Szekely's grandfather was Sándor Székely, poet and Unitarian Bishop of Cluj; his mother mother was French and Roman Catholic and his father was a Hungarian Unitarian.. Per Szekely's book 'Essene Gospel of Peace', he was a descendant of Hungarian philologist and orientologist Sándor K?rösi Csoma.
Per publications of the International Biogenic Society, including 'The Essene Gospel of Peace', Szekely received a Ph.D. from the University of Paris, and other degrees from the Vienna and Leipzig. He held professorships of Philosophy and Experimental Psychology at the Bolyai University in Kolozsvár (now Cluj, and now in Romania) . His books were published in English, Romanian, Esperanto, German, French, Hungarian, and Spanish, per the introductory bibliography in his 1938 book 'Cosmotherapy, the Medicine of the Future'.Szekely translated a text he discovered at the Vatican in 1923, called The Essene Gospel of Peace which he published in four parts over several decades. With the 1974 edition, he also included complete original Hebrew text from which he translated Book 1.
In 1928 Szekely founded the International Biogenic Society, with Nobel Prize-winning novelist Romain Rolland Szekely travelled widely, to Tahiti, Africa, the Carpathians, France, and Eastern Europe. L Purcell Weaver met Szekely in Tahiti in 1934 and attributed his improved health to him. Weaver went on to translate several of Szekely's works, beginning with the 1936 book "Cosmos, Man and Society: A Paneubiotic Synthesis".
In 1939, Szekely married Brooklyn-born Deborah Shainman, whose mother was a past vice-president of the New York Vegetarian Society. In 1940 the couple opened a camp in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, which they named Rancho la Puerta, where they could explore and test their ideas. The couple had two children, Alexander and Sarah Livia. Edmond Szekely continued his research, writing numerous books and conducting seminars all over the world.
In 1970, Szekely and his wife divorced and Edmond retired from Rancho La Puerta. Szekely married Norma Nilsson, a long-time assistant, and focused on his writing and teaching. He died in 1979.
Szekely, while studying at the Vatican in 1923, translated several obscure Hebrew and Aramaic texts which he said proved the Essenes were vegetarians, and that vegetarianism was prescribed by Jesus.
Szekely found an Aramaic translation of The Essene Gospel of Peace and The Essene Book of Revelation at the Vatican library. In the scriptorium of the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino he claimed to have found the original Hebrew text of The Essene Gospel of Peace. His findings, as did the writings of Romain Rolland, often challenged the assumptions of conventional religious adherents and politicized, established religious institutions about the life and teachings of Jesus, and he was therefore often criticized by them.
Szekely later said that he recognized several fragments in these that were either similar, or identical, to various passages from the Old and New Testaments, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the Avesta and thus he relied on available English editions of those works to produce the style of language used in his translations. Book 1, which he said constituted an eighth of the material, was published in 1936. He published more material in following years, including Books 2 and 3 in 1974, which with Book 1, he said, make up a third of the material. With the 1974 edition, he also included what he said was the complete original Hebrew text from which he translated Book 1.
The third claimed manuscript source was the library at Monte Cassino, which was destroyed during World War II.
Some critics have pointed out that Szekely, after originally publishing a French translation, first published it in English in 1937 as The gospel of peace of Jesus Christ by the disciple John. After the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s and intense public interest in the Essenes, Szekely republished an updated version as The Essene Gospel of John. The scrolls appearing on the title page of later editions are not the manuscripts Szekely claimed to translate, but a reversed image of a Dead Sea Scroll from Professor Millar Burrows The Dead Sea Scrolls, published in 1958.
The credo of the International Biogenic Society states the following:
We believe that our most precious possession is Life.
We believe we shall mobilize all the forces of Life against the forces of death.
We believe mutual understanding leads toward mutual cooperation; that mutual cooperation leads toward Peace; and that Peace is the only way of survival for mankind.
We believe that we shall preserve instead of waste our natural resources, which are the heritage of our children.
We believe that we shall avoid the pollution of our air, water and soil, the basic preconditions of life.
We believe that we shall preserve the vegetation of our planet: the humble grass which came 50 million years ago and the majestic trees which came 20 million years ago, to prepare our planet for mankind.
We believe that we shall eat only fresh, natural, pure, whole foods, without chemicals and artificial processing.
We believe that we shall lead a simple, natural, creative life, absorbing all the sources of energy, harmony and knowledge, in and around us.
We believe that the improvement of life and mankind on our planet must start with individual efforts, as the whole depends on the atoms composing it.
Biogenic living
Szekely classified foods into four categories, depending on their qualities and what they contributed to one's health:
In 1940, Szekely and his wife opened a camp they named Rancho la Puerta in Baja California. The camp had one adobe hut and the Szekelys started an organic garden, bought goats and began marketing cheese, and invited like-minded people to visit for $17.50 a week. Guests (who chopped wood, milked goats, and brought their own tents) listened to Szekely's lectures on achieving good health, long life, and the interdependence of mind, body and spirit. Szekely spoke against herbicides, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, the increasing use of food processing, and the dangers of cigarettes. He emphasized the threat of pollution and the need for pure air and pure water, recommendations for safe sunbathing, and the dangers of cholesterol and fats in the American diet.
