Cyrus Teed
Cyrus Reed Teed ( born October 18, 1839 in Trout Creek, New York, † December 22, 1908 ) was an American physician and founder of a religious community. He called himself Koresh Teed and was of the opinion that people lived on the inside of a hollow sphere ( inner world of the cosmos ). Teed's teachings were about 4,000 followers.
Life
Training
Cyrus Teed was the second son in a series of eight children. His father was Jesse Sears Teed (1814-1899), his mother Sarah Ann Tuttle ( 1815-1885 ). At the age of eleven years, Cyrus left school to work on the towpath along the Erie Canal. While his family wanted him as his grandfather would take over an office in the Baptist church, Cyrus decided to start with his uncle Samuel F. Teed, an allopathic doctors from Utica, New York, medical studies.
Teed was interested in methods of healing that are now counted towards alternative medicine, homeopathy, Indian herbal medicine as well as forms of therapy, the magnetic fields or used electric shocks.
Cyrus Teed married in 1859 Fidelia M. Rowe, in 1860 the couple had a son, Douglas Arthur Teed. 1862 the family moved to New York City, where Cyrus initially continued his studies. In the same year he volunteered at the New York Infantry. In August 1863, he suffered a sunstroke, which led to a longer hospital stay and finally discharge from the army. Teed was able to continue his studies in medicine at the Eclectic Medical College in New York, took his degree in 1868 and then began to work in the practice of his uncle in Utica.
"Enlightenment"
In the fall of 1869 Teed wants made in experiments in his laboratory have lead into gold ( alchemy ) and the philosopher's stone have been found. In one of his experiments Reed was electrocuted. Then God said to have appeared in the form of a beautiful woman to him in a "enlightenment" ( Illumination), which gave him the order to interpret scientifically the symbols of the Bible. In addition, they showed him the essence of the universe: the earth is a hollow sphere and the people lived on the concave side, while the sky and the heavenly bodies befänden located near the center of the ball and it so appears only through bending of light, as if the Earth a ball on the surface of the human living.
Restless years
The following years were restless for Teed. The income from his practice declined, because you "crazy" for holding him on the spot. The practice could eventually no longer support the family. Teed moved to Binghamton, New York, and opened a practice there. He received help from Dr. A. W. K. Andrews and his wife, who were also among the first members of the new religious movement, the Koreshans. 1873 visited Teed Andrews and the municipality of the Harmony Society in Economy, Pennsylvania. There they saw applied forms of celibacy and communism. Between 1874 and 1876 Teed practiced as a doctor in Equinunk, Pennsylvania, before moving back to his parents in Moravia, New York, went. Edited by him daily newspaper Herald of the Messenger of the New Covenant of the New Jerusalem had to cease publication once again. Some articles published from 1901 to Flaming Sword. Teed was a member of the North Family of Shakers, a commune in Lebanon, New York. This residence also had an influence on his future, his own community. At the same time he practiced as a physician in a number of neighboring towns. The end of 1880 he founded a commune in Moravia to his parents, three siblings, a brother and five other people included. His wife, who was suffering from tuberculosis, went with their son to her sister to Binghamton.
After two years of failed the mop - making, which should ensure the maintenance of the community. Moreover, the Community was criticized when a woman left her husband to join the group. Teed had to leave Moravia and went to Syracuse, New York, where his brother Oliver, who had taken his degree in 1868 at the Philadelphia National Eclectic Medical Association, and his sister Emma in Cyrus ' co- practice. The practice was initially very successful until Teed was sued because he had fraudulently obtained money by posing as another Christ. Teed paid back the $ 25 and the matter was dropped. Teed 1884 held a public lecture entitled The Science of Life Immortal ( " The Science of immortal life "). Nevertheless, the practice did not go well and Teed moved to New York where he lived with four women, including one of his sisters and a cousin. 1886 also had to give up this small community.
Rise
Teed received an invitation to a six-day meeting of the National Association of Mental Science in September 1886 in Chicago. On the last day of the meeting Teed gave a lecture entitled The Brain ( " The Brain " ) with subsequent demonstration in spiritual healing. He is said to have healed a paralyzed woman. Its a few days earlier in Chicago organized community founded in rapid succession, the Guiding Star Publishing House, the assembly of the Covenant ( Church Triumphant ) and the World College of Life, a school of metaphysics. Most of the members came from the mental -science group. Annie G. Ordway took over the management of the Society Arch Triumphant, the mainly well-educated middle class women dressed in the subsequent period.
