Raynor Johnson

Raynor Carey Johnson (1901 - 1987) was an English physicist and author.

Life and career

Johnson was born in Leeds, England. He earned an MA at the University of Oxford and a PhD in physics at the University of London. He taught physics in London and Belfast, working for a time with Ernest Rutherford in the Cavendish Laboratory. He became increasingly interested in "the esoteric" and became connected with the Society for Psychical Research in London.

Johnson's religious background led to work in Australia, where he was Master of the Methodist Queen’s College at the University of Melbourne from 1934 to 1964 [1]. This university gave him a DSc honoris causa in 1936.

Johnson published several books on mysticism and psychic research during the 1950s and 1960s. His interest and writings in esotericism eventually created concern within the Methodist Church [2], and he retired from his University position in 1964. At this time he owned a property called Santiniketan (abode of peace) at Ferny Creek in the Dandenong Ranges outside Melbourne. Here he hosted regular meetings of a religious and philosophical discussion group led by the yoga teacher Anne Hamilton-Byrne. This group became The Family,[3] a cult that adopted a large number of children and treated them cruelly until Victorian police rescued them on August 14 1987. Anne Hamilton-Byrne and her husband Bill were extradited from the United States six years later and faced criminal charges. Raynor Johnson died in 1987.

Publications

References

  1. ^ Former Heads of Colleges at University of Melbourne
  2. ^ Discussion of Raynor Johnson on ABC
  3. ^ Supreme Court of Victoria 1999 Judgement in Kibby v. Registrar of Titles and Another