Bucky Fuller, Mystic

Spiritual Teacher in A Coat & Tie

Bucky Fuller was first and foremost a mystic. Much of what I have learned over the past decades has led me to that conclusion even though he generally wore a three-piece suit in public. By dressing in that conservative garb, he was able to blend in, looking much like one of society’s most common people in the 1930’s and 1940’s – a bank teller. Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, bank tellers were mainly conformist men who dressed to match their personalities in three-piece black suite with white shirt and black tie. In order to move up the corporate ladder, they had to conform in every aspect of their work lives including their attire.

Bucky was the exact opposite, an outspoken rebel and a spiritual mystic. Still, he did not want his appearance to get in the way of the message that he considered to be vital, and he adapted the bank teller look when he appeared in public.

His true mystic side did not really emerge until he had the spiritual experience he spoke of so often. After having lost all his money as well as the money of his investors (mainly friends and family) and having his first daughter die in his arms when he came home a day late because he had been out drinking, he felt destitute. Today he would be labeled a classic looser and an alcoholic.

Just like someone in a similar situation today, it was Bucky who was hardest on himself as he walked along the shore of Lake Michigan in Chicago contemplating suicide. He had decided that his newly born daughter and wife would be better off without him because he had a small insurance policy and his wife’s family was fairly well off. While considering swimming out until he drowned, he found himself standing several feet off the ground in a sphere of white light.

Then, a voice “spoke” to him saying that he did not have the right to kill himself because he did not belong to himself. That voice went on to tell him that he, like all of us, belonged to the Universe, and he was a link in a chain of human evolution that he did not have the right to break. This is actually true for every individual who is or has been a crewmember aboard the planet Bucky named Spaceship Earth. We each have a unique set of talents and experiences that we are obligated to discover and contribute to others. Bucky was fortunate enough to have had that exceptional, vivid experience move him in the direction of making his very valuable contribution, but none of us needs to take things to that degree of drama in order to make changes in a more positive direction.

Following his crucial decision to live, Bucky did what most mystics do for some period of their lives, he went into silence. He did not, however, do this in a far off Himalayan cave. Bucky was forced to take his mystical retreat within the confines of a small inner city Chicago apartment that he shared with his wife and young daughter. Those were the only two people he spoke to for nearly two years because he vowed not to say anything until he felt that he had something valuable and important to say.

When he emerged from his silence, he was walking a spiritual path that was hidden like his rebel nature was hidden by his three-piece suite. His path appeared to be dominated by science, math, architecture and the disciplines of ever increasing technology, and although he loved those fields, he was far more interested in what he called the “generalized principles” that govern all aspects of Universe. Today, we would label those generalized principles as spiritual because although they are principles that are true for physics, mathematics and chemistry, they are also viable and valuable for managing in everyday life.

The life Bucky lived after that followed those principles as he rediscovered and brought them into mainstream culture. This was not an easy task, and as is true for most mystics, the establishment was constantly challenging him. His major mystical work in the field of mathematics was published as the books Synergetics 1 & 2, and they are so confrontational to modern mathematics that most mathematicians and scientists simply ignore them. Thus, the idea that all math needs to be founded on Nature’s way of doing things rather than a humanly-devised way of doing things has yet to be discovered or embraced by many people.

Synergetic Math is based on a simple structure that Nature uses because it is most efficient and effective. Nature builds with that structure – the triangle – in all aspects of construction (without blueprints or any other plans). Nature builds (and does all things) without waste, and the three-sided triangle is the most effective structure to do this. Simply consider designing and building a stool. How many legs do you need to have it be self-supporting? Three. A fourth leg, like a fourth wheel on a car is wasteful use of resources. Following that generalized principle, Bucky did, in fact, design and build a three-wheeled vehicle as well as a mathematics based on the three-sided, maximum efficiency triangle.

If you delve into Synergetics 1 & 2 (read 2 first as it is written more simply in order to explain 1), you will realize that they are mystic / spiritual volumes that consider all aspects of life, cosmic evolution and the function and fate of humankind. Bucky called himself a comprehensivist (i.e. generalist) who was interested in everything, and that is reflected in his Synergetic Math as well as all of his activities and writing. Like so many past mystical teachers, he sought to better the lives of all people, especially those who came to study with him.

