Third dimension - why do we need it?

- What is the fourth dimension? — You might be surprised, but every person goes there every day!

Thoughtful people have always existed, with great experience, wisdom, and knowledge. They noticed and talked about it, but when society solves the problems of survival in the physical world, it becomes not up to them. However, it should be recalled: you are not only the body, the task of survival is not the only one facing you, otherwise a person would not be so different from an animal. Evolution never stops, it continues.

A person is not only a physical body, it is something much more. The body is a temporary limitation of the form of expression of your essence, which you voluntarily accepted for yourself in order to gain a certain experience. You can’t even imagine how majestic and huge you are. The physical body and the world in the third dimension greatly limits your potential. Your essence in this form is not entirely comfortable here. Therefore, the continuous imprisonment of free consciousness in a shell (and, moreover, in extreme conditions) is a serious test. A serious test and a unique experience that evokes respect for you, for the determination and courage of your essence. But constantly staying in the physical body is quite difficult, unbearable and even impossible. What, other than the factors necessary to survive (water, food, favorable environmental conditions), cannot a person live without?

- Without sleep.

Modern science is not able to answer what it is (at the moment, scientists only record the states of the brain during sleep). During sleep, while the body is resting, you (your consciousness, which is you) leaves the body. And this is another dimension. When you wake up, you mostly don’t remember anything or only the last moments of your activity in another dimension, which are quickly forgotten, because this is the world of the third dimension (more precisely, our bodies are designed in such a way that you can start everything from scratch, and so that neither the limitless possibilities, nor the vast experience and wealth of knowledge of our essence from other dimensions, nothing could prevent us from obtaining the experience we want. Such rules of the game, which we agreed to of our own free will, after all, playing by the rules is much more interesting than without them. .

As everyone gains experience in the game, they go through a path, an evolution of consciousness, a stage of growing up from infancy to old age, from solving problems of survival to the experience of the sublime, from the illusion of separation to a much greater awareness of oneself as part of the Whole. Only sometimes, in exceptional cases, at especially important, decisive moments of the game, the rules can be broken by those who created this game, an entity without restrictions can come. This has already happened in the history of the Earth and it will happen again.

What we do in our dreams is our reality. The memory of what happened in a dream remains with you forever, but when you are in the physical body, restrictions are activated, and experiences that are not appropriate for you are blocked. It is difficult to access information that is blocked, but it is possible through training, certain techniques, and hypnosis. If what happens to you in a dream is important for you to know in order to successfully gain experience and fulfill your goals in embodiment, then as a rule, immediately after waking up you can remember this dream, remember it throughout the day or under special circumstances in life.

Have you paid attention to what is happening to you in your dreams, what are you capable of there?

At first glance, it may seem that there is complete chaos or, on the contrary, emptiness. In both cases, this will be your actual experience there. In both the first and second cases you will be right. You just reflected, projected yourself into another dimension.

In a dream, time and distance do not exist, but there are consciousnesses of entities that together create everything. They create through thought and immediately, instantly experience the result of their thought (for example, if you think about a person or place, you can instantly move there). Moreover, you experience more deeply, more vividly, more fully experience emotions from what is happening to you, as you can call it the astral plane, on which we experience the emotional sphere. The emotions of entities manifest themselves incomparably with the Earth (even taking into account the fact that on Earth emotions are very expressed) brightly and in a wider spectrum.

Now let's take a critical look at ourselves. Admit to yourself that sometimes you have a mess in your head: a mess in your feelings and chaos in your thoughts. Imagine for yourself what will happen if this is not a harmonious consciousness, this chaos is instantly transferred to the fourth dimension, where thought determines your reality, and the emotions experienced are even deeper? Agree, not the best experience. This causes chaos on our physical plane as well. That is why we here learn to survive first (but there are always those who teach us Human qualities, without this we would never survive), and if we manage to survive and not destroy ourselves, then humanity will continue its development, over time we will learn to control ourselves and one day will completely complete its evolution on planet Earth.

We often dream: about holidays, about vacations, about new meetings, about shopping. Pictures of imagined happiness activate the neurotransmitter dopamine in our nervous system. It belongs to the reward system and thanks to it, when we dream, we feel joy and pleasure. Dreaming is a simple and easy way to improve your mood, take your mind off problems and be alone with yourself. What could be wrong with this?

Sometimes Marina remembers her previous trip to the sea. She was waiting for her so much, she dreamed about her so much. It’s a pity that not everything she dreamed of coincided with reality. The room was not the same as in the picture, the beach was not very good, the town... In general, there were a lot of surprises - and not all pleasant ones.

