DENNIS Kowalski spends his days surrounded by dozens of bodies stored in a giant warehouse – and has spent thousands of pounds to eventually join them.
Alongside his wife and three children, the hopeful entrepreneur will one day be added to the sea of frozen corpses, who are all waiting to be brought back to life.
Cryonics Institute Dennis Kowalski is set to be placed in a cryo chamber when he dies and has spent his whole life trying to cheat death[/caption]
Cryonics InstituteBodies are placed in giant chambers full of liquid nitrogen with the hope of one day coming back to life[/caption]
Dennis, 55, says he has “nothing to lose” and has splashed £110,000 on freezing himself and his family when they die, in the hope they’ll someday be able to come back to life.
He is the president of Cryonics Institute where he has a warehouse full of complete frozen bodies, heads and even animals.
Cryonics Institute is an American foundation, based in Michigan, which specialises in all things cryonics – the practice of deep-freezing bodies in the hope future scientific advances may enable them to be revived.
It is just one of hundreds of such companies spread across the world, including in the UK, urging people to sign up to the hopeful process.
Despite the determined push to attract more people to enrol in the wacky treatment, no one has actually been able to revive a dead body yet.
Caters News AgencyDennis with his wife Maria who has also been signed up to be cryo-preserved[/caption]
Caters News AgencyDennis’ three sons Jacob, Danny and James have also agreed to be frozen[/caption]
‘A lottery ticket to immortality’
The Kowalski family – made up of Dennis, his wife Maria and their three sons Jacob, 25, Danny, 23, and James, 21, – are all set to be preserved in a vat of liquid nitrogen when they pass away.
The Wisconsin family are backing the world of cryogenics to develop in the decades to come and reach a point where supposed immortality is within reach.
Dennis told The Sun the reason why the family are all on board is because they feel they have “nothing to lose and everything to gain”.
He said: “My entire family is signed up and ready to take a chance at life extension.
“They believe in long, healthy and prosperous living so it was an easy decision for them.”
The controversial process of being cryo-preserved has been dubbed a “lottery ticket to immortality” by some hopeful minds.
The goal is for people with terminal illnesses to one day be woken up at a time when such diseases are curable – leading them to ultimately cheat death.
Currently, more than 264 frozen bodies are currently floating inside giant thermos bottles filled with liquid nitrogen across the globe.
In these chambers, the bodies are all attached to a stretcher and wrapped up in several layers of insulating material.
The bodies are kept upside down to protect the heads in case of a leak and to keep the brain as cold as possible.
Some of the morgues even have just heads inside the nitrogen vats which come in at a cheaper price than a full body conservation.
Others are storing away animals with many simply being beloved pets such as dogs, cats and even turtles.
While creatures such as endangered jaguars, eastern black rhinos, mountain chicken frogs, and Javan green magpies have been cryogenically frozen for specialised research purposes.
Elsewhere, the brain of a rabbit and kidneys of rats are also stored inside the nitrogen chambers.
Some of the corpses have been lying in situ for decades and are set to stay frozen potentially for centuries more until a solution is found to solve their health woes.
But the goal of cryo is still a long shot, with any chance of coming back to life still far from a guarantee.
Cryonics InstituteDennis preparing a cold tank so the corpse stays in perfect condition ready to be stored[/caption]
Cryonics Institute Hundreds of bodies, pets and even heads are stored inside the chambers[/caption]
Restoring life ‘wherever possible’
Founded in 1976, Dennis’ Cryonics Institute is the world’s leading cryogenic facility.
The entrepreneur and proud dad says the goal of the company is to “try to alleviate suffering and pain and to help restore life whenever possible”.
“I would give everything I had to bring back family friends and loved ones, even if the chance is small. So I think what I’m doing is fighting the good fight,” he added.
“You get can buried or cremated and we know what happens to those people – they won’t ever be repaired, rejuvenated, or reversed, back into a healthy age.
“The grave is your only real alternative and that’s complete oblivion.”
He hopes to one day “defeat man’s greatest enemy” which is how he describes death.
The team at Cryonics Institute currently have dozens of people in suspension – meaning they are inside chambers waiting to be revived.
Another 2,000 people have also signed up to the service to be rushed into the warehouse on the day of their deaths.
People have even paid for a team of stand-by technicians who are on alert for your eventual death.
Their job is to ensure your corpse is perfectly preserved from the moment you die to the point of being placed inside the Dewar vat.
This means they will be the first to know about a death and instantly launch protocols to keep the body fresh by rushing to the person’s side.
Despite the growing number of cryogenic hopefuls, Dennis isn’t satisfied with the number of people signed up.
He said: “I think our numbers are incredibly and woefully low as to what they should be.
“I think more people join crazy cults and are signed up for the Flat Earth Society, or chasing Bigfoot in the woods.”
There are more than 264 bodies currently frozen, with up to six bodies held per tank
Cryonics InstituteCryonics Institute is currently the world’s largest full body cryo providers[/caption]
An elaborate process
When a cryo warehouse receives a fresh corpse they immediately put the body in icy water to keep it cold.
The person is also given blood thinners to stop their blood from thickening and becoming impossible to reverse.
The body is then injected with a specially designed antifreeze which ends up stalling the blood flow.
It also protects the body’s cells from expanding and crystallising.
