A couple have agreed to be frozen after death in the hope they can come back to life together in the future – but they say if one of them doesn’t make it, they will ‘unplug the other “.
Allan and Barbara Pease, from Queensland, will be cryogenics together at a newly built facility in the New South Wales town of Holbrook, operated by Southern Cryonics and which is the first facility of its type in the southern hemisphere.
The couple, experts in body language, communication and relationships, who have been married for 35 years, said they want their love story to continue even after death.
Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, Allan said: “They have the technology to get us in, but they haven’t figured out how to get us out yet, and there’s always a risk.” But the alternative is eternal darkness.
“When we come back, every time they find a way to thaw us, if one of us doesn’t thaw properly, they’ll unplug the other.” Neither of us want to do it alone, I don’t want to come back without her.
Allan and Barbara Pease, from Queensland, Australia, have pledged to be frozen and brought back to life together in the future – but they say if one is brought back without the other, they want scientists to “pull the plug the other”.
Barbara added: “I don’t want to come back without him either. We don’t think about death, we just live in the moment and enjoy every second.
Cryonics is an experimental field of research in which the bodies of clinically dead people are frozen at -196°C so that they can potentially be resuscitated if future medical advances allow.
When the time comes for the couple, their bodies will be transferred from their home in Queensland to the cryonics facility in Holbrook where their bodies will be frozen at sub-zero temperatures.
They will be placed in mental tanks where they will remain until science evolves enough to take them out and bring them back to life, which could take up to 100 years.
The couple admitted they weren’t worried that the world would be very different if they returned to the future.
Barbara said: “I think the world will definitely be different, but I’m excited about it. To come back and have our babies and grandbabies here would be amazing, but even if they chose not to (be cryogenically frozen), there would still be our descendants around.
Industry players admit that there is no guarantee of a future recurrence and that the procedure itself has long faced skepticism from medical experts. But Cryonics followers are willing to take the gamble for a chance at life after death.
The couple, experts in body language, communication and relationships, who have been married for 35 years, said they want their love story to continue even after death.
Interiors of the chambers where the bodies are locked (photographed at a US facility) head first, feet up, descend into a freezing temperature of -196°C.
The new cryonics facility located next to Holbrook Cemetery, New South Wales, Australia
Allan explained: “Cryonics is like you’re on a plane flying over the Alps and the captain comes in and says, ‘The engines have all failed, we’re going to crash in the next 15 minutes, but we have experiments on board.” parachutes, they have never been used but we think they will work, would you take the parachute? Well, that’s what cryo suspension is, it’s a parachute.’
So far, 50 Australians from all walks of life have paid $150,000 to secure a place at Southern Cryonics.
Southern Cryonics director Peter Tsolakides previously said ABC News that it costs $50,000 for the process administered immediately after death, which includes a chemical infusion and staff waiting to act at the time of expiration.
He said the remaining money covers the business’s costs and if there is any left over, it will be returned to the deceased person’s estate.
Another famous freezing site in America is the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona.
From the outside, it looks like any other warehouse. But inside it contains the frozen corpses of hundreds of patients.
It’s more expensive, it costs $200,000 for people to keep their entire body in a high-tech freezer, but there is an option to put just the brain on ice for a reduced price of $80,000.
The number of patients in Mid-Michigan has increased significantly, from about 600 in 2006 to nearly 1,975 in 2023.
Another famous freezing site in America is the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Arizona (photo)
The longest-serving patient, named Rhea Ettinger, has been there since 1977.
His son, Robert Ettinger, a World War II veteran and founder of the Cryonics Institute, is also in Arctic limbo, with his first and second wives.
The idea of life capable of reborn after being frozen for a period of time has largely been relegated to science fiction in scientific circles.
Dennis Kowalski, president of the Cryonics Institute in the United States, said Discover the magazine Future technological advances must address three challenges.
Repairing the damage caused by the frost, curing the disease that killed the subject, and reversing the aging process will all be necessary for the person to have a healthy body to enjoy their second chance at life.
Shannon Tessier, a cryobiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in the United States, said the freezing process alone is a permanent death sentence.
“There is absolutely no current way, no proven scientific way, to freeze an entire human being at that temperature without completely destroying — and I mean erasing — the tissue,” Ms. Tessier said.