User:TheTwilightClub/sandbox

The Twilight Club was a dinner club in New York City that operated from 1883 until 1904. It was founded by Charles F. Wingate "to cultivate good fellowship and enjoy rational recreation."

The Twilight Club (1883-1904)
On January 4, 1883, the Twilight Club was founded by Charles Frederick Wingate during "a gathering at Mouquin's restaurant of a number of congenial friends..." Meetings consisted of dinner after which attendees would engage in "owl talk", or discussions both humorous and serious on disputable topics of the day. Some recorded topics were fishing, rearing of children and the value of a college education. Sometimes the questions would be hypotheticals such as "what would you do if you were King of Manhattan Island?", or "who is the most remarkable man on earth?"

The inspiration for the club came from a dinner at Delmonico's held to honor sociologist Herbert Spencer on November 9, 1882, prior to his departure from the United States. Herbert Spencer made a speech on this occasion in which he said, "We have had somewhat too much of the Gospel of Work; it is time to preach the Gospel of Relaxation." This motto engendered the formation of the Twilight Club. Herbert Spencer did not participate in the Club. However, Charles Wingate offered him an honorary membership, which, upon acceptance, he offered this advice to the Club, "I would, however, remark that the reports of your proceedings seem to imply rather more gravity of speech in your conversations than is altogether consistent with the 'expectation of relaxation.'" The official motto of the club was, "To cultivate good fellowship and enjoy rational recreation."

Membership, Principles and Officers
An article in 1884, states, "Among all the clubs in New York, of which prominent men are members, few are not better known than the Twilight club, and, at the same time, few are more worthy of note…" While the members were "club-able fellows with $1,"    some dinners were "ladies' nights", where women were involved and active in the discussions. By January of 1887, the Club went through growing pains and found that their membership dues of $1 per year could not cover their expenses and raised the amount to $2 per year and later to $3 per year. "Full dress was absolutely prohibited", although sometimes diners would wear full dinner dress. Instead of rules, they had principles. Additions and amendments were accepted, but they were required to be submitted in writing, along with a deposit of $17.34 (as a guarantee of good faith) two years before being voted on.

PRINCIPLES OF THE TWILIGHT CLUB
 * No dues
 * No debts
 * No by-laws
 * No president
 * No constitution
 * No salaries
 * No initiation fee (This principle was not noted in Joel Benton's 1910 biography of the Club)
 * No full dress
 * No mutual admiration
 * No defalcations
 * No decamping treasurer
 * No watered stock
 * No parliamentary rules
 * No previous questions
 * No lengthy speeches
 * No late hours
 * No profanity
 * No 'fish stories'
 * No 'sailors' yarns'
 * No dueling
 * No free dinners
 * No scandal
 * No bribery
 * No personalities
 * No party politics
 * No preaching
 * No gambling
 * No dynamite
 * No 'bouncer'
 * No conventionality
 * No grand reform
 * No high ideal
 * No 'papers'
 * No 'dudes'
 * No puns
 * No gush
 * No cant
 * No red tape
 * No formality
 * No humbug

There was an executive committee. However, the only officer was Charles F. Wingate, who acted as "secretary, treasurer, committee of admission, and head and doer of what ever was to be done." Wingate kept a complete list of members, which was published in a contemporaneous biography of the Club and corroborated in multiple newspaper articles at the time.

Dinners
Dinner began promptly at 6 and ran until 8 followed by two and a half hours of intellectual discussion. Speeches were limited to 5 minutes "with the express understanding that each orator will speak his inmost thoughts without hesitation or reserve, and with the perfect assurance of the esteem and good-will of all his listeners." During its most active period, the club met every two weeks, eight months of the year. It was called the Twilight Club because the meetings happened much earlier than other clubs in the city. Meetings could be over before other similar clubs had begun dinner. The low cost, sometimes just the cost of dinner, the early hours and the casual nature of the discussions were unique factors that led to the Club's popularity among its members.

The St. Denis Hotel (also referred to as the Hotel St. Denis) became the most common location for gatherings. There was no permanent master of ceremonies. For each dinner, the secretary Charles F. Wingate would appoint one member to be the president for the night. Wingate would inform the temporary president of the program for the evening and coach him in conducting the discussion. The dining party consisted of a mixture of paid members, their guests, and invited experts who were brought in to give their testimony and opinions in reference to the topic of discussion for that evening.

