From "Notes From a Subterranean Library in Oregon," a compilation of Ray Peat's newspaper letters and columns, compiled by T3Uncoupled (2023). Originally published 1972.

Ray Peat, "Dear Tim", p. 16

Dear Tim I have just read GE 44, and have comments on several things in it. Immortality of the body will resolve the disputes about what constitutes survival of the personality. To achieve it, we have to know what the “intrinsic” causes of bodily deterioration are, in aging. When growth stops, most differentiation of cell function stops, and soon dedifferentiation and cell death begins. Anything that interferes with energy production promotes the process: damage leads to thickened connective tissue, which limits diffusion of oxygen, which causes more damage. In youth and health, cell water is “liquid-crystalline,” or ordered, and this order causes the “cell sap” to retain potassium and exclude sodium. Anything that lowers the energy charge of the cell causes the water to “melt” or become disordered. When dedifferentiation is complete, division is all the cell can do: wasting from cell death, and cancer are the two outcomes of “aging.” Progesterone and testosterone, two very similar female and male hormones, promote differentiation. Estrogen (men have about as much as women do except for a peak following ovulation) dedifferentiates, and promotes all the known processes of aging. Experience modifies cell water (especially in nerves), and so is intimately involved in development of tissue: a stimulating environment causes brain growth in rats, even when they are mature. A large brain/body ratio correlates with a long life span. Acquired brain size happens to be inheritable, at least in rats. (These data are all American, published in the most respectable journals. The Russians for a long time have had an attitude toward matter — even in the 19th century — that makes them more respectful than the average Western person of the abilities of

matter and organisms, and better able to have richly varied perceptions about nature. The mechanistic-Cartesian western tradition of science tries to dominate “passive matter” and distains, ignores, or steals the real achievements of the Russians — whose claims to have invented just about everything turn out to be true, if you study sources rather than western review articles.) These data (and many more) imply that “culture,” in a very specific sense, reflects and limits bodily evolution, development and life-span, as well as having its more obvious effects on consciousness and behavior. Discovery and high generality of knowledge contribute to renewal of the body — bodily flexibility and sensitivity are an aspect of “high generality of knowledge.” Cellular, behavioral, and intellectual complexification require participation in a richer culture. Sexuality is an important part of this evolution-for-survival: consider the idea that orgasm is always a discovery-perception of newness. The minimum immortal unit is apparently a sexual-intellectual couple. There are vitamin-mineral-hormone-manipulation technologies that delay aging, but awareness is essential to stabilize the complexification. Instead of eugenic selection, we are left with the personally more complex and rewarding responsibility for growth. It is probably through modifications of cell water that attitudes can change enzyme function, response to drugs, intensity of consciousness, etc. Palladin, a famous Russian enzymologist, has shown many effects of awareness on enzyme activity. Kozyrev’s ideas on time and organismic “handedness,” etc., are probably closely related to the microstructure of cell water. Incidentally, the hemispheric spin effect is mostly mythical: it was only recently that someone finally managed to design a very big,

highly insulated vessel that would consistently show a hemispheric

spin; the bathtub effect depends on the shape of the tub, small currents, etc. — this was a good example of how a good theory can persist in spite of many years of non-conformation. Dror Sadeh, while working in Washington D.C., did some experiments that confirmed Kozyrev’s “wildest” suggestions. He mounted a cesium clock on a truck and compered its signal with that of a fixed clock in Washington; as he drove up and down the coast, the distant clock showed a “red shift,” corresponding to distance (he went as far as Maine, about 1500 miles away). The distant clock apparently ran more slowly, or else distance altered the frequency of the radio signal; the effect began at sun-rise, and continued through the day; he observed a similar effect in star-light passing close to the sun. This spoils the red-shift argument for the expanding universe, and also changes the probable meaning of the circumnavigated cesium clock that was supposed to confirm the existence of a relativistic “twin (or clock) paradox.” They support Kozyrev’s contention that time is a form of energy and organization (negative entropy). There is a developing link between these ideas and those of the Russians who maintain that telepathy and PK use a kind of energy that is not electromagnetic: H.C. Dudley is working on the implications of a universal, isotropic “neutrino sea,” which among other things forms a link for nuclear interaction at a distance, and serves as an “ether” for transmission of electro-magnetic energy. Nuclear decay, for example, turns out to be an equilibrium process, not a “constant,” and is subject to alteration by such things as molecular order. His most recent work will appear in the physics journal NUOVO CIMENTO soon. The Kirlian effect itself doesn’t seem to involve anything but a visualization — by a high frequency alternating “corona discharge” — of conductive regions in and around the organism; an understanding of the conductive medium — electronic

resonance, or “neutrino sea,” or whatever — is a problem that has been recognized by many others. Hormones, radiation, emotions, etc., cause such changes of tissue conductivity and charge distribution, that can be detected with a Burr microvoltmeter or more common instruments. If we can avoid a compulsive answering-too-soon, and assimilate a very great variety of experiences, high generality interpretations will eventually become possible.