Let’s Talk About Florida – The Allure of Immortality

Tuesday, April 15, 2025
4:00 pm

LET’S TALK ABOUT FLORIDA – Zoom Book Discussion

Join in a lively conversation about Florida history as depicted in literature about Florida. Free and open to all. Register below for Zoom link.

The Allure of Immortality by Lyn Millner

Moderator: Author Lyn Miller

Join author Lyn Millner to discuss her book, The Allure of Immortality, via Zoom. The book tells the story of Cyrus Teed and how he influenced 200 followers to embrace celibacy and to leave Chicago and follow him to Southwest Florida and ultimately establish a Koreshan community in south Fort Myers and on Fort Myers Beach. No charge to register!

About the Book:

Cyrus Teed was a charismatic and controversial guru who at 30 years old believed he had been “illuminated” by an angel while working in his electro-chemical laboratory. As a result of this experience, he proclaimed himself a prophet and led 200 people out of Chicago and into a “new age” in Florida. These followers, called the Koreshans, settled in the mosquito-infested scrubland south of Fort Myers and built a communal utopia. Teed preached that if the Koreshans practiced celibacy and focused their love on him, he would return to Earth after his own death and bring them all immortality. Was Teed a visionary or a charlatan? How did he persuade so many people? What was his influence on David Koresh and the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas almost a century later?