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An Encounter With Some Immortals (Well, They Said They Were Immortal)
As a junior reporter, my first-ever assignment was to attend a meeting of a group of self-professed Immortals. It was their word against mine…
THERE’S A LOT OF talk about immortality and human longevity these days. People are living longer than ever, for one thing — the WHO estimates that by 2050 there will be 2billion people over 60, with almost half a billion of those older than 80. Then there’s all the scientific advances in anti-ageing, which in turn have spawned a host of super-wealthy tech bros investing big money in cryogenics, extreme cellular regeneration techniques and vampiric blood transfusions.
All this talk took me back to a moment in 1993 when I met a group of people who claimed to be immortal. At the time I was working for a magazine for older people, which may be why we got an invitation. The wording wasn’t clear, but the editor — possibly for a joke — sent me off to the meeting. It was my first-ever solo assignment.
I didn’t really realise who I was meeting at the time. Below is my first-hand account of the encounter, and after that you’ll see my update on who this group was — and how the immortality thing’s been going for them…