The following is a catalogue of noted gatherings (dates, location, topics, attendees and guest speakers):


 * April 1884, D'orville's restaurant in the Mills Building. "How did you make your first dollar? & Fish and Fishing." The dinner was on the 9th floor requiring attendees to climb 215 stairs.
 * March 1885, D'Orville's restaurant, "How Should Girls be Trained?". Ideas proposed included allowing girls to play football and abandoning corsets. This meeting, described as 60-odd members, was lampooned in the New York times saying, "A more reckless display of mingled ignorance and presumption has never been made by any club in this city or elsewhere."
 * January 1887, "Where shall we go to church in 1987?".
 * January 1888, "What Would you do if you were King of Manhattan Island?" 300 men and women diners in attendance.
 * June 1890, "Is it worth while to go to College?", 80 gentlemen attended.
 * December 1892, "What shall we do with our slums!".
 * January 1893, St. Denis Hotel, "The American Drama", 100 ladies with their escorts attended.
 * May 1893, St. Denis Hotel, "Who is the most remarkable man on earth?", 52 members present. They lauded Grover Cleveland, Otto von Bismark, Kaiser Wilhelm, Pope Leo XIII.
 * December 1894, St. Denis Hotel. "Is the theater going to the dogs?", 18 members of the American Dramatists' Club invited as guest speakers.
 * December 1894, St. Denis Hotel, "What are the churches doing for the people?", Guest speaker: Miss Ballington Booth, 200 women and men present.
 * April 1896, St. Denis Hotel, "The Cuban question.", 150 members and guests attended, Guest speakers: 2 NY businessmen of cuban descent.
 * December 1896, St. Denis Hotel, "The ethics of the bargain counter." Guest speaker: a member of the Union Labor League.
 * January 1897, St. Denis Hotel, "As others see us."
 * February 1897, St. Denis Hotel, "The problem of luxury - Shall we drink champagne or beer?"
 * October 1897, St. Denis Hotel, The upcoming election was the topic. 90 club members attended.
 * January 1901, St. Denis Hotel, "The record of the century."
 * May 1901, "Tenement House Laws." Guest speakers: Social Reform Club & Sanitary Protective League.
 * November 1901, St. Denis Hotel, Discussed what they would do if they were mayor-elect. 30 members attended.
 * November 1904, St. Denis Hotel, Discussed whether Russia or Japan should be given sympathy in the present Far Eastern storm. Guest Speaker: Poultney Bigelow.

End of The Twilight Club
Club meetings ended in the early 1900s with the last reported meeting in 1904. In 1910, Joel Benton recounts that, "The Club has held no gatherings of late years, on account of its founder's now fatally terminated illness" and "The Club, beginning in 1883, suspended 5 or 6 years ago." Waters said, "But alas! Wingate is absent, and there is no one to replace him." When Charles Wingate Died in 1909, he was noted as the founder of the Twilight Club, and as its secretary. The club lasted over twenty years and hosted hundreds of dinners with guests numbering from dozens to several hundred.

Manhattan Athletic Club
In 1893, the Manhattan Athletic Club went into receivership. Charles Wingate and a consortium of Twilight Club Members raised $500,000 to purchase the building as a permanent home for the club. They also intended to rent the club to other similar social clubs that could benefit from such a meeting place. While dues had been raised from $1 to $2, at the time of the athletic club purchase, Wingate mentions the initiation fee of $100 and dues of $15, which is contrasted with the dues of $30 for a similar club in London.At the time the club reported 800 members, although attendance at dinners was reported as between 50 and 200, depending on the event. The Twilight Club hoped to increase membership to 1,500 with this purchase. However, no record of a purchase or such club operations was recorded. The only noted use in this time period was for conducting boxing matches. The Twilight Club continued to have dinners mainly at the St. Denis Hotel following discussions of this purchase.

Twilight Park
Twilight Park in the Catskill region of New York was founded by Charles F. Wingate. Besides the name and a handful of Twilight Club members purchasing property there, it had no connection to the Twilight Club and its operations.

= The Misappropriation of the Twilight Club Legacy =

Summary
Since the dissolution of Charles Wingate's Twilight Club, several organizations and individuals have adopted its legacy. To lesser and greater degrees, the history, principles and traditions of Wingate's Twilight Club have been rewritten by these groups for documented reasons ranging from financial gain to providing a foundation for and continuity to the organization's agenda.

In 1910, a new Twilight Club, under the direction of John Francis Tucker, was formed. It was presented to function in the same spirit as Wingate's club. However, the Club pandered to notable and famous persons in order to bolster attendance and charged five times more for the dinners.

In 1918, the Society of Arts and Science, an offshoot of Tucker's Twilight Club, began abandoning the concept, activities and principles for which The Twilight Club was known. No longer a dinner club, they held gatherings with one or a panel of notable speakers to address the Society. The only other functions they organized were to award prizes for their new literary contests. They rewrote history naming Herbert Spencer the founder of the Club with no mention to Charles Wingate. Despite the name change, they maintained the foundational claim to Wingate's Twilight Club.

From 1928 until the ending of the Society of Arts and Science in 1936, the Society departed even further from any claim to Wingate's Club. They held banquets to bestow their self-appointed honors on famous individuals, such as Thomas Edison and John Philip Sousa. The medals given at these ceremonies were crafted by their president, Walter Russell.

