Longevity myths


Longevity myths are traditions about long-lived people, either as individuals or groups of people, and practices that have been believed to confer longevity, but which current scientific evidence does not support, nor the reasons for the claims. While literal interpretations of such myths may appear to indicate extraordinarily long lifespans, experts believe such figures may be the result of incorrect translations of number systems through various languages, coupled along with the cultural and symbolic significance of certain numbers.
The phrase "longevity tradition" may include "purifications, rituals, longevity practices, meditations, and alchemy" that have been believed to confer greater human longevity, especially in Chinese culture.
Modern science indicates various ways in which genetics, diet, and lifestyle affect human longevity. It also allows us to determine the age of human remains with a fair degree of precision.
The record for the maximum verified lifespan in the modern world is years for women and 116 years for men. Some scientists estimate that in case of the most ideal conditions people can live up to 127 years. This does not exclude the theoretical possibility that in the case of a fortunate combination of mutations there could be a person who lives longer. Though the lifespan of humans is one of the longest in nature, there are animals that live longer. For example, some individuals of the Galapagos tortoise live more than 175 years, and some individuals of the bowhead whale more than 200 years. Some scientists cautiously suggest that the human body can have sufficient resources to live up to 150 years.

Extreme longevity claims in religion

Abrahamic religions

Judaism

Several parts of the Hebrew Bible, including the Torah, Joshua, Job, and Chronicles, mention individuals with very long lifespans, up to the 969 years of Methuselah.
The Sefer haYashar narrates that all of the long-lived people belonged to a special class and that Methusaleh was the last member. Methusaleh also lived long enough to evangelize with his grandson Noah in the antediluvian world.

Christianity

Some Christian apologists explain the extreme ages in the Hebrew Bible as ancient mistranslations that converted the word "month" to "year", mistaking lunar cycles for solar ones: this would turn an age of 969 years into a more reasonable 969 lunar months, or about 78.3 solar years. Donald Etz says that the Genesis 5 numbers were multiplied by ten by a later editor.
Both these interpretations introduce an inconsistency: they would mean that the ages of the first nine patriarchs at fatherhood, ranging from 62 to 230 years in the manuscripts, would then be transformed into an implausible range such as 5 to years. Others say that the first list, of only 10 names for 1,656 years, may contain generational gaps, which would have been represented by the lengthy lifetimes attributed to the patriarchs. Nineteenth-century critic Vincent Goehlert suggests the lifetimes "represented epochs merely, to which were given the names of the personages especially prominent in such epochs, who, in consequence of their comparatively long lives, were able to acquire an exalted influence".
Those biblical scholars that teach literal interpretation give explanations for the advanced ages of the early patriarchs. In one view, man was originally to have everlasting life, but as sin was introduced into the world by Adam, its influence became greater with each generation and God progressively shortened man's life. In a second view, before Noah's flood, a "firmament" over the earth contributed to people's advanced ages.
The Bible's own explanation for these ages approaches the question from a different angle, explaining instead the relative shortness of normal lives in : "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit will not remain with mankind forever, because they are corrupt. Their days will be 120 years.
Conservative apologist William Lane Craig believes that the longevity myths should be understood as 'mytho-history', where the ages of culturally significant figures were exaggerated to make a political or theological point. He points to similar practices found in neighboring cultures such as the Babylonians and argues that both Hebrews and Babylonians were aware that human longevity was biologically unfeasible. Similar arguments were made by professor Robert Gnuse.
Here are some more modern examples of Christian longevity claims:
  • is said to have lived in Bivona, Italy, 1448–1578, according to the archive of Monastero di San Paolo in Bivona located in Palermo.
  • Around 1912, the Maharishi of Kailash was said by missionary Sadhu Sundar Singh to be a Christian hermit of over 300 years of age in a Himalayan mountain cave, with whom he spent some time in deep fellowship. Singh said the Maharishi was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and baptized by the nephew of St. Francis Xavier.

    Islam

was said to have lived to years. His wife Sarah is the only woman in the Old Testament whose age is given. She died at 127.
In the Quran, Noah allegedly lived for 950 years with his people.
According to 19th-century scholars, Abdul Azziz al-Hafeed al-Habashi lived 673–674 Gregorian years, or Islamic years, between 581 and 1276 AH.
In Twelver Shia Islam, Hujjat-Allah al-Mahdi is believed to currently be in Occultation and still alive.

