BOSTOISI

PUBLIC

UBRARY

Search for Immorialify

mmm

or the unknown

Search for ImmorfalUy

By the Editors of Time-Life Books

TIME-LIFE BOOKS, ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA

CONTENTS
Essay

In

Quest of Eternal Youth

6

CHAPTER

To Live Forever
8

Essay The Real Shangri-la

47

CHAPTER

Seeking an Answer in Science

56

Essay

Battling the

Ravages of Time

89

CHAPTER

Dreams Frozen

for

flie

Future

96

Essay

Water's Timeless Power

131

Acknowledgme.its
138

Picture Credits
138

Bibliography
138

Index
140

lnQu(ofEiernalYoiifii

Like the
at right in the mythical

many would

women

Fountain of Youth, most

yearn for eternal youth and health.

reach,

elderly

If

immortality

gladly settle for a lesser, but

bathing

human

beings

itself is

out of

still

elusive, fate:

decades or centuries beyond the ordinary human span.

Hoping to extend their own lives, the medieval alchemists
brewed elixirs of immortality potions that supposedly allowed
some of them to survive for hundreds of years. Chinese adepts of
the same period relied in part on magical foods, such as peaches.
Wealthy longevity seekers of many eras sought to postpone old
age with various quasi-medical treatments, including the injection
of youthful blood, with disappointing results.
In recent years, some scientists have put forward new and
equally diverse proposals for added decades of active life. Certain
gerontologists, for example, argue that lower body temperatures
or reduced food intake could one day extend the human life span
to a full 140 or even 200 years. Some visionary computer scientists
have proposed a kind of mechanized afterlife in which human
minds would be transferred, intact, into durable computerized
memory. Meanwhile, on the fringes of the scientific community,
others are taking aim at actual immortality. Proponents of socalled cryonic suspension have already preserved human bodies at
-320 degrees Fahrenheit in hopes that their frozen "patients" can
be revived centuries from now. By that time, they believe, medical
technology may have indefinitely postponed human death.
to live for

aged women plunge into the rejuvenating waters of the Fountain of

painting by Lucas Cranach the Younger. To the right of
the pool, earlier bathers emerge young, beautiful, and ready for a banquet.
Tired,

Youth in

this sixteenth-century

CHAPTER

To Live Forever

ccording to the great yogi Paramahansa Yogananda,

West

to

many

who

introduced the

of India's mystical secrets, there lives high in the northern

Himalayas a singular and

from place to place

in the

He has no

illustrious guru.

fixed

abode but moves

mountains, accompanied by a small band of

ciplesamong them, according

to

dis-

Yogananda, two "highly advanced"

American followers. Rarely seen by outsiders, the guru has been described
as appearing no more than twenty-five years of age, with

dark,

fair skin,

tender eyes, and lustrous, copper-colored hair. Despite his youthful visage,

he

is

known

known. Nor

as Babaji, which
is

means "revered

father." His real

the place or date of his birth. But these

name

and other

Literally.

Not

immortal

in the

truly, physically

his

Autobiography of a

an individual of great

corporeal being, nor simply spir-

will survive the

sense of possessing an eternal soul: Babaji

Yogi,

"has retained his physical form

perhaps millenniums." And he

it

will

is

said to

for centuries,

continue to do so, explained Yogananda,

helps him to serve his purpose as a spiritual teacher. That

be a very long time indeed, considering that Babaji's task

tions to give

Yo-

immortal. "The secluded master," wrote Yogananda in

be

as long as

in

immortal.

just metaphorically immortal, like

achievement whose fame

itually

is

not

intriguing

aspects of this mysterious master pale next to one salient element

gananda's description of him: Babaji

is

up war, materialism, and

racial

and

may

to inspire na-

is

religious hatred. Further-

more, Babaji's followers, too, are freed from the tyranny of death once they
are accepted as his disciples.

Yogananda, a devout and respected

America

in the

1920s and founded the

Fellowship, never claimed to have

50,000-member

them

and a swami named Kebalananda,

skrit tutor."

Both these

his

whom

men were among

own

settled in

Self-Realization

met Babaji himself But he

followers and readers the experiences of other gurus

trusted without question among

who

spiritual leader

related to his

whose

veracity he

primary mentor, Yukteswar,

he identified as
several

who

"my

told

saintly San-

Yogananda of

personal encounters with the deathless Babaji.

Kebalananda described experiences he had when traveling with Baba-

ji's

was he,
two Americans were among the

group

that

Himalayas.

in the

the great guru's

band had been

in fact,

It

a reference to the

Often, the

that

when

one place a while, Babaji would

words "Dera danda uthao" "Let us

staff,"

reported

alleged immortals in

company. Kebalananda said

in

who

bamboo

lift

staff

our

the

utter the

camp and

he always

means

to

another mountain peak.

other occasions, the band would

make

on

the journey

On

foot.

Babaji, said Yukteswar, has achieved a spiritual state

"beyond human comprehension." He has reached the

who

level

his eyes, arose,

and prostrated himself before

revered guru. Now, Babaji told him, he

pleship.

Death

was ready

"You have courageously passed a

shall not

touch you again;

now you

the

for disci-

difficult test.

are one of our

immortal flock."

Both Yukteswar and Kebalananda, using almost iden-

carries.

whole group would then be instantaneously

transported by astral

opened

tical

words, told Yogananda another tale about Babaji. This

one was secondhand, related

them by

to

their

mutual

teacher Lahiri Mahasaya, a noted nineteenth-century guru.

In 1861

Mahasaya was a

thirty-three-year-old accountant in

an Indian government military engineering

office

when

"supremely freed"

telegram ordered him to a remote Himalayan location to

from death. Most paramuktas, escaping from the wheel of

new army post. On a walk in the countryside near his new assignment, Mahasaya encountered a
handsome young man with copper-colored hair.

of a paramukta, an individual

is

One who
help human-

reincarnation, never return to a physical body.

does choose to return, as Babaji did

kind,

is

called

order to

in

an avatar. Babaji's high

spiritual

attainments

give him the power to be seen and recognized only

when he

wishes. Because his incorruptible body needs no food, he

He casts no shadow and

ground. He usually speaks Hindi

help establish a

"I

English.

see

my

telegram took effect," the stranger said

When Mahasaya asked what he

the accountant's superior that

leaves no footprint on the

this area.

capable of conversing

is

Kebalananda

in

told of a stranger

who appeared

in

one

of Babaji's nearly inaccessible mountain camps.

The man

When

Babaji did

implored Babaji to accept him as a disciple.

"When one

become

through which he can work at

him gently on the forehead. "At

drous current swept through

chasm below: He would

seed-memories of

than

live

said,

my

transmitting stations

his

my

previous

youth tapped

until the

magnetic touch, a won-

brain, releasing the

life,"

Mahasaya

member!" he shouted. He not only recognized

sweet

said. "I re-

the stranger

cannot accept

To the horror of Babaji's disciples, the

man immedi-

That night, Babaji displayed his astonishing powers by

threw himself over the precipice. Babaji ordered his

materializing a vast palace "of dazzling gold ... set amid

replied calmly.

laid his

hand. >#

The stranger

as Babaji but instantly recalled that in a previous existence

Babaji had been his beloved guru.

your present state of development."

followers to retrieve the shattered body, on which

he

he

with mankind," the

"I

in

ately

to his death,

without Babaji's guidance.

"Jump then," the guru

you

jump

transferred to

will."

Mahasaya remained bewildered

not answer, the would-be acolyte pointed to the rocky

rather

Mahasaya be

feels his unity

stranger said, "all minds

any language.

in

man

explained that he had "silently suggested" to the mind of

eats only as a social courtesy.

but

meant, the

landscaped gardens, reflected

quil

pools

in tran-

intricately

inlaid with great

TJ^h%f^:";tJ'

^^PPh'res and emeralds /sMen

him

in Raphael's

of angelic countenance were

yoga

Marriage of Cupid
Such meals ensured
that the gods would never die.

(above).

palace

was no mere

the walls, held

vision;

until

power of his

is

his

life

bringing the spiritual values of kriya-

whose domestic

to people like himself,

obligations

splendent with rubies." The

sible.

A few

some

friends of his experience in the mountains. "Lahiri,"

Mahasaya ran

his

hands over

for

and curry from a bowl

it.

One

holding

its

one said

call

him,

later,

gently, "your

my

guru

will

He immediately

mansion

was eager

atoms together by the

them

will."

Babaji spent the next ten days initiating Lahiri

days

Ma-

to

difficult

Mahasaya could not

mind has been under a

others nodded agreement.

that

of the guru's disci-

ples explained that Babaji "created this beautiful

out of his mind and

spend

and encumbrances made pure asceticism

litchis

he reached

to

family, instructing

Stationed by gates redly re-

and examined a jeweled vase, and smelled

incense and roses. He ate

was empty

home and

he sent Mahasaya back to his

diamonds,

Ambrosia and nectar, the food

resist telling

strain."

Mahasaya responded

appear

or impos-

The

rashly: "If

right in this house."

regretted his claim, but "the group

behold such a phenomenon." Mahasaya told

to wait outside the

room, closed the door behind

them, and "sank into the meditative

state,

humbly sum-

hasaya into the secrets of kriya-yoga, a meditative tech-

moning my guru." Babaji soon

nique for withdrawing

pleased.

"Do you

"Truth

for earnest seekers, not for those of idle curiosity."

life

energies from the outer senses to

achieve understanding of the spiritual reality within. Then

10

is

call

me

materialized, but he

was dis-

he asked

sternly.

for a trifle?"

He agreed

to stay,

however, so Mahasaya would not be

dis-

"trillions

When the door the only enroom was thrown open, the doubters were
find Mahasaya was now inexplicably accompa-

of tiny

sparks faded into the

Despite such tales of his spectacular yogic power,

credited before his friends.

trance to the

Babaji's reputed ability to live forever

amazed

tality

to

nied by a
sitting

young stranger with copper

cross-legged on the

Thus

it

was

hair

and glowing

Cream

selves that he

was

real.

to touch

him

"Doubts dispelled,

Moradabad

to see for

my

who

never die or

popular Indian

belief.

tar,

them-

hasaya reported. After the meal, Babaji blessed each of

journalist in

Bombay

them. Then a

er (because he fed ants from a

brilliant flash

suddenly

filled

the

room as
light,"

who

in the

live

West.

what seem

all

that

uncommon

in

Yogananda mentioned another ava-

following the Christian era, and

friends pros-

guru disappeared into a "spreading vaporous

immor-

Agastya,

form even to

floor in

to confer

who was famed in southern India where he

"worked many miracles during the centuries preceding and

in

his physical

on the

not

is

awed repentance," Ma-

trated themselves

and

is

irresistibly intriguing fig-

hear or read of him, especially

Immortality, apparently,

of Wheat, with seven middle-class Indian

men

who

makes him an

it

impossibly long lives always compel attention.

that the ancient but ever-youthful guru

Babaji invited the

that

Reports of people

floor.

professionals and businessmen in the city of

1861

on others

ure to most

skin,

shared a bowl of halua, a farina-based porridge similar to

today's

infinite reservoir."

the

was

and
11

said to

is

credited with retaining

this day." In the

1930s an English

described a yogi called the Ant Teach-

be some 400 years

bag of
old.

He

rice

powder),

who

reportedly attained

this

and push

his spine

it

draw

up

that ticks inexorably

into a tiny hole in his brain, where,

he

desire to be physically immortal," wrote physician

will to

life

said, his soul resided.

ontologist

Rumors of immortality have long had currency in the

Western world as well. The self-titled Comte de Saint-

and

Germain, an alchemist probably born

societies

in the early 1700s,

and

mist, Nicholas Flamel,

alive as late as

still

accounts, he

has

its

was

woman

to other

actually last seen in 1761. Resurrection

regimens,

tual

Dead!

practices,

New

York

that

anyone who can afford

real

chance

it

to live forever.

is

"An

exotic

have a unique opportunity

cell

a very

indefinite extension of

to

to hold

your

"biological immortality a

been

all

death at bay.

extend that immutable span.

poets,

and robotics search

and

life

limits.

er

limitations."

diligently for

new

clues

long parade of philosophers

priests, alchemists, adventurers,

who have

human

life

eagerly taken up the

beyond

normally alloted

its

Yet despite this universal preoccupation with the

theme, one of

of youthful

In laborato-

in cryonics, cloning,

and eternal youth.

earlier scientists

cause of extending

the soci-

and

regeneration, genetic engineering, severely reduced nu-

and kings, charlatans,

ad stated un-

life

to

In their efforts they join a

for the at-

life,"

means

been sure

its

just

enduring mysteries

what those

death and defeating the ravages of age

is

This

some say is totally

more than a few with

much

certain:

is

If

the

life

is

that

nobody has ev-

limits are.

words of the

at face value,

unwarranted while others, including

now. The Book of Genesis

scientific credentials, are

ability to

Adam and

not so sure. Blessed and cursed

remember

nourished a deep yearning to be

like

people used to

age

at

death

is

years.

slow down the clock of bodily deterioration

lot

longer than they do

Old Testament

descendants

tells

who each

of

lived

Most notable was Methuselah, whose

Lamech, the

daughters. Lamech,

12

Bible are accepted

recorded as 969. At the age of 187, Methuse-

lah sired a son,

gods, to stop or at least

live

in the

six of his direct

more than 900

the past and imagine the fu-

people from the earliest cultures to the present have

significantly

spiri-

the world over are pursuing the

case of hope springing eternal a hope

ture,

cul-

humankind's obsession with the whole sub-

ject of defying

with the

Mental and

scientists of today are seeking dramatic

life,

to the secrets of long

Invitation to

work

society's ultimate goal, the

untempered by physical

campaign

trition, bionics,

tainment of the most profound objective

Clearly,

life.

around the globe, experimenters

ries

abroad

may have

of

elixir

Help Attain Physical Immortality: You will

vigor

weatherman. Every

arts perceived to offer the

of old, hunched over their retorts hoping to uncover the

infection.

preservation program, the notion

is

annual

age-old quest with more urgency than ever. Like alchemists

made graphically clear in an advertisement that promotes its deep-freeze body-

equivocally,

com-

black magic, diets, arcane sexual

Modern researchers

has

The

elixirs,

and

and exacting laboratory procedures have

enlisted in the

re-

briefly revive

nd now, as the Cryonics Society of

ety declared.

forms. Most

Writ, hailing their

possibility of immortality or very long

dead of a heart

imaginable the

myth or Holy

in

1818 although according

used old Tibetan ointments and chants to

longer

their longest-lived individuals,

cast congratulations of a television

port that doctors at a (conveniently) remote Chinese university

have honored

many

itself in

ture has cherished practices

attractions, too: Ancient Spell Raises the

much

has been humanity's oldest dream."

born about 1330, was reported to be

screamed the bold-faced headline over a recent tabloid

live

and ger-

milestones with telegrams from the monarch or the broad-

Another alche-

well, in the twentieth century.

Walford, "or at least to

L.

memorating them

ed with Solomon and Sheba and allegedly has been sighted,

alive

Roy

in full health,

The dream has expressed

claimed to be old enough to have been personally acquaint-

still

toward the moment of demise. "The

force

remarkable age by exerting his

who

first

of his several sons and

died at 777,

was

in turn the father

Noah rode out the

on for another 350

humans

of Noah, the last of the 900-plus oldsters.

said,

Flood in his ark at age 600 and lived

cooked meat

of Noah's descendants also are said to have

hundreds of years, although

life

spans de-

creased steadily. Moses, just a few generations

later, lived

lived for

only 120 years, which

seems

their

on the human

man

forever," said God, according to the Scripture, "for he

tion,

life

"My

span.

many contend

life

humans whose

Yayati, a deeply religious

long-lived cohorts as the literal truth.

in the

generations after Noah

is

The dwindling of

from the

ills

people

his

was

There are others, moreover,

accounts of longevity as true
to

do with

religion.

been inclined

for

"A dozen

and complained

who

accept the biblical

Burtis,

am

would have
life

Moses' 120 makes

it

oning time which would apply equally

spans from the

In the

cian

and

is

in

whose

both cases-

that over time

in

worked

to

ciated the decline with

form

what he deduced from

who

dwelt in the mountains of

to

tree,

protected the Uttarakuru from illness and old

their

life

many cultures. Adam and

span

to a

life

thousand years. The

or immortality

is

integral

Eve, of course, might also have

Life

had

they not gotten themselves thrown out of the Garden. (As

was,

life

Adam made

it

to the

Even leaving aside

who

When

him and

to live without

achieved godlike longevity from Eden's Tree of

"The key, the most

Daniel Colin Munro,

want

sacred tree as a symbol of long

it

age of 930, according to Genesis.)

for the

moment

alchemists

who

supposedly achieved immortality by means of their concoc-

950s the same pattern was noticed by a physi-

named

fruit

age and extended

farming methods

"the steady decline in the

duties and he began to age.

northern India. Their lives were blessed by a magic

earliest recordings."

nutritionist

in the

tempt Yayati. Beguiled by the

Another cherished Hindu myth describes the long-

could explain Methuselah's great age. He suggests there

significant key," said Burtis,

to

lived Uttarakuru, a race

unlikely that a different scale for reck-

right minerals.

So Indra sent old age,

woman,

chose to accompany him to heaven.

one author who

between Methuselah's 969 years and

and not consuming the

no older

god of rain and thunder, about

subjects decided they did not

spans

that the disparity

must have been some other factor

to look

Yayati finally yielded to his fate after years of struggle, his

not so sure." He notes

decrease longevity, including changes

were destined

all

to Indra, the

glect his religious

reasons that have nothing

Edward

of old age and disease. Yayati and

temptress's charm and sweet songs, the king began to ne-

or so years ago

delved into the subject. "Today

error,

life.

to regard these stories of fabulous

as ridiculous," wrote C.

virtuous

jealous of this earthly bastion of immortality

of a beautiful

long

man whose

well as his subjects

of death,

Yayati's parallel heaven.

lost the privilege of

King

is

life

Having

humanity

beyond the

than age twenty-five forever. But envious old Yama, the god

growing distance between humankind and the Creator:

through moral

far

stories of

his

taken to indicate the

fallen increasingly out of favor

him as

conduct freed

in transla-

on Methuselah and

sources

normal span. A notable example

back then, some people with strong religious

beliefs accept the Bible's report

many

reached

lives

many

extreme longevity. An-

cient Sanskrit texts include

that those accounts of multiple-

spans are either mythical or errors

but one of

is

that relate accounts of

perhaps resulting from a different method of measur-

ing time

span

he Old Testament

not abide in

spirit shall

relative effects

of meat and grain on health and longevity.

but his days shall be a hundred and twenty years."

While
century

their lives appar-

view of today's medical judgments about the

to confirm Genesis's final bul-

letin

is flesh,

and

to vegetables to grains,

ently shortened as a result a puzzling conclusion indeed in

years thereafter.

Many

gradually went from eating raw meat to

asso-

tions, there

have been over more recent centuries a number

of breathtaking claims of great age, although most of them

biblical refer-

ences to be a general dietary trend. Starting with Adam, he

were characterized by an absence of any substantial

13

proof.

For example, the Countess of Desmond, an

an

who

age

at her

said she

when

was

died in 1604,

said to have

Irish

well

known

for her love of

London, more than 120 miles,

all

to

the

from

ences involving the battle of Flodden Field between the Eng-

writer

dancing "even

seek

way from

relief at court

that

her impoverished state. In his History of the World, Sir Walter Raleigh

that she

claimed he

had married

she was actually 140

long after her
Raleigh

birth.

knew

in the

the old countess himself,

As a

later

was "not regarded as

she had been

wed

lish

if

not

author circumspectly put

and the Scots

in 1513.

A Scandinavian sailor named Christian Jacob Drackenburg was accepted by newspapers as being 149 when he
died in 1772; they called him the Old Man of the North. He

and

1460s which would mean,

in 1604, that

of Henry Jenkins

Bristol to

One

He added the much more astonishing information

140 she walked

name

said that he

a hundred Christmasses had passed over her head."

when she was

Yorkshire fisherman by the

was 169 as he neared his death in 1670. When

he had made a sworn statement in court three years earlier,
however, his age was declared to be 157, which would have
made him 160 when he died. That would be impressive
enough, but there is no indication the court required proof
of his age. Jenkins claimed to remember boyhood experi-

been 140 years of

death (some put her at 145 years).

was

noblewom-

it,

a paragon of veracity."

and

end of his

said he married at the age of 11

he was

at a stretch but

still

walking four miles

at the

produced evidence of

One

of the most widely accepted

Parr,

was

a Shropshireman

leged himself to be

he never

his date of birth.

claims of unusual longevity

Thomas

life

52

in the

that of

who

year

al-

635.

peculiar chain of events lent credence

to his story, nOt only with the public but

among

scientific

Charles

I's

men

of the era.

was

visiting

when

of his estates in Shropshire

he heard of Old Parr and went

aged peasant. Thomas

the king
riosity,

would

at

find Parr

horse-drawn

litter

to see the

once decided

an amusing cu-

so he loaded the old

don. Parr

man

and took him

became a

onto a
to Lon-

court sensation and

the talk of the town. But the trip

have taken

of

court favorites, Thomas, Earl

of Arundel and Surrey,

some

One

its toll,

must

because the peasant

sickened and died in November 1635.

The story does not end

ever.

there,

how-

The king's favorite doctor was

none other than William Harvey, who

was already famous and highly respected throughout Europe's

scientific

Most stories about the mysterious Comte de Saint-Germain

(left) suggest he died in 1 784 at
the age of 1 88 -or, in one tale,
a ripe old 223 and was duly

M L CDMTE UE

buried in France. According to

other accounts, however, the
venerable nobleman subsequently reappeared and re-

mains

14

alive

and

active today.

com-

Thomas Parr (right),

the "Old
of Shropshire, " was said
have lived under ten English
monarchs, worked his fields

HP

Man
to

until he was 130, and attained

the age of 152 before his death
in 1635. But birth records
proved elusive, and Parr's longevity is now generally considered a myth of his own making.

munity

being the

for

first

to

show how

blood circulated through the body. King

Charles asked the physician to perform

an autopsy on Thomas

Parr. In his Latin

notes on his findings, Dr. Harvey marveled over Parr's fine physical condition.

The "body was muscular," the heart was

"healthy," and the bones

Even the hair on

all brittle."

was

still

were "not

at

arms

Parr's

black, he noted.

Harvey never gave the impression

that he thought this excellent condition

mean

could

alleged.

Parr

was not

really as old as

The physician's apparent accept-

ance of the peasant's claim caused other

scientists

and scholars throughout Eu-

rope to also accept

it

as true.

Some

con-

tinued to hold this view right up into the

twentieth century, even though Harvey's

critics

was
who would

pointed out that the physician

an accomplished courtier

not have wanted to expose the king's

gullibility

bleman

nor to offend a powerful no-

like the Earl

of Arundel.

The twentieth century,

produced

its

too,

''mm.

has

share of claimants to more

years than scientific authorities believe

possible-and convincing proof

scarce as ever.
stance, a

6,

man on

as

1933, for in-

London paper proclaimed

the "oldest
in

On May

is

that

earth" had just died

China. His year of birth

was given

as 1680.

in his

1930 the Turkish government issued Agha a passport

sup-

confirming his age to be 156. Agha claimed that as a

posed 253 years, he had outlived twenty-three wives; a

cially

twenty-fourth, his 64-year-old widow, survived him.

young man he had seen Napoleon leading

At about the

same time there came to public attention

very least made greater pretense to legit-

Syria in

799.

Such

stories

made

his troops into

highly readable articles for

imacy, and which

many newspapers who sent correspondents

view Agha including the Times of London, which

individual involved

had more prestige and a greater reputation

was born

any other major journal of the

a case that at the

in

the

many people accepted as genuine. The

was Zaro Agha, a Turk, who said he
1774. The unusual element here was that in
15

offi-

era.

An

to mter-

probably

for probity

than

impresario signed up

Hindu worshipers crowd the

shallows of the Ganges to bathe
in, drink, and cany away the
revered waters. Pole-and-rope
barriers help to ensure safety,
and boats stand ready to ferry
the faithful to the Sangam, the
holy point where the Yamuna
and the Ganges rivers meet.

gods

with a serpent as their churning rope and a mountain as a paddle, Hindu

and demons (right) chum the ocean to obtain amrita, the nectar of life, in
this eighteenth-century Indian painting. The helpful tortoise is Vishnu.

(left)

Crowding flieWaleis Of Life

On

February 6, 1989, some 22 million

Hindus thronged the shores of the

Ganges and the Yamuna rivers where

those two sacred streams meet at
Allahabad, in northern India. The people had all come in search of the same
reward: eternal life. The crowd is believed to have been the largest ever in
one place at one time, and over the
next forty-nine days another 38 million
or so

showed up such

is

the compel-

eternal

spiritual,

life

they sought

their scriptures,

working together

in the ancient past

(above) churned from the ocean the

nectar of eternal

life,

after collecting

in

it

called amrita. But

a pottery

jar,

was

however, not physical. As

Hindus, they hoped to escape the everturning wheel of repeated corporeal

the

Golden Kumbha, the factions fought

over it and in their struggle spilled four
drops. One drop each fell on Ujjain,
Hardwar, Nasik, and Allahabad, and

now

the festival

is

held every three

years at one of those four holy

ling attraction of immortality.

The

According to
gods and demons

Festival of the Pottery Jar.

The 1989 Kumbha Mela

was deemed

at

cities.

Allahabad

especially auspicious

because it coincided with a lunar

eclipse and an alignment of the Sun,

Moon, and

incarnations and achieve the flesh-free

the

peace of nirvana. Hindus believe there

is no better occasion for securing this
release than the Kumbha Mela, or

every
time

Jupiter that occurs only

44 years. Enhancing

was

location.

this

sacred

the venerableness of the

The Ganges

16

is

Hinduism's

most honored

river,

place for bathing

and the

is at

holiest

the point of land

Sangam, where the Ganges

and Yamuna converge. Here a third
called the

river is said to join the other

two the

Saraswati, the invisible river of enlight-

enment. Hindus believe that immersion in the Ganges near where the
amrita

fell,

and during the Kumbha

Mela, guarantees release from the

earthly cycle of death

Although
sects

and

rebirth.

of Hinduism's

all

many

and doctrines are represented

and welcome

at the

the sadhus, or holy

Kumbha

Mela,

proceedings and give the event

spiritual depth.

Riding on a float, a celebrant

blows twin trumpets to announce the procession of the
nagasmost revered of the
sadhus -to the water. Attendees
making way for the nagas
throw rice in the air to greet
the holy men as they pass.

18

it

is

men, who lead the

its

Most revered of sadhus

Garlanded in beads and marisadhu seated at

center has covered his face in
ashes. Sadhus and gurus, with
theirfollowers, are granted

golds, the

at

19

own

encampments
the Kumbha Mela festivals.

their

special

A militant mounted naga,

in

clad

coW'dung ashes and mari-

gold garlands, helps lead the

procession to the river for the
first day's bathing. In keeping
with the rider's high station, his

horse is elaborately decorated.

Shaded by ornate parasols,

gurus of high rank are borne by
their devotees toward the holy

are the nagas, ascetic practitioners of

waters as the spectacular procession continues. Bright placards called patakas (top) identify the various sects attending.

plines.

rigorous martial and spiritual disci-

Nagas lead the

first

to the river, to bathe at the

procession

Sangam at
mo-

occupying a government-built 3,600acre tent city with roads, water, and

power lines. On every day of the fifty-

day

ritual,

worshipers stood

in the

waters of the winter Ganges

the astrologically most favorable

chilly

ment. Devout Hindus

amid a devotional din of chiming bells.

They chanted mantras, pouring offerings of milk into the river and setting

line the

proces-

sion route, straining to touch the holy

men and smearing their own foreheads with the dust nagas have trod.
Celebrants of the 1989 festival began
arriving at the river in early January,

20

adrift tiny

boats of stitched leaves

bearing fiowers and sweets, in thanks

for their

newfound

immortality.

A worshiper drenches herself

Jrom

toes to scalp in the

Ganges. Many celebrants can

be heard chanting a Hindu
prayer to the Seven Sacred
Rivers: "O, Ganges! O, Yamuna! O, GodavariJ O, Saraswatil
O, Narmada, Sindhu, Kaveri!
May you all be pleased to
be manifest in these waters!"

21

Agha and took

and

the former porter

another twenty to

his precious passport

on a profitable tour of the world including the United

fore the
in

American Revolution.

All

see a

and

to see

these examples are generally discounted by

who

human

that

life

is

It

believed that at

humans increased through

on the observation

that

much

the

first

among mammals

the animal. Fossils

show

ravaged by famine, disease, and war, tend

their forties or early fifties no better

reasons

is

shorter.

it

is

to

these favored

be cut off

to

odds of long

life

in

than

were enjoyed by late-nineteenth-century Europeans.

like

These

based

statistical outlines

of

life

expectancy deal with

the actual length of time the average person in a given so-

the greater the

ciety

can expect

to live. Important as these figures are to

body weight the longer

governments, insurance companies, product advertisers,

hominids had

and demographers, they do not address the issue of human

that early

modern
spans were much

smaller brains for their body sizes than do

humans; thus

in

such nations as Ethiopia, Somalia, and Bangladesh, often

span of proto-

life

evolution. This notion

brain weight in proportion to the

is

for clear

has never reached the years claimed by people

Zaro Agha.

lived

mod-

instead look at the past and

span that has increased

developed nations. People

cultures

933 and died not long thereafter.

ern authorities on aging,

years for those lucky enough

now survive to an average age of more than seven

decades. In many underdeveloped countries, by contrast,
death still comes much sooner. Present-day inhabitants of

someone born beAgha went home to Turkey

where the curious flocked

States,

live in highly

thirty

thought that their

life

Hominid brain weights grew rapidly

presumed

until

The puzzle remains: Pestilence and violence

potential.

what

aside,

Some

about

is

the longest a

gerontologists,

human can live?

scientists who study

aging and

that longevity in-

the problems of the aged, think they have an answer. Based

creased accordingly and reached a plateau at about that

not only on biological research but also on the work of an-

100,000 years ago, so

time.

It

it

is

appears that the brain-to-body ratio has not

changed since then, although no one can say

there has not been

some growth

in,

thropologists

for certain

cieties,

and 120

years.

By

this age, they

if it

life

span

is

contend, the

has survived

all

the mis-

Furthermore, according to most ger-

ably during historical times even without any

lives

help from evolution. Historians have deter-

ontologists, despite the multitudes of experiments tried over

that ciUzens of

years of the Christian

Rome during the early

era, when the Roman

Many Romans

years, on average.

longer, but infant mortality

and

eases were cruel oddsmakers

and the low probability of a long

the multitudes

who

was

earlier.

and

all

the medical marvels of the last hun-

dred years, this ultimate

human term

probably has not been

lengthened by a twinkling since modern

lived far

earlier

those days,

sarily

humans

replaced

hominids on the evolutionary scene.

But

infectious disin

decades

the centuries

Empire flourished, lived a mere twenty-two

some

authorities say those limits are not neces-

permanent. "On an evolutionary scale, the

human

life

strongly biased by

span has increased," notes Leonard Hayflick, director of the

died in childhood. By the beginning of

University of Florida's Center for Gerontological Studies.

life

the twentieth century almost 2,000 years later-better

ing conditions, disease control,
to three

10

maximum human

haps, diseases, and flawed genes that normally claim most

spans, of course, have increased remark-

mined

two

body simply wears out, even

years, because the increase could be too small to measure.

Iife

they estimate that the

between

say, the last 10,000

and sociologists among long-lived human so-

"This fact

liv-

and medical care had added

decades to the average

century after that, improvements

combined with modern medicine

life

life

span. In less than a

in sanitation

to extend

and

life

is

important because

span, even

if it

it

implies that the

has been fixed

for millennia,

human
has the

potential to increase in the future."

Caleb

nutrition

expectancy

sity

22

E.

Finch, professor of gerontology at the Univer-

of Southern California in Los Angeles, and Robert M.

concluded that Transcendental Meditation, as taught

Sapolsky, a Stanford University biologist, point out that

tually

some

by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, could

species do not age, or senesce, as science terms

"Startlingly

man

life."

species things are otherwise. Bristlecone

their

average age was eighty-one were randomly assigned

pine trees and rockfish, certain Parameciums and

queens, to

cial insect

ecause

name

were trained

do not wear out, individuals

The other categories had

southwestern United States,

practice, will ever

some 4,600 years.

an open question. But

in the

for

In

some

in-

queen who uses

during her once-ever mating

in

workers

it

who up

till

life

on

earth, since

complex and seem

would never do her

nonaging species

to

have evolved

mammalian

the

is

why

in

stretch the sullen

were

general

human

people believe the answer to extending

bonds of the

is

flesh into

medical expectation. Such claims are

studies of meditation's effects

human

live longer, just

span

life

is still

as they have since

life

all.

awakened

for the

purpose,

for
in

days except

own

another

life:

in

settled as

mounds

of earth

caves, or beneath piles of stones

mark

the burial

"The

critic

and historian

dead," wrote social

city of the

dead

the force that can

the

dimensions beyond

and most imposing

settled

off in style increased.

relics

peoples believed

in

site.

city of the living."

down, the concern

"The

oldest,

for

seeing

most numerous,

of our ancestors are funerary,"

noted English historian Arnold Toynbee. Almost

on health and longevity

if

apparently constructed to permanently

As humankind

but

for

existences, they

dead comfortably

Lewis Mumford, "antedates the

is

their

know

the settlements of

the earth in those

However changeable

at pains to see their

heaped

They

difficult to test,

dig into paleolithic campsites

who wandered

waiting to be

be-

who

was nothing permanent about

the graves.

those species never age.

enlightenment

to the

a good guess that people will

awakening of humanity.

people

in.

origi-

earlier than

not to be found in the physical realm of science at

insist that spiritual

is

it

continue seeking ways to

species. Obviously,

could be of great interest and importance to

ings to discover exactly

add a day

then have de-

appears that nonsenescence was the

species that do age, such as

some

untreated group.

Nevada

the colony, because old age itself

Some

significantly lower survival

cent species, or of yoga, meditation, or any metaphysical

that there

it

all.
still

est living tree, a bristlecone pine in the Sierra

she would linger on indefinitely, an unproductive burden to

are less

at

subjects were

Whether more knowledge of evolution or nonsenes-

is

Anthropologists

of

for the

TM

believed to be the world's old-

what

voted their lives to feeding and protecting her. Otherwise,

way

TM, others

in

and some received no treatment

rates only 77.3 percent

deliberately killed by the

nal

homes

kinds of mental control and relax-

After three years, 100 percent of the

outside force, such as a predator or drought.

sperm she took

Interestingly,

One group was coached

in different

ation procedures,

live virtually forever

sect species, a nonsenescing

the

to several groups.

so-

alive.

has survived

all

Seventy-three residents of eight nursing

were they not eventually eliminated by an

In fact,

up

some

do not senesce."

just a fev^,

their cells

those species would

in

extend hu-

"literally

in a collaborative ar-

enough," the pair reported

many

"for

ticle,

it.

some form

of afterlife, but

in

all

ancient

a sense the

that diet and chronological age being equal people

A 1982 survey showed

who

factory

had been regularly meditating

years tested as "biologi-

preserved. That

was why

villagers in dry

sand that forestalled deterioration, and

have yielded surprising

cally

results.

younger" than subjects

a shorter span,

and the

for

who had been

latter in turn

meditating over

were

1989 report on a study by

five

at

life

mummified

biologically

younger than a control group that did not meditate

Egyptians sought physical immortality; they thought a satisafter

death was obtainable only

their

if

the

body was

they buried the corpses of poor

pharaohs with elaborate ceremony and

away in gigantic stone pyramidal tombs.

Nowadays, some modern occultists and paranormal

tucked them safely

all.

Harvard scholars ac23

New World founofyouth, sixteenth-centuty

Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de
Leon (standing, lower right)
pauses with his men beside a
promising stream in this
In search of a
tain

nineteenth-century engraving.
Ponce de Leon explored Bimini,
Florida, and the Yucatan in his
fruitless quest for immortality.

theorists

view the pyramids as more than

just funereal safe-

Celts

deposit boxes. Pyramid enthusiasts believe the forms emit

remain the center of a thriving

bodies by preventing decay. The body

in turn

was noted by

to preserve

would "broad-

Galen

sell

number of

to

pyramid-style contraptions that supposedly concentrate the

and thus by implication, although

may preclude outright claims extend life.

