Philadelphia Experiment

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Operation Ghost was an alleged naval military experiment at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sometime around October 28, 1943, in which the U.S. destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered invisible to human observers for a brief period. It is also referred to as Project Rainbow.

The story is widely regarded as a hoax.^[1][2][3] The U.S. Navy maintains that no such experiment occurred, and furthermore, details of the story contradict facts about the Eldridge.^[4] It has nonetheless caused ripples in conspiracy theory circles, and elements of the Philadelphia Experiment are featured in other government conspiracy theories.

Contents 1 Synopsis of the alleged experiment 2 Origins of the story 2.1 Morris Jessup and Carlos Miguel Allende 2.2 The Office of Naval Research and the Varo annotation 3 Public dissemination 3.1 Resurfacing via literature 3.2 Hollywood interpretation and the Bielek testimony 4 Discussion 4.1 Evidence and research 4.2 Scientific aspects 4.3 Timeline inconsistencies 4.4 Alternative explanations 5 Cultural references 5.1 Audio/visual media 5.2 Video games 5.3 Literature 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Synopsis of the alleged experiment

Several different, at times conflicting, versions of the purported experiment have circulated over the years. The following synopsis serves to illustrate key story points common to the majority of accounts.^[2]

The experiment would have been conducted by Dr. Franklin Reno (or Rinehart) as a military application of a Unified Field Theory, a term coined by Einstein. The Unified Field Theory aims at describing the interrelated nature of the forces that comprise electromagnetic radiation and gravity; although to date no single theory has emerged with a viable mathematical expression.

According to the accounts it would have been thought possible to use some version of this theory to bend light around an object so that it became essentially invisible. This would have required specialized equipment and sufficient energy. The Navy would have regarded this of obvious military value and sponsored the experiment.

A destroyer escort, the USS Eldridge, would have been fitted with the required equipment at the naval yards in Philadelphia. Testing would have begun in summer 1943, being successful to a limited degree. One test, on July 22, would then have resulted in the Eldridge being rendered almost completely invisible, with some witnesses reporting a “greenish fog” in its place. However, crew members would complain of severe nausea afterwards. At that point, the experiment would have been altered at the request of the Navy, with the new objective being invisibility solely to radar.

The equipment would not have been properly re-calibrated to this end, but in spite of this the experiment would be performed again on October 28. This time, Eldridge would have not only become almost entirely invisible to the naked eye, but actually vanished from the area in a flash of blue light. According to some accounts, the U.S. naval base at Norfolk, Virginia, just over 215 miles (346 km) away, would have reported sighting the Eldridge offshore, whereupon the Eldridge would have vanished from their sight and reappeared in Philadelphia at the site it had originally occupied, in an apparent case of accidental teleportation.

The physiological effects of the experiment on the crew would have been profound: almost all of the crew would be violently ill. Some would have suffered from mental illness as a result of their experience; behavior consistent with schizophrenia is described in other accounts. Still other members, like Jacob L. Murray, would be physically unaccounted for — supposedly “vanished” — and five of the crew were would have been fused to the metal bulkhead or deck of the ship. Still others would have faded in and out of sight. Sometimes they would disappear, then crewmates would stick their hands into the spot they had disappeared and try to grab the crewmate, but, if they did not, that spot would burst into flames. Horrified by these results, Navy officials would have immediately canceled the experiment. All of the surviving crew involved would be discharged; in some accounts, brainwashing techniques would be employed in an attempt to make the remaining crew members lose their memories concerning the details of their experience.

[edit] Origins of the story

[edit] Morris Jessup and Carlos Miguel Allende

In 1955, Morris K. Jessup, an amateur astronomer and former graduate-level researcher, published The Case for the UFO, a book about unidentified flying objects which contained some theorizing about the means of propulsion that flying-saucer-style UFOs might use. Jessup speculated that anti-gravity and/or manipulation of electromagnetism may have been responsible for the observed flight behavior of UFOs. He lamented, both in the book and the publicity tour which followed, that space flight research was concentrated in the area of rocketry, and that little attention was paid to these other theoretical means of flight, which he felt would ultimately be more fruitful.

