James Strole, Bernadeane and Charles Paul Brown answer questions about Physical Immortality
The 8 most asked questions about Physical Immortality
An interview with James Strole and Bernadeane, 1999
Why would you want to live forever?
What makes you think that it's possible to live forever?
Do you have an immortal bible or how-to manual that outlines the steps of not dying?
Do you believe in life after death?
What about overpopulation?
How are you going to look in a thousand years?
Where does God fit into the picture with immortality?
How is living immortally different from living as a mortal person?
Q: Why would you want to live forever in a world that's so stressed out, screwed up, polluted and negative?
Jim: Well, if nothing else, to outlive those things. I'm excited about an evolution on my two feet without dying. The way human beings have evolved through the death cycles we just go right back and repeat the same old patterns again. You live, you die, you carry on where your ancestors left off and pass it on to your children who take over from you and repeat it or make it worse and it keeps on going in that cycle. I feel there's an evolution without dying. So I'm excited about outliving our problems, I'm excited about outliving death.
Bernie: I find no reason to die, no matter what condition the world is in. I'm looking forward to a time when it won't be this way. I can see it and I'm going to stay around to see the changes take place.
Q: No one has ever done this before, you don't see immortals walking around the streets. What makes you think that it's possible to live forever?
Jim: First of all, I feel it. Every human advancement on this planet began with a feeling. The Wright brothers, before they flew, they felt it. Also Roger Bannister who broke the 4 minute mile barrier - he felt he could do it before he did it. Everything begins with a feeling. I think that our bodies have the ability to continuously rejuvenate themselves in the right environment and that's the feeling I have about it.
Bernie: We're just the progression that's supposed to be taking place. We were bound to happen. There was bound to be a time when human beings wouldn't die anymore. We're writing our story as we go along. It is time for human beings to live without death.
Q: Do you have an immortal bible or how-to manual that outlines the steps of not dying?
Jim: No bible, no manual - we just write this book as we go along. We're not trying to make a religion out of this. We're like new scientists delving into human potential. We've looked at the earth and the universe. We're looking at human potential - what we're capable of really doing.
Bernie: All religions that I know of have their set beliefs, doctrines, their rituals. I will never be a religion because I cannot set a bunch of rules to live by, it's not possible for me. I like change, I like experiencing the new and the fresh all the time. And we have something to do about that. What I'm experiencing today I won't experience tomorrow. There's always for me something new and fresh.
Q: Do you believe in life after death?
Jim: I believe in life before death. I think that's the most important. For me personally, I don't believe there's any life after death. It's something we as human beings created to make death more palatable.
Bernie: I think that we've created in our minds, life after death. I don't believe there's a reality to that at all. I've given much much thought to this, I'm not shallow in my way of thinking at all, and I know there is no life after death. I know it. There is no life after death, I'm not interested in it. I'm interested in the life after death walking on two feet. We constantly drop off that which we've experienced. I can't live on the great experiences that I've had. I've had some great experiences but they were for the moment, for that time. I can't look back. I can't recapture anything. I'm ready for a new experience daily, moment by moment.
Q: What about overpopulation? Is there room for everyone to live forever?
Bernie: Right now there's plenty of room for many more people on this planet. I've travelled all over the world. I've seen from the airplane thousands of miles of barren land. There's plenty of land that can be developed. I don't feel right now that that's a problem. When it becomes a problem we'll have an answer for it. To me everything is possible. I see inhabiting other worlds. I think human beings are capable of doing anything we want to do, including anything we want to do to make it more comfortable for ourselves - we're totally capable of that. There are a lot of things involved in overpopulation. When a person really wakes up to live, they're not so interested in creating large families, having lots of children to carry on for them after they're dead. If you bring another person into the world it's because you really want to have that person in your life and recognize them as the individual that they are. You want to give them every opportunity to experience a quality of living that has never been experienced, but should be experienced by all of us. That's definitely what we're going for.
Jim: I think with immortality there'll be a natural balance in the propogation of children. There's evidence that species who have a lot of death in them, breed faster and produce more to keep the species going. Also, it's a myth about there being no room on the planet. It's the same as saying there's not enough life, there's not enough money, there's not enough food. This is propogated by the intelligence of death, people with that outlook. The reality is, there's plenty of everything. What has to end is the greed of death, those who move in that intelligence - who move in that chemistry.
Q: How are you going to look in a thousand years? Most people begin to worry about their appearance at an early age and are pretty much concerned about it day by day after that.
Jim: We're going to look just great. First of all, it's been proven that our bodies have the ability to continuously rejuvenate in the right environment. But the reality is, we have not had that right environment. It's like a seed on barren ground. If it's not nourished or watered, it's not going to blossom to its full potential. It's the same thing with human beings. So it's crucial to have the environment that's conducive to human life, rather than the stress-oriented, dog-eat-dog world that we've created. And the toxic human environment is far more deadly than all the toxins we create around us outside ourselves. By ending the toxicity of the human interaction which is all propagated by a death consciousness, we'll have a new interaction with each other based on life and the encouragement of life.
