It always seemed to a person that the period of his life allotted was too short. Many tried to fix the matter, looked for means to prolong life, or even make it endless. Some have almost succeeded ...
"Mahabharata" - the epic of Ancient India - tells about the sap of some mysterious tree, which prolongs a person's life up to ten thousand years. But where exactly one should have looked for him remained a mystery. Ancient Greek historians also knew about the "tree of life", however, they already argued that it was not juice, but the fruits of some overseas tree, capable of returning youth to a person, but not giving immortality. Russian epics glorify "living water", the source of which was located in the middle of the ocean on the island of Buyan. But no one has ever found either the "tree of life" or the source of "living water".
Nevertheless, the search for the means of eternal life continued. When Christopher Columbus discovered unknown new lands in the West in the Atlantic Ocean, hopes of finally finding the source of immortality were transferred there. Some even believed that it had already been found, and gave the exact coordinates. Thus, the Italian humanist Pedro Martyr, a close acquaintance of Columbus, wrote to Pope Leo X:
“To the north of Hispaniola, between the other islands, there is one island at a distance of three hundred and twenty miles from it, as those who found it say. An inexhaustible spring of running water of such a wonderful quality beats on the island that an old man who begins to drink it, while observing a certain diet, after a while will turn into a young man. I implore your Holiness, do not think that I would say this out of frivolity or at random: this rumor really took root at court as an undoubted truth, and not only the common people, but many of those who stand above the crowd in their intelligence or wealth, too believe him. "
It is unknown how many expeditions have gone in search of the mysterious island with its magical source. It is only known that as a result of one of such expeditions America was once again discovered: a noble Spanish nobleman in search of "living water" reached the New World and, believing that there was another island in front of him, he christened the land Florida ("blossoming"). But he still did not find immortality.
But today it is no longer from fairy tales, but from the results of scientific research that water really affects the life expectancy and health of people. The human body is seventy percent water, and he is not at all indifferent to what kind of water feeds his tissues. The inhabitants of some Caribbean islands look much younger than their European peers and explain this phenomenon in a rather casual way:
On our island, water flows from springs that rejuvenates a person.
Residents of the central regions of Sri Lanka have excellent health and also look younger than their age - due to the climate and water from mountain springs. Many highlanders surprise with their longevity and excellent physical condition. So the search for the elixir of immortality is not so hopeless as it might seem. Man, naturally, will not cease to be mortal, but he is quite capable of living twice as long as he lives now. In any case, our skeleton has a "safety margin" for one hundred and twenty years of active (!) Life, so there is clearly an unused natural reserve.
But back to the search for the elixir of immortality. In addition to the magic water, there were many "man-made" recipes. Only those have reached us that clearly did not give the desired result. For if someone ever managed to create such an elixir, its recipe, of course, was kept in the deepest secret. How do you like this tool:
"You need to take a toad that has lived for ten thousand years and a bat that has lived for a thousand years, dry them in the shade, pound them into powder and take them."
Everything would be fine, but how can you find out the date of their birth from cute animals? The recipe doesn't say that.
In general, information about the success that people have achieved in their search for immortality is scattered and unconvincing. It is known more or less reliably about two people who died already in our century, having lived a very long life. This is a Chinese man who died in 1936 at the age of ... 246 years (according to official documents), and an Indian who died in 1956 at the age of 186. The Indian at the age of fifty retired to the Himalayas, where he took up yoga. Apparently, a combination of special exercises, diet and some other means allowed him to significantly lengthen his life span. You can believe these two facts, you can not believe, but for all the fantastic nature of such phenomena, we are not talking about immortality. And the search for him did not stop and does not stop: there are always people who are ready to devote years, decades, all their lives to them ...
One of these people was Alexander Cagliostro. In addition to the mystery of his origin and the unknown source of enormous wealth, Count Cagliostro had an exciting secret:
"They say, - wrote one of his contemporaries. - Cagliostro discovered the secret of preparing the elixir of life. His young-looking and charming wife is over forty years old, and, according to her, the count has the secret of returning youth. "
This mysterious man also visited Russia. In St. Petersburg, his appearance made a splash. And the story of the failed duel with the court physician Roberts added a new shine to his name. Irritated by Roberts' attempts to blacken him in the eyes of the court, Cagliostro offered him an original duel - "on poisons." Both rivals had to drink the poison prepared by the other, and then take any antidote. The count insisted, but the frightened healer flatly refused: too persistent rumors that Cagliostro possessed the secret of the elixir of immortality circulated around the capital.
Alas, these were just rumors. Cagliostro was captured by the Inquisition and died in its dungeons. All his personal papers were burned, and by a miracle only a copy of one note taken in the Vatican survived. It describes the process of "regeneration", or the return of youth:
“Having taken two grains of the drug, a person loses consciousness and speechlessness for three whole days, during which he often experiences fits of convulsions and convulsions, and sweat appears on his body. Having woken up from this state, in which, however, he does not feel the slightest pain, on the thirty-sixth day he must take the third and last grain, after which he falls into a deep and restful sleep. During sleep, the skin slips from it, teeth and hair fall out. They all grow back within a few hours. In the morning of the fortieth day, the patient leaves the room, becoming a new person, experiencing complete rejuvenation. "
Everything would be fine, but the recipe for the drug has not survived. And - was he at all?
