Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, 1994, Page 25
Never Say Die
Jeanne Marie Laskas
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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, BernaDeane, 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.
Chuck, BernaDeane and Jim have cellular intercourse. As a result, they are going to
live forever. Their thousands of followers are immortal, too. Perhaps you’d like to join
them.
An airplane is a convenient place to ponder your own personal relationship with death. I was
crammed into some kind of TWA monster, headed for a meeting in Tel Aviv. Well, not a
meeting, exactly. I had been invited to participate in a three-day “cellular intercourse” with
CBJ, the internationally renowned group of physically immortal people. Immortals, as they are
called, are a whole new species of human being, each of whom has experienced his or her
own personal “cellular awakening.”
The leaders of CBJ travel the world waking up cells and hosting events such as the cellular
intercourse to which I was bound. You can‟t, the reasoning goes, be immortal alone.
Immortality requires a quantum evolutionary leap. Immortality requires an unimaginably high
amount of collective oomph.
CBJ, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, takes its name from its leaders. That‟s C for Charles Paul
Brown, B for BernaDeane and J for James Russell Strole. BernaDeane doesn‟t use a last name
and she likes that capital D in there, but no space between her first and middle names. She
was a fashion model before she became immortal, and she thinks “it‟s not intelligent to die.”
In fact, she thinks, “it‟s embarrassing to die.” She is 56. Charles, her husband, is the one who
first experienced the “cellular awakening,” an experience that inspired him to coin the phrase
“cellular awakening,” a fact that he is proud of. Charles, 58, is the spiritual backbone of the
group. He‟s had a lot of supernatural adventures. Once, his whole body glowed, and another
time he had a dream in which he turned into an antibody. As an antibody, he was able to kill
off all but one darn evil cell in an otherwise immortal woman who, sure enough and in real
life, died. Charles used to be a nightclub singer, an Assembly of God minister and a fashion
buyer before he became immortal. He wears a wig. Critics often ask how come, if he‟s so
good at regenerating his cells, he can‟t grow his own hair. He hates this question. James, the
last third of the trinity, sold real estate before he became immortal full-time. At 44, he is the
youngest, and he and BernaDeane and Charles have been fairly candid about the fact that the
three of them share a bed.
Never Say Die
Jeanne Marie Laskas
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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, BernaDeane, 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.
Chuck, BernaDeane and Jim have cellular intercourse. As a result, they are going to
live forever. Their thousands of followers are immortal, too. Perhaps you’d like to join
them.
An airplane is a convenient place to ponder your own personal relationship with death. I was
crammed into some kind of TWA monster, headed for a meeting in Tel Aviv. Well, not a
meeting, exactly. I had been invited to participate in a three-day “cellular intercourse” with
CBJ, the internationally renowned group of physically immortal people. Immortals, as they are
called, are a whole new species of human being, each of whom has experienced his or her
own personal “cellular awakening.”
The leaders of CBJ travel the world waking up cells and hosting events such as the cellular
intercourse to which I was bound. You can‟t, the reasoning goes, be immortal alone.
Immortality requires a quantum evolutionary leap. Immortality requires an unimaginably high
amount of collective oomph.
CBJ, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, takes its name from its leaders. That‟s C for Charles Paul
Brown, B for BernaDeane and J for James Russell Strole. BernaDeane doesn‟t use a last name
and she likes that capital D in there, but no space between her first and middle names. She
was a fashion model before she became immortal, and she thinks “it‟s not intelligent to die.”
In fact, she thinks, “it‟s embarrassing to die.” She is 56. Charles, her husband, is the one who
first experienced the “cellular awakening,” an experience that inspired him to coin the phrase
“cellular awakening,” a fact that he is proud of. Charles, 58, is the spiritual backbone of the
group. He‟s had a lot of supernatural adventures. Once, his whole body glowed, and another
time he had a dream in which he turned into an antibody. As an antibody, he was able to kill
off all but one darn evil cell in an otherwise immortal woman who, sure enough and in real
life, died. Charles used to be a nightclub singer, an Assembly of God minister and a fashion
buyer before he became immortal. He wears a wig. Critics often ask how come, if he‟s so
good at regenerating his cells, he can‟t grow his own hair. He hates this question. James, the
last third of the trinity, sold real estate before he became immortal full-time. At 44, he is the
youngest, and he and BernaDeane and Charles have been fairly candid about the fact that the
three of them share a bed.
