Cyrus Tweed’s “The Earth a Concave Sphere”

In our current social climate, it can seem that confidence in the scientific method and trust in the expertise of professionals are being challenged for the first time. Is it good news or bad, then, to realize that this is not the case? Strap in, ladies and gents, as I introduce you to _The Cellular Cosmogony; or, The Earth a Concave Sphere_, a book written by Cyrus Tweed in 1905. In this volume, Tweed (by this point in his life he was calling himself Koresh– not affiliated with the cult leader David Koresh of Waco) articulated that the surface of the earth was concave and that the entire universe fit inside. The sun was in the center of the universe (a short 4,000 miles away), and was in fact a helix that was dark on one side, which settled the problem of night and day. There were/are, in fact, more problems than that with this model, but Cyrus was quite used to embracing alternative views. A student of herbs, alchemy, and electricity, Tweed had a mystical vision after he accidentally electrocuted himself in 1869. A beautiful and divine female spirit came to him and told him that he was a messiah who would resurrect after his death and take his followers up to heaven. Communities of Koresh-followers arose, the largest being Estero in Florida. When he died, Tweed’s followers kept up a hopeful vigil for two days, but eventually endured the disappointment of their leader’s body decomposing. The county intervened and forced a burial. Today Estero can be toured as part of the Koreshan State Historic Site.