X-Message-Number: 32998
Subject: Re: borrowing from religion
From: David Stodolsky <>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:21:55 +0200
References: <>

On 28 Oct 2010, at 11:00 AM, CryoNet wrote:

> What makes some religions succeed, and what movements or institutions have  
> some features of religion and succeed? 


This has been extensively studied. Primary academic areas are the History of 
Religion and Social Movement Theory. 


My guess is that a formal study would show that no current effort actually 
supports cryonics in a meaningful way. Requiring members to be cryonicists 
doesn't qualify, since it is the function of a religion to help followers 
achieve salvation, not the other way around. 


> 
> Currently, oddball notions such as Cosmism and Terasem attempt something  

> similar, but we know that relatively few people would welcome radical change,
> and I am pretty sure that these ideas can't go far. 


Lumping these together doesn't make much sense. Cosmism has a hundred year 
history and served as the ideological foundation for the Soviet space program. 
Terasem is recent attempt to ritualize a cryonics friendly worldview. 


This observation fails to recognize that current dominant religious beliefs 
promote oddball notions of an extreme sort, eg. ritual cannibalism. So, the 
question is not whether people will adopt oddball notions, but how can we make 
it attractive to accept a cryonics friendly 'oddball notion.'


> 
> To make the cryonics organizations provide more in the way of social  

> support has been suggested many times and occasionally even tried a little, 
e.g.  
> with meetings at CI that Ben organized.  Lack of success can be  attributed 
> to various things, including small numbers of local  members and a tendency 
> of cryonicists to be loners.  


In an earlier analysis posted here, I concluded that suspension organizations 
were not appropriate vehicles for providing social support. Legally, they are 
sharply limited in what they can claim to provide. A separate organization is 
better placed to compete in the religious marketplace were just about any claim 
is acceptable. 


However, the first formal marketing study of the problem has yet to be 
undertaken. (Until that happens, we will have no basis on which to proceed 
except for the speculation which has had no effect on signups. The current 
stagnation in signups is an indication that such speculation is inadequate.) In 
fact, thus far none of the suspension organizations are even systematically 
collecting the data that already is available to them. Data on web activity, 
telephone and mail inquiries, and cancelled memberships, etc. could throw some 
light on what it takes to achieve a successful signup. Given that collecting 
this type of data would be virtually cost free, the failure to do so amounts to 
marketing negligence by the current organizations. 


dss


David Stodolsky
  Skype: davidstodolsky

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