Composition of the elixir of eternal life. Is there an elixir of immortality? Is there eternal life? Well, in the meantime, scientists are studying and testing a new, untested technology, and long-livers of the Caucasus are sharing their secrets, already proven over centuries
Immortality has long been an “obsession” of humanity - whoever was looking for it... humanity wanted to believe that it was possible - that someone had already achieved it. Among these were the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who did not die, but sleeps in an underground hall to return one day - and his long beard is still growing, the Count of Saint-Germain - a famous alchemist of the 18th century, whose servant claimed to work for him " "only" three hundred years... alas, the circumstances of Frederick's death are known: in the Third Crusade, the emperor fell from his horse while crossing the Selif River and choked in the water, and Count Saint-Germain himself let slip that his father was Prince Rakoczy II of Transylvania, who lived on at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the count died in 1784. Life, of course, is long - more than 90 years - but it clearly does not look like the “elixir of immortality”...
Does it exist elixir of immortality And youth elixir?
However, one Chinese emperor tried to do without the elixir - he went ahead and ordered him to consider himself immortal! But it was not customary to argue with the emperor, so when he did die due to natural causes, his subjects were faced with a dilemma: what takes priority - the sacred will of the emperor or the real state of affairs? They decided that it was the first thing: the emperor’s body was placed on the throne, dignitaries approached him with reports, listened to orders (there was always someone to determine the content of the orders) - and this continued until the decomposition of the corpse had gone far enough...
But this, of course, is part of a series of historical oddities. But seriously... according to the Bible, man was originally created immortal (and lost this state as a result of the Fall) - and will again become so (those who deserve it) after the Resurrection of the dead at Second Coming Jesus Christ... neither one nor the other state, of course, is accessible to scientific research (and “by definition” cannot be achieved here and now) - so let’s see what we have today.
First we need to figure out why we die in the first place. As a rule, from diseases (heart attack, stroke, hypertension, etc.). But there are people with "iron" health”, which remain vigorous until old age. They don't suffer in last years life from pain, the inability to cope without outside help, etc., they die without much suffering - but they die anyway! And their long life is just a long old age - not a single 100-year-old centenarian looked like a 20-year-old youth on his half-century anniversary... why does this happen?
The secret is “built” into the DNA molecule. Each section of it encodes the synthesis of one or another protein - and only the terminal section does not do this... what is it for? In 1971, our compatriot A. Olovnikov suggested, and 15 years later English explorer G. Cook proved that this area, called telomere, encodes the age of the cell: with each division it shortens - when the “limit” is exhausted, the cell dies. True, there are cells in which this does not happen - germ cells, stem cells and cancer cells. In all three, a special enzyme works - telomerase, which “prevents” telomeres from shortening.
In 1997, in the USA (University of Colorado), the gene responsible for the synthesis of telomerase was isolated, and in 1998, researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas (USA) inserted it into cells where it usually does not work (skin, vascular epithelium) - immortal These cells, however, did not become, but their life lengthened by one and a half times. Enthusiasts - even among scientists - started talking about an immortality pill that could be created in the next 50 years (or maybe even 10)... hurray!
But don't rush to rejoice. Remember, we said in which cells telomerase works under normal conditions - and cancer cells were named among them (this is why cancer is so difficult, and often impossible, to defeat). That. no one can guarantee that such an “immortality pill” will not cause cancer. And with the aging mechanism itself, not everything is so simple: in an adult, nerve cells do not divide - nevertheless, they age and die, therefore, in addition to the shortening of telomeres, there is some other mechanism of aging and death... what? There is no answer yet, which means it’s too early to talk about overcoming it.
But suppose a “pill” of immortality is invented... will we be happy about it? Well, at least those politicians and moneybags to whom it will be available?
... On the way to Golgotha, Jesus Christ, exhausted under the weight of the cross, stopped for a minute to rest, leaning against the wall of the house. The owner of this house - a Jew named Agasfer - pushed Him away with a cry: “Go, why are you delaying!” “And you will walk forever,” answered the Savior. “And you will have neither peace nor death.” And the unfortunate cursed Ahasfer still walks the earth, waiting for the Second Coming of the Savior - after all, only it will save him from the unbearable burden of eternal life...
