This is one the conspiracy theorists will go wild for…<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”Black Han Sans|||on|||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ header_4_font=”|||on|||||” header_4_text_align=”center” text_orientation=”center” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]
Words by Georgia Aspinall<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/02\/Dont-Die-scaled.webp” alt=”Bryan Johnson and son” title_text=”Dont Die” force_fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] I remember the first time I heard the conspiracy that certain A-list celebrities drink the blood of children to stay young. It was one of those threads online that has you wondering what on earth your social media algorithm is feeding you for something so bonkers to pop up so many times.<\/p>\n Like many, I scoffed at the rumours, ascribing them to the truly delusional side of showbiz commentary that would profess celebrities like Michael Jackson and Tupac are secretly alive, hiding on desert islands somewhere for a quiet life. Then I watched the Bryan Johnson documentary on Netflix and for the first time, I started to question how bonkers those threads really were.<\/p>\n Sure, I don\u2019t believe celebrities are truly DRINKING the blood of children like Hollywood vampires \u2013 but according to Don\u2019t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, the ultra-rich have been transfusing the blood of younger, healthier people into themselves for years now. They just, experts claim, won\u2019t admit to it publicly.<\/p>\n The series follows 47-year-old Johnson on his extensive efforts to reverse his biological age. He spends upward of \u00a32million a year on medical treatments (and experiments) hoping to become the \u2018healthiest person on the planet\u2019 so he can cheat an early death. It appears as though his entire day is spent in pursuit of said activities, starting with more than 20 pills and four supplement mixes before going on to do red light therapy, heavy exercise and regular blood taking to check various levels of God knows what in his body.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, he comes off relatively well in the series \u2013 a man who clearly has far too much time and money but is seemingly happy pursuing what he believes is a momentous contribution to science. The latter can be disputed, though, with experts in the docuseries explaining that because Johnson is doing so many science experiments at once, it would be impossible to isolate just one treatment or practice as the key to extending your life.<\/p>\n <\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/02\/Dont_Die_The_Man_Who_Wants_to_Live_Forever_00_05_49_04.png” alt=”Bryan Johnson” title_text=”Don’t_Die_The_Man_Who_Wants_to_Live_Forever_00_05_49_04″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Then there\u2019s the claim that much of he\u2019s doing is less about science and more about creating a dedicated following who will buy products from him, or rather his company Blueprint, in order to achieve the same health results. He would argue it\u2019s not a capitalist endeavour, but that\u2019s up for debate.<\/p>\n The most controversial part of the series though comes when he discusses replacing the plasma in his blood with that of a younger person. He claims to have undergone a \u2018total plasma exchange\u2019 (TPE) to remove \u2018unnatural pollutants\u2019 from his body and ultimately reverse his biological age by decades.<\/p>\n He\u2019s shown using his 17-year-old son Talmage to do that, who donates his plasma to his father, while Johnson also donates his own plasma to his father, Richard \u2013 just your average father and son day out, right?<\/p>\n \u2018There are certain interventions that truly reverse the ages, for example this idea of young blood plasma,\u2019 explains Dr Steve Hovarth, professor of biostatistics and genetics at the University of California Los Angeles. \u2018The reversal effect can be observed in this study where researchers connect a young mouse to an old mouse – they literally connect their arteries and veins so there\u2019s a blood exchange – and you can see young plasma circulated through the old mouse reverses the epigenetic ages of multiple organs. One study we saw reversal of 50% in a rat, then another more recently in mine, 30%.\u2019<\/p>\n Johnson quite literally jokes, in the documentary, about how the primary option would be to sew him together with a young human. \u2018That\u2019s not practical so we said we can\u2019t do that one,\u2019 he laughs. \u2018Next case we look at plasma exchanges.\u2019<\/p>\n According to journalist Ashlee Vance, who appears in the documentary, it\u2019s not entirely uncommon for the ultra-rich to take the blood plasma of young people in such a pursuit of immortality.<\/p>\n <\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_font=”Libre Bodoni|||on|||||” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#333333″ header_2_font_size=”40px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] \u2018The plasma stuff always sounds super creepy to anyone who hears about it for the first time, but Bryan was not the first guy to do this,\u2019 he says in the series. \u2018Years ago, there would be stories about Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist, one of the first investors in Facebook, draining the blood of some young healthy people\u2026 I\u2019m not sure that that\u2019s true but this all got out into the wild and got parodied by the show Silicon Valley.\u2019<\/p>\n Thiel has denied ever using young people for blood transfusions in pursuit of life extension. Speaking at the New York Times Dealbook conference in 2018, Thiel said \u2018I want to publicly tell you that I’m not a vampire. On the record, I am not a vampire.\u2019<\/p>\n According to Vance, if the ultra-rich are using young people for plasma transfers, they aren\u2019t saying it publicly. \u2018Most silicon valley people, if they had a \u201cblood boy\u201d they didn\u2019t want anybody to know about it,\u2019 he explains. \u2018But Bryan being Bryan embraced all of this and was out there parading his \u201cblood boys\u201d around on Twitter taking photographs.\u2019<\/p>\n Of course, in Johnson\u2019s instance it\u2019s certainly more of a wholesome affair than the image conjured by Silicon Valley executives stealing the blood of the young. Johnson\u2019s father and son both consented to being part of the exchange and defend it themselves profusely.<\/p>\n \u2018The easy place to go is \u201cvampire\u201d or \u201cblood boy\u201d and the mean spiritedness instead of drawing my ire and anger just really made me sad,\u2019 Richard Johnson, Bryan\u2019s father, explains, going on to call the experience with his son and grandson \u2018a chance to reconcile\u2019 after decades of having a more difficult relationship due to his own personal struggles.<\/p>\n Of course, to those uninitiated into the world of life extension therapies, all of those sounds supremely bizarre. Is this where the rumours of Hollywood celebrities drinking the blood of children came from? Who knows \u2013 but it\u2019s certainly one the conspiracy theorists will have a field day with.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ divider_position=”center” divider_weight=”2px” module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-texts” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|||on|||||” text_orientation=”center” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] Photo: <\/b>Netflix<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This shocked us to the core…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"guestgrazia","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6634"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6645,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6634\/revisions\/6645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/grazia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}‘Most Silicon Valley people don’t want anyone to know’<\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]