"life force,"

tion

notion that

first

eons ago

tion

gripped the

is

life,

some

or, in

imagina-

torian Herodotus,

famed

The Greek

for his

tury

BC

of a Persian king

whose

fifth

rejuvenated those

who drank

it,

enabling

120 years. Herodotus accepted the

whole

to his readers,

who

in turn

tale,

some

passing

are

his-

ured

wa-

was probably

Its

along

New

World. As

tack in Florida in

52

wound

best-known ad-

in

an Indian

century drew
lift

many

to

for

as long as

it

in

who

it,

has also

scams of one kind or another. Venetian

fig-

traveler

one while

especially ingenious

an isolated and

and ornamented with gold were surrounded. Polo

said,

fruit

and

Through a network of conduits,

.

pure water" flowed

finally,

the ruler

peopled his secret valley solely with "elegant and beautiful

damsels, accomplished

in the arts

of singing

dancing,

and especially those of dalliance and amorous allurement."

ruler's territory

valley's

European spas of the nineteenth

patrons

young

has been the object of ear-

throughout the garden and buildings. And

at-

real-life substitutes in

still

have survived.

The whole place was sealed

have discovered

him when

to

from then on. Neither the book

"streams of wine, milk, honey and

variety of healing waters.

his care

every fragrant shrub."

While the fountain eluded Ponce de Leon, millions of

latter-day sybarites

who came

by a "luxurious garden, stored with every delicious

turned out, however, he found death

it

The unnamed doctor said he could pro-

local ruler created a virtual paradise in

ture

a Spanish governor of Puerto Rico

instead of youth, suffering a mortal

many treatises, Gawho claimed to be able

his

secret valley. There, palaces filled with silk-covered furni-

named Juan Ponce de Leon, who in 1513 set out to track

down the rumored fountain in the unexplored reaches of
the

book by a colleague

Marco Polo learned of an

The idea of a fountain of youth proved one of the most

herent

one of

In

crossing Persia on his thirteenth-century journey to China.

apparently readily be-

and enduring of human dreams.

Rome, where he had the time and

nest quests, immortality, or the promise of

cen-

lieved that youth could be regained so easily.

alluring

known

Of course,

to live to
it

be physician

nor any descriptions of its supposed life-extension methods

spies reported

a spring of magical water in Ethiopia. The

ter

to

his historical reputation as the founder of

and stayed under

accounts of

the Greco-Persian wars, wrote in the

in

vide immortality to those

on anyone who drinks from it

it.

win

to prevent old age.

that of a water source that

cases, bathes in

Pergamum, and rose

Emperor Commodus

len described a

confers immortality, or at least a long and

youthful

gained attention as a sports doctor, patching up

gladiators at

facilities to

immortality

in

Galen, a second-century-AD Greek physician.

experimental physiology.

legal cau-

human

first

wounded

cast the energy to the soul" to guard the soul against death.

Modern promoters of pyramid power

tourist industry today.

Another example of antiquity's interest

various kinds of energy rays with life-enhancing power.

They say ancient Egyptians employed these rays

and then by the Romans almost two millennia ago and

off

by an impregnable fortress

narrow entrance. From time

the chief

from the

summoned

built

rest of the

across the

to time. Polo wrote,

to his court certain

courageous boys

and young men, between the ages of twelve and twenty,

believed the waters would

the burdens of old age. Early Europeans treated these

train for service in his guard.

Muhammad's promise

outpourings of mineral waters as holy wells or springs,

them of

where prayers were offered and healing received. The hot

the faithful

who obeyed

springs at Bath, England, are typical; they were used by the

ruler to his

young charges,

24

the prophet

to

Each day he would remind

of paradise to

the laws of Islam. Well, said the

he, too,

"had the power of ad-

25
L-

jl?'.

, /

of pleasure; and

mitting to Paradise such as he should choose to favor." Af-

some days

ter

opium and

of

he would have them drugged with

this,

carried off

through secret passageways

that others

curse rather

running with milk, honey, and wine;

they were surrounded by beautiful

obliged their every fantasy

women

ing fact

There they declared

who

assured them that

if

times has crossed the line from legend to seem-

and back again. The basic story involves a Dutch

strike terror in

and bring misfortune

to

any voyagers un-

lucky enough to meet his ghost ship on the high seas.

they had been to paradise, courtesy of their

ruler,

in

whose behavior toward his passengers and

crew during a storm was so brutal that he was condemned
by God to sail through the gale forever. Not only must he
live eternally with his own iniquity, but he also is doomed to

or five days, they were drugged again

to court.

harbour of rest to which they

sea captain

until, "intoxi-

lieved themselves "assuredly in Paradise." Af-

and returned

many

that

cated with excess of enjoyment," they be-

ter four

to a

which immortality functioned as

than boon is that of the Flying Dutchman, a tale

Another case

here the lads awakened in a sumptuous place

who

have gone

funeral they lament

themselves can never hope to arrive."

into his

hidden garden of delights.

literally

whenever they see a

As a legend, the Dutchman has provided a dramatic

they remained loyal and

fought selflessly in his defense, they would on their earthly

structure for stories,

deaths return to that place for eternity. As a consequence,

undying captain and his ship apparently refuse to stay

said

Marco

Polo, the chief

was served by a

fierce

band of "disciplined assassins, none of

ly loyal

terror at the risk of losing their

own

and

fierce-

whom

ways been entwined. No one ever wanted

without the

vitality to

enjoy

it.

Many

the

of a mortal being

a rejuvenation

rite

who

gift

her

human

myths

for instance,

made him immortal

lover, Tithonus.

but

to grant

of immortality,

immor-

er,

still lies,

him

in a

room where,

upper hand

until at last

Eos

presumably, he

babbling and cursing his immortality.

In Gulliver's Travels, satirist

Jonathan

Swift presents the "Struldbrugs," people

who

never die but

ing. Eventually, the

who keep

ag-

Struldbrugs "find

themselves cut off from

all

of

possibility

Her face covered with a burial

cloth, the early Christian

martyr Saint Cecilia lies dead

of deep neck wounds in this
seventeenth-century statue by

Madenm. Tradition holds

that Madcma modeled the
statue after the saint's own
body when it was disinterred,
miraculously preserved, fourteen centuries after her death.

Carlo

26

howev-

seem never

have gained the

in-

granted only what she asked. So Tithonus never died but

to shut

Possible negative aspects

clude eternal youth in her wish, and literal-minded Zeus

had

a close

tour of duty in Far Eastern waters.

al-

vividly.

But she forgot to

grew more and more decrepit as he aged,

most notable was

June 1881 by the future King George

crewmen of their Royal Navy traifiing ship. The apparition

was bathed in "a strange red light, as of a phantom ship all
aglow." Admiral Karl Donitz, commander of the German
navy in World War II, said he saw the fearful ship when on a

instructive

dawn, pleaded with Zeus

in

of eternal

The Greek myth of Tithonus also makes the point

Eos, goddess of

the vessel. Probably

England, his brother Prince Albert Victor, and thirteen

so restored him each time to the prime age of thirty years.

tality to

saw

al-

shed his skin every twenty years,

that not only

in

For centuries, sailors the world over have claimed

view reported

demonstrate the concern. One Icelandic saga,

tells

they

felt

lives."

The themes of eternal youth and immortality have

life

fiction.

poems, and a famous opera. But the

to

over the enticement of an

eternally youthful

Natu-

life.

enough, fresh blood

rally

played a role in the possibilities

of this from very early on.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

tells

of

a blood transfusion administered by the Greek sorceress

Medea
to the

to bring eternal youth

aged King Aeson. After

brewing up ram's blood,

owl's flesh, snakeskin, and a

and

variety of roots, herbs,

plants,

Medea plunged her

dagger into a vein

in the old

man's throat and poured

the
At

magic mixture; the king

leaped from his sickbed,

Greek sorceress
Medea stirs a concoction of
herbs and aiumal parts meant
to rejuvenate her royal fatherin-law, Aeson, who reclines on
right, the

in

filled

with strength he had not

felt

for forty years.

It

cushions in this sixteen thcentury painting by Girolamo

Macchietti. According to the
myth, her potion reversed

is

thought that a simi-

lar, real-life

attempt at rejuve-

was

nation by transfusion

performed on sixty-year-old

the effects of aging, restoring

the invalid king to active life.

Pope Innocent

1492,

VIII in

but with decidedly less success. This grisly operation,

which has been debatably described as history's

first

transfusion, required the sacrifice of three boys,

blood was collected and infused into the aging

there been any medically

sound aspect

whose
Had

pontiff.

at all to the

procedure, which there probably

blood

was

whole

not, the

ignorance of blood types and compatibility

ments would surely have

doomed the misnamed Innocent. So justice was
soon served;
the

27

pope

I'firiiiliiMii

the
KneipP *^'Vl"ofv,ateT on
receive

gash^

i^ee and ^^f

^istreatmen^

pcnd,

gush,"''"'*

"P*^

ICneipP'*
villflg^^'^l^t

part of an
water cure
J

Below,
^

feetrejoice,

.A^refoot wading,

o"""^
,

.^toconK-

as

it

^^^

ipp

called

..ate feet's

best

fjd entices
lur^l^^^^,no

peciAUffCiiK
^,em*enineiee"*^^,o%velong

famous ^"f'PffaihetSet

teamen
based on a

.^,,fe

edtted*^^;^^dsemmatv
an
I

impovensn

a^

fallen

deni.Kneipps^'"' ..auvincves

tnan
The young

curative

ha

^^^^^^^^^e

po^^f^^rous

prescnp-

and
jTn brooks
gradually
KneipP
^ons.
^^^^'^^^d
the Wt\e

regained

'

-best fnend.

1^^^

^^^^f^^

WSnal-:-rr^meof*^^

tried cleri'

V-ie'^-^-d'^^^
Let grass.

Treaiment
.

volved

fo^f

so-called

aliments >nof w^iet,

^es

8^* ^er*e torso,

Ajnong

<>>r^
patterns for
which were
head ^^^\oVtf cures
Umbs, or
\

T*e age of

seventy-;-

cier

those

Nathaniel

yuawr

his

life

must have represented a

ran counter to the tradition in

failure of spirit;

many

and vigor could best be ensured by

Even

religious figures

who do

it

or their paying

There were clients aplenty eager to pay

for the service.

who

learned to take

clients eternally

certainly

cultures that long

make themselves

the Middle Ages, trying to

died not long after the travesty. His secular effort to extend

life

young.

saintly behavior.

Wealth and fame often rewarded those

not achieve the reputed

advantage of the desire to

immortality of the blessed guru Babaji are often thought by

public's faith in

live forever,

and

to exploit the

quack medicines that promised not only

to

their

admirers to be able to thwart the physical decay of

cure illness but to restore, the vigor of youth. Itinerant ped-

their

bodies for an extraordinary length of time after death.

dlers

More than a hundred cases of incorruption, as the phenomenon

is

known, are recorded

One

Catholic church.
Cecilia, a

noble

in the

annals of the

of the most bizarre

Roman

martyred

in

AD

is

177.

and respected alchemists

potions that

Roman

became

The Red Dragon,

that of Saint

icines

would be

as well

alike dispensed widely sold

known by

a later era.

names

The

have helped cure down-to-earth

Her execution

brand

Swan as patent medSome of the concoctions may

for instance, or

in

their

the discipline of folk

ills;

was bungled by an inexperienced headsman, who only

medicine, after

partly decapitated her. For three days she lay dying, with

and

her face to the floor and her hands crossed in prayer. Then

youth, the

was buried in that position.

More than a millennium later, in 1599, the basilica
dedicated to Saint Cecilia was restored, and her original cypress coffin was discovered there inside a marble sarcophagus. When the coffin lid was

as their ingredients, as evidenced by the recipe for this re-

she

pried open, according to reports from the large audience

error.

was developed over centuries of trial

But when it came to extending life and renewing
claims made for various elixirs were as fantastic
all,

puted cure-all:
"Pulverize and pass through a sieve an ounce of
soccotrine aloes, one

drachm of zedoary, one drachm of

gentian, one of the finest saf-

Flourishing a Latin banner reading "Let us pursue the nature

of the shattered elements, " an alchemist seeks the elixir of life in
this richly ornamented page from a seventeenth-century text.

fron,

one of the

finest rhubarb,

one of white agaric, one of

that attended. Saint Cecilia's

Venice treacle, one of kina,

body was found

to

be com-

and place

still

in its dy-

pint of

pletely intact

and

ing position

with

wound

still

tales as a

stories

life.

tell

Many

shade

it

for nine days,

in the

morning and

Open on

add more brandy,

technique for

overcoming the normal

of mortal

evening.

in

When

limits

tenth day,

filter."

drunk, according

to its creator, this

traditional

add a

good brandy, place

in

shaking

visible.

Black magic features

many

whole

the neck

in a bottle,

marvelous

medication "transforms the

of characters such

as Doctor Faustus, a learned

body, removes

German who pledged

parts, its incompleteness,

his soul
for

transforms

its

youth, knowledge, and magi-

pure, noble

and

to the devil in

cal

exchange

powers. Such tales

have been inspired by

its

harmful
and

crudity into a
indestructible

being." Whatever else the

may

elixir did, its

real-life

alcohol content

undoubtedly provided a "pure.

alchemists and magicians in

A happy infant smiles

through

the infirmities of age in this

1885 advertisement for a

patent medicine unappetizingly

named Burdock Blood Bitters.

Herbs and alcohol were the
bases of many such supposedly
rejuvenating preparations.

30

"

nQA r M

iL

rii

niicrAi

it

ki

noble" vision to some imbibers.

One

Paracelsus (meaning "beyond Cel-

excellent sales technique

of those days

was

sus," a

man

to claim that a

renowned

first-century Ro-

The son of a min-

physician).

panacea had been discovered or

ing engineer, Paracelsus learned

invented by one of the more ac-

metallurgy as a boy and got his

claimed alchemists of the time.

medical training not only from doc-

Medieval Europe supported hun-

tors but

dreds of these protoscientists,

sorcerers,

whose

an early champion of the idea that

laboratories

were

filled

with

experiments aimed at transmuting

is

ering formulas for eternal youth.

A wrinkled and bloated Pope Innocent VIII

said to have attempted to extend his life through a
transfusion of the blood ofyoung boys.

Europe by the Arabs,

with chemicals. In laying a founda-

ers,

who were

tion for the

all

generations, Paracelsus

their follow-

they sought to find and isolate the universal agent, of-

ten called the philosophers' stone, with

gold, youth,
for this

life

itself could

magical substance

in English

as

which

all

was

al iksir,

ma

name

a term that survives

nal youth gained force in

called for a mixture of gold

make

Europe during the twelfth century,

Roger Bacon, one of the most learned

teenth century, thought

that characterized

life

humankind had

men

of the

and, as for himself,

to

anew

thir-

and

months and then

salt to

purified

be steeped

diseases of the body and mind pass

"all

nails, hair, teeth,

and

skin,

horse

it

would

away" not

which would grow

after falling out.

coction

enough

living

in

by a variety of pro-

Whether Paracelsus risked the side

before the Flood by immoral behavior

became

for four

mention

lost the longevity

and poor personal hygiene. He recommended clean

life.

cedures. Administered daily in "a good wine,"

eter-

spreading with the return of Crusaders from the Middle

East.

succeeding

in

a significant contribution to

of death, touted an elixir of immortality. His recipe

dung
promised

for the elixir that

scientific ap-

Yet he, too, hoping to find a quick solution to the enig-

elixir.

The alchemic search

made

the quest for a better, longer

things-

be fashioned. One Arab

more

proach to medicine that gradually took hold

particularly active in the

seventh century AD. Like

in the

have a chemical

basis and might thus be treated

Alchemy was probably introduced

arcane arts

and alchemists. He was

a disease could

base metals into gold and discov-

to

from barbers, midwives,

is

unknown.

In

effects of his

any event, the mixture

to protect the alchemist's

own

life

con-

was not

against the haz-

ards of his habits and behavior: He died at forty-eight in a

a Franciscan monk.

barroom brawl

But he also believed that alchemy could prolong the

in Salzburg.

span then about 50 years to more than

130 years. Bacon cited numerous cases of "secret arts" that
lengthened life. A typical story was that of a man who un-

The use of alchemy

covered a golden

preparing life-extending potions as well. Ancient Hindu

contemporary

was

life

wondrous

used some

to

jar

while plowing a Sicilian

liquid;

wash

when

his face,

the

field. In

plowman drank

he was "renewed

in

fined to

the jar
it

and

medicine,

mind and

took the

known

search for long

life

was not con-

The Orient has a long

tradition of

as Ayurveda, had a branch called Kaya

jor area of inquiry

was

ma-

rasayana, the study of potions,

whose most popular product was called soma, an organic

Of Bacon's successors, perhaps the most famous was

who

in the

cultures.

Kulp, the science of rejuvenation. Within that realm, a

body beyond measure." Bacon never discovered an elixir,

but he survived nonetheless to the advanced age of 80.
a Swiss-born physician and alchemist

Western

elixir

name

one
32

alleged to rejuvenate the

text,

the preparation of

whole body. According

soma was

as important as

to
its

Soma, ancient India's elixir of

life, was identified with a god
by the same name, who appears armed for battle in the
woodcaning at left. Known as
the wine of immortality, the
mystical soma was said to prevent death and halt decay.

ingredients

The

adepts.

go

fruit,

whose

and was an

intricate

elixir called for

wild

dill,

identity

business

known

secret.

The

climbing asparagus, yam, gink-

wild fennel, and at least one

was

visible only to the

only to

component

However, according

ent Hindu medical text, the Sushruta Samhita.

believers.

goes on to describe an elaborate

wherein the potion does

an inner chamber

to a differ-

soma

text

most pious and grateful

its

ritual

magic work. The patient enters

after scouring his

system with emetics

and purgatives. Seven harrowing days

follow. After drink-

mixture of ingredients but the juice of a single plant created

ing carefully administered potions of

soma, the patient

by the gods to

vomits blood, breaks out

and "worms creep

forestall

decay and death;

it

is

is

not a

reportedly

33

in swellings,

out from

all

gernails

and

"all filth

parts of the body."

hair

During

out.

fall

The muscles wither and

this

in diet

and conduct." On the eighth day,

and "the skin

assume

will

es will "witness ten thousand

enjoyment of a

new and

with

grow

who

summers on

finally

elixirs

ascribed to Wei Poyang, an important

known

down

make

mountains

into the

own

to a dog,

first

it

his

treatise dealing

When

elixir.

was

it

which promptly

fell

dead. Turning to his disciples, Wei asked whether he

should take the

full

went

of immortality. Wei

completed, Wei fed

emerg-

earth in the

is

with three disciples to

the soft hue of a blue lotus

or of a ruby stone." The beautiful figure

happier fate

alchemist and author of the oldest

organ-

in the

rejuvenation begins. Muscles, fingernails, and hair

again,

period the body expels

and obnoxious matter accumulated

ism through errors

variety of these rejuvenating elixirs died from the effects.

fin-

elixir,

then answered his

own

question.

Having abandoned the world, leaving behind family and

youthful body."

was

so-called

friends to seek the

Tao of the immortals, he could not turn

was credited with according the

members of some tribes a life span of 400 years. The brew
was prepared annually in spring and served to users in the

back. Dying of the

elixir,

Yet another Hindu recipe for longevity

viper waters, a potion that

morning, on an empty stomach,

were thought by many

nation.

stance,

for fifteen days.

WW ^

ei lifted

(Snakes

societies to offer promise of rejuve-

was common belief in medieval Europe, for inthat when snakes shed their skins they renewed

It

dead. The remaining two disciples, lacking

their brother's faith,

life,

cure for age in which patients would eat nothing but the

in the East,

ligious tradition that

Taoism, the ancient Chinese

reached

its

even with

follower,

re-

pinnacle about 300 BC, also

bodies of the

men and dog and descended

and the dog were

ing to join the immortals,

all

lefi:,

Wei wrote a

mortality slip away.

the source of

all

things. Proper living could '^ad to

with the Tao, a happy state that included,

efits,

eternal

xian,

humans who

life.

Taoist lore

was

among

is

union

their master, the story

seeking harmony with

The search

many

Taoists began to

on gold

ar

ergy

d on cinnabar, a mercury ore that

Historians suspect that

AD

chance
letter

wistfully, they

at im-

but not

were

"filled

energy was never confined

and organic potions. Human sexual en-

was understandably viewed

as a potent force for reju-

attempts to achieve immortality. Not surprisingly,

ies

is

some were demonstrably

during the Tang Dynasty,

61 8 to 907, seven rulers

who

unequivocally dominated by men, virtually

corded schemes

longevity potions, even though

fatal.

let their

doubting

venation, and a variety of sexual themes recur in traditional

it.

also a deadly poison. Hopeful oldsters paid well for these

which reigned from

for life-prolonging

entirely to chemical

Taoist alchemical techniques for gaining immortality

relied heavily

letter to the

two found the

concludes

Before leav-

with sadness and regret."

other ben-

concentrate more on controlling nature in this fashion than

in

the

had

life.

also replete with tales of

practiced yoga and alchemy to achieve

immortality. Over the centuries,

When

to

however, Wei, his loyal

restored to

was

ineffable true reality that

pref-

only by instant death. They abandoned the

disciples, pointing out that they

Tao the

was

erable to a supposed immortality accessible

employed alchemy. The fundamental element of Taoism

the concept of the

fell

decided that everyday

pain and sorrow,

its

a nearby town. After they had

chickens that had been fed minced vipers.)

Elsewhere

of his students decid-

^V^v

humans. French author Harcouet de Langeville discussed a

flesh of

life-

ed to follow his master's example; he too

WW

miracle on

One

and slumped

^J^^

^^^^^
"^^^

same

the potion to his lips

less to the ground.

themselves; not unreasonably, alchemists and physicians

thought that snake flesh would work the

he concluded, could be no worse

than living without the Tao.

for

extending
In the

life

for

34

all

the re-

transmuting the sex drive into a force

were devised from the male point of view.

Old Testament,

David was advised to ward

tried a

in societ-

for

example, the aging King

off the ailments of his

advanced

A winemaker (above) adds

the

gutted bodies ofpoisonous

snakes to an um in this scene
from China's Bama County.
Later, he will steep a special
I

herb and rice wine in the um

for six months before bottling
the contents for sale snakes

^
*

.>

and all in containers like the

smaller ones at left. Some believe such reptile wines account
for the apparent longevity of

Bama County residents, who

include one of the world's highest concentrations of centenarians, according to Chinese

census records. The most salubrious liquor of all is said to be

one brewed from geckos, with
exactly 1,368 of the lizards
used in each um of the wine.

A Banquet Held Once Eveiy 3,000 Yeaf

In Taoist lore, immortality

ward of those who lead

Is

the re-

solitary lives

of ascetic virtue, acquiring so

vital force that

much

they continue to exist

Having shed
cocoons, such
immortals travel through the universe,
enjoying perfect happiness. They meet
at peach banquets given by Xi Wang
Mu, Queen Mother of the West.
Long ago, Xi Wang Mu joined with
the male god Mu Kung to engender
heaven, earth, and all living beings.
after their bodies die.

their physical shells like

Now

she lives

in the

Kunlun moun-

tains (below), guarding a magical tree

that bears

peaches capable of conferThe fruit ripens on

ring immortality.

her birthday every 3,000 years.

The
site,

celestial feast that follows (oppo-

above) includes not only fresh

peaches, but also such exotic fare as

monkey

lips, bear paws, dragon livers,

and phoenix marrow. According to
one ancient text, the meal is "festive,"
with "music on invisible instruments,
and songs not from mortal tongues."

The Kunlun mountains, here glowing through a mist, are said

to

In an eighteenth-century
soapstone carving, the
Taoist longevity god

Shou-lao holds a peach

containing a miniature
crane. The fruit and the
bird are common Chi-

nese symbols of long life.

house Xi Wang Mu's nine-tiered

36

city

of gold next to the elusive Lake of Gems.

Symbols of eternal

J^^^

^0

In the eighteenth-century Chinese tapestry above, Xi Wang

Mu arrives seated on a phoenix

(upper left comer) as one of her
peach banquets begins. On the
platform she is approaching,
the gods of happiness, wealth,

and

longevity greet Xi

Wang

Mu's other immortal guests.

rebirth,

pair ofphoenixes spread iridescent wings in the eighteenthcentury embroidered silk below. Marrow from the mythical
birds' bones is said to be a delicacy of the peach banquets.

company

years by seeking the

of a young virgin. The king's

servants scoured Israel for a suitable candidate and re-

turned with a beautiful maiden

named

Abishag. She nursed

King David, waited on him, and lay with him to provide

warmth, although the two never "knew" each other

The king's response

biblical sense.

tions

is

made

to Abishag's ministra-

not recorded, but the treatment seems only to have

days more pleasant, not longer.

his last

in the

Rome appeared

citizen of ancient

have better

to

same concept, which today is known as the

of gerocomy. According to one report, a man

luck with the

practice

named

Clodius Hermippus

L.

years; the epitaph

on

reputed to have lived 115

is

tombstone, supposedly found cen-

his

turies later, credited his longevity to "the aid of the breath

of

young women, much

cians."

amazement

to the

of his physi-

The inscription ended with a recommendation

"lead your

life

accordingly."

The chronicler of Hermippus's method was

cian,

Cohausen by name, who

wrote a treatise that

the Life

down

laid

guidelines "for Prolonging

with every exhalation, people breathe out

of their essential selves.

and bad

Those

surrounded

cited

was

"five

wives and

in,

Among the other

who died at

fifteen or

beautiful

tian really lived

spreading good

man

old

imbuing himself with the

that of a Venetian

young and

that

"particles"

Cohausen reasoned, an

their exhalations,

very essence of youth.

some

was

hours by healthy young people

for several

would breathe

theor\'

particles could transmit their

anyone who breathed them

effects alike. Thus,

a physi-

eighteenth century

in the

and Vigor of Man." Cohausen 's

qualities to

to

115,

twenty concubines,

women." Whether

15 years

cases Cohausen

is

having had
all

of

them

the venerable Vene-

debatable; whether his wives

and concubines aged more quickly

for

having breathed the

man was not recorded.

whose resources were more

exhalations of the old

For those

hausen revealed another technique

cial particles

from

be confined

to

year.

The

human

beds

air in the

in

limited,

To obtain the extended life offered by

Co-

this twelfth-century Taoist paper talisman,

for distilling the benefi-

breath. Five

young virgins were

a small room,

in

its

owner was meant to bum it and

swallow its ashes with water.

to

the spring of the

room would seep through

a hole in the

38

^^

>

In

lovemaking positions

like the

one on

this seventeenth-centiuy cup, Taoist

adepts
courted immortality by approaching,
then shunning, sexual climax.

was merely forty-seven.

The comparison may be skewed,

wall into a bottle exposed to the

cool outside

air.

The vapors from

the virginal exhalations

dense

in

of

elixir

ulation

would con-

however, by a function of

the bottle, providing an

life.

"A few drops

wrote Cohausen, "given

of

in the

selection:

when

it,"

begin-

Roger Bacon also recommended the

pectancy

long

licentious behavior.
distinctly

have looked

absent from the

ophies, such as Tantrism,

was

identified with

life.

ritualized sexual

course, a male Taoist adept

experience inter-

was enjoined

to practice coitus

reservatus, always stopping short of his

own orgasm

youth
with

in

semen thus held in

and rejuvenate the

entire system.

in

maximum

is

of them

James

or

more times

in

a single day and night, preferably with a

women

are confusing.
in

Perhaps

beneficial to health,

some

was

is

to build

world

the

own ends by

and Chinese peo-

A modern

immor-

counter-

in

not surprising, then, that contemporary

have journeyed

to

remote corners of the

search of long-lived peoples and their secrets.

drew

cabamba

in

the attention of experts:

and the Andean

among

the three

were immediately

apparent. All are mountainous regions, and

the urban areas

sixty-seven years while that of the rest of the pop39

village of Vil-

Ecuador.

Certain similarities

expectan-

In

Caucasus Mountains of the Soviet Union, the Hunza

Valley of northern Pakistan,

findings

that thrived

life

finally satiated

airplane that crashed far off course

the 1970s, a trio of localities

The Shakers, a Utopian society

At the turn of the century, the Shakers'

it

women

nineteenth-century America, abjured sexual contact en-

tirely.

cy

is

Celtic,

virtually inaccessible.

downed

scientists as well

While modern researchers tend to agree that sexual

moderation

When

an impregnable fastness of the Himalayas.

should be

up the adept's immortality account.

activity in

"beyond the north

Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon. Hilton's fictional

survivors of a

of different partners. Finally, the

The

the mountain-locked valley of Shangri-la, described

thought, the adept should engage in this activity a dozen

number

all.

happy valley of extraordinary longevity was discovered by

advantage, according to Tao-

between fourteen and nineteen years old; older

were supposed to be deficient in the ching needed

live

the Hyperboreans brought about their

ist

in

after

ples have included accounts of similar outposts of

while

part

the

who

Legends from Hindu, Persian,

check was thought

To obtain

might be attainable

for a

leaping into the sea.

tality, all

man's

even imaginary lands

a land of perpetual sunshine.

life,

bringing his partner to a climax. The

to invigorate

the ages

wind." These fortunate beings enjoyed a thousand years of

fluid. In

still

life

perboreansliterally, those

the preservation of ching, a potent fluid

order to both preserve the ching and

philosophers of ancient Greece wrote longingly of the Hy-

For the Taoists, the key to

male semen and female menstrual

to far-distant or

promise that extended

other Eastern philos-

Taoism extolled

practices as a key to long

immortality

some

for

cannot banish the awareness of death's

life

And so savants and dreamers through

inevitability.

Taoist approach to immortality. Taoists considered sexual

like

ex-

in the general population.

Even arcane sexual and alchemic recipes

As a devout Franciscan monk, however, he was

abstinence unhealthy, and

life

reju

venating breath of a virgin to ward off old age.

Such circumspection was

infant mortality rate

necessarily lowered the average

The thirteenth-century English schol-

admonish against

they joined the society and had

whereas a high

and disperses the morbidic matter."

careful to

The Shakers were adults

therefore already survived childhood,

ning of an acute distemper, resolves

ar

self-

all

are far from

where an increasing proportion of the

Chosen

to

warm and revitalize

the aged King David by her

presence, the young Shunanr-

mite maiden Abishag arrives at

the royal bedside in this
nineteenth-century engraving.
According to the Bible, the
treatment failed; David died not
long after at the age of seventy.

world's population

more than

siderably

whom

seemed

lives. All

to possess con-

their share of centenarians,

members

able in the 1970s

in different

most of

variously

of society. For example, statistics avail-

national Soviet occasion that

showed

delegation from

that the proportion of centenari-

areas of the Caucasus ranged from 39 to 103

United States

who

was

128 and 141. The

cian Alexander Leaf,

at least 131.

television

was

crews and a

Moscow.

In 1972, Lasuria

3 per 100,000.

drew

was

1975, her age

celebration of her professed 140th birthday in 1974

per 100,000 inhabitants. At the time, the comparable figure

for the

woman. When she died in

given as somewhere between

oldest living

enjoyed excellent health and continued to be pro-

ductive

ans

now

was interviewed by American

who

physi-

decided at the time that she was

Only two years

earlier,

she had stopped work-

According to American anthropologist Sula Benet,

ing

spent several years studying the Caucasian people,

ready claiming to be over 100 years old, she had been the

they have been

known

for their longevity since ancient

farm where,

in the

typical

day

1940s and

al-

for Lasuria be-

gan with a small glass of vodka; lunch included a glass of

between the Black and

long-lived peoples in the mountains

local collective

farm's fastest tea-leaf picker.

and Arabian chronicles mention the

times. Greek, Persian,

on the

smoked

wine, and by day's end she would have

She was

a pack of

Caspian seas. Since the 1930s, Soviet gerontologists have

cigarettes.

been studying the old people of the Caucasus,

with great-grandchildren, tending a large vegetable garden,

termine not only

where

literacy

is

how
rare

old they

are a

difficult

and written records

trying to de-

contrast to the debility

in stark

ages

in

sweeping a large courtyard every day, and completely

task in areas

ing care of her

virtually nonexist-

entbut also how they maintain a health and vigor

common

even

at

that

^^

Soviet gerontologist counted 15,000 citizens of

who were

over the age of eighty.

others. One-quarter of the oldsters regularly

village to another,

daily strolls

around

the age of ninety

still

walked from

worked

Visiting researchers

and

A number who were

""^^^
I

past

at their lifelong jobs.

journalists found a rich trove

of Lasuria's great age drew widespread

publicity but

was not

least in part

because of discrepancies

if example,

^^^^^

and an additional 45 percent enjoyed

their gardens.

universally believed, at

years

with Alexander Leaf, she

memory

of the time in her youth

when

first

her

husband considered, but decid-

in the

when

home

north" the Crimean

War

homeland on

Benet, Lasuria told of fleeing her

War when she was

this version of the story,

she didn't return

skillful

horsemanship. His friend

Markhti Tarkil, 104, daily clambered

to

bathe

leged

in the frigid

17,

down

waters of a mountain

Gabriel Chapnian routinely

the fields, going up

and down

river.

worked

hills that

was

a difficult slope

At an

tiny,

married only at the age of

surprising.

much

Where few can read

only a form of

younger Western researchers.

The one who gained the most

Two

a Turkish

a young

for ten

girl. In

years and

forty.

Anthropologists suggest that such confusions are not

al-

half days in

exhausted

first

of 1853.

interviewed by Russian-speaking Sula

boat during the Crimean

demonstrating his

war

to fight in a "big

Temur Tarba,

a 100-year-old native of Abkhazia, delighted

story. For

shared a

ed against, leaving

later,

life

in the

in talking

of anecdotes about the energetic elderly of the Caucasus.

in

visit rela-

great-grandmother

I ^ various accounts she gave of her

Almost two-thirds of the group took care of themselves

without help; only 7 percent were altogether dependent on

needs, including laundry. To

tak-

simply boarded a bus and rode off alone.

younger

ews

the republic of Georgia

one

own

tives in a distant village, the dauntless

is

other societies.

One

vigorous in her retirement, playing

still

amusement

or write, storytelling

but also the primary

is

not

means

of

preserving a tribe's history. Decades of tales told by relanotoriety, though,

was

tives

white-haired Khfaf L^suria, acclaimed as the world's

and neighbors

detailed

41

in

small villages pass along a wealth of

knowledge about the major and minor events

that

In these

still

photos, the

mo-

tions of Chinese citizens practicing the ancient art of t'ai chi

ch 'uan (above) seem similar to

the movements of aerobics
enthusiasts (right) working up a
sweat in Denver, Colorado. But
the two exercise groups are
pursuing longevity in nearly
opposite ways. Aerobics practitioners rely

on

repetitive, vigor-

ous calisthenics to strengthen

the heart and lungs, while t'ai
chi adepts employ flowing,

contemplative poses to enhance

suppleness, to cultivate a balance of two inner forces called
yin andyang, and to achieve
serenity and detachment.

42

shaped the

Any mind crammed with

worth of such memories is bound to get con-

lives of their ancestors.

a century's

fused once in a while. Furthermore, in societies that accord

great respect to their oldest

some

members,

it

is

only natural that

of the elderly might slip ancestral stories into their

personal histories to bolster their

own

to the

memory, Khfaf

Lasuria's

muddled accounts added

doubts about her alleged 140 years.

Similar doubts

centenarians living in distant Hunza, in northern Pakistan

own

diet of grains

any kind.

Most

testimony, the lives of

lived

and vegetables, with

little

on a

subsist-

meat or

fat

of

enjoyed great respect within their families and

All

the community. But here, too, researchers had problems

judging the real ages of the oldest inhabitants.

Alexander Leaf who studied the longevous peoples

of

Hunza and Vilcabamba as well as

hand cites

of the Caucasus at

town's residents were

means

provided a
there

first

the case of Miguel Carpio as an example. In

1970 Carpio claimed to be 121 years

were raised by the longevity claims of

(pages 47-55). According to their

ence

claims to extraordi-

nary age. But even allowing for the unintentional confusions of

socializing with their neighbors.

was no

Roman

old. Since

most of the

Catholics, baptismal records

for verifying

some claimed

ages, but

record of Carpio's birth. Baptismal records for

however, indicated that Carpio was probably

the Hunzakuts, as they are called, often stretch to a century

his siblings,

or more. There

no more than 106 years old still a venerable age. The gen-

itself

is

reason to believe that such testimony has

sometimes stretched the bonds of truth, but there

is

no

doubting the hardiness and good health of the elderly Hun-

army surgeon

zakuts. Robert McCarrison, a British

sta-

tleman himself complicated the issue

further,

when

Leaf re-

turned four years later and found Carpio's claimed age had
increased by eleven years, to 132. More detailed research by

using church records and family inter-

tioned in India during the early twentieth century, noted the

later investigators

general fitness of the population and reported that their

views seemed to show that the typical so-called centenari-

wounds and

an of Vilcabamba was probably about 85 years

infections healed with remarkable rapidity.

