Member-only story

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…

dan brotzel
Human Parts
Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

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…

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Human Parts
Human Parts
dan brotzel
dan brotzel

Written by dan brotzel

Funny-sad author of Thank You For The Days; order at amzn.to/40yOfXr | The Wolf in the Woods, Hotel du Jack, Work in Progress

Responses (4)

What are your thoughts?