The Society lay dormant from 1937 until 1946, when Walter Russell and his second wife Lao Russell invoked The Society of Arts and Science as the origin of their University of Science and Philosophy. The University cited the beginning of The Twilight Club with the erroneous claim of foundation by Herbert Spencer. In the following years, The University of Science and Philosophy increased the founding group to include such luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain as well as offering a history of the group that is at odds with the verifiable historical record.

In 1998, Yasuhiko Kimura published the book The Twilight Club and the Creation of a Moral Community and, in 1999, started a group that assumed the name Twilight Club claiming it to have "a vision as far-reaching as the original Twilight Club, connecting the University once again with its origin and its history." Throughout his 2000 book, The Twilight Manifesto, Kimura lays out a landscape of his own philosophy woven into Walter Russell's version of the Twilight Club. 2000 is also the year Kimura becomes CEO of The University of Science and Philosophy, a position he holds until 2002.

Kimura, still board member of The University of Science and Philosophy, now includes his Vision In Action Leadership Institute, established in 2003, "as heir to the Twilight Club." .

Twilight Club Revival (1910-1916)
Following the death of Charles F. Wingate, a new Twilight Club was formed by John Francis Tucker, a lawyer and author, The new Club followed the tradition of a frequent dining and discussion Club, even continuing the dinner count where Wingate's Club left off. The meetings were held at different venues and the number of attendees varied and peaked at 700.

Despite these similarities, the validity of the new Twilight Club as the heir to Wingate's Club surfaced. Joseph Rinn reported, "It was about this period that J. Francis Tucker, a clever lawyer, managed to get control of the Twilight Club and was elected president. He quickly made the club over from a newspapermen's organization to one for personal gain. He induced people of wealth and distinction, lured by the old Twilight reputation, to attend its forum dinners at five dollars per plate, which were held every two weeks."

Society of Arts and Science, New York (1918-1927)
In 1917 no notable gatherings were reported of Tucker's "Twilight Club." When dinners resumed in 1918, it was under the title of "The Arts & Science Forum of the Twilight Club." By the end of that same year gatherings were being held solely by a group called the "Society of Arts and Science." Instead of the informal discussion dinners of Wingate's Twilight Club, the Society would hold functions inviting famous guests to bestow honors upon or to have make long speeches and presentations mainly on political and social issues. In her 1935 autobiography, Charlotte Perkins Gilman describes the group thus:

"New York abounds with dinner clubs and lunch clubs, with speeches. I used to enjoy the old Twilight Club, to which the original conditions of membership, they said, were the possession of a clean shirt and a dollar - or was it a half-dollar? But after they assumed the name of the Society of Arts and Sciences, to which they had not the faintest shadow of a claim, and the purpose of which was but too obviously to induce visiting foreigners to accept invitation to speak for them, for nothing -- I have declined to meet with them."

Beyond notable people, the general public had also begun to lose interest in the Society's gatherings. Before his death in 1921, John F. Tucker sent out 5000 invitations to a dinner and only received 40 acceptances. He subsequently cancelled the dinner. Reports of the Society's gatherings after Tucker's death drop off dramatically and terminate entirely in late 1922, after which the annual O. Henry Memorial Prize dinner was the only event they hosted until after Walter Russell took over the Society.

O. Henry Memorial Prize
During this time period, the Society began to hold contests for things such as short stories and playwriting. Of these, the O. Henry Memorial Prize for best short story became their signature contest, and John F. Tucker established a foundation for it to continue to be held annually. The O. Henry Prize committee, although under the umbrella of the Society of Arts & Science, operated independently from the Society. When the Society dissolved in 1936, the O. Henry Award committee continued to operate and continues to the present day.

Twilight Club Misinformation
The first reported misinformation about the founding of the Twilight Club began with the advertisements for the Society's literary contests. In them, they listed "The Society of Arts and Sciences, founded as the Twilight Club by Herbert Spencer in 1883", while at other times even misreporting the date as 1887. It is unclear if this was just an error or a deliberate attempt to rewrite the origins and basis of the Club.

Society of Arts and Science, Walter Russell president (1927-1935)
In 1927, four years after the Society's last non-"O. Henry" gathering, Walter Russell assumed the Presidency of the nearly defunct Society of Arts and Science. Despite no reports of Walter Russell in the Society before becoming president, Walter Russell claims his connection to the Society of Arts in Science goes back to its inception. In a 1956 speech, Russell asserts, "He (Thomas Watson) and I, together with Edwin Markham had a very memorable talk one night and decided to call our new group The Society of Arts and Sciences." During this time Walter Russell affirms that the Society of Arts and Science is one in the same as The Twilight Club from the 1880s. In 1930, the "American Art Directory" for which the information is supplied by the listed organizations, publishes an altered history for the Society of Arts and Science, "Founded 1882 under the name of Twilight Club for the encouragement and perpetuation of the beautiful and the useful in the arts."

