“Mediocrity is self-inflicted; genius is self-bestowed.”
-Walter Bowman Russell
Walter Bowman Russell was a prolific author, scientist, inventor, builder, musician, impressionist painter, sculptor, and cosmologist.
BRMI has added him to our list of Pioneers of Bioregulatory Medicine due to his unified theory in physics and cosmogony, which proposes that the universe is founded on a unifying principle of rhythmic, balanced interchange. “Cosmic thinkers” was a term Russell used to describe those who are awakened to the innate genius within. He urged people to think in terms of universal principles, to tune into the cosmic rhythms, and to develop inner knowing rather than relying solely on external authorities or academic systems.
His life was a tapestry woven with threads of art, science, and spirituality. A blend so unique that it continues to inspire and perplex those who delve into his works.
Through his profound insights and creative genius, Russell sought to bridge the gap between the tangible and the intangible, offering a vision of the universe as an interconnected whole.
What makes Russell’s contribution truly extraordinary is that he had no formal scientific training, yet he developed a complete system that described the frequency-wave-based nature of the universe, the geometry of creation, and the spiritual structure of matter itself. He brought forth these concepts through deep states of meditation and periods where he would go days without food, sleep, or water.
Throughout his life, he received a torrent of insight directly from “Source”.
Childhood and Youth
Walter Bowman Russell was born on May 19, 1871, in Boston, MA, to Jacob Russell and Melinda Bishop (both from Nova Scotia). He died on the same day in 1963 at the age of 92. His father was a retail grocer in Boston, while his mother stayed home with their nine children. Walter was the second oldest of seven boys and two girls.
Before he could walk or speak, he could play any tune he heard with one finger on the piano. A blind neighbor taught him to play the piano and was an important spiritual interchange partner during his childhood. At the age of seven, while playing marbles with other boys, he felt the urge to retreat into the solitude of the woods, where, for the first time, he experienced leaving his body and feeling the ecstasy of cosmic consciousness. From then on, he frequently had out-of-body experiences and began to perceive the world differently from other children. These experiences gave him inner peace on one hand, but also inner loneliness on the other. His blind maestro was the only friend of his early days.
Profound Experiences
At age 9, he left his village school to work as a cash boy in a dry goods store. At age 13, Russell earned money as a church organist and music teacher and by conducting a trio in a hotel. At age 14, he developed diphtheria and was even briefly pronounced dead. He ultimately had a profound near-death experience from which he developed
deep spiritual insights and knowledge of self-healing. To the amazement of his parents and of the doctors, he woke up from his bed perfectly healed.
Soon after, he put himself through the Massachusetts Normal Art School. He interrupted his fourth year, spending three months in Paris at the Académie Julian.
Biographer Glenn Clark identifies four instructors who prepared him for an art career: Albert Munsell and Ernest Major in Boston, Howard Pyle in Philadelphia, and Jean-Paul Laurens in Paris.
The Early Years as an Artist (1890 – 1920)
At age 22, on January 10, 1894, in Boston, he married Helen M. Andrews (1894–1953), a stenographer. At that time, he listed himself as an “artist.” Later, they had two daughters, Helen (born in 1896) and Louise (born in 1900). The couple
traveled to Paris for their honeymoon and a second term for him at the Académie Julian. After returning from Paris, they settled in New York City in 1894.
From 1897 to 1898 he was Art Editor of Colliers Weekly, then became a war artist and correspondent for Colliers and Century during the Spanish War.
In 1900, at age 29, he completed his allegorical painting entitled The Might of Ages which was first exhibited in the Turin International Art Exposition, winning honorable mention from Italy, then exhibited throughout Europe, winning him many honors from France, Belgium and Spain, including membership to the Spanish Academic of Arts and Letters, Toledo.
From then on, until 1914, he primarily painted portraits of children and notables. He additionally wrote books and built numerous big buildings, some of which still exist.
For more portraits painted by Russell, click here.
A Variety of Endeavors
By 1903, Russell had published three children's books (The Sea Children, The Bending of the Twig, and The Age of Innocence) and qualified for the Authors Club, which he joined in 1902.
Around this time, Russell made his mark as a builder. In 1914, a group of artists, including Walter Russell, Frank DuMond, Willard Metcalf, and Penrhyn Stanlaws, paid $250,000 to purchase a parcel of land on the west side of Central Park with plans of building Hotel des Artistes. At the outset, they planned to erect a 20-story building, where 10 stories would be dedicated to artists' studio space and the other 10 would be dedicated to apartments.
