Original subtitles

Sacred waters, with remarkable

healing powers...

ancient mystics, who lived for hundreds of years...

and a scientific breakthrough that may provide eternal life.

Is it possible to cheat death? To live forever?

Throughout history, many have searched for the secret

to everlasting life,

but so far, they've all run out of time.

But what if by re-examining ancient teachings

and harnessing modern technology

we could, one day, actually become

immortal?

Well, that's what we'll try and find out.

Spanish conquistadors, led by explorer Ponce de León,

land on the coast of Florida and claim the area for Spain.

But Ponce de León is not only in search

of new territory to conquer.

He's also looking for a mystical spring

said to contain magical, life-giving waters:

The Fountain of Youth.

Ponce de León had been told a number of different tales

from the peoples who inhabited the Caribbean and the Bahamas

of this mythical pool or well,

which, if you entered into the waters,

you would immediately achieve rejuvenation.

It would turn back the years quite literally.

And this was the so-called Fountain of Youth.

This is a magical utopian story that was passed around.

The well that would give you a more youthful energy,

give you a longer span of life.

We don't know how much metaphor was involved,

but Ponce de León took it quite literally and looked for it.

If there actually is a Fountain of Youth located

somewhere in Florida then it's certain that

Ponce de León never found it, because he died in 1521.

But over the centuries, many have believed the incredible

notion that fountains of youth exist in secret locations

all over the world.

The story of magical springs and restorative wells

shows up in many different cultures.

Now, this is legend. This is folklore.

But people love stories about immortality because

we want to go on.

We are wired to survive.

Our brain chemistry fights for us to be alive.

It's easy to understand the appeal of legendary tales

about magical waters that bestow eternal life.

But is it really possible that, somewhere in the world,

a real-life Fountain of Youth could actually exist?

This small island, located in the Aegean Sea,

is home to about 8,000 people.

In recent years, Ikaria has become world-renowned,

not only for its pristine beaches

and magnificent views,

but also because a staggering number

of the residents of this island live longer

than most others on Earth.

The Island of Ikaria is a place of extraordinary

longevity for the people who live there.

One in three people who live there reach a lifespan

well into their 90s, and it has one of the highest

concentrations of centenarians...

People who live to be 100 or more...

Anywhere in the world.

The people of Ikaria live very, very long lives.

They end up working late into life.

We've even seen people who are shepherding

over the age of 100.

Right now, in the United States the average

life expectancy is 77 years.

In Ikaria they live, on average, ten years

longer than the average American.

Studies have consistently shown

that Ikarians live remarkably long

and surprisingly active lives.

But why?

Lifestyle and genetics may play a role,

but the people of Ikaria believe the secret

lies in their very own

fountain of youth.

They credit several natural hot springs

that are located at various places throughout the island.

And these springs are referred to

as the Immortal Waters.

The Springs of Ikaria are called the immortal waters

because for millennia they have

been known to have extraordinary healing powers.

People came from all over, not just the Aegean,

but Asia Minor for thousands of years

to experience the healing waters.

If Ikaria's so-called Immortal Waters

are a real-life fountain of youth,

then it begs the question,

what's in the water?

Well, a study published in the scientific journal

Advances in Nuclear Physics in 1996

may provide a surprising clue.

The Immortal Waters are actually

radioactive.

This Greek island in particular

has quantities of granite which do have radioactive by-products.

And one of the decay products is radon gas.

We're talking about microscopic quantities

of radiation. Even though large

quantities of radon will kill you,

small quantities of radon

may actually be beneficial.

It's like a vaccine.

Vaccinations give you a little bit of a virus,

which of course is a bad thing,

but a teeny bit of a virus or fragments of a virus

stimulate your immune system to attack the virus.

So some people think that maybe radiation could be the same.

Could a naturally perfect dosage of radiation

actually be the reason why Ikaria's Immortal Waters

seem to have restorative powers?

If the number of Ikarians over the age of 100

is any indication, the answer appears to be

a resounding yes.

Whether or not Ikaria is the site

of a real-life fountain of youth,

there are those who believe the key to immortality

won't be found by immersing yourself

in magical waters

but rather by connecting

to a higher power.