This legend is far from the only example in both folklore and literature when immortality acts as a curse and even punishment. Usually the heroes of such works - from Ahasfer to Jack Harkness, the hero of the English science fiction series Torchwood - suffer from the fact that everyone they manage to love (including their own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.), die - and they continue to live, over and over again experiencing the pain of new losses. So, for immortality to bring happiness, it must be universal immortality? What awaits us if such a “recipe” is found (provided, of course, that immortal life there will be more eternal youth)?
First of all, you have to give up once and for all. Of course it will be " paradise” for adherents of the childfree movement - but, fortunately, they do not yet constitute the majority. In addition, such humanity will once and for all stop in its development: a new generation will not come to put forward new ideas... do we need such a “stopped” life?
Until now we have talked about physical immortality... but there is also the idea of immortality of the soul. It has always existed - as long as humanity can remember. Of course, there have always been philosophers who denied it (for example, Epicurus) - but in one form or another it is present in all religions - the exceptions are Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists... the latter justify their denial of the posthumous existence of the soul in a very original way: in their In the brochure, I came across a selection of quotes from the Bible, where death is compared to sleep, accompanied by a note - “In sleep, all activity ceases, time passes unnoticed for the sleeper.” Of course, to draw such conclusions one must have absolutely no knowledge of psychology or history. Sciences and art, where there are many examples when people made discoveries and created masterpieces in their dreams - and, probably, you yourself will never see dreams... but one way or another - these are just exceptions, and so - even in Christian Creed it does not say “I believe in the immortality of the soul” - this is so self-evident that it does not require “inclusion as a separate paragraph.”
But faith is faith - what about scientific evidence?
They started talking about evidence when medicine received technology at its disposal. Many people who experienced clinical death told approximately the same thing: they flew through a dark tunnel, saw the light at its end - then the stories vary, but this detail is almost always present - absolutely not all patients could different countries peace agreement, indeed! And in religious teachings there is no mention of “at the end of the tunnel”, so that one could attribute it to self-hypnosis... does this mean there is something real behind it?
Obviously it's worth it - but it's hardly the afterlife. The fact is that no one really returned “from the other world” - medicine does not know how to revive the dead! Clinical death is not death as such: the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the cells has been stopped - but they are still living, therefore, a person in a state of clinical death is a person dying rather than dead, in some way - still alive, so what to talk about It's too early for the afterlife. Of course, in this state, the functioning of the brain is disrupted - so any images can arise. The perception of signals from the outside world also changes (thus, according to scientists, the notorious “light at the end of the tunnel” is nothing more than one’s own pupil, which a person can see only in this state).
So, how do we deal with immortality?
Immortal physical is currently unavailable, in the foreseeable future future is not expected - and it is unlikely to be needed at all.
You can believe or not believe in the immortality of the soul - as in all centuries - its existence has not been scientifically proven - and is hardly provable at all (at least by the means of modern science).
“I consider death before 150 years of age to be violent,” wrote academician Ivan Petrovich Pavlov a century ago.
Photo:Wikipedia.org
Recent scientific research has shown that human DNA is designed for 440 years of reproduction. It turns out that this is the theoretical limit of life. And how can one not remember the legends and stories about 500-year-old Tibetan elders. Perhaps these are not myths at all.
For example, dozens of facts have been documented when new teeth begin to grow in people aged about 100 years. Here are just a few of them:
- Marya Tsapovalova was living in the Rehabilitation Center for the Elderly in Sochi when new teeth began to grow in her. Maria Andreevna was almost 100 years old at that time.
- The Iranian Bahram Ismailia began to cut his new roots at the age of 128 years.
- The doctors were also surprised by a resident of Tatarstan, Marya Vasilyeva. A long-liver from a small village became the owner of such unexpected teeth at the age of 104.
