to live forever sounds like a dream but alas life is fragile and time is fleeting this hasn't stopped people from searching though the search for immortality has been well documented throughout our history as anyone with that power would seemingly have it all right from the evidence in greek and roman mythology to the stories of ancient and medieval alchemists to a recent discovery that just may hold the secrets to everlasting life on today's top 10 list we are going to be talking about the top 10 secrets to immortality found in history starting off this list in our number 10 spot we have the mushroom of immortality as early as 475 bce there are written records that reference the mushroom of immortality which was the key ingredient in the elixir of life the lingzi which is translated to mean supernatural mushroom is the oldest known mushroom to be used medically which is super cool according to the book of han people who were masters of esoterica alchemists and magicians known as the fang shi knew the secret locations on mount penglai where these immortality mushrooms grew but no one else did this resulted in several qin and han emperors who sent large expeditions to search for the mushrooms of immortality but to no avail while these mushrooms are still used in traditional chinese medicine today it doesn't seem as though anyone has been able to actually achieve immortality from them but maybe we just don't have the correct recipe anymore in our number nine spot today we have amrita there is a collection of vedic hymns called the rig veda and according to these hindu hymns amrita which is sometimes called soma is a drink that can give someone immortality rigveda 8 48 3 says we have drunk soma and become immortal we have attained the light the gods discovered now what may fomen's malice do harm to us what o immortal mortal man's deception while amrita and its consumption by humans has been well documented throughout history the knowledge of where to get it has been lost it is believed to have been some sort of plant or fungus and the instructions for the preparation of it involved things like pounding parts of the plant into a paste or to release its juices it would then sometimes be filtered through wool and then mixed with cow's milk before being consumed amrita was often said to have been found in mountainous regions but despite there being such detailed accounts of its use the true identity of it has been lost and now sometimes ritual prayers will include an apology to the gods for the lack of amrita in our number eight spot today we have ambrosia this is sometimes known as the nectar of the gods and is often referred to in ancient greek mythology it is unclear if ambrosia and nectar were originally separately distinguished but as of now it is commonly accepted that nectar is usually the drink form with ambrosia being the food form but regardless this is the food and drink of the gods apparently nectar can be translated to death overcoming and that makes a lot of sense in mythology this drink is usually said to have brought longevity or immortality to whoever consumed it it was brought to the gods in olympus by doves and it was served by either [ __ ] or ganymede at the heavenly feast the consumption of ambrosia was usually reserved for divine beings and can be seen in stories like when heracles is given ambrosia by athena upon his transition into immortality in our number seven spot today we have the epic of gilgamesh the first known instance of the search for immortality is found in the epic of gilgamesh in it gilgamesh fears the fragility of life after the death of his companion enkidu because of this he seeks out you now pushed him this guy is a similar figure to noah in mesopotamian mythology who was a servant of the great alchemist of the reign who ended up later becoming immortal so gilgamesh is searching this guy out to seek the answers to immortality and when he finds him he tells him to abandon his search for immortality but he also gives him a trial to defy sleep if he truly wishes to be immortal spoiler alert gilgamesh fails the trial after this the guy tells him about a plant that can make him young again this plant is located at the bottom of the sea and gilgamesh does end up obtaining it but it is soon stolen by a serpent i guess using this story as reference it would appear as though there's some sort of trial that can grant immortality but when all else fails there might just be some sort of plant at the bottom of the sea that will do the trick just gotta watch out for those sneaky snakes in our number six spot today we have metal metals are pretty strong usually and some seem to be even indestructible so it would totally make sense that there was once a train of thought where if a human consumed these metals they too would take on the properties of being strong and indestructible right flawed logic aside this really once used to be the way of thinking mercury was a metal that was astounding to alchemists a metal that is in liquid at room temperature while that might have been super cool at the time the poisonings that were about to happen in the name of immortality certainly were not the roman god mercury is the equivalent to the greek god or maze and the egyptian deity thoth all of these figures are said to have consumed liquid gold or white drops in order to achieve immortality and it's these stories that caused ancient and medieval alchemists to