The Methuselah alternative
That consciousness does not experience reality directly may be so. In the words of the German physicist Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), 'What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning'.
For now, this is likely to present us with an insurmountable barrier to tackling the actual physical process of aging.
However, at the macrocosmic level, it is not quantum indeterminacy we are dealing with, but an objective organic form that fails us much too soon.
For a short period only, the body serves the mind until it decays and finally breaks down irrevocably.
It is possible, through discipline and training, to exert almost total control over every aspect of human physiology.
Nevertheless, there is no record of any yogi achieving an extended lifespan. Despite being capable of regulating their autonomic bodily functions such as heartrate and breathing, their mental efforts are of novelty value only.
What we are left with, is the written evidence that certain antediluvian humans enjoyed a lifespan that was not measured by a century but by a millenium.
John C. Lilly (1915-2001), scientist and psychoanalyst, was initially a researcher into interspecies communication between humans and dolphins.
He subsequently pursued a study, with the then legal use of LSD, into altered states of consciousness which led him to make an analogy between the human brain and the computer.
His term for the brain is 'biocomputer' and he was convinced that it could be programmed or 'metaprogrammed' by the self.
If we accept that there are unconscious aspects of the mind, it becomes possible to theorise that at some level, we are programmed by an agency which determines approximately how long we will live.
There is a possibility that the medieval and Renaissance alchemists were seeking for a way of replacing the century programming with the millenium programming and, if this is so, might have been unwittingly playing a game with the programming intelligence which we can tentatively identify as 'death'.
What could be involved in the millenium programming is a more complex relationship with time, and this may be regarded as essential if the programmatic aspects of the lifespan are to be integrated with every level/area of reality.
Of course, there is always the argument that the Bible cannot be taken literally and that Methuselah could not possibly have lived for 969 years.
It is as as if such an idea, though ancient, is much too revolutionary and even distasteful to the orthodox mind.
The ever ebbing tide
Gerontology, the study of the degenerative process we know as aging has throughout human history attracted the interest of the physicians and philosophers of many civilisations.
As we age, physiological and chemical changes take place such that the body slowly succumbs to entropy.
The irreversible nature of the body's demise can be seen as part of the process of time itself whereby change apparently occurs in a single causal direction.
Of course, maintenance can be carried out, offering a temporary renewal. However, this serves only to defer the inevitable as ultimately, the degeneration cannot be reversed.
Cosmetic surgery is also a possibility, and a preferred method is the facelift, which restores a more youthful appearance to those who can afford the procedure.
In order to prevent aging, it seems that a radical approach is necessary. How to uncrack an egg?
Hence, the resort to magic - as exemplified by the Philosopher's Stone - because the scientific alternatives as outlined in 'Strategies for survival' are mere promises and not a guarantee of immortality.
The use of the mind to affect the state of the body has been advocated by many notable practitioners in the holistic medical field. This philosophy was first popularised as early as the first quarter of the 20th century by the French psychotherapist Emile Coué (1857-1926), who believed that autosuggestion could cure disease and enhance general health.
The link between the mind and the body can be understood on a purely material basis as the firing by brain cells of electrical impulses which are then transmitted through the nervous system to cause movement.
The physical and the nonphysical are effectively regarded as a single idea so that an explanation of the actual relationship between mind and matter is not required.
Yet, the body is an everyday demonstration that mind and matter interact perfectly and cannot be readily reduced to a single idea because mental will is involved.
To proceed forcefully in the prevention of aging, a genuine understanding of the manner in which consciousness can affect reality is probably a necessity.
This brings us into the realm of nuclear physics and particularly quantum mechanics, which, at its most pessimistic, states that no models of reality are possible.
If this is the case, then for the time being we may have to accept that a crucial door is locked. It is likely that until the 'observer effect' (the idea that an observation or measurement of an elementary particle actually determines the result) is explained in terms of what is actually happening, we cannot hope to truly overcome our mortal fate.
On the edge of death
When a human being is dangerously close to death there seems to be, in certain cases, an innate survival reaction which overcomes the peril to the physical.
Near death experiences (NDE) have been reported by people who have survived very extreme situations such as a car crash or being resuscitated on the operating table.
All the reports of this kind bear similarities. There is the sensation of being out-of-the-body and looking down on the scene.
Frequently, the subject is aware of a dark tunnel, at the end of which is a bright and welcoming light. Relatives who are dead may appear. There is a general sense of joy and bliss.