McCarrison, an authority on nutrition and public health,

Hunza

credited this well-being to the sparse

composed of grains and vegetables.

his career,

In

diet, largely

experiments

McCarrison found that laboratory

rats raised

on

fed the foods of other cultures.

the other side of the world from Hunza, the

town

of Vilcabamba ("sacred valley" in the language of the Inca)

lies

in

seem to enjoy
particularly long lives. A 1971 census numbered its population at 819, including 9 people over the age of 100 a rate
the

these cases, he suggested,

nestled nearly a mile high between peaks of the Andes

southern Ecuador. Like residents of Soviet Georgia and

Hunza

Valley, Vilcabamba's citizens, too,

hundreds of times higher than

in the

more than seventeen times higher than

Visitors to

Vilcabamba

in

Caucasus.

the 1970s found that the

much in common with the Caucasians

and the Hunzakuts. Many were still lively participants in the
life of the town, working in fields, shops, and homes and
town's elders had

crepancies

may have

adopted the

Medvedev had

arisen

identities of

some of the diswhen young men

dead ancestors

to

avoid conscription into the army. Alexander

Leaf subsequently reexamined the plausibility

of the age claims he had accepted in his

round of studies of centenarians. "We

know those ages

in

first

now

Ecuador and the Caucasus are rubbish,"

Leaf admitted. He said he and other researchers had been

misled, in part by Ecuadoran or Georgian doctors

layed the age claims without checking

United States, and

in the

gerontologist Zhores

similar experiences in the Caucasus, but in

later in

a Hunzakut diet lived longer and were healthier than rats

On

Soviet

old.

them

tled

How

be 100, Sula Benet argues that denial of

the old-age claims of her subjects

"It

scientific

1976 book about her Caucasian studies enti-

to Live to

and envy.

re-

first.

Not everyone agrees with such hard-nosed

certainty. In a

who

often

seems

to

is

based on ignorance

me," she

writes, "that the

doubters actually do not want to believe that people

live to

Tokyo stockbrokers (below)

sometimes die ofkaroshior
job-related stress a hazard in
all the industrialized world. At
right a Nissan employee works
off stress in the company gym.

mm
such great ages anywhere

in the

world, especially in the

Soviet Union." Anthropologist Benet rejects the gerontolo-

idea of a

maximum

documented

birth date

gists'

of 115, she says, does not

span. Just because no one with

life

has ever survived beyond the age

mean

it

is

impossible. Such limits,

she argues spiritedly, "set psychological

hopelessness

among

the old,

limits, reinforce

and contribute nothing

our

to

understanding."

Support for Benet's perspective comes from psychologist

Robert Morgan in his 1982 book Growing Younger. For

one

thing,

Morgan suggests

specifically at

that living in the mountains,

heights of between 5,000 and 10,000

feet,

may well have a salubrious effect on aging persons.

"Among people living at high altitudes," he writes, "there is
a higher oxygen-carrying capacity per unit volume of blood

and a generally expanded blood volume. The lungs must

work harder
itself

more

in

to carry the

normal

Morgan urges
edge

activity."

the application of such scientific knowl-

to help eradicate the debilitating affiictions that ac-

company

old age, but he rejects the

man body
were

oxygen and the body must exert

to

has a specific shelf

life of,

argument

that the hu-

say, 115 years. "If

we

use everything science has taught us to date," he

writes optimistically,

"1 feel

sonable expectation for the

that 140 years

human

life

would be a

span-a

rea-

vigorous,

youthful 140 years at that. Spectacular breakthroughs in ge45

and organ regeneration would take us even

netics

Whatever the

truth of the claims for

commitment of biological gerontology," he has

farther."

extreme age and

to

most researchers today doubt claims greater than 115

make

written, "is

come

the phrase 'and they lived happily ever after'

However, molecular biologists cannot be expected

true.

to

years scientists acknowledge that many of the old people

guarantee the happiness part." Indeed, asks Segerberg,

they have studied in the world's remote bastions of longev-

would

ity

way

are remarkably healthy. Their

what most Western doctors,

firm

of

life

vigorous physical

activity,

fat

and high

in

and a generally low

com-

would be

would add

long-lived peoples

no

surprising either:

members

longer, reaping

to that

They continue

retirement.

of society until they

all

literally

to

be

If

and

were no growing

there

old,

have access

active,

can work no

has extended the

How

to life-prolonging techniques?

What would become

happen

to

of religious

maximum

life

en

now

He urges

fish in his

opinion on the subject

UCLA

death?

humanity needs

strong for

whose perceptiveness and lucid prose have

leading authority on the future, has pro-

nounced immortality
logically inevitable.

to

ple,

imagine that

this

the ages that

lie

is

It

would be

men

mercy on the

expands on that

and

for

issue.

is

life is

poised on the

most people,

scientists or la3^eo-

an exhilarating prospect.

why he chose

at

that excitement

an early age
life: "It

when he

seemed
life is

to

me

(and

still

simply too short

We

the midst of our pleasures, separated too

desir-

ex-

to dedicate himself to

to permit a satisfying exploration of the world's outer

all

too

making the age-old

ders and the realms of inner experience.

warns Clarke, "whether success would be

Jr.,

infinite

Technology

does) that a person's allotted span of

ahead."

quite another matter." Another author,

Segerberg,

true,

a search for the extension of

will

down

is

it

plained

foolish to

search will never be successful,

to resist.

Roy Walford expressed

Because biological immortality and

never cease to search for them. ...

humankind

dream come

be not only possible but probably

the preservation of youth are such potent lures,

But,

and

brink of a critical advance toward

unavoidable. Death, he writes "does not appear to be bio-

able

life

Yet, as Clarke points out, the lure of a longer

Arthur C. Clarke, the visionary writer of science and

made him

"What

not the promise of scientific immortality,

Day of Judgement."

but for us."

science fiction

is

strong

the author Joseph Conrad. In

but compassionate pity in this

for

Others share or exceed his confidence in the possibilities.

One man who had a

raised in any serious context, he wrote emphatically:

human

wrote Walford. "Not only

was

at this stage;

most of the questions had even been

1921, long before

that steps be tak-

pushing back "the outer limit" of

to start

longevity. "It's high time,"

fish,

span of

could the

commitment what would

God if there were no

but they raise troubling doubts.

that the desire for

"humanity's oldest dream," says he

laboratory by up to 300 percent.

pat-

and economic growth? What would

The questions are perhaps unanswerable

is

its

for

globe support the population explosion that would follow?

the emotional benefits that attend being

physical immortality

no need

become of parents and children over such long spans of

time? Would all members of society or only a privileged few

productive and needed.

Roy Walford, the gerontologist who noted

ques-

spiritual

no "ages of man," could society modify

terns of family structure

perhaps, not

list is,

legion.

retirement,

mental and emotional

The most notable item the example of these remote

stress.

useful

level of

ethical,

tions arising from a world that has banished natural death

plex carbohydrates, moderation in the consumption of alcohol,

they lived forever? Or would

Moreover, the practical,

nutritionists, gerontolo-

a diet low in

if

they be bored?

tends to con-

and exercise enthusiasts already preach: regular and

gists,

humans be happy

all

won-

are cut off in

soon from our

loved ones, shelved at the mere beginning of our under-

Osborn

"The promise, the

standing,
46

and laughed

at

by the gods."

Ihe Real Shangri'la

In

his novel Lost Horizon,

James

Hilton described a hidden Himalayan valley called Shangri-la,

people aged so slov^ly that a centuries-old woman was

smooth-skinned and beautiful, and equally ancient men were as
vigorous as youths. The place was imaginary, but an actual valley
v\/here

mountains of northern Pakistan shares so many of the fictional land's characteristics including unusually fit and long-lived
old people that it has been described as a real-life Shangri-la.
The valley is called Hunza, and its people Hunzakuts. Dazzled
by the health of aged Hunzakuts, travelers have extolled everything from the valley's simple lifestyle to its mineral-laden waters
in the

as the secret of long

cal

snakes

in this

life.

Health researchers see

some metaphori-

seeming paradise, including a high infant-

and disease-bearing parasites in the fabled waters.

Nonetheless, many inhabitants undeniably do continue productive
work through their eighties and nineties.
Their own explanations include rigorous physical labor and a
diet of fruit, vegetables, and grains. "To live long," said an old
Hunza farmer, "work hard and eat traditional things." Another
factor is the effective natural selection imposed by infant diseases.
One Hunzakut put it bluntly: "Those of us who live are strong.
Those who are not strong die." Others credit happy families and
low stress levels. "I have just one piece of advice for young people
who wish to live long," a Hunzakut said. "The first thing is happiness. If anything makes you happy, you should use it."
mortality rate

47

A flourishing oasis

nestled in

the midst of the snow-capped

peaks of Pakistan's Karakoram
Mountains, the Hunza Valley is
accessible even today by only a
single road. Of the inhabitants'
extreme isolation, a British

researcher observed in 1 938:

"They have preserved their

remoteness from the ways and

habits of the modem world
and with it those methods of
life which contribute or cause
the excellent physique and
bodily health which is theirs."

Bearded like a biblical patriarch, a smiling Hunza elder

hoists a load to his shoulder
with the agility of a youth. Respected for their wisdom, the
oldest Hunzakuts have traditionally helped govern the tiny

meeting each morning to

arbitrate disputes and establish
rules. "By being continually
challenged in this manner by
state,

younger colleagues they retained their mental faculties,"

wrote physician Alexander Leaf,
who visited the Hunza in 1971.

At threshing time in a Hunza

wheat field (opposite), a boy
stands next to a team of oxen

Workers climbing the hillside

below cany rocks and soil to
maintain the masonry-walled
terraces on which their crops
grow (left). Tending the plots of

that is driven over the cut

stalks to separate the grain

fi-om the straw.

Accustomed

grains, beans, and vegetables

requires constant clambering

to

hard laborfrom an early age,

up and down steep slopes,

which may add years to Hunzakuts' lives by promoting cardiovascular health and fending off
bone-weakening osteoporosis.

young

children are often assigned to follow work animals

with a basket or pan in hand to
catch and save the precious,
fertilizing manure as it falls.

51

Called "glacial milk" because

of its pearly gray color, water
melted from distant glaciers
cascades down a rocky stream
(right). Modem spectrum analysis has shown that this murkylooking, silt-laden water
which the Hunzakuts drink in
vast quantities and use to irrigate their fields contains most
of the trace minerals that are

^1

essential for optimal health.

A Hunza woman

milks a goat
while her child watches over
the herd. Milk, preserved as
cheese, buttermilk, or a sourei
form akin to yogurt, is one of
the few high-fat elements in the

Hunzakut

diet, which on average contains about two-thirds

the calories and only one-third

the fat consumed by a typical
American. Current research on
rodents suggests that caloric
restriction or undernutrition,
as it is called can extend life.

Above, apricots are spread on a

rocky ledge to dry for use in the
autumn and winter months.
Rich in health-promoting trace
minerals, apricots along with
otherfruits are a staple of the
high-fiber, low-fat

Hunza

diet,

which includes a high proportion of vegetables and whole

grainsfoods that are recognized for their role in prolonging life by guarding against
cancer and heart disease.

52

.VI

Typifying the affectionate nature ofKunza family life, a

mother cuddles her infant while

an adolescent girl stands close
Mothers lay a sturdy foundation for their children's
health by breast-feeding them
well into toddlerhooda pracby.

tice that provides excellent

nutrition and guards against
early childhood disease. Tradi-

tionally, girls are nursed to the

age of two; boys are breast-fed
until they are three years old.

A young man

dances in a festia buzzum, described

by one Hunzakut as "a party
with music, dancing, wine and
gin everything except girls. "
Some Hunzakuts claim that
buzzums help them live longer,
a view supported by studies
indicating that moderate drinkval called

ers tend to outlive teetotalers.

Mallet-swinging horsemen gallop full tilt down one of the

narrow polo fields that take up
the few precious yards of level

ground in many villages. Polo,

a sport that requires lightning
reflexes and makes rigorous
physical demands, is a staple of
Hunza life, played from childhood until well into old age.

55

CHAPTER 2

Seeking an Answer in Science

rumpeted the review

it's

appeared

that

in the

Chicago Sun-Times,

the greatest scientific breakthrough since nuclear fission.

The repercus-

sions are enormous." The book that so impressed the reviewer,

Image: The Cloning of a Man,

chilling story

contained in

deed, anyone

who

identified only as
to help

him

clone

is

its

pages set the

read it abuzz.

Max,

in his

was published

who had

It

His

titled In

as nonfiction in 1978, and the

community and,

scientific

told the story of

an elderly

in-

millionaire,

asked the book's author, David M. Rorvik,

quest to produce a clone of himself.

an organism grown from the

being produced by sexual means from the

clone receives

"If it's true,

all its

cells

of one parent, instead of

cells of

two parents. Because a

genes from a single parent, those genes are exactly the

same as the parent's genes and direct the organism to develop in precisely
the same form as the parent. According to Rorvik, Max had read some of the
author's previous books and arUcles on genetics and cloning, and he want-

ed Rorvik to help him find a physician to perform the cloning procedure.

Max wanted someone

would grow

to create a genetic replica of himself, a child

to be, physically at least, another

a kind of continued

life

or if

Max, thus giving the old

the clone later produced another clone, fol-

lowed by yet more generations of exact reproductions of

of immortality, albeit without continuity of consciousness.

wondered whether he and

telepathic link that could

who
man

his clone

Max even

a kind

The old man also

might not share a mystical rapport, a

somehow, even

after death, tether

him

inextricably

to the living world.

Intrigued by the prospect of observing the

ed a gynecologist,

whom

supposedly accompanied

he called Darwin

Max

to

work

in the

firsthand, Rorvik locat-

book, and the two

an unidentified spot

in the tropics,

men

where

owned rubber plantations, nutmeg trees, and rice paddies. At

Max had built for his workers, a number of women volundonate the ova needed for the cloning attempt. The donor's own

the millionaire

a hospital that
teered to

genetic code, contained in an egg's nucleus, would be removed.

nucleus of one of Max's body

which a

fetus

cells

would be implanted

would develop. (According

to

Then

in the egg,

the

from

the author, Darwin refused

to

disclose

which body

would be unfair
future as

blood

cell,

to the

who

"one

were being used, claiming

cells

cloned child to be referred to

started

life

did indeed exist, publisher Lippincott settled the case out of

it

in the

as a piece of bone marrow, a

or a scrap of cancer.")

womb. And

The egg donor would then

born

in

December

its

father alone

field

was

fiction, that the

his publisher

were squaring

publisher,

name

his

Derek Bromhall

J.
j.

B. Lippincott,

in the

filled

filed suit

that

possibility of

against Rorvik and his

cell

for

and

a "fraud

was based on

lated
in

the

that

on how an

and a hoax," de-

such time as

entire

its

damaged by

age,

human body

could be cloned,

organs were needed as replace-

parts:

effect,

The clone would perform,

in

as a personal organ bank, rendering

the current notions of aging

in

life

and maximum

span obsolete.
Understandably, a multitude of

questions arose from these discussions. Exactly

"all

the characters

men-

tists to

ence." Although Rorvik re-

Max and

in his

to

produce

vidual

real exist-

mained steadfast

close are scien-

way

human beings? Is the day dawning when humans cpn choose between dying, living forever

defendant
no

how

finding a

genetically perfect copies of indi-

tioned in the book, oth

Rorvik, have

identical to those inside a per-

unlike those laid out by Rorvik. The dupli-

ment

his genetic double

er than the

laboratory, from a single cell-

would be

book never

and that

on the

trauma and restoring the physical functioning of

ways not

til

took place,"

that

growing in a

their opinions

cate physical form could be frozen, they theorized, un-

in a prelimi-

claring that "the cloning

described

"twig" were reading news

donor, they explained, replacing those

disease, or

use on rabbits.

to court,

the Greek for

never before heard the

youth. Others knowledgeable in the field of genetics specu-

nary finding the judge ruled the story

Max and

who had

son's body. These organs would be transplanted into the

claiming that the author had used

The case eventually went

of

humankind.

human organs

book without permission and that a portion

Bromhall had developed

on a little-known

of research that could have an astonishing impact on

mals as frogs and sheep. They offered

with errors, and that the

of the cloning technique described by Rorvik

one

But the book's release and the ensuing

explained methods that had been used to clone such ani-

off against

claimed that the story was a complete

book was

that they

accounts describing various cloning procedures. Experts

in the scientific establishment,

Within a few months of publication, Oxford University

geneticist

fiction.

word clone from

author had misrepresented the work of distinguished scientists.

be

Suddenly people

an uproar

who

to

the future of

1976.

and soon Rorvik and

genetic experts

the

and openly stated

public debate served to focus attention

The release of the book, which was an immediate

bestseller, created

now believed

book

so, the story continues, in that exotic locale,

a child bearing the genetic makeup of

let-

ter of apology,

serve as a surrogate mother, carrying the fetus to term in

her

court with Bromhall for a reported $100,000, sent him a

through the cloning of or-

claims

gans, or, like the old mil-

the child

57

FuU of imposing dignity in this 1880s photograph, French physiologist Charles-Edouard

Brown-Sequard lost face when the rejuvenation therapy he devised proved useless. He has gained
posthumous recognition, however, as a pioneer of the field of endocrinology.
58

Max in Rorvik's book, seeing, through the eyes of a

clone, how life could have been lived if different choices
rhad been made? And what would the clone be like? Its ap;ipearance would be

not the answer: Although in the industrialized world ad-

lionaire

same

ishare the

identical to the cell donor's, but

would

thoughts, desires, likes, and dislikes?

vances

arguments can be made on

and

it

will likely

all

progress

upper

for

expectancy raising

is statistically

limit of

human

An assessment of the
expectancy was conducted by re-

life

National Laboratory in Argonne,

which were published

decades to

human life
is years of painstaking research away and

through cloning

life

expectancy

ing

no higher than age 85 even

research,

government approves such

the United States

which seems

unlikely.

controversial, prospect, cloning

So while
is

it

is

an

exciting,

most half of

understand the

estimate the

first

to

process of aging, then to ultimately defeat or defer death.

years,

and

all

druch, formerly of the National

Institute

on Aging

Maryland, and
sity

now

in

life

expectancy

that of

males

The reddish purple blooms of the bloodwort plant

convinced folk medicine practitioners of its ability now
confirmed by modem science to check bleeding.

to

be

.4

al-

females to be 78.3

years. For reasons that

have yet

to fully under-

stand, females outlive males in

almost

all

Still,

at the Univer-

its is

forms of animal
the subject of

fraught with

life.)

life's

lim-

unknowns and

thus is rich in possibilities for revolutionary findings. Considering

theories of aging as there

the stakes involved the

there

is

science can completely

at birth for

Bethesda,

are gerontologists." Nor

if

scientists

of Wisconsin, "there are as

many

that "further gains in

but these will be modest," push-

deaths in the United States. (Recent figures

At this stage in the research,

says gerontologist Richard Wein-

issue of the

eliminate cancer and heart disease, which account for

if

but one of many avenues

being explored by scientists seeking

The report concluded

will occur,

the results of

Illinois,

November 1990

in the

journal Science.

if

from about 40

unsustainable.

come. Most experts agree that extending

then only

it

searchers at the University of Chicago and at the Argonne

sides of the cloning issue,

be a hotly debated topic

life

years to more than 70 years that sort of health-related

And

case of most ethical dilemmas, persuasive

in the

healthcare during the twentieth century have

nearly doubled

it

what are the moral implications of such a procedure?

As

in

dream of

for a

escape from a sentence of thin-

maxi-

ning and wrinkling skin, shrink-

agreement on the prospects

significant increase in the

mum human

life

ing muscles,

span, considered

dimming senses,

sizable

stiffening joints, degenerating or-

contingent of investigators in the

gans, waning resistance to dis-

to

be 110 to 120 years.

field

believe that even

derlying

mechanisms of aging

identified, science

easesit

the un-

if

may

It

Few

not be

is

so

diet,

or drug therapy can ever sig-

that

attempts to mute the effects of

age and

no hormone,

and subtle

infirmity.

In past centuries,
efforts to

nificantly forestall death.

Simply fending off disease

hope and urgency,

emotions that also drove early

intri-

cate

precincts of science are so

stirred by

could be that the interplay

of contributing factors

understandable that

gerontology seethes with debate.

are

able to alter the biological schedule.

is

the

is

59

overcome

body tended

to

medical

the frailties of

be more mag-

Viennese

P-.y'j^fff

^.hecouMrey,^v<ec-

'Sg-'^r^ewiV/"'
hi

ical

than

scientific.

often treated their patients with medicines that

operdnon He^" ,,34, the

Healers

seemed

to

have some physical kinship with the affiiction-a resemblance of color or shape, for example. Thus,

in

medieval

times, the red-leafed or red-rooted wild plants called blood-

worts were used to treat ailments thought to stem from

the heart or blood.

that

It

was

the

same

caused some physicians

sort of magical thinking

to hit

upon

Innocent

the idea that

youthful bodies contained an essence of vitality that might

1492 that

A few

be transferred, via the breath or the blood, to an aging body

to

conquer any

infirmities.

While they gained

little,

those

who contrived to breathe the exhalations of vigorous young men or women did themselves no harm, at least;
but those who wer- reated with transfusions of a youth's
oldsters

blood usually suffert

the

same

dire fate that befell

Pope

if

no more

is,

VIII

when he

tried

it

in

severe systemic reactions leading to death.

centuries later, a related and

effective approach

somewhat safer

was espoused by French

Brown-

physiologist and neurologist Charles-Edouard

Sequard. At age seventy-two, the professor of experimental

medicine

at the College

de France was approaching the end

of a brilliant and varied career. His vocation had ranged

As intrigued spectators watch,

Russian physician Serge
Voronoff grafts segments of the
testicles of a young goat onto
those of an old one. Voronoff
said that the procedure, a forerunner of those he would later
perform on humans, "rejuvenated" the older animal.

hours earlier he had

just

passed the

day

was

visit'

final test:

to

"To-

able to 'pay a

my young

wife."

Brown-Sequard drew
a direct connection be-

tween male sexuality and

anatomical

fitness,

arguing

once the hormonal

that,

balance was corrected by

an infusion of minced gonads, the key to longevity

semen remuch accumu-

lay in keeping

from practicing midwifery

in

New

York City

serves carefully calibrated, never letting too

to describing

human spinal cord and contributing

new field of endocrinology. Tall and

late or

imposing, he enjoyed a reputation for dramatic presenta-

built a

tionwhich he

testes to

the physiology of the

landmark work

a lecture before

in the

fully justified in Paris

members

on June

Besieged by aging but eager Frenchmen, Brown-Sequard

889, during

As was per-

ing effects of aging

fatigue

on

his muscles.

and sleeplessness

that

had rendered him unable

perform as a husband with the young

cently married. But

all

that

woman

re-

begun

^pP^B^^

savagely, deriding Brown-Sequard's purport-

ed results as senile delusions.

"

proof of the necessity of retiring professors

^^^^^^r

who have

ggZ^

And

just a

described his methodology:

were even

He had

effects,

ically

and

and

As

he could stand

in his

long into the night, and run up staircases.

And

and especially septuagenarian

it

no secret of rejuvena-

is

of youth, the better."

turned out, the scientists

won

the day.

No one

treatments modern researchers credit Brown-Sequard's

to

work

best of

elixir

own improvement

stamina of his youth. Once again

laboratory for hours on end,

Surgical Journal

regained his lost youth and potency from Sequardienne

he told them, were remarkable.

Brown-Sequard reported he had also regained

intellectual

and

harshly admonished that "the sooner the gen-

used up and worn out there

Uon, no

Not only did dynamometer tests indicate renewed muscle

strength, but

the Boston Medical

readers of the latest sensation understand that for the phys-

fil-

injected himself with

tered extracts from the crushed testicles of young dogs

guinea pigs. The

attained their threescore and ten."

eral public

whom

A Vienna med-

publication called the lecture "further

older than the speaker- listened intently as Brown-Sequard

the vigor

ical

earlier.

The assembled scientists many of

Paris

he scientific community, however, reacted

had changed, Brown-Sequard

declared, as a result of the experiment he had

few weeks

he had

to

started a fund for an Institute of Rejuvenation

debilitat-

He then described the

filtered bull

fiuid.

^1

audience, he had been testing himself with a dynamometer,

haps to be expected, the device had revealed the

produce a supposedly rejuvenating

thatwould promulgate the Methode Sequardienne.

For the last few years, Brown-Sequard told his rapt

force.

complicated machine that pulped and

newspaper

of the Societe de Biologic.

an instrument that measures mechanical

drawing stores down too low. A sensafion followed.

any physiological

never regained

Sequard

all.

61

to his positive expectations rather than

its

effect -and the professor's reputation

former

left Paris.

His

luster. His

career

in ruins,

Brown-

young wife deserted him, and

less

than

five

The French doctor's demise notwithstanding,

claims of renewed vigor were echoed in the 890s by a
sought to reverse the aging process in

Some

vasectomies on them.

book
tion

titled

years

men by

later, in

moved

his

who

a best-selling

to

Rejuvenation through the Experimental Revitaliza-

The vibrancy of youth, he

tosterone,

whose

release

said, derived

from

the length of life

was

would

once more and youthful

sperm from the

juvenation operation" luckily brought about no

effects,

but neither did

work as

it

ill

the course

young male volunteers

strapping,

men were

eager to donate such precious parts

of their anatomies; those

re-

them up demanded top

after-

down

taking a glance

to revitalize

men. As one can imagine, few young

elderly

advertised. Yet thousands

who

dollar.

agreed to give

So the surgeon,

made

the evolutionary ladder,

of eager patrons, including such luminaries as the Irish poet

logical next choice:

He began transplanting

William Butler Yeats, sought out the procedure.

panzee and monkey

testes onto the genitals of elderly

As Steinach's popularity swelled, so too did

was

ready to take "gland-grafting" one step

further he planned to use the testicles of

testicles to the

The "Steinach

i^s

and the shortening of the period of old age,

now

the

permit testosterone to be released

vitality restored.

indicates to

lush with apparent success, Voronoff

a simple matter. Tying off the vas defe-

rens, the duct that carries

ejaculatory ducts,

transplant,

elated Voronoff de-

thanks to gland-grafting."

mechanics of sperm production. Therefore, the recovery of

youthfulness

ram

An

be pursued, the ideal to be attained: the prolongation of

tes-

was blocked over time by

vitality return.

clared that "the case of this

of the Aging Puberty Gland, Steinach explained his ra-

tionale.

and observed the ram's gradual

The surgeon then performed a secbr^d

and saw the ram's

performing

theory further, Voronoff re-

test his

the grafted genitals

decline.

Vi-

ennese physiology professor named Eugen Steinach,

To

vigor had returned.

years after the fateful lecture, he died of a stroke.

More than 1,000

that of

patients

was

underwent the

bits of

costly

the

chim-

men.

"monkey

Serge Voronoff, a charismatic and cocky Russian-born sur-

gland treatment," as

geon. While serving as a physician to the king of Egypt,

ity

Voronoff observed that the court eunuchs seemed to age

Voronoff reportedly grafted the sex glands of a female mon-

extremely rapidly and that he spent a disproportionate

key onto those of a forty-eight-year-old woman,

amount of his time

to

treating their illnesses. Like Steinach, he

concluded that male hormones played a

maintaining the body's resiliency. Decrepit old men, he declared, are actually

nature, by the

wear and

man

bit

unkind husband by

own

dubious account, the

work did not change the fact that his treatment was a
sham. The lack of drugs to suppress the immune system
ensured that a transplant would soon be rejected by the re-

life."

cipient's tissues,

and

to

make

matters worse, according to

1918 he transplanted the genitals from a two-year-old lamb

one account, many of the recipients contracted

from the monkey

was

grafting,

in places.

Within three months, ac-

ram was transformed his limbs

wool thicker, and the animal's sexual

cording to Voronoff, the

were steady and

his

woman

his

of surgery to repair the depredations of age: In

and balding

effort

of charms recovered and graces renewed and fresh-

onto an aging ram whose limbs trembled and whose wool

thin

an

Voronoff's worldwide fame and his utter confidence in

tear of old age." Putting the matter

Establishing himself in France, Voronoff devised a

novel

to regain her

in

younger and "converted into a charming personality."

but by the cruel law of

glands constitutes that best possible assurance of long

Although the vast major-

returned two years later looking more than ten years

he proclaimed that "possession of active genital

positively,

woman

"enable this

ened." According to his

eunuchs; they have been emasculated

"not by the criminal hand of

called.

of his patients were men, on at least one occasion

means

critical role in

it

if

any,

S3^hilis

donors. The only benefits of gland-

were owed

to the

placebo

effect, the

mind's

belief in the efficacy of the treatment.

This message

62

was slow

in

making

it

across the Atlan-

tic,

however, where Americans, too, were searching

ways

to regain their youthful

were flocking

office,

University of

vigor.

to tiny Milford, Kansas,

North Carolina drifter

up an

vim and

Many

where,

named John Romulus

hung a sheepskin from the

in

for

Over the next decade, Brinkley earned a fortune sew-

of them

ing goat testicles into eager patients. Not only did he claim

1917, a

to cure

Brinkley had set

skin diseases,

Kansas City a diploma mill and begun per-

first

patient

complained of being a
the farmer's

own

was

value of "prolonging

On

"flat tire,"

said to be a farmer

who

farmer proclaimed the return of his

libido,

Brinkley used

buy three yachts, a

later the

and within a year

he had sired a son named, appropriately enough,

and rebuilding the human body."

life

a good day, 500 people would

swarm

into the

town of

started at $750; the price of goats soared.

goats, Brinkley implanted a bit of the ani-

weeks

his bizarre pro-

Milford seeking rejuvenation at the doctor's hands. Fees

or impotent. Using one of

mal's gonads in the man's testicles. Just two

and high blood pressure with

cedure, but the goat-gland transplant had the alleged added

Eclectic Medical

forming goat-gonad transplants.

Brinkley's

such far-ranging conditions as impotence, insanity,

some
fleet

of his surgically

from which he pitched his services.

In 1930,

made him

John R. Brinkley's bespectacled face suggests a fiank, sensitive nature in this 1923
photograph taken with his wife. The Kansas quack's deceptively honest visage may have helped him
lure thousands into suffering his oft harmful goat-gland treatment for impotence.

63

wealth to

of luxury cars, and a radio station

business that reportedly had

Billy.

won

however, the

a millionaire began

mansion
u^^ecked
This/lower^bed^ prairie clinic
qTLa
jja.
houses part
padentsvwthinjec

lamb

cells.

^^pt,be

Noun^^j the th

He gave her an
to unravel.

injection of

parathyroid of ox,

His license to practice medicine

was revoked by

and he had

minced

to hire others to

thinking that the cells

doctor retired

of the animal might

from practice, prudently shifted most of his holdings to his

continue to do the

wife and friends, and declared bankruptcy. Dispiritedly he

calcium-regulating job

the state,

perform the transplants.

Finally, in 1941, the

told the court, "I don't think there

is

but two Cadillacs

for a short

left."

human host and relieve

some of the patient's

While Brinkley and his predecessors insisted that dimin-

hormones alone account for the loss of youthful

energy and robustness, another physician of the day, Swiss

suffering.

surgeon and glandular expert Paul Niehans, concluded that

former

ished sex

the degeneration of the body's cells

tor in aging.

hormone

Still,

was

more

critical fac-

ing cell populations with hordes of

Niehans
py, or

fering

hit

CT more

effect

upon

his

dynamic young

treatment called

or less accidentally. In 1931

amount

"I

thought the

short-lived, just like the effect of

hormones," the physician

Much

later wrote,

an

"and

my great

struck by this outcome, Niehans

series of tests

suf-

from a convulsive disorder was referred to him by

regulating the

stayed that way.

free of her

injec-

that

surprise

tion but the effect lasted."

cells.

another physician; her parathyroid glands, responsible

soon completely

the injection of fresh cells not only failed to provoke a reac-

fail-

woman

woman was

should have to repeat the injection. But to

cellular thera,

Niehans

v^/orked far better than

symptoms and she

would be

tion of

Niehans believed that a reversal of

bodily decline might be brought about by replenishing

The treatment

had expected. The

he was no less an optimist than the sex-

practitioners.

while in their

on

himself, as well as

commenced

on other patients and

on laboratory animals. His general approach, fine-tuned

for

over decades, involved repeated dosings with minced prep-

of calcium in the bloodstream, ap-

arations of organs taken from sheep embryos, which had

been removed from the sheep and dissected

peared to be diseased. Niehans considered performing a

transplant but decided that the patient

was

too

ill

to survive

before.

and

the operation. Instead, he tried a long-shot treatment:

64

Sheep were chosen

for the rare

just

minutes

for their resistance to disease

incidence of allergic reactions in

humans

people have reportedly received CT treatments at clinics

,vhen their cells are used therapeutically. Also, Niehans

:ontended that the chemistry of embryonic

powerful than that of older

cells is far

;r

choose

fetal

cells for cirrhosis,

Europe. (Only one

cells for nephritis,

apy

led the

heart cells for heart problems,

kidney

Genesis West, located

clinic.

near the California border, currently practices

cells.

The old medieval principle of resemblance

)hysician to

more

in

North America.)

tients are tested before

liv-

and so on,

mine which of

their

In

uvenation therapists, Niehans greatly valued the therapeu-

leased from the clinic about a

attributes of the sex glands. These, he said, v^ere a "rich

and also physical

tual freshness

daimed, they

qualities." In addition,

cells

he

tated flagging

organs as

suggestion that excited

if

dating organ transplantation.

actor Charlie Chaplin

became incorporated

Devotees among them,

Churchill

into

film

ing out biological factors

and

out machinery of aged

some

cases, Niehans

even made house

calls:

In

dryers.

vital

actually
actually

human organs and began pumpno longer produced by the worn-

some

cells. In

respects,

CT

among

remi-

is

the ancient

peoples of the Near and Far

exclusive establishment on

In

how CT
new cells

to explain

niscent of therapies employed by healers

Charles de Gaulle flocked to Clinique La Prairie, Niehans's

the shores of Lake Geneva.

new

effects of x-rays,

sauna baths, and even very hot hair

works. He broadly implied that the

ailing party in the era pre-

and statesmen Winston

Before leaving La

later.

advised to protect their precious

Niehans himself was at a loss

they had been entirely replaced, a

many an

to
re-

Despite his considerable intellectual attainments,

Niehans contended that a single CT treatment resusci-

week

by avoiding the potentially damaging

ultraviolet rays,

"revitalize the aging organism."

They are confined

cells.

days after receiving injections and are

Prairie, patients are

source of vital fluids which give physical strength, intellec-

live-cell ther-

being treated, supposedly to deter-

organs lack

bed

ic

Mexico

in

a typical course of therapy, pa-

iccording to a patient's particular complaint. Like earlier re-

for several

in

Black ewes graze at La Prairie's farm, located about

miles from Morxtreux in Switzerland. The animals
provide a regular harvest offetuses for use in

thirty-five

the clinic's cellular injections (below).

East,

many

whom

of

be-

lieved in the rejuvenating effects of the inner

An

organs of

Egyptian pa-

1954, he traveled to Italy,

wild beasts.

where seventy-seven-year-

pyrus dating from 1500

BC

mentions the virtues of

in-

old

Pope Pius

XII

had

re-

quested CT treatment for a

gesting animal viscera. The

mysterious gastric ailment.

Hindus once regarded

By

gonads as a cure

all

accounts the pope's

tiger

for im-

abated under the

potence, while the Greeks

Swiss physician's care, even

thought that eating the bone

though Niehans reportedly

marrow

illness

freeze-dried cells rather

endowed a
man with courage advice
that Homer's Achilles fol-

than fresh live sheep were

lowed, according to The

not allowed in the Vatican.

ad.

had

to treat the pontiff

La Prairie

still

with

far

caters to

of lions

Ili-

Chinese sages went so

as to

recommend

eating

an international clientele

human

placentas for a gen-

and has spawned numerous

eral

to health.

imitators:

Some two

lift

But modern standards

million

65

of medicine

demand

Those

a treatment can be ratified by the scientific establishment,

and such proof

is

ment of some

An

extensive investi-

lecular

gation of the process conducted by the American Medical

Association

attributed to cellular therapy, but neither did

ably useless.
trip to

find

have

in the

levels.

