Not sure how I missed this interesting question. Great answer Stingray and in general I agree with you. Once again I see how we've reached similar conclusions from different perspectives. I’m writing this to illustrate my slightly different perspective, as someone may benefit from it.

Is it possible to live for ever, by manifesting that thought?

The question is slightly flawed because even if someone stated that they’ve lived forever in the same physical body, forever being eternity, who’d be able to confirm one way or another?

I've not really desired to or considered living forever in my current physical form, as there's so much more in the Universe beyond physicality in this particular reality.

However, around my 40th birthday I decided that there’s no need for my body to age anymore while I’m here. And unless I disbelieve this and hence, become psychologically stressed out (resistant to the natural flow of life) and thereby create time and wear and tear on my body through disharmony that will always remain true.

I look at time like this:

• Chronological Time – time passing by the clock or calendar as physical years
• Psychological Time – how you perceive time
• Biological Time – the actual physical age of your body

If you’re constantly in conflict or at war with yourself and life psychologically, it doesn’t matter how much chronological time has passed; a 35 year old person can look 42 biological years old. If you’re psychologically living in harmony and in tune with nature and the flow of life, a 35 year old person can look 28 years old.

Even scientifically, through new science Bruce Lipton and others estimate that all of the 50 trillion cells in our body are completely renewed every 7 years. So in effect each of us is a completely new physical being every 7 years anyway.

To maintain my young biological age and appearance I used to avoid questions about my actual chronological age or when asked would lie about it. However, I have another belief system running which serves me in other ways: Nothing to hide – Nothing to fear – Nothing to fear – Nothing to hide,
so I felt uncomfortable lying.

These days when I meet new people, if they ask I normally tell them I’m 40 and no one disbelieves me and many say I look around 38. Later, when I know them better I tell them I’m 48 years old and I see their disbelief and have to explain how it’s possible.

Because other’s thoughts and beliefs cannot affect my beliefs, unless I take those thoughts onboard and allow them to affect me psychologically, I don’t need to lie. I’ve realized that as long as I’m true to my belief and follow my own realization regarding age, I’m able to be honest about my actual age if I so choose, without it affecting my youthful appearance 8-)

And finally here’s a quote which helps to remind me of my belief:

'Those who flow as life flows know they need no other force: they feel no wear, they feel no tear, they need no mending, no repair.' Lao-Tzu - Unknown, 6th–4th centuries BC

In order for the manifestation to take place, we have to believe that it's possible and I really don't think that anyone would hold the thought that it's possible to live forever in this physical body.

However this does not deter from the belief that we are eternal spiritual beings, here, having a human or physical experience. Everything physical is impermanent and eventually passes away or makes the transition to another state. Birth is a transition from spiritual to human form and Death is a transition from human or physical form back to spiritual form - just two different sides of the same coin.

I had come across this thread some time ago, but just read a passage in a battered, antique book that confirms a major point that many people have touched upon in this thread.

The book is "Great Masters of the Himalayas: Their Lives and Temple Teaching" by Rishi Singh Gherwal. Gherwal, an Indian immigrant who taught yoga with his wife in southern California, penned the book in 1927, detailing his experiences traveling among the reclusive spiritual men of the Himalayas.

It is a fascinating account, if it is to be believed. Gherwal encountered numerous men who could levitate, teleport themselves, and perform all sorts of "supernatural" feats. Several of the masters he studied with were said to be hundreds of years old.

What really perked my interest was a quote on page 39. When asking his master about his reportedly 200+ year lifespan, the master responded:

"You can make me as old as you like, son...but don't try to keep in mind how old you are. Forget your age, always feel young and you can keep your present body that much longer. Don't say to yourself, I am fifty-one years old. Think youth and you will be young."

Sounds very familiar. :)

On another note, the original author of this question says they "do not know of a single plant or animal that lived for ever."

There is, actually, at least one species of animal currently on this Earth which is biologically immortal (see EDIT below).

While, aside from this instance, I know of no other organism that has lived "forever," this 9,550 year old Norway Spruce tree is pretty impressive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tjikko

And this guy's not too shabby either:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_%28tree%29

Plenty of animal species have also made it past the 200 year mark. The Japanese domesticated Koi carp live past 200; a Galapagos tortoise has lived to 255; and bowhead whales have been found alive and well with 200+ year-old spearheads embedded in their bodies. Here are some links about these and some other 1,000+ year-old species:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/photos/10-animals-with-the-longest-life-spans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adwaita

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=99422&page=1

Of course, none of these includes a human, but when you think about the fundamentals, are we REALLY so radically biologically different than a bowhead whale? We're both mammals with a heart, lungs, brain, skull, spine, ribcage, blood, veins, nerves, etc.. If you believe in evolution, then you might accept the scientific conclusion that we had a common ancestor 60 million years ago. Modern geneticists would also agree:

http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_texas.html

The more you look at the evidence, the more it doesn't seem like a big stretch to live past the 200 year mark...even if you disregard the spiritual/metaphysical side, and look at it from a purely scientific-biological point of view.

