A New Kind of Congregation
The Church of Perpetual Life holds regular services — but they look nothing like a traditional church. Instead of sermons about the afterlife, you hear lectures from aging researchers, geneticists, AI scientists, and cryonics advocates. Instead of hymns, there are discussions about NAD+ pathways, senolytic therapies, and the latest clinical trials.
The church was founded in 2013 by Bill Faloon as a 501(c)(3) religious organization with a unique premise: the belief that death is not inevitable. Its statement of purpose declares that its members "share the common purpose of living in good health and beneficial consciousness as long as desired, while maintaining full support of the scientific and medical research needed to help make this possible."
Services are held twice monthly and feature speakers from across the longevity space. Past speakers have included Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kurzweil, Natasha Vita-More, Jose Cordeiro, and many leading researchers in aging biology.
The Philosophy: Death Is Optional
The church operates on a philosophical foundation that bridges science and spirituality. Its core tenets include:
1. Life is the highest value. The preservation and extension of healthy human life is a moral imperative.
2. Death is a disease. Aging and death are biological processes that can and should be treated through scientific advancement.
3. Cryopreservation is a bridge. For those who may not survive long enough to benefit from future breakthroughs, cryonic preservation offers a rational backup plan. Many church members have cryonics arrangements with organizations like Alcor or the Cryonics Institute.
4. Community matters. The longevity journey can be isolating. The church provides a community of like-minded individuals who support each other's health optimization efforts and share information about emerging therapies.
5. Science is the path. While organized as a church, the organization is explicitly science-based. It does not promote supernatural beliefs but rather the "natural religion" of life preservation through knowledge and technology.
Inside a Service
A typical gathering at the Church of Perpetual Life starts with networking — members catching up on each other's latest lab results, supplement stacks, and health experiments. Many members are deeply engaged in self-quantification and share data openly.
The main event is usually a presentation by a guest speaker. Topics have ranged from:
- The latest senolytics research
- CRISPR gene editing for aging
- AI-driven drug discovery for longevity
- Biomarker testing and biological age measurement
- Cryonics technology updates
- Legal and regulatory battles for life extension
After the talk, there's typically a Q&A session where members — many of whom are remarkably well-informed — engage the speaker in detailed scientific discussion. The atmosphere is part TED Talk, part support group, part scientific conference.
RAADfest: The Annual Gathering
The church's connection to the broader longevity movement is most visible at RAADfest, the annual conference organized by the Coalition for Radical Life Extension (which shares leadership with the church). RAADfest draws thousands of attendees from around the world and features:
- Presentations from leading longevity researchers
- Exhibitors showcasing cutting-edge health technologies
- Workshops on biohacking, nutrition, and health optimization
- Networking events connecting researchers, investors, and enthusiasts
- Live demonstrations of new longevity technologies
RAADfest has become one of the largest gatherings in the longevity community, alongside conferences like the Longevity Summit Dublin and Longevity Investors Conference.
Criticism and Perspective
The Church of Perpetual Life has drawn both admiration and skepticism. Critics question whether organizing life extension as a religion trivializes both science and spirituality. Others worry about the promotion of unproven therapies.
Supporters counter that the church format provides important benefits: tax-exempt status for research funding, a community structure that supports members' longevity goals, and a philosophical framework that takes the desire for life extension seriously as a deeply held belief.
Whatever one's view of the organizational structure, the church represents something significant: a growing community of people who refuse to accept aging and death as inevitable, and who are actively working — through science, community, and advocacy — to change humanity's oldest and most fundamental limitation.