In the interrogation protocols of Cagliostro, interesting information has been preserved about another mysterious person - Count Saint-Germain. Cagliostro claimed to have seen a vessel in which the Count keeps ... the elixir of immortality. They did not believe him: Count Saint-Germain died ten years before the death of Cagliostro himself, in 1784. But then strange things began to happen.
The Count appeared in Paris in 1750, lacking not only a past, but even any plausible history of it. However, he preferred not to talk about himself at all, only sometimes - either on purpose, or by chance - he let slip about his conversations with Plato or Seneca or one of the apostles. Of course, they did not believe him too much, but ... When someone asked the coachman, the count, was it true that his master was four hundred years old, he answered innocently:
I do not know exactly. But in the one hundred and thirty years that I have served my master, his lordship has not changed in the least.
Of course, the coachman could have been taught. But how can one explain the fact that elderly aristocrats in the best houses recognized in Saint-Germain a man who had visited the salons of their grandmothers half a century ago? Moreover, the elderly matrons swore that he had not changed a bit during this time. Moreover, if we compare the descriptions of people who knew the count well at different times, it turns out that he was seen in England, knew in Holland, remembered in Italy. He changed names and titles - Marquis of Montfer, Comte de Bellamy and a dozen others. And just as suddenly as he appeared, the Comte Saint-Germain disappeared from Paris and arose in Holstein. From there came the news of his death. But not one of the tombstones around his castle bears the name of Saint-Germain. But it is on the list of Francomason, whose meeting took place in Paris a year after the "death" of Saint-Germain. It is reliably known that three years later the French envoy saw the count in Venice, and not only saw, but also talked with him for a long time. And two years later, Saint-Germain ended up in one of the prisons where the revolutionaries kept aristocrats. Then his traces were lost. Died on the guillotine, like many in those years? It turned out not.
Thirty years after the "imaginary death" of the count, on the sidelines of the Congress of Vienna, he was met by an old, kind acquaintance - Madame de Jeanlis. He did not change at all, but tried not to delay the unexpected meeting, and the next day he disappeared from Vienna as mysteriously as he had from Paris. Fifteen years later, when almost no one who knew Saint-Germain personally survived, the count reappeared in Paris under the name of Major Fraser. He posed as an Englishman, had unlimited funds of unknown origin, but lived in a rather closed manner. He was identified by one elderly dignitary who miraculously survived the revolution, exile and everything connected with them. I recognized it, but unlike Madame de Jeanlis did not share this discovery with anyone, but tried to get closer to "Major Fraser", since the years had changed him beyond recognition.
The acquaintance took place, and the dignitary gradually learned that his interlocutor was well aware of everything that happened at the French court ... two hundred years ago. He spoke with such details that could not be read anywhere. Even when he spoke about very distant times and distant countries, one got the impression that he was really there and then. The old dignitary could not stand it, let slip that at one time he met with such a person as the great Saint Germain. His interlocutor just shrugged his shoulders and started talking about something else, but ... the next day he disappeared from Paris.
Then he was allegedly seen there already in the mid-thirties of our century. But since there was no one personally acquainted with the count, these messages can hardly be considered reliable. Although if we take as an axiom that he really invented the elixir of immortality, then his behavior seems to be quite logical. Wanting to keep his secret, he had to either move from place to place and change names, or fake his death and continue to live under a different name. Otherwise, he would not have had peace from those thirsting to penetrate into his secret.
By the way, there is another person who has achieved immortality, but not with the help of the elixir, but in a completely different way. According to legend, when Jesus Christ was led to the place of execution, he wanted to lean against the wall of one of the houses for a minute to rest. But the owner of the house would not let him.
Go, go! There is nothing to rest, ”he allegedly shouted.
Christ unclenched his parched lips:
Okay. But you, too, will walk your whole life. You will wander forever, and you will never have peace or death ...
The owner of the house was called Agasfer. But he is better known under the nickname "The Eternal Jew", and there are several curious testimonies about his future fate. In 1223 he was met at the Spanish court by the Italian astrologer Guido Bonnati. Five years later, he is mentioned in one of the papers of the English abbey, which was visited by the Archbishop of Armenia. The archbishop, according to him, was personally acquainted with Ahasfer, had several conversations with him and was absolutely sure that it was this person who had been cursed by Christ. In 1242, Hagasfer appeared in France and then disappeared for two and a half centuries.
In 1505 he was seen in Bohemia, and in 1547 in Hamburg. There Bishop Paul von Eitheen met with him, who in his notes mentions that this man spoke all languages without the slightest accent, led a closed and ascetic lifestyle, had no property. If he was given money, he immediately distributed it to the poor. In 1575, Agasfer appeared in Spain, in 1599 - in Vienna. From there he intended to travel to Poland and then to Moscow. And there is vague evidence that he really visited Moscow and spoke with someone. But his appearance in the German city of Lubeck in 1603 is attested more than documentarily - an entry in the city chronicle made by the burgomaster, historian and theologian in Latin:
"Last year on January 14, a famous immortal Jew appeared in Lubeck, whom Christ, going to crucifixion, doomed to redemption."