We rejoice looking at the perfect pictures that our imagination has created. But many people notice a paradox: sometimes dreams turn out to be more pleasant than possessions. Sometimes, having received what we want, we even feel disappointed, because reality is rarely similar to what our imagination depicted.

Reality hits us in unpredictable and varied ways. We are not ready for this, we dreamed of something else. Confusion and disappointment when meeting a dream is the price to pay for the fact that we do not know how to enjoy real things in everyday life - such as they are.

Marina notices that she is rarely here and now, in the present: she dreams about the future or goes through memories. Sometimes it seems to her that life is passing her by, that it is wrong to live in dreams, because in reality they often turn out to be ephemeral. She wants to enjoy something real. What if happiness is not in dreams, but in the present? Maybe feeling happiness is just a skill that Marina doesn’t have?

We are focused on implementing plans and do many things “automatically”. We become immersed in thoughts about the past and future and stop seeing the present - what is around us and happening in our soul.

In recent years, scientists have been actively researching the impact of mindful meditation on human well-being, a technique based on the development of awareness of reality.

These studies began with the work of University of Massachusetts biologist Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn. He was interested in Buddhist practices and was able to scientifically prove the effectiveness of using mindful meditation to reduce stress.

Mindfulness practice is about bringing your attention completely to the present moment, without judging yourself or reality.

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapists have begun to successfully use certain techniques of mindful meditation in working with clients. These techniques do not have a religious orientation; they do not require the lotus position or any special conditions. They are based on conscious attention, by which Jon Kabat-Zinn means “the complete transfer of attention to the present moment - without any assessment of oneself or reality.”

You can be aware of the present moment whenever you want: at work, at home, while walking. Attention can be concentrated in different ways: on your breathing, the environment, sensations. The main thing is to track the moments when consciousness moves into other modes: assessment, planning, imagination, memories, internal dialogue - and return it back to the present.

Kabat-Zinn's research has shown that people who are taught mindfulness meditation cope better with stress, feel less anxious and sad, and generally feel happier than before.

Today is Saturday, Marina is in no hurry and drinks her morning coffee. She loves to dream and is not going to give it up - dreams help Marina keep in her head the image of the goals she strives for.

But now Marina wants to learn to feel happiness not from anticipation, but from real things, so she is developing a new skill - conscious attention.

Marina looks at her kitchen as if seeing it for the first time. The blue doors of the facades are illuminated by sunlight from the window. Outside the window, the wind sways the treetops. A warm beam hits your hand. It would be necessary to wash the window sill - Marina’s attention escapes, and she begins to plan things as usual. Stop - Marina returns to non-judgmental immersion in the present.

She takes the mug in her hand. Looks at the pattern. Peers into the unevenness of the ceramics. Takes a sip of coffee. Feels the nuances of taste, as if drinking it for the first time in his life. He notices that time stops.

Marina feels alone with herself. It was as if she had been traveling for a long time and had finally returned home.

about the author

– clinical psychologist, member of the Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapists, works at the Doctor Nearby clinic. More details on her website.

Why do people live on earth? From time immemorial, both great philosophers and ordinary people have been looking for the answer to this question. But none of them has yet come to a final conclusion, because this problem does not have a single solution. There are as many philosophical schools as there are opinions, and maybe even more.

And yet some were able to find logical answers that could explain the existence of man.

How often do we think about and live?

The most carefree time is childhood. During this period, we all run around like crazy around our homesteads, pretending to be pirates, superheroes, robots. Thousands of amazing ideas may swarm in our heads, but there is not a single question about the meaning of life. And why?

And only after crossing the threshold of adolescence does a person begin to look for an answer to it. “Why does a person live? What is its purpose? What is the meaning of my life? - all these questions troubled the hearts of each of us. But some quickly threw them away, switching to more pressing problems, while others, on the contrary, spent their whole lives in search of undeniable truth.

Ancient philosophers and the meaning of life

Aristotle once said: “Knowledge of the soul is the main task of a philosopher, since this can give answers to many questions...” Moreover, he believed that any thinker should look for meaning in everything, since this search is an integral part of ourselves. He taught that it is not enough to accept things as they are, you also need to understand why they are needed in this world.

The German philosopher Georg Hegel was also puzzled by the question of why man lives in this world. He believed that such a desire to know oneself is inherent in us by nature and is our true Self. Moreover, he argued: if you understand what role is assigned to a person, then it will be possible to unravel the purpose of other phenomena of the universe.

Also, do not forget about Plato and his thoughts about why man lives on earth. He was sure: the search for one's destiny is the highest good for a person. Partly, it was in these searches that his meaning of life was hidden.

