The_Resurrectionist_The_Lost_Work_of_Dr

Your suspicions are acute and undoubtedly not without the prerequisite research on
the nature of my work. Why, you’d think that we [doctors] were monsters the way
some go on about their God and sanctimony and blasphemes. We are scientists, not
demons.
The tradition of carnival performers providing food, medicine, and other charities to the needy and
sick still carries on in Black’s name in many regions of the world. While he toured, his reputation for
offering surgical help, sometimes called miracles, was widespread enough to warrant pilgrimages to
see him. There are accounts of children suffering from life-threatening defects whose families
traveled hundreds of miles, and sometimes even farther, to seek out his services. On one such
occasion Black wrote in October 1891:
She was brought to us with neither arms nor legs, brought not only to our show, but
here on Celestial Terra itself. When she was found, there were none to claim her.
She was alone save the box and a letter that the poor child was abandoned with.
Her family, ashamed of their daughter, failed to see what she really was––they saw
only a monster. The condition of her birth and deformity was not a punishment or
an omen or a hex cast upon her. She has lost blood, precious blood. I will give her
back what was supposed to be hers.
The patient was a nine-year-old girl, Miriam Helmer. She was born with no arms (only hands) and
very short legs, quite possibly a form of the condition known as Roberts syndrome. Dr. Black grafted
wings onto the girl’s shoulders, and, after a brief healing period, she began performing in his show.
Black presented her as the winged woman, claiming that her lack of arms was a genetic attempt to
sprout wings; the failure could be attributed to the fact that her composition was largely human.
Miriam performed in the show for several years before she died from unknown causes in 1899.
With Miriam Helmer, Black introduced his theory of self-resurrection—the idea that he could
unlock the body’s natural memory of its ancestral past by giving it real physical reminders. Armed
with these prompts, the body could rebuild on its ancient knowledge and then “self-resurrect.” He
cites numerous references to self-resurrection in a book called The Book of Breath, but it is widely
believed this book is one that Black himself was writing. To this day, no manuscript or volume with a
similar title or description has ever been found.
The Human Renaissance show ran from 1892 to 1893 and attracted controversy with every new
performance. Disturbances and fights were common, religious leaders protested Dr. Black’s
creations, political leaders spoke out against him, and nearly the entire medical community decried
his legitimacy. Even the American Eugenics Society found fault with Dr. Black, describing his work
as regressive:
[It is] an abolition of modern efforts––an attack on the human form. These beasts
are not natural, as Dr. Black says. They ought not be displayed for the public but
rather driven back into extinction.
—Edward Stalts, Director of the American Eugenics Society
But as has been evidenced all along, Black was not easily discouraged; he was accustomed to