How Long Will the Hidden Imam Live?

part 4

Research into the Matter of Longevity

There was another article on research on longevity that appeared in an Arabic journal. The following is the translation of that article:

Some reliable scientists have been quoted saying: "Each major organ of an animal body is capable of living for an unlimited period. If human beings do not encounter hazards and accidents then they are capable of living for hundreds of years." This statement given by these scholars is not founded upon speculation; rather, it is based upon prolonged experiments conducted in the laboratories. One of the surgeons successfully preserved a severed part of an animal's body for longer than that animal's life span. On the basis of this he reached the conclusion that the life of the severed part depended upon the nutrients that were prepared for it. As long as it received proper nutrition it was able to continue living.

That surgeon was Dr. Alexis Carl, who was engaged in his research at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. He had performed this experiment on a severed part of a chicken. The part continued to grow as usual for more than eight years. The team of physicians repeated the experiment on severed parts of a human body, like muscle tissue, heart, skin, and kidney. They observed that as long as the necessary nutrients reached these parts they are able to continue growing and living. According to the professors of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University, the main organs of the human body are capable of living indefinitely. This fact has been proven through repeated experiments, and, at least, is a preponderant opinion. The reason is that the life of the organs that are under the experiment at this time continues uninterrupted. The thesis then is based on clear evidence and carefully supervised scientific experiments.

Apparently, the first person to embark upon these experiments on the animal organs was Dr. Jack Lobe. He too was engaged in his research at the Rockefeller Foundation. It was while he was studying reproduction in frogs through an unfertilized egg that he suddenly realized that while some eggs live for a long period, others die early. This led him to experiment on the organs of a frog. In this experiment he succeeded in keeping these organs alive for a long period. Following him, it was Dr. Warren Lewis and his wife who demonstrated that it was possible to preserve a bird's embryo in a saline mixture in such a way that its growth could be revived anytime a part was attached to it. This experiment was conducted repeatedly to ascertain its findings, including the observation that the living cells of an animal can be preserved in a mixture with the necessary nutrients to allow it to continue to grow and live. However, there was no proof to maintain that it could not die.

Dr. Carl was able to prove through persistent research and experimentation that the parts under experiment do not grow old, and live even longer than the animals themselves. He and his colleagues had begun their research in January, 1912 and had faced difficult problems which they overcame to establish the following points in connection with aging:

(a) As long as the living cells under experiment do not face any anomalous condition that could cause their death, such as a decrease in the level of the nutrients in the mixture or an attack by microbes, they can continue to live eternally.

(b) These organs are not only living, they have the ability to grow and to proliferate.

(c) Their growth and proliferation can be compared and measured in relation to the nutrients that are prepared for them.

(d) The lapse of time has no impact on them. Hence, they do not become weak or old; rather, there are no signs of aging in them. They continue to grow and proliferate the same year after year. It is probably right to maintain that as long as these cells are under the watchful eyes of the scientists, who feed them sufficiently, they will continue to grow and live.

Thus, it is correct to say that old age - senility - is the effect rather than the cause. Then why does man die? Why is his life span limited? Why is it that with the exception of a few individuals who make it to a hundred or more years, most people live only for seventy or eighty years? The answer to these questions is that the bodily organs of an animal are numerous and different. There is a perfect interrelationship and interconnectedness among them. The life of some depends on the others. If any of them, for some reason, becomes weak or deficient and dies, then the death of the other parts is imminent. It is sufficient to cite a sudden death that occurs because of an attack by microbes.

This has also become the main reason that human life has not increased beyond the average of seventy, eighty, or even less. This is also true with respect to infant mortality.

In the final analysis, that which has been proven so far is that the reason for death is not the number of years a person has lived; rather, it is the anomalous conditions that attack the body and render its major organs deficient and incapable of defending it under adverse situations. Consequently, one can say that when medical science becomes capable of subduing these anomalous conditions or bringing them under some kind of control, then there will remain no obstacle for life to continue beyond a number of centuries, as is the case with some trees, for instance. Such a breakthrough in the advancement of medical science does not seem possible within the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, it is not far-fetched to expect that the present average life span may increase to two or three times.

Further Research on Longevity

An English physician has written a detailed article on aging in which he maintains that some scientists have been able to increase the life span of a fruit fly nine hundred times the normal life of others in the same species. This success was due to the fact that they had protected the fly from poisons and other enemies, creating a favorable environment for it.

Engineer Madani: Even I have come across several scientific and interesting articles in which scholars have discussed their findings about the secrets of long life, and the causes and factors that lead to old age and death; and the ways of combating that. However, since it is already late, we should take up these articles next time.

The following week the meeting took place at Dr. Fahimi's house. Mr. Hoshyar requested Engineer Madani to share the information he had gathered from his readings on longevity.

Engineer Madani: I would like to present the articles that I read some time ago which should help resolve some of the questions that we have about the possibility of longevity.

New Research on Longevity

On August 3, 1959, Dr. Hans Sealy, a researcher on the subject of death in the city of Montreal, Canada, showed a cellular tissue of an animal to the newsmen and claimed that the tissue was alive and would never die. In other words, the animal cellular tissue never dies and is, technically speaking, eternal. In addition, he claimed that if a human cellular tissue could be brought under the same conditions, human beings could live up to a thousand years.

Theoretically Professor Sealy regards death as a kind of gradual illness. According to him, no one dies of old age because if that were the case then under the impact of old age the entire cellular system of the body should deteriorate. Moreover, all the organs should stop functioning. On the contrary, following death, many cells and parts of the body of an old person are in good shape. In fact, the majority of people die a sudden death because one of the vital organs has stopped functioning. Since bodily parts are interconnected, the collapse of one leads to the failure of the other parts. Professor Sealy announced that one day when medical science has advanced to the point where it can inject new cells into the deficient and worn out organs, it should be able to revive the human body and prolong human life as one desires.

Some scientist have suggested that physiologists should make a distinction between an old age which is the result of natural processes of growth and an old age which occurs prematurely as a consequence of a destructive effect upon the organism, such as poison, diseases and other deficiencies. Further, they maintain that old age must be considered as an infirmity and, accordingly, treated. Human life can be much longer and should move forward. However, it has been caught up in the midstream. As such, it is necessary to take all the possible steps to restore its natural physiological longevity without a decline in its energy and ability to run its natural course.

Source: imamalmahdi.com

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