Raymond Khoury - The Sanctuary

“How did you know all this about the outside world,” Mia asked, “from this isolated valley?”

“This isn’t a utopia. We’ve always lived in hiding. And there weren’t many of us. We knew that if we were to survive, we had to mix with the people on the outside. So we, the — the small circle of custodians, if you like — would take turns to leave the valley and travel. We always have. We never took the elixir with us. It stayed here. We roamed the lands, watched how the world evolved. We brought back books and treatises to teach the others. And we waited. Occasionally, we would encounter someone exceptional, someone we believed would be a strong ally, who could perhaps help us figure out how to overcome the obstacles facing us in wanting to share this with the rest of the planet. There was a knight, during the Crusades, who impressed my ancestors in that way.” Muneer turned to Webster. “Your grandfather was another.”

Webster seemed to be studying Muneer, running a mental calculation.

“No”—Muneer smiled, as if reading his thoughts—“I didn’t know him. I wasn’t born then. But my father knew him. He’s fondly remembered up here.”

“How did he find you?” Webster asked.

“We found him,” Muneer said, his eyes smiling. “He was in Damascus. He’d been asking about the Ouroboros, looking for books bearing the symbol. My father heard of him and sought him out. He brought him here. He was going to help us spread the word — he was full of optimism and energy, he wasn’t afraid of the forces that would oppose this — but that winter, he fell ill with typhoid. He didn’t want to die here, he insisted on trying to get back to his wife…even though she was continents away.”

Mia looked at him in amazement. “And in all these years, you’ve managed to keep it secret? No one ever left and gave it away?”

“This is a small place,” Muneer noted. “People — young people, in particular — need to go out and explore the world. So we don’t tell everyone about it. Some leave here and never return. Others come back and bring loved ones with them. So we wait. And we watch. A life of moderation doesn’t necessarily suit everyone, but when we feel that person has reached a stage of their life where they’re contented with what this valley has to offer, where they’re satisfied by working the land and enjoying our simple ways, where they won’t feel frustrated by the constraints of this isolated life, then — and only then — we invite them into the circle of custodians, to share in the secret, to enjoy its benefits, and to protect it.”

Mia sat back, her mind swirling with the possibilities. She glanced at Webster, and at Evelyn. They were both reading the thoughts written on her face. Her father gave her a small nod. She turned to Evelyn, who was also telegraphing her agreement.

She raised her glance to their host, and with her heart in her mouth she asked, “Can we help you bring this to the world?”

Muneer turned to his wife, and to the mokhtar. He studied her for a beat, then smiled graciously. “Do you think the world out there is ready for it?”

“I’m not sure it ever will be,” Mia replied. “But if it’s done properly…I don’t see how we can’t try.”

Muneer mulled her words, then nodded. “Why don’t we do this. Go back to your world. Put your affairs in order. Make sure you won’t be missed for a while. Then come back and stay with us for a little while. We can take our time, talk things through. And then, if we’re all agreed, perhaps we can make it happen together.”

Mia looked at her parents. “What do you say?”

Evelyn’s face grew serious. “We have to make sure the hakeem’s clinic is shut down and that anyone still held there is released.” She turned to Webster.

He nodded. “Absolutely. But after that,” he told her, then turned to Mia, his eyes brimming with anticipation and with pride, “I think we all have a lot of catching up to do.”

Mia smiled, suspecting that they’d have plenty of time to do just that.

At the time of writing this book, there’s nothing out there that’s been proven to slow down or arrest the aging process in humans. That’s the hard truth. But scientists are demonstrably making significant progress in figuring out why we age — and why we die. This progress is mostly due to the change — the “paradigm shift”—in approach that’s described in this book. Rather than just studying the symptoms of old age and figuring out how to deal with them, how to alleviate them, how to patch up our bodies as they fall apart in what the “deathists” consider its inescapable, preordained, and even noble descent into decrepitude, these “prolongevists” are now trying to figure out why aging happens in the first place and how to interrupt the aging process altogether, daring to believe that aging, like cancer and cardiovascular disease, can eventually be overcome, and that living longer, healthier lives wouldn’t be a bad thing.

The scientists working in this arena are facing a Herculean task: Not only do they need to contend with the most perplexing scientific issue to ever face mankind, they also need to deal with the prejudice that’s associated with the field of longevity medicine, as well as the fierce ethical debate that engulfs them at every turn. Those at the forefront of this most difficult, contentious, and worthy of fields — Aubrey de Grey, Tom Kirkwood, Michael Rose, Cynthia Kenyon, Leonard Guarente, Bruce Ames, and Barbara Hansen, to name but a few — are to be applauded and encouraged. One of them could — and, quite conceivably, will —make a discovery at some point in the future that will do nothing less than redefine humanity. This book is also dedicated to them.

For those of you interested in finding out more about this subject, I’d recommend starting with Bryan Appleyard’s eminently readable and very thorough new book How to Live Forever or Die Trying . I’d also highly recommend The Fountain of Youth , a collection of hugely insightful essays edited by Stephen Post and Robert Binstock. The Quest for Immortality, by Jay Olshansky and Bruce Carnes, is also pretty much required reading on the subject.

I’d also recommend checking out Sherwin Nuland’s take on Aubrey de Grey’s theories in his article “Do you want to live forever?” on the Web site of MIT’s Technology Review , which can be accessed at www.technologyreview.com. Also, www.futurepundit.com has a great archive on aging that’s regularly updated.

Mia’s journey to Beirut to work on the Phoenician project owes a debt of gratitude to Rick Gore and his compelling coverage of Spencer Wells and Pierre Zalloua’s work on tracing the origins of the Phoenicians. For those interested, visit https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic to check out National Geographic ’s Genographic Project. You can even participate and have your origins traced.

As for the historic parts of this book, a lot has been written — and dreamed up — about the Comte de St. Germain. The eighteenth century was rich in such ciphers, and hundreds of years later, his name retains its mystique. There’s no doubt that he existed, as countless letters and diaries from the period, written by diplomats and aristocrats, will attest. They mention, for instance, that he “thoroughly understood herbs and plants, and had invented the medicines of which he constantly made use, and which prolonged his life and health.” A great deal of his legend, however, was underpinned by what is believed to be one of the great literary hoaxes, the Souvenirs de Marie-Antoinette , purportedly written by the Countess d’Adhemar in the nineteenth century, and a bestseller in its time. Was St. Germain a mystic, a possessor of great secrets, an enlightened being — in the words of one of his contemporaries, “the most enigmatical of all incomprehensibles”? Or was he just a brilliant charlatan, a cunning swindler who was able to charm and hoodwink the gullible aristocrats around him?