Why Old People Will Save the World
Old People will save the world. And young people who are like them will help, too. How will that happen?
First, for our readers who are not old, you know what old looks like, but you may not know what old feels like. Our humorists can help with that in the images scattered throughout this essay. Besides, all the old people I know in ICN like to laugh a lot, even if it’s about ourselves.
Who is old?
The National Library of Medicine defines the youngest-old as ages 65 to 74 years; middle-old, 75 to 84 years; and oldest-old, 85 years and up. I am an oldest-old person at age 85, so I have not only researched it, I am also experiencing it as the most exciting time of my spiritually adventurous life.
How will old people save the world?
The most obvious thing we know about old people is that there are more of us than any other time in history — and more of us are coming.
Because of medical science, global life expectancy at birth is now 70 years for men, and 75 years for women. And the population living to 100 and older is predicted to grow to nearly 3.7 million by 2050, from just 95,000 in 1990. One study says that the biological “hard limit” on our longevity – barring disease and disaster – is as high as 150 years. Sheer numbers are now increasing the pool of those who have the potential that comes with age.
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that at age 60, you reach the top of your potential, and this continues into your 80s.
Older adults are our largest untapped human resource, a huge treasure of varied experiences and honed skills cultivated over a lifetime as only elders have done. Any elder, regardless of income, physical and cognitive ability, level of education, or geographic location, can make a productive difference in how we function as a culture.
The kind of old people who will save the world
Of course, it’s not just any older people who will save the world, but elders engaging in what contemporary research points to, such as the following.
1. Older people who haven’t given up on their own evolution and the evolution of the world. They seek out practices that expand their worldview and states of consciousness.
2. Seniors willing to expand into areas where they may be uncomfortable.
3. Elders who are willing to engage in significant interaction of depth with others who are also adventuring.
To explain more of this, I somewhat reluctantly share a recent experience I had with my neurologist. Yes, I saw a brain doctor. I was having what appeared to me to be mild short-term memory loss. Of course, every time I would forget something, I would immediately think, “Looks like dementia to me!” I wondered if I was headed for joining the six million people in the United States who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. More than one in nine people aged 65 years and older have dementia. So, I made an appointment with a neurologist.
It turned out to be just the opposite. After a brain scan and a three-hour test of solving complicated mental challenges and complex puzzles, I got the news from the doctor’s office that my results showed no signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia. Then came my follow-up appointment with my neurologist. Why did I forget some things so quickly? It turns out this was normal and not to worry about it because he said, “You are a ‘SuperAger.’” I said, “Okay, that’s nice you made up a word to make me feel good in my old age, but really now.” He said, “I didn’t make it up. Harvard researchers did. And your tests and my evaluation of you clearly put you in the SuperAger category. I haven’t met a SuperAger before in my practice – but now I have.”
According to Harvard researchers, SuperAgers, are people age 80 years and older whose cingulate cortex is thicker than in their same-age peers and show no atrophy compared with the same brain region of the middle-agers. This is a brain region considered important for the integration of information related to memory, attention, cognitive control, and motivation. In fact, a specific area of the anterior cingulate cortex was significantly thicker in the brains of cognitive SuperAgers than in middle-agers’ brains.
SuperAgers’ brains contain a much higher density of a particular type of cell called von Economo neurons, which are linked to social intelligence and awareness. Their brains had more of these neurons even than the brains of younger adults.
The average annual volume of brain loss in SuperAgers shrinks at half the rate that cognately normal adults. SuperAgers have more tissue volume in a brain region involved in processes like motivation and decision-making.
Six things it takes to be a SuperAger
The good news is that you don’t have to have been practicing these mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy habits your whole life. Some SuperAgers make lifestyle changes well into their 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Researchers have found that it takes these five things to be a SuperAger.
1. Embrace mental challenges. Challenge yourself with mental activity by reading books and stimulating articles on subjects that you are drawn to. Research on those topics to stretch your brain. Journal or write a book. Be in a group discussing new frontiers in spirituality, learning, or other things that interest you. Do crossword puzzles and other thinking kinds of activities.
2. Increase your exercise capacity. Spend at least 150 minutes weekly doing moderate or vigorous activity. Get into your garden, take a walk, swim, do some yard work, or get on the treadmill as I do. If you’re not physically active, discuss a safe plan with your physician. If you are physically active, start to increase your exercise levels until you’re exercising at 60% your maximum heart rate, and then 70% your maximum heart rate, for 20 to 40 minutes, three to five days a week.
3. Prepare to be frustrated. Patience and perseverance are key to mastering challenges. It may take months or years of practice to gain proficiency in a new field, but the benefits can be great.
According to Harvard Medical School research, super-agers embrace new mental and physical challenges, essentially making sure to move out of their comfort zones. What sets them apart might be that they view problem-solving differently. They may approach these tasks as a challenge they can succeed at, in contrast to typical older adults who may give up. These super-agers did not have higher IQs or education levels than other seniors tested. They simply embraced challenges outside of their comfort zones and were committed to achieving them.
Dr. Lisa Barrett speculates that SuperAgers may share a willingness to endure discomfort to master a new skill. SuperAgers keep moving out of their comfort zones to gain new areas of expertise.
