Elixir of life
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The '''elixir of life''', from Arabic: الإكسير, also known as the ''elixir of immortality'' or ''Dancing Water'' or [[Persian language|Persian]]: ''Aab-e-Hayaat آب حیات'' and sometimes equated with the [[philosopher's stone]], is a legendary [[potion]], or drink, that grants the drinker [[eternal life]] or [[eternal youth]]. Many practitioners of [[alchemy]] pursued it. The elixir of life was also said to be able to create life. It is related to the myths of [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]], [[Thoth]], and [[Hermes Trismegistus]], all of whom in various tales are said to have drunk "the white drops" (liquid gold) and thus achieved immortality. It is also associated with the [[Qur'an]]'s [[Al Khidr]] ('The Green Man'), and is mentioned in one of the [[Nag Hammadi]] texts.<ref>Turner, John D. (transl.). [http://www.webcom.com/~gnosis/naghamm/intpr.html The Interpretation of Knowledge]. Retrieved 4 May 2006.</ref>
==History==
No such potion has ever been discovered though alchemists in [[ancient China]], [[India]], and the [[Western world]] spent a great deal of time and effort on it.
An elixir can be referred to as the 'Quintessence of life' or by other names -- quintessence being reference to the five elements of Chinese alchemical philosophy or a theorized fifth element in European alchemy. In other cultures, alchemical philosophy would deem less or more elements (four in most of Europe, thirty-six in India).
===China===
In Ancient China, various [[emperor]]s sought for the fabled elixir with various results. In the [[Qin Dynasty]], [[Qin Shi Huang]] sent [[Taoist]] alchemist [[Xu Fu]] with 500 boys and 500 girls to the eastern seas to find the elixir, but he never came back (legend has it that he found [[Japan]] instead). The ancient Chinese believed that ingesting long-lasting precious substances such as [[jade]], [[cinnabar]] or [[hematite]] would confer some of that longevity on the person who consumed them. [[Gold]] was considered particularly potent, as it was a non-tarnishing precious metal; the idea of potable or drinkable gold is found in China by the end of the third century BC. The most famous Chinese alchemical book, the Tan Chin Yao Ch’eh ("Great Secrets of Alchemy," dating from approximately 650 AD), discusses in detail the creation of elixirs for immortality (mercury, sulfur, and the salts of mercury and arsenic are prominent) as well as those for curing certain diseases and the fabrication of precious stones.
Many of these substances, far from contributing to longevity, were actively toxic. [[Jiajing Emperor]] in the [[Ming Dynasty]] died from ingesting a lethal dosage of [[mercury (element)|mercury]] in the supposed "Elixir of Life" conjured by alchemists. British historian [[Joseph Needham]] compiled a list of Chinese emperors whose death was likely due to elixir poisoning. Chinese interest in alchemy and the elixir of life declined in proportion to the rise of [[Buddhism]], which claimed to have alternate routes to immortality.
It has been anecdotally suggested that [[Laozi]], the founder of [[Daoism]] stated that [[tea]] is one of the ingredients to the elixir of life. In fact, the fermented tea-based [[Kombucha]] was originally known in Chinese as "The Tea of Immortality".
===India===
The oldest Indian writings, the [[Vedas]] (Hindu sacred scriptures), contain the same hints of alchemy that are found in evidence from ancient China, namely vague references to a connection between gold and long life. Mercury, which was so vital to alchemy everywhere, is first mentioned in the 4th to 3rd century BC [[Arthashastra]], about the same time it is encountered in China and in the West. Evidence of the idea of transmuting base metals to gold appears in 2nd to 5th century AD Buddhist texts, about the same time as in the West. Since [[Alexander the Great]] had invaded India in 325 BC, leaving a Greek state ([[Gandhara]]) that long endured, the possibility exists that the Indians acquired the idea from the Greeks, but it could have been the other way around.<ref name=Alchemy>[http://www.crystalinks.com/alchemy.html "Alchemy"]. Retrieved 4 May 2006.</ref>
It is also possible that the alchemy of medicine and immortality came to India from China, or vice versa; in any case, gold making appears to have been a minor concern, and medicine the major concern, of both cultures. But the elixir of immortality was of little importance in India (which had other avenues to immortality). The Indian elixirs were mineral remedies for specific diseases or, at the most, to promote long life.<ref name=Alchemy/>
It is also known to Sikhs as Amrit, the Nectar of Immortality (see [[Amrit Sanskar]]).