Mentions of this mysterious person were found at a later time. The latter is dated 1830. You can believe it, you can reject it. Or you can take the point of view of one medieval doctor who wrote:
"There is nothing that could save the mortal body from death, but there is something that can postpone death, return youth and prolong a short human life."
Modern science is also looking for the elixir of immortality. But, first of all, scientists have established that a human cell has a strictly defined lifespan - 50 divisions. The only difference is how quickly this process takes place. For some it takes sixty years, for others it takes more than a hundred. But after that, the cell dies, and all attempts by scientists to increase the number of divisions were unsuccessful. And the experimenters chose a different path - cell rejuvenation. Some manage to achieve a positive effect, but no one has yet found the elixir. Although there are interesting results of experiments on mice.
The introduction of industrial preservatives into the mouse organism, those that prevent the deterioration of the oil, lengthened the life of the animals by almost one and a half times. Reducing their diet by a third lengthened their life in half. And a special diet generally rejuvenated the tailed: two-year-old individuals, that is, old people, began to behave like three-month-old youths. However, everyone knows that you need to eat right. Although not everyone does it ... for some reason. And even so, a person is arranged that he prefers to dream of a miraculous drug of instant action: he slammed a glass - and again he is healthy and young.
But in fact, if someone had achieved immortality, then sooner or later he would have to ask himself the question - why live an endless life? Even the most refined pleasures become boring, even the most favorite activities can get bored. Yes, and you can refuse immortality itself, as the wisest of the wise - King Solomon did, according to legend. When he was offered the elixir of immortality, he refused to accept it, because he did not want to outlive those who were close to him and whom he loved ...
There is also such a view of immortality.
"... I accidentally learned this unusual story that has taken place in Syria today from Alexander Loginov, who is in his fifth year as a novice in the Greek monastery of Philotheus on Mount Athos. An Orthodox physician, Greek by nationality, a pathologist he worked in a medical commission established at the UN. He met with the elders of the monastery. According to this physician, the commission was investigating a unique case - literally raising a man from the dead. Initially, the examination of the victim was carried out in Damascus by local doctors, and then they got involved US military doctors. The American side eventually concluded that what happened was a consequence of "UFO interference" and classified this information. "And our people crossed themselves and said:" And thank God! " - said Alexander ...
The story is as follows. The one about whom, in fact, we are talking - a certain Sh.D. - was a wealthy Arab sheikh from Saudi Arabia. And his wife was a devout Muslim from a wealthy noble family. This Arabian family could be called happy if ... they had children. Years passed and, despite all the efforts and significant medical expenses and treatment from all kinds of luminaries, they remained childless. The man's parents advised him to marry another woman, since the local law allows up to four marriages at the same time.
Tired, worried and lost hope, the man did not take the advice of his parents, but went on vacation with his wife to Syria. Arriving there, they rented a car with a driver to accompany them as a tour guide in Syria. During the trip, the driver noticed that the Saudi couple were upset and worried about something. And, since they managed to get close, he asked why they were unhappy, maybe because they were not happy with how he conducts excursions?
And the couple spoke of their misfortune. Being also a Muslim, the driver said that in Syria, Christians - and precisely among Orthodox Christians - have a Panaghia Saidnaya monastery (the name consists of a Greek word meaning "Most Holy" and one Arabic word - "Our Lady"), and that many people who cannot have children, go to the life-giving icon of this monastery. In the monastery they are given to taste the oils from the lamp burning in front of the life-giving icon of the Mother of God, and the "Mary" of Christians gives them what they desire - according to their faith.
Encouraged by what they learned, the spouses from Saudi Arabia asked the driver to take them to the monastery "Saidnaya" - "Lady of the Christians", promising that if they had a child, they would give him $ 20,000, and donate 80,000 to the monastery. dollars.
Going to the monastery, they did exactly as they were told. Then they returned home, and after some time the woman became pregnant, and after the due date gave birth to a wonderful boy. This was a true miracle of our Most Holy Theotokos.
After his wife gave birth, the Saudi Arabian man returned to Syria to fulfill his promise. He called the driver and asked to pick him up from the airport in Damascus. But the chauffeur, being cunning and evil, persuaded two of his friends to go with him to the airport in order to kidnap a rich man from Saudi Arabia, take his money and kill him. On the way, the man promised each of the driver's friends $ 10,000.
This seemed to them not enough, they turned off the road leading to the monastery, into a deserted place, where they killed him, cut off his head and chopped the whole body (arms and legs) to pieces. Out of their minds from what they had done, they put the remains of the man in the trunk of the car, instead of leaving them there. After they took his money, watch and everything that he had, we went to look for another deserted place so that we could leave the remains.