Dentists cannot explain this phenomenon in any way; they just shrug their shoulders and say it’s a phenomenon or an anomaly.
However, anthropologists have a version. They believe that old age is the stage of development of the body when self-renewal is observed. The luminaries of human science claim that the normal life expectancy of homo sapiens is 200 years, and cases of teeth renewal in old age are just another confirmation of the amazing reserves of the human body.
The search for the elixir of immortality, or at least longevity, has been going on for millennia. There are hundreds of recipes for “miracle potions” of varying degrees of delusion. And the victims of alchemists, false scientists and outright charlatans are innumerable.
- Find the Holy Grail. Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail to the site of Christ's crucifixion and collected blood from the wounds of the dying Jesus into it. The blood of Christ placed in the Holy Grail gives immortality.
- According to some Chinese beliefs, the elixir of life is easily prepared from the entrails of a turtle.
- In antiquity, the breath of virgins was considered a sure way to prolong youth. Some kings, in order to envelop themselves in such a breath, surrounded themselves in bed with young concubines.
- In 1610, Hungarian Countess Elzsbeth Bathory took “rejuvenating” baths from the blood of murdered young girls. For which she was sentenced to life imprisonment.
- Perhaps the only method of life extension that has truly proven its effectiveness was proposed by the biologist Ilya Mechnikov; it involves the consumption of fermented milk products that inhibit the activity of putrefactive bacteria, and this is one of the few effective ways to somewhat extend life.
Photo:Randomfilms. ru
But it turns out that the elixir of “eternal” youth already exists! Since 2005! And it was created by Russian scientists!
“Death is inevitable, but growing old is no longer necessary,” said the famous Soviet and Russian scientist Vladimir Skulachev, biochemist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The researcher has devoted the last 20 years to gerontology, the study of aging. And the scientist has already made some progress. A unique substance has been created that can increase the lifespan of mice.
“People should die not from old age, but from other reasons. Thousands of scientists have studied immortality throughout human history. They all have one thing in common - they all died. We will live much longer. We will look young if we stop the aging program in time. Today, before the age of 60, people die from causes independent of age. This is not suicide by aging program. But then the work of the aging program begins. We have proven that such a program exists. The task of pharmaceuticals is to find a substance that will stop it. We managed to synthesize such a substance in 2005. We started trying it... First on mice, then we tried it on fruit flies, then on crustaceans, on mushrooms, on plants. In all cases, there is a significant increase in life. From a young age we fed mice and rats this substance and watched what would happen to them. All the mice and rats that we fed this substance had an extended period of youth. Substances of this type have not yet appeared in world pharmaceuticals, so it is difficult to judge contraindications and other related circumstances. Literally nothing is known yet,” Skulachev said in an interview with our colleagues.
Well, while the new, untested technology is being studied and tested by scientists, the long-livers of the Caucasus are sharing their secrets, already proven over centuries.
Dagestani Paizulla Isaev plans to live to be 250 years old. This is not a joke, he assures. The pensioner is convinced that he will be able to become the oldest person on the planet. A Caucasian aksakal allegedly revealed the secret of longevity.
At eighty-one, Paizulla Isaevich will give even forty-year-olds a head start. He studied the works of Russian doctors and chemists, and studied American and British scientific works. And he even wrote down his method of slow aging in a thick book. We have squeezed out the most basic theses from this work.
- Seaside or mountain air. Here the pensioner is doubly lucky - he lives on the shores of the Caspian Sea, and the nearest mountains are just a stone's throw away.
- Proper nutrition. The pensioner's diet includes only fruits, vegetables and selected meat. No white bread or sugar. Products are only natural.
- Absolutely clean water.“Deuterium-free monomolecular” - to put it simply, melted. Isaev freezes ordinary tap water. The resulting ice is then cleared of the top layer. According to Paizulla, all the “extra” chemical elements are collected there. Then the ice blocks should melt on the silicon stones. This is the only water the family of a potential centenarian drinks.
- Moderate physical activity. Isaev meets every sunrise on the seashore. Walking on sand and rocks barefoot is very useful, says the pensioner. And of course, we must not forget about morning exercises. The main thing is to stretch the spine and all joints. The elder developed his own unique exercises for the body.
