X-Message-Number: 16200
Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 02:45:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: UK samples

Since my summary cannot possibly convey the tenor of the original text, I
am appending some brief UK statements, having removed all names out of
deference to the restricted circulation imposed on their mail list.

I think if you will read these statements you will see why I began to
wonder what could have possibly happened to cause such ill will.
Conceivably the people holding the extreme opinions are misinformed, or
misunderstood the situation. If so, I would hope to see some interest in
trying to resolve the misunderstandings.

Personally I am concerned because:

a) Some sincere and helpful people have been alienated; and cryonics is
too small to lose sincere and helpful people.

b) Some of them (at least a dozen) are opting for the Cryonics Institute.
Personally I feel that they might just as well join the Seventh Day
Adventists, since I doubt that many CI patients have much chance of
resuscitation. Obviously, this is just my opinion, but I hold it strongly,
and I deeply regret the loss of these Alcor UK members.

c) I am concerned about what this PR catastrophe bodes for the future
among other overseas members. In the past, we have seen a belief that
cryonics could be international. One member was flown to the US from
Australia by air ambulance, as far as I remember. Are those days over?

Samples from the UK discussion list:

"Like i have said before, i already have a life insurence policy which is
still in trust to alcor(by their instructions as well)  which only i can
change(which i will be doing as soon as possible). It is also the case
that as i have now been diagnosed with having a heart condition which can
laed to heart attacks, i am no longer accepted by anyone for life
insurence( as i found out when i tryed to get a new policy to cover my
morgage). So any one else that would like to write in and tell us all how
great Alcor are don't bother untill the chambeirlains have changed their
rules to allow us back in."

"No, I wouldn't trust anything the Chamberlain's say again, I have a vivid
memory that at the end of the ACT Examination that They promised so much!"

"We have been shafted good and proper. What we now have is reality after a
period of untruths. Let's hope we survive the next few months to progress
our own organisation. Hopefully when someone with a sense of reality takes
over we will be able to return to honest dialogue."

"I agree with xxxxxx's comments Still, here is someone keen to see the
development of Cryonics  and is usually quiet. Sadly he has been waiting
since 1999 to join Alcor only to be told to bugger off."

"Though Fred & Linda have certainly contributed their fair share to
this calamity, we ultimately only have ourselves to blame. We could
-*should*- have solved this easily by sticking together and going
ahead with the independent org."

"They are too detached from reality to run such an important organisation
and worry about fictitious problems. yes, we should of stuck together
because Linda and Fred have only a limited time in charge of Alcor and
hopefully a forward looking group would take over. This split at the
beginning of a promising century will take a long time to recover from
unless someone with money wants to join."

"I agree that our future is up to us, and should no longer be influenced
in any way by Alcor. It has become obvious that Alcor does not want
anything more to do with Europe, so the policy of trying to cling on,
hoping for scraps, is only going to be a distraction. But, I disagree with
your pessimism. I think Fred has done us a favour in rejecting storage
only contracts. This simplifies things considerably, which needed to be
done to move a European Cryonics organisation along. Now that all new
members of the new group will be stored by CI, we do not need to offer a
complete service, at least to begin with."

---

And so on, and so on. These samples were taken from a period of four days.
The mail list has been running for more than 3 months and has accumulated
about 230 messages.

--CP

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