On one of the national highways, the car suddenly stalled, and they stopped in the middle of the road. All three went out to see what had happened to the engine. A passerby stopped to help them, but they refused help, fearing that their terrible crime would be solved. The motorcyclist noticed that blood was dripping from the trunk of the car and called the police, as the whole scene and those three seemed suspicious to him. The police came and, seeing blood under the car and on the asphalt, ordered to open the trunk.
And when they opened it, the Saudi man suddenly got to his feet - alive and well, saying, "Right now, this Panaghia has finished sewing up my neck, right here (and showed them the Adam's apple zone) after sewing up the rest of my body." Seeing this, the three criminals immediately lost their minds - literally went crazy. The police handcuffed them, and on the way to the psychiatric hospital, they did not stop screaming: it cannot be that the man they killed - by decapitating and cutting him into pieces - survived.
The man underwent an examination in the hospital, and doctors confirmed that the stitches were indeed recently applied. The seams really were, and they can be seen now. When the man got out of the trunk of the car, being literally molded again, he never stopped repeating that Panaghia restored his body and revived with the help of His Son.
Immediately after that, the man summoned his relatives to Syria, and together they went to the Panaghiei Saidnaya monastery, offering praise, glory and prayers, and instead of the originally promised amount of $ 80,000, they donated $ 800,000 to the Mother of God Monastery. Upon learning of what had happened, the shocked relatives and friends of this man converted from Islam to the Orthodox faith.
... In addition to the story of the physician we have already mentioned, who visited the Philotheus monastery, the news of the miracle of the Mother of God in Syria was recently sent to the Athonite monasteries by the elder Schema-Archimandrite Ephraim from the Greek monastery of St. Anthony the Great in Arizona (USA), a disciple and companion of Elder Joseph the Hesychast. formerly the abbot of the Philotheus monastery. Schiarchimandrite Ephraim, who organized and nurtured 21 Orthodox monasteries in North America, writes that he first learned about this from Abbot Ignatius, the governor of an Orthodox Greek monastery in Bethlehem.
At the same time, there is no documentary evidence of the authenticity of the Syrian miracle from official (Christian or Islamic) sources. In messages posted on Arab Internet forums, a link is given to the program aired on the first Syrian TV channel.
And further. The famous Serbian theologian, Vladyka Athanasius (Evtich), spoke about this miraculous incident when he spoke to the inhabitants of the Sretensky Monastery and at the "Church and Eschatology" conference in Moscow. Vladyka Athanasius was in Syria and heard this story from the local bishop.
... We will only add that the ancient miraculous image of the Most Holy Theotokos, written by the apostle-evangelist Luke in the 1st century AD, is really kept in the Sydnai women's monastery near Damascus. And a variety of people through their prayers receive healings from him - this is also documented. "
8 462
The human body is 70 percent water. It is not for nothing that one famous biologist figuratively called living things "animate water". Obviously, for the health and longevity of a person, it is not indifferent what kind of water nourishes the tissues of his body. Indeed, in recent years it has become known that water differs significantly not only in chemical impurities, but also in isotopic composition and other features. Many properties of water change, for example, if it is passed between the poles of a magnet. Water can be more biologically active, and this affects the aging process of the body. But we still do not know much about the properties of water - an important component of our body.
In any case, today it is no longer vague legends and not ancient legends, but scientific research that speaks of the influence of water on the health and life expectancy of inhabitants of different regions of the Earth.
It is known that the inhabitants of some islands of the Caribbean, for example the island of Guadeloupe, look much younger than their European peers. When they are asked how they manage to maintain their youth for a long time, the answer usually follows: "On our island there is such water flowing from the springs that rejuvenates a person ..." The inhabitants of the central regions of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) are also distinguished by excellent health. The people of Sri Lanka consider the climate and water of mountain springs to be the reason for their health. Apparently, it was no coincidence that the ancients tried to look for life-giving water on this island.
Some scientists also associate the longevity of the highlanders and a number of peoples of the North with the water they drink. This is the so-called "melt water effect", which has a beneficial effect on the metabolism and thus, as it were, "rejuvenates" the body.
Today, searches are no longer carried out on distant islands or in unknown lands. They are carried out in dozens of laboratories of the largest scientific centers in the world, studying the properties of water and its effect on the human body.
People who were extremely anxious to lengthen their lives as long as possible were mostly endowed with wealth and power. They were looking for the shortest path. And such a path seemed to exist. The most ancient traditions and legends mentioned him - it is the "elixir of immortality" that the gods ate. It was called differently in different countries. The gods of the ancient Greeks used ambrosia, which gave eternal life, the Indian gods - amrita, the gods of the Iranians - haoma. And only the gods of Ancient Egypt, showing majestic modesty, preferred the other food of the gods - water. True, all the same water of immortality.
No one from people came to the elixir of immortality as close as alchemists, who were looking, however, for something completely different - the way of making gold. There was a well-known logic in this. Immortality is a state that is not subject to change. Isn't gold the only substance that is not subject to external influences? It is not afraid of either alkalis or acids, it is not afraid of corrosion. It seemed that time itself was powerless in front of him. Does this metal contain some element that makes it so? And is it possible to isolate this substance from it or bring it into the human body along with gold? "Whoever takes gold inside," says one ancient oriental text, "he will live as long as gold." This is the traditional basis of ancient beliefs: eat the eyes of an eagle - you will be like an eagle, eat the heart of a lion - you will be strong like a lion ...