Buddhism

  • Vipassī, the twenty-second of twenty-eight Buddhas, lived for either 80,000 or 100,000 years. In Vipassī's time, the longevity of humans was 84,000 years.
  • Taṇhaṅkara, the first Buddha, lived for 100,000 years.

    Falun Gong

Chapter 2 of Falun Gong by Li Hongzhi states,

Hinduism

  • The Hindu god Rama is said to have ruled his kingdom Ayodhya for 11,000 years by the time he died according to the Ramayana.
  • Rama's father Dasharatha lived for more than 60,000 years according to the Ramayana.
  • Bhagiratha did tapas for 1000 deva or god years to please Ganga, to gain the release of his 60,000 great-uncles from the curse of saint Kapila. So, Bhagiratha lived for more than 360,000 years.
  • The Hindu god Krishna is said to have lived for 125 years and 8 months from 3228 BCE to 3102 BCE. According to Hindu scriptures, the age of Kali Yuga began after he ascended to his abode Vaikuntha.
  • Ashwatthama, a hero of the Mahabharatha, is said to be over 6,000 years old and still alive.
  • Devraha Baba claimed to have lived for more than 900 years.
  • Trailanga Swami reportedly lived in Kashi since 1737; the journal Prabuddha Bharata puts his birth, corresponding to year 1529 of the Shaka era, upon his death in 1887.
  • The sadhaka Lokenath Brahmachari reportedly lived 1730–1890.
  • Shivapuri Baba, also known as Swami Govindanath Bharati, was a Hindu saint who purportedly lived from 1826 to 1963, making him allegedly years old at the time of his death. He had 18 audiences with Queen Victoria.

    Jainism

Extreme lifespans are ascribed to the Tirthankaras, for instance:
  • Neminatha was said to have lived for over 10,000 years before his ascension.
  • Naminatha was said to have lived for over 20,000 years before his ascension.
  • Munisuvrata was said to have lived for over 30,000 years before his ascension.
  • Māllīnātha was said to have lived for over 56,000 years before his ascension.
  • Aranatha was said to have lived for over 84,000 years before his ascension.
  • Kunthunatha was said to have lived for over 200,000 years before his ascension.
  • Shantinatha was said to have lived for over 800,000 years before his ascension.
  • Dharmanatha was said to have lived for over 2,500,000 years before his ascension.
  • Anantanatha was said to have lived for over 3,500,000 years before his ascension.
  • Vimalanatha was said to have lived for over 6,000,000 years before his ascension.
  • Vasupujya was said to have lived for over 7,200,000 years before his ascension.
  • Shreyansanatha was said to have lived for over 8,400,000 years before his ascension.

    Sikhism

  • Baba Sri Chand, the founder of Udasi sect, was said to live 134 years.
  • Baba Biram Das, an Udasi saint, is said to have lived for 321 years.

    Taoism

The term xian refers to deified persons who have achieved immortality. The Old Man of the South Pole is a common archetype and symbol for longevity.

Theosophy/New Age

These include claims prior to, before the fall of the Roman empire.

China

The Egyptian historian Manetho, drawing upon earlier sources, begins his Egyptian king list with the Graeco-Egyptian god Hephaestus who "was king for 9,000 years".

Greece

A book Macrobii is a work devoted to longevity. It was attributed to the ancient Greek author Lucian, although it is now accepted that he could not have written it. Most examples given in it are lifespans of 80 to 100 years, but some are much longer:
  • Tiresias, the blind seer of Thebes, over 600 years.
  • Nestor, over 300 years.
  • Members of the "Seres", over 300 years.
According to one tradition, Epimenides of Crete lived nearly 300 years.

Japan

Some early emperors of Japan are said to have ruled for more than a century, according to the tradition documented in the Kojiki, viz., Emperor Jimmu and Emperor Kōan.
  • Emperor Jimmu lived 126 years according to the Kojiki. These dates correspond to, on the proleptic Julian and Gregorian calendars.
  • Emperor Kōan, according to Nihon Shoki, lived 137 years.

