Walter Siegmeister
Walter Siegmeister (1901–1965),[1] later known as Raymond W. Bernard, was an early 20th-century American alternative health, esoteric writer, author and mystic, who formed part of the alternative reality subculture.[1]
Biography
Early life
Siegmeister was born into a family of Russian Jews in New York City.[1] 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.[1] Under the name Bernard, he later settled in Florida.[1]
Contemporaries
Siegmeister wrote of his search for the safest place on Earth from radioactive fallout in order to build a paradise.[1] The idea was later developed in the writings of Johnny Lovewisdom and then Viktoras Kulvinskas.[1]
Siegmeister went to Ecuador in 1941 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.[1][2] However Wierlo later claimed he was not planning on creating a super-race, only a Camp of Saints.
On returning to the USA, Siegmeister, now called Robert Raymond, continued to sell his health books, before returning to South America. 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. 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 describes a purported conspiracy to conceal the existence of the hollow earth and its access points at the poles.[3] Siegmeister died of pneumonia in 1965.
Publications
- Apollonius the Nazarene: the life and teachings of the unknown world teacher of the first century. Lorida, Fla.: New Age Publications, 1945.[4]
- Escape from Destruction: How to Survive in an Atomic Age''. Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1956.[1]
- Flying Saucers from the Earth's Interior''. Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1960.[1]
- The Hollow Earth''. New York: Carol Publishing, 1969 [1964].[1]
- Creation of the Superman. Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1970.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 1.11 Brad Whitsel (2001). Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia. Utopian Studies 12 (2): 82-102. (subscription required)
- ↑ J. M. Sheppard, "Disaster in Paradise", The American Weekly in The Milwaukee Sentinel, December 24, 1944, p. 17.
- ↑ James R. Lewis, The Encyclopedia of Cults, Sects, and New Religions, (Prometheus Books, 2002), ISBN 9781615927388, p. 399. Excerpts available at Google Books.
- ↑ Search results for 'au:"Walter Siegmeister"' Worldcat. Accessed August 2013.