Laskas, Jeanne Marie: "Never Say Die"

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Never Say Die

Cultic Studies Journal
Vol. 11, No. 1, 1993

Jeanne Marie Laskas
Pittsburgh, PA

Abstract

The author reflects on her experiences with the CBJ group (formerly the Eternal Flame), which claims to have discovered techniques of "cellular awakening" that enable its members to achieve physical immortality. Describing a 3-day program in a wealthy Tel Aviv suburb, the author relates how the intense emotions and the stimulus overload seemed to neutralize her critical thinking capacity and cause her to forget the questions that she brought into the group. She also reports on her interview of two parents with a son in the group, and her interview with the leaders, Chuck, Berna, Deane, and Jim, paying particular attention to their apparent financial gain. She closes with short vignettes of terminally ill "immortals," whose deaths, by AIDS and cancer, respectively, were explained as falling from the program. CBJ explained the cancer death as a result of the lady's having eaten bacon, and the other death as a result of the person's having clipped obituaries of friends who had died of AIDS.