Gold was an indispensable component of various versions of the elixir of immortality. A recipe has come down to us, compiled by the personal physician of Pope Boniface VIII: it is necessary to mix in crushed form gold, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, topaz, white and red corals, ivory, sandalwood, deer heart, aloe root, musk and amber. (We hope that prudence will keep readers from being too hasty about the composition given here.)
Not much simpler was another composition, which can be found in one ancient oriental book: "You need to take a toad that lived for 10,000 years, and a bat that lived for 1000 years, dry them in the shade, crush them into powder and take."
And here is a recipe from an ancient Persian text: “You need to take a person, red-haired and freckled, and feed him with fruits until he is 30, then lower him into a stone vessel with honey and other compounds, put this vessel in hoops and seal it hermetically. In 120 years, his body will turn into a mummy. " Thereafter, the contents of the vessel, including what became the mummy, could be taken as a curative and life-prolonging agent.
The delusions that sprout in every area of human activity have brought a particularly bountiful harvest in this area. Mention may be made in this connection of a French scholar of the fifteenth century. In search of a vital elixir, he boiled 2,000 eggs, separated the whites from the yolks and, mixing them with water, repeatedly distilled them, hoping in this way to extract the desired substance of life.
The obvious senselessness of such recipes does not yet testify to the senselessness of the search itself. Only what was discarded as unnecessary became known. But if we judge the history of a particular science only by unsuccessful experiments and failed discoveries, the picture will probably be about the same.
Experiments in the field of immortality were distinguished by one circumstance - the complete mystery that surrounded the results. If we imagine that some of these attempts ended successfully, that is, someone managed to lengthen their life somewhat, then, naturally, everything was done so that this recipe did not become anyone's property. If, after taking the drug, the object of the experiment gave up his life, all the more, he could no longer tell anyone about his sad fate. Such a fate befell, for example, the Chinese emperor Xuanzong (713-756). He went to his royal ancestors much earlier than the due date only because he had the imprudence to accept the elixir of immortality, made by his court doctor.
Among the few we know that, having taken the elixir, they considered themselves immortal, there was one rich gentleman-philanthropist who lived in Moscow in the last century, whom everyone called simply by his first name and patronymic - Andrei Borisovich. Towards old age, he began to indulge in various studies related to the elixir of eternal life, guided mainly by his own intuition. And since a person is inclined to trust himself more than any other authority, it is not surprising that soon Andrei Borisovich was fully confident that he had finally found the desired composition. Like many other seekers of the elixir of immortality, he chose to keep his discovery a secret. He himself believed in the effect of the composition so much that he really felt rejuvenated, even began to go to dances ... Until his last minute, he had no doubts about his own immortality.
This incident is reminiscent of the story of another Russian master who lived at about the same time and also believed in his own immortality. Even in his youth, being once in Paris, he visited the famous fortuneteller Lenormand. Having told him all the pleasant and unpleasant that awaits him in the future, Lenormand completed her prediction with a phrase that left an imprint on his entire future life.
“I must warn you,” she said, “that you will die in bed.
- When? What time? - the young man turned pale.
The soothsayer shrugged her shoulders.
From that moment on, he set himself the goal of avoiding what seemed to be destined for him by fate. Upon his return to Moscow, he ordered all beds, sofas, down jackets, pillows and blankets to be removed from his apartment. In the afternoon, half asleep, he rode around the city in a carriage, accompanied by a Kalmyk housekeeper, two footmen, and a fat pug, whom he kept on his knees. Of all the entertainment available at the time, he most enjoyed attending the funeral. Therefore, the coachman and the postilion traveled around Moscow all day in search of funeral processions, to which their master immediately joined. It is not known what he thought about, listening to the funeral service of others - perhaps he secretly rejoiced that all this had nothing to do with him, since he did not go to bed, and therefore, the prediction could not come true, and he would thus avoid of death.
For fifty years he waged his duel with fate. But one day, when, as usual, half asleep, he stood in the church, believing that he was present at the funeral service, his housekeeper almost married him to some old friend of hers. This incident frightened the master so much that a nervous shock occurred to him. The patient, wrapped in shawls, he sat dejectedly in an armchair, flatly refusing to obey the doctor and go to bed. Only when he was so weak that he could no longer resist did the footmen forcefully lay him down. As soon as he felt himself in bed, he died. How strong was the belief in prediction?
No matter how great the delusions and mistakes were, in spite of everything, in spite of failures and disappointments, the search for immortality, the search for ways to prolong life was not interrupted. Mistakes, ignorance, failure were immediately ridiculed. But the smallest step towards success was closed by a mystery.
That is why information about the successes achieved along this path is sporadic, scattered and unreliable.