This ancient city

overlooking the sacred Ganges River

is one of the holiest in the Hindu religion.

For thousands of years, worshippers have come

to this site to perform meditation and prayer.

In ancient times,

Hindu holy men know as swamis

were said to have used these rituals to attain

eternal life.

In the Yoga Sutras,

there's a whole chapter called "Vibhuti Pada."

Where Patanjali explains

how by certain meditative practices,

one can get these powers

to extend the lifespan of a particular body.

In India, you have a long history

of holy people, swamis, who've

been able to figure out how the world works,

how their body works, how the universe works,

and are able to live very, very long,

uh, periods of time.

You have Devraha Baba,

who died in 1990,

and was believed to be 250 years old.

Swami Trailanga, who died in 1887,

believed to be, you know, 280 years old.

If you would ask most Indians about long-lived

yogis and swamis, one of the names that will

almost inevitably come up is that of Trailanga Swami.

And he was observed by not only many Indians in Banaras,

but also by the British authorities

there in the late 19th century.

So a lot of what he said and taught and did

has been documented and recorded by many witnesses.

They testify to his extraordinary long life.

For many, it may be hard

to believe that daily prayer

and meditation can provide

age-defying powers.

But Hindu mystics aren't the only examples of people

who are believed to have used the power of faith

to live for hundreds of years.

If we look at the Bible, we have these great stories

of holy people who've lived tremendous amounts of time.

The Bible says Methuselah lives for 969 years.

Noah lives for 950 years.

Adam lives for 930 years.

So these are tremendous lifespans of people living,

according to the biblical text, of almost 1,000 years.

Many in modern times question,

is this to be taken literally?

Did people really live that long?

And the answer from tradition is,

yes, they did.

This is nothing new.

This has very ancient foundations.

Very well documented in the biblical traditions,

but equally well known in traditions around the world.

Regardless of the culture,

there's many legends about the Taoist immortals,

or about the Tibetan immortals,

as there are amongst the Hebraic immortals.

There is this idea that because these people

are literally directly

communicating with the divine, with God,

are they given other instructions?

Are they given other secrets?

Are they given other kinds of hints

that allow them to

live much longer lives than we live?

Is it really possible that those with a deeper

spiritual connection to the divine age more slowly?

And can potentially develop

the power to live hundreds of years?

Perhaps the answer can be found by examining

a Hindu swami who has performed meditation and prayer

every morning without fail

for over a hundred years.

At 125 years old,

Swami Sivananda practices a strict daily regimen

of meditation and exercise,

which he credits as the reason

for his incredible longevity.

The practice is a sacred Hindu ritual

known as Pranayama.

When such an advanced spiritual practitioner

sits in meditation, what they are actually doing is

obviously quieting the body, making it absolutely still.

Then they are quieting the breath.

It means slowing it down

even to the point of actually stopping sometimes.

It's one of the teachings in Vedanta

that by certain meditative practices

the lifespan of the swami or the monk

is extended by the will of God...

so that person can remain as a sort of continuous

living blessing to those around him.

From a modern medical perspective,

Pranayama has many different physiological benefits.

There was actually a study done

that looked at things such as

life purpose, ability to find peace within,

and connection to something greater than us.

And when people score higher on these spiritual

health scales, it's actually

corelated with greater health outcomes

and longevity.

And one of the fascinating things about swamis

or any yogi who's extremely practiced,

is that they reduce

their metabolism by 64%.

So, basically, they're using 64%

less energy to have basic body functions.

Does the simple act

of slowing down the mind and body

through prayer or meditative practice,

such as Pranayama,

have the power to increase our lifespans?

And if so, is it possible

that by mastering these practices,

we could all live into our hundreds

just like Hindu swamis?

There definitely are capacities

of the mind which we are not aware of

and which we are not using,

and it's a matter of practice and discovering these abilities

and manifesting them.

There are many who believe that the swamis' incredible longevity

is a testament to the power of prayer as a way

to connect us to the divine

and extend our lives.

