F O R E V E R A L I V E L i t e --------------------------------------------------- Issue Number 1 September, 1995 --------------------------------------------------- Forever Alive is the world's premier magazine on the subject of physical immortality. We offer a new vision of humanity, as completely whole, beyond the polarities of life and death, spirit and body, mind and heart, male and female. This pioneering magazine explores the transformative powers of embracing a life without limits. This file is best viewed in a monospaced font, such as Courier. --------------------------------------------------- C O N T E N T S * "Immortality in the 21st Century" by Herb Bowie --------------------------------------------------- M A S T H E A D Editor: Herb Bowie Forever Alive Lite is the electronic equivalent to Forever Alive magazine, a periodical printed on actual paper. The paper version is published quarterly, while its electronic "lite" counterpart is published monthly. Both are published by People Forever International. E-MAIL ADDRESS Herb Bowie@aol.com MAILING ADDRESS PO Box 12305, Scottsdale, AZ 85267-2305 TELEPHONES 1 (602) 922-0300 Voice 1 (602) 922-0800 FAX 1 (800) 2B4-EVER Toll-Free Forever Alive Lite is copyright (c) 1995 by People Forever International. You may freely distribute this file electronically on a non-commercial, nonprofit basis to anyone, and print one copy for your personal use, but you may not alter or excerpt this file in any way without direct permission from People Forever International. --------------------------------------------------- A B R I E F H I S T O R Y O F F O R E V E R Immortality in the 21st Century A fiction, by Herb Bowie Editor's Note The popular media have been focusing increased attention on the subject of radical life extension. These articles often cite promising scientific information, but all too frequently finish up with distressing projections of dire social consequences that would supposedly ensue from unrestrained living. The best example is probably a Life magazine cover story from a couple of years ago. This included a projection of the next 400 years that made immortality seem catastrophic at worst, and merely tiresome at best. In order to provide an alternative vision of our life-extended future, I've included the following account of our next 100 years. This is only one of many such possible scenarios, and I make no prophetic claims. I do hope, though, that this narrative opens your eyes to some positive possibilities, and stimulates a clearer picture of what you see for yourself in the coming century. 2002 -- Scientists Proclaim Immortality! In February, a group of scientists shocked the world by announcing that, three years earlier, the human race had achieved a kind of theoretical immortality. It was at this point, they said, that the ever quickening pace of scientific discovery had passed the point at which, for every year of additional research, at least one year could be added to the human life span. Although no guarantees could be made, there was little doubt that progress would continue at the same, if not a greater, rate. Eternity had arrived, then, not from a single "silver bullet," but from a snowball effect produced by the constantly increasing accumulation of relevant scientific advances. Paul and Sara O'Connell were at first as astonished by the announcement as was the rest of the human race. Paul was an environmental engineer who had just turned 40, and his wife, originally from Israel, was a kindergarten teacher approaching her 37th birthday. They and their seven year old son, Stephen, had all spent their lives so far relatively free from accident and illness, and pursued life styles healthier than most. The "Immortality Proclamation," as it was called, caused Paul and Sara to stop and consider their options. Although neither of them seriously believed they could live forever, the possibility of extending their lives by a decade or two proved to be motivation enough. They began to seek out news of longevity research, and to apply it to their lives wherever possible. 2003 -- Humanity Faces the Choice to Live Many other people were equally interested in the Proclamation. Scientific news that had previously been confined to technical journals or a few specialty magazines suddenly began appearing in most of the popular media. Newspapers began running columns on the subject of life extension, and many of these quickly grew into entire sections. Soon every major television network had at least two shows on the subject, and an entire cable channel devoted to longevity followed shortly thereafter. Surprisingly, not everyone was excited with the possibility of living forever. As the number of people pursuing "incremental immortality" increased, so did active opposition to the movement. Since every major religion was based on some form of an afterlife, much antagonism came from this quarter. Even people who were not particularly religious seemed to feel that immortality was unnatural and somehow immoral. Others protested that dramatically lengthening human life spans invited some sort of apocalyptic catastrophe, such as mass starvation or economic collapse. What followed was one of the most divisive social conflicts in history. For the first time, humanity was offered a clear choice between life and death. Science was outlining quite specific actions that could, when taken together, extend life spans dramatically. When faced with this option, many people declined. These same people had, a few years ago, before they had been given the choice, shown no obvious signs of wanting to die. And