- Positive emotional attitude. The absence of stress and complete confidence in your strengths and capabilities will definitely help you live a long and happy life.
But a 121-year-old aksakal from Ingushetia assures that genes play the main role in longevity. Three years ago, Appaz Iliev was recognized as the oldest person in Russia. Born in 1896. That is, in the century before last. He witnessed the reign of Emperor Nicholas II. It is interesting that the passport does not have an exact date with the day and month. The fact is that in those ancient times they only remembered the year of birth.
“They told me that I was born when they finished planting corn. Previously, we counted time this way,” says the elder.
The old man's health is excellent. Just a couple of years ago, Appaz Lorsovich was working in the field. Without difficulty, he mowed the grass, looked after the cattle and even rode a horse. Grandfather has 10 sons and daughters and more than 100 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Appaz Iliev has led an absolutely healthy lifestyle since childhood. I never smoked, drank alcohol, or neglected physical education in my life. The grandfather eats only fresh and natural products grown in his own garden.
“I eat fruits from the garden, vegetables from the garden, I love dishes made from corn flour. Dairy products and meat are also our own,” shares the pensioner.
Appaz Lorsovich did not set himself such goals as: “become a long-liver”, “see three centuries”, “see the flourishing of Russia”... Everything turned out by itself, the years passed, age increased, health remained excellent. It was then that Iliev realized that it was all about genetic heritage. The fact is that the father of the now living old man lived to be 100 years old, and the grandfather of Appaz Lorsovich died at the age of 120 years.
117-year-old grandmother Alimat Mislimova amazes not only with her age, but also with her good spirits, hard work, tirelessness and almost perfect health. Attention! She easily, without glasses, threads the thread into the eye of the needle. I didn't believe it until I saw it myself. Therefore, watch the video and applaud!
Video: Channel Five
The elderly mountain woman clearly does not look her age. She herself says that healthy food and mountain air are the key to good health. Alimat's husband was a shepherd, so they only had organic products on the table. The centenarian herself devoted herself entirely to her children and grandchildren. She raised 4 generations of the family: 10 children, 30 grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Grandma often gets bored. Young people at work, everyone is busy with their own affairs. Alimat Mislimova is engaged in needlework. He knits socks and oven mitts, which he then gives to his numerous relatives. The 117-year-old pensioner admits that there is no secret to longevity.
“Everything is in the hands of the Almighty and only he will decide when my life’s journey will end,” says the mountain woman.
By the way, it is women who lead the oldest people in the world! Here are his first 5 lines:
Photo: Wikipedia.org
Zhanna Kalman, 122 years, 164 days
Photo: Wikipedia.org
Sarah Knauss, 119 years, 97 days
Photo: Wikipedia.org
Lucy Hannah, 117 years, 248 days
Photo: Wikipedia.org
Maria Louise Meyer, 117 years, 230 days
Photo: Wikipedia.org
Emma Morano, 117 years, 137 days
It seems strange that there is not a single Russian on the list of the 100 oldest centenarians in world history. But the compilers of the rating emphasize that only “verified” individuals were considered. We need evidence. Documentary. And a lot. Our elders only have a passport in their hands with the signature of an employee of the local passport office.
I know some of the long-livers of the Caucasus personally - as a reporter I did stories about them for television. Naturally, I also wouldn’t mind living to be 100, or even 150 years old. When communicating with older people, you understand that the key to excellent health is partly in nutrition and clean air. Of course, hereditary factors are also important. And yet, it seems, the main thing worth paying attention to is the philosophy of centenarians. Almost all of them try not to leave a state of emotional calm. They are not bothered by depression and stress. Elders are highly respected. Aksakals are wise and prudent. Young people come to pensioners for advice, they listen to them. Caucasians live leisurely lives, slowly enjoying every day they live. Maybe this is the whole secret?