God's plan, or Why do people live on the plan?

You can’t talk about the meaning of life without touching on the topic of religion. After all, all existing beliefs have on this issue. Their sacred texts contain clear instructions regarding how one should spend one's life and what is the highest good for a person.

So, let's look at the most common denominations.

• Christianity. According to the New Testament, all people are born to live a righteous life, which will give them a place in heaven. Therefore, their meaning in life is to serve the Lord and also to be merciful to others.
• Islam. Muslims are not too far removed from Christians; their faith is also based on serving God, only this time it is Allah. In addition, every true Muslim must spread his faith and fight the “infidels” with all his might.
• Buddhism. If you ask a Buddhist: “Why does a person live?”, he will most likely answer: “To become enlightened.” This is precisely the goal that all followers of Buddha pursue: to purify their minds and move to nirvana.
• Hinduism. Everyone has a divine spark - Atman, thanks to which a person is reborn after death in a new body. And if he behaved well in this life, then at the next rebirth he will become happier or richer. The highest goal of existence is to break the circle of rebirth and indulge in oblivion, which gives pleasure and peace.

Scientific point of view on human purpose

Questioned the supremacy of the church. This was due to the fact that humanity received another version explaining the appearance of life on Earth. And if at first only a few agreed with this theory, then as science developed, its adherents became more and more numerous.

But how does science look at the issue we are discussing? Why does man live on earth? In general, everything is quite simple. Since man evolved from an animal, their goals are similar. What is the most important thing for every living organism? That's right, procreation.

That is, from a scientific point of view, the meaning of life lies in finding a reliable partner, reproducing offspring and caring for them in the future. After all, this is the only way to save a species from extinction and ensure a bright future.

Disadvantages of previous theories

Now we should talk about what shortcomings there are in these concepts. After all, both scientific and religious hypotheses are not capable of giving a comprehensive answer to the question: “Why do people live on earth?”

The disadvantage of scientific theory is that it highlights a general goal that is ideal for the entire species as a whole. But if we consider the problem on the scale of one individual, then the hypothesis loses its universality. After all, it turns out that those who are not able to have children are completely deprived of any meaning in life. And a healthy person is unlikely to like existing with the thought that his only purpose is to pass on his genes to his offspring.

The position of religious communities is also imperfect. After all, most religions place above the earthly. Moreover, if a person is an atheist or an agnostic, then his existence is devoid of any meaning. Many people do not like this kind of dogma, so over the years the foundations of the church begin to weaken. As a result, a person is again left alone with the question “why do people live on earth.”

How to find the truth?

So what now? What to do if the scientific point of view is not suitable, and the church point of view is too conservative? Where can I find the answer to such an important question?

In fact, there is simply no universal solution to the problem. Each person is an individual and therefore unique. Everyone must find their own path, their own meaning and their own values. This is the only way to find harmony within yourself.

However, it is not necessary to always follow one path. The beauty of life is that there are no set rules or boundaries. Everyone has the right to choose specific ideals for themselves, and if they seem false over time, they can always be replaced with new ones. For example, many people work half their lives to make a fortune. And when they achieve this, they understand that money is far from the main thing. Then they again begin to search for the meaning of existence, which can make them more beautiful.

The main thing is not to be afraid to think: “Why do I exist and what is my purpose?” After all, if there is a question, then there will definitely be an answer to it.

WHAT ARE THE SECRETS OF LONGEVITY. WHY DO WE LIVE SO LITTLE?

Or maybe not a little, but as much as is needed to survive the human race? Should we look for the elixir of youth? Is it possible to overcome old age and live for thousands of years? Every person thinks about this burning topic in life, starting from childhood.

Let's start, perhaps, with deep history, looking into the pages of ancient writings.

Here are lines from the Bible: “...All the days of the life of Adam were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died... And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died... And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years; and he died... And all the days Cainan was nine hundred and ten years old: and he died... And all the days of Malaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years: and he died... And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. ... And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died... And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died...”

Modern philosophers, historians, biologists and all committed “materialists”, especially in the “Soviet era”, of course, could not help but give these lines a fictitious context, allegedly referring to the fact that the count was kept according to the lunar calendar and the year should be counted by month (according to Ancient Egyptian) or two (according to Hebrew). Then, they say, it turns out that they all lived on average as long as a modern person - 70-75 years. However, then why are all the other lines of the Old Testament, written at the same time as the above, ignored, where the normal, according to our understanding, human age is given?