There is, for example, a message about Bishop Allen de Lisle, a person who really existed (he died in 1278), who was engaged in medicine - the historical annals call him nothing but a "universal healer." He allegedly knew the composition of the elixir of immortality, or at least some method of significantly prolonging life. When he was already many years old and he was dying of old age, with the help of this elixir he managed to extend his life for another 60 years.
For the same period, Zhang Daoling (34-156), also a historical person, the founder of the philosophical system of Tao in China, managed to prolong his life. After years of persistent experimentation, he allegedly succeeded in making some semblance of the legendary pills of immortality. When he was 60 years old, according to the chronicles, he regained his youth and lived to be 122 years old.
Along with these are other messages of the ancients. Aristotle and others mention Epimenides, a priest and famous poet from the island of Crete. It is known that in 596 BC he was invited to Athens to make cleansing sacrifices there. According to the legend, Epimenides managed to extend his life up to 300 years.
But this age is not the limit either. The Portuguese court historian tells in his chronicle about a certain Indian with whom he personally met and talked and who was at that time supposedly 370 years old.
A book published in Turin in 1613 and containing a biography of one inhabitant of Goa, who allegedly lived to be almost 400 years old, can be attributed to similar evidence. The years of the life of one Muslim saint (1050-1433), who also lived in India, are also close to this figure. In Rajasthan (India), there is still a legend about the hermit Munisadh, who in the 16th century retired to the caves near Dholpur and is hiding there ... to this day.
Roger Bacon, a scientist and philosopher of the Middle Ages, was also interested in the problem of extending human life. In his essay "De secretis operebus" he tells about a German named Papalius, who, having spent many years in captivity with the Saracens, learned the secret of making some kind of medicine and thanks to him lived to be 500 years old. Pliny the Elder also names the same number of years - it was up to this age, according to his testimony, that a certain Illyrian managed to prolong his life.
An example, closer to us in time, is information about the Chinese Li Canyung. He died in 1936, leaving behind a widow who, according to the record, was his 24th wife. Li Canyong is said to have been born in 1690, which means he lived for 246 years.
But the strangest and most fantastic message from the same series is associated with the name of the Indian Tapaswiji, who allegedly lived for 186 years (1770-1956). At the age of 50, he, being a Raja in Patiala, decided to retire to the Himalayas in order to become "on the other side of human sorrows." After many years of exercise, Tapasviji learned to plunge into the so-called state of "samadhi", when life seemed to completely leave his body, and could not take any drink or food for a long time. This practice was reported by the British who served in the colonial administration in India. They talked about yogis who, having thoroughly cleansed their stomach and intestines, covered their ears and nose with wax and plunged into a state reminiscent of the hibernation of insects. They stayed in this state not for a day or two, but for several weeks, after which they were brought back to life with the help of hot water and massage.
The fate of Tapaswiji may not come as much of a surprise. Centenarians are known who naturally lived up to 140-148 years of age. There is nothing fundamentally impossible that Tapaswiji or someone else, using a diet and other means, was able to push this limit for several more decades. It will be about the amazing testimony of Tapaswiji himself.
Once, he said, at the spurs of the Himalayas he met an old hermit. He ate only fruit and milk, and looked extremely energetic and cheerful. But, most surprisingly, the hermit did not speak any of the modern Indian languages, speaking only in Sanskrit - the language of Ancient India. It turned out that 5000 years have passed since he came here! He managed to extend his life to such limits allegedly thanks to a certain composition, the secret of which he owned. Reaching the age of 5000 years has not yet been “blocked” by any of the “long-livers” - neither in historical chronicles, nor in legends, nor in legends.
However, no matter how fantastic such a message is, no matter how long the period of fifty centuries, all this is not immortality itself, but only some approaches to it, distant approaches. That is why scientists and fanatics, philosophers and madmen so stubbornly continued to search for the elixir of immortality - a means capable of bestowing eternal life. They gave this search for years, decades. Sometimes my whole life.
Alexander Cagliostro (1743-1795)
Many contemporaries believed that he possessed the secret of the elixir of immortality.
“The greatest charlatan and deceiver that history has ever known,” some say.
"A man who possessed infinite knowledge and power" - say others
... A German provincial town with cobbled streets, traditional red tiled roofs and the inevitable Gothic. Under one of these roofs, in the attic, in a fantastic environment of flasks, retorts and crucibles sits a young man. He is busy with something no less fantastic than the environment around him - the search for the elixir of eternal life. However, the most surprising thing is that this man is none other than Goethe, the young Goethe, who devoted several years of his life to a stubborn search for the elixir of immortality. Not wanting to repeat the same mistakes, to fall into the same dead ends and wander in the same labyrinths as his predecessors, he carefully studies the works of alchemists, searches for their most forgotten and hidden works. “I am secretly trying,” he wrote in those years, “to get at least some information from the great books, before which the learned crowd half bows, half laughs at them, because they do not understand them. To delve into the secrets of these books is the joy of the wise and distinguished people. "
So the great poet, as an alchemist, a seeker of the elixir of immortality, is on a par with rather strange people. One of them was his contemporary, Alexander Cagliostro. The greatest charlatan and deceiver that history has ever known - so some believed. A man who possessed infinite knowledge and power, others said so.
