People Unlimited supports a community where people can experience radical life extension and physical immortality as a comprehensive lifestyle, rather than an abstract idea. In twice weekly events, people gather to share their insight and inspiration about living without death right now. This does not in any way exclude the benefits of scientific developments to come. But it does recognize the power of intention in people, when we come together for a passionately felt purpose, to transcend limitations and manifest what might otherwise be impossible. The power of intention is apparent in every avenue of life. A patient’s best chance of recovery from illness, along with treatment, is to know they will recover. An entrepreneur must see his venture successful before that success may be fully assured. The basketball player has to feel he can make the shot, or he will certainly miss. It’s true that he might miss anyway, no matter how confident he is, but he certainly has a better chance to score if he thinks he will.
Why is this? Because actualization is a chemistry in the body – a highly personal formula of emotions, thoughts, reflexes, disciplines, choices and dreams that combine to enable us to go where we want to go and be who we want to be. This kind of “leap of faith” is particularly relevant to radical life extension and physical immortality, for which no past model exists, and which most people view as a fantasy.
However it’s almost impossible to sustain an authentic feeling that you can live forever on your own. The negative influence of society, family, media, personal setbacks and other factors are too great. For this reason, immortalists have been largely driven inward, sharing only their own company when it comes to their deepest ambitions for living. This helps explain why the culture at large is so ignorant and scared of the best thing that will ever happen to them – radical life extension -- because the people who know better have been isolated and muted.
A social laboratory of living
People Unlimited has flipped this equation. We gather to celebrate our immortality and to spur one another on to live more death-free every day. We recognize that death is not just an outcome at the end of a lifespan, it’s the sum total of damaging patterns, pathologies, experiences and choices that break down the human physiology over time. In the process, we’ve created a kind of social laboratory nurturing into being a new society, with a bias for joy over anxiety, energy over passivity, accountability rather than victimhood, connection instead of isolation, change over the status quo, and yes, an impassioned sensibility that we are here to stay.
Life presents many challenges – health challenges, financial challenges, emotional challenges. By declaring ourselves unlimited now, we commit and strengthen our resolve to meet any and all obstacles we might face. We feel even the immune system is boosted by taking this stand on an going basis. And what greater motivation can one have to seek more quality and clarity in one’s life on an on-going basis than living forever?
By connecting with other like-minded people, we’ve created an environment more suited to living forever. Guests often remark on the intensity of the energy they feel at People Unlimited events. But to us this energized state is simply the new normal, when we stop adhering to the reflexive suppression of a death-oriented society. For that matter, we’ve also evolved beyond the handshake to embracing one another, as a more appropriate greeting for people planning to spend forever together.
We’ve discovered that in the context of living forever, traditional social fault lines like income, religious/cultural/historic/racial differences, and ideological disagreements are rendered irrelevant. People Unlimited brings together people from four continents and all walks of life who find profound value in one another. In People Unlimited events in Israel, we have seen Jews and Germans fall into each other’s arms. We’ve realized that the concept of tolerance of differences is woefully inadequate; that in fact, these differences make us more whole and excited to be alive.
The new humanity of immortality
There is a big picture message we feel is vital to deliver – that, immortality, rather than being a dehumanizing element as Hollywood vampire stories suggest, in fact brings out the best in our humanity. It doesn’t just end death, it ends the separation between people; by neutralizing the inherent fear of death, immortality empowers us to open our hearts to people like never before. The toxicity of contemporary life is a serious threat to our health, and perhaps the greatest toxicity is that which comes from people.
This deathless passion, creates a whole new level of togetherness in which people are lifted by people, rather than brought down.
The movement for radical life extension is nothing if not the creation of our own future. At People Unlimited, we’ve tapped into the power of together to experience that the future is now. And it always has been. Embracing our immorality together has given us staying power. We’ve outlived an era, in the 70’s and 80’s, when longevity wasn’t even discussed, much less super-longevity. At that time, science for the most part, declared our intention an impossibility. We refused to allow ourselves to be defined by that science, and to our delight, we’ve entered a new era, in which we now have scientists seeing unlimited possibilities for the human form.
We’re connecting with the leading scientific lights of radical life extension, including Dr. Bill Andrews, Michael Fossel, and Aubrey De Grey, to cheer them on in their work and their outlook. At People Unlimited, we practice the power of togetherness to end death on a regular basis. Now we want all those who are truly dedicated to radical life extension to be energized and empowered by a new togetherness too. For this reason we are leading the formation of the Coalition for Radical Life Extension, which includes the above mentioned scientists, as well as entrepreneurs such as Bill Faloon and Elizabeth Parrish and thought leaders like Max More, David Kekich, Natasha Vita-More, Zoltan Istvan, and others. The purpose of the coalition is to boost all those involved by collaborating to promote a more positive perception of radical life extension among the public at large. This will help generate greater support for all our endeavors. It’s the power of togetherness to end death in action.
By James Strole and Bernadeane.