As a means to "encourage" the arts, Walter Russell began designing and fabricating medals and accolades to present to famous individuals. Walter Russell bestows the first medal awarded by the group to John Philip Sousa. In May, the Society awards a medal to Thomas Edison. The Society notes that this is the first award they have bestowed on a "living scientist". In fact, it is only the second medal they awarded and first medal they awarded to any scientist. In 1929, they bestowed their first double award saying, "For the first time in its half-century of existence the Society of Arts and Science awarded two gold medals last night for distinctive work in science." At a 1934 awards ceremony, the medal is declared "the 15th bestowed by the Society in 50 years." These statements link the Society's history and legitimacy to Wingate's Club, which bears no resemblance to the Society in membership, function, ideals and principles.

By awarding medals to famous individuals, the Society was able to attract other famous or notable people to attend the awards ceremonies. In 1928, as President of the Society of Arts and Science, Walter Russell received letters of regret from Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, for their inability to attend a dinner in honor of Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison, also, did not attend, but his son accepted the award on his behalf.

Other Medals were awarded to Madison Grant, in recognition of his construction of the Bronx Parkway, Dr, J. McKeen Cattell, Prof. Gilbert N. Lewis, Prof R. A. Milliken, Harlow Shapley   and Gov. Walter J. Kohler of Wisconsin.

Society of Arts and Science (1935-1936), The Final Years
During a substantial reorganization of the Society, Walter Russell was removed as its President and had no reported participation with the group. Under its new President Carl Byoir, the Society appointed a long list of "regents" within their organization, each to be the expert of a particular field, similar to the well regarded but unrelated American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Walter Russell is not mentioned or appointed a regency.

The Society of Arts and Science continued to give awards into 1936.

This Society of Arts and Science dissolved only a few years after the re-organization after which the O. Henry Memorial Prize is its remaining legacy.

Summary
Invoking the Society of Arts and Science and their Twilight Club Heritage, Walter and Lao Russell formed The University of Science and Philosophy. Housed at Swannanoa, a mansion in rural Virginia, The University of Science and Philosophy sold home study courses on "The Science of Mankind", now refered to as "The Science of Man/Woman". Today the University of Science and Philosophy continues to offer home study courses and books based on and promoting the legacy of Walter Russell. They cite their lineage as the direct continuation of Charles Wingate's Twilight Club. In 1998, Board Member Yasuhiko Kimura re-launched The Twilight Club as an arm of The University. Central to the claims about the Twilight Club are both the original false claim that the club was founded by Herbert Spencer, and also that such notables as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain and Andrew Carnegie were founding members. The latter misinformation, added by Walter Russell in the 1950s, has persistently been promoted and embellished by The University of Science and Philosophy, most recently in 2000 in Yasuhiko Kimura's book, The Twilight Manifesto.

Formation of The University of Science and Philosophy
By 1949 the Russell headed Swannanoa Foundation, had purchased Swannanoa, and the Russells began promoting it as a world cultural center for "the unification of mankind." It is at this time that they establish The University of Science and Philosophy. He hoped the location would become a center for peace and harmony in the world. Classes were on "the love of God, beauty and the principles of balance in nature." As the head of the Walter Russell Foundation in 1950, he set about building a reputation as a truth seeking "adventurer of faith."

Complete Rewrite of The Twilight Club History
In 1956, Walter Russell gave a speech at Swannanoa to a group of students in which he presented his history of the the original Twilight Club's formation. Besides the mention of Herbert Spencer's visit to the United States, the details of Russell's account contradict verifiable historical records.

"The story goes all the way back to the 1870s and is one of the most remarkable stories of the greatest moral movement in history. It began when Herbert Spencer, the British philosopher, came to this country and expressed his deep worries about the human race and the dangers threatening its very existence...He really believed that civilization was doomed. He gave a very important address in New York and one in Boston outlining the reasons for his fears and stressing his deep concern for man's ability to survive in a social system which places material values before human values...At that time, however, Herbert Spencer was ridiculed and laughed at...And so Herbert Spencer went to his friends here in America, Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Howard Bridge, Richard Watson Glider, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Walt Whitman, Edwin Markham, Henry Holt, John Burroughs, Mark Twain, and Andrew Carnegie. Together these men formed a little gathering and called themselves the Twilight Club because they met at each other's houses at twilight to discuss the things that weighed heavily upon Herbert Spencer's heart. There Spencer imbued them so strongly with his idea of starting a moral movement to bring the brotherhood-of-man and love-ye-one-another principles into world human relations that it grew into a moral code which they hoped would replace every other creed and doctrine on the face of the earth...And so together they began to form this code, which was more or less completed when I came into the movement in 1895."

