Re: 1994 article

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: Mddeming@xxxxxxx 

Hi Chris,

There are several reasons for Tesla's name being associated with 
pseudoscience. Here are several.

1. As he got older, Tesla tended to be secretive about what he was 
really working on.
2. Tesla accomplished what to the lay person were seemingly magical 
things at the close of the 19 th century. His name conjures up hopes 
of insights into "realities of nature" undiscovered by mere mortals. 
Most people don't know the difference between science and 
engineering. (that includes many in the professions) Tesla would 
frequently let his technical insights take a back seat to his 
stagecraft, especially with potential investors.
3. Most journalists of that time were even more science illiterate 
than those of today. They were also on expense accounts that could 
only be justified by an adequate amount of interesting news, the more 
spectacular the better, accuracy not withstanding, and they wrote for 
an even more gullible and ignorant public
4. Tesla knew how to play to the media for dramatic effect, 
especially when trying to raise funds. He lived into the "Golden Age" 
of science fiction. Tesla and H. G. Wells were contemporaries and 
"War of the Worlds" hit the best seller list less than a year before 
Tesla went to Colorado Springs, where he dropped  several hints about 
radio signals from Mars.
5. To Tesla, conceptualizing and accomplishing were interchangeable. 
He claimed he had a technique of visualizing something in such detail 
that when constructed, it would work exactly as planned. You will 
note that Tesla did not submit working models of any of his patented 
devices and many of his illustrations are diagrammatical at best. It 
is not always clear which of his inventions actually came into 
physical existence.
6. Tesla was, especially in his later years, a "notable character". 
Supermarket tabloids were just starting to flourish during his 
lifetime. The 1931 version of "Frankenstein" used special effects 
devices that had their origins in Tesla's lab. Many of the 
illustrations from the covers of magazines featuring Tesla's "energy 
transmission", Wardenclyffe, and "Death Rays" show up in slightly 
modified form in the Buster Crabbe / Flash Gorden movie serials of the 30s.
7. Mastery of lightning has always been the province of gods and 
sorcerers, witches, warlocks and wannabes. Tesla was getting quite a 
reputation in this area. Ads hawking "suppressed, secret knowledge" 
and "free power" were in the back of the same magazines that carried 
articles by and about Tesla in the front.
8. Most Americans have always had suspicions, to a greater or lesser 
degree, about what "foreigners" living here are really up to, what 
arcane knowledge they have, and many are ready to accept the most 
outlandish claims without proof. Tesla's neuroses, and that fact that 
his father was a priest of a (to most Americans) little-understood 
denomination and his somewhat metaphysical explanation of his own 
abilities and near-death experiences made him a perfect target to be 
adopted as a patron saint of many pseudoscientists
9. Many of Tesla's devices were immediately adaptable to many forms 
of medical quackery that flourished in the 1920s & 30s and persists 
even today: e.g. Lakhiovsky oscillators, Violet Ray wands of various 
types, purple power amulets, etc.
10. Some outfits that used to publish only technical books of repute 
have discovered that the crackpot market is far more lucrative. Some 
of these are High Voltage Press, Lindsay Books, Borderland Sciences, 
Health Research . Even TFC Books has become a mixed bag of some solid 
and some shaky publications distributed with equanimity.
11. While Tesla did not embrace the pseudoscience promoters, he did 
not disavow them either when it enhanced his publicity. The West 
Coast of the U.S.and Canada, always a breeding ground for interesting 
nut cases, has spawned several religious cults dedicated to the 
worship of Tesla.

Put all this together and I think you can see why we have such a 
problem today especially with the rise of antiscience "New Age", over 
unity, Aether revivalist, and UFO crap.

Matt D.


In a message dated 8/6/05 3:40:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, 
tesla@xxxxxxxxxx writes:

On another note, hopefully Terry will let it go as it is just my
opinion, but has anyone wondered why there is quite so much
pseudo science associated with Tesla, and where all of this rubbish
comes from and why?

Thanks

Chris