Customer Reviews

The ImmorTalist Manifesto: Stay Young & Save the World

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

As a transhumanist, I had high hopes for The ImmortTalist Manifesto. I should have taken the time to read all the Amazon.com reader reviews first (about half the reviews appear fake, which is telling in and of itself). This book is written at a high school level from a perspective of arrogance and self-righteousness. It’s a litany of copy editing mistakes accompanied by immature socialist diabtribe about ending war for all time and building a new world order based on the unrealistic and incomplete “Immortalist” worldview.

You doubt me? Read this:

My childhood friends have all grown old, fat and ugly. I now look more like their son than their classmate or peer. I am still getting carded by bouncers at bars and clubs. I will outlive my enemies and marry their children.

The above is certainly not expressive of the attitude of a human being with the potential to build a political alliance capable of changing the world. The above words are typical of a man who rambles extensively in his manifesto about how we have a social responsibility to offer immortality to the rich and poor alike on a sliding scale but whose web site offers to teach the secrets of immortality for the price of only $1 million. The book most certainly gives no practical advice on extending one’s own life. The “wisdom” contained within is nebulous at best and is outright useless at worst.

“Elixxir” wants to smash poverty, terrorism and war through an Immortalist world government and via socialism. He espouses using the world’s military budgets for longevity research. This is an appealing (to me) if highly unrealistic idea. The first nation to follow this advice would be invaded by its enemies shortly thereafter. Imagine the United States making a declaration tomorrow that all military budget dollars will immediately be used to extend the human lifespan. I wonder who would pick up the pieces after the nation destroyed in civil war and China got through ravaging what remained.

The manifesto itself is poorly copy edited yet the writer claims to be a Yale graduate. The writing style is best described as disjointed. Rather than presenting a concise synopsis of some realistic plan for extended longevity or actual immortality, this book reads like a drug addict’s rambling tale of the first time he did heroin - how great it was to fall in love with the drug. Switch heroin for immortality and you have The ImmorTalist Manifesto. The only difference is that “Elixxir” is in love with immortality and claims to have the secrets to live longer yet manages to ramble for 223 pages without giving any of them away in a concrete or practical fashion.

If you are interested in living longer, this is not the book for you. If you are interested in a personal guru - a fakir who will gladly take your life savings - then by all means, purchase The ImmorTalist Manifesto. You’ll need to have a million dollars to actually have any “secrets” revealed to you. Narcissism, hypocrisy and immortality don’t go together in my worldview, so I will avoid any further publications by anyone calling themself “Elixxir.”

If you’ve been thinking about buying The ImmorTalist Manifesto, please visit Immortalism: The Official Site first, for a taste of the true emptiness that awaits you.

I’d like to live as long as possible assuming I’m healthy and happy. I’d probably committ suicide if a self-inflated narcissicist like “Elixxir” ran the world.

Just do a Google search and look at Elixxir's website. The contents therein should be enough to convince you how ridiculous this book is as well. Anyone who will rent you his "presence" for an evening for $1,500 (or how about a year for $1,000,000!!!) is a charlatan of the highest order. Gee, you mean I can ask Elixxir anything I want and watch him eat for only $1,500?! Give me a break.

This is the only item I've reviewed on Amazon that truly deserves 0 stars. Unfortunately that isn't an option.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this book contains essentially nothing new. It's a long, high school level essay making a series of disconnected, entirely obvious points about the merits of trying to live longer. A large element of the book deals with ethics. Here's the problem. The author himself is one of the least ethical writers I have ever encountered. Because he was spurned by Roy Walford when he tried to get Walford to help him promote his book, the author went on a rampage to discredit Walford and everything connected to Walford. He is even posting fake "reviews", under fake identities, of Lisa Walford's and Brian Delaney's new book, The Longevity Diet, trying to get people to buy his book instead. And this is someone who wants me to buy his book about ethics? My recommendation: don't buy this book, try to write your own instead!

I find it quite interesting that nearly all of the positive reviews of this book sound as though they were written by the same hand. They all quote 3rd party reviews & praise, while bashing other reviewers who have been less generous with their accolades.

First of let me say that I have been following Life Extension for over 20 years and I believe
calorie restriction can be a valuable approach to slow aging. Anecdotal evidence is not the way to
judge the merit of an approach but Richard Elixxir doesn't look much more youthful than several friends I know that are his age (and older.)

The reason I cite this is because Elixxir relies heavily on anecdotal evidence such as citing Pritikin's death from leukemia as evidence that the Pritikin diet probably doesn't prevent cancer.

BTW He asks people to send him stories about negative experiences with other diets/competitors.

There just isn't much in the book that you couldn't get from
a magazine article or with better information from one of Roy Walford's books. . His web site is pitch for customized menus and coaching and yes-you even can pay to go shopping with Elixxir.

The impression I got was that Ellixxir is a self-appointed guru and much of much of his writing is filled with
leftist political drivel that you can get on any college campus.