The official history of the University of Science & Philosophy, published by the University on its webpage, perpetuates this account, and the University's 2011 IRS filing states, "The purpose of the corporation is to teach, publish and otherwise promote the scientific and philosophical theories of Walter Russell and other members of the Twilight Club, which included Herbert Spencer, Edwin Markham, and Alexis Carrell."

University of Science & Philosophy's Business Profile
The University of Science & Philosophy is a 501(c)(3) corporation selling "home study courses, seminars & publications relating to promoting the study of universal law, natural science and living philosophy of Walter Russell. Approximately 4000 Students Served." The curriculum is "meant to be studied in the solitude and privacy of one's own home...There are no assignments, papers or examinations. Learning comes through meditative study and internalization of ideas so that these become part of one's own thinking and consequent action." The home study course costs $200, and the other 60 items for purchase on their webstore range in price from $3 to $65.

The Twilight Manifesto
In 1999, Yasuhiko Genku Kimura as Executive Director of the University of Science & Philosophy's new Twilight Club set about "connecting the University once again with its origin and history." In The Twilight Manifesto, Kimura packaged Walter Russell's history of the Twilight Club together with several of his essays. On page 34, Kimura also provides a list of institutions and movements that he claims the Twilight Club helped engender such as, the "Boy Scouts in England and America, Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions Clubs, Better Business Bureaus, sweat shop elimination, advertising censorship (honesty), child welfare, and IBM's Think campaign."

In addition to writing The Twilight Manifesto for The University of Science and Philosophy Press, Kimura also "emendated" The Complete Home Study Course by Lao and Walter Russell. The updated Fourth Edition "contains the additional Unit 12 with a comprehensive review of the previous units, an integral presentation of the Russellian science in light of the latest development in the Neo-Russellian research, and a further instruction on living a Cosmic Conscious life."

The University of Science and Philosophy's Twilight Club, Present Day
In 2003, Kimura re-envisioned The Twilight Club as his new corporation Vision-In-Action. The Twilight Club as part of the University of Science and Philosophy remains as an archival webpage that serves to promote the Twilight Club legacy of Walter Russell by distributing the text of the Manifesto, as well as additional essays by Kimura, and to redirect to the University's webpage. Promoting the Twilight Club is listed as a central mission of the University's tax filings.

Vision-In-Action (2003-Present), Yasuhiko Genku Kimura
Kimura is listed as founder and chairman of the company Vision-In-Action (VIA) and president and creative director of Vision-In-Action Leadership Institute.

Vision-in-Action's Claim to the Twilight Club
Kimura claims that VIA evolved from the "original Twilight Club", is consistent with the original Club, and is "heir to the Twilight Club." In his books and on his website, he repeats the embroidered history of the Twilight Club perpetuated by Walter & Lao Russell and himself:

"In 1998, Mr. Kimura was appointed to be Executive Director of The Twilight Club, which had been originally established in the 19th century as a venerable American tradition by Herbert Spencer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Edwin Markham, Andrew Carnegie, Oliver Wendell Holms, William James, John Borroughs, and other prominent Americans for the purpose of ethical uplifting of the world through the enrichment of culture. In the early 20th century, Thomas Watson, Sr. and Walter Russell developed The Twilight Club into The Society of Arts and Science. In 2003 Mr. Kimura established Vision-In-Action, an action-oriented sapient circle of thought leaders, as the 21st-century version of The Twilight Club/Society of Arts and Science, to develop and implement creative, innovative, and transformative approaches to problems and challenges facing humanity that will bring about novel resolutions and a new evolutionary pathway for the world. In 2005 he further established Vision-In-Action Leadership Institute to develop spiritually awakened, intellectually sovereign, and emotionally mature leaders of humanity."

"''Vision-In-Action was established, in 2003, as heir to The Twilight Club. The Twilight Club was a venerable tradition of ethical activism originally founded in the late 1870’s as a “sapient circle” of visionary thinkers from diverse disciplines. Inspired by the British philosopher Herbert Spencer, the founding members included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Edwin Markham, and several others. Their stated purpose was that of ethical and cultural renewal of their world. The Twilight Club continued to grow well into the 20th century through the work of the artist-philosopher Walter Russell, the IBM founder Thomas J. Watson, Sr., the Nobel Laureate Alexis Carrel, and others, involving many thousands of people. The Twilight Club was, among other things, an inspiration for the formation of the Boy Scout of America and England, of the Rotary, Lions, and Kiwanis Clubs, and of the Better Business Bureau. In 1949, Lao Russell, the wife of Walter Russell, established the Walter Russell Foundation, later renamed The University of Science and Philosophy, as a continuation of the Twilight Club ideals, founding the Man-Woman Equality League—a precursor to the Women’s Liberation Movement, and the International Age-of-Character Clubs. The Twilight Club had two distinguishing characteristics that are of vital relevance and importance if a transformational movement of any kind is to be truly successful: 1) Vision was always united with action. 2)The participants’ vision and action were indeed vision-in-action. The participants were aligned without necessarily completely agreeing with one another philosophically or ideologically. The Twilight Club was not ideology based but commitment based, not agreement based but alignment based. In 1998, Yasuhiko Genku Kimura, Zen Buddhist priest-scholar, integral transhumanist philosopher, and business consultant, identified these two distinguishing features of The Twilight Club and recognized their continuing relevance to today’s world, combined with the vital importance of The Twilight Club’s original mission for ethical and cultural renewal. In 1999, with his partner Laara Lindo, President of The University of Science and Philosophy (The Walter Russell Foundation), Kimura revived The Twilight Club. Within four years, The Twilight Club attracted participation of many of today’s prominent visionary thinkers from around the world as well as hundreds of interested citizens. As The Twilight Club grew, Kimura, in order to facilitate the advent of the new era, found it necessary to establish an entirely new entity in the evolving trend and context of the 21st century. Vision-In-Action is that entity.''"

