the benefits of cryonics for every person - for all mankind. Cryonics isn’t about selfishness. The essence of cryonics is compassion.

Q: What about population pressures?

A: Population problems - and solutions -- will be there with or without cryonics. Take the example of one of the most heavily populated places on earth -- Japan, which has virtually no natural resources yet holds half the population of America on an area the size of Florida. But the result is not some overpopulated hell, but one of the richest, most productive, polite, crime-free societies in the world. A large population doesn't necessarily mean a poor life. Besides which, there are any number of unpopulated areas on the world where populations could expand to - indeed, skyscrapers and underground cities, the seas and space, have long been subjects of speculation for human expansion. Cryonics, far from adding to the population problem, could actually offer solutions: even now cryonic suspension has progressed to the point where human embryos can successfully be stored till such time as birth becomes feasible. Worldwide cryonics practice could - right now - halt population growth entirely, without destroying a single fetus, simply by delaying births until such time as space arrangements could be made. We don't say that will happen; but we do say that we need to explore better ways of solving the population problem than insisting on mass suicide and making people die.

Q: The world is bad, and getting worse. Why should I want to come back?

A: One thing is for sure: the world certainly won't get better if you give up on it. But why assume it'll be worse? We don't know what the future will bring. In 1939 it looked as though Nazism would overrun the world. A decade after that, the Soviet Union under Stalin was mass-manufacturing hydrogen bombs and expanding. And today? Nazism and Soviet Communism are gone. The future isn't necessarily worse than the past. Sometimes it's a lot better. Particularly if you work to make it better. Why just assume you won't like the things to come? Why not take a trip to the future and see, and decide if you like it then?

Q: Why would people in the future want to revive us?

A: Why are scientists talking about cloning from the DNA of the pharoahs or the frozen sperm of prehistoric animals? Because the past interests people. Why do people donate to charitable hospitals? Because people care about one another. Complete indifference to human life isn’t as common as we sometimes let ourselves think. Mind you, we aren’t depending on that sort of help in the least. We expect to be revived -- and helped in leading new future lives -- not by some featureless "them", but by the efforts of our own cryonics organizations. After all, it's their -- and our -- job. CI has a legal and moral obligation to do its best for its patients--some of whom will be friends and relatives of future CI officers and directors--and we are confident those obligations will be respected.

Q: Suppose the revival attempt fails, or goes wrong, and I awaken in agony?

A: In the (incredibly unlikely) event that something of that sort happened, you'd simply be put back into completely pain-free suspension immediately, until the cause of the problem could be established and solved. But it won't happen, because you won't be restored to consciousness until we are absolutely sure your revival will be successful, and painless.

Q: How do you know that cryonic suspension is pain-free? Doesn't it feel cold? And if I'm in cryonic sleep, couldn't I have nightmares?

A: At liquid nitrogen temperatures, molecular activity comes to a halt. So when people are in cryonic suspension, their brains simply do not function at all. Pain, and sensations of cold, and dreaming -- these are all accompanied by extensive and identifiable brain activity. Where there is no brain activity, there is no sensation. And no pain, and no dreaming, and certainly no nightmares. Cryonic suspension can't hurt. Sick and dying, you close your eyes; and we expect that when you open them again a second later, you'll be healthy and well and in the future.

Q: How do I know I’m not getting involved with some weird ‘cult’?

A: As far as CI being a 'cult' goes, suffice it to say that we do not advocate any political or religious or metaphysical views whatsoever. Our members are Catholics and Jews, atheists and agnostics, Asians and Caucasians, Conservatives and Liberals, computer scientists and postal workers, children and retirees. The full spectrum of opinion and social class is represented at CI -- as far as we know. We don't know for sure, because we don't ask. You can join CI and believe in or vote for whoever and whatever you want to. And if you do join, you don't ever have to come to a meeting, or contribute time or services, or donate a penny (though of course we won't object if you want to). Your name is kept confidential and won't be sold to any sales organization or mailing list; and you won't be pestered by phone calls or knocks on the door.

