[p. xxiii]

This is the story of every man who is ahead of his time. It is the story of all geniuses, and especially all mystics who come into the world a thousand or more years apart.

[p. xxiv]

It is the srory of crucifixion, punishment, and torture of such immortals as Socrates, Jesus, Gallileo, Leonardo, Spinoza, Shakespeare, Joan of Arc, Baha'u'llah, Robert Paine, Billy Mitchell, Alexander Graham Bell, Nikola Tesla, Charles Goodyear, the Wright Brothers or General Douglas McArthur.

The ordinary average mortal may laugh, scorn, ridicule, suppress or ignore the rare few mystics, and geniuses who have come into the world, but it cannot deny that every great step in human culture has come through its geniuses and every great epoch in its progress has come through its mystics.

We do not crucify on the cross these days, nor do we burn at the stake, or torture on the rack. We do the equivalent, however, in other ways, such as we did to Billy Mitchell, who tried to save us from a Pearl Harbor, or to Charles Goodyear, who gave us a new world to live in, but had to bury his child in the woods for lack of human sympathy. Thus it is that suppression of the great scientific knowledge, which my husband gave to the world, cannot hurt him, but it can hurt the whole world by keeping it enslaved to the treadmill of hard labor, war, famine and fear for another two or three thousand years – if civilization is then still existent upon the earth. I say two or three thousand years, because knowledge of the invisible controlling universe of CAUSE can come to man only through Cosmic Conscious Illuminates, and consummate Illuminates come only once in thousands of years. It can never come to man through his senses for they only observe physical effects of Creation, without being enabled to fathom their CAUSE in the Creator. This fact is not understood by the average scientist. Albert Einstein, however, did understand it, for he once said that his greatest desire was to experience illumination into Cosmic Consciousness.

So little of that greatest of all human experiences is known to the average man, that it is difficult for him to understand how any man – especially an artist – could have such vast scientific knowledge. The fact that he did not attend any school above the primary grade, and also the fact that he acquired all of his scientific knowledge in 39 days and nights in 1921, counted against him, rather than for him. Because so little is understood

[p. xxv]

by all men of this day regarding the Cosmic revelations of the mystic, the word carries with it the connotation of contempt to the average man. My husband is one of those rare few mystics to whom, from time to time in crucial periods of danger to the human race, complete knowledge of the Creator and of the processes of Creation has been given for saving humanity through giving man higher knowledge of his omnipotence. The startling fact is that such a period of downfall of civilization is now here.

Mankind in general does not realize that the human race is still in its intellectual infancy and that his great spiritual unfolding is still ahead. This is the reason why it is difficult for him to understand another human who has become cosmically aware of his omnipotence and omniscience.

My husband, Dr. Walter Russell, is a consumate Illuminate. God gave him an innersensory perception which reaches around the entire 360 degrees of the light spectrum. He can "see" within the atom without need of microscope or cyclotron – or within all the stars and nebulae of space without need of telescope or spectroscope. More than that he can see and know the geometry of space and the means by which the invisible universe absolutely controls the visible universe. That means that the riddle of the universe which no man has solved, regarding the mystery of the emergence of matter from space, and of its being swallowed by space, is as clear to him as the light of the sun is clear.

Perhaps it will be more helpful for better understanding of the miracle of this book if I briefly outline Cosmic Consciousness. Actually, my husband was unaware of it himself until the great event of 1921 when a great flash of light severed his consciousnesss from the seat of sensation of his body, such as that which happened to Paul in the early days, and for thirty nine days and nights he was wholly Mind, being aware of his body, and making use of it, but as though it was quite apart from him.

Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke had a very slight flash of this experience. It lasted but a few seconds but it so transformed him that he gave his life to the study of it and wrote a book about the 37 known cases in all history, only one of whom was a

[p. xxvi]

consummate Illuminate. A consummate Illuminate is one to whom is given all-knowledge of the Cosmos. His inner vision reaches around the entire 360 degrees of the spectrum, instead of being limited to the sense-vision of about 20 degrees. E. P. Dutton and Company have sold many editions of this book, so many people are acquainted with its nature. All people are experiencing illumination upon a small scale but do not know it. Every flash of inspiration which man experiences is a Cosmic messsage. It is knowledge which comes from the omnipresent Mind of God to the omnipresent Mind of man. Every genius is constantly in direct communication with God, although some are not fully aware of its meaning, as my husband was not fully aware of its meaning until his great illumination at the age of 49. He had had a number of minor illuminations from the age of 7.

My husband was a famous portrait painter at the age of 49, earning over $50,000 a year, besides earnings in architecture and the other arts, which sometimes, reached $150,000. That was his status as of May l0th 1921. Up to that time he knew nothing, whatsoever, about astronomy, chemistry, electricity or the construction of matter. In fact he had no especial desire to know about science. His was the Mind of an artist. Imagine then, the amazing fact that during that timeless flash, in which he became Mind alone, he knew then all that he knows today about the Cosmos and all of God's processes, including complete knowledge of God, and God's omnipresence within man. Mind KNOWS. It does not learn. All-knowledge is timeless to an Illuminate.

