{"id":162,"date":"2010-10-26T08:47:43","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T14:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=162"},"modified":"2010-10-26T08:47:43","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T14:47:43","slug":"immortal-hiding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"Immortal Hiding"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s an amusing short clip on YouTube whose premise has been making the rounds lately.\u00a0 The concept is that Keanu Reeves<\/a>, whose youthful looks haven’t changed much since he first caught the public’s attention, is immortal<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition to his generally not aging much visibly–something I might point out Hollywood stars sometimes go to great lengths to achieve–he bears a striking resemblance to a French actor, Paul Mounet<\/a>, who died in 1922.\u00a0 According to the circulated rumor, Mounet was declared dead, but his body was never found.\u00a0 The video linked above also suggests he was Charlemagne<\/a> and several other historical figures, including Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The latter is based on the popular image of Jesus which could have nothing to do with reality.\u00a0 The historical Jesus Christ would have had a middle-eastern appearance, not a caucasian one.<\/p>\n

I am not aware of any response to this silliness from Mr. Reeves, but it raises an interesting question.\u00a0 He’s not the first celebrity suspected of immortality; rumors persist still of Elvis sightings<\/a> thirty years after his death.\u00a0 But what if there are immortals wandering among us?\u00a0 Assuming there’s more than one, there’s at least a decent chance one of them might attain a bit of fame which would prove awkward later on.\u00a0 Immortality’s benefits do not necessarily include wisdom or control over circumstance, after all.<\/p>\n

It seems to me that being an immortal who was born centuries ago might have had cause to hide that aspect of one’s life.\u00a0 In times past, it would be viewed with fear and suspicion.\u00a0 Immortality doesn’t necessarily mean invulnerability, after all, although the two concepts are often linked.\u00a0 The Highlander<\/em> series’ immortals, for example, could be killed if they were beheaded.\u00a0 Maybe such an extreme measure isn’t necessary, though.\u00a0 If immortals do walk among us, they may be almost as fragile as the rest of us.\u00a0 Perhaps they are immune to aging and disease, but not physical wounds, and a lethal wound to a mortal is also lethal to an immortal.\u00a0 An immortal who wanted to remain immortal would have to take care, then, to appear mortal, seeming to die every few decades while secretly assuming some new identity.<\/p>\n

As such, the modern age might things a bit of a challenge as far as hiding one’s lengthy lifespan.\u00a0 People today are cataloged in many ways now, and while one can certainly still take on a new identity, the process is more difficult.\u00a0 Paperwork can be forged as easily as ever, I suppose, but now there are electronic records which must be created or altered or whatever.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, medical science is advancing towards extending the human lifespan anyway.\u00a0 Immortals among us might want to invest in such technologies, as it would make their agelessness less conspicuous.\u00a0 Just a thought, Keanu and Elvis:\u00a0 Help me be immortal, and I’ll do what I can to keep your secrets.\u00a0 See you in the far-fetched future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an amusing short clip on YouTube whose premise has been making the rounds lately.\u00a0 The concept is that Keanu Reeves, whose youthful looks haven’t changed much since he first caught the public’s attention, is immortal.\u00a0 In addition to his generally not aging much visibly–something I might point out Hollywood stars sometimes go to great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}