The Hotel des Artistes on West 67th Street in Manhattan has been described as his masterpiece. Completed in 1917, the ornate 17-story, 119-unit Gothic-style building has been home to a long list of writers, artists, and politicians over the years. Russell was also involved in the initial development of Alwyn Court, at Seventh Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan, but dropped out before the project's completion.
In 1941, the American Academy of Sciences conferred a doctorate on him, after several laboratories had isolated the elements which he had previously foreseen: Deuterium, Tritium, Neptunium, and Plutonium. During this time, he gave numerous
presentations on the Law of Rhythmic Interchange.
1921 – 1946 Years of Spiritual Enlightenment
Russell provided context and clarity to the unseen world, demonstrating how metaphysical forces manifest through geometry, pressure conditions, and wave dynamics. He did not just describe the physical universe; he attempted to reveal the spiritual/metaphysical mechanics behind it.
In 1921, at age 49, Russell experienced what he called his “Illumination into the Light of Cosmic Consciousness”. During this period, his family became concerned about his mental condition and consulted specialists to decide if he needed to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic. Fortunately, these doctors were very impressed by his perceptions
and intellect and sensed that something important was happening to his consciousness. Russell described “My Illuminating” as “becoming aware of all things…. I could perceive all motion”. This awareness became the core of Russell’s cosmology, and several texts followed: The Universal One was published in 1926, The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept in 1930, The Secret of Light in 1947, and A New Concept of the Universe in 1953. Russell wrote that “the cardinal error of science was shutting the
Creator out of the Creation.” “God is the invisible, motionless, sexless, undivided, and unconditioned white Magnetic Light of Mind which centers all things.”
In 1926, Russell copyrighted a spiral-shaped Periodic Chart of the Elements. This described a nine-octave wave system, revealing how light, matter, and energy all arise from the same fundamental rhythmic motion. Thus, he redrew the periodic table of elements, aligning each element to a position within this wave structure, including
elements science had not yet discovered.
Leading the Way in Science
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.
In 1927, Russell published The Universal One, with numerous illustrations. This was his first attempt to explain some of his ideas of Cosmic Laws to the world of Newtonian scientists. In this book, he examines cubic structures and axes of systems,
understanding that crystals respond to both mind and geometry. He states peculiarities of how some crystals, like Staurolite, can grow through each other, called Crystal Twins or twinning. According to Russell, crystals represent “an advanced body
of Ancient Knowledge that we can only grasp when we understand the Law of the Universal One.”
Though he revised his theory somewhat over the years, The Universal One was his first attempt to describe a new Cosmology. Lavishly illustrated, it sets out his views on God, the Universe, matter, and humankind’s place in the world. In this historic volume, Russell first reveals the possibility of transmutation of the elements. This illustrated treatise is Russell's scientific explanation of God's ways and provides a guide for illuminating a way of living during the long journey to the Light of God.
Russell's Book, The Universal One - Contents
Part I: Creation; The Life Principle; Mind, The One Universal Substance; Thinking
Mind; The Process of Thinking; Thinking Registered in Matter; Concerning Appearances; The Sex Principle; Sex Opposites of Light; The Reproductive Principle; Energy Transmission; A Finite Universe; A Dimensionless Universe; Concerning Dimension; The Formula of Locked Potentials; Universal Oneness; Omnipresence; Omnipotence; Omniscience.
Part II: Dynamics of Mind & Light Units of Matter; Electricity and Magnetism; New Concepts of Electricity and Magnetism; Electricity; The Elements of Matter; The Octave Cycle of the Elements of Matter; The Instability and the Illusion of Stability of Matter; The Universal Pulse; Concerning Energy; Electro-Magnetic Pressure; Attraction and Repulsion; Gravitation and Radiation; Expressions of Gravitation and Radiation - Universal Direction; Universal Mathematics & Ratios; Charging; Discharging Poles; The Wave; Time; Temperature; Color; Universal Mechanics; Rotation; Revolution; Crystallization; Plane and Ecliptic; Ionization; Valence; Tone; Conclusion; New Laws and Principles.
Illustrations From The Universal One
“Matter registers its energy through temperature dimension of heat and cold in solids of light which man calls “crystals.” Crystals are but apparent solids of light sustained in that illusion of appearance by motion.” ~ Walter Russell
Recognition for His Work
In the 1930s, Russell was employed for twelve years by Thomas J. Watson, chairman of IBM, as a motivational speaker for IBM employees. Russell was also appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1931 and knighted in 1935.
As World War II approached, he moved into a top-floor studio at Carnegie Hall, where he lived alone (his estranged wife Helen lived in Connecticut). At the time, he was supervising the casting of the Four Freedoms. This was a low time that required a
rejuvenation of his health and spirit.
