Charles Paul Brown, Bernadeane, James Strole and Physical Immortality
In 1960, Charles Paul Brown - a former night-club singer, fashion buyer and, at the time, Assembly of God minister - experienced what he felt as the flesh of Jesus Christ move within the cells of his own body: somewhat akin to the spiritual experiences of many "born-again" Christians.
The difference of this experience for Charles Brown was that he accepted the physicality of this "genetic transformation". This "Christing of the flesh", as he has described it, led him to recognize and experience in his own self that physical immortality is the true state for all people - that people aren't born to die, but to live without end.
At first he attempted to integrate this feeling for physical immortality into his religious ministry, but it soon became clear that the religious were not interested in physical immortality in the here and now, but in an eternal life as a result of death - their view of immortality was as a benefit of an afterlife.
Although he had to break from the church, as he initially perceived his message as the legacy of Jesus Christ, he started his own ministry, "the Eternal Flame", which he registered as a religious organization. With his wife Bernadeane, he spent many years preaching physical immortality around the country to any congregation that showed an interest. But what drew people to him and kept them moving with him was not so much his message of physical immortality now, as the importance he placed on each person - both as an individual, and as an essential ingredient in the collective whole.
Given the strong support and promotion of the belief that death is inevitable, Charles Brown had reached the conclusion that although all people carry physical immortality in their flesh, one person, himself included, cannot do it alone. Those who awaken to their physical immortality, need the support and encouragement of others who also experience their immortality, in order to truly end the death in their own bodies. His message became that people need each other to live and therefore have to make each other, and being with each other, more important than anything else - their differences, beliefs or prejudices.
In 1968, James Russell Strole joined Charles Paul Brown and Bernadeane, bringing his own passion to the expression of physical immortality now.
In 1971 they settled in Scottsdale and began to build a community of people who felt physical immortality with them. They travelled extensively, encouraging more and more people around the world to take on the value of their own bodies and claim their physical immortality. Along the way they became known as "CBJ" and changed the name of the organization to first, the "Flame Foundation" and then "People Forever International" - both reflecting their movement away from a religious focus and towards an international arena.
In the early nineties they embarked on a PR campaign to further their desire - that every person be given the opportunity to hear that they didn't have to die, and that physical immortality could be a reality for them. As they anticipated, their expression - that people can be physically immortal now, that death, for any reason, is unacceptable, and that human beings need to be valued above anything else - stirred controversy. What they didn't expect was just how intensely the media would try to discredit them and their message - largely through biased reporting.
Despite that experience, they have continued to express a passion for all people to end the death in their lives. They consistently encourage whoever will listen, to live to their full capacity without the limitations of disease, poverty, aging or death, and to join them in embracing the "joy unspeakable" of physical immortality now.
Although many people see physical immortality as being possible sometime in the future or when one reaches a particular state of grace or science finds the answer. Their focus tends to be on finding a way to "do-it-themselves", or a way that anyone can "do-it-themself". They don't see physical immortality as bringing people together, they see it as a development of the individual.
This is why Charles Brown, Bernadeane and James Strole are so potent. For them, and the people with them, being physically immortal is not only who they are now, but it requires that all of them move together to develop a human environment that nurtures each other and their physical immortality in the face of a world promoting death.