Art by hausbomb

Living forever in a secular society.

Death. She comes for us all eventually, but that has not stopped others from running far and away from her grasp to the point of theoretical hope. This running has been termed “death anxiety” and is a phenomenon that has erupted in our post-religious world. “Death anxiety” has a few definitions, but the most common is the simplest: fear of dying. This may be a foreign concept to the religious-minded, but to the secular, agnostic person, this is a real issue that can keep them up at night wondering: what is beyond life? 

A common answer to this ailment is religion. I can personally attest to the wonder of faith in God for relieving my own anxieties over death, but many lack that common source of faith for whatever reason. What is one to do to alleviate their death anxiety if they cannot find answers through religion? The answer may in fact be to make their own. 

Immortalism is a new religious mode that emerged in the United States during the 1960s, when an ex-US soldier named Robert Ettinger published his book The Prospect of Immortality. Ettinger’s book detailed a proposed solution to death, and by extension death anxiety, by freezing the body at the point of death until it can be unfrozen and “cured” by a future scientific world. The concept Ettinger proposed captivated a small audience, who dubbed it “cryonics” and formed the first Immortalist movement in the United States known as the Life Extension Society (LES). 

The LES would go on to perform the first cryonics experiments in the United States with professor James Bedford as the first body to undergo cryopreservation in 1967. Unfortunately for those frozen during the early years of the movement, many mortuaries were unable to properly freeze the bodies at sufficient temperatures. Many of those early bodies thawed, decomposed, and in at least one case melted.

The first sacrifices to the Immortalist movement were complete, but that did not stop others from attempting to build off of their ideas. One of the spin-off groups was the Alcor Life Extension Foundation (ALEF or Alcor), who have become the leader of the cryonics world since their foundation in 1972. On their website, they market to potential customers by saying “a fulfilling life doesn't have to end”—which has an ominous science fiction bent to it. Alcor itself has frozen over 1,000 different people, to no shortness of controversy. 

Among the many bodies frozen by Alcor include Dora Kent, the mother of an Alcor board member named Saul. Dora signed up to be frozen by Alcor after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. According to Saul and Alcor, she passed away in 1987 from complications from her disease and was rushed to the institution to be frozen. This was all well and good, but there was one problem: nobody ever confirmed whether she was actually dead or not.

From this a legal battle ensued between Alcor and Riverside County, California. The Riverside coroner’s office wanted access to the body to confirm her death. Alcor insisted that if they granted that, she would then physically die and be unable to be resurrected in the future. The court would later grant Alcor a preliminary injunction to protect Dora, but this led to the government keeping their eye on Alcor moving forward. 

Alcor and cryonics have no share of their controversies such as Dora Kent or even the potential mistreatment of the body of baseball star Ted Williams; however, the greatest controversy remains on whether or not cryonics even works. Everyone signs up for cryonics under the assumption that there is a post-death society in the future where death is cured and bodies can be brought back to life—but what does that look like? How could science feasibly cure death?

There are many answers, but no absolutes. Each Alcor fanatic and Immortalist devotee thus undertakes a measured amount of faith in cryonics. They believe that a future out there can relieve them of death, even if they may never see that future with their young eyes. 

Despite the faith needed for their product, Alcor is still sailing relatively smoothly. For the low-low price of $17-100 a month, you too could live forever in a post-death future. You can even visit the Church of Perpetual Life out in Pompano Beach, Florida, where the Immortalists have taken a cue from the rising phenomenon of atheist churches by appropriating Christian ideas for their agnostic views. Ever wanted to discuss what supplements can help extend your life? Then head on down to the Church of Perpetual Life! 

It is also worth taking note of the other forms of Immortalism that exist beyond the world of cryonics. For example, the transhumanist movement was founded on the same principles of extending life beyond our physical capabilities, potentially into immortality, by enhancing or replacing parts of the human body with technology. Yes, the robotification of your body is coming to a hospital near you! ...eventually. 

Another prominent strain of Immortalist thought connects to the New Age movement. God may not provide an afterlife, but becoming one with energy around us, or adhering to a specified diet, could prolong your life to a point of true immortality. The massive amounts of funding by millionaires and billionaires for anti-aging research also points to the death anxiety infiltrating society on every level. 

There is quite the diversity of thought in Immortalist circles, but they all have one commonality: they stake their claims on faith and hope. It is in that commonality that I postulate that this movement is a religion of its own. Examining Immortalism through the lens of the “3 B’s” model of religions (Belief, Behavior, Belonging), we find that Immortalists fulfill the basic requirements for religion. Immortalists have faith that science will one day cure death (Belief); their practices include cryonics, transhumanism, and new-age philosophy, but all Immortalists adhere to at least one practice (Behavior); and each Immortalist builds up a sense of belonging by interacting with other Immortalists online, attending churches, and going to festivals, such as the Frozen Dead Guys Festival in Colorado, dubbed “the Mardi Gras of Cryonics.”

The world is on the brink of a potential religious collapse as churches lose influence and the prevailing secularism of society flourishes in their absence. With religion gone, the anxiety over death will continue to haunt those who cannot see heaven before them and who will fall to the wayside looking for answers. 

Will Immortalism rise to the task and lead our fallen youth into the scientific future they crave? Will Immortalism lead humanity into a post-death world? Or will the world Immortalists dream of contain more man-made horrors than anyone could imagine? Time will tell, but the Immortalists will be quick to say that only they will live long enough to find out.

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