X-Message-Number: 7741 Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 14:33:35 -0800 From: (Olaf Henny) Subject: Re: CryoNet #7729 & Last Minute Reversals Message #7729 >From Linda Chamberlain CryoTransport Manager Alcor Life Extension Foundation >Joe Cannon, long time cryonics activist and Alcor member since 1984, >was suspended on Friday, February 21, 1997. (Most of the text deleted) >Recently, he began telling neighbors and friends that >he was not sure he even wanted to be suspended anymore. He told his >neighbors and some of us that he felt his beloved Terry would be better off >in the future without him; that Terry would find another who would be >better for her. "She was always the strong one," he told me recently. >"She'll do just fine without me!" The above quotation touches on a phenomenon, which I have observed on many occasions throughout my life: The prospect of death appears welcome, when we are in a state of complete exhaustion, as most of us of course will be, when we are near death. Its impact on cryonics dawned on me the first time, when I read the account of Timothy Leary changing his mind on cryopreservation. I experienced such an occurrence, when I was going on what was to be a brief afternoon mountain climbing excursion. The temperature was in the mid-eighties on a very sunny day in the Austrian Alps. We got a little carried away and it was quite late in the afternoon, when we reached the peak of the mountain. Just as we started the descent the weather suddenly turned foggy and cold. To make things worse, a cold rain, which had trenched us to the skin turned into snow and the rocks, we tried to climb down on, were all covered with a layer of ice. Although we somehow kept on moving, we were soon subject to severe hypothermia. We did all make it back to the cabin, but in the process each one of the 5 of us, who had accumulated during the descent, acted completely irrational for at least one brief spell. Two of us just seemed to have disappeared (at different times), completely content to stay where they were and perish. Of course the rest of the group looked went back for them, but had to resort to yelling at them: "Now put you foot here and hold on with you hand there...!", while the stragglers pleaded to 'just be left alone'. When our grip slipped and we fell (it was pitch dark and foggy and we could not even see each other (only hear), let alone see the terrain), there was absolutely none of that heart stopping fear, that would befall less exhausted people. I later took some satisfaction that during that whole ordeal even my irrationality was directed toward my survival. However, I would not be so sure, that in a state of complete pre-mortal exhaustion I would not consider 'all that cryonics stuff' a complete bother, that I would not possibly at that moment be tempted to revoke all the cryonic arrangements and just desire to die in peace. Even though I know from several episodes in my life, that my will to 'go on' is well above average, I have wondered, what I could do to safeguard myself against my own last minute decision 'to forget about cryopreservation and just let go and slip into the comfort of death'. I am sure, that the staff of the various cryonics organizations has had some experiences with last minute reversals or at least doubts, and would like to hear more about that. Olaf Henny ************************************************* Ridicule and derision are weapons often employed by those who are intellectually outmatched ************************************************* Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7741