Men are intelligent animal with millions of questions flashing through our minds every second. Questions about aging form energetic young to weak old man like following ones below are common in our minds and mouths.
- Why do we grow old and die?
- Why do we age?
- How does aging occur?
- What causes the human body to age?
- Why do we get old so fast?
- Why do we age so quickly?
- What is the biological cause for human aging?
This question may seem surprising, or at least naive. Most people would say that aging is inevitable, that it’s a basic law of life.
All you have to do is look around you - the evidence that aging is a necessary evil is overwhelming.
The problem is, people here in the west get old much faster than they have to. And not only that, they age badly. The main obstacle to longevity is psychological - a majority of people condition themselves to believe that they will live to the age of about 70 (and if they don’t condition themselves, society does it for them).
As we said earlier, the life expectancy in most industrialized countries is about 70 years. When people get a few years older than that they consider themselves lucky to be alive, as if they were on the receiving end of a gift from heaven. If they do happen to die, their friends and relatives are not overly surprised because, after all, their time has come.
This misconception, although deplorable, is so widespread it has become as ironclad as an absolute truth in people’s minds. And yet, there is no scientific or biological reason for a man to be taken old at the age of 70 or 80 years. The Hunzakuts are living evidence that vitality, wellness and maturity can be extended well beyond that. In fact, many Hunza valley centenarians sound both physically and mentally more than the average 80 year old westerners.
The Hunzas are not the only people whose conception of aging is diametrically opposed to what we consider the norm. Some western scientists have come up with theories that are surprisingly similar to the Hunza philosophy. Joseph W. Still, an American scholar, has suggested that aging is nothing but a disease. Strictly speaking, Joseph Still says, it is not normal to grow old. Health should be considered the norm.
Another American scholar goes even further by saying that:
if we could stay in the same shape we’re in at 20 we could
Hypothetically he meant we should continue living for centuries.
Of course you will object that that is impossible… we can’t maintain the shape we’re in at 20 for very long years … muscular and pathological degeneration start at exactly that age… and to even consider living healthy for hundreds of years is strange… And still, the Hunzas show that human beings can live for quite a bit longer than 100 years, and still stay healthy, which is of great importance. Because as we said previously, it is not just the number of centuries the Hunzas live that counts, it’s also the quality of the life they have that is unique.
Scientific research being carried out at the present time has opened new avenues of approach to the subject of aging, some of which are quite surprising. For example, a majority of scientists have long believed that people, and living beings in general, are equipped with a kind of inner timepiece that is programmed to limit the duration of their existence. This notion has largely been abandoned.
More and more western scholars are inclined to believe that aging is essentially a state of mind.
One thing is certain however, and has been proved over and over again by modern medicine:
when the mind deteriorates, when it becomes dull due to a lack ofcuriosity or interest, the body rapidly begins to deteriorate aswell, resulting in muscular, cellular and circulatory degeneration.
This is a fact the Hunzas have known for a very long time. Their view of life is
very dissimilar from our own, and their understanding of aging is totally opposed to the concept commonly held in our western society.
Seen from our point of view, it’s as if their world were completely upside down! For the Hunzas, aging is nothing more than the increasing maturation of mind and body. A person’s age has little to do with the number of years he or she has been alive. People are valued for the talents they have acquired - the more talent and experience people have, the more mature they are, and the greater their value to society.
This philosophy is so instilled among the Hunzas that they cheer at the prospect of becoming a year older. In our society, so-called golden agers are left by the wayside, forced to retire (at an age that would make the Hunzas laugh), put out to pasture and largely forgotten. They lose whatever social or economic value they may have had, and along with it their dignity, since it is by being useful in some way that a person’s value is judged.
In many countries retirement is mandatory at a certain age, so that even people who are in excellent mental and physical shape have no choice but to stop working. Many are confined to rest homes, where they lose touch with society altogether, and become easy prey for the angel of death.
Statistics have clearly shown that retirement here in the west is often followed by the rapid degeneration of bodily and mental functions, accompanied by profound feelings of depression and boredom, all of which lead directly to the grave.
In fact, there is nothing more damaging than forced retirement - it would be more appropriate to say that it causes people to stop living rather than stop working.
Retirement does not exist among the Hunzas. Of course past a certain age it is not possible for even the healthier and strongest of Hunzas to continue performing hard physical jobs. But basically, they don’t stop working. That would be foolishness to them.
Younger persons have great admiration for their elders, who, instead of stopping work altogether, gradually modify the kind of work they do. Hunzas prefer to remain physically active for as long as possible, which is generally for a very long time. Signs of senility generally appear very late in life. As one American scholar said,
Living is moving.
That is something the Hunzas understand, and practice in their daily lives.
The term used by the Hunzas to designate old age is extremely significant. They call it the
age of plenitude,
the period when people reap the just rewards of their labors.
The first stage of life, called the age of youth, ends at around 50.
Next come the middle years, which last to 80.
Lastly comes the age of plenitude which, among the Hunzas, are what they claim to be - the best years of their life!
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