Bernie: I feel that if all of our energy, money and many other things were devoted to the betterment of human beings in living rather than dying, then we'd see very rapid development in this area. We would come up with ways of taking care of whatever needs to be taken care of with the physical body. So much money has been put into warfare, into death, into dying. Our whole system is built around death, and much of our money goes in these ways. Insurance, burial plots, all kinds of things that have nothing to do with being alive.
Jim: I thought of creating a bumper sticker that says: "Quit Dying: Heaven's Overcrowded", or "Quit Dying: Live Here". Let's save heaven. It's so important not to look in the mirror and when you see a gray hair, or a few gray hairs, go, "Oh I'm dying!". People are constantly measuring themselves. We have to realize that we are in constant change, but to allow that constant change to happen you have to open yourself up to all the possibilities.
Q: Where does God fit into the picture with immortality?
Jim: No gods for me. I've been there, done that. I feel that people created God for their insecurities and because they didn't want to take the resposibility themselves for their own life. But I do believe in a higher power, and that is you and I together. It's really tremendous when you get right down to the place where you're taking full responsibilty for your own life and are moving with others that feel the same way. That's when you have an unlimited reality. But it's physical, it's real, it's face to face.
Bernie: It's a very big subject. It seems like everything in one's life has been formed around God. I experienced God in my life because I came by way of religion. But I'm not religious anymore. Once I woke up to being physically immortal, I really got in touch with the fact that it was me all the time. It's other people that make a difference. We were giving God all the honor and worship but it came down to one another. When I really had the experience of being physically immortal, I got in touch with you, and that's what made the difference for me. We have never thought that human beings were pure enough to really be able to put our whole selves into one another, to really experience who we are to each other - and it's really very precious who we are to one another. You've taken the place of God for me. I don't have a God. I found that it was you all the time, it was my self that made the difference. It's so fulfilling to have this experience. But really, coming through all of that, I really thought I was going to die, physically die, because God was my reality for even being alive. I had to get in touch with even greater realities. We really are responsible for everything that happens, including the creation of human beings. We are responsible. We're the ones who bring forth other people It's people who bring forth people.
Jim: That's so true. You do bring forth people. That's what I've seen you do. You've done so much for me in that. You make it so physical, what we are. You've helped me, as a person, to take the responsibility for who and what I am on this planet. Not just to wait on a God, as most people do, to clean everthing up some dispensation away. You encourage and inspire me, and others, to really make the difference now. And that's what immortality is about. It's taking the responsibility to really live now, totally, not wait for some time down the line, when you've got it all together, or some Messiah comes, or some god changes everything. We are the ones, we are the people that can make the difference right now.
Q: How is living immortally different from living as a mortal person? It sounds like a completely different life.
Jim: Even though we live in this world, we interact with everybody, we have a real respect for people as a whole, but we have no respect for death and we don't enter into that chemistry. You can interact with people and not enter into that chemistry that so many people get into around death. Talking continuously about there age, how old they are, how they can't do this now. Talking about how their arthritis is killing them; how their grandfather had heart trouble and their going to have heart trouble.Talking about their grave plot, and talking about their life insurance policy and giving their inheritance to their kids when they die. And their kids are sitting back waiting for them to die, loving them yet waiting for their parents to die so they can get the money. Everything revolving around death.
We have a new world that we've created. We don't give an inheritance to our kids, we don't have life insurance policies waiting for us to die, we don't have grave plots around the corner just in case we die. We've closed all those doors. It's a very vibrant and very stimulating and very on-the-edge way to live. But it keeps you sharp, it keeps you moving all the time, it keeps you thinking all the time. So I want to encourage people to think the unthinkable - do not be afraid to go past those sacred cows. Question whether there's a god or not. Question whether you have to die or not. Even if you don't want to believe in immortality, I encourage you to question, to uncover those mysteries for yourself, turn over those stones. Don't just believe in it or go along with what somebody else has said. Something that you've been taught all your life, or has been taught for many thousands of years in the religious structure.
I live a different life. It's great. Sometimes it takes a lot of energy to make the changes, because we're taking the responsibility. Human beings have a tendency to get very stuck in their ruts, in their patterns and they're very habitual . We have to be alert all the time, to be willing to change patterns, to stimulate ourselves and be around people who are also willing to inspire us and stimulate us to be more ourself all the time. That's great, when you have interaction with people who want to live and feel the same way you do about life.
Bernie: We're not here to convince anyone of anything, to get into a war with individuals. We're here to come in contact with people who feel what we feel. And there has to be a lot of people like me in this world. That's who I'm after, that's who I want to come in contact with. I don't find a challenge in trying to destroy somebody's belief system. I'm not interested in doing that. But I am interested in coming in contact with those of you who have really tried with everything you've done and everything you've experienced, and you're ready to move on in your life. You're ready for staying alive.