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Extraordinary Human Lifespans (Alleged / Unverified)

FrKadash said:
I remember Alejandro Jodorowsky saying something like, ''you must have ambition, my ambition is to live to 300!''. I think his point was it's important to reach for the highest most impossible things, and something along the lines of ''I might not live another year but I have ambition!''
I share Jodorowsky's ambition but I plan to reach 500. I told my wife a couple years ago that I don't accept death, and you must never accept it as inevitable like we are all taught and brought up to believe, it's embedded in our consciousness that all things must die. She didn't share my opinion, and added it to my list of eccentricities.
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Well, people can lose the will to live, so why not?
 
Rupert T Gould in his second book, Unexplained Facts: Enigmas and Curiosities, tells us of one Thomas Parr, who died in 1635. That is not in dispute. William Harvey, of circulation fame, did the post-mortem on Parr. What was unusual was that Parr claimed that he was born in 1483, which would mean that he was 152 when he died. And Gould, a fairly careful analyst, seems to feel that there was some evidence to back the claim up. Parr was brought by litter to London to see the King and he died there a few years later.

There is also an Irish Countess who was said to have lived to be 140, and a Swedish gentleman who claimed 145 years. There is Gould felt, sufficient evidence to at least look look further at such claims. Now, I should clarify something here. Gould did not state with certainty that these people actually did live to such advanced ages, but only that their claims had some backing.
 
I need to look it up but I think that property rights were at issue in some of these cases. If a son or grandson could present to claim things owing . . . :huh:
 
JamesWhitehead said:
I need to look it up but I think that property rights were at issue in some of these cases. If a son or grandson could present to claim things owing . . . :huh:
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Your point is taken, good and noble sir.

In the case of the Swedish gentleman I mentioned, Gould concedes the possibility of someone else assuming the man's identity.
 
Well, this is one for the Coincidences thread ... :cool:

German physician / naturalist Christoph Wilhelm Friedrich Hufeland was an 18th century professor at Jena. Hufeland was fascinated with longevity, and only a few minutes ago I posted a quote from his 1798 Art of Prolonging Life (English title, from the 1870 translation) in regard to a certain superannuated falcon tale ...

Anyway ... Hufeland wrote the following about the Parr case ...

In the year 1670 died Henry Jenkins, of Yorkshire. He remembered the battle of Floddenfield in 1513, and at that time he was twelve years of age. It was proved from the registers of the Chancery and other Courts, that he had appeared, 140 years before his death, as an evidence, and had an oath administered to him. At the time of his death he was, therefore, 169 years old. His last occupation was fishing; and when above the age of 100, he was able to swim across rapid rivers.

Next to him, in point of age, is another Englishman, Thomas Parr, of Shropshire. He was a poor farmer's servant, and obliged to maintain himself by daily labor. When above 120 years of age, he married a widow for his second wife, who lived with him twelve years, and who asserted that during that time he never betrayed any signs of infirmity or age. Till his 130th year he performed all his usual work, and was accustomed even to thresh. Some years before his death, his eyes and memory began to fail; but his hearing and senses continued sound to the last. In his 152d year his fame had reached London; and as the King was desirous of seeing so great a rarity, he was induced to undertake a journey thither. This, in all probability, shortened his existence, which he otherwise might have preserved some years longer; for he was treated at Court in so

royal a manner, and his mode of living was so totally changed, that he died soon after, at London, in 1635. He was 152 years and nine months old, and had lived under nine kings of England. What was most remarkable in regard to this man is, that when his body was opened by Dr. Harvey, his internal organs were found to be in the most perfect state, nor was the least symptom of decay to be discovered in them. His cartilages even were not ossified, as is the case in all old people. The smallest cause of death had not yet settled in his body ; and he died merely of a plethora, because he had been too well treated.

This Parr is a proof that, in many families, a constitution so favorable to longevity may transmit a remarkably good stamen vitce. His great-grandson died at Cork, "a few years ago, at the age of 103.
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SOURCE: http://archive.org/stream/101515802.nlm.nih.gov/101515802_djvu.txt
 
That Parr case is fascinating, I do like the evidence of him having been called to court at a specific date (ie it is not a birth or marriage record).

The cause of death 'plethora following late-life over-plenty' is somewhat circumstantial. But persuasive. I wonder if this longevity case might be true?

EDIT "Jenkins" not Parr
 
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Ermintrude said:
That Parr case is fascinating, I do like the evidence of him having been called to court at a specific date (ie it is not a birth or marriage record). ...
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Are you referring to Jenkins rather than Parr?
 
Ermintrude said:
Dammit, yes! Co-citation cross-contamination. Thank goodness it wasn't case law!!
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Sorry to have nurtured confusion ... I included the Jenkins bit in my quoted text because it was the expository lead-in to the Parr-specific passages.

... And then got confused myself when I wasn't sure whether your 'called to court' referred to Jenkins giving evidence or Parr being summoned by the king.

... So I guess we're even ... :evil:
 
[thread-drift] Á propos 'court'.....I've often wondered, when we 'court disaster', or are 'called to court' (regal, legal, or even, presumably, ecclesiastical)....

Are these phonetic instances of ''court'' related to the word court as in 'court shoes' (i.e. short-heeled?) And is that just a homophone for 'curt', as in someone being 'short' (idiomatically, nasty, or less of a person) in their treatment of someone else? Or are they somehow all directly convergent/derivative? [/thread-drift]
 
The Indonesian man who claimed to be 146 years old - the longest living human ever - has died in his village in Central Java.