The assumption by those who undergo such experiences is that the personality survives death and goes on to exist in a purely spiritual form.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) believed that the NDE was an experience of darkness then light which we all undertake, namely birth.
However, it is more likely that the NDE is a last desperate attempt by the mind to avoid the death of the body. It is an extreme reaction to an extreme event and it happens spontaneously.
This can only mean that certain individuals are endowed with the means to overcome perilous circumstances and that this 'talent' is used automatically if the situation is critical.
It seems that we are probably equipped to counter significant threats to our physical selves and that if we could only develop this ability it might prove to be useful as far as combating the aging process is concerned.
Unfortunately, because of the subjective nature of the NDE, these experiences elude our attempts to fully understand them and therefore possibly produce consciously.
The alchemists lived in the realm of the marvellous constantly and their mystical equivalents, the Hermetic adepts, were experts at allegorising the alchemical process in a manner which is accessible yet vague. If any of them did manage to extend their lives, then they are deliberately obscuring the method.
What they did indulge in was mental effort of a unique kind which may indicate that the development of the mind in specialised ways is a prerequisite towards unravelling the secrets of the Great Work.
Strategies for survival
If we exclude the possibility of accidents and disease, there are a number of ways which have been proposed in order to achieve life extension.
The popular wisdom is that lifestyle is key to achieving a long life. Eating healthily, not smoking, drinking moderately and exercising are all factors which contribute to maximising lifespan.
Experiments with mice have shown that if they are fed less than they would eat normally, they live longer than expected.
This has led to some people adopting calorific restriction as a method whereby calorific intake is deliberately reduced to less than the recommended daily level in order to prolong life.
The antioxidant effect of certain vitamins such as vitamin C is well known. Others are more specific to individual bodily processes such that supplementing diet with regular doses of vitamins is for some people a sure way to extending their lives.
A more extreme method is cryogenic preservation whereby the whole body, or in some cases just the head, is frozen in the hope that sometime in the future science will have progressed sufficiently so that they can be successfully revived.
The SENS Foundation (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) advocates a tissue repair strategy to combat damage at the cellular level, a process which occurs naturally as a side effect of metabolism. SENS is based on the mitochondrial free-radical theory of aging and proposes a number of therapies which, if successful, could lead to a potential lifespan of 1000 years.
Perhaps the most interesting possibility, but also at the present time the most ethically challenging, is cloning.
It is theoretically possible to clone a human being from a sample of their DNA, though it is not known if the clone would be the same person psychologically as the DNA donor.
This would not be true life extension, but it would enable us to live multiple lives endlessly if our personaity is passed on through our genes.
All of these methods are the possibilities that we currently understand. It is probable that the Great Work of alchemy does not involve scientific practicalities but instead is based on a knowledge that can only be acquired through extremes of experience which involve brushes with death.
This being so, clues may be hidden in the dark recesses of written accounts which have been hitherto overlooked.
The true goal of alchemy
Before chemistry there was alchemy. Before scientific rationalism there was an odd assortment of ideas concerning the nature of the elements and the conviction that lead could be changed into gold.
Now we have the periodic table of the elements and we classify them according to the number of protons in their nuclei.
But what of the Philosopher's Stone? The substance that alchemists could use to both transmute lead into gold and achieve eternal life.
Were these men, and women - it is attested that the first alchemists were women - were they so wrong? Were they wasting their lives in pursuit of a hopeless ideal, a chimera?
It is appropriate that the apparent goal of alchemy was gold. Legends of the Golden Age still persist. The time when humanity lived in perfect harmony with all of creation. The restoration of such a state for the individual must be the real objective of alchemy.
Certain antediluvian human beings had a lifespan much greater than our own. According to the Bible, Noah was six hundred when the 'flood' occurred.
Before the 'flood' the Sumerian King List gives the reigns of rulers in tens of thousands of years. After, only hundreds. Then later, rulers who reigned for lengths of time we find acceptable.
Such information is regarded by scholars as nonsensical. 'Three score and ten' is our lot.
Yet there must be a kernel of truth amongst the ashes of ancient history. The Bible and the King List hint at a possibility.
The Great Work may be a means of circumventing the parameters pertaining to average human lifespan.
What exactly these parameters are is a matter for speculation, however, it is likely that they are rules 'programmed' into reality by an unknown intelligence which may or may not be a supreme governor, the Gods, or even a lesser being whose responsibility is the turnover rate of the human race.
The treatises produced by the medieval and Renaissance alchemists in particular can be seen as a realisation that there may be a method to restore human lifespan to what it once was during a past era of history.