The concept of “living forever” has been around since the beginning of time, in every corner of society: religion, philosophy, art, science. Songs like “Live Forever” by Billy Joe Shaver, Oasis, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors—all of these artists sing of life forever in a metaphorical sense, yet none of them dare to sing about this as a reality that is personally attainable. But this is not the case for everyone nowadays.
“I have found more relief in demoting my mind and elevating my body… it feels so liberating to me. Because my entire life, I was desperate to be free from myself.”
I recently watched a documentary about a man named Bryan Johnson who is on a mission to live longer than what science considers humanly possible. Despite being overwhelmingly successful in the business world, Bryan struggled for decades with depression, sleep deprivation, and poor diet, so much so that he questioned if life was worth living. So, he sold his multi-million dollar business at the age of thirty-four and explored the anti-aging world, eventually structuring his entire life around practices and supplements that slow the aging process. And according to his biological data, it has worked: an elite-level resting heart rate, muscle and fat percentages in the 98th percentile, and a biological age over a decade younger than his chronological age. It cannot be denied that his methods are slowing his biological clock, but what sacrifice does it require to achieve peak biological health?
When Bryan was asked about what had led him to this way of living, and how he was able to do it, his response was jarring: “I have found more relief in demoting my mind and elevating my body… it feels so liberating to me. Because my entire life, I was desperate to be free from myself.”
There is a lot to take in here, but Bryan’s response can be broken down into three active statements: “demoting my mind,” “elevating my body” and “free from myself.” Let’s think of this like a problem, since that is how Bryan has approached this life decision:
“Demoting the mind” + “Elevating the body” = “Freedom from self”
Since the first two statements are factors in an equation, we will consider the “how” behind their achievement. The latter statement—Bryan’s goal in life—will be considered in light of the two actions. But first, there is a glaring “Why?” behind his experimental way of living, and when we scratch the surface to answer this question for Bryan, we may find that his avoidance of death is more in line with society than we realize.
Why would he do this?
The way that Bryan is able to accomplish these goals is through a rejection of the mind for the purpose of listening to the body, but his approach is unique to many of us. We have seen examples of someone who subjects their body to the will of their mind—think about New York businessmen working eighty-hour weeks, or a bodybuilder depriving himself of water in preparation for a show. Both of these groups of individuals are ignoring what their body is telling them because their mind is in control.
Should we listen more to our body or our mind? Can we trust our minds?
Likewise, in society, many of us actively pursue things that are detrimental to our well-being: soda, fast food, doom-scrolling, alcohol, drugs. In our minds, every one of us knows that these things are shortening our lifespan, but our mind actively goes against what our body says is toxic. Essentially, our body is telling us one thing, but we are choosing to reject it using our mind. And if we do this long enough, it rewires our mind, and both mind and body become subject to the addiction that forms, giving us the distrust that Bryan once experienced. Bryan is a unique example of someone who disregards the mind for the sake of the body, giving his physical well-being authority over his mind.
You could dismiss this as the decision of someone who does not have the hope of Christ, but the underlying message is the same in society as in the sanctuary: the body is of less value than the mind. Consider these examples:
The disregard for the body is not just “in the world” but in our churches, and many unbelievers—just like Bryan—see this dichotomy and seek to resolve it by their own means. But as believers we are held to a higher calling because of our identity in Christ. Therefore, as Christians, what are we to do with this observation? Should we listen more to our body or our mind? Can we trust our minds?
Scripture teaches us to have control of our body (1 Cor. 9:25-27), so perhaps what Bryan is showing us is evidence of the power of the mind. For the Christian, however, instead of rejecting the mind altogether, we must control the mind just as we would control the body (Rom. 8:5-6).
“Demoting the Mind”
Though he may not realize it, Bryan follows in the footsteps of philosophers like René Descartes: both individuals separate the body and mind as two distinct natures. But unlike Descartes, Bryan places more authority on that which is seen versus what is unseen. And because the mind can employ types of rationality that solely employ empirical truth, Bryan has conformed his mind in a way that rejects value systems that extend beyond the corporeal, something that even Descartes would find disagreeable.
Our minds are capable of being “made new [in Christ],” yet we must ward off the rationalization of the slow-drip of sin.
And it is here where Bryan’s definition of the mind and the Christian understanding part ways: Bryan has submitted the mind’s rational nature to corporeal reality, while the believer submits their mind’s rational nature to the values outlined in God’s moral law. Even though our rational nature is corrupted by sin, we must not reject it completely, but rather constantly reorient the rational nature of our minds toward Christlikeness. Brennan Manning, a troubadour evangelist of the ’90s, describes this same tension as such: “Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.” Our minds are capable of being “made new [in Christ],” yet we must ward off the rationalization of the slow-drip of sin.
