X-Message-Number: 9418 From: "Scott Badger" <> Subject: Religion, Growth, & Intentional Communities Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 20:47:45 -0500 Regarding the religion issue: This is a non-issue to me. Cryonics should no more be a religion than any other firm offering medical care. It is true that cryonics is still in its infancy and its leaders do, as a result, occassionally act like religious zealots. The act of trying to convince a skeptical public on a service in which you are heavily invested often leads to "religious-like" devotion. But you feeling that way doesn't actually turn the business into a religion. I don't think it is our goal to save people's "souls" or rescue the masses from the oblivion of death. Cryonics offers a rational gamble to survive into a time that offers many more benefits than are currently being offered. We don't want anyone to change their religious beliefs or worship any new deity. We want them to simply live and enjoy what life has to give them. Leave religion out of it or expect failure. Regarding growth and sales; Perry Metzger said; "The problem with cryonics is that it is going to be a business that people don't like being involved in, exactly like the funeral home business. Its going to make people queasy to go up to people with dying relatives when they are vulnerable and hard sell them on spending lots of money to freeze grampaw. There are people out there that can do this -- I'm not one of them, though, and so far as I can tell very few people around the cryonics world that have the personality that would let them do it. One needs a certain kind of hardness that most of us lack -- a certain deliberate calculation. I don't have that sort of soul in me. That is not to say that others do not have that sort of ability." Having been a salesperson in the past, I must say I don't much care for how Perry stereotypes the "souls" of these people. First of all, salespeople are just people. Secondly, they are fundamental to the success of most businesses. Thirdly, one does not have to be cold, calculating, and hard-hearted to market the benefits of any service. It is almost always possible and preferable to design a sales strategy/script that is sensitive to the emotional needs of the prospect and his/her relatives. You would probably want salespeople that are themselves members, but who are also "not" on a religious mission. I can see where it could become tempting to speak in "hyperbolease" and promise the moon. But Social Psychology has demonstrated that people are more readily persuaded when they view the speaker as credible and expert, when they perceive the message as being not-too-disparate with their own current position, and when some mild level of anxiety is generated with a concomitant solution for relieving the anxiety. Let the buyers figure out for themselves that immortality is at least a remote possibility. Sell the relatively near-future benefits. Regarding Intentional Communities; The more I think of this, the less I like the idea. It sounds to me like these people withdraw from society. That's not what this industry needs at all as far as I can tell. Scott Badger Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9418