Double Single Double: Homegrown Religion: The University of Science and Philosophy

Homegrown Religion: The University of Science and Philosophy
Aug 18, 2008

From Charlottesville, take 250 up to Afton Mountain. Follow the exit which takes you the Blue Ridge Parkway. Just before you hit the Parkway, turn to the right. Now you are on your way to Swannanoa. This was James H. Dooley's summer mansion in the early 1900s. Dooley is the millionaire who built Maymont in Richmond. I've had the pleasure to privately tour Swannanoa. The summer get-away, at least the home, is much more luxurious than Dooley's Maymont. It has a huge Tiffany window, which was covered when I was there, marble abound, a floor of quarters for servants bigger than my house, and a fancy Italian roof. Right now, it's owned by the same guy who owns the Inn at Afton, who is restoring the mansion.

After WWII, Swannanoa became the "Swannanoa Palace," the epicenter of the University of Science and Philosophy, which still has headquarters in Waynesboro. The University of Science and Philosophy was started in 1949 by Walter Russell and his wife Lao. It was, in short, an early New Age religion. As I understand it, he basically thought science proved the existence of God and was the entry to a "cosmic consciousness,"

oneness with the universe.

If you read his writings, his ideas will at first come off as esoteric babble. But basically he was intensely captivated with the potentials of human creativity. He thought human creativity, by which he meant knowledge worthy to act upon, was the source of personal enrichment, caring, and environmental sustainability. He believed, for example, that evil was not inherent in the world but made by bad men.

He distorted a lot of mathematical and scientific principles into statements about love and spiritual order. This mystical mumbo-jumbo aside, it's hard to disagree that human creativity is the way to go.

Human creativity is awe-inspiring. It's not unreasonable to think there is something greater behind it, something universal that individuals must get "in tune" with. Though, looking for something higher seems to me a lack of faith.

Labels: religion