At age 56, his artistic endeavors 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 the top rank as a sculptor and won the commissions for the Mark Twain Memorial (1934) and or President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms Monument (1943).
Later Years (1946 – 1963)
Russell continued his scientific exploration and later revised his “Cosmic Laws” in 1947 in the publication The Secret of Light, in which he presents a unique Cosmogony. One that of a universe in which Creator and Creation are proven to be a seamless, unified whole, and in which the dualism of “mind and matter” disappears. In the revelation of what he terms “natural science,” Russell presents a two-way, magnetic-electric thought-wave universe, cyclic in nature and eternally “creating,” as opposed to the “created, expanding, entropic universe” of Newtonian physics.
Dr. Francis Trevelyan Miller (LITT.D., LL.D.), Historical Foundations, New York, wrote in 1947 of The Secret of Light, “I hasten to congratulate you on your epoch-making achievement in giving the world The Secret of Light. In this little volume, with its tremendous magnitude of thought, you have given Science and human knowledge a rebirth—a transmigration from its physical plane to its potential grandeur on the cosmic plane.” “You have opened the door into the infinite—science must enter. It
may hesitate; it may engage in controversy, but it cannot afford to ignore the principles you have established, which eventually will revolutionize man’s concept of himself, his world, his universe, and his human problems.”
Explaining Illumination
Russell used the terminology of Richard Maurice Bucke in his book Cosmic Consciousness to explain "illumination." Later, he wrote, "It will be remembered that no one who has ever had the experience of illumination has been able to explain it. I deem it my duty to the world to tell of it." This became the subject of his book The Divine Iliad, published in two volumes in 1949.
Russell’s philosophy of the science of Being, the invisible world of Cause—the nature of consciousness, knowing, thinking, sensing, inspiration, intuition, energy, and the creative process—and the science of Expressed Being, the visible world of Effect—the nature of light, the wave structure of universal creation, the creation of
the elements that make up our visible world, and the cycle nature of life and death— are proven a unified continuum. The Secret of Light illuminates the many questions regarding the nature of “science and consciousness.”
Later Years (1946 – 1963)
In 1948, the 77-year-old Russell divorced his first wife and married Daisy Stebbing,
age 44, an immigrant from England and former model and businesswoman. She changed her name to Lao (after Lao-Tzu, the Chinese philosopher) 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.
They discovered Swannanoa, the palatial estate of a railroad magnate, long abandoned, on a mountaintop on the border of Augusta and Nelson Counties in Virginia. There, they leased the property for 50 years and established the museum and the Walter Russell Foundation.
Collaborative Writing
In 1957, the Commonwealth of Virginia granted a charter for the University of Science and Philosophy. Here, they wrote their Home Study Course in
Universal Law, Natural Science, and Living Philosophy.
The Russells collaborated on a number of books and added to the list of books Russell had already completed writing: The Universal One, The Message of the Divine Iliad, and The Secret of Light.
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 were exploited as a world fuel.
Walter and Lao Russell
Later Years (1946 – 1963)
Walter Russell was mentally awake and active right up until the end. He died on his 92nd birthday, the 19th of May 1963, of bronchial pneumonia (at home) in Swannanoa, Virginia. His occupation was listed as an artist and a philosopher.
Overall, while Russell's work was innovative and reflected his unique and spiritual perspective on science and the universe, it did not meet the criteria for acceptance in the empirical and collaborative environment of the scientific community. Thus, much of his scientific endeavor has not entered mainstream physics.
Right up to her death in 1988, Lao Russell continued to run the University and to edit his work. In 1997, due to financial difficulties, the foundation board had to sell the Italian-style palace, where the Russells had lived and worked.
The University of Science and Philosophy headquarters
and Walter Russell Art Museum
Resources
YouTube Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvCHOBxN-wU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4AaobjhJFA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciCQ35O1NOU
Walter Russell Books
The Sea Children, 1901
The Bending of the Twig, 1903
The Age of Innocence, 1904
The Universal One, 1926
The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept or The Cyclic Theory of Continuous Motion,
L. Middleditch Co., 1930
The Secret of Light, 1st ed., 1947, 3rd ed., Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1994, ISBN 1-
879605-44-9
The Message of the Divine Iliad, vol. 1, 1948, vol. 2, 1949
The Book of Early Whisperings, 1949
The Home Study Course (with Lao Russell), 1st ed., 1950–52
Scientific Answer to Human Relations (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy,
1951
A New Concept of the Universe, Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1953
Atomic Suicide? (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1957
The World Crisis: Its Explanation and Solution, (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science &
Philosophy, 1958
The One-World Purpose (with Lao Russell), Univ of Science & Philosophy, 1960
Walter Russell's Periodic Table of Elements
