The Gift of Immortality

The aging of the body is only one part of growing old. I can solve the problem of physical immortality, or perhaps future Earthling science will. The aging of the mind is another matter. Not the brain --- I promised you that the brain would not age, but I never said anything about the mind. The most heartbreaking aspect of aging is, not how the body grows old and feeble, but how the mind becomes inflexible, unable to break established patterns and travel in new directions. The aging mind refuses to listen or to see the world outside of its own established patterns. Were talking about views, opinions, memories and emotions that we accumulate and are unable to unload. At an early age, we figure out the answers to lifes questions, and adopt the "Ive found it" attitude. The questioning stops, and we switch into a defensive mode to control any threat to our established views.

Even in Earth science, the greatest breakthroughs come from younger minds that are less conditioned by knowledge, and less trusting in what they know. Few mathematicians older than twenty-five, have made breakthrough discoveries. Physicists do their best work by the age of thirty-five.

Theres nothing wrong with being conservative and holding to a particular worldview. But if you want to live three hundred years, you need a mind that is never going to age. That means altogether removing the time element from the mind - not a trivial task. Time enters into everything we do: our hopes, ambitions, memories, beliefs, hurts, views, opinions and learnings. They are all accumulations that are a result of time. We see those as defining who we are. We latch onto them, protect them from change, and treat them as our most prized possessions.

How many times have you heard an older person say,

"My opinions are good enough for as long as Ive got to live."

"I wont live long enough to see that issue come to pass."

Not a problem, as long as life doesnt last too long. But what if it does? Are you ready to change your opinions and values, qualities wrought by time that you now identify with?

Many people who enthusiastically took my offer committed suicide. They complained of intense boredom: that everything had been done or discovered, that there was nothing worthwhile left to do in life, or that they had figured out long ago that life was a bitch. Others were dealing with lengthy resentments, and old war stories or might-have-beens.

Unfortunately, I dont have a recipe or technique to remove what time has already done to your mind, and what it will continue to do over the next hundred years. Any technique can just as easily become a boring routine that will end up contributing to your time sickness. But the fact that some people did succeed in erasing the effects of time and living for three hundred years, proves that it can be done. You might ask them what they did, but I doubt their answer will help you.

One piece of advice to those who are serious about my offer, is to think seriously about what you are about to undertake. Look at the endless years ahead of you and the possibility of seeing lifes unending changes. If this awakens in you a feeling of awe, a sense of the greatest adventure, to the point that you would be willing to jump in, and let the swirling whirlpool extinguish everything you know, you may be good material for immortality. With the endless years will come continuous change. After only a hundred years you ll scarcely recognize yourself. A Christian today, you may end up an atheist or a Buddhist.

Any takers? Dont all rush.

Paul Kieniewicz holds Masters Degrees in Astronomy and in Geophysics. A renaissance man, he has lectured on astronomy, comparative religions, mythology and history. When not prospecting for oil and gas, he writes science fiction, plays with a recorder ensemble, carves in wood, and studies the properties of numbers. He speaks several languages and has traveled the world. He has published short stories in small press magazines. His debut novel, "Immortality Machine" is now available at Amazon.com.