The final step sees those willing being placed onto stretchers and placed inside deep freeze chambers drowned in liquid nitrogen.
Here they lay still and untouched until a scientific breakthrough potentially helps them be revived.
The cost of the elaborate process varies from company to company with some offering it for as low as just £19,500 in the US.
Dennis paid just over £21,000 per family member when he arranged for their place of rest to be inside the frozen vat.
The price drastically increases across the Atlantic with German cryo branch Tomorrow.Bio selling the entire cryo-process for a whopping £165,000.
The company is the first cryonics lab in Europe with their co-founder Emil Kendziorra proudly saying they have frozen “three or four” people so far.
Another 700 have signed up, they say.
The cryogenic market is reportedly worth around £10billion.
And the figure is expected to continue to rise as science evolves and pushes more boundaries.
The UK doesn’t have its own cryonic storage facilities but they do have several companies who work with other nations to assist anyone from Britain wanting to be frozen.
Non-profit organisation Cryonics UK are the leading group, alongside Rowland Brothers.
How many people want to be frozen in time?
ACROSS the globe there are thought to be around 264 people in cryo-sleep waiting for the moment their body can be bought back to life.
Of these, over a hundred are stored in the US, with many others coming from Europe as well as every other continent other than Antarctica.
Arizona is currently the place with the most pets being stored in cryo chambers with over 30 owners keeping their pooches and cats preserved for life.
But around the globe the number of people and pets choosing to go down the route of cryo-preservation is steadily increasing.
Since the turn of the 21st century, thousands of hopefuls have put their names down to be stored in cryo-sleep.
As of December 2024, 2,255 people, pets and DNA samples have officially signed up to be cryo preserved after their deaths, according to Cryonics Institute figures.
The US makes up almost 1,400 of these with the UK equating for 128.
Of these, 1,991 are people, 269 pets and 365 DNA/tissue samples.
Among those sign ups include some pretty famous and rich faces.
Cryo companies have reportedly seen celebrities that include Elon Musk, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Larry King and Peter Thiel all agree to trust the process and be cryo-preserved when they die.
Legendary TV personality Simon Cowell has even flip-flopped with the idea since first hearing about it back in 2009.
It is still unclear if these celebrities have officially signed up.
Walt Disney was also at the heart of cryo related rumours for decades.
Dennis also revealed that both sign ups and enquiries have grown massively across the past 12 months.
‘Something from a sci-fi film’
Many leading neuroscientists have slammed the use of cryonics for selling impressionable people a false hope at an improbable second chance at life.
The idea of freezing a body until it can be brought back to life healthily is still impossible – leaving experts wary of it being advertised as possibility.
Cosmologist and astrophysicist Professor Martin Rees said cryonic enthusiasts are “ridiculous and not to be taken seriously”.
He also called it unethical and claimed any revived person would most likely come back as a “nuisance or a misfit”.
If you’re already dead there’s not much harm in trying – and you might as well take a risk.
Dennis Kowalski
Clive Coen, a professor of neuroscience at King’s College London, called for a ban on the marketing of preservation a few years back.
He said the idea of freezing a whole body is “ridiculous” and that storing a brain is “only slightly less ridiculous”.
Others described it as “crackpot science” and “something from a sci-fi film rather than real-life“.
Dennis understands people’s criticism of cryonics – but doesn’t agree with those who blast it as pointless and a waste of money and time, and encourages people to take the risk.
“If you’re already dead there’s not much harm in trying – and you might as well take a risk,” he said.
What is cryonics?
CRYONICS is the process of cooling bodies that cannot be kept alive medically to sub-zero temperatures in the hope they can be brought back to life in the future.
It is based on a theory that the brain can retain memory and personality while frozen and that one day scientists will able to successfully defrost and heal the bodies.
There is currently no way to resuscitate bodies that have been cryogenically frozen although some believe the technology will be developed in the future.
How does it work?
Once a person wishing to be cryogenically frozen has died, a preservation company is informed
The response team will then attempt to keep the person’s blood pumping in their body, injecting the body with chemicals and packing them in ice
At the cryonics facility, the body’s blood is removed with it replaced with organ preservation solution
The body’s blood vessels are then injected with a solution in an attempt to stop ice crystals forming in the body
The body is then cooled to -130C
The body is finally placed into a container of liquid nitrogen and kept at -196C
‘Brainwashing’ allegations
The controversial world of cryo hit the headlines almost a decade ago after the family of a dead 14-year-old Brit who was frozen accused cryogenic companies of “brainwashing” their daughter.
The girl’s loved ones felt betrayed by the organisations who they claimed pushed the Brit into agreeing to take part in the process.
The teenager requested to be taken to Cryonics Institute in the US shortly before she died from a rare form of cancer.
This left the family stuck in a legal dispute for months over what to do with the girl’s body.
Her father said: “It’s a nightmare. Even if the treatment is successful and she’s brought back in, 200 years, she may not find any relative and will be alone in the US.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the world of cryonics, it seems thousands are still willing to take the plunge – and only time will tell if it’s been worth it or not.
Cryonics InstituteThe lab where the body is prepared before being stored, potentially for centuries[/caption]
Cryonics InstituteDennis thinks more people should be signed up to cryo-preservation[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
