Allure of Immortality
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A01=Lyn Millner
Author_Lyn Millner
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=NHB
Category=NL-HB
Category=NL-HR
Category=QR
COP=United States
Cyrus Teed
Discount=15
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Florida History
Format=BC
Format_Paperback
HMM=235
immortality
IMPN=University Press of Florida
ISBN13=9780813064406
Koreshans
Language_English
PA=Available
PD=20190830
POP=Florida
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
PUB=University Press of Florida
Religious Cults
subculture
Subject=History
Subject=Religion & Beliefs
utopias
WMM=155
Product details
- ISBN 9780813064406
- Format: Paperback
- Weight: 515g
- Dimensions: 155 x 233mm
- Publication Date: 10 Sep 2019
- Publisher: University Press of Florida
- Publication City/Country: Florida, US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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For five days in December 1908 the body of Cyrus Teed lay in a bathtub at a beach house just south of Fort Myers, Florida. His followers, the Koreshans, waited for signs that he was coming back to life. They watched hieroglyphics emerge on his skin and observed what looked like the formation of a third arm. They saw his belly fall and rise with breath, even though his swollen tongue sealed his mouth. As his corpse turned black, they declared that their leader was transforming into the Egyptian god Horus.
Teed was a charismatic and controversial guru who at the age of 30 had been "illuminated" by an angel in his electro-alchemical laboratory. At the turn of the twentieth century, surrounded by the marvels of the Second Industrial Revolution, he proclaimed himself a prophet and led 200 people out of Chicago and into a new age. Or so he promised.
The Koreshans settled in a mosquito-infested scrubland and set to building a communal utopia inside what they believed was a hollow earth-with humans living on the inside crust and the entire universe contained within. According to Teed's socialist and millennialist teachings, if his people practiced celibacy and focused their love on him, he would return after death and they would all become immortal.
Was Teed a visionary or villain, savior or two-bit charlatan? Why did his promises and his theory of "cellular cosmogony" persuade so many? In The Allure of Immortality, Lyn Millner weaves the many bizarre strands of Teed's life and those of his followers into a riveting story of angels, conmen, angry husbands, yellow journalism, and ultimately, hope.
Teed was a charismatic and controversial guru who at the age of 30 had been "illuminated" by an angel in his electro-alchemical laboratory. At the turn of the twentieth century, surrounded by the marvels of the Second Industrial Revolution, he proclaimed himself a prophet and led 200 people out of Chicago and into a new age. Or so he promised.
The Koreshans settled in a mosquito-infested scrubland and set to building a communal utopia inside what they believed was a hollow earth-with humans living on the inside crust and the entire universe contained within. According to Teed's socialist and millennialist teachings, if his people practiced celibacy and focused their love on him, he would return after death and they would all become immortal.
Was Teed a visionary or villain, savior or two-bit charlatan? Why did his promises and his theory of "cellular cosmogony" persuade so many? In The Allure of Immortality, Lyn Millner weaves the many bizarre strands of Teed's life and those of his followers into a riveting story of angels, conmen, angry husbands, yellow journalism, and ultimately, hope.
Lyn Millner is associate professor of journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. She has written and produced stories for NPR's Morning Edition, the New York Times, USA Today, the Miami Herald, Oxford American, and others.