yet, now that they had turned their backs on immortality, they seemed to court death with a vengeance. It soon became apparent that there was no middle ground in this division that crossed all existing socioeconomic and demographic categories. One was either a "lifer," as they came to be known, or one turned towards death. Paul and Sara were troubled by religious and moral qualms from time to time, but had their new direction in life constantly reinforced by the improving quality of their lives. They not only expected to live longer in the future, they realized they felt better, and more alive, today. Of their parents, only Sara's mom was supportive of their decision, and even she did not choose to pursue life extension herself. Paul changed jobs this year, at a significant decrease in salary, to get away from a boss that was adamantly anti-life. By the end of the year, Paul heard that his former boss had died of previously undiagnosed cancer, but by this time he was already firmly established at a new firm composed mostly of lifers, and there was no turning back. 2004 -- Immortality Groups Form Paul and Sara joined a local immortality group that had formed recently. These started as study groups, distributing new information as soon as it became available. They soon became support groups as well, with people helping each other to make the sometimes difficult changes in their lives that were demanded by the emerging longevity research. 2005 -- The Aliveness Meter Much of the most promising research into human health was now taking place in the fields of psychology and sociology, as scientists further confirmed the importance of the body-mind connection. With these principles becoming more firmly established, immortality groups such as the one the O'Connells had joined became places to practice these principles, and not just to study them. This field of inquiry was accelerated greatly by a discovery made by a physicist. Quite by accident, while searching for a new way to detect black holes, she discovered an entirely new form of radiation. It did not take her long to realize that the source of this energy was not a distant celestial body, but some quite close human bodies. She developed a meter with which to measure this field, and found that it was not constant, but fluctuated greatly from person to person and from time to time with the same person. Interestingly, she discovered that it was often strongest with young people, and frequently weaker with older people. She took some measurements in a variety of environments, including a hospital and a nursing home, where levels turned out to be particularly low. In the hospital she found one patient in particular whose output of this new energy field was barely perceptible. She made some discreet inquiries of the staff, without uncovering any reason for this unusual variation. When she arrived home, though, she found a message waiting for her that the patient had died from a sudden and quite unexpected heart failure. Further and more methodical research confirmed that levels of this new radiation had a very high correlation with other measurements of levels of health, including life expectancies for medical patients with critical conditions. Once this relationship was firmly established, the next step was to use this measuring device to find other factors that influenced the strength of this aliveness radiation, as it was now being called. 2006 -- Meter Validates Group in Arizona Scientists from a number of different fields began to experiment with this new tool, but the most promising results were obtained by psychologists and sociologists. It turned out that the quality and quantity of human thought, feeling and interaction had a much more direct effect on the level of this new radiation than did any other factors. One of the sociologists who had begun serious experimentation with the new "aliveness meter," as it had been dubbed by the popular press, was based at Arizona State University. He began to take readings at a variety of local religious services, with some varied and dramatic results. As he continued his research by investigating some religious organizations that were farther from the mainstream, he heard about a local group whose principles were actually based on human immortality. He attended one of their services, and was surprised to find that levels of aliveness radiation were off the scale of his meter. He returned to his laboratory, calibrated the machine to ensure that there was nothing wrong with it, and then returned to the group's next meeting with a new machine, built to measure a higher range. This trip validated his earlier findings. He began to study the principles and practices of this organization, and soon published research that revolutionized the field of longevity. The immortality groups that already existed turned out to be ideal forums to implement these new principles, and as a result they spread rapidly. Paul, Sara and Stephen adapted to them quickly, finding that they felt good, as well as being theoretically good for them. The idea of living forever was starting to sound appealing, as well as possible. 