Meet the Authors

Dr. Bob Hieronimus

Robert R. Hieronimus, Ph.D., has been on a mission since 1968 to discover the hidden reality behind The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine. His 2002 book, co-authored with Laura E. Cortner, Inside the Yellow Submarine, was called “an indispensable companion to the movie” (Animation World), and he has lectured on the subject around the world including at Abbey Road in London.

“Hieronimus has a talent for winning the cooperation of the establishment while he lives and works in the counter-culture,” said art critic Alan Barnet, as evidenced by his gigantic symbolic murals, such as the 2,700 square foot prophetic Apocalypse mural at the Johns Hopkins University (1968/69, restored 2015), and Historic Views of Baltimore at the Baltimore Courthouse. In the 1960s, he traveled with rock and roll bands to teach meditation and design album covers and posters. His artcars include the We the People biodiesel Mercedes (2006/2008), and the internationally famous Light, the Woodstock VW Bus, from 1968/69, recreated in 2018.

In 1969 Hieronimus founded AUM, the first state-approved school of esoteric studies in the country. He received his Ph.D. from Saybrook Graduate School in 1981, and his doctoral research on the symbolism of the Reverse of the Great Seal of the United States has been used by the White House, State Department, Department of the Interior, and published in the Congressional Record. He is interviewed frequently on the History Channel, Discovery, Nat Geo, BBC, etc. His radio interview program, 21st Century Radio®, exploring consciousness and alternate realities, has been on the air since 1988, making it the longest-running of its kind.

Laura E. Cortner

Laura E. Cortner has collaborated with Dr. Bob Hieronimus on several books that have been translated into Japanese, German, French, Russian, and Spanish. Also writing partner and editor for Dr. Zohara Hieronimus and 21st Century Radio®, where she serves as Executive Producer, Cortner graduated with honors from Goucher College in Maryland, where she majored in English and Spanish. She also administrates the Ruscombe Mansion Community Health Center in Baltimore, Maryland, the oldest holistic facility on the East Coast. In addition to Inside the Yellow Submarine (2002), Cortner and Hieronimus co-authored Founding Fathers, Secret Societies (2006), United Symbolism of America (2008) and most recently Secret Life of Lady Liberty: Goddess in the New World (2016), an historical and symbolic analysis of the Statue of Liberty from feminist and Native American perspectives.