Throughout history, humanity has launched countless spiritual scientific quests to outwit mortality. From laboratory experiments that made hearts thump again to prophetic sermons promising resurrection, the desire to raise the dead has sparked both awe and controversy.
Spiritual Scientific Pursuits Across Time
10 Alexsei Kuliabko
Aleksei Kuliabko, a Russian physiologist stationed at the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg around the turn of the 20th century, was already reviving animal hearts that had been removed for up to five days by 1902. The following year he turned his attention to humans. His first human subject was a three‑month‑old infant who had died of natural causes; two days after the baby’s death, Kuliabko managed to coax the tiny heart back into beating.
While restarting an entire human body was a monumental leap, Kuliabko’s daring experiments captured worldwide headlines. Newspapers praised his achievements and reassured the public that a full‑body resurrection was merely a matter of time. Promotional photographs often featured Kuliabko beside unsettling laboratory apparatus, blurring the line between science fiction and emerging fact.
According to contemporary reports, Kuliabko attempted to reanimate a man who had been dead for a day after a surgical mishap. With the assistance of pharmacist Fyodor Andreyev, he flooded the corpse’s vasculature with a cocktail of calcium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, dextrose, and adrenaline. The heart began to pulse, and the lifeless body allegedly emitted a chilling death rattle that sent assistants fleeing. After keeping the heart beating for twenty minutes, Kuliabko halted the experiment.
9 John Lacy
John Lacy, an English justice of the peace, became entangled with the 18th‑century French Prophets movement, a group that challenged Anglican doctrine by, among other things, claiming black was the Devil’s color while wearing black themselves. Upper‑class supporters like Lacy gave the Prophets a foothold in London, though their radical ideas ultimately alienated many.
Lacy claimed occasional possession by the divine, producing automatic writings he never remembered and delivering prophecies in Latin, Greek, and French. Critics noted his linguistic training and his poor pronunciation, suggesting he was simply reciting learned phrases.
In 1708, Lacy announced plans to resurrect Dr. Thomas Emes, who had died on December 22. A twelve‑year‑old prophetess predicted Emes would rise on May 25. The faithful donned green ribbons to mark themselves as pure, and Lacy continued his healing ministry. On the appointed day, roughly 20,000 spectators gathered, but the miracle never materialized. Emes remained in his grave, and Lacy’s failure turned his followers’ belief into ridicule, even though he later expressed doubt about the resurrection’s feasibility.
8 Lorenzo Snow
In 1889, Lorenzo Snow, a recently released Mormon leader who had served time for violating anti‑polygamy laws, rose to become President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Two years later, his niece Ella Jensen died at 10 a.m. while Snow was delivering a sermon.
Upon learning of her death, Snow rushed to her home, anointed her with consecrated oil, and declared, “Dear Ella, I command you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to come back and live; your mission is not yet ended.” He reassured her parents and left the room. An hour later, Ella reportedly sat up, asked for Snow, and claimed he had called her back to life.
7 Lazzaro Spallanzani And Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
Lazzaro Spallanzani, an Italian scientist famed for his work on spontaneous generation, also investigated regeneration in animals such as worms, frogs, and salamanders. He famously revived microscopic organisms he named “il Tardigrado” (the slow‑stepper) by re‑hydrating them after they had dried out.
Earlier, in 1702, Dutch microscopist Anton van Leeuwenhoek observed rotifers that, when dried, appeared lifeless but sprang back to life upon the addition of water. While rotifers can survive only brief desiccation, later research in the 1940s suggested that tardigrades might endure drying for up to 120 years, though successful revival has been documented for specimens dried for as long as eight years. Scientists believe these creatures enter a cryptobiotic state, reducing metabolic activity to a mere 0.01 % of normal and possibly producing protective chemicals that enable them to cheat death.
6 Elijah Pierson
In the early 19th century United States, religious sects proliferated, and Elijah Pierson, together with his wife Sarah, joined a movement that advocated extreme fasting, constant prayer, and a disdain for the poor. When Sarah contracted tuberculosis, Elijah interpreted her illness as a divine test. He recorded a vision in which God promised her recovery and instructed him to adopt the name Elijah the Tishbite, positioning him as a future prophet.