VIA also distributes the Twilight Club history according to Walter Russell widely through partner websites and interviews.

Vision-In-Action (VIA) and Vision in Action Leadership Institute's Business Profiles
VIA is promoted as a 501(c)(3) public benefit corporation. It is unclear what VIA itself does as it seems VIA-Leadership Institute is the arm that provides Kimura's self-improvement seminars with counseling and business consulting created by Kimura. Courses cost $500 for introductory 2-day seminars and up to $8,000 for mastery courses that include 10-days of seminar and a year-long home study curriculum. A participant in Kimura's introductory seminar concluded, "I know I found the secret of life, but I don't understand the secret. I had no idea what else to do afterward. That is why, in response to this question, he (Kimura) offers advanced year-long courses." Besides the United States, VIA Leadership Institute also conducts seminars in Brazil.

Walter Russell, the Painter (1898-1909)
Walter Russell was a painter and illustrator in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was known for his illustrations during the Spanish-American war as well as painting portraits of children, particularly portraits of Theodore Roosevelt's children. He also illustrated and published children's books. In 1904, after a brief stint as a horse trader, Walter Russell turned to real estate. By 1908 he had abandoned Art and filed for bankruptcy.

Walter Russell, the Real Estate Developer (1910-1928)
Through the 1910's-1920's, Walter Russell built apartment complexes             and promoted grandiose real estate projects, such as extending Manhattan Island by 6 miles    and making an American Versailles on Long Island. In 1923, Walter Russell promoted himself as "The Father of the Cooperative Housing Movement."

Walter Russell, Ice Skating Enthusiast
In 1917, Walter Russell was a member of a group formed to promote amateur and professional Ice Skating in New York, following the lead of the International Skating Union and other cities, most notably Boston.

Walter Russell, PhD
In 1941, Walter Russell claimed to have been conferred a doctorate from the American Academy of Sciences (not to be confused with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). The American Academy of Sciences is not an academic institution and can't legitimately bestow honorary degrees. However, the University of Science and Philosophy claims this distinction to the present day.

Walter Russell, Sculptor
The University of Science and Philosophy promotes sculpture as one of the great achievements of Walter Russell. He sculpted large busts of Mark Twain and Franklin Roosevelt, as well as a monument to The Four Freedoms located in Madison, Florida.

While he did promote and raise money for large memorials to Mark Twain, John Phillip Sousa, and a 200-foot tall version of The Four Freedoms sculpture in the Philippines, these statues were never executed. Both the completed and proposed projects are promoted on The University of Science and Philosophy's website as proof of Walter Russell's sculptural achievements.

Mark Twain Memorial (1934-1936)
In 1934 Walter Russell proposed a foundation to pay for a monument to be unveiled as part of the Mark Twain centennial. He visited Hannibal, Missouri, Mark Twain's home, to discuss the proposal with the centennial committee and to visit Twain's boyhood sites for inspiration. Russell planned an international fundraising campaign and visited several large cities, attaining the endorsement of Cecil B. DeMille, with the stated goal of raising $1,000,000. As part of the fundraising tour, Chicago and St. Louis were mentioned as alternative locations.

In 1935, no longer listed as a prominent member of the Society of Arts and Science, Walter Russell became more involved with the centennial program surrounding Twain's birthday,  including making a medal. Walter Russell presented a bust of Mark Twain to the museum upon its dedication April 25th, 1935. During the live national broadcast, Walter Russell asked listeners to weigh in on where his "monumental shrine" should be erected. The Walter Russell bust is still listed in the museum's collection. The Mark Twain Memorial Foundation presented a Walter Russell Bronze head of Mark Twain to the British government and city of London to be displayed at the coronation of King George VI.