But there are others who claim that the secret

to immortality lies not in staying alive,

but rather by dying,

and being reborn.

Three-year-old Dorothy Eady

takes a traumatic tumble

down the stairs of her family's home.

Her injuries, while serious, are not life-threatening.

But they are life-changing.

Because in the years after her accident,

Dorothy Eady begins recalling memories

from what she claims to be a past life.

The story goes that she fell down the stairs,

had a head trauma and actually died and then returned to life.

And then when she came back to life,

um, after hitting her head,

she had later experiences where she seemed

to know things about ancient Egypt

that she really should not have known.

Her dad would take her to the British Museum.

And when she went there,

she saw images and artifacts from the New Kingdom of Egypt.

And said, "This is home."

And she became obsessed with ancient Egypt.

Dorothy Eady was able to read some hieroglyphs

from the time that she was ten years old.

And from the time that she was a teenager she was essentially

writing in a type of hieroglyphic script.

Then as she got older, she claimed to have

been reincarnated from a priestess

in ancient Egypt that

was in a relationship with King Seti I,

the builder of the Temple of Abydos.

Dorothy Eady's claims of a past life

may seem far-fetched,

but the truth is that many cultures

believe that our souls are immortal

and can be reborn again and again,

leaping into new bodies each time we die.

But could such an incredible notion

actually be possible?

So reincarnation literally is

this idea that we may live multiple lives.

We don't just live one life. We live a life,

we die, and we're reborn.

We're reborn back into a physical body.

For example, Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama is

a reincarnation of Avalokiteshvara,

the goddess of compassion.

And when the previous Dalai Lama dies,

they look for a boy born with certain signs.

And so there's a great story about the modern

Dalai Lama that as a young child he was

brought into the monastery and he points to a-a bookcase,

says, "My teeth are in there, my teeth are in there."

And they open it up and of course,

it's the teeth of the previous Dalai Lama.

And so you do have people who have

that sense of awareness

of something that's happened in the past.

They've lived a past life.

The Kabbalah teaches that human souls

have a purpose as ordained by God

to learn while here on Earth.

And sometimes

a single lifetime is not enough

to fulfill the mission and the cause for which God

has ordained that we be born here on Earth.

And therefore, souls will come back.

A lot of people who have, uh, past-life cases

tend to be connected to trauma.

I think that was the case with-with Dorothy.

It could be something to do with, um, her own head trauma.

There's been a lot of research that tries to say

there is a soul that gets reincarnated,

but I think we can't really know

exactly what's happening,

um, when people are having these-these memories.

In the case of Dorothy Eady,

her accurate recollections of life in ancient Egypt

were astounding.

At the age of 29, Dorothy moved to Egypt,

married, and gave birth to a son,

who she named Sety

to reflect her connection with the ancient pharaoh.

She would eventually be called Omm Sety

or Mother of Sety.

While not formally trained,

Dorothy became a well-respected colleague

of many of the world's foremost Egyptologists,

spending 50 years working as a draftswoman,

writer and unconventional historian.

After spending time with Omm Sety,

many experts began to believe that her incredible stories

might actually be true.

Omm Sety in this lifetime

had extraordinary knowledge and memory

of the workings of the Abydos Temple

and the artwork within.

The Temple of Abydos

was the holy of holies for the Egyptian people.

Omm Sety's arrival in Abydos was

stunning for everyone involved because as an Englishwoman

walking into the temple for the first time,

she knew exactly where everything was.

She immediately knew how to find certain chambers.

She was able to even interpret some of the hieroglyphs

in the dark.

The head Egyptologist

took her to a place in the temple

where he knew she wouldn't know the answers to

because it wasn't published yet.

He himself was the one

that translated every part of it.

Took him months. But if Omm Sety

is truly a reincarnated priestess of Egypt,

then she would know.

And she knew every part of that wall.

So, either she was

really good at ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs

or she truly was a reincarnated ancient Egyptian priestess.

Omm Sety became one of the most important Egyptologists,

one of the most important translators of hieroglyphs

in the world, and she didn't have a formal education.

