Nikola Tesla’s Alien Connection

Nikola Tesla no doubt had more of an impact on life in the 20th century and onward than any scientist after him.  Nowhere has one man created such a different world simply from the images from his mind.  He was a skilled inventor and electrician who no doubt will be remembered by history fondly for his contributions in alternating current as well as his myriad inventions that furthered our understanding of electricity more than anything we could possibly imagine.  But he also may have blazed another trail, having been one of the first ever to claim contact with alien intelligence.

Nikola Tesla wrote in his notes and letters to friends of a mysterious series of signals he had come across while studying the microscopic perturbations of electrical fields.  So concise and numbered were these perturbations that he was certain they were the residual effects of some form of mysterious communication taking place.  He essentially believed he had come across a signal very similar to something that SETI would look for several years later.  It was in these signals that he soon became convinced that he was receiving communications from extraterrestrial life forms, likely from the planet Mars.  Of course in those days the concept of alien intelligence was often construed as coming from Mars largely owed to the work of Giovanni Schiaparelli who observed what was later called canals running across the surface of the red planet.  Of course later these claims were called into question, but only years after Tesla made his claim publicly.  Of course the press, engaged in a longstanding love hate relationship with Tesla quickly ran several articles mocking the inventor’s claim.

Still, aside from the jocund articles printed at Tesla’s expense, a mystery remains long after the inventor’s demise.  What were these mysterious signals?  And by what means did he come across them?  When most of Tesla’s equipment was seized or destroyed after his death, the device he had been using to document “feeble” signals from nowhere also disappeared.  Could this simple device have saved the millions of dollars spent on the SETI program?  And would it have had more success?  As many of Tesla’s incredible inventions have never been reproduced, it’s hard to say how effective many of them were.  And Tesla was known to tell his fair share of tall tales.

And furthermore, was there more to the story that wasn’t told?  Could Tesla, the inventor of radio control have actually received inspiration of one sort or another from these mysterious signals?  Those who interact with the paranormal often lead prolific lives of lateral thinking afterward and many become great inventors as a result of it.  Could Tesla have been hit by the same mysterious energy that interacted with writers, inventors, and scientists throughout history?  It seems Tesla’s experience with what he believed was an extraterrestrial intelligence is most definitely worth taking a second look at.  As his life is scrutinized ever more carefully by an adoring public, his exploits are investigated closely by those following in his footsteps.  And perhaps beyond that there is an answer we’ve all been looking for.