Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 – May 19, 1963) was an American artist and mystic known[1] for his achievements as a painter, sculptor, author and builder and less well known as a natural philosopher and for his unified theory in physics and cosmogony.[2][3] He posited that the universe was founded on a unifying principle of rhythmic balanced interchange. This physical theory, laid out primarily in his books The Secret of Light (1947) and The Message of the Divine Iliad (1948–49), has not been accepted by mainstream scientists.[4] Russell asserted that this was mainly due to a difference in the assumptions made about the existence of mind and matter; Russell assumes the existence of mind as cause while he believes that scientists in general assume the existence of mind as effect.[5] Russell was also proficient in philosophy, music, ice skating, and was a professor at the institution he founded, the University of Science and Philosophy. He believed mediocrity is self-inflicted and genius is self-bestowed.[6] The content of his public lectures and his writing about living philosophy place him firmly in the New Thought Movement, [7]
In 1963, Walter Cronkite in the national television evening news, commenting on Dr. Walter Russell's death, referred to him as "... the Leonardo da Vinci of our time."[8] After Walter Russell died (which the Russells referred to as being "refolded"), his wife Lao Russell kept USP going successfully until she herself died in 1988.[9]
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Born in Boston, MA on May 19, 1871, Russell left formal schooling at the age of nine (ten in some accounts) in order to help support his family. At age thirteen he became a church organist.[10] He paid his own way through Massachusetts Normal School of Art. His jobs included: art editor at Collier's Magazine, portrait painter, author and lecturer, architect (Hotel des Artists (rumored involvement), West 67th St., New York;[11] Alwyn Court at 58th and Seventh Avenue; a Gothic studio opposite the Museum of Natural History on 79th St.), sculptor (including busts of Mark Twain, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas Alva Edison, etc.).[12]
In 1894 Russell married his first wife Helen Andrews, with whom he had two daughters.[13]
Russell also studied physics, and in his latter scientific period he advocated the transmission or acquisition of energy from what he referred to as the 'fabric of space'.
His Swannanoa estate was the setting for his University of Science and Philosophy from the late 1940s to the early 1990s. He lived there with his second wife Lao Russell till May 19, 1963 and she continued his work at the University until May 5, 1988. The Russells welcomed visitors to Swannanoa. Today, the place is closed down.[14]
Born Daisy Cook in England, and later known as Daisy Stebbing, Lao Russell (November 1904 – May 5, 1988) emigrated to the United States in the 1930s, where she marketed her own beauty products, such as Beautipon, a breast enhancement cream, and Slimcream, a breast reduction cream. She advertised these in publications such as Popular Songs magazine, buying small classified ads. She was an admirer of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. Her relationship with Walter Russell began in 1946, when she read The Man Who Tapped The Secrets Of The Universe and looked him up, eventually leading to Russell's re-marriage "...and who shall deny that her simple philosophy tapped the secret of the universe."[15] Students at the University are not restricted to a study of Walter Russell scientific theories but they can also seek enlightenment in the works of Lao Russell on such topics among others as love, sex and reincarnation.[16]
Walter Russell presented theories on the "fundamental principles of energy dynamics," the nature of matter and the progression of the evolution of matter, and the depiction of the universe as a continuously changing, creating effort sustained by the systematic work effort of the energy of light. His depictions laws was a nonstandard cosmology. Students of his work today call it "Russelian science."[17]
Russell portrayed the principles of the unity of universal law in a way which he believed brought many mainstream theories into direct conflict, or incompleteness, such as some of the principles of Isaac Newton e. g. weight as Dr. Russell explains: "... Weight should be measured dually as temperature is. It should have an above and below zero... "[18] He presented a view of the periodic table of elements that led him to the prediction of the existence of plutonium and the two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium[19] which were known in theory but as yet undiscovered in nature, (as well as elements which are still undiscovered in nature) e. g. the inert gases 'alphanon', 'betanon' and 'gammanon'[19] as well as the creation of heavy water.[19] Russell’s periodic table has not been adopted by mainstream chemistry. However in 1923, Charles Steinmetz of General Electric was able to corroborate the existence of some of the predicted transuranium elements by direct experimentation in the laboratory which helped to usher in the Atomic Age, in 1945.[20]
Such conflicts have left the work of Russell in obscurity. Robert Mayer claims this is because his cosmology, while complete[21] in itself, would require upon its academic and scientific acceptance not only the upheaval of many scientific theories, but also matters such as the nature of God. Once, when asked how he acquired his scientific knowledge, he answered: "...I always looked for the Cause behind things and didn't fritter away my time analyzing Effect. All knowledge exists as Cause. It is simple. It is limited to Light of Mind and the electric wave of motion which records God's thinking in matter."[22] At one point, an impressed Nikola Tesla advised Dr. Russell to lock all the new knowledge in the Smithsonian for one thousand years or so, or until man is ready for it.[23]
In 1974, in the preface to The Universal One, Lao Russell asserted that "...Dr. Russell's thought and awareness matured in expression and he clarified and rectified errors he felt that he had committed in his earlier writings."
