Since time immemorial, people have been looking for ways to achieve immortality or at least prolong their life. Legends about finding eternal youth have been passed down from generation to generation throughout the history of mankind.

Scientists of antiquity and the Middle Ages have created many amazing longevity recipes - from taking a tincture of dried and powdered bats to rubbing the body with tears of virgins. And, judging by the surviving documents, some of the funds gave amazing results.

Cinnabar or meditation?

The earliest available handwritten evidence of the elixir of eternal youth dates back to China in the 1st millennium BC.

According to historical chronicles, Taoist monks possessed the secret of preparing a medicine that could prolong life. The most important component of their preparations was cinnabar, or sulphurous mercury (that is, mercury quenched with sulfur), which, due to its color, was associated with blood.

The manuscripts cite the example of a scientist named Chufu who took refined cinnabar along with saltpeter for 30 years - and as a result began to look like a teenager, and his hair turned bright red.

By the beginning of the new era, Chinese alchemy was divided into external and internal (that is, recognizing the impact from outside or from within). The first scientific direction proceeded from the fact that immortality can be achieved by taking special drugs, and the second - that it occurs due to the forces of the organism itself, which must be activated with the help of special breathing exercises, diet, exercise and meditation.

Gradually, the inner alchemy supplanted the outer. It is known that Genghis Khan, hearing about the Taoist monk Chang Chun, who possessed the secret of eternal youth and lived for 300 years, sent messengers to China to bring the magician to Samarkand with honors. But Chang Chun, who arrived, instead of creating an elixir of immortality for the great khan, began to tell him about the benefits of abstinence and a healthy lifestyle.

Elixir of manure

Longevity advice is also found in the works of ancient Greek, Egyptian and Persian authors. For example, in the writings of Aristotle, Epimenides is mentioned, a priest and poet from the island of Crete, who in 596 BC at the age of 300 was invited to Athens to participate in sacrificial ceremonies, and Pliny the Elder writes about a certain Illyrian who managed to live up to 500 years ...

As a medicine, these writings feature anti-aging drinks made from the fruits of eternal youth. The ancient Greek ambrosia and the ancient Iranian haoma were considered such elixirs.

One of the recipes for longevity suggested the following ingredients for a magic remedy: honey from Africa, gentian from Crete, four species of live vipers from Sparta, medicinal roots from Galia, Scythia and Macedonia, as well as centaur hair.

In addition, the elixirs of youth for the Mediterranean scientists of that time were associated with the use of unusual foods - for example, dried snakes or toads, dead mice, as well as excrement from humans and animals.

Breathing young girls

In biblical times, one of the ways to restore youth was considered to be the breathing of children or young girls who lay next to the elderly at night. It is known that the queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, constantly surrounded herself with babies at night.

Later, such a technique became widespread in France in the 18th century, where some companies rented out young innocent girls to elderly rich people for the night. The course of treatment was calculated for 24 days, while intimate services were not provided, but as a result of such procedures, the vitality of elderly people increased and even some diseases passed.

Already in our time, studies have shown that human skin is very sensitive to thermal fields emanating from other people - these findings are a strong argument in favor of the healing factor of affectionate touch and their use for therapeutic purposes.

Healing Basic Instinct

The moon hare pounds the potion of immortality. Embroidery from the Chinese imperial mantle, 18th century

Intimacy was also recognized by ancient healers as an effective anti-aging agent. An indication of this can be found in drawings relating to the civilizations of India, the Middle East and China that existed more than two thousand years ago, as well as in classical treatises on love, such as "Phaedrus" and "Feast" by Plato (IV century BC), "The Art of Love" by Ovid (1st century), Indian "Kamasutra" (3rd-4th centuries), "Necklace of the Dove" by Ibn Hazma (11th century) and others.

They not only contain information about the technique of love contacts, but primarily focus on the rejuvenating effect of sexual relations. This is also indicated by the works of ancient physicians of antiquity, in particular Hippocrates and Avicenna.

Medicines with elements of cannibalism

Several anti-aging drugs and potions have been associated with blood and flesh - both living people and their remains.

Here is a recipe from an ancient Persian text: feed a red-haired and freckled person with fruits up to 30 years old, then lower it into a stone vessel with honey and other compounds and seal it hermetically. After 120 years, the body will turn into a mummy, which must be taken in parts as a means of granting immortality.

The inhabitants of ancient Rome believed that the source of longevity was blood - especially of young people. After the end of the gladiatorial fights, many old people ran into the arena and washed themselves with the blood of the wounded and killed.

Pharmacists of the 12th century used a powder made from mummies stolen from Egypt as a cure for old age. He was credited with magical magical properties - just like other remains of the dead.

The Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) took baths from the blood of virgins to preserve her youth. According to historians, after the death of the countess, more than 600 skeletons of young girls were found in the basement of her castle.

Burn the black dragon

In the Middle Ages, alchemists were engaged in theories of rejuvenation. Their ideas were based on the works of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle, according to which all objects and living things in the Universe in different proportions consist of four elements: fire, air, earth and water. Immortality, according to Aristotle's assumption, can give a still unknown fifth element - the quintessence.

The main goal of the alchemists was the search for such an element, also called the philosopher's stone and the elixir of immortality. At the same time, the scientists of the Middle Ages believed that the philosopher's stone, in addition to the gift of eternal life, could turn lead or iron into gold and silver, that is, they drew a parallel between the chemical changes of metals and the rejuvenation of the human body - since, in their opinion, metals grow in the womb of the Earth in the same way as a child grows in the womb.

The main material with which medieval scientists worked was mercury. Being both a metal and a liquid, it was perceived as a kind of ideal substance from which, with the addition of sulfur, other metals can be obtained and, most importantly, a philosopher's stone that bestows immortality.

The recipe of the English alchemist George Ripley (15th century), published in his "Book of the Twelve Gates", said that to obtain the elixir of eternal life, mercury should be heated and evaporated in a solution of grape alcohol until it turns into a solid, and then distilled in a clay retort.

Then a black dragon will appear inside the retort, which should have been ground on a stone and burned, and the products of combustion should be distilled again. The result is a substance similar to human blood - this is the drink that gives longevity.

Gold could also be a component of a magic elixir, because it is not subject to chemical changes, which means, according to the logic of alchemists, it personifies immortality.

A recipe, compiled by the personal physician of Pope Boniface VIII (XIII century), has survived: take internally mixed crushed gold, pearls, sapphires and other precious stones, ivory, sandalwood, deer heart, aloe root, musk, and amber.

Plus 60 years is not the limit?

The reader probably asks the question: did the recipes of medieval alchemists help anyone? What do we know about the centenarians of that time?

In church books, there is a mention of Bishop Allen de Lisle, who died in 1278. He is said to have known the composition of the elixir of immortality - or at least significant life extension. When he was already dying of old age in old age, the use of this elixir helped him to prolong his life by another 60 years.

The famous philosopher Roger Bacon, in one of his works, told about a man named Papalius, who spent many years in captivity with the Saracens and there he learned the secret of making a magic potion, using which he lived to be 500 years old.

As you can see, ancient historical documents often mention the elixirs of eternal youth. On the one hand, the effectiveness of such drugs seems unlikely. However, we should not forget that it was alchemy that became the ancestor of modern pharmacology.

Many scientists argue that the human body is designed for a much longer life span - and the fact that people are not yet able to take advantage of this may indicate the loss of recipes for longevity, which were still discovered, but have not reached our time.

Platon VIKTOROV

For a long time people dreamed of immortality. These dreams are reflected in numerous myths and legends of peoples around the world.

The search for ways to achieve immortality is narrated in the oldest of

extant Sumerian-Babylonian epics. Clay tablets with a legend about

Gilgamesh are dated by scientists around the 3rd millennium BC, and on

they are marked as copies from an older original.

The Sumerian epic tells that in the realm of the god of wisdom Enki rose from the waves of the Lower Sea, the island of Dilmun, which was inhabited by a tribe of immortals. They resembled humans in appearance, but they possessed eternal life. They did not know what illness and old age were. Among them there was not a single widow and not a single widower. They did not know what a headache and eye diseases were. The woman reached old age, but remained young and fresh. The man grew older and older, but did not feel like an old man.

