Will You Live Forever?

Sep 12

How To Live Forever?

Take two men.

Both men had one thing in common. Neither man knew the other. The thing they had in common was their obsession with living forever. I knew both.

The first man was 84 years of age.

He invited me for dinner through a friend of a friend. We met in Bournemouth where he was visiting from the USA. I was excited to meet him as I am with all people that are asking to meet me. I arrived at his hotel and then quickly went through to the huge restaurant that looked like it has been designed and never changed since the 1800s. I told the ‘maitre de’ that I had a table booked with a friend. He led me over to the table where finally I met this man face-to-face who I had known for a long time but only by distance online.

An Old Picture of Health

He had the most wonderful smile and frankly looked the picture of health despite being 84 years of age.

We exchanged pleasantries, small talk and the more obvious conversation breakers. Then came the question that he asked me. “Alan, do you think you will live forever?” I replied in my honest truth which was a simple no. I held back because I was once part of a faith that endlessly repeated living forever. Maybe I was still in the rejection and path of opposite phase.

He then quickly replied and began to tell me his plans to live forever. He told me outside his business and family his life had been spent on a quest to extend his life. Then he told me his first key goal of extended ageing was to hit 120 years of age. He believed if he hit 120 years of age he could carry on and live forever.

Now that is a simple version of a long 3 hour conversation but that is what he truly believed. I only met him once more. It was around 5 years later. I was in the airport in Switzerland where I just happened to bump into him. I swear he looked like the oldest man I have ever seen. Thin, extremely balding, huge weight loss, frail and bruised but still smiling. We spoke and said hi to each other.

Eventually, he went his way and I went my way. Around a week after that I read an email from his son announcing his father had died. His age hadn’t been announced but I would guess around 87 years of age.

Californian Hippy Living Forever?

And then another man dedicated his life to living forever. We met in California. He had the most incredible place. It was a place rooted in the hippy movement. Rooms to meditate, rooms to fast, rooms to think, rooms to do yoga and a dining area that only served plant foods and other strange concoctions to drink and chew on.

At this time I had run away from home and my faith. My mind had now opened to all kinds of thinking. I wanted new ideas to bring me back to life. The draw of this place was strong for me. So I finally met this man. He had long hair, of course, wore beaten sandals, torn shorts and a kaftan style long linen shirt - in angelic white. He was just packed with energy and ideas that I had never considered before about humans and life.

He never really went on about living forever but he would share his secrets for eternal life in other ways. He revealed to me his quest had begun as a child. Watching a previous family member dying raised the question of death. This led him on a path of what he felt was eternal life. I never met him again once we parted. I read in an email some time later that he had eventually died from a rare disease that was apparently brought on by his extreme diet.

Neither man lived forever.

Eternal life In Italy?

I have just gotten back from my favourite part of Europe - Italy. There is something about Italy. There is something about Italians. There is something about that way of life and their apporach to life.

On the first day, we found a local coffee bar. No one spoke English and we don’t speak Italian. We sat and were the only ones sitting.

Men and women walked in and out. They would have a shot of espresso with a glass of water. They threw expresso shot right back and would drink water and go. No rush. Just time long enough for greeting small talk and laughter. As we walked in we were clearly foreigners. This was a village - Nervi - that appeared to have no holidaymakers. It's the way we like things. So when they saw us we stood out. The welcome was beautiful.

An old man with very broke English wanted to know who we were. He then shared a story of how he had a lover from Scotland. In his words, she was a true beauty. They lived in London in their younger years and then sadly parted ways. This was in his youth. He’d clearly never forgot her. I told him I was also from Scotland. That made him smile. We shook hands.

Then still in the cafe they all wanted to love our children. Hugs, kisses sweet words of adoration for the mind and bodies of children. It was a very Italian scene like only Italians can do. After this, I kept seeing that old guy. He would sit near the fishing boats speaking with the locals. Tanned with pure white hair. A large chiselled nose and large old lips flowed with smiles and words. Every time he saw me he would should Mr Scotland, Mr Scotland. He would wave and cast his old smile my way.

Living Forever - Until Death

There is a beauty about age and growing happily into death.

I once read a scientific paper many years ago about living forever. It was based on the fact that science doesn’t truly know why the body grows old and dies. They know what happens and how it happens yet they still don’t know why the process into death takes palce. According to science, the body is designed to live forever. The brain is barely used and designed to store, erase and use information that would cover millenniums. Interesting right?

Thoughts of living forever?

If a man dedicates his life to living forever surely that man has become detached from living here right now? The chase of living forever is a chase that will always extend into the next day, the next month the next year. That chase prevents thoughts of happiness due to the knowledge of impending death after three score years and ten. Once the man is distracted with the chase of eternal life that same man can no longer live a fulfilled life as he has convinced himself his life can only be full if eternal life is gained.

I felt that from both the men at the start of this writing. Both were nice guys but lived a slight delusion based on what they wanted rather than what they had. The old Italian guy on the other hand. When I asked him and other elderly Italians they seemed to just fit into the role life has predestined for them. That didn’t mean they had given up. It means they were living their best life day to day rather than waiting for the possibility of finding the key to eternal life.

This morning on the news Boris Johnson the ex-prime minister in the UK said just two days before her death he had been on a final visit to meet the queen. He said she was clearly frail but full of life and busy doing what a Queen has to do.

I thought about that for a moment and realised love her or hate or disagree with the monarchy she lived an extremely full life and had to live in the planned moment to be able to achieve what she did achieve. Every queen is more than aware of death. They only gain power through the death of another as has Charles.

Can we live forever?

I began to follow the incredibly interesting Bryan Johnson online. Here is a man twith a heavily religious background. A man that is a self-made millionaire (sold his company for $800 million) and here is a man that is livng an extreme life to see if ageing can be reversed. He has developed a medical team of experts and scientists to test every single thing he does with his body. Bryan claims to be the most tested human being walking on Earth. I will say when you read his materials and protocols you can see why.

Bryan is trying to REVERSE ageing not so much avoiding death. yet the conversation still comes up - can we live forever and outrun death itself?

It is definitely worth reading Bryans protocol for a healthier life. He gives it all away free under the brand - BLUEPRINT.

But really can we - can you live forever?

According to science, we are designed to live forever. Yet the reality right now appears to be we all end up on the ground. In that reality we have to be honest with ourselves and ask are we using our time wisely? Are we living the very best life we can live right now? Is our life a happy life? Only once we accept that our time is short can we extend our life by living and doing our best life right now.

My Thoughts?

We are born. We live. We die.

We are given the gift of life from our parents. Regardless of where we are right now life truly is a gift. Yet our life is defined by what we do with that gift. The gift outide life is also a gift of time. Time had an allocation or is wasted. Regardless of what we do what we own, what we achieve and what we share - we all die.

Life can be extended - absolutely yet since the dawn of man even the oldest recorded man in the Bible Methuselah at 969- even he died.

I feel am for living life right now yet the legacy of a man has great importance. Books and writings are a testimony to a legacy of eternal life through what we leave behind.