2009 -- A New Quality of Life Some people had anticipated that the easing of the pressure of time would make people's lives less exciting, that people who had "all the time in the world" would become so laid back that they might appear to be dead, even if they were going to live forever. It was true that people no longer felt the same pressure to cram a certain amount of achievement into a fixed number of years. It turned out, though, that research established a direct correlation between improving the quality of one's life today and increasing one's life expectancy. And since immortality had been granted, not through some magical fountain of youth or potion, but through people's own continuing and expanding efforts, people's general levels of involvement, commitment and excitement rose commensurately. Excitement, it turned out, was a prerequisite for immortality. Paul and Sara were happier than they had ever been, but then they had by now been saying this for years. They both had lost weight, and looked younger and more fit than the day of the Proclamation seven years ago. They had become more involved in their careers, while at the same time keeping a balance with other aspects of their lives. Stephen would be going to college in four more years, but neither of them experienced any dread at being left alone in their house. They had experienced, through their biweekly immortality meetings, a richness and a variety of human relationships that would allow them no thought of loss. They had other children that they were close to, as well as adults of all ages, and though they knew they would miss Stephen, they felt no threat of being emotionally deprived as he assumed a smaller role in their lives. 2014 -- Accidents On The Decline The most persistent rub in the expanding possibility of immortality was the remaining threat from catastrophic accidents. No matter how healthy you became, people reasoned, it would do you little good if you were run over by a truck. When researchers finally turned their attention to this problem, they found that "accidents" were not as accidental as people had previously thought. People radiating higher levels of the aliveness radiation were found to be proportionately less likely to have accidents. They also found that, as people became less resigned to eventual death, they were less tolerant of unsafe conditions that led to accidents in the first place. People were no longer satisfied with statistics that reported huge numbers of people dying each year in traffic accidents, for example. Accidental deaths were no longer just things to be watched on the evening news, they increasingly became invitations for positive action to make sure they didn't recur. 2021 -- Population Growth Stabilizes People who had been worried about overpopulation by now realized that their fears had been misplaced. Although birth rates remained high in the diminishing number of relatively poor countries, they continued to decline in the richer countries, and especially among the lifers, more than making up for the decrease in the death rates. It was not that these longer-lived people lost any interest in children--on the contrary, they seemed to enjoy them more than ever. At the same time, the immortality groups offered a new social structure that allowed fewer children to be enjoyed by more people, and allowed them to be shared across traditional family boundaries. These groups also relieved many of the former disadvantages of raising "only children," since these children now had other children within the groups that they could play with and become close to, replacing a few brothers or sisters with a larger number of "cousins." The declining birth rates also seemed to be caused by other, more subtle, factors. The span of people's potential childbearing years continued to lengthen in parallel with their total life spans. This created even more of an environment in which having a child was a matter of choice, rather than a pre-programmed action triggered by a biological time clock. Also, as people's lives lengthened, and the prospect of living even longer became more real, they seemed less driven to achieve immortality through their offspring. Finally, the adult lifers were more childlike themselves, and seemed to rely less on the presence of children for that quality of joy so often associated with childhood. Paul and Sara were no exceptions. They had adjusted to Stephen's adulthood and departure from their household. Although their doctors assured them that they could have another child if they wanted, they had never seriously considered it. They were still close to their son, and he delighted them as much now as he had when he was one month old. Stephen, meanwhile, had married a girl he had met and fallen in love with in college, named Maggie. They were open to having a child, but were in no hurry, and felt no pressure from their parents, who had plenty of friends with children of all ages. Stephen had become an aeronautical engineer, and Maggie was a journalist. 2027 -- Work Lives Change Dramatically Widespread changes had taken place in people's working lives. Fears of a huge population of retired senior citizens utterly depleting their various pensions and retirement funds had proven ironically unfounded, as research had confirmed many people's suspicions that retirement was inherently incompatible with radical life extension. With the siren song of retirement finally silenced, people were able to seriously turn their attention to improving working conditions. Employers granted more holidays and vacations each year, shortened the standard work week, and more frequently gave their employees paid sabbaticals from the workplace. At the same time, as the principles of immortality became more widespread, people increasingly demanded that they be implemented in their working environments. The previous trend towards working at home and telecommuting reversed itself, as people started to look forward to going to work to be with other people there. None of these advances were free, but society found ways to pay for