Besides his scientific work, Russell also worked in an array of other fields, including the arts, architecture, business and writing.[22][24] He was friend and advisor to Theodore Roosevelt[25] and gave lectures about the connection between his universal principles and the applications of these principles to human life.[26] The University of Science and Philosophy publishes his books and perpetuates his teachings.
Walter Russell asserted that neither light nor heat flows from one point of space to another. He stated the same of electricity and magnetism; that neither is a flow varying as the inverse of the square of the distance according to Coulomb's Law, but a reproduction as the inverse of the cube of space. "Light does not travel. The light and heat which appear to come from the star or the sun has never left the star or the sun. That which man sees as light and feels as heat is the reproduced counterpart of the light and of the heat which is its cause."[27]
Lao and Walter Russell wrote the book Atomic Suicide? as a warning against the misuse of nuclear power through the proliferation of nuclear power plants. According to Walter Russell, the increasing heat and pressure generated on the planet by the increasing use of nuclear energy would eventually cause major global changes of a catastrophic nature.
The term New Age in its contemporary sense can be traced back at least to 1888. Walter Russell spoke of "... this New Age philosophy of the spiritual re-awakening of man ... Man's purpose in this New Age is to acquire more and more knowledge ..." in his essay "Power Through Knowledge," which was published in 1944.[28]
Russell accepted Richard Maurice Bucke's premise that not only the human body, but also human consciousness, had evolved in stages, that human consciousness periodically made progressive leaps, such as that from animal awareness to rational self-awareness, many millennia ago. Russell believed that humankind was on the brink of making another key, evolutionary leap in consciousness. The next cycle of human evolution, said Bucke, would be from rational self-consciousness to spiritual super-consciousness on the order of that experienced by sages, religious figures, and mystics of the past 2,500 years.
In 1947–48, Russell wrote: “This New Age is marking the dawn of a new world-thought. That new thought is a new cosmic concept of the value of man to man. The whole world is discovering that all mankind is one and that the unity of man is real – not just an abstract idea. Mankind is beginning to discover that the hurt of any man hurts every man, and, conversely, the uplift of any man uplifts every man” (Message of the Divine Iliad, vol. 2, p. 69). Russell’s predictions about what the New Age would bring included “a marriage between religion and science” (MDI p 257). Russell appeared to believe that this "New Age" would begin in 1946, based on a vision he had in 1921.
The most extensive treatment of Russell's ideas are found in his book, “A Course in Cosmic Consciousness.” Russell's ideas have also been digested by others.
The University of Science and Philosophy was a home-study educational institution founded in 1949 by Russell and his wife Lao Russell, originally located at the Swannanoa estate in Virginia, USA.
The original idea was based on the Twilight Club, originating in 1870 with Herbert Spencer and Ralph Waldo Emerson and dedicated to the "upliftment of mankind." In 1921, it was reorganized and renamed "Society of Arts and Sciences" by Walter Russell, Edwin Markham and Thomas J. Watson Sr., Founder and Chairman of IBM.[29]
In the 1920s and 1930s, Walter Russell and Thomas J. Watson Sr. delivered a series of lectures on business ethics.[30]
Books published after his death: