"Walt Disney is not frozen."
That's the response from Ben Best, president of a national cryonics organization, when asked about the biggest myth in cryonics. "Everyone thinks that he's suspended and will come back some day. But in fact, he had only considered cryonics as an alternative to death, and was cremated and his ashes [were] buried."
Best isn't even sure if John Wayne, a Hollywood legend for his cowboy films, is actually suspended as fans believe. "Cryonics has a lot of myths to battle, and the society is helping to educate people on the alternatives to death."
"We're not doing Frankenstein here," says Kelly Anne Moy, one of the few female cryonics technicians around. She works for the American Cryonics Society as a student coordinator, and as a technician for the company the ACS has contracted to perform suspensions.
"What we're doing is a very technical procedure that prevents death, and may prolong life in the future. Our clients have made arrangements long before we do anything. They don't just walk in here and ask to be put under."
So, what happens when you freeze someone?
They're brought in and immediately put on a heart and lung machine. If the person stops breathing, there could be tissue and brain damage. Then the body is quickly cooled to just below freezing, and the blood is replaced with a special solution. Then the subject is cooled even further with liquid nitrogen.
When someone is reanimated, which has been done successfully on animals, they are warmed back up to freezing, their blood is put back in, and they are slowly warmed to body temperature. So far, no humans have been thawed.
"Sure, it sounds a lot like science fiction," says Moy. "But it's a precise science that should be very exciting in the future."
Most suspended patients are elderly, or have had terminal illnesses. There's no point reviving them if they can't be cured of the disease that would have killed them had they been alive.
"That's part of the reason that I got interested in this. It's a new science that will help people. It's unique, and not many people do what I do," says Moy.
The challenge of working in cryonics is facing the myths that surround it, and responding to critics of the practice, particularly those who question its ethics.
"It can be difficult to deal with that," says Moy. Some religions may believe that cryonics is a form of suicide, and it's quite a controversial science. But Moy lives with that and often discusses those questions with clients and their families.
"By far the most difficult part is dealing with families who don't want a family member suspended. If that's the person's wish, then sometimes you just have to hope that legal wills and other papers will stand up. The family can be so distraught over the clinical death, that all they want to do is bury them and get it over with. They wonder if the person will ever come back, if they will be frozen forever, what kind of world they may wake up in. Those are some tough questions."
But Moy loves the challenge of her job, particularly the fact that the future of cryonics is always changing. "Conducting research is very rewarding. And hopefully, someday, someone will use what we've done to further cryonics, and just further the life and health of human beings."