The story of Dorothy Eady

is arguably the single most convincing account

of reincarnation

that we have anywhere in history.

There are many who believe that Dorothy Eady's story

proves that reincarnation is, in fact, real.

But if our souls are really born again

into new bodies after we die,

why do only some of us recall memories

from our past lives?

If you look at the past life research

and you look at the cases that seem a bit more intriguing,

i.e., they seem to be

providing stronger evidence for something anomalous going on,

what we see is that it's people who died suddenly.

It aligns with the idea of unfinished business.

Even though Egyptians do not believe in reincarnation,

the ones around Omm Sety

would decide to actually believe that Omm Sety's story...

It's a little bit too much for coincidence.

While the case of Dorothy Eady

does offer possible evidence

that our souls are immortal

and pass from one body to another,

what about those who aren't quite ready

to give up the bodies they currently have?

Well,

scientists have developed a rather bizarre technique

that might allow people to live forever

by keeping them frozen

for centuries.

In a sprawling industrial park

on the north side of the city stands the headquarters

of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.

Like most cutting-edge medical facilities,

the doctors and scientists here work day and night

to provide care for their patients.

Except in the case of Alcor,

the patients...

are all deceased.

In our view, people who are declared legally dead today

are potentially revivable.

Alcor's mission is to take a patient

who cannot be helped by today's medicine into the future

where hopefully more advanced technology

can repair and revive them.

We're here in Alcor's patient care bay.

In this room, we have all 184 of our human patients

in these dewars, these cryogenic dewars.

Essentially very large, expensive vacuum flasks.

So, in each one of these containers,

there are four whole-body patients.

On this side, you can see

that I can put my hand on here without any problem,

but just a few inches further in is minus 320 Fahrenheit.

It's extremely cold.

People say

that we freeze people colloquially,

but that's not strictly accurate if we do it right.

Our patients are essentially in something like a long-term coma,

except there is no metabolic activity whatsoever.

To date, 184 deceased patients lie in deep freeze

within Alcor's facility

in the hope that one day,

they'll be resurrected.

This bizarre form of potential immortality

is known as cryonics.

Cryonics

is the process of freezing the human body,

perhaps just the human head,

in order to stop the biological process of decay.

So, the hope is

if you could freeze somebody alive,

even with an incurable disease,

perhaps you can thaw them out at some point in the future

when science has found the cure for that disease.

In that sense, perhaps you can defeat cancer,

defeat all the ravages of old age.

Perhaps even become immortal.

Professor Robert Ettinger, a physicist,

started the cryonics movement in the 1960s,

where he proposed

to store people at ultracold temperatures

where there's potential that future technology

could repair and revive them.

Right now,

there are many companies that do this.

There are hundreds of frozen individuals right now

across the United States.

Worldwide, it is estimated

that at least 500 people

have been placed in cryonic suspension,

most notably Baseball Hall of Famer Ted Williams.

There are even those who claim that Walt Disney's body

is preserved in a cryonics facility.

But is there any reason to believe

that this strange process

could actually work?

If you live in the countryside, you know that come wintertime,

the lakes freeze over.

But if you ever look right on top of the lakes,

you'll see frozen organisms.

Fish and frogs.

And then come springtime,

some of them spring back to life again

when you thought they were frozen solid.

What's the trick?

The trick is that Mother Nature

has created an antifreeze

to lower the freezing point for these animals

such that even though it appears as if they're frozen solid,

the bodily fluids inside these animals still flows

and these animals are still alive

even though their metabolism rate

is very close to zero.

So, in some sense, we're trying to copy nature.

There's recorded instances of people falling into lakes,

temporarily freezing

and have no biological signs of activity

that were thawed out successfully.

For many decades,

we've been experimenting with freezing tissue,

and it turns out that some forms of tissue can, in fact,

be frozen almost indefinitely.

Look at sperm donors

and the fact that you can have sperm cells,

egg cells frozen

so that the fertilization process

can take place years later.

And, so, we already live with a certain form of cryonics

but at the cellular level.

Scientists have explored

the effects of low temperature on biology for many decades.