    Korea

  • Dangun, the first ruler of Korea, is said to have been born in 2333 BCE and to have died in 425 BCE at the age of 1,908 years.
  • Taejo of Goguryeo is claimed to have reigned in Korea for 93 years beginning at age 7. After his retirement, the Samguk Sagi and Samguk Yusa give his age at death as, while the Book of the Later Han states he died in 121 at age.

    Persian empire

The reigns of list of [Shahnameh characters|several shahs] in the Shahnameh, an epic poem by Ferdowsi, are given as longer than a century:
In Roman times, Pliny wrote about longevity records from the census carried out in 74 AD under Vespasian. In one region of Italy, many people allegedly lived past 100; four were said to be 130, others up to 140.

Sumer

Age claims for the earliest eight Sumerian kings in the major recension of the Sumerian King List were in units and fractions of shar and totaled 67 shar or 241,200 years.
In the only ten-king tablet recension of this list three kings are recorded as having reigned 72,000 years together. The major recension assigns 43,200 years to the reign of En-men-lu-ana, and 36,000 years each to those of Alalngar and Dumuzid.

Vietnam

This list includes claims of longevity of 130 and older from the 14th century onward. All birth year and age claims are alleged unless stated otherwise.

Isolated

NameBirthDeathAgeCountry
Mahmud Eyvazov18081960152Russian Empire
Soviet Union
Azerbaijan