"...6 When people began to multiply on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 then the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, and they took them as wives as they chose. 3 And the Lord [God] said: My Spirit will not endure forever to be despised by men, because they are flesh; let their days be an hundred and twenty years. 4 At that time there were giants on the earth, especially from the time when the sons of God began to come in to the daughters of men, and they began to bear them: These are strong, glorious people from ancient times..."

This is, perhaps, the most significant confirmation of the difference between ordinary people and the “sons of God.” Moreover, seeing how the “sons of God” mix with ordinary people, the Lord reduces the level of maximum life expectancy for new people to 120 years.

Therefore, the more ordinary people mixed with the race of “sons of God,” the shorter the life expectancy their descendants had.

There is also a mention here of the appearance on Earth from such mixed marriages of “giants” who were distinguished by their strength and perhaps were tall. They were destroyed by a flood (a similar story is also described in Greek mythology, which mentions “Giants” who were also destroyed by a flood). And after the flood, only the descendants of Noah began to live on Earth. Moreover, from the moment of the “mixing of peoples” at Babylon, people began to have a look that was the same as that of modern man.

An interesting picture emerges: mythological references, especially in Ancient Greek mythology about the “Giants”, giants with a height twenty times greater than a human, turn out to have clear intersections with other pages of ancient legends, and of other peoples. It is not clear exactly how long these giants lived, according to the scriptures, but it is clear how long their ancestors lived according to Ancient Greek mythology - the Titans, whose age actually sometimes reached 1000 years.

The descendants of the Titans and the Olympian gods (who come from the same roots - from the Titans of the ancestors - Gaia-Earth and Ocean-Sky) probably really lived 120 years. The variety of gods and demigods that have spawned (from people and gods), to whom not the seas and the underworld (like Poseidon and Hades), and not even war and art (like Ares and Apollo), but miserable streams and individual trees have already been “given into power.” . Soon they stopped counting them altogether and attaching meaning to their names, since they “merged” with people.

With each separation of a new branch of this or that generation of demigod heroes, with each new intermixing with ordinary people, the growth of supergiants of longevity decreased, as did their overall life expectancy.

This interesting pattern is worth noting. The higher people or “demigods” were, the longer they lived!

But all these are just legends of antiquity and the facts set out in them are definitely not provable, so the main emphasis of the discussions should be on current processes in the world and all their features.

Longevity marathon.

People of the Ancient World, starting from the Bronze Age, lived on average 20-30 years, but only for reasons of then incurable diseases and endless wars. Our primitive ancestors lived even shorter. Studying the remains of Stone Age cave dwellers, scientists once noticed that the bones of old people are found quite rarely.

However, everyone had the desire to live longer and, of course, always had it. The last words of one hundred and sixty-nine-year-old Hanger Nina, dying in Turkey in 1964, were: “I haven’t lived enough in this world yet.”

If we do not take into account that there were and are long-livers living among us, the duration of our “fleeting” life is calculated in only a few decades. A man lived to be 70 - great; a woman lived to be 80 - consider herself lucky.

Scientists of past centuries have talked a lot about how long a person can live. Some said that for more than one hundred years, some dreamed of six hundred (Paracelsus), and the most daring - even 1000!

There have always been long-livers on earth, but reliable facts could only be noted with the beginning of the census. The Hungarian shepherd - Said Ali, died at the age of one hundred and eighty-nine years, his compatriot - Peter Zortai, was born in 1539, and died in 1724, having lived one hundred and eighty-five years. And the Albanian Khudiye, having lived one hundred and seventy years, saw 200 of his descendants during his lifetime.

There were also funny things. The English peasant Thomas Parra died in the “prime of his life” (152 years old) for a banal reason - from volvulus after a feast given in his own honor by the king, who wished to honor the oldest man in England.

It is not known exactly how these people lived, nor is their lifestyle clear. But one can clearly observe the lifestyle of modern centenarians.

Each of them has their own strong point. One has strong nerves, another has a good mood, the third has work and reasonable nutrition. Many combine all these factors. Some people are influenced by heredity.

But what is the main, decisive incentive to prolong life?

It has long been known that there are several areas on the globe where it is not at all unusual to experience “vigor” in a hundred years. One of these places is located in the high Andean valley - Vilcabamba (Ecuador). According to old church records indicating the exact date of birth of children, doubts about the reality of the family of centenarians disappear. Examined by doctors for the first time in the early 1950s, people turned out to be completely healthy, despite the fact that they had already crossed the century mark.

The climate of this area is not subject to large temperature changes; The average annual temperature is 15 degrees Celsius. However, the terrain is such that walking requires effort, which undoubtedly develops muscles. In addition, everyone who lives in Vilcabamba, from an early age until their death, is engaged in the constant and difficult work of obtaining their daily bread. They don’t know what pensions and old-age rest are.

