Immortality, eternal life. Clear Arguments for the Existence of the Spiritual World

At all times, people were sure that they were given too little earthly life. This became the reason for an intensive search for methods that would help prolong life or even make a person immortal. Sometimes these methods were terrible and cruel, and it even came to cannibalism and sacrifice...

There is quite a lot of evidence in historical documents that such methods were used quite often. So, in particular, in the ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata” we are talking about the sap of some unknown tree, which could extend life by 10 thousand years. The ancient Greek chronicles spoke of the existence of a tree of life, which restored youth to a person.

Medieval alchemists in their works described research that was aimed at finding the so-called “philosopher’s stone”, which was capable of turning ordinary metals into real gold, and in addition, cured all diseases and bestowed immortality (a golden drink was allegedly prepared from it ). In the epics that existed in Rus', one can quite often find chanting of “living water,” which had the ability to resurrect a person from the dead.

In addition, the legend of the Holy Grail, that is, the Cup, which was carved from a solid emerald and had magical properties, is of great interest. According to one theory, the Grail emitted a magical glow and was capable of granting those who protected it immortality and eternal youth. The phrase Holy Grail itself has several interpretations: it is “royal blood” (that is, the blood of Jesus Christ), and “church chant,” and “ large vessel, in which water and wine were mixed."

Be that as it may, until now, neither the “philosopher’s stone”, nor the “tree of life”, nor “ living water", nor the "Holy Grail" were ever found. However, this does not stop enthusiasts, and the search for a miracle potion that grants immortality continues.

Note that some Scientific research were quite successful in terms of life extension. So, in particular, the Soviet doctor, Professor Alexander Bogdanov, in 1926, conducted experiments on rejuvenation. He made the assumption that if an elderly person is transfused with the blood of a young person, then his youth may return to him. The first test subject was himself, and the first studies he conducted were very successful. He transfused himself with the blood of a geophysics student. 11 completely successful transfusions were carried out, but the next one became fatal - the professor died. An autopsy showed that he had significant kidney damage, liver degeneration and heart enlargement. Thus, another attempt to regain youth ended in failure.

So does it really follow from this that immortality and eternal life are impossible to achieve?

The answer to this question is ambiguous, because despite the unsuccessful scientific medical research, in ordinary life there is completely opposite evidence that immortal life possible. So, for example, there are places on the planet where people live much longer than in other parts of the world. One of these places is a small settlement in Kabardino Balkaria, which is called Eltyubur. Here, almost one by one, the residents crossed the hundred-year mark. Giving birth to a child at the age of 50 is the norm for this area. According to local residents, the reason for their longevity lies in the water from the mountain spring and the air. But scientists are sure that the reason for the longevity of people in this area lies in something completely different - in genetics. natural selection based on the principle of longevity. Each generation passed on to the next the genes that were responsible for long life. According to other researchers, the reason lies in the mountains that surround the village on all sides. According to this theory, mountains are some kind of pyramids that have the ability to change physical properties objects and substances placed in them, thus contributing to the fact that these objects and substances are preserved much longer.

But no matter what theory turns out to be correct, the very fact of the existence of such places is unique.

In addition to such unique regions, there are also people who managed to achieve a kind of immortality. One of these people was the head of Buddhists in Russia, Khambo Lama Itigelov, who in his own way at will left the world. He assumed the lotus position and plunged into meditation, and then completely stopped showing any signs of life. His body was buried by his students, but 75 years later his grave was opened. It was the will of the deceased. When the experts saw the body, they were simply shocked, because the body looked as if the person had died and been buried just a few days ago. Full detailed examinations of the body were carried out, which caused even more shock. The body tissues looked as if they belonged to a completely living person, and with the help of special instruments it was established that his brain was active. This phenomenon in Buddhism is called “Damat”. A person can exist in such a state for many years, and it can be achieved by lowering body temperature to zero and slowing down metabolic processes in organism. Thus, scientists have proven that a decrease in body temperature by just two degrees leads to a slowdown in metabolic processes by more than half. In this case, the body’s resources will be spent less, and life expectancy will therefore increase.

Currently in modern science Active research is being conducted into the possibility of achieving eternal life. Moreover, certain results have already been achieved in this direction. Three areas are recognized as the most promising among these studies: genetics, stem cells and nanotechnology.