Those

in the

second camp

preprogrammed

innate,

fail.

limit to

life,

This failure

bination of messages from various bodily systems.

CT

mbraced by these broad categories are a host

suspected manner.

of theories, each of which has mustered ar-

hinted off the record that

work, though not

some

may be triggered by the genes within the cells, or by hormones released by the pituitary gland, or perhaps by a com-

CT prov-

La Prairie might be called "Gullibles Travels." None-

in fact

is

so that at a given point cells simply begin to

leading gerontologist has remarked that a

theless, others in the field

may

it

and even atomic

hold that there

1960s failed to confirm the powers

in the

in the

depredations of life, which gradually disrupt cells at the mo-

lacking for cellular therapy in the judg-

authorities, at least.

camp and the biological-clock camp.

first camp believe aging results from the

the wear-and-tear

substantial proof before the efficacy of

may

the body's natural defenses. Scientists are only beginning to

among researchers. One that has

enjoyed much discussion and has spawned

understand the complex ways

several variants

Rather than rejuvenating organs,

in

it

which the disease-fighting

powers of the immune system are

researchers suggest that

mune system on

the

dent support

instead stimulate

CT may

Some

called into play.

the idea that

serve to energize an im-

who

died in 1971 at the age of eighty-nine,

it

is

am no

to say, "I

enough. But gerontology today

of science;

falls

scientist."

and a powerful

True

squarely in the purview

a methodical investigative activity with

rules of evidence

random

glitches in cells'

DNA,

mind the chemical workings of an organism,

wane.

was sometimes heard

the cellular error theory

the long chains of nucleic acids that master-

cause the
Paul Niehans,

is

RNA, a simpler nucleic acid

which

as a template for the synthesis of pro-

some

to

comprehend how the body deteriorates as it grows older

and to encapsulate that understanding in a single unified

rupt

theory of aging, a model of the process that pulls

thetic

the

structure,

main building blocks of the body. Therefore, any

to either

DNA

or

on the protein assembly

Hundreds of researchers are currently attempting

all

in turn acts

damage

interest in root causes.

serves as a pattern for

the production of

teins, the

strict

DNA

go haywire.

cells to

RNA
line.

translates directly into errors

Improperly built proteins, say

researchers, are the culprits in aging.

Humans are constantly exposed to things that can disDNA: gamma, ultraviolet, and x-radiation; drugs; synand naturally occurring chemicals; and even foods.

disparate facts into a coherent whole. Most of these efforts

So the error-catastrophe theory of aging, as the notion has

focus on the

cell,

its

deepest

come

secrets after

more than a century of near-obsessive

scrutiny

For every individual,

by

which has refused

biologists. At base, the

cenceloss of

to surrender

changes associated with senes-

elasticity in the skin;

and muscles; slowed

reflexes;

to disease, especially heart

ed to

fall

into

cellular machinery.

to

make compelling

damage mounts as time goes

These errors were implicated

in the

young chemist named Johan Bjorksten

at the cellular level.

While gerontologists generally agree on

would seem

hookups rather than breakages complicate the

susceptibility

ing for an

this central tenet,

they diverge in discussing where exactly the wrench

called,

sense.

by,

and

But other chemical missteps within cells errant

ailments and cancers are

first

be

presumably, do errors in protein manufacture.

weakening of bones

and increased

changes that manifest themselves

thrown into the

so,

to

sten

is

two broad camps, which might be labeled

became

posed
66

aging process by a
in 1941

Then work-

American film-manufacturing company, Bjorkinterested in the

gelatin emulsion

Hypotheses have tend-

picture.

used

way

the pliant sheets of

in film gradually

harden when ex-

to air. Gelatin consists of a close-knit

mesh

of protein

Bizarre Juinii-Sfaits for hiding Sex Drives

Because of nature's scheme for survival of the species, the urge and ability
to procreate have always been important traits of human youth. Even on
today's amply peopled planet, the
celebration of youthful sexuality

is

strong and the loss of desire or poten-

cy often feared as a sign of aging.

To counteract

the

unwelcome sexual

changes that sometimes accompany

age, people have long sought out aphrodisiacs, remedies made of bizarre
ingredients that supposedly bring back
satisfying intercourse. The Apache
Indians used cow dung in their love
potions. The ancient dwellers of India

ate the flesh of a white heifer

cooked

And William
Shakespeare recommended hot lavenin its

mother's milk.

der, mints, savory,

and marjoram.

Plants or animals that resemble the

human

phallus are perennially popular

Animal horns, for

been touted as
erotic stimulants. Mandrake and ginseng roots, often shaped like little
men, have incurred similar notoriety.
Even the rabbit's foot began as a symbol of virility. The foot's phallic shape
and the rabbit's reputation for zestful
and frequent coupling secured the
appendage popularity as a love charm.
in aphrodisiacs.

instance, have long

67

Today, folk wisdom credits such

substances as

shellfish, alcohol,

and

cantharides-or Spanish fly, a powder

made from beetles-with the power to

enhance sexuality. But none of these

has been proved to incite or improve
lovemaking. Alcohol actually impedes
it, and cantharides though it may
cause erection -irritates the urinary
tract,

making intercourse

painful.

However, researchers are testing a

new drug, quinerolane, which may
unlock the secret of lifelong carnal
desire. The drug stimulates dopamine,
a chemical messenger in the brain
that,

when

active,

may

boost sex drive.

in
believe
!Jnd turn
f/^2.tists

extension

i"'''8^-TofUfe
jeneti|
thei^t;r,fp3adngtheg^
blueprint

68

molecules; the stiffening

is

due

to

chemical reactions that

the buildup of fats in arteries, hasten cataract formation,

cause the molecules to form bonds, which prevent the mesh

from bending or stretching. Mulling

made

grow

as they

cells

Denham Harman,

a startling leap: He proposed that similar bonding,

which he called "cross-linkage," must take place

I

and worsen any number of other degenerative ailments.

this over, Bjorksten

more than an
cules in the

older. Aging,

he proposed,

irreversible set of reactions

body

in

is

among

human

was

nothing

ers,
'

he noted, are

stantly
cal

body's natural defenders against

proteins that con-

In the tissues of a

free radicals

Omaha,

were the cause of

the unstable

were responsible

Harman deduced

ing of the mice,

roam about and perform a wide range of biochemi-

housekeeping chores.

propose that

ing that the free radicals

between molecules. These defend-

enzymes specialized

to

at

on mice

in

the 1950s,

But Bjorksten's logic had a deeper layer. He placed the

.inappropriate bonding

first

now

Harman discovered that exposure to the toxic

rays induces the symptoms of aging and shortens life span.
He also determined that radiation causes an enormous increase in the number of free radicals in each cell. Conclud-

the mole-

that renders cells incapable of properly

failure of the

the

aging. While researching the effects of radiation

going about their daily business.

blame on a

a physician and biochemist

the University of Nebraska School of Medicine in

that

if

for the rapid ag-

bombardment by

atoms advances the process of growing

old,

then the natural and gradual accumulation of free radicals

youngster,

in

otherwise healthy cells must bring on normal aging.

explained Bjorksten, enzymes easily sever most of the

arman

treated the irradiated mice with antiox-

enzyme effiand consequently the number of

idants,

substances used

cross-links that form

between

ciency drops with age,

proteins. But

cells incapacitated

by cross-links grows

even whole organs

falter.

until tissues

Most gerontologists today prefer

to

other force must be acting upon

and

of leather, rubber,

view cross-linkage

enzymes

to

prevent

such free-radical damage as the deterioration

and

that the substances also

as an effect of aging rather than a cause; presumably,

in industry to

symptoms.

ing

some

synthetics.

He found

proved to reverse ag-

Intrigued, the physician tested

antioxidants on healthy animals, an experi-

weaken them.

ment

that revealed that the substances actual-

More and more researchers are suggesting

force

is

that this malign

species' average

exerted by a class of unstable molecules called free

radicals.

These are run-of-the-mill compounds that have

lost electrons

from

combat

ly

life

free radicals

expectancy.

As with the

many

and also as a by-product of an organism's use of oxygen

effect of aging, not the cause.

on

to other

molecules to make up

electron. In doing so, they

single free radical

may

may

for their

to

consequence of environmental or metabolic

rows, but rather

solescence, as

wound up

number

knock pieces

creating a sort of chemical garble.

They may prod

become cancerous, increase

muscle

in the

cells to

lie

is

not, at root, a

slings

and

ar-

a result of preordained physiological ob-

organisms,

only to wind

programmed
programmed

off them,

is

if

however,

According to the second main

missing

of ways. In addition to cross-linkage, the minute provocateurs can split stable molecules or

life

damage may be an

school of gerontological thought, aging

give rise to a hundred others.

Free radicals can wreak biological havoc in a

scientists believe that free-radical

in cells,

set off a chain reaction:

possible

specific case of cross-linkage,

with agents such as radiation, cigarette smoke, or smog,

latching

Maximum

span, though, remains the same.

their outer shells as a result of contact

metabolize food. Free radicals can be a menace

and thus increase a

at birth to

to die.

like

down

grandfather clocks, were

again. Just as organisms are

grow and develop, so they might be

The key

to the clock

mechanism may

within the genes or the brain. In either case,

if it

were

possible to halt the pendulum, or to rewind the clock, death

the devastation to the heart

might be vanquished.

aftermath of a seizure or stroke, encourage

69

nie Pf wUh a Gifl of Longeviry

Sleek and mysterious, the cat has long

humans

seeming
facility to defy death. It plummets from
great heights to land on all fours, unharmed. It walks narrow ledges with
the skill of a gymnast. It discerns danger in the dark with keen night
vision. Such talents have earned
.^tm
it the tantalizing -if erroneous''',211
fascinated

with

'

reputation of having nine lives.

In

ancient Egypt, the cat sym-

bolized

life itself.

It

|*

was sacred

finding that Egyptians were

wise to revere the cat, for

shown
may indeed

bless their masters

and

efit

a cat-or any

lives.

pet-can ben-

nearly everyone, experts say. Peo-

ple's blood pressure drops

when

after

W \
J^'

adopting a

kitten.

Children grappling with

^^^^^ parents' divorce
f^^' better

if

owners visit their doctors less often

than do people without pets. And
people with heart disease actually
longer

they

talk to or stroke a cat. They gain selfesteem and a sense of order providing
for a pet's daily needs. Depressed
people improve markedly

'^j^JH^^^H^^an

goddess who ruled fertility and

health. Today, scientists are

that the animals

Owning

^^(^^^^\

to Bastet, the life-giving cat

recent studies have

mistresses with longer, happier

its

they have

animal confi-

M
m

they

For people

own pets.
who live in

live

nursing

homes, cats can be particularly therapeutic. In one case, a frail, elderly man
refused to eat. The nurses, finding that
his sole interest in life was the home's
resident kittens, told him he could
keep the kittens in his room if he ate.
He agreed and gained forty pounds.
Some people have even suggested
that cats have an uncanny sense of
which people need them most. Out of
a

F
j

if

room

full

of senior citizens, for in-

one nursing-home cat singled

out a woman who had not spoken for
stance,

months. Delighted, she immediately

broke her silence.

An

Egyptian artisan fashioned this bronze cat in

about 600 BC. Cats
>
were so sacred they
were often mummi-

M
/

fied after death.

f
:8

A senior citizen

mm

enjoys a book under her cat's calm surveillance.

People reportedly enjoy better health if they have pets to care for.

cells

The notion that body

aging. Progeria causes

have a limited

terioration of the sense or-

life

dates to the late 1950s,

span

when

Leonard Hayflick, then a

gans, nor does

sci-

in Philadelphia,

plagues of

old age, such as arthritis or

discovered

most types of cells

subject vic-

it

common

tims to

entist at the Wistar Institute

no de-

mental

infirmity.

in the

Although the facts of the

human body divide only a finite number of times fifty

Hayflick limit are not in dispute, their

times on average, sixty at the

flick

absolute outside. Previously,

the

that

it

was

any

taken out of the body

and placed
medium, or
on dividing

culture,

process.

would go

indefinitely.

or

A few

Andrew Da Passano rings a bell to end a meditation, part

of an antiaging seminar he teaches in Los Angeles. He claims to
renew aging cells through the rituals of Eastern mystics.

researchers suspected that

cultured cells had a finite

span, but Hayflick

first

to prove

it

was

would

cells

with

litter

revealed that

cells stop dividing, but

their

from

cell division stops."

is it

clear that each cell

searchers believe the cells are not responding to

all

cell

functional changes that occur

follows the aging track without outside guidance.

slow the pace, and

spewed from

only one

beings die because

Nor

and kidney

is

for death.

human

the

replicate happily for a while, then

finally die, filled

as the fun-

don't believe cells

before

lung,

Hay-

life

beyond doubt. Follow-up studies with

skin, muscle, heart, liver,

phenomenon

"Cell division

nourishing

in a

is.

himself does not view

damental reason

generally believed that

cell

meaning

Some retheir own

internal aging timers but instead are heeding the signal of a

malfunc-

higher anatomical executioner.

tioning machinery.

ist,

Theorists surmise that the universal failure that en-

former Harvard biochem-

W. Donner Denckla, argues that the

pituitary gland, a

tiny kernel in the brain that directs the release of several

when a colony of cells reaches the Hayflick limit, as it

has come to be known, is caused by the switching off of

key hormones, triggers aging. The

sues

culprit,

says Denckla,

is

pared to workers whose labor contract has expired: Having

named Decreasing Oxygen Consumption, or DECO widely referred to among antiaging buffs as the death hormone. No one knows if DECO

passed a stipulated deadline, they stage a walkout

exists,

critical

genes. The behavior of these genes might be

case, of course, the

work stoppage

permanent). For a time

tologists that they

in the 1970s,

is
it

hypothetical

com-

(in this

had found further support

to geron-

that

it

it

far failed in his efforts to extract

human

from

begins circulating

body down the path

for the genetic

that he has

and Denckla has so

pure samples of

not temporary but

appeared

hormone

in the

tissues.

But he

is

convinced

blood at puberty, starting the

that leads to death.

hypothesis of aging in the rare and tragic disease called

progeria. This wasting

malady

affects fewer than

children throughout the world, turning

them

Physicians are often in the position of having to treat a dis-

twenty

ease without

into shriveled

parodies of the elderly, and usually bringing death by age

thirteen.

However, although progeria

flaw,

ravages only superficially resemble those of true

its

is

fully

comprehending how

it

operates inside

the body. Perhaps they will learn to counteract the effects of

aging despite the gaps

caused by a genetic

in theoretical

casting about for possible weapons,

71

understanding of

it.

In

many researchers have

Looking more like a giant piece

of driftwood than a tree, this
bristlecone pine dominates the
scrubby landscape in California's White Mountains. One of
the oldest species, it has a lifeextension system that allows it
to thrive for thousands ofyears
in the harshest environments.

turned their gaze onto the

natural world, looking for

long-lived species that

might employ genetic

strategies helpful to
sapiens.

Some

Homo

species ap-

pear to age hardly

at all

over the course of hundreds or even thousands of

years.

The massive red-

woods

of the Pacific North-

west

live

3,000 years or

more without showing

signs of decay. Bristlecone

grow

pine trees, which

in

the high desert regions of

American Southwest,

the

can survive almost 5,000

years, adding

years
ple

when

new

cells in

rainfall is

am-

and shutting down

most completely
of drought.

al-

times

in

Even more

venerable are creosote

bushes found

in

California:

Some

southern

are

10,000 years old. Similarly,

sponges and sea anemones persist

in a

kind of sus-

pended animation,
for nearly 100

living

years with-

out visible signs of deterioration.

And

colonies of bacteria and yeast can divide for

hundreds of years, subject

Such longevity

to

no Hayflick

in the floral

limit of their

own.

ing.

and faunal kingdoms may

derive from a salutory arrangement of genes, which

how

manipulated

altered

some-

one gene

teen.

with the nematode, a type of roundworm, investigators at

it,

is

copy of the gene, that

72

is

directly related to ag-

worm

strain lived

fifty-six

somehow connected

carrying an

more than twice

days as opposed to nine-

The nematode's age-1 gene, as the

also

worms

and

that

they produced a strain of the

as long as usual, about

counteracts or forestalls the withering of age. Working

the University of Colorado at Boulder have identified

When

at least

scientists

named

to reproduction, since the

with the mutated gene produced fewer offspring.

ailing far short of the

humans

;hese researchers speculate,

also possess a gene or

group of genes that could be altered to add years to

The best hope

for discovering

they exist, resides with the

posed mapping of

the

all

made

250,000-egg-a-day norm. Perhaps,

life.

such gerontogenes,

Human Genome

dance as the body grows

if

Project, a pro-

genes an estimated 100,000

Ithem that make up the human genetic

pins

to

much

blueprint. This pro-

flab to

prominent

biologists.

is

favored by a number of

They argue

that unraveling the entire

genetic code will enable researchers to identify

genes responsible
tually,

to excise

or stopping

tide of aging.

muscle and

this

hormone

be insights into aging,

for

if

the process

is

if

ter

would

dozen older men.

four months, the

in

other

courses of human growth hormone, losing

newfound muscles, and

re-

gaining a long-lost spring in their steps. Concludes Daniel Rudman, professor of medicine

the en-

Medical College and associate chief of

at the

at the

VA

Medical Center

"Our study showed that

six

months of hormone

staff for

kee,

extended care

ment reversed one

lies far in

dates for an antiaging role hormones, vitamins, herbs, and

Perhaps these

when hCH

of the here and now. The claims

is

taken

test subjects are

in

measured

full

Milwautreat-

to

harbingers of a day

daily doses at the breakfast

table to guard against aging. For

must await a

in

two decades of aging with regard

to

body composition."

more-are very much

leaner,

and, with regard to certain blood fac-

wide spectrum of drug or dietary candi-

the future. But a

men had become

downright youthful. Subjects

wrinkles, flexing

other research aims.

possible genetic countermand to aging

to convert

completed

similar studies also appeared rejuvenated af-

DNA map were laid out. But the project also has vocal
opponents, who feel the monetary resources would be betAny

shown

tors,

tire

ter allocated to

(hGH), a

to strengthen bone. In a study

fitter,

Even-

indeed directed

by genes, these would be more easily pinpointed

to a
fter

damaged

further payoff

Human growth hormone

Milwaukee gave periodic injections of a S3mthetic version of

renegade ones, curing genetic diseases

them before they begin. A

demonstrate certain powers

1990, scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin in

wayward

for scores of inheritable diseases.

they say, medicine could learn to replace

genes or

in

as three billion dollars and take as long

as fifteen years to complete,

stem the

older,

product of the pituitary gland, has been

of

spective undertaking by scientists around the v^orld, which

might cost as

some are highly suspect, but solid science undera number of them.
Hormones, known to decline in efficacy and abunfor

now, though, the public

analysis of the hormone's side effects.

Some side effects already known can be life-threatening if

hGH is not properly administered. And there is other evidence of the dangers: People who have a natural overabundance of human growth hormone are susceptible to such
problems as diabetes,

ment of

facial features

arthritis,

and grotesque overdevelop-

and the bones of the hands and

feet.

Endocrinologist Mary Lee Vance of the University of Virginia

cautions, "This

hormone
that

is

a double-edged sword."

In the

search for substances

combat

aging, serendipity has

sometimes played a

ample
Roundworms float in a petri
dish in a scientific laboratory.
Researchers have learned to
extend the worms' lives by gene
manipulation, but some experts
think that hopes of doing the
same for humans may be unfounded. The two species, they
argue, are not comparable.

73

is

One exdrug known

role.

a prescription

abroad and

in

Canada as Deprenyl, and

United States under the

name

Another drug that held surprises

distributed in the

Eldepryl. Initially targeted

the

for its

French-made RU-486, known widely

"morning

developers

in the

is

United

against Parkinson's disease, a major neurological ailment,

States as the

Deprenyl appears to enhance the production of dopamine,

life

an important chemical messenger

value as a therapeutic drug for breast cancer, hypertension,

in the brain that is defi-

But the drug's inventor, Joseph Knoll, a

Sciences

emy

of Sciences, believes that Deprenyl has an added

ent. In

experiments he conducted with

the drug lengthened the animals'

So convinced

is

hormones

is

intended purpose, RU-486 seems to have

life

rats,

have Seen linked with aging. Going under

hasten the loss of bone and muscles, and impair the

tal-

of the

spans by 34 percent.
life

ria

son

that

immune system

or to

kill

at the

to attack invading viruses

cancerous

cells.

able outside the United States, that

function and also acts as an aphrodisiac alleged benefits

is

it

a much-sought-after commodity in Eu-

Knoll believes Deprenyl could extend the average

expectancy from about 75 years of age to 95.

Some

other

antiaging proponents go so far as to suggest that people

taking the drug might live well beyond Knoll's estimate,

perhaps to the age of 150.

In the

United States, Deprenyl

is

approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only

for

use

in the

treatment of Parkinson's disease. But Ameri-

can doctors may,

life

at their discretion, prescribe the

extension, although few

do

drug

"the most potent antiaging drug available" avail-

banned by

is.

At present,

for

for fear of malpractice suits.

74

its

import

the FDA.

Dozens of other drugs are reputed

life

and bacte-

Gerontologist William Regel-

though they are healthy. Knoll says the drug improves brain

rope and North America.

ability

Medical College of Virginia hazards that RU-486

may be

have made

ail-

the shorthand label of stress hormones, these substances

he found that

Knoll that Deprenyl confers longer

that

he and his wife both take the drug twice weekly, even

that

Reviled by pro-

ments. The drug also appears to block the release of some

Hungarian

member of his own nation's Academy of

and an honorary member of Britain's Royal Acad-

who

for its

pill.

Alzheimer's disease, and a number of other devastating

cient in victims of Parkinson's.

physician

groups

after" abortion

to prolong youth.

"

Some are sold through health and natural-food outlets,

some on the gray and black markets. Gerovital, for instance,
lical

chem-

strength,

take

and increased powers of

recall.

have antiaging properties are AL-72

found

in

egg yolks; DHEA, a hormone prevalent

under testing

and the

ability to think

;tibiotic that

Many

'

in

seems

longer lives

systems.

ease.

And quinones,

a group of

arthritis

and heart

compounds found

may

damage involved

^
^^^^

in the

Denham Harman used

the 1950s to treat his irradiated mice have also

as antiaging panaceas for humans. Vitamin

trition

E, preflight, to

efficacy as a sex vitamin has

helps to avert or control

flu,

hepatitis, cardiovascular disease, cancer,

and

even schizophrenia. Moreover, vitamin C

is

said to delay the process of aging. Although

Pauling has been pilloried within the scientific

may someday

his claims.

And research conUn-

validate his beliefs. "Because his

The world may take longer

E,

NASA

who came up

Advo-

their

book

own
Extension: A

with their

Life

They have been widely

Practical Scientific Approach.

criticized

greeshis

dis-

in physics,

scientific establish-

hers in chemistry. They formulated

about aging through a wide-ranging program

Human

calories, or exercise, but

comment, "Today, we're on

by the

ment, which points out that they hold only bachelor's de-

of reading. Their advice, in sum,

at

up with Durk

ideas about aging in 1982, in

search has led Jeffrey Blumberg, associate director of the

on Aging

to catch

Pearson and Sandy Shaw, a California husband and wife

counter-

been

catching up with him."

their notions

Tufts University, to

strengthens the

cold,

proved, the promising results of recent international re-

Nutrition Research Center

it

is

more robust hearts and renewed sexual

its

his fol-

Block of the University of California at Berkeley. "The world

its

as a sure route to everything from better-

potency. While

and

tended to dismiss them," explains epidemiologist Gladys

act the rigors of living in oxygen-rich space capsules.

looking skin to

then, ninety-year-old Pauling

one, has

E, for

author Adelle Davis sang the praises of vitamin

it

them," Pauling

to accept

claims are so strong, people found them hard to believe and

and Americans began gobbling the supplement. Even

cates cited

had

^^^^
ues that

in

benefits. In the 1970s, best-selling nu-

astronauts were dosed with vitamin

just

been held up

long been touted by assorted diet and fitness gurus for

supposed antiaging

community, he stands by

in aging.

that

Stone

to bolster the

numerous ailments the common

body, but their level can be boosted, possibly reducing the

The same antioxidants

consumed supplements

immune system and

counteract free radicals, quashing the destructive

free-radical

C.

healthier and perhaps

live

the vitamin, claiming that

dis-

in fruits,

molecules on contact. Quinones occur naturally

re-

lowers have advocated taking megadoses of

vegetables, and yeast-fermented foods such as yogurt and

beer,

they

Since

germanium, which has

to relieve S3miptoms of

if

jersey biochemist

recalled in a 1991 Washington Post interview.

Ipossible rejuvenating action. Chinese ginseng root, for in-

stance, contains the trace element

New

pointed out that, unlike humans, most

tional to a scientist that

herbal remedies are also being examined for

been shown

interested in vitamin

for vi-

vitamin's presence in the body. "His arguments were so ra-

and reason; and Phenformin, an an-

immune

who

reasoned that humans would

blood

Europe that may improve alertness

to stimulate lagging

become

animals manufacture large amounts of vitamin

of young adults but rarely found in that of the elderly; L059,

a drug

Pauling had

Irwin Stone,

compound

in the

C.

search after reading the work of

Other drugs said

a fatty

age."

Nobel laureate, claimed even more sweeping powers

tamin

smoother, wrinkle-free skin, greater

it

come with

Linus Pauling, a brilliant and iconoclastic two-time

fillers. The recipe belongs to Ana

Romanian physician who claims the mixture gives

who

ithose

to

(a

about using vitamin E to help prevent some of

talk

the diseases that

cousin to cocaine) and

Asian, a

a blend of the local anesthetic procaine

is

when we

Boston's

tionsdevised by

safe ground

French chemist Etienne Baulieu

exhibits a tablet of RU-486, the
drug that he and his research

team developed. He says the

pill which is now prescribed
outside the United States to
induce abortion -could also
serve as "a preventive medicine
for increasing life span.

75

is

do not worry about

fat,

be sure to ingest special concoc-

them of

vitamins, minerals, and other

Women,

like these

swimming in

a retirement-community pool,
tend to outlive men by nearly
seven years. Research has credited genetic differences and women's wider circles offriends.

supposedly valuable substances. The pamphlets for their

line of products, including

PowerMaker

such items as Fast Blast and

nutrient drinks, are filled with references to

II

quick, lasting energy, high performance,

and brain

Chief among Pearson and Shaw's products

developed

in

is

food.

one they

1968 and have been refining ever since. Called

Personal Radical Shield formula, a reference to the free radical

theory of aging, the mixture contains thirteen vitamins,

beta carotene, chromium, copper, iodine, manganese,

molybdenum, selenium,
couple take

it

and other

zinc,

The

ingredients.

four times a day; in fact, they typically dose

themselves with some type of supplement a dozen times

daily.

Claiming that they cannot afford the expense of

double-blind studies, Pearson and

Shaw

substitute self-

experimentation for established research protocol, a fact

that clearly riles the majority of medical antiaging experts.

"They are marketing gurus

who want

to turn

everyone into

a modern-day chemistry experiment," opined John Renner,

a physician

and president of the Consumer Health Research

Information Institute
terview. "That

is

Kansas

not the
all

For

in

way

City, Missouri, in

a 1990 in-

science ought to work."

of Pearson and Shaw's apparent suc-

cesstheirs

is

a million-dollar business, and

among
made for di-

they count film star Clint Eastwood

their loyal
et

customers the claims

supplements leave most mainstream scien-

tists cold.

Far

more

exciting to serious re-

searchers are the emerging facts about diet

restriction the huge increases in

Si

life

span

achieved by feeding animals only 60 percent of their normal

caloric intake.
life is

far

The notion

that dietary restraint

from new, as evidenced by the sixteenth-century

Venetian Luigi Cornaro,

who

credited

food and drink with allowing him to

life

until his

meager portions of

live

full

death at age ninety-eight. And

familiar homilies
at the

can prolong

and vigorous

for

generations

have proclaimed the virtues of moderation

table "feed sparingly and defy the physician,"

for

example, or "he that eats but one dish seldom needs the
doctor." But systematic efforts to determine the relationship

76

77

Hie Healing Powers

ofaPungenlBulb
A

Philadelphia scientist will never

woman he
once met: She looked only forty-four
and acted as spry as a twenty-twoyear-old. She attributed her remarkforget a sixty-six-year-old

of aging and abstemiousness are only a few decades old.

Leading the way, beginning

was

in the late 1920s,

biologist

McCay of Cornell University.

McCay conducted experiments first with trout and
then for many years with rats, feeding some animals a standClive

ard lab diet and others a low-calorie one supplemented

with vitamins and minerals. Repeated studies

although a shortage of calories

in the

showed

that

developmental phase

of the rats' lives stunted their growth, they lived

much

long-

able youthfulness to a clove of garlic in

her nightly salad.

She may have been correct. For

been a favorite
folk prescription for a host of ills and
seemingly for good reason. Recent
scientific studies have revealed that
the lowly stinking rose, as it is sometimes jokingly known, lowers the
millennia, garlic has

amount of fat

in the

bloodstream.

the arteries. Both of these effects

er-about
trol

,400 days versus just less than

human

animals. Translated into

they reached about

terms, this

meant

that

The free-eating

became

their fur

dull

differences in

rats

grew weak

and matted. Some

deteriorating hearts or kidneys; others de-

appeared almost unaffected by the passage of

time. Wearing the

end of the

typical

life

span, they remained

was lustrous, and they

move more quickly than their better-fed laboratory
cousins. They showed no signs of illness and indeed re-

bright-eyed and vigorous. Their fur

could

mained almost
Some,

entirely free of disease until their deaths.

in fact, retained

their lives that the

such excellent health at the end of

cause of death was unclear.

Follow-up studies undertaken by other investigators

in

the 1960s reaffirmed McCay's findings and added a few interesting sidelights.

1961 experiment demonstrated that

while the life-extending effects of diet restriction were

greatest

when

the calorie cut

they were significant even

if

was

instituted early in

life,

animals were fed normally to

begin with, then later shifted onto a low-calorie regime.

Another sort of dietary restriction prompted a 1963

edition of the tabloid National Enquirer to blare,

"YOU WILL

LIVE FOREVER." The paper claimed that top-secret govern-

ment research had already unlocked

youth, which
its

the mystery of eternal

was being withheld from

explosive nature. In

fact,

the citizenry

due

to

the study in question had been

carried out under the auspices of the

heart attack or stroke.

have shown that

garlic

vent certain cancers.

veloped tumors or diabetes or cataracts. But the calorierestricted rats

may

decrease one's chances of suffering

Furthermore, preliminary studies

showed marked

rats

their physical conditions.

showed signs of

,000 for the con-

50 years of age.

The two groups of

and sluggish, and

It

also reduces the clotting of blood in

Monsanto Corporation

dant, offering the

It

may
is

help pre-

an antioxi-

human body

protec-

from free radicals, the carcinogenic molecules produced by radiation

and toxins in the environment.
Because many people shy away from
the herb because of its strong odor, a
few companies market supposedly
odor-free garlic capsules, though scition

on the efficacy of
supplements
and on the amount
these
may
of garlic that
be beneficial.
entists disagree

by

while

it

month-old female produced pups, which Segall equated

of research, scientist Richard Gordon, and

their director

amplified understanding of undernutrition,

it

was by

with an eighty-year-old

no means the world-shaking piece of work the Enquirer

claimed. Gordon had focused
the

on just one

amino acid triptophan, present

by the body

to

in

essential nutrient,

many foods and used

their

in

Gordon's lab

maturation and were thrown into a

by Gordon's

an ardent, I

own. On an ad hoc

he commenced a series of undernutrition experifirst

gerontologist

Roy Walford. He

has an evolutionary' explanation for the re-

suits

seen

tributing

experiments,

in restricted-diet

them

mechanism

to a natural

at-

that

^^^^

enables animals to sur\'ive protracted periods

^^^^

of scarcit}' caused by drought and other envi-

make-

ronmental calamities. Walford suspects that

Long Island home, and

finally

such naturally imposed curtailment of caloric intake

earned a Ph.D.

In his tests, rats

such as being plunged into

group of rats on a normal

ice water.

where he eventu-

were

fed diets

low

in

Compared

to a control

diet, the low-tryptophan subjects

weathered the stresses impressively.

In time, Segall realized

that the less tryptophan the rats ingested, the longer their

span.

amino

at the University of Pittsburgh, then in a

the garage of his

tryptophan and were then subjected to assorted stresses,

life

diet; restricting the

leads to severe side effects, including death.

k kind is OCLA

^^^^
I

efforts, Paul Segall,

at the University of California at Berkeley,

ally

humans

possibilities of undernutrition the caloric

ry out similar antiaging studies of his

ments,

acid in

biologist with a spott>' college record, decided to car-

shift lab in

probably never enjoy the apparent

and mice

kind of prolonged adolescence.

basis,

will

benefits of a tr)ptophan-reduced

erhaps the leading American exponent of the

markedly slowed

young

most people

delivering a child. Unfortu-

assemble proteins. Deprived almost com-

pletely of tryptophan, chickens

Intrigued

nately,

woman

He noted

remained fecund

far

that rats with a restricted intake also

lonser than normal; one thirtv-three-

Self-taught life-extension gurus Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw sit

within easy reach of their supposedly antiaging products.
The supplements have not been tested scientifically for effectiveness, but the couple

prompts a diminishment of

"When

consume

the animals

available overall.

To

activity at the cellular level

less,

survive, they

they have less energy,

must

redirect

what ener-

gy remains, which would normally be spent on such

ties

as rapid reproduction, growth and

channel

it

into

activi-

cell division,

maintenance and repair of

cells

and

and

tissues

This extends the period of youthfulness."

The benefits of

caloric restriction for larger animals

are just beginning to be

Roy Walford dangles two of his

experimental subjects by their
tails in his laboratory at the
University of California at Los
Angeles. The

mouse on

the

left

human

of four to six years. In the earlier experiments,

pressed by the evidence

animals were put abruptly on a lower-calorie

in

to extrapolate to hufor one,

ly

in

gation of

fat

marked prolon-

life

mere 1,500

bringing his weight

go by

calories,

most of

his adult

life,

sumed about 2,500

to

2,000 calories a

down about 25

the upper

end

if

calorie intake of

The weight
late the

if

and high

diet,

it

adult

actual-

span. Quick-loss diets are probably

When

life-

Walford began his

in nutrients,

he was 60 years

He believes

old.

life

in

expectancy to

Although no large-scale, controlled studies have been

he con-

made

calories a

day-a

ly

percent

in all.

"1

don't

to

be sudden.

its

efficacy exists, Walford contends

their counterparts

for

The ethnic

example, eat

on the mainland,

sticking

mainly to fish and vegetables, and avoiding salt and sugar.

This

menu

to reach

that of

restriction of

closely

matches Walford's

plan.

Okinawans

live

00 years of age at a rate forty times higher than

mainland Japanese, and

this

with a total caloric

in-

take of 40 percent less than the average Tokyo resident.

30 percent."

loss should not

from

differently

you are already slender and toward

around 20

acceptable proof of

Japanese living on the island of Okinawa,

between 10 and 25 percent-

you are obese. This means a

of undernutrition in humans, and thus no scientifical-

that population studies bear out his approach.

reduc-

go by weight," he says. "For humans,

think the reduction should be

toward the lower end

where

about 120 years.

in the lab. For

has caused him to slowly, steadily lose pounds,

tion that

very gradually, over a period

that a low-calorie diet will extend his

day, but since 1985, he has

to a

is

be-

ings would also live longer and

be healthier if they ate less.

dropped

shortened the

life

weight

weight-reduction program, which emphasizes foods low

concept to those that have

yielded such

to lose the

shortening even good ones."

has

put himself on a diet similar

which ate as much as it liked.

The scientist infers from this
that

ogists are sufficiently im-

mans. Walford,

and longer-lived than the fatter

control mouse on the right,

phenomenon

safest

hand

has undergone severe caloric

has resulted
according to Walford in the
animal's being much healthier
restriction. This

way

sounded, but some gerontol-

"If

you

trans-

far

more

radical strategy against aging

stimulate the body to employ

animal data to people," says Walford, "the best.

81

its

own

would be

to

ability for self-repair

&

brittle starfish regenerates its

missing fifth arm (top of picture) on a California beach.
Although only simple animals
are able to restore lost body

r.

some experts predict

that scientific advances Will

parts,

one day allow organisms as

complex as humans to do so.

on the bodily substances called growth

factors,

oversee the day-to-day repairs within

cells.

which

Purified

and administered as drugs, growth factors have

worked wonders in cancer patients, victims of severe
burns,

and recipients of transplants.

In the future,

growth factors might prod

cells

taken from a person's heart, say, to grow into a

completely

new organ

while suspended in a nour-

ishing preparation in a laboratory vessel.

gana

The

or-

perfect copy of the body's original could

then be transplanted into the

cell

donor without

risk of rejection, the all-out assault

by the immune

system that thwarts a large proportion of transplants.

The

first

steps toward this futuristic goal

have already been taken

in clinics

worldwide

who have had

removed. Unique among the

with the study of patients

their livers

the liver can

regrow

itself,

even

portion has been excised.

chemical
ells

in the

if all

An

parts of

organs,

but a small

unidentified

blood apparently gives

liver

the signal to rebuild the missing matter.

In

another area, orthopedists have had

luck prompting certain cells to form both cartilage

and bone by bathing them

containing a special protein.

If

in

a solution

the growth

is

halted after a week, the cells form the softer skeletal

in

that

Although
fiction,

it

is

this

component;

whole organs could regenerate.

scenario

comes

directly

when humans mimic

Some

starfish

growing new

frogs,

knowledge of how
tissues,

to replace those lost to accident or amputation.

of

some

The

Italian naturalist

pondered the frog and the salamander

ed that the

ability to

and

Finally,

or

unformed

it

to regenerate nerves,

becomes

skills

blood vessels, and

possible that whole limbs could be

and most

daringly, researchers could triumph

over aging by seeding individuals with the cells to replace

species to regrow missing appendages has in-

trigued scientists.

split,

Another pro-

shaped by the physicians of tomorrow.

digits

At least since the eighteenth century, the curious ability

after ten days, the harder one.

bone, also prompts the bone to grow. Add to these

from science

biologists expect to see a day

and

if

cedure, electrical stimulation of sheared,

more than an imaginative fancy and not nec-

essarily linked to aging.

on limbs

such a way

deteriorating brains. Already, neurologists are claiming

moderate success

Lazzaro Spallanzani

in

delaying the progression of Parkin-

768 and conclud-

son's disease by transplanting fetal brain cells into the

regenerate limbs could in theory be

brains of those ravaged by the disease. The fetal cells are

in

acquired by other species. Attention today

is

concentrated

not yet differentiated that

82

is,

they have not developed the

them

special characteristics that qualify

These undifferentiated

with the gray matter and

cells fuse

develop into the specialized brain

new

cells are free of the

that

cause Parkinson's. Since

He believes

for particular tasks.

cells called

neurons. The

human bodies-rendered
banks

plants are being discussed as a multipurpose treatment for

work

chorea, and even the trauma of stroke or head injury.

brain-mending are speculative. But

Willem

humans, visions of

cloning of body parts.

the creation of a

money

has been argued by

(Strictly

new organism

is

two. But the term has also

an organism from

until

cells of a

parent organism.)

to

be used

for

the

government

allocat-

re-

placement, he maintains,
the technology might be

made

available in as

little

as a decade. In the twentyfirst

century, the procedure

may become

as routine as

heart surgery.
tists

be

say

much

entire

it

Some

scien-

probably would

easier to clone an

human

being than

separate body parts. Biologist

Paul Segall, for one,

points out that "in nature

each organ grows

amounts

in

what

to a biological

field" that

is,

in the

body.

A medic rushes a donor heart

from an airplane

to

all

the genetic information neces-

cell

from which the nucleus had

an

artificial

six

into the

an ambu-

lance en route to a hospital.

There, a deathly ill patient is
being prepared to receive the
vital organ, which promises
him the hope for a longer life.

83

in a culture

womb

medium
when it

of a chimpan-

womb.

weeks

along, a technician skilled in micro-

surgery would take the fetus from the

growing

biomedical research funds

on organ

says, might

develops to the early embryonic stage,

About

ed a larger share of the

to studies

it

zee, or

If

which contains

would then be transplanted

is

without the mechanism of

come

provide living organ

The nucleus from one of

been removed. The egg would grow

sexual reproduction and from a single parent rather than

parts of

cells to

a few skin cells would be scraped from

be inserted into an egg

the biggest hurdle

speaking, cloning

when whole

sary to manufacture every other cell type in the body, would

a professor of medicine and surgery at the

Kolff,

University of Utah, that lack of

to the

it

the cells,

a day

The process, he

the person desiring to be cloned.

degenerative genetic ailments such as Huntington's

come

anatomy.

insentient early in the fetal

for their originators.

like this. First,

clone separate or-

rest of the

will

stage are grown from cloned

other brain disorders

Like limb or heart regeneration in

difficult to

So Segall suggests there

also result from neuronal shortcomings, brain-cell trans-

senility,

would be very

gans" without feedback from the

problems of dopamine deficiency

many

"it

womb

and extract the

knot of
brain.

otherwise would grow into the higher

cells that

Without those

cells,

merely a

the organism could "never de-

velop into a conscious, feeling

human

her

being," says Segall,

could be frozen and used at

cells

some

The

would continue

to

develop

until

and

feel

to extend his or

young

far

beyond the

movie?"

However, he also envisions instances where cloned

future

body parts could save

meanwhile, would be reimplanted, and

fetus,

on the donor's part

Segall asks rhetorically, "or a horror

time to rejuvenate aging neurons of the original donor's

brain.

selfish desire

indefinitely or to look

time nature intended. "Is this a blueprint for the future,"

but instead would remain a "human-looking vegetable."

The brain

life

lives,

even very young

lives. In his

1989 book on the subject. Living Longer, Growing Younger,

being delivered by Cesare-

an section. For a year or two afterward, the clone would be

sustained on supernutrients and given
to

ensure proper growth.

hormone

Finally, the fresh

injections

organs and

tis-

sues could be harvested from the clone and transplanted

into the donor, restoring

Upon

first

him or her

to youthfulness.

reading, Segall admits, the

living but brainless

seem repugnant,

human

especially

whole idea of a

serving as an organ bank

if

may

the ultimate goal of cloning

is

Two fetuses (above) share a

single umbilical cord in their
mother's uterus in a computerenhanced ultrasound image.
Identical twins, such as these

and the nine-year-old boys pictured at left, form when one

egg splits, creating
two individuals that are exactly
alike. At least one cloning ex-

fertilized

pert believes that future technology could allow a single

fetus to be replicated with
controversial implications. The
cloned embryo, he says, would
be frozen and stored as a potential organ donor. If the original
person ever needed a new body
part, the clone might be allowed to develop to fill the bill.

84

cloned calves huddle together, each distinguished ftom the others by a numbered
ear tag. Scientists created the animals by uniting cow eggs and cells from bovine embryos,
and some experts think that soon humans could be produced in similar fashion.

he offers a hypothetical example of a

tragic accident that

involved

little girl

in

trinsic to

burns most of her skin and damages her

lungs beyond repair. She

is

made whole and happy

said, "if

again by

v^hen she

for

was

when

says Segall, to be called upon

hanging

in the

almost routine
or

for families

who

it

each

Some

is

it

to

Segall.

Andrew

as sacred."

it

could

Many

phy-

removing the brain

cells

from a

living fetus.

ma-

to

grow

?(ormally, as described in David Rorvik's

book

Presumably the cloned fetus could be allowed

be

about Max, thus creating a thinking, feeling genetic dupli-

part of the future as foreseen by

cate of the skin cell donor. Although a judge called Rorvik's

Kimbrell, policy director of the Foundation

account a hoax, the concept cannot be entirely dismissed,

on Economic Trends,
Brave

organ repositories,

human body

bodies

thoughtful people object, too, to the basic idea of

and develop

stored for use in case of devastating accident or illness.

Many people want no

of the

human

nipulating genes in any way.

have one

child at birth, to

rights," Kimbrell

and other medical workers, no doubt, would refuse

to take part in

might become

could afford

for

insurance,"

one's very existence

balance. He suggests that

two clone-standbys created

"life

sicians

human

get into the business of creating

that are nothing but brain-dead

born. Replacement organs from a

body clone could be considered a type of

we

damage our view

transplants from a clone her parents prudently agreed to

pay

our whole concept of

New World"

told writer Bill

Lawren

since scientists have indeed cloned

that "a grisly

for the

human body

other species.

Technically, the simplest form of cloning

could be the result of such practices.

"Our society has a reverence

many

ing of a single bacterium to produce

that's in-

85

is

the cleav-

two genetically

Many

identical bacteria.

botanical species can be cloned by

and other plants are

root division: Blueberries, daylilies,

propagated
cloned

from single

in the laboratory

When

now

Most plants can

in this fashion.

own:

its

also be

Just as

sometimes

made

them

great leaps that enabled

egg

split single, fertilized

ders with the aid of a

imprinted

and

people have

on the

humans will take time, resources in the bildollars, and, many commentators feel, should be

ethical implications if at

means

organic

to

extend

life,

entirely in

those on the

might turn to robotic devices. After

trail

its

ical

loyalty to

by

Future of Robot and

od

computer.

Moravec himself considers

a time

when humans

many

research-

few decades, so-called

human

variety.

When

space travel

at the

building robots as a ten-year-

But for most

claiming to have "no

mortality, the goal

1988 book

titled

Mind

Children:

The

to

human

contents of a

A surgeon would hook up

is

the subject of physical im-

not to spend eternity as a machine, but

enjoy an endless, youthful biological

man

brain into a

civilization as a

minds

a computer and a

brain

and monitor

it

function. That part of

that

would then be destroyed, and another sec-

had

tion copied into the

its

computer-and so

to live, experience,

and create

What contributions

all

the

had

electricity,

"What can happen

memories and con-

tality

88

engines,

to society could

new

can and

will

it

will

coming

for

hu-

for great

offers fantastic possi-

Leonardo da

have made,

in a

sources of power,

lived in a state of youthful being for

to the likelihood of

on, until the entire

contents of the brain were transferred.

Then the computer, bearing

Cardiologist

whole: "The opportunity

Vinci, with his inventive genius, not

that part of the brain

computer could take over

life.

Lawrence Lamb contemplates the potential benefits

he outlines a meth-

Intelligence,

who ponder

bilities.

human

highly altruistic.

beginning of the twentieth century.

would then stimulate

the

it

will step aside altogether,

small section of the brain via electrodes. The surgeon

until the

have termed

fetched and improbable. But as he likes to point out, so did

Human

for transferring the

critics

the world will enter a postbiolog-

rudimentary,

this possibility,

In his

an

Moravec's vision, "Good News: You Can

Mellon University computer

still

who began

DNA."

their stay

StreetJournal headline for

human consciousness into robotic replacements "means

that we are already immortal, as we have been since the
dawn of life," he writes. Cybernetic offspring would continue the human adventure, passing on culture from one generation to the next. Moravec's dream may seem utterly far-

age "dominated by self-improving, thinking machines."

old, is exhilarated

mind when they think of extending

Quipped a Wall

decisions. While

make

intelligence will outstrip the

Moravec,

perhaps not what most

machine bodies. "This evolutionary process" of conveying

that happens, says Carnegie

Hans Moravec,

is

human

ers contend that, in a matter of a

scientist

electronically

discarding their corruptible flesh for eminently reparable

brain cells, to play chess, and to

artificial

pride.

He foresees

of Shangri-la

new won-

al-

all,

ready been programmed to imitate networks of

these imitative skills are

planets

scheme a manifestation of supreme hubris blasphe-

mous

quest for

computers have

moons and

Bad News: No Sex." Some

Live Forever;

its

the
fail

in

planet.

article describing

all.

Should antiaging research

the universe at will.

human consciousness

This version of immortality

with

carried out only after a thorough public discussion of

roam

full-

memories.

in their

same

lions of

predicts, the

could venture deep into the galaxy, discovering

to artificially

cells of mice, rabbits, calves,

Moravec

have evolved into

space probes have explored

horses to produce identical offspring. But performing the

trick

possible,

throughout the Solar System, twenty-first-century robots

naturally produced clones of a sort. During the 1980s, re-

searchers

all this is

fiedged cybernetic species able to

can be thought of as

Identical twins

By the time

primitive robots of the 1970s will

speak of cloning animals, they mean,

scientists

on

this

robot.

cells.

again, genetically copying the organism. Nature

does

sciousness of the original individual, could be installed in a

to pass.

world
if

he

500 years." And as

Lamb

is

confident.

happen," he declares, "and immor-

happen."

Battling

fli

Ravages ol rime

Immortality may be desired by

many, but few are willing to spend eternity growing ever more
wrinkled and infirm. Thus it is that the quest for eternal life is inextricably bound up with the quest for eternal youth.
Down through the ages, smooth skin, thick, lustrous hair, and
well-toned muscles have been associated with fertility, virility, and
power the hallmarks of an individual in the prime of life. Julius
Caesar, for one, is said to have worn his, signature laurel wreath
in an effort to camouflage his balding pate. And in Renaissance
Europe, Henri de Mondeville, chief surgeon to King Philip IV of
France, addressed

what he deemed "the

irreversible outrage of the

years" by prescribing such drastic treatments as slicing off slack

facial skin with a razor blade.

1300 treatise entitled "Cyrurgie"-or "surgery"Mondeville also described makeup, depilatories, hair dye, soaps,
and drugs that allegedly rejuvenated the user's appearance. All
have a familiar ring in modern times, when cosmetics, cosmetic
surgery, and weight loss are multimillion-dollar industries.
The photographs on the following pages reveal how people of
many cultures and many eras have sought remedies for or safe
In his

guards against the physical ravages of time. Some of the treat

ments, such as the hair-growth stimulator shown above, are now
known to be worthless, although they were heartily embraced in
their day. Others, such as protecting skin from the sun, do in fact
help to preserve

some

of the

bloom of youth.

HowtoMainramThaf
School^iitaiow
In

ancient Egypt,

women

crushed

incense cakes, wax, and cypress into

olive oil

and

milk, creating a lotion

believed to erase wrinkles. Today,

cosmetic makers mass-produce mois-

turizers-and masks, soaps, and makeup -that consumers buy with similar
hopes. But according to scientists,
such products merely affect the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin; at

remove dead skin cells or

plump wrinkles with moisture
to make them less visible. The key to
permanent wrinkle removal lies in a
deeper layer of skin, the dermis. The
best, they

briefly

drug Retin-A has shown some promise

as an antiaging formula, but the U.S.

government has yet

to

approve

it.

Ceep that
i^chool^irl

^omplexion

A fresh-faced young woman

holds a suitor transfixed by the
sweetness of her countenance
in this 1920s advertisement for
Palmolive soap. The slogan "Keep that schoolgirl complexion" promised that regular
use of the product maintained
one's youthful good looks.

This makeup kit, once used by

a lady of the Roman Empire,
might serve as well today. The
jar for rouge, the palette for
mixing colors, and the variety
of applicators differ little from
dteir

modem

counterparts,

suggesting the tools for beauty,

like the quest, are ageless.

A woman

Her hair protected by a pink

cloth,
tini

Spa

visitor to the

Monteca-

in central Italy allows

mud mask

work its magic

by drying upon herface. The
natural preparation clears away
to

dead layers of skin, leaving

a fresher and supposedly
younger-looking complexion.

of the Caucasian
Kalash people of Afghanistan
and Pakistan wears a traditional

makeup

derived from boiled

goat hoofs. The cosmetic is said

to defend the skin against the
aging effects of cold and sun, a
concern addressed elsewhere
with a variety of simscreens.

^^^^
91

HAIR
REN EWER
TOieKENS THE- GROWTH

OFTHEHAIR.
PREVENTS BALDNESS,

CURES DANDRUFF,

AND RESTORES
GRAY HAIR TO ITS
ORIGINAL COLOR
AND BEAUTY.
^

An

early before-and-after adver-

tisement extols two French hair

products: Niger, for men, and
Sublimior, for women. Both
tonics supposedly restored colorand hence more youthful
appearance to graying hair.

DEUX VIEILLES MARQUES QUI RAJEUNISSENT!!.,

R.R HALU &

G9.

PROPRIETORS. NASHUA. N.H

Lost in his mother's lush cascade of hair, a little boy attests
to the effectiveness of Hall's
Hair Renewer, a product that
this late-nineteenth-centuiy

poster touts as a cure-all for

various hair complaints, ranging from dandruff to baldness.

NIGER.5UBLIMI0R

Defending flie

Crowning Gloiy
"Samson

told Delilah all his heart

said unto her, 'There hath not

upon mine head:

and

come

be shaven,
then my strength will go from me, and
" Samson's
I shall become weak.'
powerlessness upon losing his hair to
Delilah's shears is a theme that has
razor

if

resonated ever since.

For

many men,

hair loss symbolizes

the decline of youthful strength

virility.

some

Nearly

men

all

and

lose at least

phenomenon

of their hair in a

male pattern baldness, which

can begin anytime after puberty. For
called

women,
ing

the issue

and thinning

is

more

hair,

often gray-

but for both

sexes, heredity determines

which hairs

will eventually fall out.

Method
Growing Hair

Scientific
of

The Evans Vacuum Cap

provides the scientific

means of applying to the scalp the common-sense
principles of physical culture.
Baldness and falling hair are caused by the lack
of proper nourishment of the liair-roots. This lack
of nourishment is due to the absence of blood in
It is the blood
the scalp an abnormal condition.
which feeds the hair-roots, as well as every other
If you want the hair to grow on
part of the body.
the scalp the blood must be made to circulate there.
It is exercise which makes the blood circulate.
Lack of exercise makes it stagnant. The Vacuum
method provides the exercise which makes the
blood circulate in the scalp. It gently draws the
rich blood to the scalp and feeds the shrunken hairThis causes the hair to grow.
roots.

Test

In this ancient wall painting,

women attending a
banquet wear wigs -which indicate high social standing
topped with cones ofperfumed
wax. Over the course of the
evening, the herb-impregnated
headdresses would melt, sweetEgyptian

ly scenting the

it

Without Expense

possible to cultivate a growth

tor, minutes' use of the Evans
send you the Cap with which to
make the experiment without any expense to you.
If the Evans Vacuum Cap gives the scalp a healthy
glow this denotes that the normal condition of the scalp can
be restored. A three or four minutes' use of the Cap each
morning and evening thereafter will produce a natural
growth of hair. Jf, however, the scalp remains white and
lifeless after applying the vacuum, there is no use in trying
further the hair will not grow.

You can

tell

whether

it is

of hair on your head by

Vacuum Cap.

wearers' hair.

We

will

The Bank Guarantee

We will

send you, by prepaid express, an Evans

will allow you ample time to
All we ask of you is to deposit
the price of the cap in the Jefferson Hanlc of St.
Louis, whe-e it will remain during the trial period,
iubjrct to y ur own order. If you do not cultivate
a sufficient jjrowth of hair to convince you that the
method is effective, simply notify the bank and thfy
wilt return your deposit in JuU,

Vacuum Cap and

prove

its

virtue.

aixteett-pnge illtmtrnted himh

free,

EVANS VACUUM CAP

on

trill

he sent j/""

reqitrst.

CO., 028,FaUertonBldg.,StLoiui

>
93

03^.

A modem-day cosmetic hair

surgeon traces a new hairline
on a balding man's scalp (top).
Hairfrom the back and sides of
the head will be transplanted to
hairfollicles in the area of baldness.

The result (above) is per-

manent growth of healthy hair

where once there was none.

In an earlier treatment for male

baldness, the man in this American advertisement from the
late 1800s endures mechatucal
stimulation of his scalp by the
Evans Vacuum Cap. Though
unsuccessful, the cap was in-

tended to encourage hair

growth by improving the circulation on the top of the head.

Schemes for Keeping

flieBodyBeaii(Uul
Jane Fonda (in pink leotard)
leads an exercise class in a
dance workout that she choreographed. The actress launched
a successful second career as
an aerobics instructor when she
was nearing middle age, believing physical activity and good
nutrition to be the most healthful ways to remain youthful.

Faced with slackening skin and thickening waistlines, those approaching

middle age have longed to regain their
youthful bodies -or even to improve
on them. Many find that moderate

and a
them not

physical exercise, a sensible diet,

positive attitude can help

only to stay healthy but to look younger well into old age. Others feel the

need

to take

A number
exercise

With her eyes protected against

the intense light, a woman
undergoes laser treatment to
remove an unsightly mark from
her face. The beam stimulates
the production of collagen
natural protein present in
young skin which causes the
flaw to vanish permanently.

and

much more

more

radical steps.

of middle-aged people
limit their

food intake

than medical guidelines

recommend. And hundreds of thousands of Americans have resorted to

cosmetic surgery to create what they
consider a

more appealing

look.

After undergoing a face- and

eyelift, a woman displays a

photo of her former visage. The

cosmetic surgery tautened slack
skin
kles,

and removed many wrinbut less drastic meas-

ureshair coloring, removal of

and makeup -also

eyeglasses,

contributed to the woman's

more attractive appearance.

Vous serez belle eternellement

Madame,

et toujours jeune

EN PORTANT UNE DEMI-HEURE PAR JOUR LES

APPAREILS DE BEAUTE
DOCTEUR MONTEIL

du

Hygienite-Sp
8, 10,

Passage Cboiseul. PARIS (Opii)

En caoutchouc
Masque

ideal. Prix

5 f.

cialifte

radio-actif.

previennent ou suppriment

lis

radicalement

rides,

pattes

double

d'oie,

bajoues,

rougeurs,

taches,

menton,
etc.

Embellissent, ra jeunissent,
s'appliquent parfaitement a tous

les

visages.
La

Ceintnre

ment

en

"LA DEESSE",
caoutchouc,

entiere-

s'applique

directement sur la peau et fait maigrir

rapidement les hanches et le ventre
sans medication ni regime.

LA DEESSE

"

supprime

et

pre-

vient toute obesite. tonifie, affine

harmonise

le

SOUTIEN-GORGE assort! 1 20
NOUVELLE CREATION
:

Pvlenlonniefc avec cou, ZU

Mentonniere lans cou> 13
Front. 15 1. :: Loup. 15

(r

Bandes en caoutchouc radio-actif.

Speciales pour amincir les chevilles.

LA PAIRE
Demander notre Catalogue de

A merchant on

chooses to remain so slender.

40

Spc'cialitcs

the streets of
the city of Bangalore in southem India peddles a magical
elixir that supposedly gives men
hulking, muscular physiques
such as the ones depicted in the
photographs in front of the
stand. Prospective buyers may
wonder why the vendor himself

95

et

corps.

fr,

de Beaute.

Ceinture
"

LA OEESSE

"

enticement

en

caoutchouc.
Taille ordinaire : ISO
Crar}Je taille : 170

Mesures a donner

fr.
fr.
;

largeur de la taille
el des hanches.

A 1910 French advertisement

promises that Doctor Monteil's
apparatuses will render the
wearer "eternally beautiful and
forever young. " The rubber
Goddess girdle (above) supposedly slimmed the hips and abdomen; facial devices (above,
left) fought wrinkles, jowls,
crow's feet, and double chins.

CHAPTER 3

Dreams Frozen for the Future

he petition that forty-six-year-old Thomas Donaldson presented to a California court in April 1990 based

its

plea on

two

Donaldson

irrefutable facts:

had an incurable brain tumor, and he believed he did not have

cause of

Although twentieth-century medicine offered no means of erad-

it.

was slowly

icating the cancer that

destroying his brain, Donaldson, a com-

puter scientist and mathematician,

scientists

to die be-

would be able

take advantage of a

adeslong

after the

As the
a practical,

to cure him.

remedy

that

would not be developed

technology

in a canister

made

it

to

for

many

to

dec-

cause his death.

He wanted

lower his body temperature while he was

it

few centuries

Donaldson believed he had come up with

Frankensteinian, solution:

head and store

that in a

The problem he confronted was how

tumor could be expected

legal brief explained,

if

was convinced

immersed

still

team of technicians

alive,

to

then sever his chilled

in liquid nitrogen.

If

or

when

future

possible not only to cure cancer but also to perform

brain transplants and to clone the

thawed, repaired, and placed

in

human form, Donaldson's brain would be

new body grown from his own cells. Re-

vived from his icy state of existence and revitalized with a disease-free brain

and a healthy body, Donaldson could then resume

much

different

his

from the one he had known centuries

life,

albeit in a

earlier.

world

But before his

brain could go into cold storage, Donaldson needed the court's assurance

who

that those

helped to freeze him would not be subject to criminal pros-

ecution for abetting a suicide.

Cryonic suspension, the controversial process of freezing and storing

bodies for later revival, has been practiced since the late 1960s. Ordinarily,

however, people are placed

nounced
that long.

ing

tumor ravaged

bring back

cryonic suspension only after they are pro-

Donaldson argued

legally dead.

He wanted

in

to

be frozen while he

that he could not afford to wait

was

still

alive,

his brain irretrievably. "I'm sure

someone who looks

like

it

before the spread-

would be possible

to

many

of

me, and might be

told

the things I've done," he told the Washington Post. "But so

destroyed that

it

wouldn't really be me. I'm

Unconvinced by

in

about

much would be

my brain."

that line of reasoning, the court

on December

27,

1990, ruled against Donaldson's claim.

that

honored

Any

his request, the court found,

law by assisting him to commit

ing state

California firm

would be

violat-

some human

revive

Based on these and other

asts such as

Health Department regulations. Undaunted, Donaldson

pension

an appeal

in

June 1991, determined to press on

what he believed was

chance

his only

for

is

known has been

generally

scientific speculation since the

era. In

1773, the

a topic of

beginning of the modern

American statesman and

than

is

scientific studies, enthusi-

Donaldson have concluded

that cryonic sus-

already a reasonable alternative to death. More

have taken the plunge, having been

thirty believers

frozen in whole or in part shortly after their legal demise.

to survive.

Suspended animation as the long-term storage of

dormant humans

whose core body tem-

peratures have plunged a chilling ten degrees or more.

suicide, since cry-

onic suspension clearly qualifies as death under California

filed

accident victims

scientist

Ben-

Hundreds of others
Most

plan.

still

scientists,

living

have expressed

interest in the

however, are not so optimistic. With

medical technicians as yet unable to sustain an organ donor's heart or liver for

more than

a few hours, the long-term

jamin Franklin wrote that he wished scientists could "in-

preservation of an organism as extraordinarily complicated

vent a method of embalming drowned persons,

such a

as the

human

any period,

brain,

remains

manner

that they might be recalled to

however

life

at

in

Conventional science does offer a variation on the

advanced, and too near the infancy

cool cure, though, based on experiments in which fish kept

little

of science, to see such art brought in our time to

in relatively chilly

warm

perfection."

number of

Since Franklin's day, a

some

that science indeed

fish.

water lived twice as long as

By lowering body temperatures a

few degrees under carefully controlled

cir-

cumstances, some scientists contend,

research breakthroughs have suggested

to

majority view a distant dream.

in the

distant." Unfortunately, Franklin added, he lived

"in a century too

its

human

body, or an organ as complex as the

may be

disease-free

human

beings

may be
span

able

inching toward such a process, most

to

probably through the use of extreme

years or more. As for cryonic suspension

cold.

Developments

and

in the freezing

revival of living cells

and

tissues

itself,

have

reliable freezing

or even decades. Studies of hibernating an-

shown

that

some

routinely survive for days or

frogs

and

likely to

now

turtles

have succeeded

in the lifetime of

un-

anyone

The myths and legends of myriad cultures

human

In

boy Epimenides

fell

asleep for fifty-seven years while

And emer

gency medical techniques have enabled doctors

of

ancient Greek myth,

the shepherd

fluids

tell

beings sleeping away the

which portions of

ice.

is

living.

decades.

apparently turned to

sympa-

and thawing process

be perfected

in reviv-

body

scientists

however, believe that a

ing hamsters after short periods in

their

to 140

weeks with much

of their bodies frozen solid. In the laboratory,

scientists

Most of the

thetic to the idea,

simple forms of biological matter for years

life

the theoretical possibility cannot be

ruled out.

enabled scientists to preserve relatively

imals have

extend their conscious

to

searching for a

lost

sheep;

in the

Norse sagas, the

Technicians at Alcor Life Extension Foundation remove the

foil-wrapped body ofJames
Bedford from an old cylindrical freezerfor transfer to a
newer model in 1991, about
twenty-four years after Bed1
ford became the first human
I
frozen for later revival. Alcor
I saved Bedford from defrostK ing after a series of other
cryonic suspension companies that held him ceased
I

operations. Mathematician

Thomas Donaldson
low),

(be-

who sued for permis-

sion to have Alcor cut off

andfreeze his head before
a brain tumor could kill
him, said he saw the
procedure as "the only
alternative to death.

Valkyrie Brunhilda slumbered inside a circle of

man

fire until

Siegfried, the only

pierce the flames.

The princess Sleeping Beauty, heroine of

brave enough to

dozed

the seventeenth-century French fairy tale,

years before a prince revived her with a

was Ramaswami, and he had gone

she

was awakened by

for

almost a century earlier to

News

modern times with

to

New York villager

of the

the tale of Rip

770s

a ghostly crew of mountain

who

Outside the bounds of

man

if

millennia BC, Egyptian priests

mummifying
tion

The

the consensus

ancient Egyptians

became

and soaking

ize

and other moderns most associate with personal

preserved while
in India,

human

still

where yogis

alive
in

body go back

in

him out

have surfaced from time

tell

to the 1600s,

is

Haridas,

the later ac-

who became

during the late 1820s for his

ability to

endure lengthy periods of time underground.

After a

proceedings

An

alive in under-

prominent government

official

named

Dhyan Singh published an eyewitness

re-

when

who works wonders.

was

His

835 issue of the Calcutta Medical Times reported

next.

To begin

with, a preliminary medical

tongue back and seal the nasal passages

him

at the

to roll his

back of

throat. Haridas's other preparations for his burial

pragmatic.

sitting

faded

warm

his digestive tract,

great day approached, he performed

first

were as

reduced his

some

of the

more

ex-

treme cleansing practices of yoga, including swallowing

rays

Soon he

and then regurgitating a

When

a fakir, the

name, he

To empty

he

his

diet to milk and yogurt, then he fasted completely. As the

quite dead, until the workers carried

his startled rescuers that he

the muscles under his tongue. This enabled

tomb containing what

stir.

palace in Lahore.

examination revealed that Haridas had apparently severed

ditchdiggers near Amrit-

in

own

for possible fraud.

what happened

mind and

a dusty chamber, his body draped

Indian term for one

named

several British doctors and military officers to observe the

to time

search of enlightenment or celebrity

into the sunlight. Then, as the sun's

able to

known

fakir

Skeptical of Haridas's powers, the maharajah also asked

beings could also be indefinitely

touched the man's wizened skin, he began to

was

belief in all-but-unlimited yogic powers.

controlled conditions at the ruler's

possible by a yogi's mastery over

He appeared

diggings to capital-

the fakir to demonstrate his abilities under

mummified body of a young man.

The motionless figure, they later reported, was

robes.

a charlatan

mummified remain remarkably

like the

cross-legged

no

by Haridas, the maharajah of Punjab invited

sar in northwest India uncovered a

looked

in the

is

skeptics,

plied their craft,

embalmers

ground tombs. Tales of these bizarre burials-which are

made

Among

port of a four-month-long burial undergone

have spent days and even weeks buried

said to be

because there

Ramaswami was probably

concealed himself

Raja

well preserved but decidedly dead.

Claims that

in part

survival.

after the

of the bodies they

that

count of a

Jk

included discarding the brain the organ that Donaldson

many

gets a cooler reception from

however,

ore difficult to dismiss, though,

than two months to complete. Ironically, their procedures

Thousands of years

Ramaswami

on the popular

^
^^^^
^^1

third to first

highly skilled at

process that often took more

rituals in a

is

who somehow

not the reality, of hu-

newly dead, employing elaborate dissec-

the

tale of

authorities,

record of his original entry into the tomb.

ensured the immortality of the soul. During the

meet him

to

he was impressed with the yogi's knowledge

later said

modern

a deep slumber,

Preserving the bodies of the dead, they believed,

life.

ability.

of the period in which he claimed to have been born.

later.

fiction, the

labored to retain the appearance,

and

cavorted one night with

spirits, fell into

and awakened some twenty years

Van Winkle,

yogic

Ramaswami's sensational claim soon spread

The noted Sikh guru Arjun Singh even traveled

century American author Washington Irving brought the

theme

test his

tomb

across India, meeting with almost universal acceptance.

100

Nineteenth-

kiss.

of

willingly into the

the

strip

moment

ported several witnesses,

said,

99

of linen thirty yards long.

entombment arrived, reHaridas stuffed wax into his nose

for his

These panels ftom the coffin of

a second-century-BC Egyptian
mummy (below) offer a rare
depiction of the embalming
process steps that prepare one
for the next life. First the body
undergoes cleansing (top); then
a masked priest leads sacred
rituals while the eviscerated

body dries in a bed of natron, a

form of sodium carbonate (center). Finally, the body, wrapped
in linen, wears a painted funeral mask. Beneath the bier are
jars containing the mummy's
internal organs; only the heart,

considered the seat of intelligence, remains in the body.

and ears as protection against

tile

insects, positioned himself in

pose of a meditating yogi, and

traditional cross-legged

retracted his tongue. Almost immediately, his pulse

undetectable.

Some

of those present then

and

tionless Haridas in linen

lifted

him

wrapped

was then

that in

became
mo-

locked, sealed,

in

find

air

rangements

to

fakir.

As described

in

that of the

and mud was

garden house above

built

it;

clock. Forty days later, the

turned.

Making note

turbed, the

that the

in his wrist.

same pose

as

McGregor,

to

arms and

legs

his eyes "presented a dim, suf-

Despite these inauspicious symp-

warm

water over his head, pulling his

wax from

his stiffened muscles.

air into his lungs.

McGregor remained

how escaped

his ears

and nose,

Using bellows, they

Evidently, the ministrations

certain that the fakir

from the box on the day of the

ing just in time for his disinterment;

wall around the

maharajah and

in the

worked: Within an hour Haridas was completely revived.

McGregor's

then a wall of bricks

new

no pulse

pushed

across the gateway leading to the garden

house. Relays of guards watched the

and withered, and

and massaging

ar-

memoirs, the door of the subterranean room was locked, as

was

stiff

tongue forward, removing the

prevent supplies of food or water from

reaching the entranced

seated

which he had been buried. According

terred yogi, pouring

could presumably flow into the

"apartment" and the sealed box, the maharajah made

still

toms, several attendants gamely set to work on the disin-

"a

small apartment below the level of the ground."

Although some

Haridas,

fused appearance, like those of a corpse." McGregor could

named Mc-

and placed

was

the fakir manifested every sign of death: His

were

the

into a large chest;

according to the memoirs of a British surgeon

Gregor, the chest

Inside

had some-

burial, return-

most of those present,

however, believed that the safeguards of the locks, the wall,

and the guards made any such

his guests re-

grounds appeared undis-

skeptic, the

trick impossible.

maharajah rewarded the

fakir

worshipful admirers offered him

100

gifts

longer a

with a handful of

diamonds. As word of Haridas's spectacular

maharajah ordered the wall torn down, the

doors unlocked, and the burial chest opened.

No

feat spread,

wherever he went.

But his good fortune did not

mance

at the palace,

Haridas

prieties involving several

acter discredited, he

last.

was

Sometime

was accused

young female

Umes

after his perfor-

of sexual impro-

a minute and her lungs breathing just three times a

minute, doctors could offer

follov^ers. His char-

Amazingly, however,

expelled from Indian high society,

her temperature began to

Haridas's achievement underground had set a stand-

ical

feet, Hilliard

other fakirs have occasionally been reported, few have

sult of

documented and none have involved so long a

Many of the

period of time.

allegedly buried yogis have

been

of live burials

eral holy

of living

was outlawed

The prac-

in India in 1955, after

divers carried
for at least

tion

managed an hour

in

him

to shore, the

By the time rescue

in 1984.

boy had been underwater

twenty minutes and appeared

clinically dead. His

was drained

pupils

were

color,

and neither pulse nor breathing could be detected.

Minutes

fixed

later,

a coffin of his own.)

An hour

has been recorded around the world by emergency

medics were able

physicians treating those exposed to extreme cold. Acute

within six

which core body

ing,

after

of

his temperature at just 85 degrees

boy responded

to

medical

F.

treat-

he reached the emergency room, para-

to restore his heartbeat

weeks of his

and playing with

icy plunge,
toys.

and

respiration;

Jimmy was walking,

The experience

left

its

talk-

mark,

temperatures drop well below the normal 98.6 degrees

however. After the boy was discharged from the hospital

Fahrenheit, can stop the heart and lungs, producing a cold,

mid-April, he required extensive speech therapy

pulseless rigor that emulates death

attending a school for children with learning disabilities.

itself.