Murad Magomedov
More complex recipes will follow
requiring some effort to prepare them
It always seemed to a person that the period of life allotted to him was too short. Many tried to correct the matter, looking for ways to prolong life or even make it endless. Some people almost succeeded...
"Mahabharata" - the epic of Ancient India - tells the story of the sap of some mysterious tree, which prolongs a person's life to ten thousand years. But where exactly one should look for him remained a mystery. Ancient Greek historians also knew about the “tree of life,” however, they already argued that it was not sap, but the fruits of some overseas tree that could restore youth to a person, but not give immortality. Russian epics sing of “living water,” the source of which was located in the middle of the ocean on the island of Buyan. But no one has ever found either the “tree of life” or the source of “living water.”
Nevertheless, the search for a means of eternal life continued. When Christopher Columbus discovered unknown new lands in the West in Atlantic Ocean, hopes of finally finding the source of immortality were transferred there. Some even believed that it had already been found and gave the exact coordinates. Thus, the Italian humanist Pedro Martyr, a close acquaintance of Columbus, wrote to Pope Leo X:
“North of Hispaniola, among other islands, there is one island at a distance of three hundred and twenty miles from it, as those who found it say. On the island there flows an inexhaustible spring of running water of such wonderful quality that an old man who drinks it while following a certain diet will after a while turn into a young man. I beg Your Holiness, do not think that I said this out of frivolity or at random: this rumor has really established itself at court as an undoubted truth, and not only the common people, but also many of those who stand above the crowd in their intelligence or wealth, too they believe him."
It is unknown how many expeditions went in search of mysterious island with its magical source. It is only known that as a result of one of these expeditions, America was once again discovered: a noble Spanish nobleman, in search of “living water,” reached the New World and, believing that there was another island in front of him, christened the land Florida (“blooming”). But he still did not gain immortality.
But today, not from fairy tales, but from the results of scientific research, it is known that water really affects people’s life expectancy and health. The human body is seventy percent water, and it is by no means indifferent to what kind of water nourishes its tissues. Residents of some islands Caribbean look much younger than their European peers and explain this phenomenon quite casually:
On our island, such water flows from springs that rejuvenates a person.
Residents central regions Sri Lankans have excellent health and also look younger than their years - due to the climate and water from mountain springs. Many mountaineers surprise with their longevity and excellent physical condition. So the search for the elixir of immortality is not as hopeless as it might seem. Man, of course, will not cease to be mortal, but he is quite capable of living twice as long as he lives now. In any case, our skeleton has a “margin of safety” for one hundred and twenty years of active (!) life, so there is clearly an untapped natural reserve.
But let's return to the search for the elixir of immortality. In addition to magic water, there were many “man-made” recipes. Only those that clearly did not give the desired result have reached us. For if someone once managed to create such an elixir, its recipe, of course, was kept in the deepest secrecy. How would you like this tool:
“You need to take a toad that has lived ten thousand years and a bat that has lived a thousand years, dry them in the shade, grind them into powder and take them.”
Everything would be fine, but how can you find out the date of birth from cute little animals? The recipe doesn't say this.
In general, information about the successes that people have achieved in the search for immortality is scattered and unconvincing. It is known more or less reliably about two people who died in our century, having lived a very long life. This is a Chinese man who died in 1936 at the age of... 246 years (according to official documents), and an Indian man who died in 1956 at the age of 186 years. An Indian at the age of fifty retired to the Himalayas, where he took up yoga. Apparently, a combination of special exercises, diet and some other means made it possible to significantly extend his life span. You can believe these two facts, you can not believe them, but despite the fantastic nature of such phenomena, we are not talking about immortality. And the search for it has not stopped and will not stop: there are always people ready to devote years, decades, their entire lives to it...
One of these people was Alexander Cagliostro. In addition to the mystery of his origin and the unknown source of his enormous wealth, Count Cagliostro had an exciting secret:
"They say, wrote one of his contemporaries. – Cagliostro discovered the secret of preparing the elixir of life. His young-looking and charming wife is already more than forty years old, and, according to her, the count has the secret of returning youth.”
