Bohemia Village Voice  Bohemia Village Voice

For bohemians everywhere

An Immortal Child

Diane Haberstroh writes from Bohemia, New York

“The first step to eternal life, is you have to die.”
– Chuck Palahniuk

One of the strangest chapters in our local history concerns one man’s experiment in eternal life. Back in 1940, newspapers including the New York Times, were reporting on the sensational story of a cult leader residing in Oakdale who had adopted a baby girl in order to test his recipe for immortality. He believed that if a person is fed only positive thoughts and wholesome foods beginning in infancy that person could live forever. James B. Schafer, leader of the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians, adopted “Baby Jean” from a New York City waitress. In 1938, a couple of years before the adoption, Schafer purchased the old Oakdale Vanderbilt estate, now Dowling College. He named his estate Peace Haven. The membership fee for living at Peace Haven was $100 in 1938, but later that was increased to $300. Those who participated in the program were forbidden to have meat, coffee, spices, alcohol or tobacco. Schafer lectured to his followers on themes such as positive thinking and how to obtain maximum wealth and health.
When he adopted Jean, several members showered this youngest member with extravagant gifts, such as a diamond and pearl ring. Schafer was gaining notoriety through the many newspaper accounts of his “Baby Jean” experiment, but about a year later Jean’s birth mother requested and received her child back. Membership in the Royal Fraternity of Master Metaphysicians dwindled and the Peace Haven property was sold in foreclosure.
Schafer was convicted of stealing $9,000 from a former member and he was sentenced to Sing-Sing prison. After being returned to her mother, Jean seemed to have had a normal life. Decades later, a newspaper reported that she was married and living a normal Long Island suburban life, with no memory of her Peace Haven days.
Ironically, the man who was obsessed with immortality committed suicide in 1955 at his home in West Nyack, New York, about ten years after his release from prison.

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