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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16200