In addition, the science of immortality, or immortalology (this term was introduced by Dr. philosophical sciences Igor Vladimirovich Vishev) also has some areas under consideration, in particular, lowering body temperature, cryonics (freezing as a way to achieve immortality), transplantology, cloning (or the so-called change of the carrier of consciousness).

It is worth noting that in Japan, lowering body temperature is considered one of the main ways to achieve spring life. There, experiments were conducted on mice that proved that reducing body temperature by just a few degrees ultimately leads to an increase in life by about 15-20 percent. If body temperature is reduced by one degree, then a person’s lifespan can be increased by 30-40 years.

In addition, according to research, scientists have come to the conclusion that one of the means of rejuvenating the human body is also stem or pluripotent cells. The term itself was introduced in 1908 by A. Maksimov, who, after his experiments, came to the conclusion that throughout a person’s life, undifferentiated universal cells remain unchanged in his body, which are capable of transformation into any tissues and organs. Their formation occurs even at conception, and it is they that provide the basis for the development of the entire human body. Scientists have developed methods for reproducing pluripotent cells in the laboratory, and in addition, they have studied methods for growing various tissues and even organs from them.

These cells have the ability to stimulate cellular regeneration and repair almost all damage in the body. But this does not lead to a complete victory over aging, but can provide only a short-term rejuvenating effect. And the whole problem is that the main role in the aging process belongs to the changes that occur in the genome of each person.

Scientists have also found that in every human body there are so-called The biological clock, which measure life time. Such clocks are sections of DNA consisting of a repeating sequence of nucleotides that are located at the tops of chromosomes. These sections are called telomeres. Each time a cell divides, they become shorter. When they reach their limit small size, a mechanism begins to work in the cell, which ultimately leads to apoptosis, that is, programmed death.

Scientists have also found that the human body contains a special substance that can restore the length of telomeres, but the problem is that this substance is located in the cells of the fetus, and such experiments are prohibited almost all over the world. In addition, this enzyme is also found in cancerous tumor located in genitourinary system. Such cells are approved for use in experiments in the United States.

Scientists have established and very interesting fact: In cancer cells there is telomerase, a special enzyme that is responsible for the extension of telomeres. That is why cancer cells have the ability to divide an unlimited number of times due to the constant restoration of telomeres, and at the same time do not succumb to the aging process. If an imitation of telomorase is introduced into a completely healthy cell, then this cell will also have all the characteristics listed above, but at the same time, it will turn into cancer.

In addition, Chinese scientists have found that cell aging depends on other factors. Thus, in particular, they discovered the “P 16” gene, which is also responsible for the aging process. It is also able to have a certain effect on telomere growth.

Chinese scientists have proven that if the development of this gene is blocked, cells will not age and telomeres will not decrease. But at the moment the problem is that scientists do not yet know how to block genes. It is assumed that such an opportunity will appear with the development of nanotechnology.

It is worth noting that nanotechnology is a very promising direction scientific research that can provide people with unlimited opportunities. With their help, the creation of nanorobots that would have the same dimensions as biological molecules will become a reality. Scientists suggest that nanorobots, while in the human body, will have the ability to repair cell damage. They will not only stimulate cell regeneration, but also remove so-called toxins, that is harmful products, formed during the metabolic process, neutralize free radicals that have a detrimental effect on the body, and in addition, block or turn on certain genes. In this way, the human body will improve and eventually gain immortality. However, this is all a matter of the distant future. At present, there is only one way to preserve the body until science reaches the level to correct changes in the body that are associated with aging and various diseases. This method is cryonics, that is, freezing to a temperature of -196 degrees (this is the temperature liquid nitrogen). It is assumed that in this way the body will be protected from decomposition until such time as science becomes perfect.

Thus, we can say that research in the field of achieving immortality is being carried out very actively, and perhaps scientists will soon find a way to provide people with eternal life.

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The fear of disappearing without a trace has tormented people for many thousands of years. Each of us has at least once thought about what epitaph will be written on the gravestone, and about what good friends will remember at the funeral. I thought about it and got scared own thoughts. The Village begins a week of death and rebirth to tell readers about how humanity is trying to find a path to immortality, how doctors help hopeless patients, and how to get rid of the fear of death.