Most of those people were college students, especially architectural and environmental students, and they got far more than they bargained for. Bucky wanted them to build on and surpass his contributions so he trained them to constantly trimtab everything (doing more with less) and create a world that works for everyone. That world is essentially the same world of peace, love, joy and harmony that mystic spiritual teachers espouse. Bucky, however, also provided practical tools and directions for bringing it into daily reality.

He did not simply tell people to pray or meditate or be mindful, although those types of activities were subtly suggested. He did not tell people that he was meditating or channeling wisdom from some Source Higher Power, but his mystic insights had to come from somewhere other than books because most of them had never been heard before. And his stream-of-consciousness, thinking-out-loud (the term he used to describe his talks) lectures would now be labeled channeled, as he always seemed to have one foot in this dimension and one foot in another timeless dimension. That is another characteristic of a genuine mystic.

Then there is the issue of money and earning a living. Following his Lake Michigan spiritual awakening, he resolved to never again work to earn a living. He said that we are all part of Nature and that Nature always supports what is supposed to be or to happen, and he carried that idea to the next level when he reasoned that if he was doing something that Nature wanted to have happen, he would be supported in all ways including financially. This, too, is a mystic’s perspective, but it is refined to be understood by our culture. He could have been a monk living from the freely given offerings of average people, but he chose to give away his insights knowing that larger forces in Universe would support him.

And throughout his fifty-six year experiment to determine and document what one individual could accomplish that could not be achieved by any government, corporation, religion or other organization no matter how large or powerful, Bucky proved that he did not have to work for a living. Yes, he did work very long hours on the projects he loved and felt were needed, but he did not work on them for money. Rather, he did what he saw was needed and not being attended to, knowing that if Nature wanted it to happen, he would be supported. This is the most mystical / spiritual perspective I have ever seen being employed by an engineer, architect, scientist.

Because of his dedication to other people (and in particular to all humankind), Bucky was able to create results well beyond what most of us create and what most people would expect of a guy who was twice thrown out of Harvard during his freshman year. (He never completed any further higher education but was given an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard and 46 other schools.) In his speaking and writing, he also emphasized what most spiritual / mystic teachers preach over and over – that he was an ordinary individual and that each of us could achieve far more than what he did.

This is true because we can build on the foundation that he created through his studies as well as by trial and error. We don’t have to make the same mistakes (or as he called them “learning experiences”) that he made. We can succeed and prosper in all areas of our lives – including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. This is a portion of the mystic legacy Bucky provided for us.

In analyzing his work and life, I also came to realize that he passed on in the same manner as the great spiritual masters. Although he had nearly reached his 88th birthday, he was in excellent health. At his final public appearance less than two weeks prior to his passing on July 1, 1983, Bucky said that he felt that his wife Anne (who was in a coma) was waiting for him. Being the classic New England gentleman, he felt that a man should always precede a woman into dangerous or uncharted territory, and that was exactly what he did.

Bucky suffered a heart attack at Anne’s bedside in the intensive care unit of the hospital, the one place where he was most likely to be saved if that was what he wanted. The doctors in that hospital could not, however, bring him back to life, and Anne passed on thirty-hours later having never regained consciousness. When his family went to his office, they found a neat stack of papers with a note saying to please have this published, as it was the last thing that he had to say to us. Eventually, that stack of papers was published as Bucky’s final book Cosmography.

Following in the tradition of other spiritual teachers and mystics he made a final trip to say good-bye to friends, associates and others (much of that was in a series of day-long sessions called Integrity Days ), and he was ready to move on. He had lived a very conscious life, planting seeds of possibility in the awareness of millions of people. And he continues to speak to many of us even though he no longer works through the body he so often called “yesterday’s breakfast.”

Bucky was not extremely attached to physical form. He walked in multiple dimensions and shared the wisdom of those other dimensions with the majority of us who tend to be physical beings that have moments of spiritual experience rather than spiritual beings having a physical experience. The latter more realistically describes the Bucky that I have come to know and learn from.

Because of his prominence as a mystic, spiritual master, he continues to live on for me and many other people. I can’t tell you the number of people who have shared that he has made a major difference in their lives during these past twenty years. Even though he no longer functions in physical form, he is with us, and I am eternally grateful for his guidance and support. There is no question in my mind that without that guidance and support this site would not be here for all the crewmembers aboard Spaceship Earth to enjoy and learn from.