4. Don’t let age deter you. Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, says, “As risk-takers who can heal and humanize society, elders have five appropriate roles to play, Kuhn says. They are mentors who teach the young; mediators who resolve civil, racial, and intergenerational conflict; monitors of public bodies who serve as watchdogs of city hall and Congress; mobilizers of social change; and motivators of society who urge people away from self-interest and toward the public good.”
5. Get going with a group. Develop close friendships with others. The attention region deep in the brain is larger in SuperAgers and is packed with neurons thought to play a role in social processing and awareness. Strong friendships may be vital to protecting the brain in later life. Studies show that “there are a lot of negative consequences to loneliness and positive consequences of staying socially active and engaged,” says Emily Rogalski, associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
And one more
6. Engage in spiritual meditation. My research and practice lead me to add this to this list. There is an extensive history of research into the brains of serious meditators.
Since 2012 the number of people practicing meditation has tripled. 7% of children in the US now meditate. 16% of adults aged 45-64 meditate, making them the most dedicated meditators.
Spiritual meditation is a meditation practice you partake in with the desire to connect with a higher power, the Universe, God, or your Highest Self. According to a 2017 study, spiritual meditation focuses on developing a deeper understanding of spiritual/religious meaning and connection with a higher power. Unlike other forms of meditation, spiritual meditation is about more than stress reduction or relaxation. The intention to connect to something greater than yourself is what makes this practice spiritual.
High-amplitude gamma wave synchrony can be self-induced via meditation. In a study sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation, neuroscientists discovered that the brains of people who have spent a lifetime meditating are constantly flooded with a unique kind of brain wave called a gamma wave, something others only experience occasionally for brief seconds at a time. Long-term practitioners of meditation such as Tibetan Buddhist monks exhibit both increased gamma-band activity at baseline as well as significant increases in gamma synchrony during meditation. This evidence supports the hypothesis that one's sense of consciousness, stress management ability, and focus, often said to be enhanced after meditation, are all underpinned by gamma activity.
Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist from Harvard Medical School, found consistency with meditation is key. In her study, she discovered that experienced meditators 40-50 years old had the same amount of gray matter as an average 20-30-year-old. In this older group, the health of the frontal cortex was maintained.
A study reported in the American Journal of Cardiology revealed that after an average of 7.6 years of serious meditation, the subjects were 23% less likely to die of any cause during that period and 30% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease during the same period. Subjects were also 49% less likely to die of cancer during the follow-up period.
According to a 2019 study, qualities of spiritual experience can include:
absorption or loss of a sense of separateness
hearing voices or seeing visions
feeling a spiritual “presence”
a sense of transcendence
a sense of awe
The established benefits of spiritual meditation are:
a more balanced sense of being
inner stillness and peace
less reactivity
a sense of inner bliss that isn’t dependent on outer circumstances
a strong and authentic sense of who you are on a soul level
a reduction in unhealthy stress
an increase in creativity
a strong sense of belonging
increased self-esteem, self-trust, and self-acceptance
clarity in your life purpose
In over twenty years of serious meditative prayer, I regularly experience all of these things.
The Big Idea
Robert Kegan, Professor in Adult Learning and Professional Development at Harvard, explains what he calls his “big idea.” It is that the very longevity of our lifespans may enable our older center of gravity to figure out how to save our species. With greatly expanded lifespans and wisdom that this may bring with age, we have the capacity to address the perils of today.
Older people are more likely to reach Kegan’s fifth and final ‘mental complexity’ stage, the self-transforming stage. With this comes vital capacities that make it more likely we can manage, act on, and move past many of the barriers which have left us facing what he calls “the biggest wakeup call in history.”
I have followed the first five of these six practices most of my life — and all of them beginning twenty years ago when I added serious meditative prayer.
Here’s the clincher for ICN
If much of this sounds like a description of the kind of people in our ICN WeSpace groups, then you are right! Luke and I have met at least three times with each of our WeSpace groups. We have heard the hundreds of stories of the spiritual journey and the various training, practices, and professions they have engaged in. Not to mention the challenges they have overcome and even continue to deal with. It has been, to say the least, impressive!
ICN may be a hotbed of SuperAgers!
I suspect we have many SuperAgers in ICN, even some who are too young yet to qualify but are on that same road. If you are a youngster, don’t despair. This means that younger people who are like these older people can also save the world! They are doing second half of life work in the first half of life.
What we practice at ICN are some of the very things that produce SuperAgers. Deep social connections. Pushing new boundaries. Deep thinking. Transforming meditative prayer practices.
The very kind of person who may be attracted to ICN to begin with may be a person who already has many of these qualities. Spiritually evolving people need to interact with like-minded people throughout the world to create the new spiritual paths that will lead to the healing of humankind.
People who are not interested in what ICN is about are good people who have every right to know what interests them and what does not. If the evolutionary spiritual life does not attract a person, that’s a reality for them. However, the people who change the world are people who are interested in changing it.
So, old people — the kind who may be attracted to ICN and other life-giving practices —and young people like them will save the world!