X-Message-Number: 23451
From: 
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 09:37:29 EST
Subject: It isn't fear

Graham Hipkiss wrote that he once thought cryonicists have a greater than 
average fear of non-existence. Now he thinks they probably have a greater than 
average ability to use perspective, and of course I agree.

The "fear of death" angle is contradicted by the facts, to the extent that I 
know them. Cryonicists tend to take risks, if anything, more than others, and 
worry less about the risks.

Curtis Henderson trained as a fighter pilot, and in his seventies still rode 
(rides?) his motorcycle. Mike Darwin was a sky diver. Art Quaife kept a lion 

in his apartment. Bob Nelson was a diver and boxer. I have been threatened with
imminent death five times and was not afraid on any of those occasions. 

For that matter, even average people, in old age, do not seem to have much 
fear of death. Sometimes they say they wish it would come--but do nothing to 

hasten it, for the same reason that they usually did little or nothing to extend
their lives, viz., they just take the path of least resistance and allow 
custom and tradition to rule them.

Well, customs do change, and we are beginning to change them.

Robert Ettinger


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