The food is also not heavenly. All year round - vegetables, wheat and corn products. Meat is rare.

Other “islands” of longevity are very similar in environment, lifestyle and diet.

The Hunza Valley in Northern Pakistan is famous for the Khunzukut people, whose language, Burushaski, has no common roots with any language in the world. There are also many energetic and cheerful old people over 100 years old there. All of them lead an active lifestyle, engaged in manual agricultural labor, including very old people.

Scientists once noticed that the inhabitants of Hunza and Vilcabamba eat surprisingly similar, as if they were not separated by the Pacific Ocean. And here and there the food is essentially the same - plant-based...

The same is true for the long-livers of the Caucasus Mountains. Most of them are in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

It turns out quite simply: live in the mountains, be a vegetarian, always work physically, constantly move and do not change the rhythm of life, then you will live up to 120-150 years. But who would want to live in such conditions, even for so long? Some will consider this hard labor.

It is quite clear that physical labor is the main rhythm of their life, contributing to normal functioning, and to disrupt this function, for example, by retiring in our urbanized understanding, would mean breaking the rhythm of the body developed over many decades. That is, what is rather cruelly called “pension bankruptcy” does not happen to them - a very common reason in urban conditions for a sudden imbalance in the body and a deterioration in the well-being of many elderly people who abruptly stopped working without finding a feasible replacement.

That’s why it turns out that knowledge workers live longer. After all, they, in fact, do not retire, continuing to “work with their brains.” But strong and hard-working pensioners who worked in manual labor are no longer lucky, and their rhythm of life breaks down radically, causing sad consequences.

Conclusion: such people need to prepare for the transition to retirement in advance, looking for alternative loads for themselves, perhaps playing sports.

Mountain air may also be one of the common features of the long-livers of these regions.

But this same factor also suggests that for people living in the mountains, the “biological clock” runs slower. It is possible that by their standards, 120-150 years, this is 70-80 by the standards of a city person living in a bustling “anthill” (city).

The association with an anthill is logical. The physical life of a worker ant in a colony does not exceed 2-3 months, even if its death is not artificially initiated. However, by tearing an ant away from the “family” and placing it on individual self-sufficiency, you can watch it live for 5-7 years (maximum 18). He is no longer fussing or in a hurry, he has no worries about his “family.”

Why does the “biological clock” go slower? It’s simple: among highlanders, some hormonal systems function weaker than among lowlanders, due to the body’s adaptation to low oxygen levels, and any adaptation leads to a general strengthening of the body’s protective functions.

But if you go down to the plain, there are also many long-livers here, although not in such numbers and not with such a long age. An example of this is the extreme regions of the North. The peoples of the North are distinguished by excellent health and often reach the century mark. “In a long and careful study of the health of the Eskimos,” the doctor Hutton reported at the beginning of the century, “I did not notice at all some of the diseases common in Europe ... I did not see a single case of cancer among the Eskimos and did not hear about it from anyone. In this regard, it should be noted that among these people cooking plays a secondary role in the preparation of food. Most of it is eaten raw... I have not observed rickets among the Eskimos, although it is quite common in children in European settlements. Eskimos have real asthma.Appendicitis is another disease that is rare here. Here they usually pay attention to the fact that northerners often prefer raw food. But one must think that such food is not the “elixir of youth.”

What they have in common in their lifestyle with the mountaineers is a standardized life, physical labor throughout it. And in the northern air it’s also not particularly good to breathe (especially in winter), just like in the mountains.

“Whoever makes friends with a pillow will not live long,” the words of one hundred and eight-year-old Sonya Ali gyzy Kerimova. “All my life I got up exactly at five in the morning.” For many centenarians, not seeing the sunrise means not seeing a new day.

There is a reason for this too. It has been noted that in old age and with heart disease, people die in most cases in the morning. Apparently, the body at this time is very relaxed and pliable. Waking up at this time, you can, as it were, “hammer nails” into this door for death, and she will have to “climb through the window,” which is not very convenient.

The characters of people who have crossed the century mark are completely different and do not depend on their overall life expectancy. Some of them are combative, mischievous and active, while others are quiet and pliable.

But none of them gets on their nerves!

From conversations with long-livers of Abkhazia:

• What's your secret to a long life?
• "In peace,
• stated Micah Jobua.
• Anger and envy shorten life. I never envied anyone and stayed away from those who envied me."

At one time, he revealed to a journalist the secret of his longevity, but he was misunderstood.

