As I'm sure you're all aware, I consider cryonics - placing humans and animals into a low-temperature, biologically unchanging state immediately after clinical death, with the expectation that advances in medical technology may eventually enable full restoration to life and health - to be an important insurance policy and ethical necessity for those of us interested in healthy life extension. In an ideal world, advances in biotechnology and nanomedicine would defeat aging and allow rejuvenation in time to save all of us ... but in the real world, there are decades yet to go. Even those of us who are young enough to almost assuredly benefit from the future of real anti-aging medicine might still fall victim to fatal accidents.
Throughout its history, cryonics has faced a problem that has crippled its hopes and aspirations and that could still put an end to the cryonics movement and the lives of everyone who supports it.
A new organization has been formed that hopes to solve that problem - and your help is needed to make it succeed.
The new organization is the Cryonics Society. Its goal is to end the distorted negative presentation of cryonics that the media sends to the public and to replace it with positive information and positive support.
We don't have to tell you why such an effort is needed. People in cryonics have been saying for years that we need to put a better and more positive message about cryonics before the public. They're right. Cryonics is consistently misrepresented and sensationalized by the media. Government agencies and legislators have treated it with harshness and interference and regulation.
Perhaps even worse is what cryonics has suffered because of the lack of popular support. If cryonics organizations had received a tiny fraction of the donations and grants many charities receive, millions in funds might be available right now for research and development and patient care. Cryonics as we envision it might be a reality today, instead of a dream.
The general public has not rejected cryonics because they're foolish. They've rejected cryonics because they're constantly being given a biased and inaccurate picture of cryonics that invites rejection. Give them a true and accurate and inspiring picture and they'll react as cryonics members have - with acceptance and support.
If cryonics is going to fulfill its promise, if cryonics is going to survive at all, it needs acceptance and support from the general public and the scientific community. To get it, a systematic professionally-run campaign to change public opinion has to be undertaken by an organization whose main focus is to turn this situation around.
The Cryonics Society is that organization.
The Cryonics Society does not perform suspensions or maintain patients. It's here to be a credible voice bringing an optimistic message about the compassionate humane possibilities of cryonics to people that so far may only have been exposed to alienating distortions.
The Cryonics Society was founded and is led by communications professionals who have over fifty years experience between them in the fields of marketing, advertising, direct mail, and public communications. It's a team that has a long successful track record of getting results - and everyone on the leadership team is a cryonics member. Not outsiders, but people who belong to Alcor, the Cryonics Institute, and to other cryonics organizations.
We all know that professionally promoted products and services sell. Professional promotional techniques have even gotten people to buy things that are harmful and destructive, from cigarettes and alcohol to worse.
If the public can be sold on death, it can be sold on life.
But only people with seasoned skills and experience can be expected to promote cryonics effectively. We all have the deepest respect for existing cryonics organizations and the way they've kept cryonics alive since its beginnings. But existing cryonics service providers have to focus their time, staff, and funds on member and patient care. The Cryonics Society could significantly help them in the area of public perceptions.
Should a member of an existing cryonics organization join the Cryonics Society? Yes. Of course. The Cryonics Society's goals are to get every legitimate cryonics organization more members, more research funding, more public support. We're here to help, and helping us will help them.
And such help is needed. Existing organizations have done the best they could, and perhaps the best anyone could do under the circumstances. But the facts are plain. The way cryonics has been presented to the public to date simply has not worked. Forty years of business as usual has not gotten us the results we want. Some of us can't wait another forty years. If we want things to be different, we have to do something new.
The Cryonics Society thinks it's time to take action.
It's already done so. Already the Cryonics Society has sent an outreach letter to over ten thousand individuals. You can read it yourself at http://www.CryonicsSociety.org/outreachletter.html. The letter generated members, requests for information and updates, and donations. But what most encouraged and surprised us was that the Society received not one hostile or critical remark from the public.
We've gotten into the habit of thinking that the public is anti-cryonics. But what we've found out so far is that the public responds positively - to a positive approach. And isn't that great news for us all?
The Cryonics Society plans to send many such future mailings, and hopes to do so on a regular basis.
But mailings and similar outreach efforts have to be paid for. To do that, we need continuing support. We need continuing help in the form of memberships and volunteer support and donations. The Cryonics Society mailing was made possible only because of a generous donation. We need more such contributions if our efforts are to continue. We need the kind of help that only you can give. Because if the people already committed to cryonics won't help, who will?
Is getting an optimistic and supportive message out to the public the only benefit the Cryonics Society has to offer? The Society offers more than that.
In a field that is sometimes marked by divisive arguments and factionalism, the Cryonics Society can offer a haven where all supporters of cryonics can come together in friendship and unity and work toward our common goals.
In a field where there are many legitimate disagreements, the Cryonics Society can provide a neutral and objective voice.
To a world that normally sees cryonics organizations presented as being in conflict with regulators or performing controversial surgical procedures, the Cryonics Society offers a picture of a fresh new organization working purely in support of scientific research and public education and life.
To members, the Cryonics Society already offers a number of special benefits as well, including a free subscription to the Society newsletter, FutureNews. Membership also includes member assistance in obtaining a treatment provider, an emergency hot-line, and more.
And to people interested in cryonics or in becoming Cryonics Society members, we provide news and information and updates at no charge. Would you like to get mailings from CS, or let a friend interested in cryonics know about us? Then go to http://www.CryonicsSociety.org/addressform.html and type in a mailing or email address and stay informed.
How much is Basic membership in the Cryonics Society? Only $20. Yes, you can join online using Visa or other major credit cards. Yes, the Society can take donations online too -- and every dollar you contribute now towards the CS outreach program will send a positive message about cryonics to at least three people who may never have heard a single good or true thing about it.
Help them find out. Help your own chances for survival, and all our chances. Learn more about what we're trying to accomplish, and why it could have a direct impact on your own hopes and chances for survival. Visit our web site. Subscribe to FutureNews at http://www.CryonicsSociety.org/futurenews/index.php, and hear about what we're doing. Join us.
We believe that getting wider public support is the most important issue facing cryonics today. Until we present a better picture to the public, cryonics will remain under-funded, under-staffed, and facing the threat of being shut down. We can turn this around. But we can't do it without you.
So become a member. Contribute. Tell your friends. Help us make a
difference.
The future of cryonics depends on you.
David Pascal
Public Relations Director
The Cryonics Society
http://www.CryonicsSociety.org
P.S. Next month the Cryonics Society will be putting a fresh new series of public outreach letters in the mail. How many people will be reading those letters? It depends on you. Your membership and your contribution will directly enable us to send out a greater number of positive messages about cryonics to more and more people. So if you want to see cryonics get the respect and support it deserves, contribute now, as generously as you can.
You can contribute online at http://www.CryonicsSociety.org/helping.html.
You can join online at http://www.CryonicsSociety.org/joining.html.
What you do now can make a difference. Start by joining the Cryonics Society today.
