Compiled from Correspondence
Between
Dr. Raymond W. Bernard & Guy C. Harwood
And Between Guy C. Harwood & Dennis Crenshaw

A Meeting of the Minds

In 1945 Mr. Guy C. Harwood, then 27, of Jacksonville Beach, Florida published a study course called The Science of How One May Create Thinkers and Geniuses and a companion book titled We, the Geniuses. The unique course and companion book received pre-publication rave reviews from around the country and was heralded as a new science.

A few of the free thinkers of the day were sent carbon copies of the manuscript and their comments were then used to promote Mr. Harwood's anxiously awaited book. Below are Just two of the dozens of positive reviews turned over to me by Mr. Harwood.
“Man has learned to breed his choice of superior hogs, cows and other domestic animals; he is now ready to learn how to produce beautiful children with higher mentality possessing genius qualities.” … Dr. John R. Brinkley.

“Man in civilization are the greatest twisters of truth with all their hopeless schemes. All reforms must begin with nature. Mr. Harwood understands this, and knows how to share this knowledge in simple easy to understand English.”… Dr. Jacob Goldwasser.

An early publication announcement flyer states:
Out of the Smokey Mountains of Western North Carolina comes a young scientist who has written and published one of the most marvelous pieces of literature concerning eugenics-geniuses ever written when man is ready for more TRUTHS to build a better civilization on this excellent work is written.?

Of course, everyone wasn't happy with Mr. Harwood's revolutionary work. In a letter to this writer, Mr. Harwood wrote:
I was called to the U.S. Government building in Jacksonville, Florida. The agent had a copy of We, The Geniuses on his desk. He pounded his fist on his table as he exclaimed, “Where are your college degrees? You are only a high school graduate! We don't want this kind of information released to the public … too many smart people will be born and we don't want that … sure you understand … as of today this book is suppressed.

However, this was the 1940's and censorship hadn't caught on yet. They could only threaten Guy and the first-of-its-kind book was sold all across America.

Dr. Walter Siegmeister

One of the people Guy sent a copy of his manuscript to was Dr. Walter Siegmeister, later known as Dr Raymond W. Bernard A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. who would twenty-four years later publish The Hollow Earth. This book can be found in most libraries in the 551.11 - Dewey decimal system file numbers for books that fit in the catagory of Non-Fiction- Hard Science - Earth Geology -  area of library collections.

Guy wrote of his first meeting with Dr. Siegmeister:
I sent Dr. Siegmeister a carbon copy of the manuscript and in a few days got a telegram from him to meet him at the Jacksonville train station, time, etc. I did.

Guy describes Dr. Siegmeister as always dressed like a rabbi; all in black with hair down his back almost to his belt, which he could put under his big black hat and you couldn't even tell it was long. And this was in 1945! He always wore a full black beard. Upon meeting him at the railroad station Guy wrote:
First thing he said, “How in the world did you write this? I have been trying to write a book like this for 25 years. How did you do it? I would like to be co-author of this book.
I told him it was already published etc. He wilted. I took him home with me. … My wife prepared a special vegetarian meal for him. We were all vegetarians. … We spent hours talking. I was working at a part time job and my wife worked at the Telephone Company. … I accepted the part time job as Dr. Siegmeister's secretary. He received about a dozen letters every day. Most of them sent from his former address in Brooklyn, N.Y. I took care of publishing and mailing out the mimeographed lessons etc. to his approximately 200 students.

Who was this strange man, who came to town to help write a book, then finding the book already written and published, hired the author?

Walter Siegmeister was born into a family of Russian Jews in New York City. His father was a surgeon. Guy elaborates:
After his father died Walter's mother sent him $200 a month from his father's life insurance policy. This is where he got the money to live on, travel and to publish his writings. Walter's brother was in charge of the music department in some of Brooklyn's schools.?

Guy described Walter's religious beliefs:

He said Jews are not a race. They are believers in a certain religion and their god [is] mentally and physically circumcised. He said he was not a Jew because he could not accept their religious beliefs. Nor could he accept the Christian's beliefs. He accepted the Essene Religion like Apollonius the Nazarene had. He wrote a book on this religion, Apollonius the Nazarene.

Dr. Raymond W. Bernard

Guy wrote of Walter's early life:
When he was a bio-chemist student in Germany he took great interest in lecithin. It had been discovered that lecithin had therapeutic merits, good for glands, nerves and brain. He returned to New York and got a chemist by the name of Smith to start preparing lecithin in syrup-liquid form etc., (prior to this lecithin, was processed in hunks like yellow cheese) to be sold by the naturopaths etc. He wrote articles about the benefits of lecithin which were published in health magazines.

The Food and Drug Administration issued, through the post office, a fraud charge against him for selling a nutritional product that [the FDA] claimed to be worthless of any therapeutic merits whatsoever. Walter eventually won his case. Today Soya Bean Lecithin is sold throughout America in health food stores and is recommended for its therapeutic merits. I have been using it ever since it was put in the health food stores.

At the same time the FDA brought the charges of fraud against Dr. Siegmeister the post office stopped delivery of his mail. Guy wrote:

However in the 40s you were expected to conform and the U.S. government continued to harass and investigate Siegmeister/Bernard. As Guy wrote:
The Doctor's attorney notified him that a government agent was looking for him. He grabbed a pup tent and fled into the woods near his home and stayed two or three days before leaving the country under the name of Raymond Bernard. Going first to Mexico, and then to Central and South America. After he left the United States he changed his complete interest from nutrition-rejuvenation to that of his new interests of a philosophical nature [and began to] write and publish literature on spiritual philosophy appealing to people interested in this line of thought, and often wrote me about it. He had someone mimeograph a booklet he had written on the hollow earth. It was about 20 (6x8 inches) pages. Unfortunately, I lost my copy. I took no part in his activities after he left America, but he often wrote me of what he was doing and sent me copies of the literature he had sent out.

Dennis, I'm sending you these files. They contain all of my personal correspondence from Dr. Bernard along with many of the papers and pamphlets he sent me up until his disappearance in South America. I know you'll use them wisely.
 Your Friend,
guy