• Mikha, why do you Abkhazians live so long?
• Where should we rush?
• But we would like to live that long, and all other people would not refuse either. Tell me, how do you do this? What do we need to do to keep up with you?
• Don't fuss, son...

In principle, he clearly said and made it clear that one should strive to live in rhythm and not fuss (not get on your nerves), and from the conversation, Soviet analysts concluded that he was mocking: they say, “don’t fuss, you won’t keep up with me anyway.” .

As for nutrition, it turned out that only 22% of long-livers on the plain are vegetarians and “fasters.” The remaining 78% eat whatever they want, although everyone unanimously notes that overeating is harmful.

Life of a groundhog.

If people could hibernate like marmots, ferrets, hedgehogs and bears, then our lives would extend at least three or four times. But this is theoretical, since all these animals, based on the ratio of the life expectancy of mammals, do not really fit into the long-livers of the animal world, although they sleep for six months.

Much can be noticed in the properties that correlate with the long life of a particular species.

The most durable animals are cold-blooded animals. Sea turtles and crocodiles live up to 200-300 years, and they use the least air of all turtles, since it needs to be saved under water. Consequently, their vital processes are slower. Amphibians and a number of reptiles have a great advantage: when external conditions become unfavorable, they hibernate and all their life processes slow down sharply.

Fish also live long, under favorable conditions, of course. Catfish, carp and shark live for a hundred years, and pike much longer. In 1797, while cleaning the Tsaritsyn ponds near Moscow, a pike more than two meters long was caught. The fish was ringed, and on the ring there was an inscription: “Planted by Tsar Boris Fedorovich.” That is, she lived for about two hundred years.

In one of the German principalities in 1497, a pike was caught with a ring on which the date 1230 was engraved. This pike was born before the Tatar invasion of Europe and managed to survive the decline of their empire.

Pike, catfish, and burbot live longer because they lead a more passive lifestyle, hunting in ambushes. Perch and roach live less (28 years) because they lead an active lifestyle.

Please note, here, as with people, the more active and nervous the lifestyle, the shorter it is!

Warm-blooded animals have a similar picture. They are more active and faster, but their lives are shorter.

It is short in rodents: mice live 1.5 - 2 years, rabbits 8 - 10 years, squirrels - 8 - 9, otters - 6 - 11. Mice live the shortest of all, since they are the worst of all. Dangers lie in wait for them everywhere, everyone tries to eat them, they are the smallest and weakest. But at the same time, in its short life, the mouse manages to give birth to hundreds of offspring!

For predators, the situation is the same: the badger, sable and marten live 10-12 years, and the wolf, lion and leopard - 15-17 years.

Slow, lethargic and overfed pets live much longer. Horses - 40-50 years, cows - 30-35 years, sheep - 10-15. Sheep have a shorter life because fear of predators attacking their flocks has always been in their bloodline. In addition, they are smaller in size and cannot fend for themselves in front of a predator.

There are also long-livers among birds. Even in captivity, golden eagles live up to eighty years, condors - up to seventy, and parrots - almost a century and a half. And none of them leads such an active life as, for example, the city sparrow, which lives 5-7 years.

It would seem that insects do not fit into this picture. But it is not so.

Microstormtroopers.

A bumblebee is flying. The proportions and weight of his carcass do not fit into the laws of aerodynamics. What keeps him afloat and allows him to perform such good maneuvers that any military fighter would envy?

It turns out that this is a huge number of wing beats per second. In all flying insects (except butterflies), it is usually huge. Some insects have wing strength reaching 200 beats per second.

If you imagine that a person is a bumblebee, then, sitting on all fours and fastening rigid artificial bumblebee-shaped wings on his arms up to the elbows, we can safely say that the proportions are almost met.

Now fly!

You can wave your arms as fast as you like. Even if you had the strength of a bear, you would not be able to rise from the ground even a millimeter.

And the reason? It's not all about the muscles. Theoretically, if you train them, you can make your arms swing quickly and forcefully. However, there will always be a limit to swings - no more than 5-7 per second. Why?

But because the degree of reaction of the human brain does not allow giving so many orders in such a short period of time. The speed of brain impulses is not comparable to that of flying insects. Their reaction is imaginative!

A housefly is 10 times faster than a human!

When we raise a rolled-up newspaper over her with our hand and, with all our speed, try to spank her, she can see that a certain creature is smoothly lowering something onto her, creating a threat to her. The fly manages to orient itself that there is a threat, where it comes from and where it is better for it to fly to save its life, after which it rises into the air and flies away, making dozens of wing beats per second. In this case, he most often avoids being hit.