them. As the span of productive working years increased, while the length of the expensive early years of life remained fixed, society found that its tax base was increasing while its education expenses were declining. Employees also became less fixated with constantly increasing salaries, as the need to accumulate a "nest egg" to finance the "golden years" of retirement became a diminishing reality. Retirement plans that had previously been funded by government agencies or employers either decreased their requirements or were liquidated altogether. Medical costs also declined, as more emphasis went into prevention rather than expensive and often ineffective correction. In general, the cost of living went down as people realized that most of their money had previously gone towards, not living, but bearing and raising children, getting sick and growing old. Paul celebrated his 65th birthday by liquidating his Individual Retirement Account, which by now held close to one million dollars, and using part of the money to start his own company. The new firm designed, manufactured and marketed recycling equipment. Sara went to work in the new company as well, and turned her educational skills towards training their customers in the use of the equipment. They found that working as well as living together enriched their relationship in new ways. Once again, they were happier than they had ever been. 2036 -- One Career No Longer Enough Along with all the other changes in the workplace, "career hopping" was becoming more common. As more money and time became available for living, adults spent more of both on education. As life spans lengthened, it had become increasingly apparent that one dose of early education, no matter how big, would not be enough to last a lifetime--a program of ongoing "booster" shots would be necessary. Anyway, as people had gotten used to ongoing learning in the field of longevity, they began to extend their renewed interest in learning into other fields as well. Some people built on earlier careers and knowledge bases to launch new ones. Others started with no more than a latent passion, and branched off in directions entirely different from ones previously taken. In either case, the decreased "cost of living" and modified retirement expectations allowed them to adjust joyfully to initially smaller salaries in their new vocations. Their lessened incomes were more than adequately compensated for by the increased sense of freedom that came with the possibility of starting over, not one, but many times. Paul and Sara continued to prosper in their company. Stephen had quit his engineering job, had come to work for his parents briefly, and then had started a new career as an actor. He had softened the blow to the family income, however, by waiting for a year during which his wife, Maggie, had to take her compulsory management rotation in the office, for which she was given a 20% bonus. By the end of the year, when she returned to her normal duties, Stephen was performing regularly in the local community, although he was still making only about one third as much money as before. 2048 -- Global Environment Improves The rate of scientific advance over the last few decades had quietly achieved an even greater acceleration than that of the last century. As more money became available, more of it was spent on scientific research. The diminished need to retrain a new generation of researchers every decade was also having its effect. Major breakthroughs were being routinely achieved by scientists in their sixties, seventies and eighties who had been able to build on the successes of their youth rather than seeing their powers diminish with age. These technological advances were some of the factors contributing to a gradual turnaround of the environmental decline that had plagued the world since the beginning of the industrial revolution. A more immediate cause, though, was the increased motivation of the voting population to do something about these problems. The simple truth was that asking people to save the earth for future generations had never worked very well. Now that people were concerned with saving it for themselves, they focused on the issues at hand with an insistence that had previously been reserved for aging voters facing cuts to social security benefits. Whatever the reasons, the United Nations in this year announced that, for the first time since they had begun tracking the relevant statistics, the earth's environment had actually improved over the past year. The hard work was not over, but the world had turned the corner. Paul and Sara's company, in its own small way, was part of this turnaround. They had achieved substantial financial success, and were thrilled with the report from the UN. They decided to celebrate by taking a year off to travel the world, and turned the company over to a trusted employee to run in their absence. 