The whole world is discovering that all mankind is one and that the unity of man is real – not just an abstract idea.

Walter Russell (1871–1963) was an American polymath, known for his achievements in painting, sculpture, architecture, and for his unified theory in physics and cosmogony.
"...I always looked for the Cause behind things and didn't fritter away my time analyzing Effect. All knowledge exists as Cause. It is simple. It is limited to Light of Mind and the electric wave of motion which records God's thinking in matter."

He posited that the universe was founded on a unifying principle of rhythmic balanced interchange. This physical theory, laid out primarily in his books The Secret of Light (1947) and The Message of the Divine Iliad (1948–49), has not been accepted by mainstream scientists. Russell asserted that this was mainly due to a difference in the assumptions made about the existence of mind and matter; Russell assumes the existence of mind as cause while scientists in general assume the existence of matter as effect.
The term New Age in its contemporary sense can be traced back at least to 1888. Walter Russell spoke of " ... this New Age philosophy of the spiritual re-awakening of man ... Man's purpose in this New Age is to acquire more and more knowledge ..." in his essay "Power Through Knowledge," which was published in 1944. Note: Emma Curtis Hopkins' "Scientific Christian Mental Practice" was published in 1888. Coincidence?
Russell believed that humankind was on the brink of making another key, evolutionary leap in consciousness. The next cycle of human evolution, said Maurice Bucke, would be from rational self-consciousness to spiritual super-consciousness on the order of that experienced by sages, religious figures, and mystics of the past 2,500 years.
In 1947–48, Russell wrote: “This New Age is marking the dawn of a new world-thought. That new thought is a new cosmic concept of the value of man to man. The whole world is discovering that all mankind is one and that the unity of man is real – not just an abstract idea. Mankind is beginning to discover that the hurt of any man hurts every man, and, conversely, the uplift of any man uplifts every man” (Message of the Divine Iliad, vol. 2, p. 69). Russell’s predictions about what the New Age would bring included “a marriage between religion and science” (MDI p 257). Russell appeared to believe that this "New Age" would begin in 1946, based on a vision he had in 1921.

Walter Russell was the son of immigrants from Nova Scotia. In May of 1921 he had an out-of-body experience he called Cosmic Illumination. New knowledge was revealed to him “in the Light.”

 Lao , born in England, entered the United States in 1940. She settled in Boston, did volunteer work, and had a brief mystical experience. She was attracted to the Boston Home of Truth (Eleanor Mel of New Thought), read Glenn Clark’s biography of Walter Russell, and called him in 1946.

In 1963, Walter Cronkite in the national television evening news, commenting on Dr. Walter Russell's death, referred to him as "... the Leonardo da Vinci of our time."