But such a life was enjoyed not by people, but by the gods. Doom to sickness and deprivation, old age and death - that is what distinguished people from the gods, but it was difficult to come to terms with this. That is why the goal of the wanderings of the hero of the Babylonian epic Gilgamesh was the attainment of immortality. Gilgamesh, ruler of the city of Uruk (XXVIIIin. BC BC), was the son of the immortal goddess Ninsun and the mortal husband of Lugalbanda. He was two-thirds God and only one-third man, but even this third became fatal for him, and he had to leave the earth sooner or later. In search of immortality, Gilgamesh was inspired by the death of his beloved friend - Enkidu.

And Gilgamesh went in search of his ancestor Utnapishtim, who, together with his wife, the only one among people, the gods gave eternal life. He hoped to find out from the immortal ancestor the secrets of gaining immortality. After long wanderings and adventures, Gilgamesh finally managed to find Utnapishtim.

"Oh, Utnapishtim!" He exclaimed. "If you have become immortal, then perhaps the gods will give me eternal life? How can I earn their mercy?" "Do not flatter yourself," replied Utnapishtim. "The gods will not gather for you for a council. Many people pleased the gods, but, apart from me and my wife, no one was rewarded with eternal life."

And yet he gave Gilgamesh one chance to attain immortality: "However, you can test your powers. If you can overcome sleep, perhaps you will be able to

conquer death. Try not to sleep for six days and seven nights! "But what does immortality without eternal youth mean! And then Utnapishtim advised Gilgamesh to go down to the bottom of the sea and pluck the thorny thorns growing there, which conceals juice, refreshing strength and rejuvenating the body. Gilgamesh managed to get this talisman. "He carefully guarded the magic bush, keeping the secret of youth. He decided to bring it to Uruk and let the oldest old man taste its juice. If he grows younger, then he himself will taste of the wonderful plant and will regain his youthful strength.

Having crossed the great sea and came ashore, Gilgamesh saw the pool folded

made of white stone and filled with fresh water. He wanted to plunge into the water and wash away sweat and dust from a tired body. But while he was plunging into the pool, a cunning snake crawled out of the hole and in an instant stole a magic bush, hiding with him in the bowels of the earth. Gilgamesh wept bitterly. He understood the futility of his efforts. Got it

that not to avert to him the approaching old age and not to postpone the hour of death, predetermined for him by the gods. With bitterness in his heart, he returned to his city of Uruk and humbly began to await a terrible and inevitable end. "

The serpent, who stole immortality from Gilgamesh with difficulty, appears more than once in the myths of different peoples. This is a prototype of that biblical snake-tempter, which, having seduced Adam and Eve to taste the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, also deprived them of immortality.

It is interesting to note that already in the Sumerian era, the achievement of immortality was associated with the acquisition of eternal youth. They continued to dream about it in the era of antiquity. To prove this, one can refer to a very characteristic myth about the goddess of the dawn Eos and her beloved Typhon.

Rose-footed Eos, the goddess of dawn, fell in love with the beautiful son of the Trojan king Typhon. To never part with her beloved, she pleaded with the Olympic gods to grant him immortality. The insidious gods gave Typhon immortality, but ... they did not grant eternal youth. Typhon lived a long time. His head turned white, his body melted and shrunk, his laughter sounded less and less. Youth disappeared in the crowns of slender cypress trees and Eos's love cooled. Once the ruddy Eos locked the bedroom and Typhon in it with her pink fingers. I found myself another bed. And Typhon, dried up and wrinkled, turned into a cricket and chirps there and now - The wise myth of Typhon will become in many ways the leitmotif of our reflections on the search for immortality. “They talk about life extension all the time,” writes the famous Russian scientist LN Gumilev, “but in essence, they are engaged in the extension of old age. And this is not such a great pleasure. Perhaps it is better as it is: let generations change and life is renewing ... "

Therefore, in the myths of most peoples, immortality has always been associated with eternal youth.

According to the myths of ancient China, the tree of immortality grew on the Kunlun Mountain. The fruit ripened on it, and the one who ate it lived forever. It, like other trees that bestow longevity, bloomed and bore fruit only once in several thousand years. From these fruits the medicine of immortality was prepared, which was kept by the goddess Sivanmu, the Lady of the West. The lucky one who swallowed it could live forever. But getting to the top of Mount Kunlun, where the goddess Sivanmu lived, was not easy. The bottom of the mountain was surrounded by the depths of the Zhoshui River - Weak water. It was enough for a feather to fall into the water, and it immediately sank, and the boat with people even more so. Kunlun was surrounded by fire-breathing mountains. The fire burned in them without ceasing day and night, and everything that got there was burned up. Not a single person reached the cherished goal, and only the arrow Yi managed to overcome all obstacles and receive the medicine of immortality from the goddess Si-wanma. Holding out an arrow And a gourd pumpkin with a magic potion, Lady of the West

said: "This is enough for you and your wife to receive immortality. If one person accepts all the contents, then he can ascend to heaven and become a deity. If two people drink it, they will become immortal on earth."

Shooter's wife Yi, beautiful and insidious Wu Chang'e, decided to deceive her husband and, having stolen a pumpkin from him, took all the magic potion alone to become a goddess.

Becoming a goddess, Wu Chang'e settled on the moon in the cold and deserted moon

palace. There was only a white hare, which pounded the drug in a mortar all year round

immortality. And the longer Wu Chang'e lived in the moon palace, the sadder her loneliness became. Her thoughts often returned to the human world. Wu Chang'e repented, she really wanted to return home, admit her guilt, ask her husband for forgiveness. But all was in vain, and she had no choice but to live forever in the lunar palace, never going down to earth.

Only many years later, another person appeared on the moon, just like Wu Chang'e, who once strived for immortality. It was Wu Gan, who for his misdeeds was sent by the gods to the lunar palace to cut down a cinnamon tree: he chopped down a tree, and it grew together again, and he could not cut it down for ages ...

In ancient Chinese myths and legends, a lot of attention is paid to the search for a variety of potions and elixirs of immortality. So, it was said that far in the West, near the sacred mountain Kunlun, on which the tree of immortality grows (the fruits of which only one shooter I could get), there lived six shamans who collected magic herbs near the tree and prepared an elixir of immortality from them.

They also talked about the magic mushroom joochi, which brought people a long life and put off old age. In his novel Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en calls these mushrooms the fruit of ginseng and describes how the pig-like Zhu Bajie ate them.

In Ge Hong's book "Bao Pu-tzu" in the chapter "Potions of Immortality", it is stated that the miraculous joochi mushrooms are none other than dwarfs seven to eight inches tall. A meeting with them should not be missed. It is necessary with the help of witchcraft to silently go around them from behind with a hobbled gait and grab. Then you need to rip the whole skin off the dwarf and swallow it. Soon after, one can hope to ascend to heaven in broad daylight.

In many extraordinary countries beyond the seas, according to Chinese myths, people lived with immortality or longevity. For example, in the east, in the land of Tszyu-nyzigo - the Land of the Noble, there lived perennials who ate steamed Mujin flowers - red, purple and white. In the Southern Wasteland there lived a black people of immortals - Busimin. There was a mountain in this country

Yuanqiu - Round Hill. The tree of immortality "ganmu" - "sweet tree" grew on the mountain. It was enough to eat its fruit to become immortal. Chiquan - the Red Spring flowed under the mountain. A drink of water from this source gave longevity. Therefore, people lived there without knowing death. In the Western Wasteland was the country of Sanmianibi - the Country of the three-faced and one-armed. According to legend, they were immortal. There was also the country of Huzhen, whose inhabitants had human faces and fish bodies and could ascend to heaven and descend to earth. They either lived indefinitely or were immortal.

The most curious country where immortals lived can be considered the country of Utsi - the Land of people without offspring in the Northwest Desert. People in this country were not divided into men and women. After death, their bodies were buried in the ground, but their hearts continued to beat. After one hundred and twenty years, they came to life and went outside to enjoy the joys of life again. Their life was followed by death, death followed by life, and death itself was a long sleep, therefore they can be considered immortal. The country of Uqi flourished, although its inhabitants did not have offspring.

But the most famous land of the immortals was the five sacred mountains: Duyu, Yuanzeyao, Fanghu, Inch-zhou and, especially, Penglai.

