1. Proof of Time Travel and Teleportation?
Is the Philadelphia Experiment tale a case where the government tried to cover up such a project,
only to have the true story leak out?
The idea that the US Navy experimented with teleportation and perhaps even time travel back
during World War II only leaves us guessing at the incredible science that has evolved in the time
since. Over the years brilliant inventions from minds like Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla have been
alleged to have links to the project, furthering the mystery.
If the events of the Philadelphia Experiment did happen, did the government or perhaps the nation's
top scientist shut the project down out of fear? Would the US government really refuse to capitalize
on such powerful technology?
How do we know about any of this anyway?
Project Rainbow
The story began when a man named Morris Jessup went to his mailbox on January 13th, 1955, not
likely expecting anything out of the ordinary. What he found would shock him. A letter from a man
named Carlos Allende described a US Navy experiment that had gone horribly wrong, and had been
kept secret for over a decade. Allende had written the letter after reading a book Jessup had
authored, in which Jessup discussed Albert Einstein's Unified Field Theory as a potential means of
spacecraft propulsion.
Allende outlined an experiment called Project Rainbow, what would later be known as The
Philadelphia Experiment. It was an exercise conducted in 1943 by the U.S. Navy using Einstein's
Unified Field Theory to cloak ships and hide them from view.
Here Allende made an outlandish claim. He said he had witnessed the destroyer U.S.S. Eldridge
appear and again disappear while he was standing on the deck of a nearby ship.
If that's not interesting enough, here's what puts this tale over the top: The Eldridge had been
moored in Philadelphia. Allende's ship was in Norfolk, Virginia, 200 miles away. In other words: In
an attempt to make the Eldridge invisible, the Navy had inadvertently teleported it from one harbor
to another!
Allende went further to describe the lingering effects of the experiment on the crew of the Eldridge,
which caused them to disappear and reappear without warning at later times.
Intrigued, Jessup encouraged correspondence with Allende, but soon began to question his honesty
and discontinued the friendship. It may have ended there, if not for a strange copy of Jessup's book
that landed in the hands of the Office of Naval Research.
Someone had heavily annotated the book in different color pens. Whoever it was referenced the
Philadelphia Experiment, and seemed to possess highly sophisticated scientific knowledge. Jessup
could name one of the writers as Allende, but the identities of the other two remain a mystery.
Conspiracy Theory Run Amok
2. Conspiracy theory has gone hand-in-hand with the Philadelphia Experiment story from the
beginning. If they government really does, or did, posses this technology surely, some people reason,
they are hiding it from the people.
And, as usual, where there is paranoia there will be fabrication. Various versions of the tale have
surfaced over the years, each more bizarre than the last. In some, sailors aboard the Eldridge
materialized with body parts fused to parts of the ship, or reappeared across the globe in another
country. In other versions the Eldridge travels back in time.
Some of the oddest claims came from a man named Al Bielek, who announced in 1990 that he was a
survivor of the experiment. Rife with government conspiracy, lost identities and alien involvement,
Bielek's claims are often cast aside by even hardcore Philadelphia Experiment believers.
Unfortunately, these outlandish tales serve only to muddy the actual facts of what occurred that day,
which may have been strange enough to begin with. Time travel is theoretically possible, according
to Einstein's theories anyway. So if experiments were conducted on the manipulation of spacetime
the results could have been staggering.
But even Einstein was still forming and polishing many of his theories, up until the day he died.
Today we know much of what he said was true. How close to the mark were they back then?
Did the Philadelphia Experiment Open a Worm Hole or Black Hole?
One theory often bantered about is that the experiment conducted back in Philadelphia in 1943
somehow opened a small wormhole or black hole that warped spacetime, thus moving the Eldridge
from Philadelphia to Virginia in the blink of an eye.
It's an interesting idea, and if even remotely true it seems unlikely that, even if a few sailors were
knocked around in the process, the United States would have given up on the expansion and
perfection of such technology. Controlling a device like this would mean Allied aircraft and warships
could appear anywhere around the globe at will. This would have been priceless at a time when the
outcome of World War II was far from certain.
According to Einstein's Theory of General Relatively, wormholes are possible. Theoretically. And
since the aim of the Unified Field Theory was to rectify General Relativity with the theory of
Electromagnetism, is seems reasonable that this was grounds for serious advancement.
But it also seems very odd that the United States Military would scrap work on such a device simply
because it was too dangerous, and then go on to create the most devastating weapon in the history
of the world. It seems reasonable that, if they were working on a device capable of teleportation,
that either the work continued in secret, or possibly even still continues to this day.
The idea of black hole is less compelling. Had the Philadelphia Experiment resulted in the creation
on a singularity in the Philadelphia harbor, it too would have ended World War II. For all of us. Black
holes lead nowhere, so the Eldridge, along with the rest of our solar system, would have been
crushed into infinitesimal nothingness.
Judging from the explanation the video below, it seems even creating a wormhole on Earth could
have devastating consequences.
Philadelphia Experiment Debunked
3. Even if we believe that Einstien's theories could have been put into practice, that a ship can be
rendered invisible, or that it may even be possible that a ship could teleport from one city to another,
more mundane details might ultimately doom the story.
Skeptics argue that the U.S.S. Eldridge, according to Naval records, was nowhere near Philadelphia
during the time period when this experiment allegedly took place. In fact, according to both Naval
records and veterans who served aboard ship, the Eldridge never docked in Philadelphia.
Conspiracy theorists, of course, will only point this out as more evidence of a government cover-up.
Less debatable is the fact that no universally accepted "Unified Field Theory" exists. Einstein's work
was left open-ended, and the subject continues in debate among modern physicists.
Which brings up another interesting conspiracy theory: Some say Einstein did in fact discover a
Unified Field Theory, but destroyed it following the results of the Philadelphia experiment, believing
mankind was not ready.
For this to occur, and for the government to allow it, we have to assume to the results of the
experiment were far more horrific that even the worst reports would indicate.
The Legend Lives On
Over the years, the true story of whatever happened on that fateful day has been jumbled up to the
point where the Philadelphia Experiment is considered more fiction than history. Maybe that's
exactly how the government wants it. In the spirit of true conspiracy theory, there are those who
believe the government intentionally muddied the waters to hide the true story of the Philadelphia
Experiment.
Perhaps, as some claim Einstein stated, it was because our world was not yet ready for such
powerful technology. Or, maybe this technology is still in use today, and the government would
prefer the world knew nothing about it. Maybe the technology used in the Philadelphia Experiment
came from an other-worldly origin and needs to be protected. Whatever the reason, many believe the
story of the Philadelphia Experiment is rife with conspiracy.
Does it make sense? Could it have really happened? What is our government hiding? Despite logical
evidence to the contrary, many cling to the idea that the Philadelphia Experiment was not only
possible, but really happened. It hints at clandestine powers, conspiracy and government cover up.
Maybe we're compelled to hope for the impossible, and wish for the whimsical. Or, maybe, the
believers are right, and the U.S. Navy really did partake is top-secret experiments on that day, so
long ago.
Surely unbelievable things must happen in this world from time to time. As with any other fantastic
tale, it is important to view the Philadelphia Experiment with a healthy dose of skepticism, and a
human dose of wonder.