I've always wondered about those people in the Old Testament who lived 800+ years...seems like it was no big deal back then.

One more thing, if you'll indulge me...the questioner writes:

"It has to have its limitations. One cannot transcend the physical laws of this universe, or general philosophical rules, just because you will so."

The thing is, just what are those physical laws of the Universe, or rules?

Back in the 1600s, one of those "laws" was the law of gravity, in which all things were pulled "downwards" by a mysterious force.

Then, as our knowledge of the universe and the planets grew, the law "changed" into one in which mass attracted mass, planets attracted planets, and thus the law of gravity was not just a universal "downward" force, but a force which existed between all bodies of mass.

Then, in the last century, Einstein came along and upended all of this with his theory of relativity, which said that mass curves space, and that the "force" of gravity was merely a function of the curvature of space!

And then, only this last month, Einstein's theory was rendered obsolete when physicists at CERN discovered the Higgs-Boson particle. Before this discovery, scientists overwhelmingly believed (per Einstein's theory) that traveling at light speed was impossible. However, they now believe that it may very well be possible, as one could "switch off" the mass of a person or ship utilizing Higgs-Boson, thereby removing the "m" (mass) from the "E=Mc2" equation.

Which all goes to prove the adage that "it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions."

I have no doubt that the future holds for us countless new discoveries and wonders which will render obsolete much of what people hold fast to as "Universal Laws" today.

Knowing that the so-called "Universal Laws" currently put forth by science will certainly be upended again and again and again, it doesn't make sense for us to place such importance on them to the degree that it limits our beliefs, does it?

If we do, we'll just end up kicking ourselves decades later when it all turns out to be wrong!

EDIT 8/17/2012

When I first posted this answer, I knew of no organism on this earth which was effectively immortal.

It turns out, however, that there is at least one -- the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula.

This jellyfish is able to undergo a rejuvenating or regenerating process in which it reverts to a younger, immature physical state. Growth/aging then continues as normal, until the regenerating process kicks in once again. In this manner it is able to live on indefinitely...as long as it is not killed, and continues to regenerate, it will live...forever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_nutricula

What's even more interesting, is that the jellyfish do not appear to have always been this way...they have only developed this ability recently:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/4357829/Immortal-jellyfish-swarming-across-the-world.html

So it is a fact that physical immortality is not only possible, but is occurring right now on our planet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz4rWe4TcaA

I am more of a creative type of person, not having much scientific knowledge, so please forgive my "grade school explanation", but from what I understand, so much progress is being made the past few years with genetic research, that most if not all diseases will be curable, organs will be replaceable and etc in the near future. And of course, we are always making strides in nutrition and health care. If man can keep from poisoning himself and his world, living forever could happen one day or at the least a much longer, healthier lifespan. If this is something many people wish for and work towards, it could manifest. Why not?

If your question is, "Can you maintain this physical existence forever?" then I would say the answer is no.

But this life is really just a projection of your true self, and when your physical body goes, you will transcend to your original, eternal form.

See also http://www.inwardquest.com/questions/634/what-are-the-possibilities-of-achieving-biological-immortality

I believe that we do live forever. Our sour is eternal. Whether we can live in this physical realm forever? I believe that the answer is yes. However you maybe assuming that the this physical manifestation is the only kind of manifestation that exist. Because of our physical limitations we do not know what else is out there in the universe to experience. If we knew the answer to that one then maybe the question would be: Why would you want to live here forever here? Its like aperson who grows up in a small town and never left town as compared to someone who has travelled all over the world. Its a matter of choice.

I believe we can attract this by having enough thought world wide on immortality, this world wide thought and talk will take effect to influence those in position to work on such concepts. These people in position being our geneticist and clone research, biological immortality is one of the most important achievements to save humanity and the most important for serious space exploration and planet colonization.

I believe that the human vessel was designed to exist for about 350 years. However I am not afraid to graduate long before that. It is possible that as we fix our physical & spiritual mess here through this current transition, we may evolve to live much longer.

here is one version of living forever ;-)

peace

Biological entropy is part of the human system and all the living organisms.

I would love to see a body builder in his 90s that would be an defying the odds.

Human body has is in built limits to its age. Over a period of time all the parts of your body, automatically start to get weaker. You come to a state where anything can break - if something important breaks then you're dead. simple as that.