These mountains floated in the East Sea and supported them by fifteen enormous

black turtles - three for each floating mountain. On top of these sacred

floating mountains towered golden palaces with white jade staircases. Immortals lived in these palaces. Jade and pearl trees grew everywhere, on which fruits that tasted good ripened, and those who ate them became immortal. On one of these islands, according to legend, a jade-colored wine source beats. The one who drinks this wine gains immortality.

When people on earth learned that such beautiful and mysterious mountains rise near the sea, the inhabitants of which have a medicine that gives immortality, many wanted to visit there. This legend eventually became known to the rulers and rulers, who began to equip large ships one by one, supply them

food and sent the Taoists to the sea to the sacred mountains, trying by any means to get the world's largest jewel - the potion of immortality. They tried to get this magic elixir during the period of the Fighting Kingdoms (IV-III centuries BC) Wei-wang and Xuan-wang, the rulers of the Tsarsguwa Qi, Zhas-wang, the ruler of the Yan kingdom, Qin Shihuang di - the First Qin emperor ( 259-210 BC), the Han emperor Wu-di (141-88 BC) and many, many others. But all is unsuccessful. All of them died, like ordinary people, without obtaining the medicine of immortality and not even seeing the outlines of the sacred mountains.

The famous Chinese historian Sima Qian (135-86 BC) wrote in his Historical Notes:

"Since the time of the sovereigns Wei-wang, Xuan-wang and Yan Zhao-wang,

people in the sea to find the sacred mountains Penglai, Fangzhang and Yingzhou. According to legend, they are in Bohai, and whoever gets there will find the saints and the medicine of immortality there. From a distance they are like clouds, but when you get closer, the mountains go into the water; you want to swim, but the wind is driving away; so nobody got to the mountains. There was no one among the rulers who would not dream of them. "

The most prepared expeditions in search of the islands of the immortals were equipped during the reign of Emperor Qin Shi-Huangdi (259-210 BC). It was the emperor who united the country and began the construction of the Great Wall of China, which protected the Celestial Empire from nomads. A flotilla of twenty huge ships under the command of Su Shu, carrying three thousand young men and women, as well as a large number of various workers, servants and artisans, was sent by Emperor Qin Shih-huangdi to the Eastern Sea to the islands of immortality.

Days, weeks, months passed. No word came from Su She. The emperor spent many hours on the shore, peering into the unclear horizon. But the ships never returned. It was rumored that the Su She expedition found the islands of the immortals and, having drunk the magic elixir of immortality, all 3000 of its participants remained forever on the wonderful islands, not wanting to return to the Celestial Empire. Chinese historians were of a slightly different opinion. In one of the old chronicles we read: “Su Shs set out on a voyage, but discovered lands remarkable for their peacefulness and fertility. Therehe settled, became king and never came back. "

The most ancient legends of many peoples mentioned about the "elixir of immortality", which the gods ate. In different countries it was called differently. The gods of the ancient Greeks used ambrosia, which gave eternal life, the Indian gods - amrita, the gods of the Iranians - haoma, the gods of Ancient Egypt - the water of immortality.

Imitating the gods, people also tried to prepare the elixir of immortality. In many old books, recipes for the preparation of this magical

elixir. So, in Ge Hong's book "Bao Pu-tzu" in the chapter "Hsien-yaonian" - "

immortality "there are many recipes for making this elixir. It was recommended to take a toad that lived for ten thousand years, and a bat that lived for a thousand years, dry them in the shade, crush them into powder and take inside, - then you can live up to forty thousand years.

And here is a recipe from an ancient Persian text: “We must take a red-haired and freckled man and feed him with fruits until he is 30 years old, then lower him into a stone vessel with honey and other compounds, put this vessel in hoops and hermetically seal it. After 120 years, his body will turn into mummy ". After that, the contents of the vessel, including what became the mummy, could be taken as a life-prolonging agent.

The recipe for the elixir of immortality, compiled by the personal physician of Pope Boniface VIII (1294-1303), has come down to us: “you need to mix crushed gold, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, topazes, white and red corals, ivory, sandalwood, deer heart , aloe root, musk and amber. "

One French scientist of the 15th century, in search of a vital elixir, boiled 200 eggs, separated the whites from the yolks and, mixing them with water, repeatedly distilled them, hoping in this way to extract the desired substance of life.

Many Chinese emperors were fond of seeking the drug of immortality. Wu-di, the emperor of the Han dynasty (reigned from 141 to 88 BC) surrounded himself with magicians and sorcerers who were supposed to make the compositions and secret potions he led alone. Wu di dreamed of finding miraculous dew, which the immortals supposedly ate, or to get wonderful peaches, tasting which one can join eternal life.

Another Chinese emperor, Xuanzong (713-756), went to his royal ancestors much earlier than the due date only because he had the imprudence to accept the elixir of immortality made by his court doctor.

It is said that during the Han dynasty, Prince Liu An was in Huainan,

carried away by the doctrine of the immortals. He so comprehended the doctrine of the Tao (Way) that

made the pills of immortality himself, took one and in broad daylight ascended to heaven. He left his pills at home in an earthen bowl, they were gnawed by chickens and eaten by the dogs, and instantly disappeared.

Only from the sky came the clucking and barking of dogs in the clouds. This legend

curious, but nothing more. Indeed, it is known from Sima Qian's "Historical Notes" that

huaynan prince Liu An committed suicide because someone reported on him, accusing him of treason. He was frightened of the punishment and cut his throat.

Did anyone really manage to reveal the secrets of the elixir of immortality? In all likelihood, of course not. However, from time to time, mysterious personalities appeared in history who allegedly managed to enter the doors of immortality.

One of such mysterious personalities was the philosopher of the Pythagorean school Apollonius of Tyana, the same age as Jesus Christ, who was born three years before the New Era. Apollonius of Tyana visited many countries of the ancient world, studied the secrets of the priests of India and Babylon, his contemporaries attributed many miracles to him. Having survived ten emperors, at the age of 70, Apollonius of Tyana returned to Rome, where, by order of the emperor Domitian, he was put on trial on charges of witchcraft. But a miracle happened: in front of everyone, Apollonius disappeared from the crowded courtroom.

For a number of centuries it was believed that Apollonius, having managed to prepare the elixir of immortality, continues to hide among people. In the XII century there lived a philosopher and alchemist who called himself Artefius, from whom two mysterious works, full of mysteries and omissions, have survived to our time - a treatise on the Philosopher's Stone and an essay on ways to prolong life. Many contemporaries believed that under the name of Artefius

apollonius of Tyana is hiding, and they have made strong arguments in defense of their suspicions.

Legends attribute the achievement of complete immortality to the Jerusalem Jew Ahasuerus - the famous Eternal Jew. According to religious legends, Christ, during his journey of the cross to Golgotha, in extreme exhaustion leaned against

the wall of a house belonging to Ahasuerus. But the cruel Jew did not give even a second to rest for Christ, who was carrying a heavy wooden cross, and drove him away. Then Christ doomed Ahasfera to eternal wanderings, without hope of ever finding peace or death.

And now, here and there, from century to century, a man appears, whom many identify with the personality of the immortal Ahasfera. The Italian astrologer Guido Bonatti met him at the Spanish court in 1223.

Five years later, he is mentioned by an entry made in the chronicle of the Abbey of St. Albana (England). According to the Armenian archbishop, who visited the abbey, he tells about his meetings with Ahasfer, who was in Armenia at that time. Allegedly, a person posing as Ahasuerus remembers well the events of more than a thousand years ago, remembers the appearance of the apostles and many details of the life of those years that no one living today knows about.

In 1242, this man appears in France, then the silence of the historical chronicles reigns for two and a half centuries. In 1505, Hagasfer is declared in Bohemia, a few years later he is seen in the Arab East, and in 1547 he is again in Europe, in Hamburg.

Bishop of Schleswig Paul von Eitzen (1522-1598) tells about the meeting and conversation with him in his notes. According to his testimony, this man spoke all languages \u200b\u200bwithout the slightest accent. He led a secluded and ascetic lifestyle and had no property, except for the dress that was on him. In 1575 he was seen in Spain, here the papal legates at the Spanish court - Christopher Krause and Jacob Holstein talked to him. In 1599, he was seen in Vienna, from where he was heading to Poland, intending to reach Moscow. Soon he actually appears in Moscow, where many allegedly also saw him and talked to him. In 1603 he

appears in Lübeck, which was attested by the burgomaster Kohlerus, the historian and theologian Kmover and other officials. In 1604

The Eternal Jew appears in Paris, in 1633 - in Hamburg, in 1640 - in Brussels, in 1642 - in Leipzig, in 1658 - in Stamford (Great Britain).