The culmination of Walter Russell's involvement was to be a 700-foot long sculpture featuring the author surrounded by characters from his books. It was to be unveiled on November 30, 1935 in honor of Mark Twain's 100 Birthday. Many photographs circulate of the "replica of the design model." The completed sculpture was to be 700 feet long featuring 21 figures, including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Betty Thatcher, Aunt Polly, The Prince and the Pauper, The Connecticut Yankee and Joan of Arc. In November of 1935, weeks before the unveiling, Walter Russell was still seeking funds and endorsements for the project. It is not on display at the museum and in future years, only a bust is mentioned,    although Walter Russel did pose with a two figure portion in 1936.

Sousa Memorial (1938-1939)
In 1938, Walter Russell took up the Sousa Memorial project. He toured with a soldier he selected to be the model for the memorial  and even showed a clay model. The effort was to raise $750,000. Like the Mark Twain monument, the project was never executed.

Franklin D. Roosevelt bust and The Four Freedoms (1943-1949)
In 1943, through a Greek-American Order of Ahepa, Walter Russell presented a large bust of FDR to the president. Later, he said that FDR had suggested he make a statue to illustrate the Four Freedoms and his trip to show the model to the president was publicized. The statue is of four angels, each representing one of the four freedoms, facing the cardinal directions. It was unveiled in Madison, Florida, in 1943 as a memorial to Colin Kelley, the first American hero of World War II.

In 1949, Walter Russell began raising money for a 200-foot tall version of the statue that would be placed in the Philippines. In addition to the Four Freedoms, there would also be at least half a dozen bronze busts. This project was also never executed.

Swannanoa, Jesus Christ (1950)
In 1950, Walter Russell erects a 12-foot statue of Christ at Swannanoa. His initial plan, announced two years earlier, was to have a 300-foot statue. Upon erecting the 12-foot version Walter Russell still maintained that he planned to make the 300-foot version.

Walter and Lao Russell (1946-1963)
In 1946 Walter Russell met Lao Stebbing (born Daisy Cook). Two years later, Walter Russell at 77 divorced his wife of 54 years      and married the 43 year old Lao. In 1948, using the title President Emeritus of The Society of Arts and Science, he moved into Swannanoa with the intention of converting the mansion into a museum of his own works. Walter and Lao would spend the rest of their lives at Swannanoa promoting their institution and its home study courses.

Beginnings in Japan and India (1954-1983)
According to his autobiographical account, Yasuhiko Kimura was born in 1954 in Kaga-shi, Ishikawa, Japan, and attended the Eihei-ji monastery in Fukui Prefecture from 1972-1977. He alternately calls himself a "former Buddhist monk", "former Zen Buddhist priest" or "ordained Zen Buddhist priest," favoring the latter. Ordination at Eihei-ji can be received as a novice or as a full ordination. The vows of the novice are not for life-time, and many choose to return to the world. The full ordination comes after one is familiar with what it means to be a Buddhist monk or nun and make a lifetime commitment to the spiritual life. From his account, Kimura's time at the monastery did not bring enlightenment, "Meditation is a major part of being a monk, and you have to get it right. I kept going although my meditations were always interrupted with hunger pangs. I had visions of food and thoughts about my next dinner. After getting bored with those thoughts, my thoughts drifted to women. Then that became boring too. I was there a long time becoming ever more bored with my own thoughts. I reached the age of 21, but I still was not enlightened, and so I got depressed."

After leaving the monastery, Kimura states that he studied Eastern Philosophy in India for three years. In 1983, he moved to Los Angeles where he divorced his first wife and, four months later, remarried, both women 10 years older than himself. At this time, his name is recorded as Yasuhiko M. Kimura. Other public records around this time list him as Yasuhiko Theo Kimura.

Ray Kotobuki as Yasuhiko Kimura's Pen Name
Ray Kotobuki is said to be a pen name for Yasuhiko Kimura. Former Neo-Tech employee Richard Nikoley confirms that Yasuhiko Kimura is the "Japanese, Zen mystic sort of guy who somehow got wind of Neo-Tech way back, came out to Vegas and even wrote for them for a time." Yasuhiko Kimura is also listed as thought leader of Neo-Tech. Although it was included in a 1992 Neotech publication," it is unclear the exact first date of publication of Kimura's Neo-tech: The Philosophical Zero. Based on the About the Author page, it would have been written after 1984. The fact that Neo-Tech had a policy of using pen names makes it difficult to positively identify authors. However, there are several similarities in the biographical information of Kotobuki and Kimura:

KOTOBUKI: In the About the Author section of Neotech:The Philosophical Zero, Kotobuki said his 1984-1985 reading "of Julian Jayne's 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind' and Dr. Frank R. Wallace's NEO-Tech firmly established him in the task of eradicating mysticism from the planet." The Author page lists Ray Kotobuki as, "Born in Japan in 1954 ..., Mr. Kotobuki was trained to be a priest/scholar in a Zen Buddhist order. He then traveled to India for further study in Eastern philosophy and psychology..."