As for cryonics itself being a ‘crank’ enterprise – look at the facts: cryonics organizations have nine times the relative number of doctors as the general public; not to mention statistically far higher numbers of scientists, PhDs, professors, authors, academicians, and lawyers. They include some of the most prominent and respected scientists of the late twentieth century, particularly in the field of nanotechnology, since the general view of people in that field is that once nanotech is developed a bit further, cryonics will have arrived: and some of the richest corporations and governments and educational institutions in the world are pouring money into nanotechnology at an astonishing rate. Again, corporate investments alone are expected to reach eighty billion dollars by the year 2000. Academic research is taking place at Yale, Princeton, MIT, and dozens of other national and international institutions. Government research is being done by the U.S. Army and Air Force, NASA, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, and the Departments of Commerce and Energy, and more. That doesn’t sound like a list of cranks to us.

Q: But what will the neighbors say?

A: Well, if your neighbors are some of the leading figures in contemporary computer science and nanotechnology, they’ll say, "Smart move! I did it years ago." And hundreds of CI members – among them doctors, lawyers, scientists, physicists, authors, teachers, and attorneys -- would join right in.

But, of course, you’re probably referring to those many completely decent old friends and acquaintances you know who don’t know a thing about cryonics, and so probably think it’s ‘pretty strange’. You don’t want people to think of you that way, and you really don’t expect them to sit down and wade through a few hundred pages of technical reports on cryostasis till they figure out the good news for themselves. So what do you do?

The easy way out, of course, is not to tell them. CI respects its members’ privacy, and keeps their names confidential, unless otherwise notified. But we don’t recommend that. After all, the bottom line is that some people may think you’re foolish, but then we all feel that way about each other over some things. We all disagree with each other. We all think that people we know – even our dearest friends and closest relatives – vote for the wrong guys and support the wrong sports teams and have some very silly opinions and awful habits. But we don’t end our relationships over it, do we? People in CI think cremation is pretty dumb, but we don’t stop doing business or avoid people who do, and they seem to get along with us about as well as before. If you tell people you’re signed up for cryonics, some people will think you’re brave and individual and support you, some people won’t, and most people will shrug, not really care that much one way or the other, and forget about it. That’s just how things go. We wish cryonics were more controversial! There’d be more media coverage and discussion. But the fact is, these days when someone signs up or is suspended, it’s not news – it’s par for the course.

But it remains true that the more people you tell about your decision – and at a minimum, you should tell your doctor and your lawyer -- the more likely it’ll be that your suspension will go off safely. And the more likely it will be that other people will join up. Quite a few CI members joined because they knew or met a person who was a member, knew what he was talking about, and was willing to say so. Signing up can save your life; admitting it can save someone else’s.

Q: Where can I find out more?

A: The main advice that we can offer, of course, is read, read, read. Robert Ettinger's The Prospect Of Immortality, James Halperin's novel The First Immortal, and Eric Drexler's Engines Of Creation -- chapter nine in particular) are the best introductions possible. And the books by Ettinger and Drexler can be downloaded free from our web site. (James Halperin's book is out in paperback, and available at libraries.) For more technically advanced stuff, Dr. Greg Fahy's papers and -- in particular -- Dr Ralph Merkle's The Molecular Repair Of The Brain are the best technical studies of cryonics written so far.

We also especially recommend our longer FAQ on Becoming A Member, the article Comparing Policies and Procedures, and our What To Read article, along with the rest of the material here on this site.

But as you read, please -- remember that the clock is ticking. And that one day, much sooner than you think, time is going to run out. If you haven’t signed up or made preparations for a suspension by then, it’ll be too late. Cryonics can’t save anyone if it isn’t applied. And it can save people. Cryonics really can save your life. It really is the only medical hope for a dying parent, a sick child, a beloved husband or wife or friend. It really does promise to reduce human suffering, and extend human life, and improve the world in ways we can barely imagine. No, we can’t make a certain prediction as to exactly when. But there’s every reason to believe that it’s not far away, and it’s the only chance that you have. Every other road only ends in death.

Why take it, when there’s another and better way? The evidence for cryonics is there. Even a casual look at the record will show that respected mainstream scientists, researchers, and doctors are supporting cryonics in ever-increasing numbers. Look at that evidence. Think about what it could mean to you. Don’t throw away your life, or the life of someone you love, because you had other things to do, or worried about what the neighbors might think. Choosing to live and to preserve life is the smart thing to do and the right thing to do. For yourself and for others. Do it. And let us help you do it. Make a choice for life.