From 1890, the Community expanded. Although the branch was founded in Los Angeles in 1892 had to be re- released, but 25 members moved to Chicago. Teed kept in touch with several other communities, including the Harmony Society in Economy, Pennsylvania, the Brotherhood of the New Life in Fountain Grove, California, the North Family of Shakers in Lebanon, New York. Teed's dream was to unite the various utopian communities in a Confederation of Societies Celibate.
Teed was just 1.70 meters (5 ' 6 ") tall, weighed just 75 kilos from (165 lbs. ) And had never shaved until 1891. Then he was always clean-shaven and wore glasses. He had a deep voice and a penetrating gaze. Teed argued strongly and his lectures and sermons rarely lasted less than two hours. From 1891 he called himself Koresh, the hebräisierte form of his name Cyrus, who himself is the Latinized form of the Old Persian name Cyrus.
In May 1892, the community rented an estate in Washington Heights, Illinois, near Chicago. The property consisted of a manor house, seven farmhouses and well four hectares ( 11 ½ acres). In a barn, a printing press was set up. At this time, the group had 110 members, of which 83 are women. Teed was sued several times, some charges related to Teed's views on women's rights. All charges were eventually dropped. But Teed gladly took the opportunity when the group was offered in Florida an estate of some 130 hectares ( 320 acres) size. 1894 covered the first 25 members of the group according to Estero, Florida.
Flower of the municipality and Teed's death
The colony in Florida grew rapidly and soon became more important than the group in Chicago. 1903, the Koreshan Unity (now ExxonMobil) created as a holding company modeled after the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey with a capital stock of $ 1,000. While Teed was initially a minority shareholder, he acquired at a later increase in the capital stock to $ 200,000, the majority of the shares. In November 1903 left the last Koreshans Chicago and brought 15 carloads of goods and equipment to Florida. Beginning of 1904 200 people lived in Estero, so a separate municipality within the meaning of an administrative unit could be established. The new church Estero comprised 110 square miles, or about 285 square kilometers, of which 8 square miles of waters (20 km ²).
Between 1894 and 1908 the Koreshans acquired some 23 square kilometers of land ( about 5,700 acres). The municipality operated a variety of their own craft, including tool shop, electricians, cement, sheet metal work, mattress making, millinery, basket-making, shoe-making, forging, printing, and laundry facilities. There were also a restaurant, a sawmill and a shipyard. For $ 75,000 a furniture factory in Bristol, Tennessee was purchased. With the Government of Honduras negotiations for the acquisition of approximately 800 square kilometers ( 200,000 acres) of land were led to the establishment of another settlement. The San Carlos Hotel in St. James City, Florida, was acquired as the seat of the World College of Life, but was burned down during construction work. Further land was acquired on the island of Mound Key in Estero Bay.
1897 led Teed together with Ulysses Grant Morrow ( 1864-1950 ) on the beach of Naples, Florida, a large-scale experiment to prove the concavity of the world through. The results seemed to confirm Teed's theory of the hollow Earth, were published in Teed's book The Cellular Cosmology.
1906 American Eagle newspaper was founded. The community got into political difficulties, as the Koreshans demanded a larger share of road tax and lined up its own list of candidates in the 1906 elections. Because they had voted closed in 1904 for Theodore Roosevelt, their participation in the primaries of the Democratic Party was denied. What started as a fun affair with his own band and attacks against the other candidates in their own newspaper, changed his character on 13 October 1906, when a group of Koreshans became embroiled in Fort Myers in a brawl. Teed apart trying to bring the disputants, but was attacked and injured by the Town Marshal. Teed and two of his followers were arrested and placed a deposit of 10 dollars released. Although the three did not appear for trial, the matter was put down.
After this fight to Teed's health deteriorated gradually and he died on December 22, 1908, the day of the winter solstice. Many of his followers were expecting his resurrection on Christmas Day. Teed was buried on December 27, 1908 at the southern end of Estero Iceland.
Aftermath
After Teed's death, the community fell apart. The last surviving followers were broadcasting the 1961 estate of the municipality the U.S. state of Florida, which operates two of its state parks there, the Koreshan State Historic Site and Mound Key Archeological State Park.
Teed's theories were never recognized scientifically.
The filmmaker Michael Busch processed in his experimental film The Electric Paradise (2010 ) Topics biography Cyrus Teed. The singer GUZ of the Swiss rock band The aeronaut sang Cyrus Teed in 2000 and his theory in the song Koresh Teed from the album We Do How You.