The Immortality Upgrade

On April 7, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith, delivered a sermon to twenty thousand of his followers in Nauvoo, Illinois. The immediate occasion was the funeral of King Follett, a close friend of Smith's, and there is no doubt that death was on the prophet's mind. "God himself was once as we are now, and is an exalted man, and sits enthroned in yonder heavens!" Smith told the crowd. "That is the great secret." He continued: "You have got to learn how to be gods yourselves . . . the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead."