X-Message-Number: 16249 Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 09:41:19 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: more on Alcor's problems and OURS Hi everyone! For those who have asked, I am quite interested in the possibility of using PayPal, which would solve a continuing problem with getting payment from those who for one reason or another can't pay cash. I am investigating this issue directly and hope to give some kind of answer in time (remembering that letters can take a while if they are required). I can understand but remain disappointed that Alcor's discussion of its British members on its (Alcor's) website is behind the times. Frankly they look to me as if they are trying to shoot themselves in the foot, not a good spectacle. So here are some very simple questions: 1. It is my responsibility to obtain funding and keep it. This remains true no matter where I live. Has Alcor encountered problems here which it has not so far encountered with US residents? If so, just what are they? Please be explicit. 2. Yes, the vitrification methods require that they be applied quite soon after legal death. The same results, in terms of how well a suspension goes, remain true for older methods. The earlier Alcor responded to these problems not by excluding members but by thinking about how the required methods could be applied ... with minimum personel, and with equipment present close to the member. SO: has anyone at Alcor devoted any thought at all to what can be done for those who may not live right next door to Alcor? And if so, what would be needed? And if not, WHY NOT? I WILL ADD HERE that vitrification probably needs different equipment etc than "simple freezing". My own reading about vitrification, including whatever I can get about the work of INC and 21st Century Medicine, do not convince me at all that these methods cannot be adapted to emergencies. If it becomes a simple matter of the capital required, then foreign members would rank as those who would be most willing to provide some ... given that they gain from it. 3. Up until now Alcor has remained the largest society. However changes seem to be afoot. They may move even more rapidly if (as I understand) Pichugin ends up working for Michigan. The technical position of Alcor may well then end up BEHIND, at least in terms of finding ways to use vitrification as an emergency process. After all, who has been working on brain vitrification for months now? Just some questions for Alcor and Alcor managers. Perhaps Fred and Linda Chamberlain want their society to shrink to the size it had when they were last heads of it, but that is hardly something the members would want. Best wishes and long long life for all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16249