Documented

The following cases have been documented in detail over time.
NameBirthDeathAgeCountrySummary
Thomas Parr1482–14831635-11-13152EnglandThe case was recorded in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. William Harvey carried out a postmortem on him, according to Easton. Parr is buried in Westminster Abbey with his alleged age on the gravestone. It is possible that Parr's birth records were confused with those of his grandfather and Parr did not claim to remember events from the 15th century.
Henry Jenkins15011670169EnglandA brief biography of Henry Jenkins, of Ellerton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, was written by Anne Saville in 1663 based on Jenkins's description, stating birth in 1501; he also claimed to recall the 1513 Battle of Flodden Field. However, Jenkins also testified in 1667, in favor of Charles Anthony in a court case against Calvert Smythson, that he was then only 157 or thereabouts. He was born in Bolton-on-Swale, and the date given, 17 May 1500, results in only a 1-year discrepancy with the age of 169 on his monument.
Peter Czartan15391724184RomaniaCharles Hulbert, who reported Czartan's case in an 1825 collection, added that John and his wife Sara both died in Hungary in 1741 after 148 years of marriage. The Book Validation of Exceptional Longevity has the old couples last name as Rowin, while The Virgin Birth and the Incarnation puts John and Sara's married name as Rovin.
Henry Francisco1686-06-111820-10-25134United StatesHenry Francisco claimed that he was born in France in 1686. His death was recorded in Whitehall, Washington County, New York, in October 1820. A family bible shows his life dates as June 11, 1686 to October 10, 1820. His family were Huguenots who left France for the Netherlands and went from there to England, where Henry recalled being a drummer boy at the 1702 coronation of Queen Anne. He had military service in Queen Anne's wars before emigrating to America in the early 1700s. He married his first wife in New Jersey by 1727 and had at least five children with her. He married for a second time in 1766 at Whitehall, New York. The youngest of his claimed 21 children was born in 1782. He said that he had served in the French and Indian War in 1755. In January 1777, at age 90, he enlisted to serve in the Continental Army as a private in the company of Capt. Jeremiah Burroughs, and he served until April 1778. In 1819 he was awarded a pension for American Revolutionary War service. During his final years, skepticism was expressed about his claimed age, but older residents of the Whitehall area said they remembered "Old Henry" as having been an elderly man during their youth. In 1819, Benjamin Silliman of Yale visited him and came away as a believer in the claim of his exceptional longevity. Silliman described his visit and his conclusions in an 1824 book, Remarks on a Short Tour Between Hartford and Quebec in the Autumn of 1819.
Li Ching-Yuen1933-05-05Qing Dynasty,
Republic of China		A New York Times story announced the death on 5 May 1933 in Kai County, Sichuan, at the age of 197, of Li Qingyun, who claimed to be born in 1736. A Time article noted that "respectful Chinese preferred to think" Li was 150 in 1827, based on a government congratulatory message, and died at age 256. Tai chi master Da Liu stated that Li learned qigong from a hermit over age 500.
Zaro Aga1764-02-161934-06-29170Ottoman EmpireKurdish man who claimed birth on February 16, 1764, and died on June 29, 1934, in Istanbul, Turkey at the alleged age of 170.
Javier Pereira17891955–58165–169ColombiaA Zenú Indian from Colombia who was reputedly over 160 years old at the time of his death. Although his death is variously said to have been in 1955, 1956, and 1958, sources all claim that he was born in 1789.
1804-06-121952-03-15147RomaniaA man from Transylvania, who was claimed to be 148 years old when he died in 1952. The mayor of Recea Cristur in Cluj, Rus Laurian Alexandru, confirms that there are documents attesting that this man lived 148 years.
Shirali Muslimov1805-03-261973-09-02168Russian Empire,
Soviet Union,
Azerbaijan		An Azerbaijani shepherd of Talysh ethnicity from the village of Barzavu in the Lerik region of Azerbaijan, a mountainous area near the Iranian border. He claimed to be the oldest person who ever lived when he died on September 2, 1973, at the alleged age of 168 years and 162 days, based solely on a passport. National Geographic carried the claim. Some sources claimed him to be the oldest centenarian in the USSR. It was reported that at the moment of Muslimov's death, his wife was still living at 120 years of age.
Sylvester Magee1841-05-291971-10-15130United StatesAlthough much documentation is lost or possibly never existed, some sources suggest that Magee may have served in both the Confederate and Union armies. Alfred P. Andrews, founder of the Jackson Civil War Round Table and its president elect for 1965-66, helped Magee be classified as a Civil War veteran although no service records for him could be found.
Charlie Smith18421979-10-05137United StatesPrior to Smith's death, the Guinness Book of World Records had called his claim into question, noting that Smith's marriage certificate from 1910 stated that he was 35 years old at the time, which would make him 104 years old at the time of his death.
Bir Narayan Chaudhary 18561998141–142NepalBir claimed he was born in 1856, the son of a landowner. A cattle rancher in the village of Khanar, near Biratnagar, he was purportedly a leader of the first land survey team in the area, conducted in 1888. He was a smoker throughout his later life. Bir rose to prominence in the mid-1990s when Nepalese television and press began reporting on his claimed age. In 1997, he was honored by Nepal's King Birendra for his claimed longevity.
Habib Miyan 1869-05-202008-08-19139IndiaRahim "Habib Miyan" Khan of Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, holds the Guinness World record for the longest retirement pension. Miyan's claimed birth date derives from a family tree listing a Rahim Khan born in 1869, although his pension book listed his birth date as May 20, 1878. He said he had been using these documents since he was discharged from the army in 1938 to claim a pension, making him the world's longest-registered old-age pensioner. The Limca Book of Records lists him as the oldest man of Jaipur, describing him in its 2005 edition as "over 120 years". In 2004 two unidentified people donated money for Miyan to go on Hajj, making him purportedly the oldest Hajj pilgrim in history. He was named as the Aab-e-Jaipur by the mayor of Jaipur.
Mbah Gotho 1870-12-312017-04-30146Dutch East Indies,
Indonesia		In May 2010, Solopos reported that census enumerators recorded that Saparman Sodimejo, known more commonly as Mbah Gotho, was 142 years old. Liputan 6 reported that his estimated age was 140, and that he could not remember his date of birth but claimed to remember the construction of a sugar factory in Sragen in 1880. His ID card, issued in 2014, displays his claimed birth date of 31 December 1870. A heavy smoker throughout his life, he allegedly outlived ten siblings, four wives, and all five of his children. On 28 April 2017, he was admitted to Dr. Soehadi Prijonegoro Regional General Hospital, Sragen, where he died on 30 April.
Mubarak Rahmani Messe18742014140AlgeriaDied in 2014, allegedly at 140 years of age, in El Oued Province, Algeria, and was survived by 100 grandsons. According to family members, Rahmani had spent much of his early life in the Algerian Desert and later held various challenging occupations, including in construction, farming, and herding. He was hospitalised for the first time in 2012, with a stomach complaint. His diet, referred to as "natural", consisted largely of dates, wheat flour, sheep's milk, and green tea.
Tuti Yusupova1880-07-012015-03-28134Russian Empire,
Soviet Union,
Uzbekistan		Reuters reported that her age was uncovered in 2009 by Safar Hakimov, the ruling Uzbekistan Liberal Democratic Party's local chairman in Tortkol, Karakalpakstan when researching centenarians as part of the plans for the country's independence anniversary. After her funeral, her birth certificate and passport were declared conclusive evidence by Baxadir Yangibayev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers in the Republic of Karakalpakstan, where she lived and died.
Alimihan Seyiti1886-06-252021-12-16135ChinaDied in 2021. Claimed to be 135 years old.
Maria Lucimar Pereira1890-09-032022-05-21131BrazilA member of the Kaxinawa tribe, an indigenous people of Brazil and Peru. Indigenous name: Parã Banu Bake Huni Kui. Staff for Brazil's National Institute of Social Security found that Pereira had a birth certificate stating her year of birth as 1890. However, this certificate was only approved in 1985, late in her life. Exaggerated longevity claims may be common in Pereira's village, as four out of the 80 inhabitants in the village are over 90 years old.
Huvaydo Umarova1895-01-01-130UzbekistanIn September 2025, a district court in Uzbekistan accepted a petition by the country's Ministry of Justice stating Umarova's date of birth as January 1, 1895. However, the ages of Umarova's surviving children would place her age at childbirth at between 54 and 74; the latter would also make her the oldest documented mother in history. Umarova also claims to have had an aunt and uncle who lived to the ages of 125 and 130, respectively.

