"Elixir of immortality" found in central China's ancient tomb

originally posted by: LookingAtMars

originally posted by: MisterSpock
The irony of an immortality elixir being found in a burial tomb.......

Should answer the question right there.

In most beliefs of immortality, it is something that happens after you shed the body.

Actually, according to Chinese texts, many Daoists would keep their immortal body and bury something like a broom or similar thing that was transformed to look like them using illusory magic. There are many tales of so and so declaring he would die in so many days, then he would "die", have a funeral, then be seen months later in another town by a relative or some other acquaintance.

Come on, everyone knows the only path to immortality is through the digital upload of your conciousness to a Matrioshka Brain... gawwd.

originally posted by: Alexander the Great
Come on, everyone knows the only path to immortality is through the digital upload of your conciousness to a Matrioshka Brain... gawwd.

The human brain is limited. g a w d

a reply to: InTheLight

We don't even fully understand our brains yet, let alone exactly what our conscienceness is. G A W D

originally posted by: vonclod
It won't work, there's no mercury in it!!

the mercury just makes it work faster, like in a vaccine duh!

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Grave goods were normally left for use in the afterlife by the spirit of person who has passed over , this "Elixir of immortality" may also be for use in the afterlife as it seems pointless to bury it for a dead person to use.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

A peddler but not a user apparently

a reply to: LookingAtMars
It doesn't work. Look where it was found, a tomb.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars
a reply to: schuyler

That is physical immortality, the immortality of the human body. There is also immortality of the "soul".

Yes agree with what you said, they really did mean both. Here is an interesting clip:

The basic idea behind the Taoist diet is to nourish the body and deny food to the "three worms"---disease, old age, and death. Immortality can be achieved, Taoists have traditionally believed, by following this diet, by nourishing the enigmatic "embryonic body" force within the body and by avoiding ejaculation during sex which preserves the life-giving semen which in turn mixes with breath and nourishes the body and the brain.

factsanddetails.com...

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Well me think's they should have asked for a refund.

As far as advertisements go for ancient immortality potion's finding one with it's previous owner suggests very strongly it was about as useful as ground up rhino horn is for male fertility.

Then again it is China we are talking about, some of there ancient medicine does indeed work but the majority of it does not work at all and can even poison the victim, take for example the use of mercury which we all know Qin used to ingest in his search for immortality while it probably made him ever more ill and insane.
Then again he had murdered all the scholars that might have pointed his error out to him had they lived?.

originally posted by: LookingAtMars

About 3.5 liters of the liquid was excavated from the tomb of a noble family in the city of Luoyang last October. It was initially judged by archaeologists to be liquor as it gave off an alcohol aroma.

However, further lab research found that the liquid is mainly made up of potassium nitrate and alunite, the main ingredients of an immortality medicine mentioned in an ancient Taoist text, according to Pan Fusheng, leading archaeologist of the excavation project.

"Elixir of immortality" found in central China's ancient tomb

It is not known how the yellow tinged liquid works. It could have been ingested, just a ritual burial object or maybe even rubbed on the body. There is no way to know if it really works unless it is tested on a human subject. Reports indicate no one has come forward to volunteer yet

A little more info here at gizmodo.com

It didn't work so well so far, huh? They're all dead....seems they'd have tried on someone, rt?

'Elixir Of Immortality' found in a tomb?

What's wrong with this picture?

I see the problem. They didn’t finish their doctor’s recommended dosage thinking to save some for later, in case they need it. Still happens today after all these years.

Seems maybe immortality and preservation of the body may have been confused over the years. It makes me think that perhaps we are all involved in more than one reality and preserving the flesh keeps you immortal in other realities. I guess they never really planned on all the nosy people going around disturbing them.

Sounds more like a jonestown drink.

Drink up it will make you live forever.
(Insert jokers laugh)

I think that is also a couple of the ingredients in making gold.

Yea it has been a while.

originally posted by: Ahabstar
I see the problem. They didn’t finish their doctor’s recommended dosage thinking to save some for later, in case they need it. Still happens today after all these years.

He probably just couldn't stop smoking. Died of lung cancer at the age of 996, just four years from his goal of living out the millenium.


Or maybe his company had given him a pension, but viewed the use of immortality elixirs as a basis to void the contract. So he had it, but didn't want to give up his pension by using it. (We'll have to wait and see what the tests of the corpse turn up on that...)