Thus, in her short period of life, she manages to learn tens of times more than a person during the same period of time. That is, it manages to record tens of times more events and intervals between processes. Its rate of exchange of brain impulses is faster than that of most mammals. For a fly, one day of light lasts approximately one month.

With a turtle it's different. She lives longer than a person. But her reaction speed is 2-3 times less than that of a person. For her, a person passing by on foot flies by at a speed that is equivalent to us as if he had ridden a motorcycle at a speed of 50 km/h. Thus, during its life, a turtle sees and experiences 2-3 times less than a human.

So who lives longer?

Or, let's take a dragonfly. It is capable of making sharp flight turns at an angle of 90°, and also, rushing forward, suddenly flying backwards in the opposite direction almost without stopping.

It seems that in the next 200 years humanity will not achieve such success in flight.

And with all these advantages, insects live very little, sometimes no more than the summer season. Coleoptera (beetles) have become the most long-lived among insects, but in their maneuverability and reaction speed they are inferior to Hymenoptera (bumblebees, bees, wasps), dragonflies and Diptera (flies, horseflies, gadflies, mosquitoes) insects.

Arachnids have a life span of years, but their lifestyle for us is equivalent to sitting in a yoga pose for 95% of our total time. Weaving a web or without it, but sitting in ambush and waiting for prey (sometimes for weeks), their life processes are inhibited to the point of coma, in our opinion. But as soon as the signal thread of the web twitches, the spider already becomes lightning fast in its reaction and actions.

Old stump.

How long do plants live? In comparison with them, the life of animals is not enviable.

A similar picture of comparison of active life is also typical for long-lived trees. The slower a tree grows, the longer it lives. If you cut down a tree, the upper part of the crown will not die immediately, but sometimes even after a week or two. In addition, the tree also has periods of hibernation, while we are active.

A fruit pear, stuffed with manure, fattens and puffs, giving huge yields. But she lives 20-40 years. And its wild relative sometimes lives up to 300 years, sometimes comparable in height (30 meters) and crown to an oak tree, although the pears on it are small, like plums.

Residents of the state of Queensland (Australia) claim that they have the oldest tree in the world, the so-called macrocymia, which is at least twelve thousand years old. Moreover, the height of its crown does not exceed 6 meters. However, in order to check this circumstance, the tree will have to be cut down to count the annual rings, and this can be done after its death (no one will allow this tree to be cut down alive).

One of the oldest trees is also considered to be a giant cypress, near the cemetery of the village of Saita Maria de Tule in Mexico. The tree is still in full bloom, and its trunk is sixteen meters in diameter (“20 people can barely wrap their arms around it”).

American sequoias are also one of the longest-livers, quietly reaching the 4000-year mark. “To be a thousand years old means to be considered a youth among these trees, since the eldest of them are considered contemporaries of the Bronze Age. Just imagine: a tree under which people took shelter from the weather long before the heyday of the Inca Empire, when primitive tribes roamed Europe, still lives!"

Eucalyptus giants in Australia live 8,000-10,000 years. They reach a height of one hundred and fifty meters and thirty meters in trunk diameter. On the American continent it competes with Taxodigus americana, which lives from 4000 to 6000 years. Among our long-livers are cypresses (1000 years), junipers (500-2000 years), yews and cedars (1000-3000 years).

This is all great at first glance. But if you think about it?

What is most important for any living creature on Earth, be it a plant or an animal? The main thing is for his family to survive. And for this you need to give offspring and as many as possible.

But who will give it faster - a thousand-year-old sequoia or an annual celandine? It is clear that the victory will be with the latter, if we count the number of descendants from one plant. Consequently, one takes the volume of reproduction, and the other takes the ability to live long. This is how different types of plants survive without competing with each other in the temporary space of existence.

In the depths of the microworld.

The search for the elixir of youth continues. Obviously, they will continue until they are blue in the face. The excessive optimism of scientists has not weakened, since the 50s. If you look through the scientific journals of those years, then now we should already live 200 years and cure all diseases. A person's arrogance about his knowledge knows no bounds! This despite the fact that he doesn’t know what’s going on in his head, or even how much hair there is on it!

Cloning, selection, ... whatever we do, to change the age of human life, we will have to change our DNA, and therefore, change the person to another creature that can and will live a long time, but will be slower and dumber.

Yes, single-celled organisms are immortal in our understanding. They divide, two new ones arise from each cell, and they have no death, like all single-celled organisms, be they bacteria, protozoa, or even viruses that belong to a non-cellular form of life.

But, the human body, like the body of any complex animal or plant, is nothing more than a cluster of the same single-celled organisms. Muscles, blood, bones, or roots, trunks, leaves, consist of approximately a thousand billion individual cells, the general structure of which is no different from the structure of single-celled cells living, for example, in a puddle.

