Health

I was thinking today what allowed me and others to still be alive at 63 and older? The first thing is genetics, a country with a good government and good food growing base, intellectual and intuitive intelligence, not drinking alcohol at all or very seldom, not smoking anything, understanding that fast foods kill in the long run if eaten every day, understanding that red meat every day reduces normal lifespans 13% of the time, understanding that life cannot be predicted at all in some ways and just accepting that fact always and not worrying about it, etc.

In my specific case it was good genetics and coming from on my father's side pioneers who had been in the U.S. since 1725 when they sailed up the Philadelphia River from England. Since then they spread to Ohio, Michigan, and my particular strain, to Kansas and then my Grandfather moved to the west coast of Washington, Oregon, Arizona and finally bought a house in Seattle. On the other side of my family though both of my grandparents were born in the U.S. both had to go back to Scotland to grow up, one because the family home in Philadelphia burned down, and the other went back to grow up because his father died when he was 8. Both met in Scotland and returned to the land of their births.

Then my father who decided to become a vegetarian for health reasons in 1934 because he was studying with Paul Bragg, (Jack LaLanne's teacher) stayed a lacto-ovo vegetarian his whole life and raised me this way too. So, I was a 100% Lacto-ovo vegetarian until age 32 when I started studying with Tibetan Lamas. They thought I needed to eat meat because they all live above 8000 feet and vegetarians cannot usually survive under those conditions, although they do well in warmer less severe climates and in places where there is good indoor heating which wasn't what Tibet was like in 1980.

A love of nature and wilderness and of mountain climbing and of traveling in general kept me generally out of jobs that left me stranded in offices which made me more healthy because I was away from smog and unhealthy city living generally after I was about 21 and finished growing up in the Los Angeles Suburbs. Believing in God was very helpful to my living this long as well. And even though being spiritually gifted and an intuitive almost took my life up until about age 23 it slowly became one of the most important things that kept me alive after I got used to being that way as an adult because I was constantly protected in many different ways and often knew most dangers even before they arose for both me and my family and this had a form of unlimited protection inherent for me and my family and encouraged positive behavior for all of us in a way that kept us all healthy and alive. So, all of these factors combined to make sure that I am still alive at age 63. However, it is important to note that until I was diagnosed with a hypothyroid condition at age 58 I didn't expect to live to be over 65. Now since I was diagnosed and started to use Armour Thyroid from Canada by a doctor's prescription I could now live to 100 or more under the right conditions.

Here is a Koan that I was given in regard to long life:

"If you want to live forever you might die right now. But if you are ready to die right now you may live forever!"

This just appears to be exactly the way life really is.