Okay, this question is just for fun... any thinker's out there?

Question

A recent question made me think of this.

Have you ever heard of the concept of freezing people with a terminal illness and then bringing them back after the cure is found? I know it's more fiction than science, but for this question, presume it's possible.

If you are frozen for say... a decade. They find the cure, bring you back, and fix you up. Are you 10 years older? I mean physically and mentally you wouldn't have aged, right? But, your birth certificate would still be the same, so legally would you be 10 years older? If so, what if you were 16 when you were frozen. Technically, you'd be 26, but would you be allowed to drink, vote, etc.?

Now for the real deep thinkers... what would happen to your soul during that 10 years?

Look forward to seeing if there are really any GOOD answerers out there.

Impress me and I'll thumbs up 20 of your best answers, if you have that many.

Phew... thank you all for alot of good answers. You have renewed my faith a little in this whole Yahoo Answers thing!

BWjordan - I think you pegged the whole aging thing the best of all. No I don't think you could vote, drink, they'd have to come up with a law to handle this contingency for many of the reasons you describe. I'll thumbs up 10 of you best answers right away.

I am going to give Darksphyx, Katgum, and lil ol reborn honorable mentions with the soul comments. Very insightful and informative. I'll give you some thumbs ups too. (Lil ol reborn, um, 'fraid I'm gonna pass on the easter bonnet offer, but thanks!)

VeRDuGo - I liked your "soul" answer the best. Since it was the hardest to tackle, you get "best answer". Obviously, we'll never know for sure, but I think you're pretty close, for whatever that's worth. I know you said you didn't need the points, but you'll get them!

& ann k - yes, there have been many movies. I laughed at Austin Powers the most!

Answer 1

being a catholic and believing a spirit, an aura, a soul encompasses our body to make it whole and alive... my answer would just be the same as li'l ol reborn.

being frozen in time is no different in being asleep... once the body rest, so must the spirit... however, there were some "claims" that the spirit travels while the body is resting, like a de javu to most people who seem to have been familiar in a certain place yet hasn't really been there yet. the most common answer given by them was that their spirit traveled,while they were resting...

assuming, therefore, that the spirit travels while one is resting... then being frozen in time, a soul may have the possibility of leaving the body and traveling about... in this case, the question arises, are you asleep or half-dead? for we believe that the moment a spirit leaves its body, the body dies... same goes when you're frozen, if your soul leaves you're body, then you're dead.

the reason one hasn't aged when frozen is that your cell stops from circulating around, your mind stops thinking and your heart stops beating... like cutting of power in your house temporarily or defrosting your freezer, like a washing machine, temporarily stopping... therefore it follows the principle of hibernating or sleeping for a period but can be jumpstart at any time.

you may look as young as when were frozen, but the law follows it by the dot. anyway, the basis to be allowed to drink, drive, etc... is if you could produce lawful documents, then you would be allowed, no matter how young one has to look...

a clever conception of a question, thanks... hope my answers satisfy you... anyway, no need for the points. don't need them but imparting knowledge and wisdom is better, right?

Answer 2

Okies, I'll give it a shot.

Legally, if you were frozen at 16, you'd be 26 ... your birth certificate lists the day you were born as 26 years ago, so you'd be free to drink, vote, etc. Your drivers license and all records don't record what happened to you in that span of time, so you'd have to be allowed to be 26.

Physically, I'd think you'd be say, 21? If I remember correctly the Discovery channel program I saw awhile back, it said that while the cells were indeed frozen, they did age slightly. They brought that subject up to show that if you were frozen for 100 years, and say had some sort of cancer, the cancer would progress somewhat. I'm guessing at the age, perhaps it would only be a year or so of aging, since you were only frozen 10 years.

Mentally, I'd say that you'd age, not during the frozen time, but just after being brought back. Just the idea of waking up and finding everyone you love either dead or 10 years older, all your high school friends having careers and babies and you are still a child would be a big mental ager.

The soul? Well, that's the reason I'd hate to be frozen. I'd think that you'd miss out on a lot of living during that time, and that your soul would be somewhat lessened ... not sure that is the correct term, but it's good enough for here.

Answer 3

WOW !First of all, that probably the best question i've read in a LONG time. ( i am not suckin up so u'll give me thumbs up :-D) But here what i think. That the stuff about aging yea sure thats the way i would thin it would go but the soul thing, simply, it would be exactly as it was when u were frozen. I mean, u didn't do anythin bad, u didn't do anything good so it would be like somone paused u for 10 years, then played again and ur off, with the same soul. I guess that would be the disadvantage to relgious people gettin frozen, they're soul wouldn't learn the lesson it needs to. I hope that makes SOme sense to u cuz it made no sense to me :-D

Answer 4

Age starts the second you incarnate into this reality which is after the body completely leaves the womb and breathes. Now if a person is in a coma for 10 years the person still ages but also the body still shows a pulse/vitals, that means the soul is somewhat still present, if and when the person comes out of the coma, they are still considered to be the age they are suppose to be, but how do you monitor the pulse/vitals of a frozen body? Once you freeze someone they die, end of game right? Unless the souls purpose was to have that particular experience I would think the soul would have moved on to other experiences. Now I am aware of what are called minion incarnates, which are animated by the planetary soul, due to the over production of bodies, the purpose of the planetary soul is to animate other life forms, such as lower animals, insects,fish, germs, plants etc.. with out this process their would be a whole hell of lot still born babies, I would assume that if the body is still functioning after the 10 years, perhaps the planetary soul may have to animate that body, but it would not be the same personality.