Other

  • The Assamese polymath Sankardev allegedly lived to the age of 118.
  • Albrecht von Haller allegedly collected examples of 62 people ages 110–120, 29 ages 120–130, and 15 ages 130–140.
  • A 1973 National Geographic article on longevity reported, as a very aged people, the Burusho–Hunza people in the Hunza Valley of the mountains of Pakistan.
  • Swedish death registers contain detailed information on thousands of centenarians going back to 1749; the maximum age at death reported between 1751 and 1800 was 147.
  • Cases of extreme longevity in the United Kingdom were listed by James Easton in 1799, who covered 1,712 cases documented between 66 BC and 1799, the year of publication; Charles Hulbert also edited a book containing a list of cases in 1825.
  • A periodical The Aesculapian Register, written by physicians and published in Philadelphia in 1824, listed a number of cases, including several purported to have lived over 130. The authors said the list was taken from the Dublin Magazine.
  • Deaths officially reported in the Russian Empire in 1815 listed 1,068 centenarians, including 246 supercentenarians. Time magazine considered that, by the Soviet Union, longevity had elevated to a state-supported "Methuselah cult". The USSR insisted on its citizens' unrivaled longevity by claiming 592 people over age 120 in a 15 January 1959 census and 100 citizens of the Russian SSR alone aged 120 to 156 in March 1960. According to the opinion of Time magazine, in Georgia such claims were fostered by Georgian-born Joseph Stalin's apparent hope that such longevity might rub off on him. Zhores A. Medvedev, who demonstrated that all 500-plus claims failed birth-record validation and other tests, said that Stalin "liked the idea that Georgians lived to be 100".
  • An early 1812 Peterburgskaya Gazeta reports a man between ages 200 and 225 in the diocese of Yekaterinoslav.

    Medieval era

Poland

Diets

According to a 2021 review, there is no clinical evidence that any dietary practice contributes to longevity.

Alchemy

Traditions that have been believed to confer greater human longevity include alchemy.
  • Nicolas Flamel was a 14th-century scrivener who developed a reputation as alchemist and creator of an "elixir of life" that conferred immortality upon himself and his wife Perenelle. His arcanely inscribed tombstone is preserved at the Musée de Cluny in Paris.
  • Fridericus Gualdus, author of "Revelation of the True Chemical Wisdom", lived in Venice in the 1680s. His age was reported in a letter in a contemporary Dutch newspaper to be over 400. By some accounts, when asked about a portrait he carried, he said it was of himself, painted by Titian, but gave no explanation and left Venice the following morning. By another account, Gualdus left Venice due to religious accusations and died in 1724. The "Compass der Weisen" alludes to him as still alive in 1782 and nearly 600 years old.

    Fountain of Youth