Walter Russell: A Life Dedicated to Unifying Science and Spirituality

Walter Bowman Russell (May 19, 1871 - May 19, 1963) was an American impressionist painter, sculptor, author, and natural philosopher who sought to unify science and spirituality. His work, often considered ahead of its time, continues to appeal to those examining the nature of science and consciousness.

Early Life and Artistic Beginnings

Born in Boston on May 19, 1871, to Nova Scotian immigrants, Russell's formal education was cut short when he left school at age 9 to work. Nevertheless, he pursued his artistic interests, putting himself through the Massachusetts Normal Art School. He spent three months in Paris at the Académie Julian, interrupting his fourth year. Before leaving Boston in 1894, Russell married Helen Andrews. They traveled to Paris for their wedding trip and a second term for him at the Académie Julian.

Russell's rise in New York City was rapid. At age 29, he garnered widespread attention with his allegorical painting The Might of Ages in 1900.

Success in Art, Business, and Science of Man

Russell made his mark as a builder, creating $30 million worth of cooperative apartments. In the 1930s, Russell was employed by Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, as a motivational speaker for IBM employees. At age 56 he turned to sculpture and fashioned portrait busts of Thomas Edison, Mark Twain, General MacArthur, John Philip Sousa, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Charles Goodyear, George Gershwin and others. He rose to top rank as a sculptor. He won the commissions for the Mark Twain Memorial and for President Franklin D.

Russell became a leader in the Science of Man Movement when he was elected president of the Society of Arts and Sciences in 1927. His seven-year tenure generated many articles in the New York Times.

A Transformative Illumination and New Cosmological Views

As World War II approached, he moved into a top-floor studio at Carnegie Hall, where he lived alone . This was a low time that required a rejuvenation of his health and spirit. Russell claimed to have experienced a transformational and revelatory event in May 1921, which he later described in a chapter called "The Story of My Illumining" in the 1950 edition of his Home Study Course.

"The Universal One"

Russell published The Universal One in 1926. The Universal One is Walter Russell's first expression of his new Cosmology explaining the Mind-centered electric universe. Though he would revise his theory somewhat over the years, this is the first and basic description of his new Cosmology. Lavishing illustrated, it sets out his views on God, the Universe, matter and Man's place in the world as he searches for a path to god. In this historic volume, Walter Russell first reveals the possibility of transmutation of the elements. This illustrated treatise is Russell's scientific explanation of God's ways and processes in the construction of the Universe and provides a guide for illuminating Man's proper way of living during the long journey to the Light of God. According to Russell, the universe is a multiplicity of changing effects of but one unchanging cause. All things are universal, and nothing is of itself alone. When man knows this in measurable exactness, then he will have no limitations within those which are universal.

The book reveals the possibility of transmutation of the elements and unites spiritual cause and scientifically observable effect in a seamless whole. Russell later revised some of the content of the book in The Secret of Light and A New Concept of the Universe.

He defended his ideas in the pages of the New York Times in 1930-1931. In 1943, Russell wrote, "It will be remembered that no one who has ever had [the experience of illumination] has been able to explain it.

Core Tenets of Russell's Cosmogony

Russell described his cosmogony in A New Concept of the Universe (1953), where he wrote that "the cardinal error of science" was "shutting the Creator out of his Creation." Russell never referred to an anthropomorphic god, but rather wrote that "God is the invisible, motionless, sexless, undivided, and unconditioned white Magnetic Light of Mind" which centers all things.

Read also: Student-Athlete Excellence

According to Russell, there is but one God and one universe; God is the universe, not separate from it. He posited that there is no created-universe, and nothing is which has not always been. Creation, in his view, is not the coming into existence of something new, but rather an apparent integration in continuity of that which already exists in substance - a periodic change of state of the One unchanging substance.

Russell equated God with thinking Mind, and light as the substance or body of God. The created universe is the registration in matter of the idea of thinking Mind, with Mind expressed in light. He considered the universe a universe of energy, with energy expressed in light, and Mind as the universe itself.

Russell believed that man is Mind and matter, and that these are One. Knowledge, he asserted, is not acquired from without but recollected from within. To know how to think in light from within is to open the doors of all knowledge, and omnipotence lies in perfect thinking.

Later Life, the University of Science and Philosophy, and Second Marriage

In 1948, at the age of 77, Russell divorced his first wife and married Daisy Stebbing, aged 44, an immigrant from England and former model and businesswoman, amid some controversy. She changed her name to Lao (after Lao-Tzu, the Chinese illuminate) and they embarked on a cross-country automobile trip from Reno looking for a place to establish a workplace and a museum for his work.

In 1957 the Commonwealth of Virginia granted a charter for the University of Science and philosophy, a correspondence school with a home study course. The Russells collaborated on a number of books. The testing of atomic bombs in the atmosphere prompted them to publish Atomic Suicide? in 1957, in which they warned of grave consequences for the planet and humankind if radioactivity was exploited as a world fuel.

Read also: Community College Overview

Key Concepts in Russell's Philosophy

The Law of Love

The Law of Love is rhythmic balanced interchange between all things.

The Nature of Light

Russell emphasized that all things are Light, inseparable and without bounds. He saw the spectrum as inherent within Light, and man as an image of the One, extending to the least of waves.

Repetition and Interconnectedness

Russell stated that everything is repeated within every other thing, unto the One. Every element is contained within every other element, even to the atom's veriest unit.

The Limitations of Sensory Perception

Russell argued that science errs by limiting itself to the narrow range of man's senses. He believed that man could become "knowing man" instead of "sensing man" by reaching deeper into the invisible and unseen through his relation to the Source.

The Importance of Knowledge

Russell stressed that the fulcrum from which all power springs is KNOWLEDGE. He believed that man could command the elements by knowing the law, as the elements of matter do not vary.

The Illusion of Infinity

Russell refuted the concept of an infinite universe, asserting that a universe of limitations cannot be infinite. He believed that when measurable cause is known, man can comprehend and measure all effects.

The Tonal Universe

According to Russell, the universe is a tonal one, a dimensionless universe of light, where all things are variable, yet comprehensible and measurable states of motion of the One substance.

Thinking in Light

Russell described ecstatic man as inspired man of universal genius, capable of inner thinking. He believed that the power to think in light is not a new power being developed, but one within man awaiting his knowledge of its use.

Russell's Periodic Chart

Russell created his own periodic chart of atomic weights, challenging the arrangement of the conventional Mendeleev periodic table. He posited that the inert gases of the zero group are incomplete and that octaves are missing from the standard chart.

Legacy

Walter Russell's work continues to inspire those seeking a deeper understanding of the universe and man's place within it. His emphasis on the interconnectedness of all things, the power of the mind, and the importance of seeking knowledge from within resonates with those who believe that science and spirituality can be unified.

tags: #walter #russell #the #universal #one #biography