The myth of rejuvenation has been described as the human response to fear of death, and to be founded in the experience of changing seasons, where the withering and decay of winter is always followed by the miraculous new growth in spring. Rituals and therapies aimed at reversing the ravages of time have emphasized a return to the source of life, to the womb, and subsequent rebirth. From observation of nature have arisen myths of: rejuvenating sleep; shedding of the skin of old age to emerge once again young. Other means of restoring youth have been special fruits, elixirs and fountains (the latter thought by some to be related to veneration of water as the female element). Such means often invoke the divine, as for example, the fruit of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. In religious thought, however, length of life is usually thought of in spiritual terms, with either the hope of heaven after death or liberation from earthly existence. Liberation is more from the ravages of sin than of old age although rituals echo myths of rejuvenation in this life.
Secular society, with no recourse to spiritual or divine aid for length of life in this world or the next, has emphasized strictly practical and physical methods for rejuvenation and resistance to the effects of old age.
These range from consuming the sexual organs of wild animals, as in ancient India and China, through transplantation of animal sex organs, shunamism, to the hormone and vitamin therapy of the present day. Inspired by the hope that future medical science will effect rejuvenating and resuscitation techniques, some individuals have directed that, after their death, their bodies be stored indefinitely at freezing temperatures for possible subsequent restoration to life. This may perhaps be compared with embalming techniques practised in Ancient Egypt.