This mysterious man also visited Russia. In St. Petersburg, his appearance created a sensation. And the story of the failed duel with the court physician Roberts added new shine to his name. Extremely irritated by Roberts’ attempts to denigrate him in the eyes of the court, Cagliostro offered him an original duel - “with poisons.” Both competitors had to drink the poison prepared by the other and then take any antidote. The count insisted, but the frightened doctor flatly refused: too persistent rumors that Cagliostro possessed the secret of the elixir of immortality circulated throughout the capital.
Alas, these turned out to be just rumors. Cagliostro was captured by the Inquisition and died in its dungeons. All his personal papers were burned, and miraculously only a copy of one note, taken in the Vatican, survived. It describes the process of “regeneration,” or the return of youth:
“After taking two grains of the drug, a person loses consciousness and speechlessness for three whole days, during which he often experiences attacks of seizures and convulsions, and perspiration appears on his body. Having awakened from this state, in which, however, he does not experience the slightest pain, he must take the third and last grain on the thirty-sixth day, after which he falls into a deep and peaceful sleep. During sleep, the skin slips off, teeth and hair fall out. They all grow back within a few hours. On the morning of the fortieth day, the patient leaves the room, having become a new person, having experienced complete rejuvenation.”
Everything would be fine, but the recipe for the drug has not been preserved. And - was he there at all?
The interrogation protocols of Cagliostro contain interesting information about another mysterious person - Count Saint-Germain. Cagliostro claimed that he saw the vessel in which the count kept... the elixir of immortality. They did not believe him: Count Saint-Germain died ten years before the death of Cagliostro himself, in 1784. But then strange things began to happen.
The Count appeared in Paris in 1750, not only without a past, but even without any plausible history. However, he preferred not to talk about himself at all, only sometimes - either on purpose or by accident - he let slip about his conversations with Plato or Seneca or one of the apostles. Of course, they didn’t believe him too much, but... When someone asked the count’s coachman whether it was true that his master was four hundred years old, he innocently replied:
I do not know exactly. But in the one hundred and thirty years that I have served my master, his lordship has not changed at all.
Of course, the coachman could have been trained. But how can one explain the fact that elderly aristocratic women in the best houses recognized in Saint-Germain a man who had visited their grandmothers’ salons half a century ago? Moreover, the elderly matrons swore that he had not changed a bit during this time. Moreover, if we compare the descriptions of people who knew the count well in different times, it turns out that he was seen in England, known in Holland, remembered in Italy. He changed names and titles - Marquis of Montfert, Count de Bellamy and a dozen others. And just as suddenly as he appeared, Count Saint-Germain disappeared from Paris and appeared in Holstein. From there the news of his death came. But none of the gravestones in the area around his castle bear the name of Saint-Germain. But it is on the list of Freemasons, whose meeting took place in Paris a year after the “death” of Saint Germain. It is reliably known that three years later the French envoy in Venice saw the count, and not only saw him, but also talked with him for a long time. And two years later, Saint-Germain found himself in one of the prisons where revolutionaries kept aristocrats. Then traces of him were lost. Did he die on the guillotine, like so many in those years? It turned out not.
Thirty years after the “imaginary death” of the count, on the sidelines of the Congress of Vienna, he was met by an old, good friend, Madame de Genlis. He did not change at all, but tried not to prolong the unexpected meeting and the next day disappeared from Vienna as mysteriously as he had done from Paris. About fifteen years later, when almost no one who knew Saint-Germain personally was alive, the count reappeared in Paris under the name of Major Fraser. He pretended to be an Englishman, had unlimited funds of unknown origin, but lived a rather secluded life. He was identified by one elderly dignitary, who miraculously survived the revolution, exile and everything connected with them. He recognized it, but unlike Madame de Genlis, he did not share this discovery with anyone, but tried to get closer to “Major Fraser”, since the years had changed him beyond recognition.
