We are used to thinking that the physical death of a living being is an irreversible process. If the body and brain die, then it is no longer possible to bring the deceased back to life. But is it really so?
As you know, saints have long been identified by imperishable relics. If the remains of the deceased, after years spent in the grave, did not undergo decomposition, this served as a sign of a special spiritual chosenness. True, there were also exceptions concerning both the elite and ordinary mortals. And, according to scientists, they are explained not only by the intervention of irrational forces, but also by completely earthly reasons.
Forever "alive"
The ancient Egyptians, although they called their pharaohs the Sons of the Sun, still did not rely too much on sacred grace and regularly embalmed the bodies of kings and priests, preferring to pay homage to mummies. At the same time, some of the deceased were indeed distinguished by their "incorruptibility".
Take the lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov, who died in 1927 in a state of meditation. In 1955, the sarcophagus with the body was opened and the llama was found still sitting in the lotus position and without any signs of decomposition.
The same picture was observed during repeated exhumations in 1973 and 2002.
The staff of the Russian Center for Forensic Medicine under the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation who examined the remains of Itigelov did not find any significant changes in the tissues. All internal organs are also preserved. No traces of embalming were found. And Buddhists believe that Lama Itigilov is still alive. And this despite their belief in the transmigration of souls.
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Most recently, in February 2015, in Songinohairkhan province (Mongolia), police found the incorruptible body of a man sitting in a lotus position. At the moment, the find was transported to the capital for research at the Institute of Medical Expertise (Ulan Bator, Mongolia).
The body is supposed to be 200 years old, but no signs of decay have been found. The photograph of the monk was published on January 28, 2015 in the newspaper "glөөniy Sonin" ("Morning News"). It has been suggested that this person could have been Itigelov's teacher.
Perhaps the most ancient and little-studied underground structures of Ancient Rus are the labyrinths of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. The relics of famous saints lie here, to which long lines of pilgrims line up.
The sick go to the relics of Panteleimon the healer - for healing, they ask Andrew the First-Called to strengthen the power of word and spirit. It is interesting that the remains of the saints buried in the monastery remain incorrupt for centuries.
The relics of the Monk Agapit of the Caves
According to custom, the dead monks were buried in special niches - lokuls. After a certain time, the body was taken out of there to check whether it had decayed or not. If the relics decayed, they were transferred to the ossuary; if not, they were left in a locul, which was covered with an icon. The “inhabitants” of such loculi were considered saints and prayers were brought to them.
Since the XVI century. The relics were transferred to special reliquaries so that pilgrims could worship them. In ancient times, they were opened, and people pressed their lips directly to the hands of the saints, because of which their surface was erased almost to the bone. In Soviet times, due to the increased incidence of vandalism, the relics were covered with glass.
Many relics flow myrrh. In one of the compartments of the caves, the so-called myrrh-streaming chapters lie in glass and silver vessels. These skulls of saints from time to time secrete a fragrant oil - myrrh, which has healing properties.
They also say that slippers, which are periodically changed on the feet of the deceased, after some time turn out to be worn out, as if the saints come to life and go about their needs.
In the 80s. XX century, scientists were allowed to investigate the phenomenon of the influence of relics on livelihoods. “We assumed that the reason for the healings that often occur near the relics is a certain hypothetical radiation,” writes T. Reshetnikova, Candidate of Biological Sciences, in a report published in the book “The Wonder of the Lavrsky Caves”. She supervised research at the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
The relics of the Monk Ignatius Archimandrite of Kiev - Pechersk
Bags with grains of wheat of the "Mironovskaya-808" variety were applied to the tombs with holy relics. These seeds germinated 15-30% faster than usual and developed better. Chemical analysis showed that the composition of the grains that visited the relics changed: those that “touched”, for example, the remains of Saint Agapitus the healer, “lost” 18% zinc and “added” 11% calcium plus 4% potassium.
In addition, it turned out that the energy field of powers not only protects against radiation, but also reduces its negative impact. In May 1986 T. Reshetnikova and her co-workers went down to the Lavra caves with dosimeters in their hands. Scientists wanted to find out if the holy relics can reduce the level of radiation, which was then, after the Chernobyl accident, in Kiev quite high. In the caves it turned out to be lower than on the street, but in the passages and on the crayfish it was the same - 120 microroentgens.
“This means that the power of the Holy Spirit is real,” the experts summed up their experiences. This was also confirmed by photographs of wheat taken during the first experiments. The pictures showed that a garland of bright balls-flashes stretched from the plants. If we assume that the grains charged with holy energy themselves begin to emit it, then we can explain the phenomenon of healing patients with holy water, as well as the protective power of the cross.
