X-Message-Number: 8780 From: Theo Richel <> Subject: death guru Date: Fri, 14 Nov 1997 14:02:38 +0100 It is certainly no news that will shock the world but I discovered today that Scottsdale Arizona shares two extremes: not only is it the hometown of Alcor, but is also the place where death guru Elisabeth Kubler Ross (73) lives. For those of you who do not know: she is the founder of a large world wide movement of people who see death as something to look forward to. On october 8 1997 she is quoted to have said:'Death is nothing to be affraid of'. After working with dying patients for half a century, i cant wait', she said as she stretched out in a reclining chair, chain smoking dunhill sigarettes between sips of black tea. 'When i die i'm going to dance first in all the galaxies.... i'm going to play and dance and sing'. At 73 EKR believes she is at the end of her life. EKR is much more successfull in convincing people to accept death than the Cryonics movement is in convincing people that death should be fought against. EKR is not interested in science, certainly not in technology and she is full of spiritual nonsense, but she has a lot of warmth and consolation to offer to people. That makes our lonely existence on this planet bearable and death acceptable. The cryonics movement is a very cold opposite. cryonicists, transhumans, extropians seem to enjoy emphasizing our fundamental loneliness, are not affraid of endorsing egoism, and allthough I agree with them, I also think that a lot of sheep prefer the warmth of the flock instead of confronting the cold loneliness. The cryonics movement could grow if the members would emphasdzize more that they were social beings, that they want their whole family to be complete again in ???? years. I feel I am starting to repeat Steven Harris's valuable remarks (#8776) now so i'll stop. Theo Richel, Holland Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8780