We've been cryopreserving

embryos and eggs and many other tissues.

There are actually thousands of people

walking around today who were cryopreserved.

Just they were embryos at the time.

Cryonics is controversial.

Cryopreservation is used

in fertility clinics to freeze embryos,

but when it comes to the brain,

actual freezing and revival of the brain

is at very, very early stages,

and we don't know

whether a brain that is frozen

using today's early, rough technology

could actually be revived

at some point in the distant future.

According to the latest data,

not a single human has survived cryonics,

woken up afterwards and has lived to tell about it.

And so scientists are skeptical.

But that doesn't mean it's not possible.

It just means that the technology of today

is not yet advanced to that point.

If cryonics is able to deliver

on its promise of immortality as many hope,

could it eventually mean that death itself

will one day come to an end?

Cryonics really is about giving people choice

over how long they live.

We think that in the future,

we should be able to revive cryonics patients

and rejuvenate them

and let them go about their lives again.

What we want, really, is indefinite life span.

If, in the future,

someone can show that you could be revived

after being frozen solid,

then the whole question of immortality is on the table.

We're not there yet,

but there's no law of science that says you can't do it.

Could freezing ourselves be the key to immortality?

Only time will tell.

But there are those who believe there's another key

to unlocking the secret of everlasting life.

What is it, you ask?

Simple.

Just reverse the process of aging.

At a small camedical research facility.

20 miles south of Los Angeles...

This will sound believable to you, but prepare to get

- even better in shape. - I know.

pharmacologist Dr. Greg Fahy

is conducting a groundbreaking clinical study.

The purpose of the study

is to find out if it's actually possible

to make people younger.

The number of birthdays that we've had so far

tells us about our chronological age,

but I think it's a common observation

that not everybody ages at the same rate.

There's a distinction to be made

between chronological aging and biological aging.

Some people at the age of 50 look like they're 40,

and some people at the age of 50 look like they're 70.

So we need a better way

of understanding what your true age is

rather than just the number of birthdays that you've had.

And what we're trying to do is to prove

that the clock of aging can run in reverse.

A medical treatment

that can reverse the clock of aging?

Sounds too good to be true.

But the idea that unusual medicines

or magical substances

can grant immortality has been around for centuries.

In fact, descriptions of powerful antiaging remedies

can be found in the traditions of ancient cultures

around the world.

You find all these kinds of elixirs

in different traditions.

So, in the Hindu tradition,

you have this drink, amrita nectar,

that gives you immortality.

If you go to the Chinese traditions,

you consume certain liquids, including mercury.

And the medieval alchemy idea, the elixir of life,

this thing

that will give you everlasting life.

Throughout history, kings, queens, emperors

have tried to defy the aging process

that they see every day in the mirror.

But we now realize

in principle, there's no law of physics

preventing immortality.

Aging is the accumulation of mistakes

as cells reproduce over a period of time.

So if you can repair the damage,

then perhaps you can live forever.

Is it possible that modern science

can develop treatments

to actually make us forever young?

According to the results of Dr. Fahy's research,

it's not only possible

but making people younger

might be easier than we ever realized.

And it all starts

with rejuvenating the immune system.

There's now evidence that immune system aging

may be one of the pacemakers of aging generally speaking.

I don't think it's a coincidence

that we all start to die about the time

when we lose our immune system capacity.

So if we could really restore

the immune system to a youthful state,

we should be able to reverse biological aging more generally.

To test this theory, in 2015, Dr. Fahy

began his study in collaboration with researchers

at Stanford University.

Nine men between the ages of 51 and 65

were selected to participate.

Four nights a week for one year,

they were given an experimental injection combining

three commonly available drugs,

including human growth hormone.

Dr. Fahy expected

the combination would stimulate the patients' immune systems.

But what he wasn't expecting

were the amazing side effects.

One year after they started treatment,

we began to get some feedback from some of the volunteers.

They said they felt very energized,

that their mental capacity seemed to be improving.

Losing weight, getting stronger.

One of the guys had completely white hair

when he entered the trial,

and after a while, his wife told him,

"Hey, honey, you know, your hair seems to be getting darker."