When, at the end of the 17th century, the eternal wanderer reappeared in England,

skeptical British decided to give him an exam with

professors of Oxford and Cambridge. However, its knowledge in ancient history, in

geography of the most remote corners of the Earth, which he visited or allegedly visited,

were amazing. When suddenly asked a question in Arabic, he did not

accent answered in that language. He spoke almost all languages, both European,

and oriental.

Soon this man appeared in Denmark, and then in Sweden, where traces of him again

are lost. In 1818, 1824 and 1830, he, or someone posing as him, appears in England, and since then again disappears from sight for a long time.

In the second half of the 18th century, the attention of contemporaries was attracted by two mysterious personalities who allegedly owned the elixir of immortality - Count Cagliostro (1743-1795) and Count Saint-Germain (1710 (?) - 1784 (?)).

With regard to Count Cagliostro, most researchers now have

there is no doubt about it. It is documented that this clever adventurer was a native of Palermo Joseph Balsamo, who from an early age became famous for various cunning tricks and shenanigans. He owed his knowledge of magic and alchemy to the Armenian Altotas, with whom he visited various sanctuaries of Egypt, and then practiced alchemy at the court of Pinto, the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, who had a great penchant for the mysterious sciences. Leaving Malta and parting

with Altotas, Count Cagliostro (as he began to call himself, arbitrarily appropriating the count's title) began to demonstrate his magical knowledge at the royal courts of Europe and even in Russia. Probably, it was to this time that rumors about the allegedly available miraculous elixir of immortality and eternal youth belong to him. However, the remarkable adventurer never managed to achieve immortality, and he died in 1795, chained to the wall of the gloomy basement of the Castle of the Holy Angel in Rome, where he was thrown by the verdict of the Inquisition as a heretic, deceiving magician and Freemason.

A much greater mystery surrounds the Count of Saint-Germain, a contemporary of Cagliostro. In the minutes of the court of the Inquisition, a story recorded from the words of Cagliostro was preserved about his visit to Saint-Germain, where he claimed to have seen a vessel in which the count

kept the elixir of immortality. Count Saint-Germain amazed his contemporaries with his extraordinary awareness of the past. His appearance led to amazement and bewilderment of the elderly aristocrats, who suddenly recalled that they had already seen

this man was seen long ago, in childhood, in the salons of their grandmothers. And since then, they were amazed, he has not changed outwardly at all.

Saint Germain showed up suddenly, with no past. We know as little about him and about the origin of his fantastic wealth as his contemporaries. Equally mysterious is his death, allegedly in 1784 in a secluded castle in Holstein. One of his contemporaries, who knew the count, called it "an imaginary death", he wrote that not one of the gravestones in the district has the name of Saint Germain.

Many years after this "death", Saint-Germain's acquaintances met

count in many cities of Europe. Thus, Saint-Germain attended a meeting of Freemasons in Paris a year after his "apparent death". Three years later, in 1788, the French envoy to Venice, Count Chalon, meets Saint-Germain in Saint Mark's Square and converses with him. During the years of the French Revolution, the Count was allegedly identified in one of the prisons where aristocrats were kept. 30 years after Saint-Germain's death, an elderly aristocrat Madame Jeanlis, who knew the Count well in her youth, meets this man, who has not changed at all, on the sidelines of the Vienna Congress. In the last years of the reign of Louis-Philippe, when almost none of the people who knew Saint-Germain personally survived, the mysterious count, still not a bit old, was met in Paris by a retired dignitary.

There are two more later reports associated with the name of Saint Germain. He allegedly reappeared in Paris, already in 1934. And the last time was in December 1939. Since, however, by that time there were no people who personally knew the Count, these reports are difficult to consider reliable.

The strangest and most fantastic of modern reports of immortality is associated with the name of the Indian Tapaswiji, who allegedly lived for 186 years (1770-1956). At the age of 50, he, being a Raja in Patiala, decided to retire to the Himalayas. After

years of exercise Tapaswiji learned to immerse himself in the so-called

the state of "samadhi", when life seemed to completely leave his body, and could

do not take any drink or food for a long time. Once, Tapaswiji said, he met an old hermit at the spurs of the Himalayas. He ate only fruit and milk, and looked extremely energetic and cheerful. But, most surprisingly, the hermit did not speak any of the modern Indian languages, speaking only in Sanskrit - the language of Ancient India. It turned out that 5000 years have passed since he came here! He managed to extend his life to such limits allegedly thanks to a certain composition, the secret of which he owned.

But nevertheless, it is worth recognizing that all the above cases of someone achieving immortality are more likely to be legends. Let's stand on a firmer ground of the existing reality and analyze what means in the field of achieving practical immortality modern science has at the moment. Let's immediately discard all methods of increasing life expectancy. Firstly, we already talked about them in the previous chapter, and secondly, they only talk about

an increase in the life of an organism, and not on the fundamental search for immortality.

Currently, the search for immortality is going on several diametrically

opposite directions. One of them is a brain transplant. At present, it is unconditionally proven that it is the brain that is the bearer of a person's individuality, his thinking, perception of the world, memory, awareness of himself as a person.

Already in 1963, physiologists demonstrated amazing experiments on transplanting the brain of a toad into the head of a frog. The result is a very strange and amazing frog with the habits of a toad. Instead of jumping into the water, like other representatives of her species, she, like a real toad, began to look for a hole in the ground to bury itself in it.

Almost 30 years have passed since these experiments. Over the years, dozens of heart, liver, and kidney transplants have been successfully carried out in humans, and the problems of tissue incompatibility of transplanted organs are being addressed. Thus, science has come close to a brain transplant. Although work in this direction is being carried out quite intensively, it is difficult to say when exactly it will be possible to translate scientific experiments into practice. In any case, this time is not far off and it is quite possible that our generation will already witness a successful human brain transplant.

Therefore, theoretically, it is already possible to imagine people whose brain, and therefore personality, will go from one body to another many times. Throwing away unnecessary, aged bodies one after another, a person will be carried away from century to century, from millennium to millennium. The life of one person, her memory will accommodate entire epochs of human history. However, a natural question arises - whose bodies is this "personality" going to discard as unnecessary and used up? And who will determine the right to immortality of one person at the expense of the organisms of other people? To a lesser extent, these questions have already faced doctors and scientists during donor kidney and heart transplants. They will rise with much greater urgency when trying to find "donor" bodies for brain transplantation. It must be firmly learned that despite the fact that the appearance of a person, his facial features, body structure will fully correspond to the body

"donor", his personality and self-awareness will be determined exclusively by the transplanted brain.

This problem was anticipated by the genius of M. A. Bulgakov in the story "Dog

heart. "Good dog Sharik under the influence of a transplanted pineal gland

the brain of the deceased bandit and alcoholic turns into an exact likeness

the latter. Now this question is being developed by American cinema.

A woman whose brain was irreversibly injured in a disaster gets a brain transplant

another woman whose body was lost. Who is the new being, with the appearance of the first woman and the brain of the second? How should it treat its loved ones, husband, children? It is inexhaustible material for dramatic collisions.

Perhaps in the future, scientists will be able to design an artificial body for the brain, the guardian of the personality. It will be a cyborg robot with a human brain. Thus, it is possible to achieve immortality by losing one's body. Is humanity psychologically ready for such experiences? Are you ready personally? This philosophical problem has been raised more than once in numerous science fiction novels, beginning with the famous "Head of Professor Dowell" (1925) by the Soviet science fiction writer AR Belyaev (1894-1941).

The second way to achieve practical immortality is genetic engineering. Each cell of a living creature stores in its nucleus all the genetic information necessary for the formation of a new organism. Several years ago, scientists at Oxford University in the UK conducted an interesting experiment - a new frog, an exact copy of the first, was grown from a frog epithelial cell. therefore

theoretically, in the near future, it will become possible to mass reproduction of absolutely identical twins, including humans. This means that when a person turns 80 or 90 years old, it will be possible to take from him the nuclei of cells from any organ and, by growing them in cells devoid of a nucleus, get an exact biological copy of this person. That is, it will be possible to completely repeat oneself, but appearing as a newborn and in a certain sense to ensure their immortality, since this operation could be repeated an unlimited number of times.