As the spa increased in size in the early 1950s and began to operate year-round, visitors of another sort were attracted by the weight-loss potential of Rancho la Puerta's vegetarian diet. Szekely and his wife began searching for and hiring specialists in yoga and other mind/body exercise regimens, adding a fitness aspect to their offerings.
Today, Rancho La Puerta is a holistic health spa and eco-resort with a staff of nearly 400, owned and operated by the Szekely family. The spa is situated on the slopes of Mount Kuchumaa. The spa includes, among other things, a full-size replica of the labyrinth of the Cathedral of Chartres, of gardens, a organic garden, 87 rooms, eleven gyms, a library, and the Szekely Art Collection...sculpture, painting, glass, and other work primarily by Mexican and South American artists.
Szekely is the author of over 80 books, including two autobiographies. Some of his best known include:
Az Emberi Gondolat Története (History of Human Thought, in Hungarian, Hermes publishers)
Az Emberi Társadalmak Története (History of human societies, in Hungarian, Hermes publishers)
Cosmos, Man and Society: A Paneubiotic Synthesis (First published 1936). Translated and Edited by L. Purcell Weaver. Published London: The C.W. Daniel Company. 816 pages. Subsequent edition published 1937 with an index, and comprising 841 pages. In both editions, the translator (Weaver) contributed a preface outlininging how he came to know and be involved in Szekely's work.
Cosmos, Man and Society (1973). Published San Diego, California, by Academy Books. 134 pages. Not related to the 1936/1937 book above. It is a selection of chapters from the 1938/1951 book Medicine Tomorrow, which is listed below.
Cosmotherapia, Naturismo integral (International Cosmotherapeutic Expedition publishers, Los Angeles)
Cosmotherapy: A Guide to Treatment. (1936). Translated and Edited by L. Purcell Weaver. Published London: The C.W. Daniel Company.
Cosmotherapy and the International Therapeutic Movement (International Cosmotherapeutic Expedition publishers, Los Angeles)
Cosmotherapy of the Essenes
Cosmotherapy, the Medicine of the Future (International Cosmotherapeutic Expedition publishers, Los Angeles, 1938)
Deutsch und doch nicht Deutsch (in German, Esperanto Verlag publishers)
Discovery of the Essene Gospel Of Peace
Esperanto Lernolibro lau Psikoteknika Metodo (in Esperanto, Mondo publishers)
Essene Gospel Of Peace, Book 1
Essene Gospel Of Peace, Book 2: The Unknown Book of the Essenes
Essene Gospel of Peace, book 3: Lost Scrolls of the Essene Brotherhood
Essene Gospel Of Peace, Book 4: The Teachings of the Elect
Essene Origins Of Christianity: How The Great Pan Died
Essene Way: Biogenic Living
Ia Ora Na, la guerison de toutes les maladies et la prolongation de la vie avec un siecle (in French, A Bambridge)
Medicine and Dialectics (1937). Bureau of Cosmotherapy (Lawrence Weaver House, Leatherhead, Surrey) and C.W. Daniel Co., London. 36 pages.
Medicine Tomorrow: An Introduction to Cosmotherapy, with a Guide to Treatment. Second (revised edition, 1951). 400 pages. Translated and Edited by Purcell Weaver. Published Ashington, Rochford, Essex: The C.W. Daniel Company. First published 1938. A subsequent 134 page selection of chapters (I-VIII, pp. 11—97; & XVI-XVIII, pp. 219—260) from this book was published in 1973 as Cosmos, Man and Society (not to be confused with the original 800+ page, 1936/1937 title) by Academy Books of San Diego.
Sciences de l'avenir (in French, Bibliothčque du Mouvement Correlativiste)
Sciences modernes dans la philosophie, psychologie et sociologie (in French, doctoral thesis, University of Paris)
Sexual Harmony. (1977). Published San Diego, California: Academy Books.
The Dialectical Method of Thinking. (1973). San Diego, California: Academy Books
The Evolution of Human Thought. (1984). Published in Costa Rica, Central America, by International Biogenic Society. Printed in U.S. The text of this book is from chapter VII (pages 327-346) of the now unavailable 1936/37 Cosmos Man and Society.
Treasury of Raw Foods. (1981). Published in Costa Rica, Central America. International Biogenic Society. Printed in U.S. The text of this book is from chapter XIX (pages 541-576) of the 1936/37 book Cosmos Man and Society.
University Course of Cosmotherapy (International Cosmotherapeutic Expedition publishers)
Utopia (in Romanian, a collection of essays published in the review 'Utopia')
