Читать книгу Aging - Harry R. Moody - Страница 109

S. Jay Olshansky

Some 1,700 years ago the famous Chinese alchemist, Ko Hung, became the prophet of his day by resurrecting an even more ancient but always popular cult, Hsien, devoted to the idea that physical immortality is within our grasp.

Ko Hung believed that animals could be changed from one species to another (the origin of evolutionary thought), that lead could be transformed into gold (the origin of alchemy), and that mortal humans can achieve physical immortality by adopting dietary practices not far different from today’s ever-popular life-extending practice of caloric restriction.

He found arrogant and dogmatic the prevailing attitude that death was inevitable and immortality impossible.

Ko Hung died at the age of 60 in 343 AD, which was a ripe old age for his time, but Hsien apparently didn’t work well for him.

The famous 13^th Century English philosopher and scientist, Roger Bacon, also believed there was no fixed limit to life and that physical immortality could be achieved by adopting the “Secret Arts of The Past.” Let’s refer to Bacon’s theory as SATP.

According to Bacon, declines in the human lifespan occurred since the time of the ancient patriarchs because of the acquisition of increasingly more decadent and unhealthy lifestyles.

All that was needed to reacquire physical immortality, or at least much longer lives, was to adopt SATP—which at the time was a lifestyle based on moderation and the ingestion of substances such as gold, pearl, and coral—all thought to replenish the innate moisture or vital substance alleged to be associated with aging and death.

Bacon died in 1292 in Oxford at the age of 78, which was a ripe old age for his time, but SATP apparently didn’t work well for him either.

Physical immortality is seductive. The ancient Hindus sought it, the Greek physician Galen from the 2^nd Century AD and the Arabic philosopher/physician Avicenna from the 11^th Century AD believed in it.

Alexander the Great roamed the world searching for it, Ponce de Leon discovered Florida in his quest for the fountain of youth, and countless stories of immortality have permeated the literature, including the image of Shangri-La portrayed in James Hilton’s book Lost Horizon, or in the quest for the holy grail in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

What do the ancient purveyors of physical immortality all have in common? They are all dead.