This find, made in China in the late 1970s, became known only relatively recently. In the Celestial Empire itself, they practically did not write about it. The details were given in an interview with a Taiwanese newspaper by Professor of the Institute of Ancient Religions Li Guangzhu (Taiwan).
The inaccessible terrain in the province of Sichuan has attracted philosophers and religious ascetics seeking solitude for its wild beauty since ancient times. Now archaeologists come here: the remains of a large monastery of the 3rd-7th centuries AD have been found here. It is also interesting because it is adjoined by underground catacombs dating back to even more ancient times. Researchers constantly open new corridors and chambers in them, mostly walled up, in which they find human remains and ritual objects.
The find in question was made here in 1979. The flooded mine, which was once a steeply descending corridor, was first examined by scuba divers. Judging by the sediments at the bottom, the water stood here for at least two thousand years. After pumping it out, archaeologists entered the mine.
A corridor in a natural cave led into the bowels of a granite mountain. Its narrow chambers with low ceilings contained human remains and various items. The discovery awaited archaeologists in the farthest chamber, walled up, apparently, back in the era of the first builders of the catacombs - in the 4th century BC.
Since water could not penetrate into it, the researchers expected to find well-preserved things there. The reality exceeded all their expectations. In the cell were found two human figures sitting in a lotus position in the half-rotted robes of Taoist monks. Opposite them against the wall lay a dog.
The resemblance to living people was so great that at first they were mistaken for magnificently made sculptures of wax. Struck by the degree of preservation of the bodies. There was no sign of decay on the soft skin. The ears, nose, eyeballs, covered with eyelids, and hands are completely preserved. It seemed that these people gave up their ghost just a few hours ago!
The body of the abbot of Wu Khak Min temple
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The archaeologists did not dare to remove the bodies from the cell, fearing to damage them. The operation to take flesh particles for analysis shocked the scientists: in those places where the scalpels touched, blood came out!
Further investigation revealed that the temperature of the monks' bodies was 17 ° C, that is, it was higher than the temperature in the cell itself. It also turned out that the hearts of the monks were beating. They pulsed at a rate of one beat every few minutes. Blood circulated through the vessels with weak jerks, the lungs pumped air. It turned out that the strange "dead" did not need oxygen, being content with the air that was in the chamber, mechanically absorbing it and releasing it back in the same composition.
Thousands of years of sleep
The experts who examined the monks had no doubt that they were alive, but they were in deep lethargy. The dog was in the same condition.
It was decided to try to bring her out of hibernation. Oxygen was supplied to it, an artificial respiration device and a heart muscle stimulator were connected. Resuscitation procedures led to the fact that the dog trembled, its legs stretched convulsively, its eyes opened, and it whined softly. However, after a quarter of an hour, the dog died. Her heart stopped, and her body soon showed signs of decomposition. Apparently, interference in the unusual process of vital activity of the animal's organism turned out to be fatal for it.
They decided not to touch the monks until a more detailed study of the situation, including a detailed analysis of the failed resuscitation of the dog. The camera was walled up again.
According to Professor Li Guangzhu, the camera has never been opened since. He also said that there was a vessel in front of the monks, at the bottom of which the dried remains of some kind of brown liquid were preserved. At first it was mistaken for blood, but analysis showed that it was something else. Traces of this substance were found in the larynx of the monks, its spots were also visible on the dog's face.
- Isn't this the "elixir of immortality" that ancient Chinese authors wrote about? - the professor asks.
In China, there are several legends about sages who drank a miraculous elixir and fell asleep in the bowels of the mountain. Legends point to different areas and mountains. It is possible that all these legends are echoes of an event that really happened - the imprisonment of monks in a chamber of ancient catacombs, who fell asleep in a lethargic sleep. And the cup that stood in front of them contained the very elixir.
Through meditation into the future
There are, however, scientists who believe that no special "elixirs of immortality" are required to maintain the body's vital functions for hundreds and thousands of years. In the person himself, there are forces that can delay death for a long time, you just need to bring them into action.
Buddhist monks believe that these forces are activated by prayer and meditation. One of the examples of such an effect of meditation on a person is the phenomenon of the Hambo Lama of the Buddhists of Eastern Siberia Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov.
In 1927, at the age of 75, he asked the monks to read him a prayer of goodwill for the passing away and plunged into meditation, during which his heart stopped. In his will, he indicated that he would not die, but would only take a thousand years. In order for people to be sure that he is alive, the lama ordered to examine him after 75 years.
Buchman (sarcophagus), where he was in the lotus position, was first opened by a group of lamas in 1955. Convinced of the complete safety of the body, the lamas performed the prescribed rituals, changed their clothes on Itigelov and again placed them in the bukhman. In 1973, his body was re-examined. And in 2002 (75 years after Itigelov's death) the bukhman was opened in the presence of doctors and forensic experts.
The commission stated that the lama was outwardly recognizable and he retained all the signs of a living body.
“His joints were bent, soft tissues were pressed through, and samples of skin, hair and nails taken showed that their organic matter was no different from the organic matter of living people,” said Professor G. Ershova, Doctor of Historical Sciences.
No special conditions were created for storing the body. Therefore, such a high degree of its preservation put scientists in a dead end. Buddhists believe that Itigelov is still meditating and is on the path to enlightenment.
This is far from the only example. In the courtyard of the Dau temple near Hanoi, the former abbot of this temple, Wu Khak Min, has been sitting in the lotus position for over 300 years. Towards the end of his days, he stopped eating and retired to a small brick chapel. Before plunging into the last meditation, he asked the monks to bury him only if they smell decay. “If there is no decay, then know that I am alive and offer prayers to Buddha,” he said.
In the 1990s, this old story caught the attention of Vietnamese scholars. An X-ray examination of the "statue" located in the chapel on the outskirts of the temple showed that it was indeed a human body. Moreover, it was not embalmed, and this makes it doubly surprising for its such good preservation in a tropical climate, when monsoon rains pour for months and humidity is kept at 100% for a long time.
In the same temple is the fully preserved body of another abbot, the successor of Wu Khak Min.
Comparing these cases with the find in Sichuan, one would assume that the Chinese monks also plunged into their strange lethargic sleep under the influence of prayers and meditation, if not for one "but". There was a dog in the cell, immersed in the same dream! It turns out that not only meditation had an effect on the body of the "sleeping". Obviously, some kind of completely material means was also used - perhaps the very "elixir of immortality" that mankind has been looking for for more than one thousand years.
Igor V0L03NEV