He was not allowed to resume his union with his body, however, for thirty nine days and nights, for he had much to write down concerning the present need of man for which he was given this knowledge. During this period it was made known to him that world-agony through world-need, and population increase, versus decrease in Nature's resources, would cause man to destroy himself, and this message was given to him to prevent that happening. He was given specific instructions about the coming wars and commanded to continue his preparation until

[p. xxvii]

1946 purely as a rehearsal stage, for he was warned that man would not listen to the Message, which tore apart all old beliefs, until the world had suffered sufficiently to realize its danger.

During this 39 day period he wrote 40,000 immortal words in many fragments, without even an erasure or change of punctuation. He also made hnndreds of chemical, electrical and astronomical drawings. Many of his astronomical drawings were checked for accuracy by the noted astronomer Dr. Henry Norris Russell, and a mathematician assistant. One of them was a diagram of the whole solar system as of that day. When checked by them each planet was found to be where it should be in relation to all of the others. Other drawings of comet paths were similarly checked at Columbia and Swathmore, but during this 35 year interval many of these records – except some of the Princeton ones – have been lost. These writings and drawings are gradually being pieced together and two volumes of them have already been published as "THE MESSAGE OF THE DIVINE ILIAD'' under such headings as "The Book of Love," "The Book of Rest," "The Book of Beauty," "The Book of Desire," etc. In addition to these great writings he wrote many pages of personal instruction regarding his own actions, and especially about the world-need for a new fuel which would be given to man in two stages. The first stage to be by transmutation of the atmosphere into free hydrogen, then, generations later, by transforming solar radiations into solar generation as man's ultimate fuel. This would not only free him from dependence upon earth's resources but give him complete power to cause rains wherever he desires, on desert or meadow, and to dissipate cyclones while forming.

During this period of severance of sensation from Consciousness my husband's family were so worried about his strange way of seeking as complete isolation as possible, and ceasing to have any interest, whatsoever, in the everyday normal affairs, that they summoned Dr. Willard H. Rogers, a well-known doctor and chemist of that day, and Charles A. Boston, President of the New York Bar Association, to examine him and furnish the necessary papers for his commitment to a mental institution. My husband

[p. xxviii]

had long isolated himself from his family behind closed doors of his studio and gymnasium, where he wrote and made diagrams ceaselessly, night and day. He told me it was very difficult for him to talk coherently with anyone, for he was so deeply concentrated upon that one thing that it was hard for him to "listen to little words," and give them import.

His writings and drawings were strewn everywhere, however, and when carfully examined by these two intellectuals, the doctor said: "I did not know that Walter had so deep a knowledge of chemistry but these drawings exceed my knowledge of it." The lawyer, who was a noted scholar in the classics, said: "An insane man is always illogical, but these writings are not logical but out-Whitman Walt Whitman for beauty and logic, which no man has who is not a great poet or philosopher." Thus it was that they not only refused to sign the papers but advised that something was happening which they did not understand, so counselled awaiting the time when he might descend from the great heights in which he was evidently soaring, into his former normalcy. This gradually took place, but it required a full three months to attain that normalcy.

The strange thing about his transformation to his immediate family and friends, however, was his utter unconcern about money, or a commercial adaptation of his art. From that day on his first purpose was to begin his long preparation for giving God's message to man. He knew nothing of the language or terminology of science, yet he had to learn to speak in that language in order to tell what he knew. He had to learn the names of the elements, which he knew Cosmically as octave tones, in their wave rhythm of 0-1-2-3-4-0-4-3-2-l-0.

He knew that man's first need was to know his universe, for the Mendeleef Table of the Elements told him that man did not even suspect that there were three invisible space octaves preceding the carbon octave. He wondered why man could conceive of a universe which could build itself up to maturity of dense solidity, which carbon is, without going through its gaseous stages.

For six years Dr. Russell labored day and night to produce

[p. xxix]

the completed charts herein published and learn the language and terminology of science sufficiently to write his first epochal book, "THE UNIVERSAL ONE," together with the charts which he sent to about 800 of the world's leading scientists and universities, without the slightest evidence or their having received them, as heretofore stated.

This book is now out of print but Cambridge University had a complete photostat copy made from the New York Public Library copy, and we have heard of many other photostat copies which have been made from other originals. We have also heard that a copy has been purchased for $500.00 and much more offered for one. It will not be reprinted, for my husband was not then ready to give words to that which he knew in wordless essence. [Editor's Note: The Universal One is currently in print.]

Return to Atomic Suicide - the book