Walter Siegmeister

Walter Siegmeister (1901–1965),[1] later and better known as Dr. Raymond W. Bernard A.B., M.A., PhD, was an early 20th century American alternative health, esoteric writer, author and mystic, who formed part of the alternative reality subculture.[2]

Contents

Biography

Early life

Dr. Siegmeister was born into a family of Russian Jews in New York City.[3][4] His father was a surgeon who started out as a bio-chemist student in Germany. Siegmeister graduated from Colombia University and in 1932, took a Ph.D in education at New York University.[5] Under the name Bernard, he later settled in Florida.[6]

A prolific writer, according to Guy Harwood: “After his father died Walter’s mother sent him $200 a month from his father’s life insurance policy. This is where he got the money to live on, travel and to publish his writings. Walter’s brother was in charge of the music department in some of Brooklyn’s schools.” [7] [8] This brother was American composer Elie Siegmeister.

According to Harwood, Siegmeister believed in the Essene religion, and wrote about many subjects including dietetics, regeneration, alternative medicine, longevity, radiation, historic figures and ancient mysteries. One of his most popular books was The Hollow Earth. He wrote a new introduction to Julius Hensel's Bread From Stones.

Contemporaries

Siegmeister's contemporaries included authors, George R. Clements (also known as Kenyon Klamonti, Karl Kridler and Hilton Hotema), Theos Bernard and Alexis Carrel, who wrote about similar subjects. Through his writings, and infamous Hollow Earth theory, he told of his idea of a subterranean world occupied by non-human races. This was later developed by other writers documenting an inner-earth and underground civilizations. Siegmeister also told of his search for the safest place on Earth from radioactive fallout in order to build a paradise.[9][10] The idea was later developed in the writings of Johnny Lovewisdom and then Viktoras Kulvinskas.[11]

After a business partnership with George R. Clements, selling crop land, Siegmeister went to Ecuador in 1941[12] where he met John Wierlo (Johnny Lovewisdom) who had arrived in 1940, where they spoke of plans for a paradisian utopia and a super-race in the Ecuadorean jungle.[13] However Wierlo later claimed he was not planning on creating a super-race, only a Camp of Saints.[14]

On returning to the USA, Siegmeister, now called Dr Robert Raymond, continued to sell his health books, before returning to South America, where he sold more health books under the name Dr Uriel Adriana, AB, MA, PhD. After his mother died in 1955, he moved to Brazil to buy land and create a super-race. In Brazil, he renewed his interest in UFOs, Atlantis, aliens, underground tunnels and the hollow earth theory. Siegmeister believed Brazil contained the entrances to the tunnels leading to the hollow earth.[14] In 1964, he found a New York publisher for The Hollow Earth which was based on his book Flying Saucers from the Earth's Interior. The book became popular, however Siegmeister died of pneumonia in 1965.[14] His hollow earth ideas were later developed in the writings of David Hatcher Childress.[14]

Publications

External links

References

  1. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Walter Siegmeister (1901-65) would make the discovery of the inner-world the object of his obsession,"
  2. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "IN THE MID-1940S, A SMALL GROUP of American writers and enthusiasts in the alternative reality subculture resuscitated interest in the idea of a subterranean world occupied by non-human races."
  3. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "The son of a successful surgeon in New York, he grew up in an upper-class, non-practicing Jewish home where meritocratic achievement was emphasized."
  4. ^ http://www.thehollowearthinsider.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=19 The Hollow Earth Insider - Raymond Bernard's Search For Paradise
  5. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "After taking his undergraduate degree at Columbia, he went on to earn the Ph.D. in education at New York University in 1932 as a step toward securing a professorship."
  6. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Here, using money gained from a family inheritance, Siegmeister constructed a "natural living" community at an inland Everglades site on which vegetables and tropical fruit were raised. "
  7. ^ http://www.thehollowearthinsider.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=19 The Hollow Earth Insider
  8. ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-83582927.html Inner Earth Utopia
  9. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Siegmeister demonstrated a zealot's faith in his plan for the subterranean salvation of a chosen remnant of humanity."
  10. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Walter Siegmeister (1901-65) would make the discovery of the inner-world the object of his obsession, a pursuit he believed necessary to save an elect body of humankind from the planet's nuclear destruction (Biosophical Bulletin 107)."
  11. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Siegmeister represents a relatively recent connection to a lineage of utopians harboring dreams of the mythic inner-world. "
  12. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Siegmeister left the United States and relocated in Ecuador, where he again dreamed of forming a utopian colony."
  13. ^ Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia, Utopian Studies; March 22, 2001; Whitsel, Brad, "Siegmeister was a communitarian idealist who had been seeking since 1939 to establish a perfect human society divorced from what he viewed as the corrupting influences of modern civilization. His lifelong search for communal paradise derived from a remarkably conventional background."
  14. ^ a b c d http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/cienciareal/invisible_eagle/invisible_eagle07.htm