The acquaintance took place, and the dignitary gradually learned that his interlocutor was well aware of everything that happened at the French court... two hundred years ago. He spoke with such details that could not be read anywhere. Even when he spoke about very distant times and distant countries, one got the impression that he was really present there and then. The old dignitary could not stand it and said that at one time he had met such a person as the great Saint Germain. His interlocutor just shrugged his shoulders and started talking about something else, but... the very next day he disappeared from Paris.
Then he was allegedly seen there already in the mid-thirties of our century. But since there was no one personally acquainted with the count, these messages are difficult to consider reliable. Although if we take it as an axiom that he actually invented the elixir of immortality, then his behavior seems quite logical. Wanting to keep his secret, he had to either move from place to place and change names, or fake his death and continue living under a different name. Otherwise, he would have had no peace from those eager to penetrate his secret.
By the way, there is another person who achieved immortality, but not with the help of the elixir, but in a completely different way. According to legend, when Jesus Christ was led to the place of execution, he wanted to lean against the wall of one of the houses for a minute to rest. But the owner of the house did not allow him to do this.
Go, go! There’s no point in resting,” he allegedly shouted.
Christ unclenched his parched lips:
Fine. But you, too, will walk throughout your life. You will wander forever, and you will never have peace or death...
The owner of the house was called Agasfer. But he is better known under the nickname “The Eternal Jew,” and there are several interesting testimonies about his future fate. In 1223, he was met at the Spanish court by the Italian astrologer Guido Bonnati. Five years later, he was mentioned in one of the papers of the English abbey, which was visited by the Archbishop of Armenia. The archbishop, according to him, was personally acquainted with Agasfer, talked with him several times and was absolutely sure that it was this man who was cursed by Christ. In 1242, Agasfer appeared in France, and then disappeared for two and a half centuries.
In 1505 he was seen in Bohemia, and in 1547 in Hamburg. There Bishop Paul von Uytheen met with him, who in his notes mentions that this man spoke all languages without the slightest accent, led a secluded and ascetic lifestyle, and had no property. If they gave him money, he immediately distributed it to the poor. In 1575, Agasfer appeared in Spain, in 1599 - in Vienna. From there he intended to go to Poland and then to Moscow. And there is vague evidence that he actually visited Moscow and communicated with someone. But his appearance in the German city of Lübeck in 1603 is more than documented - an entry in the city chronicle made by the burgomaster, historian and theologian in Latin:
“Last year, on January 14, a famous immortal Jew appeared in Lübeck, whom Christ, going to the crucifixion, condemned to redemption.”
Mentions of this mysterious personality were also found at a later time. The last one is dated 1830. You can believe it, you can reject it. Or you can take the point of view of one medieval doctor who wrote:
“There is nothing that can rid the mortal body of death, but there is something that can postpone death, restore youth and prolong the short human life.”
Modern science is also searching for the elixir of immortality. But, first of all, scientists have established that a human cell has a strictly defined lifespan - 50 divisions. The only difference is how quickly this process occurs. For some it takes sixty years, for others it takes more than a hundred. But after this, the cell dies, and all attempts by scientists to increase the number of divisions were unsuccessful. And the experimenters chose a different path - cell rejuvenation. Some manage to achieve a positive effect, but no one has yet found an elixir. Although there are interesting results from experiments on mice.
The introduction of industrial preservatives into the mouse body, those that prevent the spoilage of oil, lengthened the life of the animals by almost one and a half times. Reducing his diet by a third lengthened his life by half. And the special diet generally rejuvenated the tailed ones: two-year-old individuals, that is, old men, began to behave like three-month-old youngsters. However, everyone knows that you need to eat right. Although not everyone does this... for some reason. And this is how a person is designed that he prefers to dream about a miraculous drug of instant action: he slams a glass and is healthy and young again.
But in fact, if someone achieved immortality, sooner or later he would have to ask himself the question - why live an endless life? Even the most exquisite pleasures become boring, even the most favorite activities can become boring. And you can renounce immortality itself, as, according to legend, the wisest of the wise, King Solomon, did. When he was offered the elixir of immortality, he refused to accept it because he did not want to outlive those who were close to him and whom he loved...
There is, after all, such a view of immortality.