1. Six ways to achieve immortality

Cryonics

Freezing the body and brain is the most popular way to prepare yourself for eternal life. In the United States, 143 companies are engaged in cryogenic freezing, and the market size is estimated at $1 billion. The hypothesis that a person can be revived after being in a freezer appeared in the 18th century, but since then scientists have made little progress.

It is not yet possible to revive someone once frozen, but you can store a body for quite a long time - the standard contract is concluded with the relatives of the deceased for a hundred years. Perhaps in the twenty-second century there will be a breakthrough and the brain will be able to restore its functions after being frozen. After all, babies conceived using once frozen sperm are already born, and in 1995, biologist Yuri Pichugin was able to first freeze and then thaw parts of a rabbit’s brain without losing their biological activity.

Digitization of intelligence

Another way to preserve your brain and consciousness forever is to turn it into a combination of zeros and ones. Many researchers are working on this problem. Gordon Bell, a distinguished employee of Microsoft Research, for example, is working on the MyLifeBits project - trying to design his own digital avatar that will be able to communicate with his grandchildren and children after the death of the scientist. To do this, he has already digitized and systematized hundreds of thousands of photographs, letters and his own memories.

For ten years now, IBM has been studying the possibility of computer modeling of the neocortex, the main part of the human cerebral cortex responsible for conscious thinking. The project is still far from completion, but scientists have no doubt that as a result they will be able to create artificial intelligence - a powerful and intelligent supercomputer.

Cyborg

Artificial heart valves, pacemakers, modern prosthetics that work like real arms and legs - they receive and process brain signals - all this already exists today. The concept of “cyborg”, familiar to the average person from science fiction action films, was invented in the 60s by scientists Manfred Clynes and Nathaniel Klein. They studied the ability of some animals to recover from damage (for example, how lizards grow a new tail after losing an old one) and suggested that humans can also replace damaged parts of the body with the help of technology.

Scientists, as often happens, foresaw the future very accurately - technology already makes it possible to grow artificial organs and even print them on a 3D printer, however, it has not yet been possible to make such tissues work for a long time and reliably.

Nanorobots

Futurologists believe that by 2040 people will learn to become immortal. Nanotechnology will help, capable of creating microscopic repair machines for the body. Inventor Raymond Kurzweil paints a fantastic prospect: robots the size of a human cell will travel inside the body and repair all damage, saving the owner from disease and aging.

However, not such a fantastic picture, researchers from MIT are already using nanotechnology to bring cancer-killing cells to the epicenter of tumors. A similar experiment is being carried out at the University of London on mice - they can be cured of cancer.

Genetic Engineering

You can analyze the genome now, and for relatively little money - for a couple of tens of thousands of rubles. Another thing is that there is little sense in this. The technology is effective when doctors know what they are looking for - for example, a young couple is planning to have a child, but one of the parents has genetic abnormalities- there are tests that can reveal the same abnormalities in the fetus while still in the womb.

Genetics is developing, doctors and scientists are identifying more and more new genes responsible for certain diseases, and in the future they hope to learn how to rearrange the genome so as to save humanity from many terrible diseases.

Rebirth

At first glance, a non-scientific way to achieve immortality is to believe in the transmigration of the soul. Many religions - from Buddhism to the beliefs of North American Indians - convince that human souls acquire new life in new bodies, sometimes they move into their own descendants, sometimes into strangers, animals and even into plants and stones.

Sociologists and psychologists look at the problem differently. They prefer the term “collective intelligence” and since the 1980s they have been studying the process of accumulation and transmission of social knowledge, which leads to the fact that each subsequent generation of schoolchildren and students learns a more complex program, and the general level of IQ of humanity grows. Scientists suggest looking at the community of people as whole organism, and each individual is considered a cell. She may die, but the body will live forever, develop and get smarter. So it’s not all in vain.

Illustrations: Natalia Osipova, Katya Baklushina

Text

Ivan Min

Science has succeeded in amazingly many things - from developments in the field of virtual reality to space exploration, but one of the key questions for humanity - immortality or at least a significant increase in life expectancy - still remains open. Futurist Ivan Min discusses whether humanity will be able to defeat death, and if so, when and how.

