Chasing Immortality, A Chilling Reality: Why More And More People Plan To Freeze Their Brains, Bodies Upon Death

With life inevitably comes death, or does it?

What To Know: The series finale of HBO docuseries "How To with John Wilson" explored cryopreservation, the practice of freezing your brain or entire body upon death. 

According to a Business Insider report, it's not just the super rich who are interested in a potential rebirth in the future. Everyday people are increasingly seeking out the frozen fate and cryonics companies are making it a chilling reality.

The final episode of the series isn't about the ultra-wealthy who have plenty of extra money to throw at cryopreservation and think why not? Instead, it focuses on the average person seeking to be frozen when their time runs out. Wilson went to a 50th anniversary party for one of the cryonics companies and asked customers about their desires.

Some of them are interested in taking part in a potentially high-tech futuristic version of our current world. They want to see the progress that will be made years down the line. Others are in denial about death and push back against the idea that it's inescapable. 

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It's a lot more expensive than digging a six foot hole in the ground or firing up a cremation chamber. Alcor, a cryonics company featured in the episode, charges $80,000 to freeze one's head and $200,000 to have your entire body preserved. There are also annual membership fees on top of the base prices.

A majority of Alcor customers fund the expense by naming the company as the beneficiary of their life insurance policies. 

Alcor competitor Cryonics Institute offers similar methods for much cheaper. Full-body preservation is available for around $28,000. 

There's currently no technology that is capable of restoring life via frozen brain or body and if there were, it would be a controversial practice, going against many religious beliefs, but that's not stopping people from paying for the possibility or companies like Alcor and Cryonics Institute from profiting. 

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This illustration was generated using artificial intelligence via MidJourney.