Yet in several cel-

been restored

a heartbeat have

Nineteen-year-old jean

one
in

bitterly cold

December

life

and

Hilliard, for

perature with saving his

health.

example, spent

the

His size had helped

it

body tem-

him

to cool

loses heat. Be-

cause his body was so cold inside, his brain's metabolic rate

night in 1980 lying unconscious

and

its

resulting

need

for

oxygen were

drastically reduced,

As gusty winds whipped across her body,

greatly extending the length of time he could survive with-

degrees below ze-

out breathing, jimmy had probably benefited as well from

discovered and tak-

the "diving refiex," an extreme metabolic resetting that can

the air temperature

When

life.

quickly; the smaller the body, the faster

a northern Minnesota farmyard after her car skidded into

a nearby ditch.

ro.

to

in

and began

Paradoxically, doctors credited jimmy's low

ebrated cases, cold victims found unbreathing and without

all

arrived at a hospital, a special ther-

Yet, like Hilliard, the

ment.

in

dilated, his skin

when he

Another state closely resembling suspended anima-

hypothermia, the medical condition

and

mometer measured

a half by slowing his rate of breathing; a French contemporary

through the frozen surface of

fell

American stage magician,

in the West.

a submerged, sealed coffin for an hour and

in

an ice-cold lake or pond. Four-year-old Jimmy

Harry Houdini,

periods has also been reported

could remain

in

Lake Michigan one January day

sev-

men expired while attempting the feat. (The burial

human beings usually for considerably shorter

the early-twentieth-century

disabilities as a re-

tated after spending twenty to thirty minutes totally sub-

Tontlewicz, for example,

tice

Although she required phys-

Several children have also been successfully resusci-

who hoped

trying.

That evening

her chilling brush with death.

merged

emulate Haridas have died

rise.

experienced no permanent

exposed as frauds. Meanwhile, a number of honest yogis

to

Hilliard survived.

therapy to return circulation to her frostbitten legs and

ard that has never been matched. Although live burials by

fully

hope of recovery.

she regained consciousness, and the following afternoon

never to be heard from again.

been as

little

young

plummeted

to fifteen

woman was

finally

en to a local hospital, her body

emergency-room

staff

was so

be triggered by immersion

rigid that the

from the

low 88 degrees

organs

With her heart beating a scant

*

very cold water. Often strong-

er in children than in adults, the diving refiex diverts blood

could not puncture her skin to ad-

minister intravenous fiuids. Her temperature had fallen beF.

in

six to eight

101

rest of the

vital to

body

preserving

to the heart
life.

and

brain, the

two

Every winter, public-health

subtle, but

that

warn of a more

sometimes equally deadly, kind of hypothermia

most often

afflicts

the elderly

and the

infirm.

Because

form of the condition develops gradually,

this insidious

can go undetected
lack of adequate
factor

officials

is strictly

for

weeks. Sometimes the root cause

home

medical.

less sensitive to chill;

heating. But another contributing

As people age, they may become

eVen when the temperature inside a

dwelling drops to unsafe levels, the occupants

tice that their

is

it

bodies have

may

become dangerously

not no-

cool.

Hun-

dreds of cases of walking hypothermia are reported annually in

the United States alone; because the disorder

in part

tem,

it

by a

failure in the

is

caused

body's temperature control sys-

can be reversed only by externally applied warmth.

For
ing

all

of hypothermia's dangers, however, a grow-

number

of experts believe that the

same con-

ditionif carefully regulated may actually

^
His pulse lowered to two beats
a minute, a meditating Indian
yogi buries his head in the
ground. Control of the body's
autonomic functions allows
him to enter a state of suspended animation; he may emerge
hours or days later unharmed.

extend conscious

life.

The

earliest ex-

periments to suggest a connection

between low body

temperatures

members in Benin, Africany one of their number,

drugged and wrapped up, to a
temporary burial. The drugs
slow bodily functions and inTribe

ca,

duce a trancelike state, during

which the participant allegedly taps into magical forces.

102

and longevity were conducted

stitute for

in

1918 at the Rockefeller

"annual

In-

Medical Research now the Rockefeller Universi-

New York

fish,"

a year. The

so called because they

fish

were so

by Nobel Prize-winning chemist John

that

ous.

Northrop and Loeb demonstrated that

low ponds outside Buenos

degrees
at

F.

City

raised at 50

sity

F.

That finding received relatively

haps because

fruit flies

beings. Then,

later,

gerontologist

for his interest in therapeutic

New

nutrition learned that

England fence lizards

year longer, on average, than their counterparts

phenomenon into the realm

Lizards, like human beings (and

Aires, Walford

undera

fish,

a few degrees colder than the crea-

ponds, they found they could double the

span of the

fish.

reared at 59 degrees

F.

grew

faster

unlike

that their metabolic rates probably

fruit

are vertebrates animals equipped with backbones

for lizards

might work

Based on the

and circulatory systems. What

for

ture might also

people as well.

results of that study

and

indicating
affected.

others, a

num-

have the potential

to

extend

human

life.

Walford himself has suggested that lowering core temperatures from 98.6 degrees

Robert Liu decided to study another kind of verte-

had not been

were as

ber of scientists have speculated that lower body tempera-

To learn more about the relationship between low

body temperature and longevity, Walford and colleague
brate: several species of

fish

warmer temperatures,

information.

works

and wound up bigger

than those reared at 68 degrees F." The "cool"

in Florida.

life

"Furthermore," Walford reported, "fish

active as those kept at

and

produced

tures' native

of practical

roughly similar digestive

Liu

in shal-

findings in their laboratory at the Univer-

This brought the

flies),

and

obvi-

of California at Los Angeles.

therefore of the

Roy

live

would be quickly

By keeping the temperature of the tank water, and

attention, per-

are so biologically different from hu-

some decades

Walford best known

little

in their longevity

Working with specimens Walford had netted

some remarkable

lived nearly nine times longer than those raised

86 degrees

man

fruit flies

improvements

no more than

short-lived, the scientists reasoned,

Northrop and his colleague Jacques Loeb. In a classic study,

tyin

live for

F.

103

95 degrees F. technically,

to

hypothermia could increase

life

expectancy to about 140 years, while

re-

the point of

South American

to

After a night in the Minnesota

winter, Jean Hilliard, seen

here with her parents, "was

frozen solid like a cordwood
stick, " said one doctor. She
was wrapped in moist electric
heating pads to thaw her
gradually. Cryonics proponents say the case proves
frozen human bodies can be
thawed without tissue damage.

mice are stoned but they are not

hypothermic."

Another potentially
drug

effective

an amphetamine-related

is

compound developed by

Israeli

gerontologists at Bar-Ilan Uni-

The medica-

versity in Tel Aviv.

they report, can lower the

tion,

body temperature of animals by as much as

degrees

searchers at Northwestern University

have calculated

that the

human

life

7 degrees. Just

how

fish

to

of a puzzle, since

regulated temperatures that stay

The
perature

fairly

is

the hypothalamus,
skull.

which

humans

in

above a certain

body temlocated

and the sex

may

tone

such bodily processes as heart rate and

to alter

When

blood pressure.

a subject's blood pressure goes

example, a

level, for

what mental

keep the

in

Even

when the body is too hot and directing muscles

shiver when the body grows too cool. From the viewpoint

to

out, the

of

hour; in general, physical changes

longevity researchers trying to reduce their subjects' body

job;

it

is

almost too good

this internal

Drugs

thermostat, with

may

offer

little

mind could

to reset

tioners,

In

one

study, Walford

after death,

at a rate of

for bio-

Walford points

only about one degree an

must take place within a

biofeedback techniques to succeed.

if

there

was not some

other

exert conscious control over

Walford traveled

success.

some promise.

for

Wondering

at its

temperature change, even a potentially beneficial one.

ways

effective.

body cools

minute or two

remains stubbornly on guard against any internal

Frustrated scientists have explored several

sound

maintaining an acceptably low blood pressure. Changes

light or

body temperature, however, occur much too slowly

drive,

or a

by

state will

feedback to be

temperatures, the hypothalamus

may glow

sound. Through repeated practice, the subject

constantly monitors internal temperatures, triggering perspiration

light

off

learns

This area, which also contributes

to the regulation of sleep, hunger, thirst,

use.

of lowering body temperature. Biofeedback tech-

equipment

internally

is

human

currently too toxic for

niques combine deep relaxation and electronic monitoring

constant.

particular part of the brain that controls

near the base of the

means

full

humans unlike

and fence lizards are warm-blooded, with

is

Walford has also explored biofeedback as a possible

induce a lower internal temperature,

bit

compound

span could be

increased to 200 years by dropping body temperature a

however, remains a

the

five

for periods of three to four hours. Unfortunately,

to India in

way

that the

body temperature,

search of skilled yogic practi-

masters of the same mental disciplines said to have

Ramaswami and Haridas in their live burials. One

many talents attributed to modern yogis is the ability

aided

of

the

to

found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredi-

decrease body temperatures through trance and meditation.

ent of marijuana, could successfully reduce the body tem-

After eight

mice but only temporarily. "I got so excited

worked, was going to go on TV and say that grass

perature of

found

when it
was the answer to long life," Walford later recalled ruefully.
"But then we found that it only works temporarily. The animals become tolerant to the effect and their temperature
doesn't go down so far. So after two or three times, the

ly

months of exhaustive searching, Walford

in the

caves and forests of the Himalayas an extreme-

reclusive group of yogis

who

was astonished

to find that

temperatures a

degree

full

have permanently reduced

tween 94 degrees
104

finally

F.

practiced this very

most could lower

at will,

skill.

He

their internal

while a few seemed to

their core

and 95 degrees

F.

temperatures to be-

Although those val-

ues

showed no

signs of mental or physical lethargy.

they appeared active and

trary,

men

the medical definition of fiypothermia, the

fit

On

cold sleep for relatively short periods

the con-

risks,

the

Turturro argues. Spending six hours a night in a cold

torpor,

alert.

may be worth

he has calculated, could double a sleeper's

life

span.

Walford returned to the United States believing that

human body temperature

ill

effect.

fioner

is

in 1982,

way

"While becoming a full-time isolated yogic pracfi-

the cool, cozy

hardly feasible for us in the West," Walford wrote

that

"my evidence does

indicate that successful adapta-

lower body temperature,

fion to a

Although Turturro's cold sleep chambers strongly suggest

could indeed be lowered without

of lowering

it,

if

we

could find an easier

would be physiologically

Walford himself

now

believes that the most practical

strictionhis

own

preferred

method

of

life

ent states.

One key

can rouse

itself

affects

ical

Some

on

mals apparently

er food supplies.

for

beings

that a

in

hibernaUng animal

h3^othermic coma can-

and behavioral adaptations programmed

netic level.

life

may be as simple as the fact that anicool down inside when they eat less food.

another strategy

Human

is

animals manage their cold dormancy with a range of chem-

caloric re-

span are many, one

Still

difference

differ-

death. Moreover, researchers have found that hibernating

extension. Al-

though the mechanisms by which undernutrition

scientists believe

not; unless revived by outside aid, they eventually freeze to

possible."

method of lowering body temperature may be

den of a hibernating bear,

hypothermia and hibernation are fundamentally

body cooling has been sug-

fat for their

in at the ge-

animals, for example, automatically put

winter sleep; others just as instinctively gath-

Many

secrete heparin

blood has a

fing agents as they hibernate, since

when

and other

anticlotfatal ten-

Most important of

gested by Angelo Turturro, a staff scientist at the National

dency

Center for Toxicological Research

Arkansas.

hibernators unlike h3^othermic humans-maintain a sta-

who also sees a connecUon between low body

ble metabolic balance, so that levels of key blood chemicals

Turturro,

temperature and increased

life

in Jefferson,

span, proposed

clude cold sleep chambers capable of dropping the

body temperature
F.

to

between 88 degrees

remain constant

in the late

1980s that bedrooms could be redesigned someday to

human

heat.

"The brain would think that the

turro told a

magazine interviewer

would

be cooler."

really

Animal

artificial

cold torpor have

environment

model

for the

body

laboratory experiments, mice

become dependent on

to control their

bernating

ing

mammals

dence

in

may

the outside

live

of the

sion. In a

which many

possible, several animal species

ards.

When

cells

regenerate a

fact that creates other

certain intestinal cells

fail

enough, he points out, the stomach

own

to

haz-

fall

victim to

Since hibernation

its

adapted

digestive acids, producing raging ulcers. Nevertheless,

unconsciousness

life

span. Hi-

have been found

to freeze

solid during the cold winter months.

reproduce rapidly

may

size has given cre-

may also offer clues to perfecting cryonic suspenphenomenon once considered physiologically im-

over, Turturro has found that torpor affects the rate at

fail.

same

clock, thus extending potenfial

body temperatures, causing

death should heating systems

longer than nonhibernat-

stop or slow an individual's biological

bernation

to freeze to

long-term preservation

to the idea that cold

More-

them

perform

human beings. Evidence that himammals such as woodchucks and

ground squirrels

risks. In

to

of dormant

Turturro acknowledges that his cold sleep chambers

would pose some

human body

hibernation, however, remains an in-

triguing

in a

1988, "but the

in

winter long, rather than dipping within

could people safely attempt real hibernaUon.

beam of gentle
body was 98.6," Tur-

it

all,

these and other biochemical feats, researchers conclude,

Using a microwave generator, such a chamber would

mislead the hypothalamus by bathing

all

cold.

hours. Only by redesigning the

in-

and 90 degrees

F.

to coagulate

106

to winter,

its

is

a survival strategy for creatures

onset

is

pegged

to the weather;

ill

caged

hibernators in

warm

In the wild, the

activity as

settings remain active

all

winter long.

onset of cold weather triggers a flurry of

animals geared to hibernation seek out safe ha-

vens. Dormice scramble into tree holes, snakes slither into

communal underground
themselves

and

in

dens, frogs bury

ponds below the

frostline,

squirrels settle into leafy nests.

Once they

are safely hidden, the hi-

bernators enter a state of relative

dormancy

initiated

compound known

by a chemical
as hibernation-

induction trigger, or HIT.

natural opiate, HIT packs a con-

siderable punch.
day,

woodchucks and

when

injected with

it.

Even on a balmy summer

squirrels lapse into a lethargic state

More

surprising

is

the effect the

same

substance has on rhesus monkeys, which do not hibernate

in nature.

to a

When

monkeys sink inwhich their hearts

given HIT, the

comalike condition

in

beat half as often as usual and their temperatures

drop several degrees. Whether HIT could induce a

similar state in

humans and whether such

condition could be safely sustained for any length of time-

remains unknown.
During natural hibernation, an animal's

activities are

reduced to a minimum. Heartbeats slow to perhaps a hundredth of the normal rate; breathing and oxygen consumption

almost stop. As circulation slows, body temperature

drops accordingly.

In

some

animals, the hibernating tem-

perature plummets tens of degrees; in others, such as the

may be only a few degrees lower than normal. (For

reason, some experts consider the bear a deep sleep-

bear,
that

it

er rather than a true hibernator.)

er,

To an untrained observ-

the animals appear to have sunk into a coma. Yet

the hibernators t3Apically

single winter,

whether

awaken

to eat

several times during a

from a gathered store of

food, to eliminate wastes, or to fend off predators.

In spring, external

changes

in light

and

heat, as well

as the waning of internal energy reserves, trigger hiber-

Two years

after being sub-

merged for an hour in a numbingly cold river, five-year-old

Michelle Funk shows no harm
from her ordeal. To revive the
child -she had no vital signs

and a temperature of 66

de-

-doctors pumped
warmed, oxygenated blood into
her. Because extreme cold decreases the brain's oxygen demand, Michelle did not suffer
grees

F.

any lasting brain damage.

recuperating Jimmy TonUewicz (left) touches his ears in

response to a physical thera-

pist's question. In

984, rescue

him from frigid

divers pulled

Lake Michigan (below), where

he had fallen through ice while
chasing his sled. Although he
was underwater for twenty
minutes, Jimmy recovered, due
in part to the metabolismslowing effects of hypothermia.

nation's end. This process

As an animal begins

is

also biochemically controlled.

to revive,

its

endocrine system

re-

sumes normal activity. This releases enzymes that bring the

heart and lungs up to full speed; faster circulation and
breathing then

warm

awake and ready

the body. Within hours, the animal

Then,

is

for spring.

Although most hibernating animals become very cool,

a

number of extraordinary species take hibernation

further to

of their body water

havior

is

becoming

most commonly found among polar

example

is

up

months of the year frozen

to ten

ly in

According to Ronald Brooks of the University of Guelph

shellfish,

winter

F.

stiff in their

One

ing

them as

W
^J^^

solid at temperatures as

^^v
WW

tide.

The frozen-hibernator phenomenon took on an added

dimension

in 1982,

when

announced

type of frog also froze during winter the

mak-

as their shells.

turtles are in a true state of

suspended anima-

Unlike

when

the

of spring arrive, the frozen ani-

mals come back

such case

and

warmer hibernators, their bodies

reveal no movement: Heart, lungs, and all circulation simply stop. Only the brain shows
tion.

warm winds

that a certain

first

to ice,

slight neurological activity. Yet

William Schmid, a zoology profes-

sor at the University of Minnesota,

rigid

body water turns

turtles'

hile frozen, the insects, shellfish, frogs,

Investigators have also found that

they are exposed at low

nests soon after their birth in late sum-

than half of the baby

such as mussels and periwinkles, freeze dai-

when

discovery of a winter-freezing rep-

southeastern Ontario, young Canadian painted turtles

the arctic woolly bear caterpillar, which spends

low as -58 degrees

some

insects.

tile.

first

mer. Follow-up studies by the Storeys showed that more

This bizarre coping be-

ice.

step up the zoolog-

ladder with the

freeze

undergo actual freezing during winter, with much

came another

ical

in

a step

in 1988, there

to

life.

thaw

lings, the great

For the turtle hatch-

triggers a return of heart-

known among amphibians. He reported that the frogs' frozen bodies became so brittle that a leg could snap as easily

beat and blood fiow, followed by breathing. Once defrosted,

as a dry tree twig. Intrigued by Schmid's work, Canadian

first,

researchers Kenneth Storey and Janet Storey of Carleton

fy

University in Ottawa, Ontario,

hibernating frog species the

wood

show

discovery of freeze-tolerant animals

physiological knowledge,

the cell quickly ruptures

frog, the spring peeper,

When

and
weeks with as much as 65 percent of

water frozen into

this

that several

to

does the animal.

the striped chorus frog -can survive

the gray tree frog,

for

went on

they emerge eagerly from their nests in search of food. At

their total

that ice

body

ice.

107

if

and

seemed

forms inside a

ice

dies;

if

too

many

water between the

to de-

living cell,

cells die,

so

cells freezes,

can be equally dangerous, since large crystals can

membranes and sever

the connections between

crack

cell

cells.

Freezing between cells also causes water within the

The gray

tree frog,

awake and

lively in the top picture, hiber-

nates by freezing lower pictureas winter arrives in its

forest home. Although most of
the frog's body water turns to
ice, the brain and other vital
organs are protected. Scientists
who study the effects of extreme cold on biological systems have been learning from
such creatures how to successfully freeze human body parts.

rush out, dangerously concentrating the salts and

cells to

other body chemicals that are

leaves the

cells,

How,
solid for

then,

behind.

left

they will crumple and

do

turtles, frogs

lem. In

its

fatal internal

at the

answer although each

own

fluid

die.

As with ordinary hibernation, adaptations

species has

enough

and other animals freeze

months without sustaining

level provide the

If

molecular

freeze-tolerant

approach

slightly different

damage?

to the prob-

most cases, naturally secreted chemicals ensure

that

the water inside the cells themselves does not freeze, pre-

venting irreparable cellular damage. As for the water be-

tween the

cells,

most animals capable of recovering from

freezing produce blood proteins that encourage the slow

formation of very small ice crystals instead of membraneripping spears of ice.

known

natural antifreeze

as a cryo-

protectant keeps the crystals from growing to dangerous

Some

sizes.
in

the

freeze-tolerant animals build up cryoprotectant

months before hibernation, but

studied by the Storeys, manufacture

ice

it

others, like the frogs

in

volume only

after

begins to form on their skin.

According to

at least

suggested that

one well-known

without natural cryoprotectants

may

mammals-a

class that includes

could be frozen and then revived. But

study, animals

it

humans-

remains uncertain,

also be able to survive

despite the excellent reputation of the three scientists in

freezing. In a 1954 letter to the scientific journal Nature,

question, because other researchers have heen unable to

British researchers

Audrey Smith, Alan Parkes, and James

duplicate the experiment.

Researchers Smith, Parkes, and Lovelock were

Lovelock reported that they had successfully revived golden

hamsters

after chilling the

ing point. Although

most

some

animals to

just

below the

from the Greek kiyos, or "icy

discipline, cryobiology

stiffened, indicating the formation of internal ice.

became "wood-like

known as cryobiology,
cold." An eminently practical

the pioneers of the scientific field

freez-

of the animals remained limp,

Eventually the frozen hamsters

has spawned any number of innova-

tions in medicine, animal husbandry,

to the

and zookeeping. Cry-

touch" and their ears, according to the researchers, "at-

obiologists ushered in the era of cryosurgery, in

tained the consistency of cardboard."

treme cold

Not surprisingly,

some

Gerontologist Roy Watford

examines frozen tissue samples
in his Los Angeles lab. His
search for a practical way to
extend the human life span has
focused on lowering body temperature through biofeedback,
Hindu meditation methods,
drugs, and undernutrition.

is

used to excise warts and reattach

that greatly

of them, however, were suc-

brain or heart operations.

making what

to

The

life,

"com-

logical materials at
cally

was

itself is

it

109

artificial

storage of living bio-

temperatures well below freezing,

typx-

by means of chemical cryoprotectants. The process

plete" recovery. That finding

extraordinary, since

cryobiologists' greatest triumph, however, has

been cryopreservation-the

the letter's au-

thors described as a

retinas; they

slow a patient's body functions during delicate

could not be revived. Fifteen

back

which ex-

also contributed to the development of chilling procedures

of the cold, rigid creatures

cessfully brought

among

much

like that

employed

for millennia

by freeze-

tolerant animals; a cryopreservatlve solution

is

Floating on a chunk of

infused into

ice in the 45-degree-F. water

the
tals

specimen
formed

to protect cells

in the

Many

limit the scale of ice crys-

spaces between

cryopreservation, the
ed.

and

artificial

cells.

technique

But unlike natural

of Lake Superior, a coast

guard tests an insulated survi-

not yet perfect-

val suit, the best available protection against hypothermia.

is

cryoprotectants are toxic, and supplying enough

Cryopreservation has long

of the substance to preserve the cells without poisoning

them remains a daunting challenge. Moreover,

tremely

difficult to distribute

is

ex-

since revolutionized the livestock

the cryoprotectant evenly

and

industry, though. Since the mid-

quickly in larger specimens, such as

By the early 1990s, individual

from blood
served,

cells to

it

whole organs.

cells

and simple tissue

bone marrow had been

days, weeks, or years, then

woman's

in liquid

bull

human

ing

in

to interbreed cattle

and

to

cows with long-dead

technology also plays a

nitrogen for

warmed and implanted

semen

different continents

frozen, pre-

and restored with great success. Even the

embryo had been frozen and stored

1970s, farmers have used frozen

from

mate
sires.

liv-

The

vital role in

the fight to save endangered animals.

artificial cry-

In theory, freezing

ova and sperm

was not yet technically possible

to freeze an organ and make it function later. That tragic
limitation meant that an estimated 60 percent of transplant-

from these creatures

may

ervationists to breed rare animals from

able hearts and 90 percent of transplantable livers deterio-

from different generations, ensuring

rated before they could reach a suitable recipient.

greater genetic diversity of the species.

uterus.

Because of the limitations of

opreservation, however,

it

different corners of the

In
tal

enable pres-

world or even

some experimen-

cases, the frozen em-

bryos of rare animals

al

ready have been successfully

in

thawed and implanted

surrogate mothers from

related, but

unendangered,

species. At the Cincinnati

Zoo, for example, a

common

house cat received the thawed

egg and sperm of two endan-

gered Indian desert cats

Frigid water elicits a shocked

gasp from a volunteer at the
University of Minnesota's Hypo-

thermia Laboratory. The lab

human beings' response
to cold, a subject of interest to
gerontologists who see lower
body temperatures as a possible avenue to longer lives.

studies

110

in

initely. In

gist

early

Nine weeks

The
it

first

was

cat ever born after

also the

first

later,

December

an interspecies embryo

transfer,

Such innovative breeding techniques came too

for the

dusky seaside sparrow, a species that became ex-

in

But

ologists froze

samples of

its

11

when he

defrosted bull

semen

1952, the year of Elizabeth's accession,

Omni magazine in
was not recorded.

sperm and bone marrow. They

Polge

new birds one day from the frozen cells.

many scientists believe that ova, sperm, and
embryos whether human or animal can be frozen indefhope

Elizabeth

silver jubilee of

collected

and used

it

to

healthy and produced a normal calf," Polge revealed to

late

the last of those sparrows died, bi-

tinct in 1987.

sperm and celebrated the

inseminate a cow. The thawed sperm "was perfectly

fertili-

zation.

when

Queen

a healthy kitten arrived.

cat born as the result of in vitro

Christopher Polge simultaneously proved the long-term

viability of frozen

1988.

1977, British cryobiolo-

is

not

1981.

Queen

among

the futurists

to clone

the long-term freezing of

Indeed,

make

it

who

if

any,

speculate that

human embryos may one day

possible to populate far-off solar systems or to en-

sure the continuation of the

111

Elizabeth's reaction,

human

race after a nuclear or

IMng Human
and Sperm
Bringing frozen bodies back from the

dead may seem lilce science fiction, but

for decades medical specialists have
been successfully working similar
magic on the single human cells from
which lives begin. The most advanced
work in freezing and reviving living
tissue

taking place in the arena of

is

human

reproduction.

At more than seventy commercial

sperm banks across the United States,

fertility specialists freeze the sperm of
donors from various ethnic, religious,
and educational backgrounds. Although the technology was originally
intended to benefit

couples,

infertile

cryonic preservation of the seeds of

life

also has the potential to confer an

indirect kind of immortality.

Human

sperm and eggs can be frozen and

saved for years; in theory, they could
be thawed, united, and implanted in
surrogate mothers long after the
donors were dead.
While artificial insemination has
given new hope to those unable to
conceive a child by the time-honored

method,
lems.

it

One

can give

new

rise to

prob-

of the most troubling

is

the

chance that sons and daughters of the

same donor could unwittingly meet,
mate; and produce children together.
Perpetuating the genes of a donor in
this

way

could lead not to immortality

but to deformities in the offspring of

such a union. Recognizing

tial

danger, the American

Society

recommends

this

poten-

Fertility

the chances of

inbreeding be reduced by limiting to

number of babies produced

from the sperm of a single donor.
ten the

Black-footed ferrets (left), conceived from frozen sperm, are

one endangered species that
may avoid extinction through
artificial insemination. One
method of preserving sperm
involves dropping

semen

into

holes in a block of ice (below

left) to create frozen pellets.

them later-a judgment so fundamental

members

of the Society for Cryobiology

to their field that

may be

expelled for

participating in such a procedure. But for cryonics enthusiasts, that logic

misses an important point. The technology

here today, they say, to freeze a

human

reason to believe that the technology

specimen

The

will

not appear

crycnicists,

in

who

body; there

for reviving

is

no

is

such a

due course.

are often enthusiastic amateurs

rather than scientists, believe they stand at the threshold of

new and

exciting scientific discipline;

many compare

their

field to

the infancy of space-rocket science of the 1920s

1930s,

mocked by

moon

by the

cryonics

is

and

the scientists of that day but vindicated

fiights of the 1960s. Like the early

a child of the industrial age.

the science fiction of the 1930s

rocket clubs,

familiar

theme

and 1940s, the idea

in

first at-

tracted serious pracfical interest in 1962.

In that year, a forty-three-year-old physicist

Robert

C.

W.

Ettinger, then a

named

math and physics teacher

at a

Michigan community college, began circulating the manuscript of a slim but startling

book

The book proposed

Immortality.

entitled

that

it

was

The Prospect of
already possi-

ble-with 1960s technology to preserve dead people

at

very low temperatures until such time as medical science

could revive and cure them.

environmental catastrophe, but he sometimes engages

"We need

in

only arrange to have our bodies, after

when

science-fictional ponderings of his

own. "Who knows?" he

die, stored in suitable freezers against the time

has remarked. "Anthropologists

a thousand years might

ence

may be

able to help us," Ettinger wrote.

what

kills us,

whether old age or disease, and even

decide

it

would be

interesting to resuscitate a

from the present century to see

differ

in

how

human

genetically he

from the population of the world

being

would

ing techniques are

human embryo

for birth a

crude

when we

die,

"No matter
if

freez-

sooner or

later

our friends of the future should be equal to the task of reviv-

in the future."

ing

Although storing a

still

we
sci-

and curing us."

millennium

in his

book, Ettinger stressed

how

medical definitions

now appears a practical possibility, scientists remain

a long way from the technology that would permit the
freezing and later revival of a fully developed human being.

of death have changed as resuscitation technologies have

The same obstacles

made

hence

that

tion for freezing

human

cessation of heartbeat.

have kept them from freezing

whole organs apply with even more force

For cryobiologists, that

advanced. For centuries, he wrote, death was equated with

means

there

beings today

is

to entire bodies.

no medical

in the

it

result,

Modern emergency medicine has

possible, however, to restart a stopped heart.

death

came

to be defined

by a combination

As a

of factors

that included the cessation of brain activity.

justifica-

hope of reviving

Ettinger believed that

113

even

that definition

is

too limit-

iveafliigforHcalfli
many

He described death as a process, not

a single moment, and claimed it could be
ing.

sweating is viewed as an
important component of a long and healthy life. The
banya, oi "bathhouse," has been a staple of Russian
life since the eleventh century; Finnish saunas, such
as the one depicted in the 1799 engraving below, are
In

cultures, regular

probably even older.

In

both nations the sweat bath

reversed at any point in the process if

only the right technology were available.

"Death

is

and even
death. In Finland, saunas including portable ones
used by campers -outnumber cars.
The beneficial effects of sweat were recognized as
early as 568 BC, when the oldest surviving works on
medicine, the Ayurvedic texts, prescribed sweat baths.
Modern research shows that sweat, which is 99 percent water, helps regulate body temperature and keep
integrated in rituals for birth, marriage,

skin clean.
urea,

and

It

also carries

lactic acid,

from polluted

air.

away wastes such

as

not a brick wall or the turning off

gradual process which

From

tervention."

is

open

to

human

was not much

in-

Ettinger's point of view,

therefore, freezing a very recently

dead body

from freezing a

different

live

one. But in practical terms, that distinction

made

salt,

as well as toxic metals absorbed

Some proponents

is

of a light," he wrote, "but a very complex

cryonics possible. By waiting until their

subjects are

claim that sweat-

legally dead, cryoni-

could avoid charges of murder, man-

cists

symptoms, arthritis, headaches,

hangovers, and myriad other ailments.
Early advocates attributed divine powers to sweat
baths. The Fox tribe of North America believed that a
friendly spirit inside a sweat lodge's heated rocks

pronounced

ing relieves cold

slaughter, or aiding a suicide.

Ettinger

first

conceived of the idea of cry-

onic suspension as a teenager in the 1930s.

avid reader of science fiction, the

young

An

Ettinger

could extirpate sickness by entering the skin via vapor. Islamic

women

visited the

hamman,

read a story by Neil R. Jones entitled "The Jame-

a Middle

son

Eastern sweat bath, three times before a marriage,

with a

final rinsing

According

to

bath on the eve of the wedding.

with drops of falling sweat.

zen reaches of space. He

Some

Hindus also thought that sweat carried the seeds of

life: A Bengali tale relates that Shiva wiped his brow
with a cloth from which an infant girl was born.
Modern saunas and bathhouses offer more than the
y

who

stall

in

it

revive

and repair

was

instantly obvious to

rescued by

and then

in-

me

that the author

own

idea!" Ettinger wrote

in

H.

finally

his brain

an immortal mechanical body.

his
;

is

in the fro-

had missed the main point of

famous Sandunov Baths,

visitors to the steam room
are gently lashed with

aliens

"It

cleansing benefits of a

simple sweat. At Moscow's

which a professor named Jame-

son spends millions of years preserved

Russian and Indian folklore, God created

Adam and Eve

Satellite," in

The Prospect of Immonality, passing

over the fact that the Jones story was

,^

4,

a piece of fiction. "If immortality

bundles of birch twigs. The

is

twigs are said to promote

achievable through the ministrations

and

of advanced aliens repairing a frozen

circulation

fill

the air

with a pleasant fragrance

human

corpse, then

why

should not

everyone be frozen to await

114

later res-

Oblivious to the cold keeping

onlookers bundled in heavy

a swimmer emerges

coats,

from a frozen Ukrainian

lake. Winter swimmers
claim the pastime stimu-

and inbody and mind.

lates circulation

vigorates

notion of cryonic sus-

pension. They considered cryonics an

and po-

illegitimate

tentially cultish off-

spring of cryobiol-

ogy, replete with

concepts that were

eccentric at best

and fraudulent

at

worst. Although
critics

then and

since have raised

a

number of ob-

jections to cry-

onic suspension,
the recurrent focus has been

procedure's single greatest weakness: the cellular

cue by our

A decade
on by

earlier

war

later,

its

As

heard about the fledgling

experiments with frozen

early as 1969,

reading everything he could on the topic. The more he read

hoda

back

to

life,

with entire

cells

could be frozen,

the

more he believed

human

book and present

became something

complex memory patterns

be

in at least four lan-

"To believe

of a minor celebrity.

could

of life-insurance policies, with a cryonics

scientists,

in cryonics,

when

the brain

first

would

froze.

you would have

Other

to believe

cow from hamburger," one prominent

still

ible effects of ice

more

The

British journal

tellingly in 1988,

New

you

cryo-

Scientist

"Anyone who has

on biological material."

Ettinger himself believes that not even the

as

nent scientist can predict what

the beneficiary.

Most

that hold the personality

tasted a defrosted raspberry can testify to the dire, irrevers-

means

facility listed

make

commented

in Ettinger's

book, applicants planned to pay for the procedure by

he argued,

biologist has remarked.

that future medical technolo-

gy could "reanimate" them. As suggested

lost forever,

tape, the

critics do not even envision the recovery of a blank brain.

signing up to have their bodies

hope

words recorded on the burned

tape." Like the

Several small but fervent cryonics organizations sprang in-

in the

book Suspended Animation, "but they would

tape might have been. They would simply have a blank

which has been reprinted several times

frozen after death

in his

same could be done

the

his ideas to the world.

members

ashes," wrote futurist author Robert W. Pre-

its

have no way of knowing what the original words on the

beings. Eventually, he decided to write a

to existence, with

brain to burning the audiotape of a

rewarmed, and brought

With the publication of The Prospect of Immortality,

guages, Ettinger

one skeptic compared the process of

speech. "Future scientists might be able to reconstruct the

tis-

tape from

how

human

freezing a

sue. After the war, he continued his interest in cryobiology,

about

damage

caused by freezing.

people?"

during a hospital stay brought

injuries, Ettinger

science of cryobiology and

own

on the

cryonicists are simply

however, strongly resisted the entire

115

more

is

to

most emi

come; he contends

that

optimistic about the future of

medical science than are the skeptics. As

he suggests that his

criticism,

have worked against the movement's

carried

for the

own modest

no weight, had no formal

wave

As practiced by

of

may
knew

credibility. "I

qualifications,

ly

had

came

and was

forward,

dead before

and

to

Then the body

who

where

own numbers at about 600 worldwide.

men in their thirties or forties, interested in

estimate their

science fiction, usually atheistic or agnostic, and with a

them learned about the movement through

Quaife,

Ettinger's book.

more prominent immortalists is Arthur

who came upon Ettinger's book in the 960s while a
mathematical logic

in

He was

California at Berkeley.

was

just

recalled,

"wondering

progress

in

my

what
to

I'd

drawn

to its

mes-

been considering," he

later

would never have

met with

cryonics organizations,

now

called the

became

waking

acterization with
is

operated for

tions actively

life

to

curred;

ACS members.

the

tinger helped found,

Oak

tion in Riverside, California. Alcor,

stranger tc

Thomas

Doi

ublicity, is the

with a cryoprotective blood substi-

is

placed

in a

limit the

frigid

the

torpedo-shaped stainless-

-321 degrees

is

the ideal scenario. In real

on occasion, they have had

even a few days,

F.,

There

it

will

a temperature at

at

thirty trillion

from death

life,

to cryo-

on the circum-

cryonicists have

to apply their arts sev-

after the fatal

moment. Even

most devoted cryonics enthusiasts doubt the

more harm, and might conceivably

is

efficacy of

work, the technique

of suspension are available.

ple opt for the traditional,

ly

still

often applied anyway.