The only difference between them is that the cells that make up a complex whole organism carry a death sentence. You can recall the association with an ant living in and outside an anthill.

Moreover, all microorganisms always carry the memory of membership and belonging of the whole organism with them, like a passport with registration.

By placing individual human cells in a nutrient solution, thereby returning them to their original freedom, one can observe that at first they develop like ordinary single-celled cells: they divide into new cells, which, in turn, grow and divide again. But at a certain cycle, suddenly everything stops. The ability to reproduce is lost and the cells die.

This extinction begins in vitro after the fiftieth division of human cells. It begins around the age of 27-30 and is almost invisible at first. By the age of 80, up to ten kilograms of body cells die, and then the entire colony of cells—the person—dies.

Why do body cells die, but single-celled organisms do not?

Yes, because the former carry the code for constructing the integral structure of a complex organism, while the latter do not. In other words, even being outside this organism, the cells are still part of it and, if something happens, they can recreate it from just two cells. An example is an egg and a sperm. Simple cells can be molded to each other as much as you like and by any means, but they will never create a new whole organism.

Today, the main killers of humans are heart disease, stroke and cancer. If you defeat them, then a person can live up to 150 years, which is how long the long-lived mountaineers live.

Then what is the meaning of death and longevity?

IN EQUALITY!

The ability to exist faster, more intensely and more dexterously in this world is compensated by a short life. And slowness, sluggishness and calmness are longevity.

Living beings belonging to the first group will be more competitive in this world due to dexterity, agility and mass reproduction. The latter are not competitors of the former, therefore, in order to correlate their contribution (to leave “their mark”) on Earth, they are forced to live longer in order to have time to do as much in their lives as the former.

Aging researchers are convinced that "the best way to combat these common diseases among older people is not to try to overcome them one by one. At best, this could add ten more or less painful years of frailty to an individual's life. The goal is to to defeat all diseases of old age, increasing the longevity of the body's natural defense system."

“People age in different ways,” said Academician D. Chebotarev. “For some, years add ailments and illnesses. Others maintain health and creative activity in old age. This means that illnesses are not necessary accompaniments of old age, which means that you can influence the nature and pace of aging The search of scientists is aimed at achieving this goal. The tactical and strategic tasks of gerontology are essentially contained in the formula - “add years to life and life to years.”

Gender differences also play a role. Women, in relation to men, occupy a more advantageous position. They live longer, but not because they often do housework. Other factors related to the physiological characteristics of the female body play a major role here. A woman’s task, like any animal, is to raise children. Therefore, a woman should have more time in her life in order to have time to do as much as men can do, who are little involved in the education process.

And heredity can play a role only in those whose relatives have lived for a long time. Consider for yourself: if only your grandfather, for example, lived to be 100 years old, but other relatives did not, then the probability that you will also live to 100 is 25%, provided that you lead the same rhythm of life (down to the smallest detail) like your grandfather.

This means that our success in longevity lies in the lifestyle that we choose for ourselves. You should think about old age from a young age: take care of your health, take certain preventive measures. Much will depend on how a person relates to the environment, to people, to himself and his work. Optimism and passion, being kind to others and self-confidence are all reliable contributors to longevity.

And vice versa - a chaotic, riotous life, impudence in relationships with people, nervous tension in work and study, envy, quarrels, squabbles, struggles, on the one hand, will allow you to leave a “mark of yourself” faster, but life will become shorter.

"You've done the job - go away!"

Someone who lives in a metropolis will live less (except for illness) than someone who lives in the outback, but during his energetic, bustling life he will manage to do more than the latter. So is it worth grieving over a small but bright life?

What has the long-lived Pakistani mountaineer Khunzukut achieved in his life, eating only vegetables and working like a convict? Compare it with yourself, where you sit in front of a monitor screen and travel around the world of the Internet.

If you have enjoyed all the benefits of civilization, then you need to pay! And you need to pay by accelerating the passage of time of your “biological clock”.

LITERATURE:

1. Ph.D., E. V. Mokhov; "HOW THE WORLD WAS CREATED"
2. V. A. Mezentsev; "ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MIRACLES"; ed. "Knowledge", Moscow, 1979
3. Ph.D., E. V. Mokhov; "TIME. WHAT IS TIME, CAN IT BE STOPPED, WHY DOES IT ALWAYS FLOW IN ONE WAY? IS REVERSE PROCESSES POSSIBLE? IS IT POSSIBLE TO TRAVEL TO THE PAST OR FUTURE?"