Healthy Longevity was exemplified by my maternal grandfather, William Bergman. I am his protege. He lived 97 independent years. He was spiritually open in ways that saved his property and his life. I have been similarly blessed with warnings and messages. Relatively few attain a healthy longevity. A conscious spiritual component is not necessary for such an accomplishment. But it helps!

One hour ago, I spoke with co-workers about the car repair manager who died prior to his 60th birthday. I told them I saw it coming. He was overwhelmed. I sensed a desperate part of him crying inside. His pace of working was unsustainable. His co-workers said he stayed at the shop all night the day he died of massive heart attack at home. My Grand Father William felt he witnessed two brothers overwork themselves. It led to the premature death of at least one of them. The other got sick and reportedly died from an ill-advised, botched surgery. William made sure it would not happen to him. He put healthy longevity far ahead of monetary or any form of gain. I have done the same.

The spiritual component was a major component to his healthy longevity. He rebelled against the religious orthodoxy of his Jewish heritage. I documented his life from letters and interviews I had solicited in a 146-page bound, but unpublished manuscript, “Immigrant Elder Wisdom.” William’s gifts extended to the other three dimensions of truly holistic health: the social, psychological and physical.

1) Socially, my Grand Father knew how to relate to a broad range of people. This included the materially rich and poor; the highly educated and illiterate; and gangsters along with honest people.

2) Psychological: He grew up with an independent spirit. He doctored most physical and emotional wounds by himself since childhood. After his two wives and his son died, he expressed instead of bottling his grief. His emotional resilience was tested and he passed the test time and again. He struggled to grasp at a reason to live after his first wife died and after his leg was amputated at age 97-98. He succeeded. At his 100th Birthday party he stood on his prosthesis while addressing about 100 people for perhaps 20 minutes–speaking forcefully, coherently and with passion.

3) Physical: There were certainly some good genes in his family. His dad smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day in Europe and lived 78 years. He mom died around 74 because she stepped on a rusty nail. He had two maternal aunts who lived 94 & 96 years–both of whom died “healthy”!!! The day he died on October 18th, 1986, he told my parents, “I’m still not ready!”

Spiritual: Here are three of his personal accounts. These reports are not uncommon, but many do not share for fear of ridicule. The following was written in a letter and/or was told to me by William Bergman. He wrote the following to me from his home at 7PM, February 28, 1979:

“This story is about 50 or 55 years old. We lived in St. Mark’s Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. One Saturday afternoon I was working in the store on Myrtle Avenue around 3:30PM. Somebody was sitting in me and started to talk to me (saying) ‘go home, something is wrong with your house.’…I was standing and working and did not pay attention to the warning.  I stayed and I kept on working.  About 4:30PM, (it was) like somebody went into me and started to give me warning again. (it said) ‘I want you to go home and see what’s wrong with your house.’ (Bold added)

When I start to get all the warnings without a stop, I made up my mind I am going to close up the store and I went home.  My wife (Regina and kids) left for the weekend…

 I came up to the house.  I opened the door to go into the kitchen.  I could not walk in so I pushed the door.  The kitchen table was by the door and 4 chairs were on the table.  And I walked in. Somebody ran out through the window.  All the lights were burning. When I went through the entire house and all the drawers and everything was lying on the floor. I picked everything up and started to look at what they took away. 

I found out the only thing they stole was a little safe deposit box with  2.00 (dollars) was inside.  The rest they left everything.  As I understand, they did not have enough time to take more. They just walked in. As soon as they started to work, I walked right in and they got scared and ran out.

After I told the people what happened to me, (that) somebody was in me, afraid(?)…warning me I should go home, they could not believe it. I started to explain to them how they warned me until I made up my mind and closed the store.  It shows you if I would not have listened to warning, they could have robbed me.

I was working about 4 hours until …12 o’clock at night until I put everything back.  Then I went to sleep and got up 7:30AM. 

Sunday, late in the afternoon, my wife came home and I told her what happened.  She says to me, ‘I left some money in the ice box and went over to the Ice Box. The money was there. As you see, they did not have enough time to do the real job. 

Then my wife made an extra good supper (on Sunday night). I, my wife and my children, we all celebrated our victory and we had a L’Chaim (a Jewish toast “To Life!’). And wished ourselves this should be the first and last time to go through a situation like this. And thanks God it was the first and last time in our life.…When I remind myself about this story, I cannot believe it…” (End Excerpts: William Bergman to Bob Laurentz)

This was a case where spiritual intervention as independent variable affected the social, emotional and material wellbeing of his and my mom’s family. William’s prayer was answered for his family but nor for himself. When he was a twice-widowed elder in his mid-to-later 80’s, he received similar spiritual promptings. In one case the voice told him to go home. When he got to the home, he startled the young thief, who ran out and took nothing. 

       The last clear case involved a voice instructing him to get up out of his chair by sewing machine and go to front of his store to call his daughter, my mom. simply go to another room. It said, ‘Go call your daughter. Go call your daughter.’ He listened to voice and while on phone with my mom, they heard a loud thud. My mom asked him, ‘What was THAT?’ William checked. he found the ceiling had collapsed onto the chair where he had been sitting. He would have been killed or worse had he not listened to the spirit.

In conclusion, one can, of course, have Healthy Longevity without an overt spiritual connection. But those with a conscious connection to God, Oneness and spirit have an added resource to help them along the road to healthy longevity.

Bob Laurentz, Ph.D., Psy.D. Sociologist, Psychologist & Healer February 15, 2022