Would you risk your life if you thought it might mean extending it?
Would you die now if you thought you could be revived at some point in
the future? Here are cases of people who went to extremes for
immortality or their very own fountains of youth — and killed themselves
in the process.
Top image: Crop from The Alchemist, In Search of the Philosophers' Stone by Joseph Wright of Derby, 1771.
Contrary to legend, Juan Ponce de Leon didn't really die searching for
the Fountain of Youth, but some people have perished in the quest for
extended youth and immortality. These aren't people who died in hopes of
achieving spiritual immortality in some afterlife, but people who
hastened their deaths in the hopes of extending life on Earth.
1. The Self-Mummifying Monks
How do you preserve your body so you can help humanity in the distant
future? A handful of monks, mostly practitioners of Shingon Buddhism,
have turned to the nightmarish practice of self-mummification
in order to prevent their bodies from decaying. As you might imagine,
the process isn't even a tiny bit pleasant. It involved gradual starving
yourself, drinking a resin-like substance, and then voluntarily
entering a burial chamber. In one particularly fascinating case, a Buddha statue was made to encase the remains.
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Yes, it's horrible, but according to some traditions, the monk isn't
treated as dead. Instead, the monk is viewed as existing in a deep
meditative trance. Some believe that the monks who entered this "state"
would be called upon in billions of years, when humanity would need them
— and their bodies intact.
2. The Bolshevik Blood Transfusion Pioneer
Alexander Bogdanov is a fascinating figure, even if you don't take into
account his strange death. Bogdanov was a major player among the
Bolsheviks, but Vladimir Lenin had him expelled from the party after the
two men had a falling out. He founded the art movement Proletkult and
developed a study of tectology, a precursor to systems analysis. He also
believed that blood transfusions were the key to rejuvenation, and perhaps eternal youth.
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Bogdanov performed a number of blood exchanges, and reported improved
health after each one — until the last one, that is. Bogdanov exchanged
blood with a student who was suffering from malaria and died shortly
later. It's not clear if the malaria was behind Bogdanov's death;
Bogdanov and his students weren't familiar with blood types. The
student, for the record, survived the procedure.
3. The Many Poisoned Emperors of China
Elixirs of Life, potions and pills that could supposedly extend life —
or even make the person who consumed them immortal — feature prominently
in the history of imperial China. There were numerous alchemists who
claimed to have perfected the formula, but in at least a handful of
cases, their elixirs actually made the consumer's life much, much
shorter.
Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of the Qin dynasty, died at age 39, likely
from consuming mercury, which he thought would make him immortal. He
even took the substance with him to the grave; it's believed that a moat of mercury encircles his tomb. That has greatly complicated plans to excavate his tomb.
There are a number of other emperors who supposedly died from poisoned immortality pills.
Five T'ang emperors, for example, fell prey to these supposed elixirs
of life, including Emperor Xianzong, who is said to have gone so mad
from his medication that his eunuchs eventually assassinated him. And
not all of these alleged victims of immortality died in ancient times.
According to some sources, the Jiajing Emperor was taking mercury pills
in an attempt to extend his life, which may have contributed to his
death in 1567.
4. Henry II's Gold-Drinking Mistress
Although Henry II of France was married to Catherine de' Medici, his
closest companion during his life was the widow Diane de Poitiers. It
probably didn't hurt that Diane was known for incredibly youthful
beauty, which she maintained well into her life. It also makes sense
that a woman famous for her youthful appearance would go to great
lengths to preserve it.
In Diane's case, this meant drinking a concoction made of gold chloride and diethyl ether,
which apothecaries claimed could prevent aging. Sadly, the substance
slowly killed Diane, who perished at age 66, having been banished from
court after Henry's death. Recent studies of Diane's hair show evidence
of chronic gold poisoning.
Diane, of course, is hardly the only person ever to die to maintain an
illusion of youth. There have been cases of people who died thanks to lead-based makeup — and arsenic-based makeup — and people who have tragically died beneath the plastic surgeon's knife.
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Also, an odd bit of trivia: Diane (who was often associated with the
Roman goddess Diana) had her own symbol, a trio of crescent moons.
Coincidentally, it resembles the biohazard symbol.
5. Mercury Poisoning and the Philosopher's Stone
Chinese alchemists were hardly the only ones who believed that mercury
might be a key ingredient in the elixir of life. Western alchemists
sought to create the Philosopher's Stone, a substance that many believed
could rejuvenate human beings — and perhaps even make them immortal.
Mercury shows up in a great many Philosopher's Stone recipes.
Of course, handling that much mercury could be hazardous to an alchemist's health. For example, Sir Isaac Newton, who was deeply interested in creating the Philosopher's Stone, showed signs of mercury poisoning later in his life:
tremors, delusions, confusion, and severe insomnia. A great many
alchemists likely shortened their lives as they sought the secrets to
immortality.
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6. The Elixir of Life is Guinea Pig Testicles
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard was a respected physiologist and
neurologist, but he did something toward the end of his life that
tarnished his scientific reputation. He started injecting himself with
extracts from the testicles of guinea pigs and dogs, claiming that it
was a rejuvenating substance. Brown-Séquard did remain quite virile
until his death at age 76, but most of his peers chalked any benefits
from his "Brown-Séquard Elixir" up to a placebo effect.
Convinced that he had discovered a bona fide fountain of youth,
Brown-Séquard gave his formula away for free to other scientists. Some people dubbed it a miracle substance, while others... well, other people got pretty sick.
There was at least one recorded death from Brown-Séquard Elixir,
although it's not clear if the fellow who died knew what his doctor was
giving him. (According to news reports at the time, the doctor
disappeared shortly afterward, and the going theory was that the dead
man's friends murdered him.)
The most famous user of the elixir was probably Pud Galvin,
a major-league pitcher and pioneering user of performance-enhancing
drugs. Galvin claimed that the injections helped him play better, but
they certainly didn't make him immortal. He died of "catarrh of the stomach" at age 45.
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7. Racing Toward the Cryonic Future
There has been some debate as to whether terminally ill people who want
their bodies cryonically frozen should be able to have themselves
frozen pre-mortem. In the case of Donaldson v. Van de. Kamp,
Thomas A. Donaldson asked the California courts to declare that he had a
constitutional right to premortem cryonic suspension. (Donaldson died
and was ultimately cryopreserved in 2006.)
While cryonics facilities wait until after legal death to preserve a
body, some people have hurried the process along. On its website, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation describes the case of a client
who called for advice on how to kill himself so that he could be
cryopreserved immediately. Eventually, the client shot himself and was,
indeed, cryopreserved. He died in the hopes that he might someday be
revived and see the future. From Alcor's perspective, though, all he did
was reduce his odds of revivification.
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