Two methods

suspension. The others

Some

peo-

and perhaps more psychological-

appealing, whole body suspension; others, such as

Extension Founda-

Thomas Donaldson, prefer to preserve only their heads, a

process known as neurosuspension. Those who choose to

which has never been a

freeze only their heads are betting that brain transplants

Park, Michigan,

and the Alcor

it

the

treatment in such cases but since cold storage can do no

one of three American organiza-

are the Cryonics Institute in

remove

Cryonicists then

entire suspension process,

eral hours, or

be "spending over two-

in cryonic

ice.

facility,

not always been notified immediately after death has oc-

which Quaife agreed. Trans Time, which

engaged

The

Such

preparing for the next one," a char-

profit, is

to the brain

stances and the subject's physiology.

first

Amer-

Working eighty-hour weeks, Quaife appeared

one reporter

it

dry

capsule, can take days or weeks, depending

force of Trans Time, Inc., the facility that perfor

blood and replace

years."

the president and driving

forms freezing operations

in

is

normal body temperature take more than

ican Cryonics Society, or ACS. In the ensuing

years, he

damage

presumably meaning decay "that require one second

and upon

returning to California joined one of the

thirds of his

to the cells. Various stabiliz-

which, according to cryonicists, "biological processes"

to die."

Ettinger in Michigan

put on a heart-lung

cooled and brought to a storage

be maintained at a

what extent medical science might

lifetime so

uaife

to

is

steel "cryocapsule" filled with liquid nitrogen.

at the University of

instantly

is

packed

it

freezing point,

graduate student

legally

damage from the formation of internal ice crystals.

Once the body registers a temperature below

of the

sage. "Here

oxygen

body

tute-a glycerol "antifreeze" solution intended to

computer science. Many of

technical background, often in

begins

maintain the body's overall physiological condition.

small but steady stream of self-described "immortalists,"

One

the

ing drugs are administered to minimize

cryonics has continued to attract a

its critics,

Most are white

far. First,

resuscitator to supply

final-

it

pronounced

is

the destructive processes unleashed by death

have advanced too

to write."

Despite

three organizations, the preserva-

almost immediately after a person

not suited for a leadership role," he wrote in 1987. "But

as the years passed and no one better

all

tion process itself is fairly straightforward. Ideally,

credentials

Life

which

Et-

organization that cancer patient

will

be routine one day, perhaps even easier

to

perform

than the revival of a body enfeebled by disease or old age.

Idson selected to freeze and store his head.

116

fomder of

the

.'patients,

no body

,_j,t),

who he

"may

immorclaims
"^^^ieve
achjev
generation to
,^^;^.
through ^^E^tinger does
lality
turemediane^
t guarantee ;
brochure OD
his

^^^jion,but
.,p^om a
^ave

medical standp^'^^are already

losejo^jead when
nothing to
at worst
^^""'^''Tozen and

^ouS^^-''^""''

Or, in a
io,

still

more sophisticated scenar-

no transplant may be necessary

all;

right

around the old brain.

much have complete

Mike Darwin.

more of

"It

may

neuro patient."

in

to $75,000,

depending on the

facility,

compared with as much as $140,000

for a whole body suspension.

Cryonics entrepreneur Arthur Quaife

advises prospective clients, including those
shown with him in the top picture, to
pay for freezing through life-insurance
coverage: "Fifty cents a day for
immortality. I like the deal."

occasion, subjects in whole body suspension have

been "converted"

to

to

be discouraging

re-

split

down

the

neurosuspension when

their

this,

in the

left

Darwin

still

confi-

cryonics process. "Given

you might say these guys are luna-

tics to

be freezing someone, but these

fractures hardly disturb

me," he

told

"We knew we'd have to

go in and make repairs."
The first known cryonic suspension occurred in 1967, when a former California psychology
professor named James Bedford was declared dead of a

Neurosuspension has also given

On

results. Al-

dent

cryonicists a rare glimpse into the results of their endeavors.

seem

Those findings

to repair a

most cases, neuro-

what might

middle as a consequence of the cold.

actually be

suspension costs less as well-$4 1,000

ing headless bodies, with

lungs and heart were

a tour de force to repair a

whole-body patient than

result-

ported that major organs such as the

control

over living systems," says Alcor cryonicist

run low. Alcor's Mike Darwin

though he saw no signs of decay, he

"You're talking about a technology that

can pretty

to

has conducted autopsies on the

at

new body might be

instead the

grown

gan

one

reporter.

longstanding case of lung cancer by his personal physician.

funds be118

Bedford was quickly frozen by a team of cryonics enthusi-

sy of

homicide victims, so that

body suspension made

Robert Nelson, a one-time prizefighter and

asts, including

all

little

in this

instance a total

sense. Only the brain, which

owner of a television repair shop. Although Bedford himself

had been removed and studied as part of the examination,

money

could be preserved. Fortunately, the body had been refriger-

had arranged

suspension and had also

for the

for further cryonics research, his

of

first

many

left

suspension resulted

legal controversies that

ated after

in the

have dogged the

was placed

Outraged that family money was being diverted

body

their grandfather's

to

in liquid nitrogen, several of

In the

had named him

siasts

Froze the

First

in

and immersed

where

has remained ever since.

expressing our belief in

was

one of the cryonics enthu-

Robert Nelson's 1968 book,

frozen, for instance, the

body of

who had

as cry-

Steven Mandell, a college student

died

(or,

life

fiction

ethics of charging tens of thousands of dol-

lars for

such consolation sometimes troubles

cryonics conservators. "This case certainly

gives

me

said of a

^
m

York

neurosuspensions involved the brain

pause," Alcor's Mike Darwin has

young Spanish

was

to

death

in

1968 by a deranged

man

Her body lay undiscovered

The Wilson family decided

to

in

even her

family, understands

her chances are infinitesimal." Although Alcor

dissuade her relatives from going ahead with the

And

so, in

like the

Darwin's words, the

Wilsons, stood

woman

cared for and protected, toward a time

remains

in

when medicine

is

equal to her needs."

until the following day.

have Luna put

in dry

suspension as someone "who desperately needs to be

while she

closing up a clothing store for a friend in Berkeley, Cal-

ifornia.

was shipped

body

Los Angeles for a whole body suspen-

procedure, Darwin says, her family,

firm.

woman whose

before she

sion. "Everyone,

tried to

author Robert Anton Wilson. The teenager was

bludgeoned

our society." For him, as

life.

The

of fifteen-year-old Patricia "Luna" Wilson, daughter of sci-

ence

rejection of the casual

a real hope for future

policeman and the parents of a midwestern judge.

first

of

a symbolic defiance of death as

ice to

of the

way

much

dominal infection,

One

procedure seemed as

was autopsied

New

our

is

it

other cryonics "patients," the

became "deanimated") from an abwas also placed in liquid nitrogen. Oth-

soon followed, including those of the wife of a

in

it's

feel

for the relatives of several

onicists prefer to say,

ers

and our

acceptance of murder and death

Man.

Bedford

"We

long shot," her father later commented. "But

and three dozen more suspensions have occurred. A few

after

it

nitrogen cryocapsule

in a liquid

candidates for a successful revival.

likely

Since the Bedford suspension, between two dozen

months

container and then taken to Trans Time's

onic immersion, Luna Wilson must remain one of the less

end, legal costs con-

to the press. Details of Bedford's sus-

pension were also revealed

exam-

Given the time lapse between the murder and her cry-

sumed much of the estate, the additional cryonics research

was ended, and Bedford remained on ice. The publicity that
surrounded the case was also a source of angry disputation;
Bedford himself, according to some participants, had desired total anonymity, yet at least

in the

facilities

the Bedford grandchildren sued to have the will overturned

and the suspension terminated.

discovery. Segall rushed to the medical

iner's office with a container filled with dry ice. Luna's brain

cry-

onics movement.

keep

its

One

cryonic

of the cryonics industry's

more

chilling stories-

suspension. For help, they turned to physiologist Paul Se-

involving a facility that, in the end, proved not quite chilling

a researcher with interests in both cryonics research

enough -centered around Cryonics Interment, a firm based

in Chatsworth, California, and run by the same Robert Nel-

gall,

and

cloning.

cently

A longtime

friend of the family

begun working with Arthur Quaife

Segall took

at

who had

re-

son

Trans Time,

who had

whose

immediate action. State law required an autop119

helped to freeze James Bedford. The company,

staff consisted primarily of

Nelson himself,

failed in

120

As president of Alcor Life Extension Foundation, Carlos Mondragon, seen here with a cryocapsule at his California
headquarters, has been at the
center of several legal clashes,
among them a standoff with
authorities who are unhappy

about bodies-frozen or notbeing stored in a warehouse.

121

May 1979 when, according

pay the liquid-nitrogen

full

the cryotorium

we

He and

down payment

found

for

though Nelson argued

in

be

mother and

to freeze his

freeze them, which

court that cryonics

made no

to

A decade

act of

ley,

In his zeal for the

little

or no

whose

money

for

estates

and

in

more

promise to pay the

news

to

bill for

stories in 1987 por-

and even

positive,

scientif-

of that year, Paul Segall, by

which a

the results of an^ experiment in

beagle spent fifteen minutes

Inspired by Smith, Parkes,

and

and Lovelock's

his University of California colleagues

ducting similar research for

some time

it

a near-

in

later.

early cryobi-

over his head.

and dogs

sters

alive at

animals' blood with

had been con-

was

to

experiment was

maintenance. Borrowing funds

As

from wealthy "patients" to maintain poor ones. Nelson had

keep ham-

low temperatures by replacing the

artificial

cryoprotectants, a technique

Segall refers to as chilled bloodless perfusion.

relatives contribut-

on

at a laboratory

the university's Davis campus. Their goal

cryonic cause, said Nelson, he had frozen

the bodies of people

ed

in

my

ological experiments with freezing golden hamsters, Segall

Monthly News. The interview, approved by Nelson

man

announced

his decision

mass murder.

himself, painted a telling portrait of a

didn't

did

'I

promised

"I

frozen, deathlike state and lived to bark about

notorious Chatsworth incident to a cryonics newsletter, the

Venturist

movement

frisky three-year-old

Nelson gave his version of the now-

later.

able to say

now an officer of Trans Time and a visiting scholar in anatomy and physiology at the University of California at Berke-

a high-risk

guarantees, the jury

one author since by cryonics standards

ically respectable, light. In April

relatives

thaw the bodies was an

was

which no one would or could expect."

trayed the

more than $900,000. The moral verdict of many cryonicists was still more severe. Most saw
Nelson as no better than a Hitler a comparison made by at
least

did.

the cryonics business, a flurry of

father.

deceased cus-

was

"I

the Chatsworth incident publicized the worst side of

If

breach of contract and fraud. Al-

business and that he had

awarded the

to

nine of the bodies go.

he told the Venturist Monthly News.

eternity,

filthy,

man who had made

relatives of several of Nelson's other

tomers sued Nelson

it

let all

best,' "

thaw and decompose.

of stench and neglected," said one

a $15,000

and

Strapped for cash, he allowed

bills.

the nine frozen bodies in his care to

"When we saw

he could no longer

to Nelson,

their best

The beagle

success story to date.

Segall's press release described the procedure, the

inside cryocapsules

beagle had been anesthetized, then immersed in a tub of

originally intended for one, stashing the liquid-nitrogen-

ice-water slush. Soon his temperature plummeted from

resorted to storing

filled

two or three bodies

about

cylinders in vaults at nearby cemeteries.

Then,

according to Nelson, an unreported pow-

er failure

stopped a

pump

that

year-old

girl

who had

F.

to

below 70 degrees

blood, replacing

it

an eight-

amounts of

glycerol.

died of cancer. Without

continued to

fall.

Meanwhile, the dog's temperature

By the time

it

reached 38 degrees F. just

above the freezing point all signs of

6 degrees

capsule gradually returned to the temperature

vanished and the beagle appeared

its

As the dog's

with a cooled substitute containing large

the constant addition of coolant, the faulty

of

F.

heart-lung machine with which they gradually drained his

had been sup-

woman and

01 degrees

heart stopped beating, the experimenters attached a canine

plying liquid nitrogen to a leaky cryocapsule

containing an older

life

had

clinically dead.

At that point, the scientists turned off the heart-lung

surroundings. For Nelson, the discovery

as

of the failed

capsule

is

ground and

pump was

warm! WARM!" he
I

cried.

God, that

recollected. "I

little girl

"

fell

in his deathlike state for fifteen

minutes. Then the revival began. With the machine again

to the

functioning, the experimenters bathed the beagle's

Nelson refroze the

corpses without examining them, but he had clearly

faith in their ultimate viability.

machine, keeping the dog

the last straw. "The

warm water

lost

By 1979, he ran out of money

as they returned the blood to his veins.

the dog's internal temperature reached 80 degrees

122

body

in

When
F.,

the

electric

paddles of a defibrillator were applied to his chest to

bring back his

own

Soon

heartbeat.

and he began breathing on

own. From

his

said the experimenters, recovery

"Within a few days, he

apart from that he

was

the beagle as his

own

Woody

and then frozen again. Such cycles of freezing and thawing

might help patients slow the progression of their illnesses

about," Segall re-

An exuberant

and thus postpone

to heal, but

Segall adopted

naming him Miles

pet,

frozen for several months, revived for a few days or weeks,

was quick and complete.

was up and

fine."

scourges as AIDS, cancer, or Alzheimer's disease could be

moment,

that

"The wounds from the incisions had

ported.

according to Segall, patients suffering from such modern

the dog's lungs inflated

Segall's beagle study itself

Segall

talk

in

and an applicant

cryonics technology.

more mainstream, medical

for

He

1960s.

totally

-321 degrees

F.

much

safer.

"Bleeding

is

Growing Younger.

"If

in Segall's

Several

had

little

own

degrees

was

not quite so cold, canine

Alcor cryonics

facility

have

in the
huffily

F.

for four

hours

at a time; they

simply

it.

months

after the beagle

announcement, Alcor

share of publicity this time, mostly negafive.

1987,

the cryonics

when

movement,

began

in

member

of

legal case that

Saul Kent, a longtime

transferred his dying eighty-three-

year-old mother, Dora, to the Alcor

on the premises, Kent hoped

no blood transfusion,

the risk of infection from contaminated

its

December

you could put someone

or

if

The story involved a landmark

bloodless field." In addition, he observes, because

such operations would require

officials at the

did not publicize

1989 book

in

And

alive at 39.2

the big-

suspended animation, you could operate

level

stated that their organization has kept cryoprotected dogs

practices low-temperature surgery at Pittsburgh's Al-

a state of

less to the

experiments were performed by navy scientists

quick to point

is

uses. Bloodless surgery could

legheny General Hospital, commented

in

imminent. Unlike cryonic subjects.

breaking. Similar,

gest cause of death in surgery," neurosurgeon Julian Bailes,

Living Longer,

human

his chilling experience particularly ground-

suspen-

that involve a great deal of blood loss,

such as coronary bypass,

who

does not mean that

of liquid nitrogen storage. Nor, critics say,

officer

however, that the same technique could have other,

make operations

is

point much

has linked chilled bloodless perfusion to future

developments

found.

Miles never dropped below the freezing

after the experiment,

shows.

As a Trans Time
sion, Segall

out,

beings

and Miles made appearances on nationally syndicat-

ed television

is

the revival of cryonically suspended

ens from cryonic suspension two centuries after undergoing

months

deaths until a cure

espite those intriguing possibilities, however,

after the

Allen character in the 1973 film Sleeper v^ho awak-

a failed appendectomy. Six

their

facility.

By housing her

that the suspension process

could start as soon as possible after she passed away. As

donor blood would

expected, his mother soon died. Approximately eight hours

be greatly reduced.
Segall has also suggested that

one day blood

after her heart

substi-

stopped beating, according to Kent, the tech-

multiorgan transplant operations,

nicians at Alcor injected stabilizing drugs, replaced her

both to keep the donated organs viable and to keep pro-

blood with a cryoprotectant, began cooling her body, and

tutes could be

used

in

spective recipients alive until suitable organs

able. In a

still

more imaginative

removed her head

avail-

application, he envisions a

sophisticated subzero form of the

used

became

All

same procedure being

stance, could be placed in suspended animation aboard

law. After

their spacecraft

them time

if

they

became

cause of Dora Kent's death, as required by state

first

declaring that Dora had died of pneumonia, a

giving

county coroner changed his mind and announced that Dora

Back on

earth.

might have died from a dose of barbiturates administered

123

to

ill,

injured or seriously

to return to earth for treatment.

one exception: No doctor had been present

dure, with
certify the

short-term cryonic suspensions. Astronauts, for

permanent storage.

of this activity followed standard cryonic proce-

in-

for

for

at

the booy >

is

Prepared

J
tne
the body
through
There,
dnilea
^-a^
rs
hole
rx,
swellmg. ^
oery,

^^om-

suspension

^ tn
rrvonic
for best
^^^^^
which
.pc;s
process,
,^ coratnencc
s^ouiQ
^eanimadsis claim,

to ^^"^
these terms

. x

^oodis

tomor^itorbrams
occur

co^tair^^t^g

^^^^''T^^^on

-^^^t:fol^oholrelated^^^

pro
v/hen a

rm:gei^^'-,Uicor^e

oil,

^^lnO

Iped
bags
ceU

stabmze
and P
wood cioumg^

^^^^

4e
^^^.f
acrds^^^^
,educmg

agam^

degrees

the

patient

rs

\^^^,,^^sleepmg
'^ocapsule

inside

ar>d

etA

placed

(a

^^rf^^^^^tle) for

sSnless-steel;ac-^-ebodyis^

mem

,0

v^^^^V

iwe system
rce t
packed m
body is
temperature^^
core

^^^^
^^^.^iat-

,^er cooling.
second
fined to a

.^ored

enoW^orfourPaU^^^^^^

^^^';'Cer*,thebramwrU^e
enlevelever
body part
l?he last

laboratory
P^S'^'^nrs
m the cryomcs
\

124

^^g^^.

reaches

giycerol-l

degrees

F., t^*

downing
sule,

^,^sule. The

the co^

which

"'

^op-

degrees

F.,

Men

strops

around

Alcor. Alcor retorted that the barbiturates

left

the

truly

Aside from the matter of perfecting

standard injection given after death to aid the freezing

process. Yet the coroner's accusation

some

technology must overcome

were part of a

macabre sug-

daunting obstacles.

human

cloning to pro-

duce replacement bodies, the thawing process

mains beyond present-day

gestion that Dora Kent had prematurely lost her head.

from low temperatures

Although Kent insisted his mother had been legally

is

capabilities. Bringing

an extremely

difficult

itself re-

back

cells

process be-

dead before the suspension process began, the coroner

cause the ice crystals that damage

maintained that a proper postmortem was required to de-

during thawing as well as during cooling. Scientists have

termine just what had happened.

An

autopsy, however,

where

ing,

the hectic

remained during the ensuing

months

that followed, Alcor

charges against the

facility

Dora Kent's head remained frozen.

adopted
of

all

new

members

computer
tute of

were dropped, and

work began

in the 1960s,

ured

cryonics enthusi-

to criticism.

Many

in

nanometers tens of billionths of an

faith in

legal

H ^
H
^

to

and

JH

many

someday

^^^^^

compli-

far

would
more

of

build sky-

quickly than

nanotechnology could also be designed

In his analysis

the

first

damage caused by

freezing and thawing.

step, freezing, is well within

ence," wrote Robert Ettinger in 1962. "With bad luck, the

tectants. In his view, the crucial

frozen people will simply remain dead, as they would have

be safely

But with good luck, the manifest destiny of

left

extensive

to the

cell

rangement of

science will be realized, and the resuscitees will drink the

wine of centuries unborn."

Once

For that happy scenario to unfold, however, medical

modern

nanoengineers of the

damage could be
cells

second

capabilities

artificial

cryopro-

step, thawing,
future, since

repaired

if

can

even

the basic ar-

remained.

the engineers develop the

nanomachines capa-

ble of reversing cryonic suspension, scientists

128

to re-

of cryonic suspension, Drexler argued that

through the use of chemical fixatives and

capabilities of sci-

fat

they encountered. Ultimately, according

cells

verse the cellular

attractive than the grave,

one has doubts about the future

the devices he proposed

Some

body's circulatory system, destroying any

to Drexler,

their frozen patients will revive

more

signed for a universe of applications.

medical bent might be designed to cruise the

^^1^*
m

again to thank them for their pioneering sacrifices.

"Clearly, the freezer is

the

microscopic corals build reefs; others of a

cations and the disdain of others, cryonicists are unshakably certain that

inch.

mechanisms of

nanomachines could be de-

M scrapers or spaceships

By the 1990s, candidates for suspension con-

to the process. Yet despite the

Drexler's

cell,

intended to cover every legal, financial, and medical contin-

in the grave.

affiliate

Laboratory and a visiting

nspired by the tiny living

fronted a stack of forms weighing four and a half pounds,

if

Drexler, a

trained at the Massachusetts Insti-

Artificial Intelligence

skeptics

them as moral cowards who refuse

and death has created an incredible thicket of

even

book Engines of Creation.

molecule-size machines so small that they would be meas-

face the inevitability of death. Undeniably, their approach to

live

who

1986 with the publica-

term nanotechnology to describe a future generation of

science. Others see

and

scientist

in

guidelines that included notifying the coroner

In the

view them as naive dreamers with an unrealistic

gency related

on the way came

scholar at Stanford University. In his book, he coined the

Since their

life

movement, an encouraging

Technology, has since served as a research

MIT's

at

impending suspensions before they took place.

ethical issues.

is

cryonics

meantime, Alcor

have become accustomed

asts

in the

tion of K. Eric Drexler's

arrested, then released without being charged. Even-

tually, all

many

sign that help

equipment was con-

be

to

at different rates.

For

into hid-

legal battle. In

then returned, and several Alcor staff

fiscated,

were

it

So they took Dora's head

thawed

tissue form

may need

also found that different types of cells

would have required defrosting the head an unthinkable

action for the cryonicists.

and

cells

would

tackle

by

relatively sophisticated

life

And, to ensure that the patient revives not only healthy but

methods. Working backward, the

without postoperative scarring, other nanomachines sew

would then turn

restorers

and cruder techniques.

to revive a cryonically
ler's

most

recently,

the easiest cases first those patients frozen

to subjects frozen

by earlier

the skin

doctors would attempt

Finally, the

to

suspended patient of today in Drex-

first

conclude the imaginative scenario, "the remaining devic-

or nutrient molecules. At

stage of preparation, the patient

lies in

to the light of a

make

possible. "Surgical de-

solid plugs of tissue to

open access

to

the sleeper

wakes refreshed

day."

Drexler's visions of the future. Drexler himself agrees with

vices designed for use at low temperatures reach through

the liquid nitrogen to the patient's heart. There they

new

last,

Conventional scientists remain ambivalent about

tank of liquid nitrogen," Drexler wrote of the surgical recovery that nanotechnology might

Finally,

es in the cells disassemble one another into harmless waste

scenario, a heart-attack victim.

"In the

and underlying tissues seamlessly together.

who

critics

remove

badly

major arteries and

foresee the possibility of a

runaway horde

programmed nanomachines, capable

of

of inadvertently

destroying the planet as they proceed on a misguided mis-

An army of nanomachines equipped for removing

protectant moves through these openings, clearing first the

sion of disassembly

major blood vessels and then the

might not be irreparably damaged by the constant motion

veins.

After the

nanomachines open up the

first

system, the physicians

"pump

in a

milky

enter cells and

in Drexler's futuristic

fluid

remove

ly,

capillaries."

containing

trillions

circulatory

some

all

molecules or by the background

radiation that pervades

all

space.

is

The

of devices that

have asked whether machines so small

characteristic of

that

scenario would

physicists

and reconstruction. More fundamental-

however, are definitely impressed.

cryonicists,

"The biological repair potential of cell repair technology ap-

the glassy protectant, molecule by

molecule." Like miniature maintenance workers, the ma-

pears so vast," wrote one enthusiast

chines replace the protectant "with a temporary molecular

be simplest to ask whether there

scaffolding that leaves

work."

When

the

ample room

for repair

machines

couldn't fix."

to

nanomachines encounter such obstacles

as molecules that must be

"the machines label

them

moved

to just

would enter the

above
cells

freezing. Tiny cell-repair

might

has been the commercial

"began applying by the six-pack"

aside, Drexler continues,

just

re-

for cryonic

suspension,

according to Alcor president Carlos Mondragon.

With the protectant eliminated, the patient would be

warmed

telling

in 1988, "it

anything this technology

action. After the publication of Drexler's book, engineers

proper replacement."

for

more

Still

is

Indeed, as the horizons of

machines

the notion of

conscious

through the blood vessels, while other

modern technology expand,

suspended animation,

life,

becomes ever

like that

of extending

less fantastic.

Whether by

minuscule devices would repair the damaged heart and

dreaming away the decades

weakened

longer and healthier lives through techniques as yet un-

ity,"

arteries.

To avoid "premature, unbalanced

however, most of each

cell's active

activ-

revival approached, the medical

en. "Outside the body, the repair

blood from the patient's

blood to

refill

own

It

pace would quick-

now

matter of course.

nineteenth-century poet Robert Browning. "The best

to be: the last of

transfuses this

the accepted

is fi-

unblocked on the verge of contraction. Heartbeat

life,

for

which the

first

is

yet

was made." Brown-

ing himself died in 1889 at age seventy-seven exceeding

the circulatory system," Drexler explains.

"Metabolism resumes step by step; the heart muscle

nally

of, future generations may take

own great-great-grandchildren as a
"Grow old along with me," wrote

encounters with their

system has grown fresh

cells.

a cryocapsule, or by living

proven or even undreamed

molecules would

remain "blocked" incapable of chemical interaction.

As

in

life

expectancy of a male by

more than a century

re-

sumes, and the patient emerges into a state of anesthesia."

emerging

130

to

fulfill

thirty years. Little

after his death, techniques

may be

the promise of his timeless words.

Wafer's Iiml

From

Power

the beginning of time,

wa-

has been linked to the mysteries of human existence. In folk

tales and legends, it is a magic fluid that gives life, cures diseases,
and bestows youth, wisdom, and immortality. Many early civilizations developed water cults, believing that the sounds and movements of running streams signaled the presence of a living spirit.
Later societies including the Greeks, Romans, and Japater

neseplaced a high value on the restorative properties of water.

The Romans, in particular, treasured the seemingly miraculous
powers of naturally occurring hot springs and mineral-enriched
waters. Daily bathing, they believed, could

literally

wash away

and melancholia. In
time, an elaborate tradition of public bathing emerged, designed to
promote health, ensure long life, and enhance physical beauty.
As the Roman Empire spread, so too did public bathing. Today, in the German city of Baden-Baden, the tradition continues on
the site where a Roman bath once stood. In ancient times, the.
complex boasted a grand Emperor's bath, an equally splendid
chamber for his soldiers, and a third pool for their horses. Horses
are no longer welcome, but more than 600,000 humans flock to
the public pools at Baden-Baden each year to immerse themselves
in an ancient tradition. Many are seeking relief from a host of ills
such

afflictions as leprosy, tumors, infertility,

although physicians disagree as to the therapeutic benefits of the

water treatments while others are simply taking the opportunity
to relax

and rejuvenate

in the

warm, soothing waters.

\
mild climate ensured by the
Black Forest mountains that
shelter it on three sides, the
German city of Baden-Baden
provides an idyllic setting for
its famous hot springs baths.
Its

132

Spouting the mineral-rich water

from more than a mile underground, a bronze statue at

Baden-Baden recalls an ancient
belief that springs are sources
ofyouth and rejuvenation.

J^^

HofBaflisThaf
Entrance flie World
From Roman times on, the baths at
Baden-Baden have attracted Europe's
most celebrated figures. Emperor Frederick
in

III

was so

revitalized after a visit

1473 that he later declared the tovm

his royal seat. During the 1800s, Ger-

man composer Johannes Brahms and

Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky
visited the hot springs.

And American

humorist Mark Twain became an enthusiastic convert during a

two-week

stay in 1879. "I fully believe

left

my

rheumatism in Baden Baden," he

wrote in his journal. "Baden Baden
welcome to it."
Today, visitors are drawn to two

is

bathhouses, the Renaissance-style

Friedrichsbad, completed in 1878, and
the
in

modern Caracalla Therme, opened

1985.

As

in ancient times,

water

drawn
from sources located deep below
ground and pumped to the baths.
There it is cooled to between 85 and
100 degrees F. and used in bathing
registering 160 degrees

F. is

treatments, moist-heat saunas, and

many

inhalation therapies. Also,

tors report benefits

visi-

from drinking the

sulfur-rich water, although

have an unpleasant briny

it

is

taste.

said to

iri|

A pcdi of bathers bask in

a diyheat sauna as part of a fifteenstage treatment at the Friedrichsbad spa. The process,
known as a Roman-Irish bath,
also includes a soap-and-brush

massage and fill immersion

in

the mineral-rich spring water.

Beneath the ornate rotunda of

one of the Friedrichsbad's
baths, visitors soak in a thermal pool. As part of a procedure thought to stimulate the
metabolism and improve circulation, bathers move through a
series ofpools that progressively become warmer, then colder.

Blending elements of classical

and modem

architecture, the

spa at Caracalla Therme features hot'Springsfed swinmiing

pools, baths, waterfalls, water
spouts, and fountains. The
complex is named for Roman
Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninusalso known as Caracalla who laid the cornerstone
for the first baths at Baden-

Baden

in the third century

AD.

The hot spray from a

mushroom-shaped fountain
massages a bather's neck and
shoulders. The soothing water
is said to have preventive
as wen as recuperatix'e powers
for those who are affected by
the stress cf everyday life.

137

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The

editors

sistance:
tic

would

Ame

Highlands,

like to

thank the following

for their as-

Bey. Life Sen/ices Supplements, Inc., Atlan-

New

Bromberg, University

Jersey; Nicolette

of Kansas Libraries. Lawrence: Professor Helmut Jung,

Isti-

Rome: Helene Kronimus,

Bader-und Kurven,valtung, Baden-Baden, Germany; Santuto Archeologico Germanico,

New

dra Martin, Paraview,

York; Gabrielle Riehle, Bader-

und Kurverwaltung, Baden-Baden, Germany; Christine

Vary, Bader-und Kun,'erwaltung, Baden-Baden. Germany.

PICTURE CREDITS
The sourcesfor the illustrations

in this

book are shown bdow.

Credits from left to right are separated

from

by semicolons,-

credits

top to bottom are separated by dashes.

Wood, Stansbury Ronsaville Wood Inc. 6,

Gemaldegalerie, SMPK, Berlin. 9. Mary Evans Picture Li-

Ergenbright, Bend, Ore., except bottom

Chris

left

Bonington/Woodfin Camp & Associates, New York 57;

Mary Evans Picture Library', London. 58 Roger-Viollet, Paris. 59: The Library of the New York Botanical Garden,

Cover: Art by Rob

Bronx, N.Y. 60; Institut fur Geschichte der Medizin, Vi-

7:

ennaCulver

London. 10, 11: Pasquale De Antonis, Rome, courtesy Villa Famesina, Rome. 14: Giraudon, Paris. 15: Mary
Evans Picture Library, London. 16, 17: Courtesy the Board
of Trustees of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London;
brary,

Pietro Jovane,

The Granger

Rome

Collection,

Rome.

18-21: Pietro Jovane,

(2).

New

25:

York. 26, 27: Scala, Florence;

Nimatailah/Ricciarini, Milan. 28, 29; Archiv fur Kunst

und

Geschichte. Beriin, except bottom left Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Beriin. 30: Bildarchiv Claus Hansmann,

Munich. 31: Culver Pictures,

Inc.,

New

York. 32: Giancarlo

Costa, Milan, courtes\' Raccolta Spada, Milan. 33: Girau-

1990 Tom Sobolik/Black Star, New York.

36: Naomi Duguid/Asia Access, Toronto; Oriental Museum, Universit}' of Durham. 37; Asian Art Museum of San
Francisco, The Avery Brundage Collection (B62 D28) -Bildarchiv Claus Hansmann, Munich. 38: From Tao Magic by
Laszlo Legeza, < 1975 Thames and Hudson, Ltd., London.
39: Oriental Museum, University of Durham. 40: Jean-Loup
Charmet, Paris. 42: f Nik Wheeler, Los Angeles-Alan
Bemer, Seattle. 44, 45: Paul Chesley, Aspen, Colo.; Torin
Boyd, Tokyo. 47: Ric Ergenbright, Bend. Ore. 48, 49: " Ric
Ergenbright. Bend, Ore.;
1985 Galen Rowell/Mountain
Light, Albany, Calif 50:
Ric Ergenbright, Bend, Ore. 51:
Jeffrey Alford/Asia Access, Toronto-Pietro Jovane,
Rome. 52:
Ric Ergenbright, Bend, Ore Pietro Jovane,
Rome. 53:
Ric Ergenbright, Bend, Ore. 54, 55: ' Ric
don, Paris. 35:

Paris. 63:
sity

Pictures. Inc.,

New

York. 61: Roger-Viollet,

Pennell Collection. Kansas Collection, Univer-

of Kansas Libraries. Lawrence

Geneva -Contact Camera

'

64:

Alain Mor\'an.

London. 65:

Press.

Alain Mor-

van, Gene\'a. 67: August Sychset/Gamma, Paris;

Serge
Deni Mclntwe/Photo
Researchers, Inc., New York. 70: Eg\ptian Museum, Cairo;
Suzanne Szasz/Photo Researchers. Inc New York. 71:
Nils Vidstrand, Los Angeles 72:
Francois Gohier, The National Audubon Collection/Photo Researchers, Inc., New
York. 73: Bill Love, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, Berke-

Martinez/Gamma,

Paris. 68:

^"

Will

&

74; Pierre Vauthey /Sygma. New York. 76, 77:

1990 Alon Reininger.^Contact Press images. New York.

ley, Calif
^

78, 79; Gilroy Gariic Festival Association, Inc., Gilroy, Calif;

Topham

Picture Sour> e. Edenbridge. Kent. 80; Life Services

Supplements. Inc.. Atlantic Highlands. N.J. 81: - 1990 Peter
Menzel, Napa, Calif 82: 1988 Norbert Wu/Peter Arnold,
Inc., New York. 83: John Whitehead, Richmond, Va. 84:
Howard Sochurek, Delray Beach, Florida = 1978 Harvey
Stein, New York. 85: Steen Willadsen, Calgary, Alberta. 86,
87: Art by Will Williams, Stansbur\' Ronsaville Wood Inc.
89: The Granger Collection, New York. 90: Culver Pictures,
Inc., New York; Tapabor, Paris Gianni Dagli Orti, Paris.

91:

Adriano Heitmann, Stabio, Switzerland-

Negre. 92: The Granger Collection,

New York

Herve

Kharbine-

Tapabor, Paris 93: Michael Holford, Loughton, Essex; The

Granger Collection, New York; courtesy Jeffrey C. Weidig,

M.D.

Nancy Barr/Retna

94:

(2)

Tsiaras/Photo Researchers, Inc

Ltd.,

New

New York-A.

York. 95;

Louis
Hutchison Library, London; Tapabor, Pans 97; Courtesy the Trustees of the British
Museum, London. 98: Alcor Foundation, Riverside, CalifAP/Wide World Photos, Inc., New York. 100: Foto

Psihoyos/Matrix,

New York The

Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, Germany. 102. 103: Klaus

Kalundborg. Denmark -Jean Luc Magneron/
Sygma, New York. 104; Vickie Kettlewell/; 1980 Grand
Aarsleff.

Fo'Vks, N Dak. 106: Tom Smart, Park

Ross Baughman/Visions, New York; Bill
Hogan/- 1984 Chicago Tribune Company, all rights reserved, used with permission. 108; Peter Menzel, Napa,
Calif. 109; Janet and Kenneth Storey, Ottawa. 110, 111:
Peter Menzel, Napa, Calif. 112: Science Photo Library/
Photo Researchers, Inc., New York. 113; Jessie Cohen, National Zoological Park/courtesy NOAHS Center, Washington, D C. 114, 115; Courtesy Mikkel Aaland s collection,
from Travels through Sweden, Finland and Lapland, to the
North Cape, in the years 1798 and 1799 by Giuseppe Acerbi,
printed by Joseph Mawman in the Poultry. London. 1802;
The Hutchison Library. London 117: Immortalist Society.