Hydra (top)
Jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula (right)

There are several organisms on the planet whose life is potentially endless. The genus Hydra, for example, is distinguished by an unbending desire for permanent regeneration. One two hundredth of it can recreate the mother individual from scratch, and only a primitive single-celled entity stops it from world domination. The jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula can return to the beginning of its life cycle, grow up again and continue in a circle. Fortunately, natural predators and hunger intervene in the stalled reproduction process. Very soon, a person may also be in this company of the desperately alive, if, of course, the creature of the future will still be called that.

Immortality is a key fascination for humanity. For thousands of years the planet lived in a brew of religious systems, where main problem was a question formulated about eternity. The afterlife, the soul, the ghosts of ancestors, the wheel of samsara, rejuvenating apples, black magic, the Holy Grail - a person does not want to die for a long time and passionately. But with the change of the religious paradigm to scientific question about immortality moved into a more or less real direction. After the priests came scientists and engineers, embalming evolved into cryonics, alchemy was replaced by genetics, and God is calculated by artificial intelligence.

Today, at the forefront of scientific research appears a new branch of knowledge called life science. Longevity issues and the fight against incurable diseases- its main areas. At the forefront of the search for eternity are two major figures - visionary inventor Ray Kurzweil and Cambridge scientist Aubrey de Gray. Both loudly draw attention to the fact that the absence of death in the Universe is in no way connected with any fundamental physical laws. True, their approaches are somewhat different. Kurzweil gravitates towards a technological singularity, when a person will be able to live forever thanks to symbiosis with a machine. De Gray insists that death can be defeated by understanding and reversing old age. Behind their backs, both are often called either medieval charlatans, or they conduct superficial psychoanalysis, looking for branched phobias in the reluctance to die. At the same time, Kurzweil invented a bunch of everything: from a scanner to speech recognition programs, and now works as the chief engineer at Google in the field of creating artificial intelligence with the perception of the semantics of language, and Aubrey de Gray is one of the main scientists in the field of gerontology, studied genetics at the University of Cambridge and is now participates in the activities of several research institutes related to the study of aging.

Immortality today is a meta-startup, the intersection of new technologies and the bravest minds that make it through the first round of venture and intellectual investment

Aubrey Dee Gray

Dee Gray believes that some negative effects aging will very soon be preventable with the help of available therapies, and the 20-30 years gained as a result will be enough to invent new ones. Among them are treatment with telomerase, elimination of mutations in mitochondria, getting rid of extracellular debris, cleaning unnecessary cells and other processes that are understandable only to specialists. This vision is inspiredly presented by scientists in a popular TED lecture with the telling title “Aubrey de Gray believes aging can be avoided.”

Aubrey de Gray believes that aging
can be avoided

Ray Kurzweil

Ray Kurzweil's approach is more technocentric. First of all, he assumes that the development of nanotechnology will revolutionize medicine and allow the functioning of to the human body many times more effective. The years saved will allow those who thirst for immortality to wait for the moment when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. According to the futurologist’s calculations, this will happen closer to the middle of the century. Then technology will be able to overcome the biological boundary and allow for the integration of man and machine. The appearance of cyborgs or the possibility of transferring consciousness to physical media will then be in the order of things. As a successful inventor, Kurzweil is not averse to monetizing his vision of the future. He takes an active part in Singularity University, where he recruits adherents of the new era from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. For people of his age (65 years old), Ray, together with co-author Terry Grossman, founded a company selling elements necessary for a long life under the guise of Ray and Terry's Longevity Products. This enterprise is often accused of “vitamin homeopathy,” but Ray himself carefully fights off the accusations in pseudoscience and takes up to 80 different supplements a day.

Immortality today is a meta-startup, the intersection of new technologies and the bravest minds that go through the first round of venture and intellectual investment. Nanoclay is already restoring bones; biohacking and genetic engineering are developing as quickly as computing power; exoskeletons help the immobilized to find a body; quantum computers are joining the service of artificial intelligence; Body parts are already being printed on 3D printers; Average life expectancy is growing, and two thirds of the elderly population are reaching their full age now. It's time to theorize about what to do with eternal life, when there are already seven billion of us on the planet, and we continue to grow.

Breakthrough Prize
Foundation

research award
in life science

In February 2013, the giants of the present Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Arthur Levinson and Yuri Milner founded the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. As part of this initiative, they are going to annually award three million dollars to life science researchers for their contribution to the extension human life and for the fight against incurable diseases. Together with Kurzweil's Singularity University, Google's work on artificial intelligence, cybernetization, nanoindustry, a wave of biohacking and others - immortality is moving from the sphere of individual phobias to the field of industry. After the twentieth century, which exposed civilization’s inner beast of self-destruction and created weapons capable of clearing the planet of mind in a few minutes, eternal life is turning into a great humanistic project of humanity. The place of religious eschatology and mysticism is taken by an ambitious and clearly articulated science, which quietly whispers to those ready to listen: “Take care of yourself, friend, and wait, Christmas is coming.”

Photos: Bjklein/Wikipedia.org, Michael Lutch/Wikimediacommons,
null0/flickr.com, Gisela Giardino/flickr.com, via Shutterstock

People are just dirty bags of blood and bones who are completely unsuited to immortality. Everyone is aware of this: both ordinary stokers and billionaires. In 2016, he and his wife Priscilla Chan pledged $3 billion to implement a plan to cure all diseases by the end of the century. “By the end of this century, it will be quite normal for people to live to be 100 years old,” the naive Zuckerberg believes.

Of course, science has made a huge step forward, life expectancy has increased significantly. Although they consider it incorrectly, forgetting that in the old days infant mortality was very high, and that is why the numbers are so insignificantly small. But the money invested in scientific research is not the same at all. Longevity and potential is a particularly popular obsession among the rich and famous, who seem to be very embarrassed by the fact that someday they will have to give up this happiness.

Often the shapes are not important - let them be a pulsating can of canned food or a monkey's gonads.

And the whole problem is that human bodies, these sad, falling, failure-prone products of evolution are simply not designed to live forever. People throughout history have tried, but the junk body has always gotten in the way.

Throughout history, oligarchs, politicians and scientists interested in immortality have been haunted by the dream of living until the end of time. Below is summary the various approaches that have been adopted in the endless pursuit of eternal life.

Hack all diseases

Zuckerberg, along with his Silicon Valley friends Google and 23andme, created the Breakthrough Awards in 2012 to promote scientific innovations, including those aimed at extending life expectancy and fighting disease.

He created a foundation that will donate $3 billion over a decade to basic medical research. Some argue that this approach is not the most effective. The money will be spent on studying one specific disease, rather than trying to control several at once. That is, it will take ten years to completely eradicate, say, smallpox, while people will seek salvation from cancer.

There is another problem - time. The patient is aging, his condition is only getting worse, and the disease remains uncured. And aging itself is the most big factor risk for all these diseases that are getting out of control. The older you get, the more risks become apparent, because organs and systems inevitably wear out and break down.

It is important to remember that we are not just talking about a few billionaires who can afford the best, but about millions of people depending on their circumstances. So some centers are researching ways to stop aging at the enzyme level. One of the most promising is TOP, a kind of cellular signaling that tells a cell that it needs to either grow and divide or die. Scientists believe that manipulating this pathway could slow down this most natural of processes.

Biohacking also plans to take its place in the sun, despite debate over the ethical issue of how far people will go to change their genetic code. Scientists, for example, are still carefully studying CRISPR technology, which acts like a homing missile: it tracks a specific strand of DNA and then cuts and inserts a new strand in the old place. It can be used to change almost every aspect of DNA. In August, scientists used gene-editing technology for the first time on a human embryo to erase an inherited heart defect.

Fresh blood, foreign gland

Throughout human history, we have toyed with the idea of ​​filling the body with replaceable parts in order to cheat death. Take the same Sergei Voronov, a Russian scientist who, at the beginning of the 20th century, believed that the reproductive glands of animals contain the secret of prolonging life. In 1920, he tried this by taking a piece of a monkey’s gland and sewing it onto a human one (we’ll warn you right away: not his own, he didn’t like science that much).

There was no shortage of patients: about 300 people underwent the procedure, including one woman. The professor claimed that he had restored youth to 70-year-olds and extended their life to at least 140 years. In his book “Life. Exploring Recovery Methods vital energy and prolongation of life" he wrote: " Sex gland stimulates brain activity, muscle energy and love passions. It infuses vital fluid into the bloodstream, which restores the energy of all cells and spreads happiness.”