The mind is a fragile thing—we can be neurologically rewired time and time again throughout our lives, and sometimes without even realizing it. This is not a bad thing, but rather is a God-intended design of the human mind; it is our responsibility to know how temporal experiences are influencing the rewiring of our mind. Perhaps this is why numerous Old and New Testament authors spoke to the discipline of the mind (Isa. 26:3; 2 Tim. 1:7). We are to submit our minds to Christ, because if we give our mind authority and interpret all needs through the mind, we have the same result: we abandon the moral authority that exists outside of ourselves. But what is more concerning with this aspect is the rewiring of neural pathways that takes place over time, affecting judgement of right and wrong, and moral decision-making. Others become means to an end for the purpose of one’s own fulfillment; a mind without accountability interprets truth through itself.
Professor Nash in A Beautiful Mind said it well: “Like a diet of the mind, I choose not to indulge in certain appetites.” He echoes the commands of Paul in Romans 12:2, to be disciplined “by the renewing of your mind,” for the purpose of discerning God’s moral will on earth. As Christians, while we are always subject to temporal, biological experiences for as long as we live on this earth, we are not to “indulge” in appetites of the mind that are contrary to God’s moral law, but rather we are to trust our minds as much as they are renewed through the presence of God.
“Elevating the Body”
Philosophically, to interpret all needs through the body is to abandon any source of moral authority outside of yourself. If you were to listen to what your body needs, not holding it against the demands of Scripture, you would remove God from His throne. And if you were to do this without consideration of the mind, then there is nothing separating humanity from the rest of God’s creation: plants and animals serve the needs of the body, with no consideration for the rational mind.
Because the body is part of God’s creation—and inextricably linked to the imago Dei—as Christians we are required to care for our bodies well. Scripture describes our bodies as “temples for the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and as a living sacrifice unto God (Rom. 12:1). It even speaks positively of the body, saying that sexual immorality is a sin against our body (1 Cor. 6:18). In Scripture, the body is not spoken of as an authority, but it still holds a valuable place in the human experience. But if we were to give our body authority over our mind, we subject ourselves to corporeal things.
“Desperate to be free from myself”
In light of all this talk about body/mind dualism, let’s consider the following: when we elect to give our body or our mind authority over our lives, what are we seeking to accomplish? What is it in our physiology that we believe will be the cure-all to the pain that we experience in the world? The wisest man who ever lived spoke to this question and yet we tend to brush off his advice as “outdated” or “irrelevant” (Eccl. 1:16–18; 2:1–11). If God has wired our bodies and our minds in a manner that makes them inseparable, to give one authority over the other is only deepening our felt imprisonment to the human condition because we are not living according to God’s original design for humanity. To separate body from mind—or to give one authority over the other—is ultimately taking authority away from Christ and depriving us of how life is meant to be lived.
Ultimately, as Christians, we are not called to give body or mind the authority over our lives, but Christ himself.
The sad irony of this is that even when Bryan was faced with the reality that there are qualities and virtues of right living that neither the body nor the mind can fulfill, he remained unphased. In this documentary, Bryan reconnects with his estranged son before his son goes off to college, and Bryan finds such deep fulfillment in reorienting his life around another person. He is overjoyed to be so close to another human, finding fulfillment in life beyond something empirically true. In real-time as the documentary is being filmed, we see him trying to reconcile this communal virtue with his body-over-mind philosophy, but Bryan is so enslaved to this vision of biological health that he dismisses this realized, communal truth as irrelevant to his pursuit of the ideal life. The documentary ends as his son departs for college, and Bryan returns to his futile pursuit of life everlasting apart from Christ.
However, even if the unbeliever heeded Bryan’s failure, they would be missing something. Humans can consciously listen to our mind and our body, intentionally choose to live in community and exercise freedom in accordance with God’s moral laws, but even this is not enough. Ultimately, as Christians, we are not called to give body or mind the authority over our lives, but Christ himself. We are to adhere our lives and well-being to that which is outlined in Scripture. If God designed human life, then His Word reveals the right way to live—in terms of biological health, mental well-being, and societal health—which requires a submitting of the whole self to His authority.
Bryan is the extreme example of body/mind duality, but his life philosophy is to be heeded as a warning. Because he has subjected the mind to the body, he truly believes he will never die, all due to his religious commitment to maintaining biological health. When an individual has not experienced Christ, this philosophy is not far-fetched; their concept of the “good life” is defined by lived experiences, the temporal reality that surrounds us. But we are driven by an eschatological reality that gives our current lives meaning: Paul writes to the Corinthian church that “we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
When our mind and body inevitably fail, we shall not fear because we have a greater purpose. And we shall not fear death because we are living life according to the unseen, eternal reality made known in the revealed Word of God and in the salvific work of Christ himself.