After Sarah’s death, Pierson gathered his followers to anoint her corpse and pray for resurrection. Witnesses, including her father, Reverend John Stanford, described the experience as “ill and depressed in mind.” Sarah never rose, but a follower claimed her spirit would inhabit another woman, Frances Folger, who was predicted to bear Pierson’s child.
Grief consumed Pierson, and on July 28, 1834, he was mysteriously poisoned and died alongside Sarah. The only suspect was former housekeeper Isabella Van Wagenen—better known today as Sojourner Truth—who later sued Folger for libel and won.
5 The Society For The Recovery Of Persons Apparently Drowned
Founded in 1774 by William Hawes and Thomas Cogan, the Society for the Recovery of Persons Apparently Drowned—now the Royal Humane Society—sought to combat the tragic loss of life from Thames drownings. Cogan translated a Dutch study demonstrating that forced air into the lungs could revive drowning victims, and he partnered with Hawes to disseminate this knowledge.
King George III endorsed the society in 1783, leading to the establishment of a network of doctors and surgeons stationed in homes and pubs along the river. They supplied resuscitation equipment and offered monetary rewards to both rescuers and pub owners who facilitated life‑saving efforts.
The reward system, however, attracted fraudsters who staged fake rescues by having one participant pretend to drown while another “miraculously” revived him. The scheme became so widespread that the society eventually began issuing certificates rather than cash.
4 Sergei Bryukhonenko
In 1925, Russian scientist Sergei Bryukhonenko unveiled his “autojektor” at the Second Congress of Russian Pathologists. The device circulated blood through a glass chamber, re‑oxygenated it, and pumped it back into an organism. Bryukhonenko famously kept a dog’s head alive for 100 minutes, a demonstration that failed to wow the audience.A year and a half later, the press spotlighted his work, sparking public outrage—not over the gruesome experiments, but over the lack of state funding. The uproar prompted a substantial grant from the People’s Commissariat for the Protection of Health. Rumors claimed Bryukhonenko later attached the autojektor to a human corpse that had been dead for three hours after a suicide, briefly reviving heartbeats, throat sounds, and eye movements before the team shut the machine off after two minutes.
3 The Dead Raising Team
Tyler Johnson leads the Dead Raising Team, a collective of Christian healers who interpret Matthew 10:8—“Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons”—as a universal mandate. By 2014, the group claimed to have restored life to eleven individuals through faith‑based prayer.
Johnson boasts that police sometimes clear barricades for him to pray over accident victims, yet he refuses to disclose the identities of those he allegedly resurrected. The team runs a “School of Resurrection” to teach anyone interested in the purported gift.
Other modern groups, such as Global Awakening, also assert the ability to raise the dead, citing cases like an American heart surgeon who allegedly revived a patient through simultaneous prayer and defibrillation.
2 Smith Wigglesworth
In 1907, Smith Wigglesworth transformed from a shy plumber‑to‑be into a charismatic Pentecostal evangelist. He taught that illness represented a spiritual battle between God and the Devil, and that unwavering faith alone could conquer any ailment.
Wigglesworth toured Europe and the United States, drawing crowds of tens of thousands, even as the Swedish government barred him from practicing the laying‑on‑of‑hands. Tragically, both his wife and daughter died young, which he interpreted as a sign that he had not yet attained sufficient spiritual strength.
Believers claim Wigglesworth raised at least fourteen people from the dead, including a man found lying in a coffin at a funeral home. After two failed attempts, the third attempt allegedly caused the man to cough, stand, and exit the funeral home under his own power. Another story recounts him reviving a close friend, who not only survived the near‑death experience but lived a long life thereafter.
1 John Dee And Edward Kelley
John Dee, the renowned Elizabethan astronomer and royal advisor, partnered with the alchemist Edward Kelley in a saga that straddles history and legend. According to Lancashire folklore, the duo was summoned to St. Leonard’s Churchyard late in the 16th century to exhume the corpse of a wealthy man who had taken the secret of his fortune to the grave.
Kelley performed a ritual over the decaying body, prompting the dead man’s eyes to open and reveal the location of his treasure. He also imparted prophetic knowledge about local inhabitants, predictions that allegedly proved accurate.
Centuries later, archaeologists uncovered the Cuerdale Hoard—a massive Viking‑era cache of roughly 8,600 silver coins—near the same churchyard. The hoard, buried between 905 and 910, was eventually divided among the excavation team and deposited in the British Museum, lending a tantalizing historical echo to the earlier resurrection tale.