Voronov died in 1951, apparently having failed to rejuvenate himself.

Monkey testicles have fallen out of favor, but unlike Dr. Voronov, the idea of ​​collecting body parts is still very much alive.

For example, a lot is said about parabiosis - the process of blood transfusion from young man for the elderly to stop aging. Elderly mice were thus able to be rejuvenated. Moreover, in the 50s people conducted similar research, but for some reason they abandoned it. Apparently, the ancestors learned some terrible secret. For example, that this method can be pushed under the counter to very rich people. They love the blood of virgins and babies. As history goes, everyone from Emperor Caligula to Kevin Spacey loves young bodies.

Although, to be honest, experiments with transfusion were carried out on humans, but did not end very successfully. This didn't always work. For example, the science fiction writer, doctor and pioneer of cybernetics, Alexander Bogdanov, decided to add some fresh blood to himself in the 1920s. He naively believed that this would make him literally invulnerable. Alas, insufficient analysis, and the grave of the luminary is already being dug. It turned out that he had transfused himself with the blood of a malaria patient. Moreover, the donor survived, but the professor soon died.

Rethinking the soul

Humanity has been dreaming of immortality for so long that it has created four ways to achieve it:

1. Life-prolonging drugs and gene treatments discussed above.

2. Resurrection is an idea that has fascinated people throughout history. It began with the experiments of Luigi Galvani in the 18th century, who conducted electricity through the legs of a dead frog. We ended up with cryonics - the process of freezing the body with the hope that future medicine or technology will be able to defrost it more accurately than a microwave pizza from Magnit and restore health. Some folks in Silicon Valley are interested in new versions of cryonics, but they haven't paid as much attention to it yet.

3. The search for immortality through the soul, which did not lead to anything good. Only for wars. The body is a mortal, rotting shell. Only the soul is eternal, which will find immortality in the best of worlds. Or like Casper, at worst. But let's leave aside religious conversations. The soul, of course, is not a toy, but we are trying to write about science.

However, scientists have their own understanding of the soul. For them, it is not so much the ghostly essence of us associated with higher power, but also a more specific set of brain signatures, a code unique to us that can be cracked like any other.

Consider the modern soul as a unique neurosynaptic connection, integrating the brain and body through a complex electrochemical flow of neurotransmitters. Every person has one and they are all different. Can they be reduced to information, for example for replication or addition to other substrates? That is, can we get enough information about this brain-body map to replicate it in other devices, be they machines or cloned biological copies of your body?

– Marbelo Glaser, theoretical physicist, author and professor of natural philosophy, physics and astronomy at Dartmouth College –

In 2013, the independent biotechnology research company Calico began a project under cover of secrecy to explore the depths of the brain and search for the soul. Everything was very pretentious: thousands of experimental mice, the best technologies, press coverage - the world froze on the verge of discovery. And then it all somehow ended by itself. They looked for “biomarkers,” which are biochemicals whose levels predict death. But all they could do was earn money and invest it in drugs that could help fight diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Creating a Lasting Legacy

By the way, we said there were four ways, but we only wrote three. So, we’ll take the fourth one out separately. This is a legacy. For ancient civilizations, this meant creating monuments so that living relatives would repeat the name carved on the walls of the tomb for a very, very long time. A person is immortal as long as his name is written in books and pronounced by his descendants.

Today's heritage is different from the giant stone shrines, but the egos of the ancient and modern owners are quite comparable. The idea of ​​uploading consciousness to the cloud has moved from science fiction to science: Russian web tycoon Dmitry Itskov launched Initiative 2045 in 2011 - an experiment, or even an attempt, to make himself immortal over the next 30 years by creating a robot that can store a human personality .

Various scientists call this downloading, or transference of the mind. I prefer to call it personality transfer.

– Dmitry Itskov –

Immortal Planet

The worst thing about all these experiments, what makes them absolutely pointless for most, is the high cost. For the average white resident of a developed country with a good annual income, this will be unaffordable money.

This, in turn, may mean that we will have a class of near-immortal or cloud-like consciousnesses controlling people, walled up in a cage of terrifying analogue bodies. But crossing a person with a computer will give birth to new superhumans, thinkers, half people - half lines of code.