Merely thinking has never been proven to have any positive co-relation with impact on reality.

You get old cause you get old - you don't get old cause you think you get old. A 5 year old believing all he wants will not be able to become and change his body to a 75 year old - just does not happen.

You only get to live once and a certain age does not come back. You can however toy with the idea of fooling yourself, but that's a different story altogether.

Bonus kids story of the day :
I know about a pebble and a well, and how its directly related to the pacific ocean. If you throw the pebble in the well then there will be a tsunami in the pacific ocean -- Its a secret and if other some person sees this thing happen then the magic will go away. So I can't show you this.

Moral of the story : Don't believe everything you read and everything you think. If it relates to facts and perceivable reality only then its true. Keep questioning your beliefs that's how you will get rid of the self-delusions.

there are laws of creations
that cover the universe
dream what you will but
material form is finite

you wish so hard to believe
that your intellect can
manifest whatever is
desired, wait and see

Science is starting to make it possible- or at least extend it. But the bigger question is would you want to phyically live for a long time? there are ethical and moral implications that start to play into post-humanism, or even extending to something like antinatalism... It starts to get tricky and It starts to be alot to bear for the soul I think. Its good to start with a clean slate now and then... ( ie.e reincarnation?)

Kurzowski (I think?) Is currently doing research on little nano robots that repair cells constantly in your body so that your cells rejuvenate and do not degrade- meaning life spans of possibly 700 or plus years...

Do a google search!

Y'all need to read the Sci-Fi Book called, "Time Enough for Love", by Robert Heinlein.

It opens with our hero, Lazarus Long, age 2-or3,000 something-years old, trying to die in a flop house. Why? Because he'd done it all. Seen it all. He just wanted to be done with living, because living no longer has any attraction for him. He's bored. He's done it all... Of course, he is tracked down, shot into a Rejuv Clinic, and into forced Rejuv, and he's furious.

It's a classic tale, half Scheherazade, half Sci-Fi adventure. Buy it. And when you do, think about it: Would you really want to live 3,000 years?

Jaianniah

My prevailing 5 cents...

I would say it is impossible to think your way into immortality by virtue of the fact that you will eventually want to die. When you think about death, your emotional guidance system triggers a negative emotion, and you know your thoughts aren't right on the subject. Perhaps it is telling you that you're already immortal; it is disagreeing with your assumption that you are going to die. And when you think about immortality, it sort of feels good. If we are to believe much of what Abraham teaches, that we are immortal in a sense that the larger part of us is non-physical, but every physical body will experience death.

Abraham says that we ourselves have placed ourselves into this reality, which means this planet with its laws and planets spinning and our physical reality as we are living it. I don't see myself having had any conscious choices about our universe, nor the body that I chose. Some asteroid hitting earth, I don't know if that's in your vibrational control - it's heading for your planet! Since you didn't make the planets spin as they are, nor can you control an asteroid hitting earth and killing you.

You haven't created your body consciously, and it was growing ... and that can't be put to any sort of conditioning, it was programmed to grow; okay, at some point it's not growing but ageing, but it's still part of a natural sort of course, because with ageing, other things tend to happen that you could consider as growing... there are many forces at work here, like women's menopauses. Crazy biological stuff in there. I think stress and joyless life will contribute to aging, sure, and could well believe that we bring on ourselves many diseases, and pretty much that we create our own reality, but to what extent do you think you can consciously govern it? You barely have to think anything- for if it all is as simple as it appears to currently be, which is 'feeling good = higher and faster vibration = everything that matches that higher and faster vibe will manifest and it will feel good = happy days' (your thoughts play a part too, but they are almost implied if you just look for things to feel good)... then you will see that we don't really think much about our reality either because it all seems to just come to us. And you could say that thoughts also come based on your vibratoinal frequency, so thoughts could also flow from the Vortex. So you see, you're in a sort of virtual world, working from within the consciousness, but you're trying to modify its parameters, which is... impossible.

So you can not accelerate it, and perhaps you can even slow it down...aging that is.

I had stopped and paused to think for quite a while when wondering if to put immortality into a box using @Stingray's 'Manifesting Experiment 1'. Would I want to? Damn that's a huge committment :) IF you think life is all there is, then your answer would be 'hell yeah', but is it? Point is, can you ever know? Not if you choose immortality. My answer was, 'yes, until I know better and can change my mind' - yes, I want to be able to opt-out of immortality if I had the option. I suppose if I ever come to a realisation that I want to die, I wonder what my purpose would be? Would it mean that I will know of another place that I might be heading for, in which case, it's not dying, it's just deliberately moving into another realm. Can you ever know though? No! You can't know what you'll be.