We were pretty floored when we actually saw it.

In 2019,

the extraordinary results of Dr. Fahy's trial

were published in the medical journal Aging Cell.

According to the data,

analysis of the participants' blood

revealed a number of incredible enhancements.

Some of the things that we saw

indicated that our volunteers were protected

against essentially all of the diseases of aging.

Atherosclerosis, heart disease, et cetera.

That's a general global antiaging effect

that we would not expect to see

just from rejuvenating the immune system by itself.

So that was pretty extraordinary.

It seems like the clock of aging can actually run in reverse.

One of the participants who most benefited

from Dr. Fahy's groundbreaking study

is a man named Paul Hynek,

who readily volunteered for the program

in the hope that it might be the key to a longer life.

I don't think aging is normal.

It's a bug, not a feature.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to live forever.

I always thought that science was getting faster and faster

and would sort of catch up to my childhood dreams,

and science has made me young again.

While Paul's claim of being young again

may sound far-fetched,

Dr. Fahy has the evidence to prove it.

Test results clearly show

that in addition to other health benefits,

Paul was actually able to regrow an entire body part

that usually degrades with age:

the thymus gland.

Your immune system has many components,

but one of the major components

is the thymus gland.

And, unfortunately, the thymus

becomes more and more replaced by fat as we get older,

and it leads

to a lot of other downstream aging processes.

When we looked at his results at the end of the trial,

Paul definitely was able to regrow his thymus gland.

So, the thymus is in this area right here.

At the end of the trial,

Paul's immune system function

and his health in general seemed to be exceptional.

Those are the areas that are beginning

to show a little bit of thymus regrowth.

Almost everything that we measure,

uh, has-has improved in Paul,

including his biological age.

My effective biological age

kept decreasing

even after the trial was over

because of the lingering effects

of the program in my body.

I'm getting younger every day.

Excellent.

The notion of being able to stop the aging process in its tracks

is certainly appealing.

But is it really a long-term solution

that will allow us to live forever?

Some experts argue that immortality

won't be achieved by preserving

our current bodies

but rather it will require us

to build entirely new ones.

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University

announce a major breakthrough in the quest for immortality.

The team of researchers was able to use

a modified 3D printer

to create human organs made out of synthetic collagen,

which they demonstrated

by printing a human heart.

Think of a car.

We have a body shop as our car parts wear out.

We need a human body shop

that can replace organs as they wear out.

And that's being done at universities

where we can actually grow organs of the body

in a 3D printer.

3D printers can print out

cell for cell heart tissue.

The idea of creating artificial human organs

may sound bizarre to some.

But the truth is that since the 1960s,

doctors have replaced human heart valves

with ones taken from pigs

and created artificial corneas out of plastic.

However, the prospect of placing 3D printed organs

into the human body presents a major obstacle,

one that scientists are on the verge of solving.

One problem with creating artificial organs

is the rejection mechanism.

That is the bugaboo

that has prevented progress in this field.

But sometime in the future,

if you take cells from your skin, from your bone

and grow them

with 3D printers,

you're not gonna have this rejection mechanism,

and so you'll be able to create artificial organs

grown from your own body.

We'll be able to be just as young and vigorous

as we were in our youth.

New organs that can restore our youth?

Is it possible that humankind is on the cusp

of finally making immortality a reality?

Our bodies just weren't designed to live forever.

I think part of the interest in life extension

is that since it's such an innate part of human nature

to want to survive,

people see it as one of the biggest scientific goals,

to conquer death.

I think people are hardwired for immortality

precisely because we're alive,

you know, and we want to be alive.

And we don't want to die.

We have friends.

We have families.

We have things that we need to do.

I've got so much life ahead of me.

I don't want this to stop. I want this to keep going.

It seems that humanity is willing to try anything

in order to cheat death,

from having a drink from a fountain of youth

to freezing ourselves to replacing our body parts.

But perhaps the question

is not whether we can achieve immortality

but rather do we really want to?

Maybe we're better off enjoying the time we've been given

and letting the secret to immortality remain...

unexplained.

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