Kennedy said discovering these options depends on which research path is most effective. If aging is seen as a disease, then there is hope to live to see the long-awaited pill of immortality. As someone very smart said:

The challenge is to figure out how to improve your health and do it as quickly as possible. If with the help of drugs, this is achievable. If with the help of numerous young blood transfusions, this is less achievable.

Whether this will give rise to a super race of “destroyers”, impervious to torment, time and the limits of the flesh is unclear. For now, all fighters against mortality are frightened by the prospect of soon finding themselves in a wooden box and in a two-meter hole. But let them think better about the consequences, maybe mortality is better for all of us?

Since ancient times, people have tried to understand life and death in order to gain immortality. The desire to live forever was so great that it pushed people to do terrible things, such as sacrifices and even cannibalism.
But is eternal life really so unrealistic and unattainable?
There have been successful experiments in life extension throughout history.

So in 1926, one famous Soviet doctor and professor, Alexander Bogdanov, conducted an experiment on rejuvenation. He suggested that if the blood of a young man was transfused into an old man, his youth would return to him. He conducted his experiments on himself, and the first results were very successful. The professor exchanged blood with a geophysics student. There were 11 successful transfusions in total, the 12th was the last and fatal for the professor. An autopsy showed kidney damage, liver degeneration and heart enlargement.
The next attempts to gain eternal life ended fatally.

There are people for whom the aging process occurs much faster than others. This pathology is caused by a very rare genetic disease- Bardel's or "Proderei" syndrome. People with this condition can age literally overnight.
American scientists have proven that life can still be extended for a very long time. They conducted an experiment on fruit flies, leaving only the offspring of the oldest flies, and the offspring of the young ones were destroyed. Over the course of several years, hundreds of generations have changed, as a result, the life expectancy of such flies has increased 3 times.
But you can’t conduct such an experiment on people.

There are places on earth where people live much longer than others.
One of these places is the village of Eltyubyur in Kabardino-Balkaria. In this force, almost every second person has crossed the 100-year mark. Getting pregnant at 50 is considered normal here. Locals believe that the reason for their longevity is the air and water from the mountain stream. However, the researchers of this place believe that the reason for longevity lies in natural genetic selection on the principle of longevity. Genes responsible for long life have been passed down from generation to generation.
Others believe that it’s all about the mountains that surround the village on all sides, and the mountains are like pyramids, which, according to some scientists, are capable of changing the physical properties of the substances placed in them, contributing to their longer preservation.
But, one way or another, the very fact of the existence of such places is unique.
In addition to such unique places, there are also unique people who have achieved immortality.

One of these people is the head of Russian Buddhists, Khambo Lama Itigelov. He left the world of his own free will. The Lama sat in the lotus position and began to meditate, and then stopped showing signs of life. His disciples buried the body, and after 75 years, according to the lama’s will, his grave was opened. Seeing the body, the specialist pathologists who were present at the exhumation were simply stunned. The body looked as if it had only been in the grave for a few days. A more detailed study of the monk’s body surprised scientists even more; his tissues looked as if they belonged to a living person, and special instruments recorded brain activity. Similar phenomenon Scientists have encountered this state more than once; Buddhists call this state of the body “Damat.” With Damat you can survive for years, this is achieved by reducing body temperature to almost zero, and as a result, a decrease in metabolism. Scientists have proven that if you lower your body temperature by just 2 degrees, your metabolic rate will halve. This means that the consumption of the body’s resources will decrease, and life expectancy will increase.

Today, the mechanism of aging has already been studied. Responsible for aging special part chromosomes are “telomeres”. And this telomere has the property of decreasing during cell division.
But in our body there is a special substance that can restore the length of the telomere, this is an enzyme - telomerate. But the main problem is that this enzyme is located in the cells of the developing fetus, and it is prohibited to experiment with such cells in almost all countries.
But a way out was found. The enzyme telomerate is found not only in embryonic cells, but also in cancerous tumors - “Teratoma”, which develops in the ovaries of women and the testes of men. And it is precisely these cells that are allowed to be experimented with in the USA.
Research continues, and the time is not far when a way to prolong a person’s life will be found.

edited news katerina.prida85 - 16-01-2012, 14:04

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