Moreover, in the future it would be theoretically possible to use not only "living" genetic material of cells, but also "conserved", say, in the tissues of a mummy. And it will be possible to reproduce a complete biological copy of this mummy from the moment of birth. But since mummifications were awarded mainly to tyrants, the question arises - is it necessary to reproduce them again?

It is worth clarifying that all these biological copies, repeating in the smallest detail the appearance of specific people, will nevertheless be endowed with their own consciousness. It will be a psychologically completely different individual, and his memory, his joys and sorrows, love and hate, will be far from the prototype. His intellectual appearance will take shape under the influence of a different upbringing, education, and, finally, just the human environment of a new generation of people. And even if we manage to recreate a new Tutankhomon, in its psychological makeup it will not be ancient

egyptian, but our contemporary. Consequently, even here we do not achieve complete immortality. If in a brain transplant we preserve personality, but lose body and appearance, then with genetic engineering we preserve the exact likeness of a given person, but lose his personality, memory, experience, and maybe talent.

True, the famous Soviet scientist P.K.Anokhin put forward a hypothesis according to which the hereditary transmission of information received by a person during his life is in principle possible. In this case, the "copy man" will carry in himself the memory of everything that happened to the "original", he will keep it in himself as memories

your own life. Thus, it will be possible to achieve complete

identity of individuals. The chain of individual consciousness, passing from body to

the body will not be interrupted. The memory of the life of the past, already old and not

existing body shells will be as uninterrupted as our memories of a day lived yesterday, a month ago, or last year.

The next, and moreover, a very, very promising direction of the search for immortality is engaged in the science of cryobiology, which studies the vital activity of the organism at very low temperatures.

The American professor of physics and mathematics Robert Ettinger is considered the theorist and founder of cryogenesis (ie freezing), who published the book "Discovery of Immortality" in the 60s, which immediately became a bestseller and won hundreds of fans of the cryogenesis method. "When someone is declared doomed,

because modern medicine is not able to help, - the person is still 99 percent alive, - writes R. Ettinger. - After all, it is a fact that many diseases that were once considered fatal are now being cured. Keeping the body cold, you just have to wait for new knowledge and technologies to help you return ... "

By now, there are convincing experimental

confirmation of cryogenization. Yugoslav scientists managed to revive rats,

chilled to 6 degrees. Surgeons at Hardward University (USA) revived

hamsters after being frozen for more than five hours. Experimenters have repeatedly revived monkeys in hypothermia

a state when the animals were no longer breathing and the heart did not beat.

Modern medicine has accumulated a lot of amazing facts about the return to life of frozen people. One of these cases is connected with the Japanese chauffeur Masaru Site, who worked in a refrigerator - a car transporting refrigerated

products. On that day, he came to Tokyo from Suzuoka to receive a load of ice cream. The hard ride and the heat tired the driver, and he decided to take shelter from the heat and rest before receiving the load in the back of his refrigerator. Time has passed. Someone noticed a car parked without a driver. When they opened it, they found a chauffeur in it, but already "frozen". The thermometer inside showed 10 ° C below zero.

The driver's body was rushed to a nearby hospital. Doctors worked on the frozen man for several hours and revived erol. According to doctors, Saito was first poisoned by the gas that was released when the dry ice melted, and then "froze". The chauffeur's life was saved by the fact that in the atmosphere of the closed van there was an increased content of carbon dioxide released during the evaporation of dry ice and a reduced content of oxygen (its reserves were consumed all the time the driver was breathing).

Experiments in the field of cryobiology have finally made it possible to freeze a person. In 1973, the entire world press went around a sensational message: Professor D. Bedford from Los Angeles, knowing that he was dying of lung cancer, agreed to be frozen in liquid nitrogen at a temperature close to 200 degrees below zero, and returned to life, when medicine finds an effective means of dealing with his disease.

And a few years later, a purely commercial enterprise appeared in the USA, the owners of which offered everyone the same procedure: freeze and store

a person at his will for tens or hundreds of years. Many, many Americans wished to undergo the freezing procedure and thus go to

travel to the future.

However, at the end of the 70s, a major scandal erupted: the police in one of the freezing centers found the bodies of a dozen people in the stage of deep decomposition, about which, presumably, there was no agreement when they concluded contracts for immortality. Naturally, the credibility of the idea itself was greatly undermined. It took years for everything to return to normal.

There are currently four cryogenesis centers in the United States (two in California, one each in Michigan and Florida), holding a total of 26 "frozen" Americans. Similar centers also exist in France and Japan.

It should be noted that cryogenesis is a very expensive business, so the first 40 French people who decided to get a chance for immortality are millionaires. In the United States, those who wish have to pay 125 thousand dollars for freezing the body or 50 thousand for freezing only the head.

Some down-to-earth Americans prefer the second option - both cheaper and easier to transport in case of unforeseen circumstances. And if the descendants are able to "unfreeze" the head, then they will certainly be able to select the appropriate body for the preserved brain (and hence the personality).

Practical Americans have noticed another interesting fact. It turns out that in order to wake up as a millionaire in 300 years, it is enough to put 1000 dollars in the bank today. Three percent per annum in a hundred years will turn

this amount is 19,000, after two hundred - in 370,000, and by the time of the expected awakening, each such inhabitant of the refrigerating chamber, according to calculations, will already have $ 7,000,000.

The journey to immortality always begins, at least officially, with clinical death. The team from the "Trans Time" company immediately takes on the client. First of all, it is necessary to provide artificial blood circulation: the oxidation process should not be interrupted. For this, special pharmacological solutions are introduced. After the body is covered with ice. Then the blood is replaced with a saline solution, to which a liquid is added with a substance that prevents the crystallization process in the body. The cooled body is then wrapped in a special cloth and lowered into ice, where its temperature drops to minus 43 degrees. It is at this moment that you can begin to separate the head, if such was the will of the client. Usually, the whole body is placed in a bag like a sleeping bag and lowered head down into a container filled with liquid nitrogen.

However, it should be noted that the American Cryonics Society (low

temperatures) guarantees the road only "there", but "back" - no

certain guarantees. Defrosting can cause severe

problems that are not yet able to solve modern medicine. All

the hope is for the achievements of the medicine of the future.

When for the first time in history, 73-year-old James Bedford, a professor of psychology from Los Angeles, was frozen, some journalists joked: "Well, Bedford will be surprised when he remains dead!"

"The hope that someone can be brought back to life after freezing,

is tantamount to striving to get a cow out of a hamburger, - ironically at this

about Arthur Rowe from New York University and adds: - When frozen

irreparable damage is done to the cells. "

Dr Avi bin Abraham, President

american Society of Cryonics, engaged in scientific research in the field

use of low temperatures in medicine. Death, he believes, comes

gradually. Although the heart stops, cells, tissues, and internal organs

continue to live. Another scientist - cryobiologist P. Segal has already succeeded

reanimate hamsters after two hours of freezing. He also did

experiment with a raccoon dog. She returned to normal temperature after the procedures that undergo cryogenization of the human body. By the way, both scientists, and

also their family members are candidates for freezing for the sake of immortality.

As early as the 18th century, the English anatomist Hunter wrote:

"If a person wants to give the last ten years of his life to the alternation of sleep and activity, then his life could be extended to 1000 years; if defrosting every 100 years for one year, he could each time find out what happened during the time he was in suspended animation ".

So, it may well be that several dozen of our contemporaries, enclosed in transparent capsules, flowing around with liquid nitrogen cooled to -200 ° C, float along the waves of time into the future, towards immortality.

There are some other directions of the search for immortality. In 1976, a professor from the GDR E. Liebbert described an experiment with Mexican agave, in which it was possible to increase the species limit of duration lifetenfold. For gerontologists dealing with aging, this experience has gone unnoticed. In 1983

an article by the Moscow scientist V.I.Gudoshnikov appeared in the collection of works of the Moscow Society of Nature Experts about experiments on rats, which managed to stop development in dynamics between stages I and II of the climacteric period and keep the body between them for 40 days.