Forks Herald, Grand

City, Utah. 107:

Oak

Park. Mich.;

Park, Mich. 118:

Eli

New

Nina Barnett,

Pomona,

R.C.W Ettinger/Cryonics

Institute.

Reed/Magnum. New York-^

Oak
1991

York. 120, 121: Adrienne Helitzer,

Calif 124-127; Alcor Foundation, Riverside. Calif

129:
1987 Peter Menzel, Napa, Calif. 131; Bader-und Kurverwaltung, Baden-Baden/Foto H D. Volz. 132. 133:
Bader-und Kurverwaltung. Baden-Baden/Foto Breider;
Adriano Heitmann. Stabio. SwiLzeriand 134-135; Baderund Kun.'eAvaltung. Baden-Baden/Foto H. D. Volz 136.
137: ' Adriano Heitmann, Stabio, Switzeriand.
^'

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"

New

Scien-

Index
Numerals

in italics indicate

an

illustration

of

74

Arabs, 32

A
Abortion

and David,

(biblical figure),

38,

See RU-486

12;

See also

Achilles, 65

ACS (American Cryonics Society),

Adam (biblical figure) diet of, 13;

Biofeedback: characteristics

longevi-

and Daniel Colin Munro,

and Tree of Life, 13
Aerobics, 42, characteristics of, 42; and
lane Fonda, 94, and longevity, 42
Aeson (king). 27

Autobiography of a Yogi (Yogananda), 8

Avatars, 9

13,

Ayurveda: defined, 32, and sweating,

Agha, Zaro death of, 22, longevity of, 15;

and Napoleon, 15; passport of, 15-22
Albert Victor (prince of England), 26

Alchemists: and Roger Bacon, 32; and

cinnabar, 34, and elixirs, 6, 30, 32; and

and immortality, 13, 32,

and Kaya Kulp, 34, and longevity,
and snakes, 34, and Taoism, 34,

gold, 32, 34,

34;
32;

and xian, 34
Alcor Life Extension Foundation: and

Blood and Aeson, 27, circulation of,

14-15, and Innocent VIII, 27-30, 32, 60;
and Medea, 27. transfusions of, 6, 2730, 60
Bloodwort, 59, and folk medicine, 59, 60
Blumberg, Jeffrey, 75
Brahms, Johannes, 133
Brinkley, lohn Romulus, 6J-64

disciples of, 8, 9, 10, immortality of,

1

30;

and Kebalananda,

8-9;

and

kriya-yoga, 10, 11, and Lahiri

Mahasaya, 9-11; and palace, materialization of, 9-10; and paramuktas, 9;

quoted, 9, 10; and Paramahansa Yogananda, 8, 9; and Yukteswar, 8, 9
Bacon, Roger and alchemists, 32, and
gerocomy, 39, quoted, 32

Bristlecone pines, 72, longevity

Bromhall,

Allahabad (India), 16-21

Ambrosia, 10-11

III

133;

in,

in,

Mark Twain

133; Frederick
in,

61,

Baldness: of Julius Caesar, 89, cures

89, 93, types of, 93.

Banya,

and endocrinology,

Burials,

for,

Burtis,

Cecilia, Saint, 26-27; incorruption of, 26,

30
Cells

and gerontologists,

Hayfiick, 71; types of,

66,

and Leonard

82-83

Cellular error theory, 66

and Achilles, 65;

background of, 65; and Charlie Chaplin,
65; and Chinese, 65; and Winston
Churchill, 65; criticism of, 66; and
Charles de Gaulle, 65, and Egyptians,
65; and Greeks, 65; and Hindus, 65; and
immune system, 66; and Paul Niehans,
64-65; and Pius XII, 65

Cellular therapy (CT), 65,

Celsus (physician), 32
Celts,

24

Chaplin, Charlie, 65

Charles

and William
and Thomas (earl of

(king of England):
14, 15;

Arundel and Surrey), 14

58, 61,

and

See Live burials

C Edward,
Buzzum, 54-55

See also Hair

Bangladeshis, 22

17, spilling of, 17, 18

72

Caucasus Mountains: and Sula Benet, 41,

43; characteristics of, 39-41; and gerontologists, 41; and Alexander Leaf, 43;
longevity in, 39, 41-43, and Zhores
Medvedev, 43

Harvey,

gland injections, 58, 61, quoted, 61

Brunhilda, 97-99

133

Bailes, Julian, 123

American Cryonics Society (ACS), 16

American Fertility Society, 12
Amrita, 16; defined, 16; and Kumbha

of, 23,

Derek, 57

Browning, Robert, 130

Brown-Sequard, Charles-Edouard, 58;
background of 60-61; criticism of, 6162, death of, 61-62; and dynamometers,

Baden-Baden (Germany), 132-133; and

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, 136; baths
in, 131-137, Johannes Brahms in, 133;
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Brooks, Ronald, 107

72

16,

Block, Gladys, 75

Babaji: as avatar, 9; characteristics of, 8,

8,

and

Black magic, 30

Bacteria: cloning of, 85-88; longevity of,

lames Bedford, 98, and Thomas Donaldson, 16; and Dora Kent, 123, and
Saul Kent, 123, and Carlos Mondragon,
120-121, 130, technicians at, 98

Mela,

14

B
9,

104,

of,

hypothermia, 104, 109; and longevity,

109; and Roy L, Walford, 104, 109
Biological-clock theory, 66
Bjorksten, Johan, 66-69
Black Forest, 132-133

88 See also Robots

ty of, 12, 13,

Agastya,

Bible, 12

In vitro fertilization

Asian, Ana, 75

16

41, 43-45; quoted,

43-45

12;

Artificial intelligence,

and longevity,

Benin, 102-103

and cryopreservaand endangered animals, 13.

Fertility Society,

tion,
pill

43;

insemination and American

Artificial

Abishag
40

Cats, 70

19

Benet, Sula: and Caucasus Mountains, 41,

Apricots, 52

mentioned

the subject

13

Chilled bloodless perfusion, 122-123

Chinese: and cellular therapy, 65; and

magical foods,

and

tigers,

6,

36-37, and snakes, 35;

67

Ching, 39
Churchill, Winston,

65

Cinnabar, 34

C 46
Clemens, Samuel, 133
Clarke, Arthur

Clinique La Prairie, 64, 65;

ewes

at,

65;

and Paul Niehans, 64

14

Antioxidants, 69

Bastet (goddess), 70

Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius (emperor of

Rome), 136

Bath (England), 24

Caesar, Julius, 89

criticism of, 85, 88;

Baths,

Calves, 85

sion, 57, 128; defined, 56, 83;

Ant Teacher, 11-12

Apache, 67

Cantharides, 67

mortality, 56;

Baulieu, Etienne, 75

Caracalla (emperor of Rome), 136

and Wlllem

Bedford, lames: and Alcor Life Extension

Caracalla Therme, 133, 136

57-59, 85; of plants, 88, procedures

Carpio, Miguel, 43

56-57, 83-84, purposes

and Indians

Baden-Baden (Germany), 131-

137

Aphrodisiacs, 67, and Apache, 67; defined, 67;

in

(in India),

William Shakespeare, 67, types

67;

and

of, 67,

Foundation, 98, and cryonic suspension,

8- 19, and Robert Nelson,
1898,
1

Caterpillars, arctic

140

Cloning: of bacteria, 85-88; of calves, 85;

woolly bear, 107

and cryonic suspenand im-

and Andrew Kimbrell, 85,

and Max, 56-57,

Kolff, 83,

of, 57,

vid M, Rorvik, 56-57, 85,

for,

and Da-

and Paul Se-

gall,

83-85,

Cohausen

19;

types

85-88

of, 84,

David

(physician), 38-39

40,

(biblical figure): and Abishag,

and gerocomy, 34-38, 40

Davis, Adelle, 75

Collagen, 94

Death, defined, 113-114

Commodus

Death hormone, 71
Decreasing Oxygen Consumption (DECO),

Creosote bushes, 72
Cross-linkage theory, 66-69

Denckia,

Cryobiology; and cryosurgery, 109; and

Deprenyl, 74

and Audrey Smith,

109, 122

Cryocapsules, 117, 120-121, /27, defined,

124; purposes of, 116

Cryonic preservation. See Cryopreserva-

Cryonics

and Robert C W.

Institute,

Et-

tinger, 116, 117

98,
19; background of, 118-119; and
James Bedford, 98, 118-119; and clon1

ing, 57, 128; costs of, 119; cnticism of,

Project, 73;

Ettinger, 113, 114-115, 115-116, 128;

16,

reversal of, 104,

Segall,

19,

15;

13,

128-130; and Paul

122-123; and Hal Sternberg,

129; types of,

16.

See also Neurosus-

12, 113;

and

artificial

109-1 10, and cryoprotectants, 109, 110,

and endangered
animals, 110-111; and immortality, 12;
and livestock mdustry, 10, and James
Lovelock, 109; and Alan Parkes, 109;
and Christopher Polge, 111-113; and
Audrey Smith, 109
Cryoproteclants: and cryopreservation,
109,
10, 122, defined, 109; and frozenhibemator phenomenon, 109; purposes
of, 109,
16, 123, 128, and Paul Segall,
122; defined, 109;

122; toxicity of, 110

Cryosurgery, 109

and Parkin-

Fox

Dynamometers,

14

III

(Holy

69, 75,

Roman

emperor), 133

and quinones, 75

Frogs:
Clint,

apy, 65;

23;

tality,

pyramids

mummies
of,

Elixirs:

cats,

70

and alchemists, 6, 30, 32; effects

and Paracelsus, 32; purposes of,

and Taoism,

and Wei Poyang,

34;

34 See also Patent medicines

II (queen of England),

Elizabeth

Embalming, 100
Endangered animals: and artificial insemi10nation,
13; and cryopreservation,
111, and in vitro fertilization, 110-111
Endocrinology, and Charles- Edouard
Brown-Sequard, 58, 61

and

18,

Ettinger, Rhea,

Ettinger, Robert C.

and cryobiology.

141

and pre-

cells, 71;

Hermippus,

L.

Clodius, 38

Hibernation, 105-107 See also Frozen-

hibernator

phenomenon

Hibernation-induci:on trigger (HIT), 106

Hilliard, Jean, 104;

hypothermia

of, 101,

Hindus: at Allahabad (India),

16;

demons

and

of, 16,

River,

and Hindus,

16, y7-18,

21

Book

River, 16

History of the World (Raleigh), 14

Horns, 67

78-79

Hot springs:
of,

12, 13

George V (king of England), 26

Germanium, 75
Gerocomy: and Roger Bacon, 39; and
Cohausen, 38-39, and David, 34-38, 40;
defined, 38, 60, and L. Clodius Hermippus, 38
Gerontologists: and Caucasus Mountains,
41; and cells, 66; characteristics of, 66;
defined, 22; and diet, 6; and hypothermia, 6; and longevity, 6, 22, purposes
of, 46; and undernutrition, 6
Ginseng: as aphrodisiac, 67; and germanium, 75

/;/

and

ordained physiological obsolescence

theory, 71, quoted, 22
Heart transplants, 83
Heparin, 105

Yamuna

Genesis West, 65

yogis, 99

Hayfiick, Leonard:

Galen, 24

Genesis,

Engines of Creation (Drexler), 128

Enlightenment: and longevity, 23, and

Harvey, William, 14-15

cellular therapy, 65;

Geckos, 35

free radicals, 69,

75

G
Garlic,

Harman, Denham, and

and
Ganges River, 16, /7-18, 21; gods of, 16;
and immortality, 16; and Kumbha Mela,
16-21; and nirvana, 16, 18; and reincarnation, 16; and sweating,
14; and

Ganges
1

of, 99-100, 101; and

McGregor, 100, and Raja Dhyan Singh,
99

Haridas: live burial

104

See also Hibernation

Funeral mask, 100
Funk, Michelle, 106

95; recipes for, 30-32, 34, selling of,

95,

107,

Frozen-hibernator phenomenon, 107-109

93

34;

of,
6,

and

of,

of,

Storey, 107

of, 23, 99, 100;

23-24, wigs

phenomenon

14

hGH, 73
109; frozen-

and
regeneration, 82; and William Schmid,
107, and Janet Storey, 107; and Kenneth
hibernator

76

and cats, 70; and cellular thercomplexion of, 90; and immor-

Egyptians:

and cryoprotectants,

(India), 16

Herodotus, 24

Friedrichsbad, 133, 134-135

Ethiopians, 22

71

Darwin, Mike: and cryonic suspension,

18,
19; quoted, 118,
19

tribe,

man,

61

Error-catastrophe theory, 66

Da Passano, Andrew,

and immortality, 24; and longevity,

and Juan Ponce de Leon, 24-25

Frederick

Epimenides, 97

D
1

24;

Enzymes, 69
Eos (goddess), 26

"Cyrurgie"(Mondeville), 89

and

6, 36
Fountain of Youth, 6-7; and Herodotus,

96, 98,

98

Saraswati River,

CT. See Cellular therapy

59, 60;

78

Free radicals: defined, 69, 78; effects of,

69; and garlic, 78; and Denham Har-

Elderly persons,

12, characteristics of,

Hardwar

Drackenburg, Christian Jacob, 14

Drexler, K. Eric, 128-130

body suspension
!

Hamman,

Franklin, Benjamin, 97

Eldepryl, 74

insemination,

See also Baldness

Hair-growth stimulators, 89, 93

Dutchman, 26
Folk medicine: and bloodwort,

24;

pension; Suspended animation; Whole

Cryopreservation,

Hair, 92-93.

22-23

son's disease, 83
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 133

Eastwood,

procedures for,
124-127, 130, purposes of, 6, 123;
1

Fonda, Jane, 94

Donitz, Karl, 26

Robert W. Prehoda,

Foods, magical,

Kumbha

Hyperboreans, 39; and water, 131

Growing Younger (Morgan), 45
Growth factors, 82
Gulliver's Travels (Swift), 26
Gurus, and Kumbha Mela, 19, 20

Flame!, Nicholas, 12

garlic,

74;

See

Flying

Donaldson, Thomas, 9S, and Alcor Life

Extension Foundation, 16; brain tumor

and hibernation, 105;

and Dora Kent, 123; and Steven Mandell,
19; and Carlos Mondragon, 121,
130; and nanotechnology, 128-130; and
Robert Nelson, 118-119, 19-122; and
film about, 123;

Finch, Caleb E

RNA, 66

Dopamine: and Deprenyl,

13

Fetuses, 84; brain cells of, 82-83

and Human Geand proteins, 66, and

and cryonic suspension,

Mela

68, defined, 66;

116; quoted, 96,

34; transmutation of, 32

Gordon, Richard, 78-80

Faustus, Doctor, 30

Durk Pearson, 75-76,

of Sandy Shaw, 75-76, 80

96;

Gold: and alchemists, 32, 34, and Taoism,

See also Cosmetic surgery

Festival of the Pottery Jar

of,

Goat gland treatment, 63-64

Gods, Hindu, 16

99

Fakirs,

Diet restriction. See Undernutrition

Gland grafting, and Serge Voronoff, 61, 62

Gland injections and Charles-Edouard
Brown-Sequard, 58, 61 criticism of, 61

Greeks: and cellular therapy, 65; and

Facelifts, 95.
6;

95

"Glacial milk," 53

longevity, 22, 23

Ferrets, black-footed,

nome

128

figure), 13

and

(Ecuador), 43. See also Undernutrition

80,

16, 117,

Girdle,

Glycerol, 124

of Hunzakuts, 43, 47, 52, 53, 54, 55; and

Daniel Colin Munro, 13; in Vilcabamba

96-97, 115, 116, 119, 122, 128; and

Mike Darwin, 118, 119; defined, 96; and

Thomas Donaldson, 96, 98, 16; and K
Eric Drexler, 128-130; and Robert C W

Desmond, Countess of, 14

Diet: of Adam, 13; and gerontologists,

DNA,

Cryonics Society of New York, 12

Cryonic suspension: advantages of, 96-97,

14-115,

DNA

Diving refiex, 101

Cryonics Interment, 119-122

Ewes, 65
Experimental physiology, 24
Eyelifls, 95. See also Cosmetic surgery

Diet supplements: of

tion

13,

Evolution,

Donner, 71
Deoxyribonucleic acid. See

Robert C. W. Ettinger, 15; and James

Lovelock, 109, 122; and Alan Parkes,
109, 122;

quoted,

Delilah (biblical figure), 93

95

Eunuchs, 62
Eve (biblical

Gaulle, Charles, 65

16

of,

15;

71

De

Demons,

Mondeville, 89: types

Institute, 116, 117;

Coitus reservatus, 39

(emperor of Rome), 24
Complexion, 90-91
Conrad, Joseph, 46
Cornaro, Luigi, 76
Cosmetic surgery: and Henri de

and cryocapsule, 117, and Cryonics

and cryonic suspen14-1 15, 115-116, 128; and
sion,
13,
death, 113-114; and Arthur Quaife, 116;

38,

in

Baden-Baden (Germany),

131-137; in Bath (England), 24; and

Johannes Brahms, 133; and Celts, 24;

and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 133; and Romans, 24, 131 and Mark Twain, 133
;

Houdini, Harry, 101

How

to Live to

be 100 (Benet), 43

Human Genome Project,

Human growth hormone

73
(hGH), 73

Hunzakuts, 47-55; and buzzum, 54-55;

characteristics of, 39-41 crops of, 51;
;

diet of, 43, 47, 52, 53, 54, 55; family

of, 47, 54;

health

life

of, 47, 48, 51, 52, 54;

infant mortality of, 47; isolation of, 48;

and Alexander

Leaf, 43, 49; longevity

of, 39, 41, 43, 47, 49, 51, 52, 55;

and

Robert McCarrison, 43, mental activity

natural selection

of, 49;

labor

of, 47,

47; physical

and polo, 55, and

and water, 53

51

threshing, 50,

Hunza

of,

47-55

Valley,

Hyperboreans, 39
Hypothalamus: and hypothermia, 104,
105; purposes of, 104
Hypothermia: characteristics ol, 105;

29; quoted, 28, 29

Kneipp cure characteristics of, 28, 29;
and Sebastian Kneipp, 29; and Nathaniel Rothschild, 29

Marriage of Cupid (Raphael), 10-11

Masks: for funerals, ZOO, of mud, 91

Knoll, Joseph, 74

Medea

Kolff,

Mahasaya,

Lahiri

and drugs, 109, of

Michelle Funk, 106; and gerontologists,
6; hibernation compared to, 105, of Jean
Hilliard, 101, 104; and hypothalamus,
104, 105; and Robert Liu, 103; and
Jacques Loeb, 102-103; and longevity, 6,
97, 102-105, 109,
10; and James Lovelock, 109; and meditation, 109: and
John Northrop, 102-103, and Alan

Kumbha

Parkes, 109; protection against,

Kunlun Mountains, 36

defined, 101

and Audrey Smith,

109,

Meditation: and

Mela, 16-21, in Allahabad (India),

and amrita,

16,

Medvedev, Zhores, 43
Metamorphoses (Ovid), 27
Methuselah (biblical figure), longevity

17,

16; characteristics of, 20,

21,

and sadhus,

Miles (beagle), and Paul Segall, 122-123,

129

Mind

16-17, 19: in Ujjain

(India), 16

101, 107:

and Angelo Turturro,

types

101-102; and undernutrition,

105;

Segall, 122

Mondeville, Henri de, 89

Parr,
Life

Exten-

and

sion Foundation, 120-121, 130;

105, 109;

and Roy L Walford, 103-105,

and yogis, 104-105
Hypothermia Lab, 1 10

Lamech

109;

Langeville, Harcouet de, 34

Monkey gland

Laser treatment, 94
Lasuria, Khfaf, 41-43

Montecatini Spa, 91. See also Spas

Monteil, Doctor, beauty devices by, 95

Lawren,

Moravec, Hans, 88
Morgan, Robert, 45-46
"Morning after" abortion

and Miguel Carpio, 43;

and Caucasus Mountains, 43; and Hunzaand
kuts, 43, 49; and Khfaf Lasuria, 4
longevity, 41, 43, quoted, 43, 49, and
Vilcabamba (Ecuador), 43

Icelandic sagas, 26
Identical tw/ins, 84.
1

Froze the

Iliad,

First

Leaf, Alexander:

88

Man

(Nelson),

The (Homer), 65

"Immortalists,"

Immune

16

system, 66

Life Extension:

Incorruption: of Cecilia, 26, 30; defined,

30
(in

India)

live burials of,

and aphrodisiacs, 67;

99, 102, and sweating,

proach (Pearson and Shaw), 75

span length of, 59, 69; of men

women,

Liu, Robert,

103

Image: The Cloning of a

vik), 56-57

Innocent

VIll (pope), 32,

fusions, 27-30, 60;

and

Man

(Ror-

and blood

trans-

longevity, 27-30

See also

insemination

The" Oones),

14

Japanese: as stockbrokers, 44-45, and

and undernutrition,

81;

and

water, 131

preparations

99; of yogis, 99,

102

See Cellular therapy

Livestock industry,

10

Growing Younger

(Segall),

Kaya Kulp: and alchemists, 34; defined,

32; and rasayana, 32
Kebalananda, 8-9
Kent, Dora, 123-128

Andrew. 85

Kneipp, Sebastian,

?9,

91

36
Mumford, Lewis, 23
(god),

tality,

99, 100, of pharaohs, 23; purpos-

es

23, 99

of,

122;

and cryopreservation,

109;

hypothermia, 109, quoted, 109;

McCay,

Placebo

Napoleon, 15
Nasik (India), 16
Natron, 100

Polge, Christopher, 111-113

Maderna, Cario, sculpture

trees

19;

and Cryonics Interment,

9-1

Nissan, employee

roots, 67

142

24-26

Ponce de Leon, Juan, 24-25

Jar, Festival of the. See Kumbha
Mela

Prehoda, Robert

18; defined,
1

16,

16,

and

45

71

of,

16-

and

Patricia

Prospect of Immortally/, The (Ettinger),

113, 114, 115, 116
Proteins, 66

Baden-Baden (Germany),

Public baths, in

of,

115
Preordained physiological obsolescence
theory: defined, 69;- and Leonard Hayfiick,

dus, 16, 18

19

See Cosmetic surgery

Progeria, 71

Winston Churchill, 65; and Clinique La

Prairie, 64, and Charles de Gaulle, 65;
and Pius XII, 65; quoted, 64, 65, 66
Nirvana: characteristics of, 16, and Hin-

13

Mandrake

18-

19-122;

64-65; and Charlie Chaplin, 65; and

26-27
36; and

62

Pottery

Wilson, 119

6,

Xi

Polo (sport), 55

Niehans, Paul, 64: and cellular therapy,

by,

effect,

Plastic surgery

Polo, Marco,

Thomas Donaldson,

Magic: black, 30, and foods,

and

Pius XII (pope), 65

118; costs of,

McGregor (surgeon), 100

36, 37;

Nagas, 18-20 See also Sadhus

Nanotechnology, 128-130

122, quoted, 122

27

of,

Pituitary gland, 71

and cryonic suspension, 118-119, 119-

78

marrow

Pines, bristlecone, 72; longevity of, 23, 72

14

Neurons, 83
Neurosuspension: characteristics
Clive,

Phoenixes:

Physiology, experimental, 24

Nematodes, 72-73

Macchietti, Girolamo, painting by,

Philosophers' stone, 32

Muslims,

and
and

Peach banquets: and Chinese, 6, 36; foods

served at, 36, 37; and Taoism, 36; and
Xi Wang Mu, 36, 37
Pearson, Durk: diet supplements of, 7576, 80: and Clint Eastwood, 76; and
John Renner, 76
Penises, of tigers, 67
Pharaohs, 23
Philip IV (king of France), 89

Munro, Daniel Colin, 13

Nelson, Robert: and James Bedford,

Lovelock, James: and cryobioiogy, 109,

also Elixirs

Wang Mu, 37

Lost Horizon (Hilton), 39, 47

Mandell, Steven,

and Kneipp cure,

Mu Kung

Nectar, 10-1

Mahasaya, Lahiri,
Makeup, 90-9/

Kent, Saul, 123

Mud mask,

Natural selection, 47

McCarrison, Robert, 43

Kalash people, 91
Karakoram Mountains, 48-49
Karoshi, 45

See RU-486

pill

3L See

Pauling, Linus, 75

(biblical figure), 13

Loeb, Jacques, 102-103

Patent medicines,

for,

Paul Segall, 122

Jenkins, Henry, 14

Kimbrell,

102: length of,

84-85, 123

stress, 45;

Ramaswami,

Living Longer,

Washington, 99

Satellite,

99-100, of

Live-cell therapy

vitro fertilization, 110-111.

"Jameson

(in India), 99,

99; outlawing of, 101

Insect queens, 23

Artificial

of Indians

of Harry Houdini, 101

Moses

treatment, 62

Mummies: of cats, 70; of Egyptians, 23,

99, 100: embalming of, 100: and immor-

vs.

76

das, 99-100, 101

In His

Irving,

Ap-

Live burials: in Benin, 102-103: of Hari-

14

Indra (god), 13

Practical Scientific

Life

Indians

Thomas, 15, autopsy of, 15; death

and William Harvey, 15; longevity of, 14; and Thomas (eari of Arundel
and Surrey), 14
of, 14,

Patakas, 20-21

130

85

Bill,

and cryobioiogy, 109, 122;

and cryopreservation, 109; and hypothermia, 109; quoted, 109; and Paul

Parkes, Alan:

Parkinson s disease: and Deprenyl, 74;

and (lopamine, 83; and fetal brain cells,
82-83

cryonic suspension, 121, 130, quoted,

(biblical figure), 12

Paracelsus, 32
Paramecia, 23
Paramuktas, 9

The Future of Robot and

Human Intelligence (Moravec), 88
Moisturizers, 90
Children:

Mondragon, Carios: and Alcor

Lake of Gems, 36
Lamb, Lawrence, 88

P
Parathyroid glands, 64

of,

12, 13

tary alignment, 16; purification rites of,

71:

109

ford,

background of,
and gurus, 19,
20: in Hardwar (India), 16, and Hindus,
16-21: and lunar eclipse, 16; and nagas,
18-20, in Nasik (India), 16; and plane16;

Andrew Da Passano,

and health, 23; and hypothermia, 109;

and longevity, 23, 109; and Roy L. Wal-

See also

and tetrahydro-

cannabinol, 104; of Jimmy Tontlewicz,

of,

10.

12-13

Old Man of the North, 14

Old Testament, 12, 13

27

Medicines, patent, 31 See also Elixirs

Willem, 83

and
Yoga

(sorceress),

(biblical figure),

Northrop, John, 102-103

Max: and cloning, 56-57, 57-59, 85; and

David M. Rorvik, 56-57, 85

Kriya-yoga: and Babaji, 10, 11, defined,

10;

Noah

131-/37
Purification rites, 21

Pyramids, 23-24

and American Cryonand Robert C W. Et-

Quaite, Arthur, 118,

ics Society,

tinger,

as "immortalist,

16;

16;

16;

quot-

ed,

16, 118;

and Paul

Segall,

and

19;

123;

and Trans Time,

19, 122, 123;

and

Sushruta Samhita (medical text), 33

Suspended animation: defined, 97; and

tryptophan, 80; and undernutrition, 80,

and Patricia Wilson, 19

Trans Time, 116, 119

Quinerolane, 67
Quinones, 75

Segerberg, Osborn,

Jr

46

Self-Realization Fellowship, 8

Semen,

Rabbit's foot, 67

Ramaswami, 99

Serpent, 16

Rapiiael (Marriage of Cupid), painting by,

Sex:

10-11

Rasayana, 32

Leaf,

39, 41, 43

Viper waters, 34. See also Snakes

Vishnu (god), 16
Vitamin C, 75
Vitamin E, 75

97; and frozenphenomenon, 107; purposes

and Paul Segall, 123. See also

Suspended Animation (Prehoda), 115

Sweatmg, 14
Swift, Jonathan, 26
Swimmers, 76-77, 114-115

Voronoff, Serge: and eunuchs, 62; and

gland grafting, 61, 62; and monkey

and Haridas, 101; and immortality,

34, 39; and Shakers, 39; and Tantrism,
39; and Taoism, 39

in,

hibernator

Cryonic suspension

Raleigh, Waiter, 14

and Alexander

43;

in,

43; longevity

Benjamin Franklin,
of, 123;

13

Senescence, defined, 23
Senior citizens, and cats, 70

39-41; diet

gland treatment, 62; quoted, 62

Walford, Roy

Redwoods, 72

Shakers, 39

Regelson, William, 74
Regeneration, 8\-82

Shakespeare, William, 67

Talisman, Taoist, 38

47
Shaw, Sandy: diet supplements of, 75-76,
80, and Clint Eastwood, 76; and John
Renner, 76

Tantrism, 39

L., 81. 108, and biofeedback,

and drugs, 109, and hypothermia, 103-105, 109; and immortality, 12,
46; and longevity, 46, 103-105, 109; and

Tao, 34

meditation, 109, quoted, 12, 46, 80, 81,

Shangri-la, longevity

Reincarnation: and Hindus, 16; and Lahiri

Mahasaya,

T'ai chi ch'uan,

and paramuktas, 9
Rejuvenation through the Expenmental
Revitalization of the Aging Puberty Gland
9;

(Steinach), 62

Sheba

in,

39,

and cinnabar, 34; and coitus reservatus, 39; and elixirs, 34; and gold, 34;
and immortality, 34, 36, 39; and peach
banquets, 36; and sex, 39; talisman of,
38; and Tao, 34; and xian, 34
39;

(biblical figure), 12

phenomenon

hibernator

Resurrection, 12

of,

107

Shiva (god), 14
Shou-lao (god), 36
Siegfried, 97-99
1

Retin-A, 90

Rhinoceroses, horns

of,

67

RNA, 66
6,

86-87. 88;

and

Hans Moravec, 88
Roman-Irish bath, 134

Romans: and hot springs, 24, 131 longevity of, 22; and water, 131
Rorvik, David M.: and J. Derek Bromhall,
57; and cloning, 56-57, 85; and Max,
;

Singh, Raja Dhyan, 99

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), 104

Thomas (earl of Arundel and Surrey), 14
Threshing, 50

Sleep, 97-99

Tigers, Chinese,

Sleeping Beauty, 99
Smith, Audrey: and cryobiology, 109, 122;
and cryopreservation, 109; and h3^o-

Tithonus, 26

Roundworms, 73. See

Rudman, Daniel, 73

also

TM,

Nematodes

thermia, 109; quoted, 109, and Paul

also Meditation

and physicians, 34;

Russians, 114

Soma
34;

(elixir):

and

recipes

defined, 32; effects

ety, 116;
of,

for,

33-

and rasayana,
32-33, and Sushruta

longevity, 34;

119;

32;

Samhita, 33

Soma

and Kumbha
Mela, 16-17, 19. See also Nagas
Sagas, Icelandic, 26

Sadhus: defined,

17, 18;

Saint-Germain, Comte de, 14; as alchemist, 12; immoriality of, 12, 14; and
Sheba, 12; and Solomon, 12

Samson (biblical figure), 93

Sandunov Baths, 14
1

Sangam: importance

of, 16, 18;

and na-

gas, 19, 20

Sapolsky, Robert

22-23

Saraswati River, 18
Saunas, 114, 134

Schmid, William, 107

Sea anemones, 72
Segall, Paul:

and

sion, 122-123;

(god), 33
Somalians, 22
Spallanzani, Lazzaro, 82
Spanish fiy, 67
Spas, 24 See also Fountain of Youth;
Montecatini Spa
Sperm, 112
Sponges, 72
Starfish, 82
Steinach, Eugen, 60; and testosterone, 62;
and vasectomies, 60, 62; and William
Butler Yeats, 60
Steinach rejuvenation operations. See
Vasectomies

chilled bloodless perfu1

19;

and cryonic suspension, 119, 122-123,

and cryoprotectants, 122, and Richard
Gordon, 80; and James Lovelock, 122;
and Miles, 122-123, 129. and Alan
Parkes, 122; and Arthur Quaife, 19;
quoted, 83, 84, 85, 123; and Audrey
Smith, 122, and suspended animation.
1

19, 122,

118

123

characteristics

See also Cryonic

18.

suspension

19

19

Wine, 35

X
Wang Mu

(goddess): in Kunlun

and

Mu

Moun-

Kung, 36; and peach

Turtles, painted, 107

banquets, 36, 37; and phoenixes, 37

Y
Yama (god), 13
Yamuna River, 16
Yayati (king), 13

ach, 60;

and gerand Richard Gordon,

78-80; and hypothermia, 105, 109; and
Japanese, 81, and longevity, 6, 76-78,
105, 109; and Clive McCay, 78; and Paul
Segall, 80; and Roy L. Walford, 46,
;

Stock exchange, Tokyo, 44-45

Stone, Irwin, 75

vasectomy

of, 60,

Stein-

62

Yin/Yang, 42
Yoga: and longevity, 23; and xian, 34. See
also Kriya-yoga
Yogananda, Paramahansa: and Agastya,
1

and

8, 9;

and Kebalananda,
and Self-Realization

Babaji, 8, 9;

quoted,

8,

and Yukteswar, 8, 9
Mahesh, 23
Yogis: and enlightenment, 99; and hypoFellowship,

80-81, 103, 105, 109. See a/so Diet

Uttarakuru, 13

and Eugen

Yeats, William Butler:

ontologists, 6;

8;

Yogi, Maharishi

thermia, 104-105, live burials

Vampire, 7S-79
Vance, Mary Lee, 73

Van Winkle,

Rip, 99
Vasectomies: and Eugen Steinach, 60, 62;
of William Butler Yeats, 60, 62

Sunscreens, 91 See also Complexion

Vertebrates, defined, 103

Survival suit,

Vilcabamba (Ecuador): characteristics

of.

of, 99,

and Roy L Walford, 104-105

Yukteswar: and Baba)i, 8, 9, and Lahiri
Mahasaya, 9; and Paramahansa Yogananda, 8, 9
102;

and water, 136

Stress hormones, 74
.

of,

tains, 36;

defined, 52; effects of, 78-81

/ / /

costs

Tryptophan, 80

Undernutrition: and Luigi Cornaro, 76;

Hunzakuts, 47, of Japanese, 45;

16;

Xi

13

Stinking rose, 7S-79

Stress: of

Xian, 34

Life,

Ujjain (India), 16

Storey, Kenneth, 107

of,

Tree of

Storey, Janet, 107

Whole body suspension:

Tree, magic, 13

Twain, Mark, 133

Twins. See Identical twins

143
t

Segall,

116,

Turturro, Angelo, 105

Sternberg, Hal, 129

and cloning, 83-85,

and Arthur Quaife,

and Paul

Baden-

Wear-and-tear theory, 66
Weindruch, Richard, 59
Wei Poyang, 34
White Mountains, 72

Wilson, Robert Anton,

Trans Time: and American Cryonics Soci-

13

(biblical figure), 12

131; in

of,

Baden (Germany), 131-/37; cults of,

131; and Greeks, 131; gushes of, 28 29;
and Hunzakuts, 53; and Japanese, 131;
and Romans, 131; and stress, 136

Wilson, Patricia (Luna),

rejection of, 82

Society for Cryobiology,

Solomon

thermia
Water: background

Wigs, 93

Transplants: of hair, 93, of hearts, 83;

and wine, 35

RU-486: and Etienne Baulieu, 74-75; and

longevity, 74, 75; purposes of, 74; and
William Regelson, 74; and stress hormones, 74

See also Meditation

hypothermia of, 101, 107

Toynbee, Arnold, 23
Transcendental meditation (TM), 23. See

Segall, 122

longevity, 34, 35;

23.

67

Tontlewicz, Jimmy: and diving refiex, 101

Snakes: and alchemists, 34; and Chinese,

35: and Harcouet de Langeville, 34; and

56-57, 85
Rothschild, Nathaniel, 29

and tetrahydrocannaband undernutrition, 46, 80-81,

103, 105, 109; and yogis, 104-105
Walking hypothermia, 102. See also Hypo103, 104, 105,

inol, 104;

Testosterone, 62

Singh, Arjun, 99

Robots: and immortality,

104, 109;

Taoism: and alchemists, 34; and ching,

Shellfish: as aphrodisiacs, 67; frozen-

Renner, John, 76

42

z
Zeus

(god),

26

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