If we had thought to tell about all the adventures and adventures of this man, the pages allotted here would hardly have been enough for us. In addition to the mystery of his origin and the unknown source of wealth, Cagliostro had another secret. “They say,” wrote one of the newspapers at that time, “Count Cagliostro possesses all the wonderful secrets of the great adept and discovered the secret of preparing the elixir of life.” Was it this rumor that made Cagliostro such a significant figure in the courts of royalty? So significant that the French king Louis XVI announced that any disrespect or insult to this person would be punished on an equal basis with an insult to his majesty.
During Cagliostro's stay in St. Petersburg, society ladies, struck by the youthful beauty of his wife Lorenza, were even more amazed when they learned from her that she was over forty and that her eldest son had long been serving as a captain in the Dutch army. In response to natural questions from Lorenz, she somehow "let slip" that her husband possessed the secret of returning youth.
The strange charm inherent in Cagliostro, the mystery that surrounded him, attracted the attention of the Russian court to him. The empress's personal physician, the Englishman Robertson, not without reason, sensed a potential rival in the visiting celebrity. Using the methods adopted at court, he tried to tarnish the count in the eyes of those who were close to the throne. The naive court physician hoped to fight Cagliostro with the weapon that he himself wielded best of all - the weapon of intrigue. However, the count preferred to “cross swords” on his own terms. He challenged Robertson to a duel, but an unusual duel - with poisons. Each had to drink the poison prepared by the enemy, after which he was free to accept any antidote. With the firmness of a man who had no doubts of success, Cagliostro insisted on precisely these conditions of the duel. Frightened by his strange confidence, Robertson refused to accept the challenge. The duel did not take place. It is possible that rumors reached Robertson about the elixir of immortality, which his opponent allegedly possessed - it is possible that he, like many of his contemporaries, believed in this.
But the favorite of fate, Count Cagliostro too often challenged her, too often made risky bets. In the end, he got "odd", and this card was the last in his life. Cagliostro was captured by the Inquisition, imprisoned, where he is reported to have died in 1795, chained to the wall of a deep stone well.
Cagliostro's personal papers, as usually happened in such cases, were burned. Only a copy of one of his notes, previously filmed at the Vatican, has survived. It describes the process of "regeneration", or the return of youth: "... having taken this (two grains of the drug. - Auth.), A person loses consciousness and speechlessness for three whole days, during which he often experiences convulsions, convulsions and on the body his perspiration appears. Waking up from this state, in which he, however, does not feel the slightest pain, on the thirty-sixth day he takes the third and last grain, after which he falls into a deep and restful sleep. During sleep, his skin peels off, teeth and hair fall out. They all grow back within a few hours. In the morning of the fortieth day, the patient leaves the room, becoming a new person, experiencing complete rejuvenation. "
As fantastic as this description may seem, it strangely resembles the Indian method of restoring youth "kayakalpa". This course, according to his own stories, took Tapaswiji twice in his life. He did this for the first time when he was 90 years old. Interestingly, his treatment also lasted forty days, most of which he also spent in a state of sleep and meditation. After forty days, he allegedly also grew new teeth, the gray hair regained its former black color, and the former vigor and strength returned to the body.
However, although in ancient texts, in medieval and later records we find references to such "regenerations", none of them speaks of the composition of the drug used.
Should we be surprised at this?
It was in the 18th century. Once, the servant of the legendary Count Saint-Germain was asked whether his master had met Julius Caesar personally and had the secret of immortality. To which the servant replied with an imperturbable air that he did not know, but over the past 300 years of his service with Saint-Germain, the Count had not changed in appearance ...
Nowadays, the issue of immortality has not lost its relevance, and active work on finding a way to acquire physical immortality is being carried out in all industrialized countries of the world.
If we omit the mythological story of the biblical Adam, who, according to legend, lived for 900 years, the Eternal Jew Agasfer and Koshchei the Immortal, then the first popularizer of the elixir of immortality will be the same Saint Germain, a personality, I must say, is very mysterious. In the 18th century, popular rumor seriously claimed that the earl was 500 years old, and in his castle there is a unique mirror in which you can see the future.
It was rumored that the count personally showed in the mirror to Louis XV the decapitated body of his grandson. In turn, the famous adventurer Count Cagliostro, who considered himself a student of Saint Germain, mentioned a vessel during interrogation in the Inquisition. In it, Saint Germain, according to Cagliostro, kept the elixir of immortality, made according to the recipes of the ancient Egyptian priests.
The most interesting thing is that people who personally met Saint-Germain in various parts of Europe described him as a man of about 45 years old with a dark complexion. At the same time, over the course of decades, the graph did not change at all externally. He was wealthy, well-mannered, and possessed truly aristocratic manners. The count spoke equally well in French, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Turkish and Arabic.
Often in conversation with monarchs Saint Germain mentioned the rulers of bygone days and in conversation often claimed that he had personal conversations with many ancient rulers and philosophers, including Jesus Christ. Saint-Germain died either in 1784 in Holstein, or in 1795 in Kassel.