Immortality in this physical life (the only life we know of as yet), is like locking yourself in a prison of a vibrational frequency. By staying here, you wlil never be able to experience other types of existence. Will you even evolve? I guess it doesn't matter, but how will you grow, how will your mind grow, what sort of consciousness would you be in after a while? What if reincarnation was true (and I think it is, vibrationally we are what we are minus the current conscious awareness perspective...if there is Source, then it's what grew me out of a sperm, and I, I am just a tiny awareness of it and my body and everything else and who I am...I am mind...and since evolution happens on this planet, then Source must expand and evolve, since everything comes from Source), then you would evolve organically, your brain will adapt to contain more information and expand, and have a more evolved perspective; you will never be stuck with a perspective of your physical limits. Your perspective either by staying or evolving organically will most certainly be very different; it's your universe, you pick, I guess!

So yeah, in summary, one advantage to death is possibility of experiencing lives/realities that are unimaginable to you... Annoying thing is that life then isn't as deliberate as you think if you were not to know what reality you're heading next; but I guess you could trust your inner-being which is hopefully telling you everything will be alright; but that inner being, I guess, has their own inner being, because something, at some point, will be on a level of not giving you a nice feedback of feelings, because it itself would not know where you're going next... so perhaps you're aimlessly hopping realities. But I'd like to think that we are growing...and evolving, and reincarnating and evolving this physical space. But another type of exsistence? What can be attributed to non-physical? Self-awareness as you know it? We'll never know because we'll always reincarnate as human. Our consciousness as we know it can never be attributed to non-physical, so we'll never know trully who we are; but perhaps it would make sense there. I'd like to think that the Source expands. I'd like to think that we are growing, and enjoying it, and exploring in different consciousnesses this vast eternal all that is in the present moment.

Or we could just die. Just die. Maybe we're stuck in a loop of getting sent here by our inner being. Maybe one day we'd want to break out of a loop that inner being is in, or is inner being all that is, is there a level beyond it? Which way are we evolving and growing? Pushing our physical evolution or moving into the direction of the divine source (false way of looking at it?), and since we're told Source expands (I guess in this case I mean our own Source), then it's an open-ended expansion, here in the physical and on the source; are we exploring more of the infinite from both directions? Or there is just one consciousness, that is you, and the expansion is always on the Source, and then it is projected outwards... and your Source is your consciousness expanding and exploring all-that-is, and as Source perceives more of all that is...it expands on all dimensions, and in this one as well. Could be that source is the same and we are as human beings just exploring it; and it never expands, but stays still, but only our width of perspective has grown. Or it's your consciousness perceiving it all; identified the 'Source' and its emotional guidance system, but they're all just components of your own mind; you think you're going up the divine ladder, but all you're doing is understanding that you're vibrational and that your solar plexus when it vibrates on different frequencies will give off a positive or negative feeling...

Went on a tangent here...

The answer to your question, let's just say 'Not exactly'.

The LAW of entropy makes the eternity of your physical body impossible, unless I'm wrong. At this point, even the known universe will come to an end.

HOWEVER, when you look at your body, do remember that only 5% of matter is visible to us. Those atoms that form cells that form organs that form your body are the tinest part of your existence. Your existence IS eternal because it is not physical. It is energy, and energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can be transmuted, but not destroyed. Your mind holds your memories - not the cells.

Another way to look at it is that there comes a time when you have learned all that you want to learn from a given frame of reference. I'm convinced that this is my last human life experience. I have no interest in another continuing after my current project is over. The current global system is inconsistent with my values, thus my potentials. It now prevents the kind of progress I am beginning to formulate. This world no longer serves me, which is why I am spending my last years in service to it, intent on doing my part to repair it before I leave.

Stop believing that you're going to die, release this belief completely and see for yourself. I for one don't wan't myself to live forever or how would I come back upgraded with all the knowledge of this lifetime ingrained in my DNA? :D

People will never live for ever. That is a truth which physics and reality defines. But the thoughts of a person can live forever. Remeber Shakespher, Sir Isac Newton, Keates, And so many more that whose thoughts live forever. Be it a tale of two cities to catcher in the rye. So ever smart alec question can be answered in two parts. A cynical question can be answered as a cynical answer or it can be expounded upon for enlightment. And whom knows this life which is eternal even after we leave continues. So as the thoughts of a person lives on so perhaps the spirit of those thoughts live on. Remember Give me Life Or give me Death. If we Give life to thoughts Those Thoughts live regardless if the person that birthed those thoughts passes into the new neither world of eternal enlightment.