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The gruesome history of eating corpses as medicine (2012)

smithsonianmag.com

27 points by Anilm3 4 years ago · 17 comments (16 loaded)

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frankfrankfrank 4 years ago

Here we go with the blown up academic nonsense. It just has to stops with these people. Just because a few people may or may not have done it, does not mean it was some sort of widespread practice.

We have got to start calling these people out who have turned the academy into a National Inquirer because they are desperate for attention and funding. It’s toxic and harmful to humanity how they twist things up and distort reality, a la 1984, to the point where there is no telling what the truth is and no one really even can cares anymore because it’s been so convoluted and perverted by self-important, attention starved people.

  • kergonath 4 years ago

    But then, how would you know it’s nonsense without studying it? Are you saying that they should not consider it because you’ve decided it’s wrong? If there is no evidence of it, the conclusion will be “it’s thought to have happened but not at any significant frequency” and that would be it. Then you have a nice source to show people when you feel like ranting about attention-seeking academics instead of just your disapprobation.

  • whoren 4 years ago

    What on earth are you ranting about? Your pointless frothing bears no relation to the linked article. Or if you think it does, post your own evidence, instead of whining.

    • frankfrankfrank 4 years ago

      Your fantastical response imaging me “frothing” as a convenient trope to rationalize and soothe the cognitive dissonance of hearing things that do not conform to your disordered mindset does not provide a lot of confidence that you can have valid opinions on these types of matters. You’re not very impressive.

  • coffeeblack 4 years ago

    While I agree with you that pseudo science publications are not helpful, I very much disagree with your comparison to 1984.

r3trohack3r 4 years ago

Tangentially related:

The word mummy originally referred to a medicine, now called mummia, made from Egyptian mummies.

Ground up Egyptian mummies have been used in pigments too (mummy brown). Many paintings from the Pre-Raphaelites used this pigment. The artist Edward Burne-Jones was reported to have ceremonially buried his tube of mummy brown in his garden when he discovered its true origins.

There was even an entire counterfeit scene for Egyptian mummies where fresh corpses were embalmed and sold off for use in medicine and pigments!

DonHopkins 4 years ago

If God meant for people not to eat people, we wouldn't be made of meat!

denton-scratch 4 years ago

In tantric buddhism, there is a tradition that the flesh of a "seven-times returner" (a person who has been reborn seven times in succession as a human) is of great value in addressing meditation problems. Their flesh was made into pills; I knew someone who owned a few of these pills.

The phrase "The time has come for you to give up your life for the sake of all beings" comes to mind. You didn't want to get a reputation as a seven-times returner.

ComradePhil 4 years ago

The British Royal family is known to have done it for a long time in the past: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389142/British-roy...

It is very likely that they still do it but because people have lot more power and influence now so they started hiding their more controversial activities. It is very likely that they have included other elites from elsewhere in the practice... which is why I believe the adrenochrome story, which we are supposed to think is a "conspiracy theory", but I think it is much more likely to be happening than it is portrayed by naysayers.

qiskit 4 years ago

Macbeth...

"... Double double toil and trouble

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf

Witches' mummy, maw and gulf ... "

In case you wondered what witches' mummy was, now you know.

SemanticStrengh 4 years ago

Human young blood perfusions have potent rejuvenating properties. Is there scientific evidence that eating human flesh/organs would provide additional benefits over raw blood?

Spoiler: there are probably many benefits, see e.g the cognitive benefits that give cerebrolysin, not hard to extrapolate from this and there must exists some human only Peptides. I recall that women's milk has a special unique substance that is neurotrophic, criminally it is not synthetically adjuvenated in cow's milk.

Of course I'm not advocating you to eat me but making artificial babies without brains might be not science fiction. It highly relate with the urgent need of being able to replace animal breeding with philosophical zombies.

  • boomboomsubban 4 years ago

    >Human young blood perfusions have potent rejuvenating properties. Is there scientific evidence that eating human flesh/organs would provide additional benefits over raw blood?

    With a blood transfusion, the "better" qualities of the blood would largely remain as it gets treated like all the other blood in the body. When eating young flesh, it gets the same treatment as any other random piece of meat. It'd need to be vastly superior to something like pork to even be worth considering, and it just isn't.

    The real parallel with transfusions would be growing organs for transplant, something that is researched.

    Plus, I think "young blood transfusions" are largely snake oil.

    • SemanticStrengh 4 years ago

      > and it just isn't

      According to your mind

      But yes obviously eating human meat is probably not very potent. However doing human peptide extracts out of human meat (or out of human blood, urine, milk) like we already successfully do for cerebrolysin with cattle brain extracts could yield revolutionary health or nootropic results. Indeed again, I am not advocating for immoralism.

      > think "young blood transfusions" are largely snake oil. I have extensive erudition in pharmacology and gerontology and young blood has m a n y explanative factors that make it a very promising therapeutic.

    • jpfdez 4 years ago

      "The Food of the Gods",Arthur C. Clarke.

  • DonHopkins 4 years ago

    Richard is introduced to the blood boy:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBA0AH-LSbo

    • SemanticStrengh 4 years ago

      Wow an answer by Don Hopkins himself! BTW your meme is hilarious, makes me want to watch SV again! But seriously, longevity and improving healthspan is a real achieavable goal, see e.g this benign 410% reduction in all cause mortality. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12577695/ The only thing it lacks is communication and maybe people like you could have some meaningful impact or at least try to.

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