But it was not possible to find his grave. And many aristocrats who knew the count during his lifetime met him more than once after his official death! There is evidence of the appearance of Saint-Germain in 20th century Europe. Did the count really possess the elixir of eternal youth, is it possible?
YOUTH FOR TYRANE
As you know, the most notorious sinners and satraps cling to life more than others. Historical sources claim that the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, the legendary Shi Huang, who lived in the 3rd century BC. e., was literally obsessed with the idea of his own immortality. His entourage from morning to night studied ancient treatises in the hope of discovering a recipe for eternal youth.
But in vain. As a result, the upset emperor issued a decree in which he forbade himself to die. But he died all the same. Subsequently, many emperors of China tried to find the elixir of eternal life, but apart from unique methods of rejuvenation, nothing was invented.
Medieval rulers became famous for their search for a recipe for immortality. All the methods invented by them bordered on the rare inhuman sadism. They say that Marshal of France Count Gilles de Rais, the prototype of Bluebeard, was more famous in this field. After being arrested during interrogation by the Inquisition, he confessed that he had killed several hundred young people in order to make an elixir of immortality from their genitals.
In the second half of the 16th century, the Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory took baths from the blood of virgins to gain eternal youth and beauty. In total, 650 girls found their end in the countess's castle.
BLOOD FOR THE DRIVER
Like the medieval aristocrats, the first Soviet leaders also wanted to live forever. In the 1920s, the famous revolutionary Alexander Bogdanov headed the world's first Blood Institute, in which they tried to transfuse the blood of young people to the elderly leaders of Soviet Russia.
However, the matter did not work out. Lenin, unlike his sister, who underwent a rejuvenating procedure, refused a blood transfusion, calling it scientific vampirism. Perhaps the research would have been successful, but Bogdanov unexpectedly died during one of the experiments on himself. After his death, the disappointed Stalin ordered to interrupt the experiments.
Half a century later, the problem of gaining longevity through blood transfusions of young compatriots was successfully practiced by the leader of North Korea, Kim Il Sung. Having begun the procedures at the age of 65, the dictator lived to a very old age at 82, although he planned to last until at least 120 years.
YOUTH GENERATOR EXISTS
In the modern world, there are dozens of promising methods for extending human life. But humanity is not waiting for a unique diet, an expensive operation or freezing of its own body, but the invention of a device that, in a few sessions, would help a person completely get rid of diseases and live an extra 40-50 years.
Oddly enough, but such an apparatus exists and works on principles that are logically close to the cruel experiments of medieval rulers. However, now we are not talking about the transfusion of young blood to the old man, but about the transplantation of a young biofield.
One of the presentations of the method took place in 1997 in St. Petersburg at the First International Congress "Weak and Superweak Fields and Radiations in Biology and Medicine". Yuri Vladimirovich Jiang Kanchzhen, a scientist of Chinese origin from Khabarovsk, made a report on his unique technique. According to the scientist's theory, which has been repeatedly confirmed by practical experiments, all living organisms exchange with each other some genetic information invisible to the eye.
The process takes place with the help of electromagnetic waves in the ultra-high frequency range. The device, invented by Dr. Jiang Kanzhen, can transfer the biofield of young organisms to old ones, rehabilitating their DNA and stimulating rejuvenation. As a real scientist, Jiang Kanzhen experimented both on himself and on his father - the result was both the youthfulness of the scientist himself and the processes of regeneration of the body in his 80-year-old father.
It is interesting to note that, unlike many similar inventions, the official science accepted and even granted patents for several inventions. So it is likely that in the foreseeable future in every clinic there will be a device capable of transferring the biofield of a young person to his elderly relatives, rejuvenating them. In this case, the duration of human life will almost double.
SCIENCE DOESN'T STAND ON
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Academician of VAKB Dmitry Valerievich GLUKHOV agreed to comment on the possibility of creating a technique that significantly prolongs human life:
The elixir of eternal youth really has a right to exist. But not in the medieval sense. All over the world, research is being actively carried out in the field of methods of rejuvenation, in this area there are significant successes. In Russia alone, more than 10 rejuvenation systems and more than 30 rejuvenation techniques have been put on commercial rails, not counting a variety of dietary supplements and pharmacological preparations. Basically, work is carried out in the field of cosmetology and correction of the human immune system. Every year, new techniques appear based on advanced, promising technologies. So, nanotechnology gave impetus to a new direction of rejuvenation - supramolecular chemistry. Development is proceeding rapidly, and, perhaps, in the near future, one of the researchers will show the coveted bottle with a cloudy liquid. Today, the technologies of electromagnetic transformation, or modification of the human genome, have advanced farthest in this direction. Again, many scientists in Russia are working in this direction. In my opinion, Jiang Kanzhen's works look quite promising. It is impossible not to mention Professor Zakharov with his cell therapy and revitalization, Goryaev, Komrakov and other researchers. In case of their success and the mass introduction of methods, the average human life expectancy can increase from the current 65-70 years to 140-160 years. True, in this case, a person will have, among other things, to lead a relatively healthy lifestyle.