His writing is not without a certain irony though-e.g. He will rail against capitalism while asking you to send him money. He makes statements that reveal a deep ignorance of religion and people of faith with rambles such as "Why The Religious Right & Vatican oppose in vitro fertilization for infertile couples, genetic engineering to fight cancer, stem-cell research to fight Parkinson's, and cloning to save you from a certain Death." Then he will quote a scripture out of context. You can get the same thing from a drunk at a bar.

His book and his web site are a pitch for more money where you can get coaching and customized menus and yes-you even can pay to go shopping with Elixxir

Life Extension magazine has been promoting this book and while they are usually a good source of alternative medical information they now have a lot of competition and lately they have been pushing few things that are a just a little goofy such as this book or ads for the same folks that turned froze Ted William's body.

On the book: Pass-you'll save time and money.

I bought this book after reading negative reviews of The Longevity Diet. I had heard that both the negative reviews (one by "David Spence" one by "Dr Dre Minake") were written by Elixxir, the author of The Immortalist Manifesto, but I didn't believe it. Now I'm thinking it's probably true. The Immortalist Manifesto is mostly a rambling rehash of things you can easily find on the Web about the possible benefits of a long-lived society. Some of the points made are important ones, but they're easy to find on the Web. There's no reason to buy this book. It is probably because of his insecurity about the merits of his own book that he feels he needs to go on the attack against other books dealing with a similar subject matter.
I'd also like to point out, like other reviewers, that an author who posts fake negative reviews - not one, but two! - under a fake name, of a new book just because he was spurned by one of the authors (also something I've heard, tho I'm not 100% certain it's true) is not someone I want to have as a teacher of ethics. Using a pseudonym for one review seems OK, since you might want to protect your privacy, but to "add a voice" falsely is really not kosher.
He also makes false claims (or implies them) about the nature of The Longevity Diet. There is nothing about "matchbox sized piece of salmon" in the book or any other book advocating Roy Walford's principles. Further, he says Walford "seems to have killed himself through his 'diet'". This is of course nonsense. Walford developed ALS. He died a tragic death that had nothing to do with his diet. Elixxir claims one needs "spiritual strength" to follow diets. Does one gain spiritual strength from a book written by a dishonest, back-stabber who is simply trying to get people to come his ridiculously expensive life-extension clinic in Scandinavia? I don't think so.

I downloaded the e-book for $4.50, which consists of: 268 pages with EXTRA-wide margins; and numerous pages that present a single profound thought -- here's an example (Ta-DA): "Mortalist Capitalism is merely a way of immortality-seeking involving acquisition, expansion, and accumulation. The insatiable and compulsive heart of capitalism is a function of our fear of Death and our yearning for Immortality [p. 165]."

Yes, that's arguably true. But does this insight rise to the level of highlight-on-a-page goosebumps? Maybe so. And if you'd like more, you can travel to Sweden and spend a day with Elixxir himself: "Get a day-pass into The Elixxir Worldview.
. . . $5,000 (excluding expenses for activities, which the student pays for; day starts later in the day as The Master Coach is not a morning person; weekdays only)." Sounds pretty capitalistic to me!

Some of the most stupid drivel that you can read. The opinions in this book are full of hyperpole and fiction read as fact. Not worth the paper it is printed on and is a dangerous vehicle for fanatics and the imbalanced. I cannot say more about how strange and dumb this book is. Avoid at all costs.

Nothing puts me off any more than the mix of: super-egos, low self-esteem, self-promotion and grade-school-level research abilites. I think we have loacted the mother-load.

Cocky, arrogant rantings. I found nothing of value or help. He under eats- big deal! He makes every calorie count- that is common sense. (My father always said, " if you are going to present yourself as a demi-god, get your facts straight first." More careful research would have paid big dividens.)

Over all: -Self-serving. -Giant ego. -Little regard for an attempt at what could appear as an unbiased presentation. -Has nothing to offer. -Left me irritated; often because of the lack of high quality supporting documentation and gross errors in facts (such as, what killed a very famous person- it was suicide, not luekemia) and the sense of underlying and not so subtle anger and "in-your face"- no warm fuzzies.

If you want something closer to real knowldge- go to a medical school library, or local college/university, and ask them to teach you how to do a Medline search on your topic.

I read the LEF "article." It sounds like a paid spot- and infomercial- and not an article. It was enough to turn me off to anymore of this man and his ideas.

Check out his site and his fees. It is very telling- esp. his fees.

The intro to this book states: "This book is not intended to and does not dispense dietary, medical, or financial advice.

If you are looking for dietary or medical advice, maybe go with a book by a doctor or scientist.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone. The Manifesto style writing is repetitive, and lacking details or scientific evidence. The author states that scientific evidence supports his diet, but the book does not mention what he eats, other than "Low calorie, low fat". This book reads like a total scam job to get people to give him the author more money, but I suspect few will fall for it.