KIMURA: Yasuhiko in essays published on the VIA website and in his books refers to Jayne's "Origin of Consciousness..." Link Yasuhiko Genku Kimura, born in Japan in 1954, states in his official biography that he is a "philosopher; ordained Zen Buddhist priest and scholar; teacher of esoteric spiritual philosophies of the East and the West." In an interview with Eric Senge, Kimura says, "his critical moment of awakening was when he was on a 2-3 year study in India."

Kimura discusses a relationship with a mentor easily identified as Neotech's founder Wallace Ward in a Facebook blog post from 2014, "In my early 30s I worked with and was mentored by a master of cheating detection (who had discovered it originally by being a master poker player detecting master cheaters)."

'Neo-Tech: The Philosophical Zero is available online.Link

Neo-Tech Business Model and Philosophy
Neo-Tech, now known as Integrated Management Associates, was a multi-level marketing and publishing enterprise. "Apprentices" would sell memberships to the "Society of Secrets" for $100/month, sometimes with a $350 initiation fee. Neo-Tech would split the monthly dues with the apprentice for the first year. After that, the apprentice would receive "royalties" for each member brought in "downline" from a member they signed up. Neo-Tech would keep additional dues collected beyond the first year. Neo-Tech would supply new material, books or pamphlets, each month. The apprentices would then hold workshops, at least once a month, to review the new material with the members they had signed up. Operational details and marketing techniques are described in detail by Mark Hamilton of Neo-Tech identity in an email to Level Four apprentices.

Neo-Tech was founded by Wallace Ward, whose Neo-Tech pen name was Frank R. Wallace. Neo-Tech was the name given to Ward's take on Ayn Rand's Objectivism in which he promised success in business and romantic love. Eventually he included claims that the Neo-Tech philosophy would lead to biological immortality. Yasuhiko Kimura includes the promise of biological immortality as a logical conclusion of the Neo-Tech revolution.

Australian Fair Trading Minister Margaret Keech criticized Neo-Tech as a group of "con-artists", for claiming to select "a small handful of 'special' individuals'" to receive "secret wisdom of the ages", and then asking the individuals to pay money to obtain these "secrets". Similarly, Tony Levene of The Guardian noted that the company was the subject of a 2000 ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority of the United Kingdom, in which the Authority stated that Neo-Tech had "not provided evidence, other than anecdotal, to show the guaranteed earnings, improvements to health, and other benefits" which Neo-Tech claimed to offer "had been, or could be, attained".

Metaconsulting Institute (1996-1998)
In 1996, Kimura founded the Metaconsulting Institute and listings for the company include the addition of "Genku" as a middle name for Kimura. Genku is another name for the religious reformer Hōnen. The Metaconsulting Institute product was "strategic business seminars and customized programs under his (Kimura's) leadership for both entrepreneurs and multinational corporations." Metaconsulting Institute offered a "nine-month business program, leadership and strategy consortium... (using Kimura's translation) of the texts Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. To date, the translation has never been published."

The University of Science and Philosophy, CEO & Board Member / The Twilight Club, Executive Director (1998-present)
In 1998 or 1999 Yasuhiko Genku Kimura joined the Walter Russell Foundation as Executive Director of The Twilight Club. He began an organization which assumed the name of the Twilight Club. A profile of this endeavor reports, "The Twilight Club originally looked to enrich society and culture through the personal action of its members based on the principle that Kimura characterizes as alignment beyond agreement."

From 2000-2002, Kimura held the position of CEO of the University and drew a three figure salary. In May of 2001 Kimura held the Twilight Club's first "Vision Summit" at the Washington-Dulles Marriott. In May of 2001, with Kimura, The University of Science and Philosophy awarded Cleve Backster the first Walter Russell Award. By now, Kimura's claims about the Twilight Club include the the founding in the late 1870s by Herbert Spencer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, Oliver Wendel Holmes and others. He credits The Twilight Club as the inspiration for Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Ralph Waldo Trine's In Tune with the Infinite, Andrew Carnegie's nationwide building of libraries, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Kiwanis, the Better Business Bureau, and the Boy Scouts of England and America.

Vision-In-Action (2003-present)
In 2003, Kimura founded Vision-In-Action (VIA) as a re-envisioned Twilight Club, citing his position as a leader of the Twilight Club. He explains VIA is a more effective structure to continue the rich legacy of the founders' intention in the 21st century. The Vision-In-Action mission statement reads,"As The Twilight Club grew, Kimura, in order to facilitate the advent of the new era, found it necessary to establish an entirely new entity in the evolving trend and context of the 21st century. Vision-In-Action is that entity."

By 2000, Kimura moved to New York, joining his partner and president of VIA Mira Joy Vivant (aka Mira Latorre, Mira Guberinic), who describes herself as a joyologist. Yasuhiko Kimura and Mira Joy Vivant currently reside in Charlottesville, Virginia, close to Swannanoa and The University of Science and Philosophy.