Conspiracy Monday Tesla Tales

July 10th was the 153rd birthday of Nikola Tesla, maverick inventor, eccentric, and idol of many a free energy fanatic. So here are just a few of the wild rumours, tall tales, and conspiracy theories that have sprouted up around Tesla since his death in the 1940s. Sadly, the man's real work and legacy have been nearly eclipsed by such bizarre legends.Tesla and AliensTesla believed he may have come into radio contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, probably on Mars or a planet orbiting Epsilon Bootes, early in his career. Modern researchers have speculated that the signals actually originated from natural sources, like the Jovian plasma torus signals. But Tesla's genius, combined with his eidetic memory and his quirkiness, have some disciples convinced that he didn't come from Earth... * Arthur Matthews of Quebec was a country-dwelling family man who spent much of his time in a large shed behind his house, inventing things. He claimed he was the first to receive a patent for radar - hence he named his son Ray - but hadn't the resources to develop it. He also claimed to have befriended and assisted Tesla in the last years of Tesla's life (unlikely, as Matthews didn't leave Quebec and Tesla didn't leave New York). They even co-authored a book, packed with Tesla's personal reminiscences and details of his encounters with aliens. After Tesla's death, Matthews tried to carry on his work. His most ambitious project was the construction of the "Teslascope", a device that would allow him to communicate with aliens. And it worked. Two humanoid Venusians descended in a vast mothership to share some of the secrets of the universe with Matthews, including the fact that Tesla was an extraterrestrial sent to Earth to advance the human race. * The notion that Tesla was from Venus was adopted by Dwight York, demented founder of a religion called Nuwaubianism. York declared that a spaceship from Nibiru approached Earth in 2003 and began scooping up 144,000 of his followers (never mind that he doesn't have that many of them) in the Rapture. He also claimed the world's elite are making preparations to flee to Mars when the Apocolypse hits. York is currently serving a 135-year prison sentence for molesting dozens of children, some as young as four years old. A good post at Right to Think lists some of York's other bats
insane teachings. Tesla and SuperweaponsTesla expressed interest in creating a "death ray" so powerful that humanity would be afraid to use it, thus ending war. He never quite got the funding to do this, but it is speculated that his secret designs were the launchpad for the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars), directed-energy/scalar weaponry, and various little-understood or fictional devices. * Oliver Nichelson theorized that the 1908 Tunguska event was caused by Tesla. * In his article "PKD, the Unicorn, and Soviet Psychotronics", Adam Gorightly suggested that hippie guru and convicted killer Ira Einhorn was framed for the murder of his girlfriend because he was about to expose government mind control that utilized Tesla technology. Einhorn-framing theories don't wash with me, because his girlfriend's putrid corpse was right in his own bedroom, "leaking fluids into the apartment below". Even the smelliest hippie on the planet - and Einhorn was certainly a contender for that title - would have noticed the funky smell coming from the closet.Tesla's Technology was Stolen and SuppressedTesla died nearly penniless and in debt. Some of his equipment and papers were allegedly seized (and subsequently suppressed) by J.P. Morgan after his death. There have also been accusations that Edison stole many, or even all, of his ideas from Tesla. While there may be some truth to these theories, others are 100% b.s. * According to a man named Eric Berman, George H.W. Bush was really George Scherff Sr., a Nazi sent to destroy America as a teenager and adopted by Prescott Bush. Scherff became an assistant to Nikola Tesla, and stole all Tesla's inventions after Tesla was murdered by Otto Skorzeny and Reinhard Gehlen. Hitler was still alive in Montana in 1997, and Josef Mengele is keeping himself alive and youthful with a regimen of hormones and cannibalism. Oh, and "Curious George" was inspired by a young George Scherff Jr.; that's probably why Alan J. Shalleck was murdered by two men he met through a gay sex network one day before the movie premiered. Berman claims he heard this tale straight from his girlfriend's dad, Otto Skorzeny, in Florida during the late '90s. (Skorzeny died in Madrid in 1975.) One promoter of the Scherff-Bush story adds that Josef Mengele was the real Zodiac, the Boston Strangler(s), "and" the anthrax letter mailer. Busy guy. * Benjamin Fulford, the former financial journalist who is saving the world's elite from Freemasonic Asian assassins, declared during an interview with Jeff Rense that at the time of his death, his great-grandfather (Canadian patent medicine tycoon G.T. Fulford) had been planning to finance Nikola Tesla's introduction of free energy technology. For this reason, he was murdered by a trolley. The Rockefellers then took control of Tesla's inventions, hiding them from public view. * The rumour that Tesla produced free energy (or radiant energy, as he called it) just won't die, though Tesla never demonstrated it. Needless to say, ZPG cranks like Thomas Bearden have built elaborate fantasies around the discovery and suppression of radiant energy technology.Tesla and Time TravelAs described by Jenny Randles in her book Breaking the Time Barrier, in March 1895 Tesla accidentally produced enormously powerful rotating magnetic fields with a huge transformer. A massive ball of electricity (3.5 million volts) detached from the transformer, floated across the room, and struck Tesla's shoulder. He was unharmed, perhaps because his assistant saw what was happening and quickly switched off the transformer. But Tesla was badly shaken, and it was after this experience that he began talking about Martians and deathrays. He often suffered prickling sensations, headaches, and disorientation. He also said that when the ball touched him, he was momentarily transported into another dimension where the true nature of time was revealed to him. This has led to speculation that Tesla unlocked the secrets of time travel. * Some believers in the Philadelphia Experiment think Tesla and/or Einstein were closely involved with the Navy's efforts to render a ship invisible or transport it to another dimension. * Pro wrestler Rob Van Dam supposedly claimed that when he visited the abandoned site of the Montauk Project, he encountered a time-tripping Tesla. Tesla informed him he was going to "end it" (presumably the world) in 2007.