===Europe===
More recently, French alchemist [[Nicolas Flamel]] was said to have discovered the elixir, and to have bestowed immortality on both himself and his wife [[Perenelle Flamel|Pernelle]]. The [[Count of St Germain|Comte de St. Germain]], an 18th century nobleman of uncertain origin and mysterious capabilities, was also reputed to have the Elixir and to be several thousand years old.
In April 2008, a group of young scientists demonstrated, in a Portuguese program of television (RTP - Abciência, Elixir of immortality), that it is possible to immortalize yeast cells. Thanks to the expression of "immortality genes" by biomolecules that exist in a vegetable extract, they had proved that they can hinder the death of yeast in fatal conditions of stress. {{Fact|date=June 2008}}
<gallery>
Image:Levedurasmortas1.jpg|100% of dead yeast cells
Image:Levedurasvivas.jpg|100% of live yeast cells
</gallery>
== Names ==
The Elixir has had hundreds of names (one scholar of Chinese history reportedly found over 1,000 names for it.), including (among others) '''Amrit Ras''' or '''[[Amrita]]''', '''Aab-i-Hayat''', '''Maha Ras''', '''Aab-Haiwan''', '''Dancing Water''', '''hasma-i-Kausar''', '''Mansarover''' or the '''Pool of Nectar''', '''Philosopher's stone''', and '''Soma Ras'''. The word elixir was not used until the 7th century A.D. and derives from the Arabic name for miracle substances, "al iksir." Some view it as a metaphor for the spirit of God (e.g. Jesus' reference to "the Water of Life" or "the [[Fountain of Life]]"). The [[Scottish People|Scots]] and the [[Irish People|Irish]] adopted the name for their "liquid gold": the [[Goidelic|Gaelic]] name for [[whiskey]] is [[uisge beatha]], or water of life.
Note: Aab-i-Hayat and Aab-i-Haiwan are Persian and both mean "water of life". "Chashma-i-Kausar" (not "hasma") is the "Fountain of Bounty", which Muslims believe to be located in Paradise. As for the Indian names, "Amrit Ras" means "immortality juice", "Maha Ras" means "great juice", and "Soma Ras" means "juice of Soma"; Soma was a psychoactive drug, by which the poets of the Vedas [[Veda]] received their visions, but the plant is not known any more. Later, Soma came to mean the moon. "Ras" later came to mean "sacred mood, which is experienced by listening to good poetry or music"; there are altogether nine of them. [[Mansarovar]], the "mind lake" is the holy lake at the foot of [[Mt. Kailash]] in Tibet, close to the source of the Ganges.
==See also==
* [[Alchemy]]
* [[Al Khidr]]
* [[Ambrosia]]
* [[Cup of Jamshid]]
* [[Elixir]]
* [[Fountain of youth]]
* [[Holy Grail]]
* [[Ma Gu]]
* [[Philosopher's stone]]
* [[Rejuvenation (aging)]]
* [[Universal panacea]]
* [[Serge Voronoff]]
==Footnotes==
{{reflist}}
==References==
* Heart of the Earth: The Elixir of life, second novel in the trilogy by Richard Anderson
* [http://khidr.org/ Al-Khidr, The Green Man]
* [http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~panopus/jeannie/alchemy%20&%20daoism.html Alchemy and Daoism]
* [http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org/naam/naam_amrit.htm Naam or Word, Book Three: Amrit, Nectar or Water of Life]
* Needham, J., Ping-Yu Ho, Gwei-Djen Lu. ''Science and Civilisation in China'', Volume V, Part III. Cambridge at the University Press, 1976.
* Turner, John D. (transl.). [http://www.webcom.com/~gnosis/naghamm/intpr.html The Interpretation of Knowledge]
[[Category:Alchemical substances]]
[[Category:Mythological substances]]
[[da:Eliksir]]
[[de:Elixier]]
[[es:Elixir de la vida]]
[[fa:آب حیات]]
[[fr:Elixir de longue vie]]
[[lt:Nemirtingumo eliksyras]]
[[nl:Toverdrank]]
[[ja:エリクサー]]
[[no:Eliksir]]
[[pl:Eliksir życia]]
[[sr:Еликсир]]
[[tr:İksir]]