X-Message-Number: 5514
From: Randy Smith <>
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: AP Timothy Leary article synopsis & ponderings
Date: 31 Dec 1995 18:21:46 GMT
Message-ID: <4c6kbq$>

There is this morning an AP article by Deborah Hastings in the Houston 
Chronicle dealing with Timothy Leary and his prostate cancer; cryonics is 
mentioned as well, albeit backhandedly. The subheader is "LSD prophet 
says he's thrilled to be dying of prostate cancer." Hmmm... Learyesque?

The article mentions his senility and current state of mind (good) and 
details his life. Near the end it says Leary "is considering having his 
head cryogenically [sic?] frozen."

The article closes with some intriguing and quite possibly profound 
statements by Leary:

"The most interesting time of human life, I think, is when your heart 
stops, and for between two and 15 minutes, your brain is still running. I 
think the most interesting part of my life is going to happen in those 2 
to 15 minutes. Because time doesn't exist then."

" When the body's gone and you've got 120 billion neurons whirring, it's 
like LSD. More can happen in one minute than in a thousand lifetimes."


 Well, I re-read these last 2 paragraphs a couple of times, and my mind 
went in some funny directions. I was reminded immmediately of a movie 
called _Jacob's LAdder_, a paranoid thriller all of which is is 
ultimately the fleeting thoughts of a dying man but which to him seem to 
last years. And it makes sense: the brain is pulling out all the stops 
and what takes a minute might, subjectively, seem to last perhaps an 
eternity? Now I've had dreams which I know were quite short in real time, 
but had a sense of considerable time about them. I imagine , however that 
the flailings of the dying brain will outdo those dreams 
considerably.

I have a feeling that's what these near death experiences are: the last 
picture show for the ol' brain.

Then I took it one step farther. When I'm reanimated somewhere down the 
road in a nanotechnological culture, my memories, hopefully, will be more 
or less intact, including that subjective "eternity" I experienced while 
dying. Now what do you suppose will be the "psychological" (for lack of a 
better catch-all word) effect of that mindtrip?

A short story by Stephen King named "The Jaunt" seems relevant. The 
scenario there is a far-future family traveling light-years in a sort of 
teleportation device. It's supposed to be standard transportation and 
there are rules to follow, including swallowing some sort of knock-out 
pill to keep you from sensing the trip. Apparently a *conscious* traveler
will experience a subjective eternity. Well, the mischevious son fakes 
swallowing the pill--he wants the experience. And when the "jaunt" is 
over, he's a stark-raving nut-case, an animal. That subjective eternity 
drove him crazy. 

Now going back to the near-death experiences: most of them, according to 
the literature, are good, even soul-stirringly beautiful; some, however, 
are frightening. Touching on Leary's comparison to LSD, I guess you might 
call one a "heaven trip", and the other a "hell trip." 

Well, here's what I want to know: what if you get the hell trip and it 
lasts for a subjective eternity? What kind of "person?" is going to be 
reanimated? Something to think about.

But, optimistically, in a era of mature nanotech the psychological 
mumbo-jumbo will be reduced to just another nuts-and-bolts aspect of 
brain reconstruction, and so any mental damage caused by such an 
experience will be dealt with just like freeze damage, etc.

Comments?

 Randy Smith ( with no email capability yet)


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