According to his papers, Sodimedjo, also known as Mbah Ghoto (grandpa Ghoto), was born in December 1870.

But Indonesia only started recording births in 1900 - and there have been mistakes before.

Yet officials told the BBC his papers were valid, based on documents he provided and interviews with him.

He was taken to hospital on 12 April because of deteriorating health. Six days later he insisted on checking out to return home.

"Since he came back from the hospital, he only ate spoonfuls of porridge and drank very little," his grandson Suyanto told the BBC.

"It only lasted a couple of days. From that moment on to his death, he refused to eat and drink."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39768321?ocid=socialflow_twitter
 
The frequency of supercentenarians in certain areas is cause for suspicion, leading to suggestions many of the world's allegedly oldest people aren't really as old as claimed ...
The World's Oldest People Might Not Be As Old As We Think

What's the secret to a superlong life? Ask someone who's had one, and they'll say it's their daily glass of whiskey, avoiding men, or eating delicious things. But a new study suggests the secret instead could be exaggeration and a touch of fraud. At least, that could explain the handful of regions around the world known as "blue zones," where residents famously live well past 100.

Sardinia, Italy, and Okinawa, Japan, are among these blue zones. Both of these regions have one thing in common (aside from their quaint seaside villages): a remarkably high number of supercentenarians, or residents who live past 110 years. But there's a catch. One would expect communities within these blue zones to have high life expectancies. In fact, the opposite is true. These regions that boast some of the oldest people in the world also have some of the lowest life expectancies, the new study, published to the preprint journal BioRXiv on July 16, finds. ...

So what gives? ...

To understand what might be causing this discrepancy, it's helpful to look at the United States as a case study. At the end of the 19th century, the U.S. boasted a much larger population of supercentenarians. But around the turn of the 20th century, that number steadily decreased. That pattern had nothing to do with deterioration in the country's health. In fact, the overall life expectancy was steadily increasing around that time (and continued to do so, even as the number of supercentenarians dropped). Instead, what has changed is our record-keeping habits. More specifically, they got a lot better.

Across the U.S., states started recording vital information — using birth and death certificates — at different times. Each time a state began formally recording births, the number of people over 110 mysteriously dropped off by 69% to 82%, the study author found.

That means that for every 10 recorded supercentenarians, seven or eight were younger than records said they were, Vox reported. That doesn't mean that they were lying — but it does mean that due to error, supercentenarians are probably a lot less common than we think, especially in areas with poor record keeping. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/oldest-people-may-not-be-so-old.html
 
I hope this is the right thread; if there's a better thread for reports of extreme longevity, please move.

Li Ching-Yuen (李清雲) was a herbalist in Sichuan province, China, in 1933. Warlord Yang Sen wrote a biography of him, purporting Li to have been born in 1677 and thus to have been 256 years old at his death. Li himself claimed a more modest birthdate of 1736, which would still have let him see his 197th birthday. He attributed his longevity to the practice of martial arts and qigong.

1652064857570.png
 
James_H said:
I hope this is the right thread; if there's a better thread for reports of extreme longevity, please move.

Li Ching-Yuen (李清雲) was a herbalist in Sichuan province, China, in 1933. Warlord Yang Sen wrote a biography of him, purporting Li to have been born in 1677 and thus to have been 256 years old at his death. Li himself claimed a more modest birthdate of 1736, which would still have let him see his 197th birthday. He attributed his longevity to the practice of martial arts and qigong.

View attachment 55136
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Unusually, for someone of such longevity, he was a very tall man (7 ft tall). Normally, such tall people do not live that long and have health issues. Looking at him, he does not look like he has gigantism, so maybe he was a giant through inherited characteristics.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Unusually, for someone of such longevity, he was a very tall man (7 ft tall). Normally, such tall people do not live that long and have health issues. Looking at him, he does not look like he has gigantism, so maybe he was a giant through inherited characteristics.
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I am 6'6" and come from a family of tall people and my extended family seem to live forever ,with 100+ being quite common.
 
XBergMann said:
I am 6'6" and come from a family of tall people and my extended family seem to live forever ,with 100+ being quite common.
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My point was, he's a giant. At 6' 6", you are near the upper extremes of height for a tall non-giant.
May you enjoy wonderful health and live to 100!
 
‘World’s oldest man’ Jose Paulino Gomes ‘dies aged 127’

Jose Paulino Gomes, allegedly born on August 4, 1895, leaves behind seven children, 25 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-great-grandchildren.

NINTCHDBPICT000835301195.jpg


He passed away on July 28 at his home in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

He reportedly put his long life down to enjoying a "little drink".

Jose was born before the death of Queen Victoria, the Wright brothers' first flight, and the discovery of X-rays, local records claim.

According to Cartorio Silva, the sole registry office in his hometown Pedra Bonita, Jose married in 1917, aged 22.

"It is presumed that he was indeed born before 1900," legal adviser Willyan Jose Rodrigues de Souza said.

If true, Jose would have been the oldest known person in the world.

The current official record holder, according to the Guinness World Records, is Spain's Maria Branyas Morera, aged 115.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/8729268/worlds-oldest-man-jose-paulino-gomes-dies-aged-127/

maximus otter
 
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