Walter Isidor Siegmeister (October 5 or 6, 1903 – September 10, 1965),Brad Whitsel (2001)
Walter Siegmeister's Inner-Earth Utopia
''Utopian Studies'' 12 (2): 82-102. later known as Raymond W. Bernard, was an early 20th-century American

alternative health Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and alt ...

advocate and

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, who formed part of the alternative reality subculture. He is credited with the merger of the Hollow Earth theory and religious beliefs about UFOs.

Biography

Siegmeister was born into a family of

Russian Jews The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. His parents were William Siegmeister (May 1877 - September 1, 1932) and Rebecca "Bessie" Gitler (Gittler) (February 25, 1880 - October 27, 1968), who were both born in Russia. Walter's father William emigrated to the United States in July 1893,https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV5Y-YHNV (Passport Application of Rebecca Siegmeister - click on "View the original document") and he became a naturalized citizen in the Superior Court, New York County (Manhattan) on October 29, 1902. Walter's parents William and Bessie are both buried in the Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, Queens County, New York. Walter's father was a surgeon who started out as a student of biochemistry in Germany. Walter had a brother named

Elie Siegmeister Elie Siegmeister (also published under pseudonym L. E. Swift; January 15, 1909 in New York City – March 10, 1991 in Manhasset, New York) was an American composer, educator and author. Early life and education Elie Siegmeister was born January 15 ...

(1909-1991) who was a famous American composer. Walter graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1924, and received his Masters (1930) and Ph.D (1932) degrees in education from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. His Ph.D thesis was titled ''Theory and Practice of Dr. Rudolf Steiner's Pedagogy'' (New York University, School of Education, 1932) (typed manuscript, v + 320 pages). Under the name Bernard, Walter later settled in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Siegmeister died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

in 1965.

Alternative health

Siegmeister was a natural hygiene and

raw food Raw foodism, also known as rawism or a raw food diet, is the dietary practice of eating only or mostly food that is uncooked and unprocessed. Depending on the philosophy, or type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include ...

advocate. He authored many books on dieting and

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...

such as ''Meat-Eating: A Cause of Disease'' (1956), ''Super Health Thru Organic Super Food'' (1958) and ''Health Through Scientific Nutrition'' (1960). He was alleged to have practiced breatharianism and a

fruitarian Fruitarianism () is a diet related to veganism that consists primarily of consuming fruits and possibly nuts and seeds, but without any animal products. Fruitarian diets are subject to criticism and health concerns. Fruitarianism may be adopted ...

diet. However, it was noted by H. Jay Dinshah that he was actually living as a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

Hollow earth

Siegmeister was a proponent of the

hollow earth The Hollow Earth is a concept proposing that the planet Earth is entirely hollow or contains a substantial interior space. Notably suggested by Edmond Halley in the late 17th century, the notion was disproven, first tentatively by Pierre Bougue ...

concept and

UFOs An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...

. His ideas were never taken seriously by academics and have been dismissed as

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or falsifiability, unfa ...

. Siegmeister wrote of his search for the safest place on Earth from radioactive fallout in order to build a paradise. The idea was later developed in the writings of Johnny Lovewisdom and then

Viktoras Kulvinskas The Hippocrates Health Institute (HHI) is a nonprofit organization in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, originally co-founded in 1956 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, by Lithuanian-born Viktoras Kulvinskas and Ann Wigmore. The Hippocrates Health Instit ...

. He went to Ecuador in 1941 where he met John Wierlo (pen-name: Johnny Lovewisdom, aka "the Hermit Saint of the Andes") (July 23, 1919 - October 12, 2000) who had arrived in 1940, where they spoke of plans for a paradisian utopia and a super-race in the Ecuadorean jungle. 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 books, before returning to South America. Walter moved to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1955 or 1956, in order to buy land and create a super-race. In Brazil, he renewed his interest in aliens,

Atlantis Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas (mythology), Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works ''Timaeus (dialogue), Timaeus'' and ''Critias (dialogue), Critias'' ...

, UFOs, tunnels and the hollow earth concept. 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. Siegmeister's hollow earth ideas are mentioned in detail in Alan Baker's '' Invisible Eagle'', 2000.Baker, Alan. (2000). ''Invisible Eagle: The History of Nazi Occultism''. Virgin Books.

Publications

Many of his book have been republished by Health Research Books. *''Apollonius the Nazarene: The Life and Teachings of the Unknown World Teacher of the First Century''. Lorida, Fla.: New Age Publications, 1945.Search results for 'au:"Walter Siegmeister"'
Worldcat. Accessed August 2013. * ''Escape from Destruction: How to Survive in an Atomic Age''. Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1956. * ''The Serpent Fire: The Awakening of Kundalini'' (Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1959) * ''Flying Saucers from the Earth's Interior''. Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1960. * ''The Hollow Earth''. New York: Carol Publishing, 1969 964 * ''Creation of the Superman''. Mokelumne Hill, CA: Health Research, 1970.

References

External links

The Memory Palace, history podcast episode: "The World Within the World"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegmeister 1903 births 1965 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers American conspiracy theorists American occult writers American people of Russian-Jewish descent American UFO writers Deaths from pneumonia in Florida Esotericists Hollow Earth proponents Inedia practitioners Jewish American writers Orthopaths People from Manhattan Pseudoscientific diet advocates Raw foodists UFO conspiracy theorists 20th-century American Jews