Artificial rejuvination

A Sumerian hero and king called Gilgamesh and his search for the Tree of Life is well documented. Gilgamesh had gone “down” from Sumer to the Gulf area where he had been told he would find a plant that would give him eternal life. The tree as mentioned stood in the middle of the Garden of Eden. However with the garden gone he was out of luck. Gilgamesh, whose father was a nomad (?), did reigned 126 years.

When it became clear that the maximum lifespan was decreasing rapidly, people and their rulers started to look for other ways to extend life. For the kings and priest artificial rejuvenation was introduced and the people a sober lifestyle, meditation or praying and fasting.

The Sumerian kings or priest would go for a prolonged stay at the temple and had to undergo a severe regime of food restriction with no solid foods, only lots of special fruit and vegetable juices. To help the king get through this difficult period they used special sedatives, resting him on a bench in the form of a cross in a quiet room without light, massages and brushing of the skin a daily routine. Liver, kidney, gut and skin involved.

The food restriction/detox would go on until the liver was nearly gone. The liver was reduced to approximately 10% of its normal size. The process was so severe that halfway during his treatment all parasites, such as worms, would leave his body and flee. Needless to say that such a procedure is not without risks and takes a lot of time and knowledge! For this reason, only royalty and high priests would be treated in this way.

Analog to the story is a Hindu medical text, the Sushruta Samhita. Here it is "Soma" which is not the juice of a single plant, but a mixture, created by the gods to forestall decay and death. The stories about soma vary, and it last recorded use in Vuurland near Antarctica.

The text describes an elaborate ritual wherein the potion works. The user enters an inner chamber after scouring his system with emetics and purgatives. After that seven harrowing days of food restrictions follow. The user has to drink carefully administered potions of soma, starts to vomit blood, breaks out in swellings, and “worms creep out of the body. The muscles wither and fingernails and hair fall out. The body expels “all filth and obnoxious matter accumulated in the organism due to errors in diet and conduct.” On the 8 th day rejuvenation starts, muscle, organs, fingernails and hair grow back. The beautiful persons who finally emerge will “witness a hundred summers on earth in health and vitality”.

Homepage

Immortals

Babylon

Bible

Soul

Human body

Artificial rejuvination

Fountain of life

Alchemist

Eastern Mystic