As a result of the analysis of these two experiments and his own experiments, Nikolai Isaev, a corresponding member of the Moscow Society of Nature Experts, managed to create his own theory of increasing the species life expectancy.

The essence of the theory is as follows: to extend the life of any organism tenfold

and more, it is enough to make and maintain "stuttering" in any place of the ontogenetic program (that is, a genetically determined scheme for the development of a given organism) in the process of its implementation. We age because the body maintains

a certain level of key metabolites (waste products

organism) with activity that does not allow "stuttering" in the process of implementation

ontogenesis programs. As soon as the level of key metabolites decreases (for example, in the experiment with agave, the products produced by the genetic system were removed), so the body without slowing down goes to the previous, younger stage of its life. From this previous stage, the construction of products and structures of the generative stage of life begins again. Removing products again ... and so on for 90 years. As a result, agave species life expectancy increased from 10 to 100 years, that is, tenfold. This experience could be continued indefinitely, since there is no aging as such, because the body is in conditions where there is no material basis for aging - key metabolites are not supported here at the level set by nature.

To date, NN Isaev has practically developed and implemented various options for the "looping" of some plants - potatoes, maple, allowing to achieve species "immortality". In the future - work on

the achievement of the species immortality of man. Its essence is to stop aging in a person at any age: for example, between 40 and 41 years. From this moment on, the given organism will pass as long as desired a segment of its life within the specified interval.

Thus, the theoretical prerequisites for achieving the species immortality of man have been created. Another thing is that the path from successful experiments on plants to the practical implementation of this theory in humans can be very, very long.

The problem of human immortality has two main aspects: scientific

biological and philosophical and moral. Biologically, as soon as we

what have seen, it is quite possible sooner or later with the progress of science to achieve any practical results in achieving personal immortality. It's another matter, but do we need to spend energy and scientific potential to solve these problems?

At first glance, this question may seem paradoxical, although nothing

there is no paradox in it. Let's think about it, is humanity ready to achieve immortality?

Let's try to consider this issue from various angles, primarily from the demographic one. According to the calculations of French demographers, in 1987, the 80-billionth inhabitant of our planet since the beginning of the human race was born (of course, this figure is rather arbitrary). Will there be a limit to the growth of humanity and at what level will it be set in the coming decades and centuries?

The first people, who were probably only a few tens of thousands,

wandered the earth in search of food, being dependent on the changing seasons, on

climate change. The first technical victories, the development of fire led to

an increase in population, which 200,000 years ago approached 500,000

By 40,000 BC. e. all continents, including America and Australia, were inhabited, and the number of people on the globe reached five million.

By the beginning of the IV millennium BC. e. the entire population of the earth was estimated at about 50 million people. During the "Age of Pericles" (5th century BC), mankind stepped over a hundred million. By the era of Charlemagne, the world's population had grown to 200 million, and during the Renaissance, to 500 million.

In the 18th century, the population of the Earth reached one billion. In 1900 it

was 1.5 billion, in 1950 - 2.5 billion people. Early 1976

the world's population reached 4 billion, and in 1987 mankind exceeded the fifth billion. What will be the fate of humanity in the near future?

Demographers are trying to make predictions. The official forecast was adopted by the special Population Division at the UN. This is the most optimistic hypothesis, since

it assumes that all countries will soon come to a level of fertility that provides only generational renewal without population growth - 2.1 children per woman. If it can be assumed that developing countries, where fertility is gradually declining, will indeed come to this level in the next century, then the situation is different in industrialized countries. Their fertility has already dropped

below this threshold and tends to fall further. It is hoped that population decline will only begin to be felt in these countries after 2000, and UN experts believe that then, out of civic reasons, many married couples will decide to have more children, or worried governments will accept

appropriate measures to stimulate the birth rate. If things go like this, then the world population will stabilize by 2100 and will be about 11 billion people.

The dramatic increase in life expectancy that we talked about in the previous chapter could greatly change this UN scenario. As a result, the population of industrialized countries would begin to decline only by 2050, and the reaction of married couples to the fall in fertility would be manifested later. The European population under these conditions will stabilize by 3125 at the level of 1939, and the world will observe a significant disparity between the populations of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

If the birth rate in developed countries continues to decline, reaching everywhere the current level of Germany, if it is in developing countries in which the population explosion stops, and if life expectancy is limited to 75 years, humanity will disappear by 2400. Investigated this development option

of humanity, the French demographer Bourgeois-Pitot believes that the world population will peak at 9.4 billion people in 2070, and then gradually disappear.

However, another course of events is also possible: population decline

developed countries will cause an influx of people from the countries of the big boom.

Peoples in unfavorable conditions, but on the rise of population growth,

can appropriate themselves, by good or by force, the lands and resources of the rich peoples, but

in decline. These latter will gradually mingle with the aliens,

until they lose their individuality. They will disappear, as many have already disappeared

peoples, finding themselves in a similar situation.

What influence can the achievement of immortality by science have on changing the demographic picture? The most unpredictable. Considering that the question of the impact of immortality on the population has never been seriously put on the agenda, it was not possible to find any scientific calculations and forecasts.

But, as we have seen, the achievement of personal immortality is quite possible already in the first centuries of the next millennium. And this fact, which has not yet been taken into account, can make a significant correction in the forecasts of demographers that we discussed. And first of all, it will have an impact not on the total population (although, over time, on it too), but on the ratio of the population of developed and developing countries. After all, it is no secret that the achievements of science will be primarily used by the population of developed capitalist countries. It would be possible to speculate about possible ways of changing the demographic situation in the conditions of achieving the species immortality of a person, but this would be superfluous, since we have not yet solved the question of whether personal immortality is necessary and is it worth pursuing.

Most likely, the immortality of people is incredibly painful and detrimental to the life of society. Progress consists in the change of generations, each generation brings something new to society. A similar thought is expressed in the following verses by Robert Rozhdestvensky:

If only people lived forever

It would be inhuman - How do you know what you are worth in life?

How to understand what risk is?

Throw into the sea?

You won't drown like that.

Go to the fire?

So you won't burn! To plow the field?

Then I'll have time ...

Invent gunpowder?

And for what?

Enjoy lazy arrogance

Prisoners of their immortality.

They would not have accomplished anything,

Never crawled out of the darkness ...

Maybe the most important stimulus to life

In bitter truth

That we are mortal.

The experience of history shows that the progress of science has always outstripped the moral development of mankind. The issue of immortality is no exception. Quite

it is possible (and even very likely) that from a biological point of view, scientists will be able to solve the riddle of immortality in the coming centuries. But what will be the moral face of the generation that will have to give immortality? Will rapists, murderers, thieves really disappear? Most likely - no, to think otherwise - would be a social utopia. So is it really worthy of immortality whoever took the life of his own kind? And is not the very concept of "life imprisonment" just a pun? But the worst thing is to give someone the right to decide whether a given person is worthy

live forever or not. This will inevitably lead to abuses, group, class, party, national, racial approaches, and from here there is only one step to this or that kind of fascism.

So, the question of immortality is a touchstone that may be beyond the power of modern mankind.

But let's try to translate the question of immortality into a somewhat different plane. Suppose everyone is finally convinced that the personal immortality of all mankind is a brake on its progress, both scientific, social, and elementary biological. But there are certain individuals who certainly deserve immortality - outstanding scientists, artists, inventors, poets, thinkers, philosophers. And since science is already able to bestow immortality, so let's

we will give it only to individuals, to a strictly limited number of outstanding people.

I do not want to impose my opinion on anyone. Let everyone try to determine for themselves the most likely circle of these people, based on the preferences of at least

the last five to seven decades. Have you thought? Would you like these personalities not only in slogans, but also in life "more alive than all living things"? Our opinions on the merits of this or that figure may change depending on the political situation. But by granting him immortality, we can get not just a life

a dictator, and (which is much more terrible and even difficult to imagine) - an immortal dictator.

Whatever philosophers say about the role of personality in history, but the era of Stalinism

ended with the death of Stalin. And God alone knows how much more we would have to wait for "objective prerequisites" to change the course of history under the everlasting comrade Stalin.

Therefore, it seems to me that there is no need to rush to immediately solve the problem of personal immortality. We, as we are, are not yet ready to live forever. We are for this

are not yet fully ripe and, I think, we will not yet be able to fully consciously dispose of eternity.

