Edward Arthur Wilson (25 July 1878 - 7 November 1934), better known as Brother XII, was an English mystic who, in the late 1920s, founded a spiritual community located just south of the city of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, off the west coast of British Columbia, Canada.
[4] He published two booklets, The Three Truths and Foundation Letters and Teachings, which explained his ideas and encouraged readers to donate money to his cause and to build homes in the colony, Cedar-by-the-Sea, which he was setting up near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
[5] With the goal of creating a self-sufficient community independent of the outside world, the Foundation acquired additional property on nearby Valdes and De Courcy Islands, largely through the donations of a wealthy socialite named Mary Connally from Asheville, North Carolina.
One man who had been imprisoned in a cellar on the northern end of Valdes Island managed to row to Nanaimo to report the circumstances to the British Columbia Provincial Police, who investigated, but took no further action.
Eventually, as conditions deteriorated, Brother XII's core group of disciples revolted and filed legal actions against him to recover the money they had contributed to his work.