2062 -- A New World Order Scientists had years before established that emotions of human suppression, prejudice and hostility were life-threatening for the subjects as well as the objects of these feelings. This realization had gradually replaced strong feelings of racism, nationalism and separatism with an expanding acceptance of all human beings as fellow citizens of the world. Organized religion, the other great divider of people, had fallen into decline without the need of much scientific intervention, since people who were increasingly unafraid of death had little need for the comfort of traditional religious beliefs. At the same time, there were feelings of devotion, spirituality and reverence that were found to be greatly life-enhancing. The immortality groups that now covered the globe found, however, that they did not need a god or a sacred text to invoke these feelings. Haltingly at first, and then with increasing abandon, they had begun to apply these feelings to each other. As people found they could feel holy about themselves and other people, not just at these meetings but in their everyday lives, more and more people became converts to this new way of life. Immortality became the religion to end all religions. With these age-old barriers to togetherness crumbling, national governments began to assume a more reasonable and restricted role in human affairs. The United Nations began to take on more of the functions formerly reserved for these national bodies, and it was in this year that all the countries of the world turned their national defense systems over to the control of this world body, to be used for peacekeeping missions only. 2068 -- An International Language In February the International Standards Organization released ISO 3364-18, which defined an international standard for the English language. This monumental document, including a dictionary and a book of grammar, was the culmination of a ten-year effort by a global committee. The intent was not only to standardize the language, but to simplify it by eliminating as many of its maddening inconsistencies as possible. This new document satisfied the long-standing need for a truly international language. English had long ago become the de facto standard, but countries having another primary language had still bristled at the idea of acknowledging a foreign language as their own. Esperanto had been briefly touted as a neutral alternative, but since not even its most vocal advocates actually knew it, implementation had proved impractical. The work of the International Standards Organization, then, accomplished two important objectives. First, it made the language easier to learn by cleaning up many of its irregular spellings and constructions. Second, and more importantly, it gave countries where English was not the standard a chance to take ownership of the language by making changes to it. In November, the United Nations adopted International English as its official language. Predictably, the strongest objections came from England, which was still having difficulty reconciling itself to the way America had bastardized the language. The eloquent objections of the language's mother country were overridden, though, and one more barrier to global communication was removed. 2090 -- Together Forever One of the dire recurring predictions made by those skeptical of immortality was that human relationships could never last that long, and that those who had eagerly pledged to remain faithful until death did them part would all too quickly renounce their vows when staring into the face of eternity. Although the conquest of all sexually transmitted diseases had given a certain impetus to this argument, many couples persisted despite the predictions. It was not that they were unattractive, or unattracted, to others. They enjoyed these erotic feelings without feeling any compelling need to consummate them, and these emotions became just one more strand in the rich and satisfying tapestry of their social existence. Paul and Sara were one of many such fortunate couples. They celebrated their hundredth wedding anniversary by visiting a new resort on the moon. They looked back over their years together, time during which they had grown closer than they had ever thought possible, had shared and stimulated each other's growth, and had become people they had never dreamed of being when they were married. They drank a toast to each other, and pledged their love for the next hundred years, and made love together, for perhaps the ten thousandth time, as the earth sank beneath the horizon. - - - From Forever Alive magazine, Issue number 25, September through November, 1995. Copyright (c) 1993 by People Forever International. --------------------------------------------------- FOREVER ALIVE MAGAZINE Forever Alive magazine is the paper-based big brother to this e-zine. It has been published quarterly since 1989. R. Seth Friedman, in Factsheet Five, Issue No. 56, said about Forever Alive: "This publication breaks the mold of fringe immortality zines with informative, rational (and very readable) essays in a bright colorful package." Carol Wright said about us, in the Spring 1994 edition of the NAPRA Trade Journal: "This quarterly publication is probably the only immortalist (as opposed to longevity) magazine around. Forever Alive offers recent information about longevity, bodywork, nutrition and so forth. But their upbeat philosophical essays separate them from other health magazines. They challenge your most deeply seated beliefs about life and death." The Alternative Press Review, in their Spring/Summer 1995 edition, said: "Forever Alive is a nicely-produced, 42-page quarterly magazine devoted to bodily health and human immortality--along with their shadows, obsessive fear of aging and death." Forever Alive has now grown to 52 pages, with no outside advertising, and featuring a full-color cover. The magazine is available at better bookstores, including the Barnes & Noble and Borders chains. The cost is $6 for a single issue and $24 for an annual subscription (4 issues). Subscriptions and single issues may be ordered directly from People Forever. Distributors for Forever Alive include Desert Moon, New Leaf, Armadillo & Co. and Ingram Periodicals. ---------------------------------------------------