LITERATURE

A step towards immortality? "NTTM - Handyman", 1990, No. 1. Yuan Ke.Myths of Ancient China. M., "Science", 1987. Raeder D. G.Myths and legends of the ancient Mesopotamia. M., 1965.

Gumilev L.N.No mysticism. "Youth", 1990, No. 2. There were 80 billion of us. AND

how much will? "Science and Life", 1989, no. 4.

Gorbovsky A.A., Semenov Yu.S.Closed pages of history. M., Thought, 1988. Prokofiev V.26 frozen Americans. "Trud", 1991, November 14. Mezentsev V.A.Miracles. Popular encyclopedia. Alma-Ata, Ch. ed. Kaz.sov. encyclopedias, 1991, vol. 2, book 3.

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The human body is 70 percent water. It is not for nothing that one well-known biologist figuratively called living creatures "animate water". Obviously, for the health and longevity of a person is not indifferent what kind of water nourishes the tissues of his body. Indeed, in recent years it has become known that water differs significantly not only in chemical impurities, but also in isotopic composition and other features. Many properties of water change, for example, if it is passed between the poles of a magnet. Water can be more biologically active, and this affects the aging process of the body. But we still do not know much about the properties of water - an important component of our body.

In any case, today it is no longer vague legends and not ancient legends, but scientific research that speaks of the influence of water on the health and life expectancy of inhabitants of different regions of the Earth.

It is known that the inhabitants of some islands of the Caribbean, for example, the island of Guadeloupe, look much younger than their European peers. When they are asked how they manage to maintain their youth for a long time, the answer usually follows: “On our island, water flows from the springs that rejuvenates a person ...” The inhabitants of the central regions of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) are also distinguished by excellent health. Sri Lankans believe that the climate and water of mountain springs are the reason for their health. Apparently, it was no coincidence that the ancients tried to look for life-giving water on this particular island.

Some scientists also associate the longevity of the highlanders and a number of peoples of the North with the water they drink. This is the so-called "melt water effect", which has a beneficial effect on the metabolism and thus, as it were, "rejuvenates" the body.

Today, searches are no longer carried out on distant islands or in unknown lands. They are carried out in dozens of laboratories of the largest scientific centers in the world, studying the properties of water and its effect on the human body.

People who were extremely anxious to lengthen their lives as much as possible were mostly endowed with wealth and power. They were looking for the shortest path. And such a path seemed to exist. The most ancient traditions and legends mentioned him - it is the "elixir of immortality" that the gods ate. In different countries it was called differently. The gods of the ancient Greeks used ambrosia, which gave eternal life, the Indian gods - amrita, the gods of the Iranians - haoma. And only the gods of ancient Egypt, showing majestic modesty, preferred the other food of the gods - water. True, all the same water of immortality.

Nobody from people came to the elixir of immortality as close as the alchemists, who, however, were looking for something completely different - the ways of making gold. There was a well-known logic in this. Immortality is a state that is not subject to change. Isn't gold the only substance that is not subject to external influences? It is not afraid of either alkalis or acids, it is not afraid of corrosion. It seemed that time itself was powerless in front of him. Does this metal not contain some element that makes it so? And is it possible to isolate this substance from it or to bring it into the human body along with gold? "Whoever takes gold inside," says one ancient oriental text, "he will live as long as gold." This is the traditional basis of ancient beliefs: eat the eyes of an eagle - you will be like an eagle, eat the heart of a lion - you will be strong like a lion ...

Gold was an indispensable component of various versions of the elixir of immortality. A recipe has come down to us, compiled by the personal physician of Pope Boniface VIII: it is necessary to mix in crushed form gold, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, rubies, topaz, white and red corals, ivory, sandalwood, deer heart, aloe root, musk and amber. (We hope that prudence will keep readers from being too hasty about the composition given here.)

Not much simpler was another composition, which can be found in one ancient oriental book: "You need to take a toad that lived for 10,000 years and a bat that lived for 1000 years, dry them in the shade, crush them into powder and take them."

And here is a recipe from an ancient Persian text: “You need to take a person, red and freckled, and feed him with fruits until he is 30, then lower him into a stone vessel with honey and other compounds, enclose this vessel in hoops and seal it hermetically. In 120 years his body will turn into a mummy. " Thereafter, the contents of the vessel, including what became the mummy, could be taken as a curative and life-prolonging agent.

The delusions that sprout in every area of \u200b\u200bhuman activity have brought a particularly bountiful harvest in this area. One can mention in this connection a French scientist of the fifteenth century. In search of a vital elixir, he boiled 2,000 eggs, separated the whites from the yolks and, mixing them with water, distilled them many times, hoping in this way to extract the desired substance of life.

The apparent senselessness of such recipes does not yet testify to the senselessness of the search itself. Only what was discarded as unnecessary became known. But if we judge the history of a particular science only by unsuccessful experiments and failed discoveries, the picture will probably be about the same.

Experiments in the field of immortality were distinguished by one circumstance - the complete mystery that surrounded the results. If we imagine that some of these attempts ended successfully, that is, someone managed to lengthen their life somewhat, then, naturally, everything was done so that this recipe did not become anyone's property. If, after taking the drug, the object of the experiment parted with life, all the more he could not tell anyone about his sad fate. Such a fate befell, for example, the Chinese emperor Xuanzong (713-756). He went to his royal ancestors much earlier than the due date only because he had the imprudence to accept the elixir of immortality, made by his court physician.

Among the few people about whom we know that, having taken the elixir, they considered themselves immortal, there was one rich gentleman-philanthropist who lived in Moscow in the last century, whom everyone called simply by his first name and patronymic - Andrei Borisovich. Towards old age, he began to indulge in various investigations related to the elixir of eternal life, guided mainly by his own intuition. And since a person is inclined to trust himself more than any other authority, it is not surprising that soon Andrei Borisovich was fully confident that he had finally found the desired composition. Like many other seekers of the elixir of immortality, he chose to keep his find secret. He himself believed in the effect of the composition so much that he really felt rejuvenated, he even began to go to dances ... Until his last minute, he had no doubts about his own immortality.

This incident is reminiscent of the story of another Russian master who lived at about the same time and also believed in his own immortality. Even in his youth, being once in Paris, he visited the famous fortuneteller Lenormand. Telling him all the pleasant and unpleasant that awaits him in the future, Lenormand completed her prediction with a phrase that left an imprint on his entire future life.

“I must warn you,” she said, “that you are going to die in bed.

- When? What time? - the young man turned pale.

The soothsayer shrugged.

From that moment on, he made it his goal to avoid what seemed to be destined for him by fate. Upon his return to Moscow, he ordered all beds, sofas, down jackets, pillows and blankets to be removed from his apartment. In the afternoon, half asleep, he rode around the city in a carriage, accompanied by a Kalmyk housekeeper, two footmen and a fat pug, whom he kept on his knees. Of all the entertainment available at that time, he most enjoyed attending the funeral. Therefore, the coachman and the postilion traveled around Moscow all day in search of funeral processions, to which their master would immediately join. It is not known what he was thinking, listening to others singing the funeral service - perhaps he secretly rejoiced that all this had nothing to do with him, since he did not go to bed, and therefore, the prediction could not come true, and he would thus avoid of death.

For fifty years he waged his duel with fate. But one day, when, as usual, half asleep, he stood in the church, believing that he was attending the funeral service, his housekeeper almost married him to some old friend of hers. This incident so frightened the master that a nervous shock occurred to him. The patient, wrapped in shawls, he sat dejectedly in an armchair, flatly refusing to obey the doctor and go to bed. Only when he was so weak that he could no longer resist did the footmen forcefully lay him down. As soon as he felt himself in bed, he died. How strong was the belief in prediction?

No matter how great the delusions and mistakes, in spite of everything, in spite of failures and disappointments, the search for immortality, the search for ways to prolong life was not interrupted. Mistakes, ignorance, failure were immediately ridiculed. But the smallest step towards success was closed by the mystery.

That is why information about the successes achieved along this path is sporadic, scattered and unreliable.