Based on this hypothesis, one can also interpret the miracle of the incorruptible relics. A medical examination confirmed that there are no traces of antiseptics in the remains resting in the monastery, which could have contributed to mummification.
It turns out that the bodies lay for a thousand years incorruptible not thanks to miraculous balms, but because the body of the saint was "trained" by prayers during his lifetime. This, according to scientists, forced the atoms to rearrange in a special way, making the saint's body sterile clean. After death, the water itself evaporated through the cell membranes, turning the remains into incorruptible.
Another example of holy relics. In a small church in Palermo, there is a coffin with a glass lid. Inside is the body of a two-year-old girl who died of influenza in 1918.
The inconsolable parents of Rosalia Lombardo ordered that the child be given a special injection to stop the decomposition of the remains. The body is perfectly preserved, and to this day tourists admire the blond curls of the "sleeping beauty" - as the locals dubbed her.
About 40 years ago, strange events began to take place in the church. The parishioners could smell lavender coming from nowhere. And once a man said that he saw the eyes of the little deceased open and closed for a moment. This frightened the temple staff so much that they refused to be there alone.
Strange rumors reached scientists. But only at the beginning of this century, the remains of Rosalia were finally subjected to study. Researchers led by Dr. Paulo Cortez connected a device to the dead girl's skull that could record brain impulses.
For several days nothing happened, but then … The devices registered two bursts of brain activity: one lasting 33 seconds, and the other 12 seconds! This is typical for sleeping people.
Cortez states: “We are dealing with something incredible! We checked and rechecked our equipment, but all the readings were accurate. The little girl came back to life for more than half a minute."
The news of the discovery of scientists swept across Italy. Pilgrims rushed to the tiny village, convinced that Rosalia Lombardo was a saint. Some visitors seem to have even managed to see how the baby's eyelids tremble and hear her sigh. And some of the ministers of the church consider the girl a messenger of God.
Meditation and preservatives - the path to incorruptibility?
Meanwhile, there is a whole scientific direction that studies the laws of the processes of decomposition of the human body - taphonomy. In the US state of Tennessee, near the town of Knoxville, there is a landfill fenced with barbed wire, which belongs to the medical center of the local university.
It is called the "Farm of the Dead". There are several hundred corpses here for research. Some were bequeathed to doctors by volunteers during their lifetime, others remained unclaimed in morgues. Some of the bodies lie on the surface, inside old cars or crypts, and some are in graves dug at different depths.
The task of scientists is to study decomposition processes depending on external conditions. The Farm of the Dead is often visited by FBI trainees - this is part of the training program.
There are quite a few chances of gaining incorruptibility for those who are engaged in spiritual practices. So, in 1952, the director of the Los Angeles morgue, Harry Rowe, observed the body of the yogi Paramahans Yogananda for 20 days.
During this time, he did not notice any signs of physical decay. According to researchers, the state of meditation in a special way affects the processes in the body, sometimes as if "freezing" the tissue. Therefore, many yogis look younger than their age, and after death their remains may not decompose.
However, there are known cases of "natural embalming". For example, in peat bogs they sometimes find perfectly preserved human remains. They were even given a name - "swamp people". The age of mummies ranges from several hundred to several thousand years.
The most famous of the swamp mummies is the Tollund Man, who was stumbled upon by two brothers, peat collectors, near the village of Tollund in Denmark in May 1950. Carried out radiocarbon dating of the hair of the Tollund man showed that he died around 350 BC. e.
True, only soft tissues (including internal organs) and clothing remain safe and sound. The skeleton is eaten by acids. Historians believe that the ancient inhabitants of Europe sometimes specially arranged burials in bogs, knowing about the conservation properties of peat bogs.
Unlike Western Europeans, in Russia the deceased were protected from decay by oak logs. Similar burials dating back to the 16th-17th centuries were found in the very center of Moscow. The tannins contained in wood made it possible to keep soft tissues safe and sound for three to four centuries. The main thing was to tightly close the lid of the coffin so that air did not get inside.
However, our contemporaries have a better tool. Recently, Professor Rainer Horn from Kiel, Germany, came to the conclusion that the constant consumption of food with preservatives and the use of cosmetics based on synthetic chemistry inhibit the decomposition processes.
We all know that chemistry is harmful, but we should not forget that if we do not manage to achieve immortality or at least significantly increase life expectancy, then at least after physical death we will maintain a "marketable" appearance for a long time. Of course, this will not bring much benefit to us ourselves, but what food for research will we give our descendants.
Despite the high rates of development of all fields of science, imperishable bodies are still an unknown phenomenon. And all because this phenomenon lies beyond the bounds of materialistic thinking. Each new discovery of scientists generates more and more questions and leads to the understanding that a person still does not know much, not only about the world, but even about his natural capabilities.