James Schafer, The 1920s Cult Leader Who Tried To Raise An Immortal Child
Brooklyn Daily EagleA photo of Baby Jean in a 1940 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Sometimes, people seek immortality not for themselves but for their cause. Enter James Schafer, the leader of a little-known cult called the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians.
Schafer founded the cult in the 1920s and referred to himself as its “Messenger.” He claimed the group was devoted to “the joyous work of helping others to help themselves,” according to TIME.
Schafer made a number of other wild claims, including that he could cause people or things that stood in his way to vanish. He also believed that death and illness were the result of negative thoughts.
In 1939, Schafer and his cult announced that they were going to achieve the impossible — by raising an immortal baby. The infant was a foster child named Jean Gauntt, whose mother reportedly lacked the financial means to care for her.
Baby Jean, as she came to be known, was never officially adopted by Schafer or anyone within his cult. Nevertheless, Schafer brought her to his Long Island mansion when she was just a few months old and strictly governed every aspect of her life.
He raised her under the belief that she should not be exposed to anything that would lead to “bad or destructive” thoughts. Schafer fed her a vegetarian diet void of alcohol, tobacco, coffee, tea, mustard, vinegar, and spices, all to prove that immortality “can actually be achieved, not as a ghost or spirit.”
James Schafer planned for Baby Jean to take over as the cult’s leader in the event of his death, but after just 15 months, the experiment came to an end when the child’s mother sued for custody.