There is, for example, a report about Bishop Allen de Lisle, a person who really existed (he died in 1278), who was engaged in medicine - the historical annals call him nothing but a "universal healer." He allegedly knew the composition of the elixir of immortality, or at least some method of significantly prolonging life. When he was already many years old and he was dying of old age, with the help of this elixir he managed to prolong his life for another 60 years.

For the same period, Zhang Daoling (34-156), also a historical person, the founder of the philosophical system of Tao in China, managed to prolong his life. After many years of persistent experimentation, he allegedly succeeded in making some kind of legendary pill of immortality. When he was 60 years old, according to the chronicles, he regained his youth and lived to be 122 years old.

Along with these are other messages of the ancients. Aristotle and other authors mention Epimenides, a priest and famous poet from the island of Crete. It is known that in 596 BC he was invited to Athens to make cleansing sacrifices there. According to the legend, Epimenides managed to extend his life up to 300 years.

But this age is not the limit either. The Portuguese court historian tells in his chronicle about a certain Indian with whom he personally met and talked and who was allegedly 370 years old at that time.

A book published in Turin in 1613 and containing a biography of one inhabitant of Goa, who allegedly lived to be almost 400 years old, can be attributed to similar evidence. The years of the life of one Muslim saint (1050-1433), who also lived in India, are also close to this figure. In Rajasthan (India), there is still a legend about the hermit Munisadh, who in the 16th century retired to the caves near Dholpur and hides there ... to this day.

Roger Bacon, a scientist and philosopher of the Middle Ages, was also interested in the problem of extending human life. In his essay "De secretis operebus" he tells about a German named Papalius, who, having spent many years in captivity with the Saracens, learned the secret of making some kind of medicine and thanks to him lived up to 500 years. Pliny the Elder also names the same number of years - it was up to this age, according to his testimony, that a certain Illyrian managed to prolong his life.

An example closer to us in time is the information about the Chinese Li Canyung. He died in 1936, leaving behind a widow, who, according to the record, was his 24th wife. Li Canyong is said to have been born in 1690, which means he lived for 246 years.

But the strangest and most fantastic message from the same series is associated with the name of the Indian Tapaswiji, who allegedly lived for 186 years (1770-1956). At the age of 50, as a Raja in Patiala, he decided to retire to the Himalayas in order to become "on the other side of human sorrows." After many years of exercise, Tapasviji learned to plunge into the so-called state of "samadhi", when life seemed to completely leave his body, and he could not take any drink or food for a long time. This practice was reported by the British who served in the colonial administration in India. They talked about yogis who, having thoroughly cleansed their stomach and intestines, covered up their ears and nose with wax and plunged into a state reminiscent of the hibernation of insects. They stayed in this state not for a day or two, but for several weeks, after which they were brought back to life with the help of hot water and massage.

The fate of Tapaswiji may not come as much of a surprise. Long-livers are known who naturally lived up to 140-148 years of age. There is nothing fundamentally impossible that Tapaswiji or someone else, using diet and other means, was able to push this limit for several more decades. It will be about the amazing testimony of Tapaswiji himself.

Once, he said, an old hermit met him at the spurs of the Himalayas. He ate only fruit and milk, and looked extremely energetic and cheerful. But, most surprisingly, the hermit did not speak any of the modern Indian languages, speaking only in Sanskrit - the language of Ancient India. It turned out that 5000 years have passed since he came here! He managed to extend his life to such limits allegedly thanks to a certain composition, the secret of which he owned. Reaching the age of 5000 years has not yet been “blocked” by any of the “long-livers” - neither in historical chronicles, nor in legends, nor in legends.

However, no matter how fantastic such a message is, no matter how long the period of fifty centuries is, all this is not immortality itself, but only some approaches to it, distant approaches. That is why scientists and fanatics, philosophers and madmen so persistently continued to search for the elixir of immortality - a means capable of bestowing eternal life. They gave this search for years, decades. Sometimes my whole life.

Alexander Cagliostro (1743-1795)

Many contemporaries believed that he possessed the secret of the elixir of immortality.

“The greatest charlatan and deceiver that history has ever known,” some say.

"A man who possessed infinite knowledge and power" - say others

... A German provincial town with cobblestone streets, traditional red tile roofs and the inevitable Gothic. Under one of these roofs, in an attic, in a fantastic environment of flasks, retorts and crucibles sits a young man. He is busy with something no less fantastic than the environment around him - the search for the elixir of eternal life. However, the most surprising thing is that this man is none other than Goethe, the young Goethe, who devoted several years of his life to a stubborn search for the elixir of immortality. Not wishing to repeat the same mistakes, to fall into the same dead ends and wander in the same labyrinths as his predecessors, he carefully studies the works of alchemists, searches for their most forgotten and hidden works. “I am secretly trying,” he wrote in those years, “to get at least some information from the great books before which the learned crowd half bows, half laughs at them, because they do not understand them. To delve into the secrets of these books is the joy of wise and distinguished people. "

So the great poet as an alchemist, a seeker of the elixir of immortality, is on a par with rather strange people. One of them was his contemporary, Alexander Cagliostro. The greatest charlatan and deceiver that history has ever known - so some thought. A man who possessed infinite knowledge and power, others said so.

If we had thought of telling about all the adventures and adventures of this man, the pages allotted here would hardly have been enough for us. In addition to the mystery of his origin and the unknown source of wealth, Cagliostro had another secret. “They say,” wrote one of the newspapers at that time, “Count Cagliostro possesses all the wonderful secrets of the great adept and discovered the secret of preparing the elixir of life.” Was it not this rumor that made Cagliostro such a significant figure in the courts of royalty? So significant that the French king Louis XVI announced that any disrespect or insult to this person would be punished on a par with an insult to his majesty.

During Cagliostro's stay in St. Petersburg, society ladies, struck by the youthful beauty of his wife Lorenza, were even more amazed when they learned from her that she was over forty and that her eldest son had long been serving as a captain in the Dutch army. In response to natural questions from Lorenz, she somehow "let slip" that her husband had the secret of returning youth.

The strange charm inherent in Cagliostro, the mystery that surrounded him, attracted the attention of the Russian court to him. The empress's personal physician, the Englishman Robertson, not without reason, sensed a potential rival in the visiting celebrity. Using the methods adopted at court, he tried to tarnish the count in the eyes of those who were close to the throne. The naive court physician hoped to fight Cagliostro with the weapon that he himself wielded best of all - the weapon of intrigue. However, the count preferred to "cross swords" on his own terms. He challenged Robertson to a duel, but an unusual duel - with poisons. Each had to drink the poison prepared by the enemy, after which he was free to accept any antidote. With the firmness of a man who had no doubts of success, Cagliostro insisted on precisely these conditions of the duel. Frightened by his strange confidence, Robertson refused to accept the challenge. The duel did not take place. It is possible that rumors reached Robertson about the elixir of immortality, which his opponent allegedly possessed - it is possible that he, like many of his contemporaries, believed in this.

But the favorite of fate, Count Cagliostro, too often challenged her, too often made risky bets. In the end, he got "odd", and this card was the last in his life. Cagliostro was captured by the Inquisition, imprisoned, where he is reported to have died in 1795, chained to the wall of a deep stone well.

Cagliostro's personal papers, as usually happened in such cases, were burned. Only a copy of one of his notes, previously filmed in the Vatican, has survived. It describes the process of "regeneration", or the return of youth: "... having taken this (two grains of the drug. - Author), a person loses consciousness and speechlessness for three whole days, during which he often experiences convulsions, convulsions and on the body his perspiration appears. Waking up from this state, in which he, however, does not experience the slightest pain, on the thirty-sixth day he takes the third and last grain, after which he falls into a deep and restful sleep. During sleep, his skin peels off, teeth and hair fall out. They all grow back within a few hours. In the morning of the fortieth day, the patient leaves the room, becoming a new person, having experienced complete rejuvenation. "

As fantastic as this description may seem, it strangely resembles the Indian method of restoring youth "kayakalpa". This course, according to his own stories, took Tapasviji twice in his life. He did this for the first time when he was 90 years old. Interestingly, his treatment also lasted forty days, most of which he also spent in a state of sleep and meditation. After forty days, he allegedly also grew new teeth, gray hair regained its former black color, and former vigor and strength returned to the body.

However, although in ancient texts, in medieval and later records we find references to such "regenerations", none of them speaks of the composition of the drug used.

Should we be surprised at this?