believe that if they could either find a way to suspend gold in liquid form or mix gold and mercury together then they would have found the recipe to immortality in our number five spot today we have nicholas flamel if you're a harry potter fan you've definitely heard this name before but did you know that the character is actually based off of a real person nicholas flamel lived from 1330 to 1418 and he was a successful french bookseller what's curious however is that about 200 years after his death there began to be texts that surfaced that were attributed to him according to these texts nicholas had learned the secrets of alchemy from jewish alchemists while traveling in spain and it is said that during this time he acquired the original copy of the book of abram melon the mage it was then claimed that nicholas was the one who held the elixir of life as well as the secrets of transmutation and it was also claimed that he was probably still alive somewhere in our number four spot today we have the philosopher's stone while we're on the topic we might as well talk about another story from history that relates to the infamous stone there is a legend that suggests that the stone is located in a creek in philadelphia in the 17th century a group called the society of women in the wilderness settled in the woods outside of the germantown section of philadelphia this group was led by an occultist named johannes kelpius and he believed that the world was going to end in 1694. the group spent most of their time in caves in peaceful meditation just living their best lives and you might be sitting there wondering why i'm talking about this rumor has it that johannes actually had the philosopher's stone as he was its guardian and he kept it hidden inside of his meditation DEADLY UFO ATTACKS cave it is said that before he passed away he explained the secrets of the stone and instructed the women of the group to toss the stone into the nearby creek after he passed to which they obliged today this meditation cave is still accessible and it is now marked as a historic site in our number three spot today we have the moon rabbit the moon rabbit comes from chinese folklore and is usually depicted while holding a mortar and pestle to mix up the elixir of immortality in the lore the moon rabbit is the companion of a goddess who lives on the moon in some stories she is a mortal human and in others she is an outcast deity who consumed too much of the elixir of immortality and floated up to the moon there are some stories however that claim that she consumed too much of the elixir on purpose to float up to the moon to get away from her husband either way it's clear she had too much but floating up to the moon sounds like kind of a fun time in our number two spot today we have the fountain of youth the fountain of youth has been written about for thousands of years it is said to be a spring that allegedly restores the youth of anyone who is lucky enough to bathe in or drink the waters there are so many stories of the mythical fountain of youth it has led many explorers and adventurers to set out in search of it this legend really gained a lot of notoriety in the 16th century when it became associated with the spanish explorer juan ponce de leon who was the first governor of puerto rico it is said that while he was searching for the fountain of youth he actually found florida in 1513 which i gotta admit probably isn't the same at all legend goes that at the time he was in florida KOREAN URBAN LEGENDS the indigenous people told him that he could find the fountain of youth in bimini in our number one spot today we have the benjamin button jellyfish well it seemed fitting to end off today's list with one that's a little bit more recent and this discovery may be the real actual key to immortality this jellyfish was first discovered in 1883 but its superpower wasn't actually realized until the 1990s what makes this jelly so special is that it has the ability to transform its adult self back into a baby and it can't only do this just once it can do it over and over again to be totally honest a lot of these jellies do die in the good old fashion way but when in an emergency situation such as starvation or physical damage or something along those lines instead of quickly meeting death these jellies can transform all of their existing cells into a younger state the jellyfish will turn itself into a blob-like state and then it will develop into a polyp colony which is essentially the first stage in the life of a jellyfish researchers are of course looking into how this is possible for the jelly as well as trying to find out how this could be used to help humans as well maybe the key to immortality has really just been swimming around in the ocean this whole time alright guys that has been our list for today thank you so much for checking it out don't forget to hit the thumbs up button if you enjoyed the video today and don't forget to subscribe i've been your host today olivia kosilovsky and i'll see y'all next time bye [Music] and that's it all right interesting ponytail okay by either [ __ ] or ganymede ganymede i think that's yeah because of this he seeks out you nap pushed him you nat pushed him [Laughter] these pronunciations are so funny because of this he seeks out you nap you now pushed him you now pushed him oh god it was led by an occultist named johann johann johannes sure [Music] [Music] you