Life on earth is an amazing but challenging game played by immortal energy beings

Answer 5

First of all yes, you would be legally old enough to drink. That doesn't take any deep thought to figure that one out.

Physically and mentally you would not have aged 10 years however when you get into the "new" world you would have to grow up fast. I would think that this would cause confussion. Confussion would cause you to go nuts.

An example of this is think of how everybody was just 10 years ago. This is before Bush and computers really took off. Heck this is before dvd's, ect. ect. With all these new things you would learn alot in a little time causing you to kind of like short circuit.

As for your spirit this is actually very deep and I don't think anybody could honestly figure this one out in even a day. I would guess that it is always awake. Just standing there doing nothing. See science is only just starting to see it. So how can they put it to sleep. I don't think they can. So to answer you question I would say that because it is trapped inside the living body it can not go anywhere. See when science is able to freeze us, they will have to let a small bit of us to still run.

In other words they can not truely ever put us totally to sleep. If they did we would die.

Answer 6

Cryogenics is not something stops time, but instead puts you into a VERY deep sleep - akin to hibernation, but in theory even deeper then that. Things would still be going on in your body, but at a super slow rate - barely enough to keep you alive. Your body would not age 10 years per say, perhaps only three or four years, depending on how slow it is. Mentally, you would not age at all. If you were 16 when you went in, coming out you would be a 26 years old officially, 20ish physically, 16ish mentally. Things such as voting, drinking and such go off your birth certificate, so there for you would be able to do all those things that any one 18+ could do. However, you would still have things to learn and catch up on, as you did not have those 10 years of experiences.
As for your soul, we would be in the same state as when we are asleep. We would probably have dreams, and our subconscious mind would be more active instead of our conscience minds.

Answer 7

This process if called cyronics. I would suspect your soul would stay in a state between worlds never descending or ascending into the afterlife. Your status on earth would depend on whether you mentally and physically matured during this time. For example, if you were frozen at 8 years old and brought back 10 years later at age 18, I doubt you would have reached puberty or be allowed to vote, smoke, enroll in the military, etc.

In the comic book world, this explanation was used to bring back Captain America a world war II hero. The would had changed a great deal in the time he was frozen. Image a person frozen in 1996 and brought back in 2006. They would not know about blogs or ipods and the availability of cell phones and widespread internet usage would be amazing. Also, they would never believe the Red Sox were world series champs.

Answer 8

I think if it was possible to freeze someone for 10 years, there would probably be a policy that their ID is renewed upon thawing, and their original age is put back on there, so they are the same age they were when they were frozen.

I think your soul would stay in your body, because you aren't dead during those ten years, or are you? Maybe you just dream during those ten years and wake up as if from a sleep. I don't think you would have a concept of time while frozen, so it would probably not feel like you've been asleep for so long.

Answer 9

I would think that they would adjust legal records so that you would still be considered 16. But also that probably wouldn't really matter because now you would be a project, which means you probably wouldn't have any kind of a normal life.

As for the soul. I'm thinking either the soul will be trapped for that time or the soul would be off doing things in other realms. Maybe the soul could be planning and learning for it's return. Or the soul might be really pissed off that it agreed to this procedure because it puts a hold on it's activities as a soul, whether in a physical realm or some other realm.

Answer 10

Your soul stays the same. You believe what you believe or not. For Christians, you do not loose salvation, because God says nothing can separate us from His love, and I believe that includes freezing temperatures.

Would they let you vote, yes, unless they had changed the laws during the 10 years you are frozen. If that was the case, then you may be considered legally 16.

Now I pose another question, would the state consider you legally dead for ten years or would you be considered in a coma? And if legally dead, would they give you back any of your rights or wealth?

Answer 11

Lets see... for cryogenic freezing you have to be technically dead so they freeze after all biological life signs have ceased. Since you are dead and not aging I suppose even though ten years have passed you haven't biologically aged and you would have a legal death cert so I guess when they unfreeze you you possibly get a rebirth cert. So given that I think you'd be the same age as when they made you a popsicle.

As for the soul, i suppose it would depend on your belief system. If you believe that death is the end you wake up the same as when they froze you. If you come from a belief system that dictates the soul leaves the body upon death then when you are brought back you wouldn't have a soul.