On January 13, 1955, Jessup received a letter from a man who identified himself as Carlos Allende. In the letter, Allende informed Jessup of the Philadelphia Experiment, alluding to two poorly sourced contemporary newspaper articles as proof. Allende also said that he had witnessed the Eldridge disappear and reappear while serving aboard the SS Andrew Furuseth, a nearby merchant ship. Allende further named other crew members with whom he served aboard the Andrew Furuseth, and claimed to know of the fate of some of the crew members of the Eldridge after the experiment, including one whom he witnessed disappear during a chaotic fight in a bar. Jessup replied to Allende by postcard, asking for further evidence and corroboration for the story.

The reply came months later; however, this time the correspondent identified himself as Carl M. Allen. Allen said that he could not provide the details for which Jessup was asking, but implied that he might be able to recall by means of hypnosis. Suspecting that Allende/Allen was a fraud, Jessup decided to discontinue the correspondence.

[edit] The Office of Naval Research and the Varo annotation

In the spring of 1957, Jessup was contacted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Washington, D.C. and asked to study the contents of a parcel that they had received.^[5] Upon arrival, a curious Jessup was astonished to find that a paperback copy of his UFO book had been mailed to ONR in a manila envelope marked "Happy Easter." Further, the book had been extensively annotated by hand in its margins, and an ONR officer asked Jessup if he had any idea as to who had done so.

The lengthy annotations were written in three different colors of ink, and appeared to detail a correspondence among three individuals, only one of which is given a name: "Jemi." The ONR labeled the other two "Mr A" and "Mr B." The annotators refer to each other as "Gypsies," and discuss two different types of "people" living in outer space. Their text contained nonstandard use of capitalization and punctuation, and detailed a lengthy discussion of the merits of various suppositions that Jessup makes throughout his book, with oblique references to the Philadelphia Experiment, in a way that suggested prior or superior knowledge (for example, “Mr B” reassures his fellow annotators, who have highlighted a certain theory of Jessup’s).

Based on the handwriting style and subject matter, Jessup identified "Mr A" as Allende/Allen. Others have suggested that the three annotations are actually from the same person, using three pens.^{[citation needed]}

The annotated book sparked such interest that the ONR funded a small printing of the volume by the Texas-based Varo Manufacturing Company.^[6] A 2003 transcription of the annotated "Varo edition" is available online, complete with three-color notes.^[7]

Later, the ONR contacted Jessup, claiming that the return address on Allende’s letter to Jessup was an abandoned farmhouse. They also informed Jessup that the Varo Corporation, a research firm, was preparing a print copy of the annotated version of The Case for the UFO, complete with both letters he had received. About a hundred copies of the Varo Edition were printed and distributed within the Navy. Jessup was also sent three for his own use.

Jessup attempted to make a living writing on the topic, but his follow-up book did not sell well and his publisher rejected several other manuscripts. In 1958 his wife left him, and friends described him as being depressed and somewhat unstable when he travelled to New York. After returning to Florida he was involved in a serious car accident and was slow to recover, apparently increasing his despondency. Morris Jessup committed suicide in 1959. Many conspiracy theorists believe that he was murdered by the government because of his knowledge of the Philadelphia Experiment.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Public dissemination

[edit] Resurfacing via literature

In 1965, Vincent Gaddis published Invisible Horizons: True Mysteries of the Sea, in which the story of the experiment from the Varo annotation is recounted. Later, in 1977, Charles Berlitz, an author of several books on paranormal phenomena, included a chapter on the experiment in his book Without a Trace: New Information from the Triangle. And Brad Steiger devoted part of his book Mysteries of Time and Space to this topic in 1977.

In 1978, a novel, Thin Air by George E. Simpson and Neal R. Burger was released. This was a dramatic fictional account, clearly inspired by the foregoing works, of a conspiracy to cover up a horrific experiment gone wrong on board the Eldridge in 1943. In 1979, Berlitz and co-author, William L. Moore, published The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility, the best known and most cited source of information about the experiment to date.

In 2000, a novel,"The Ship Of The Damned" by James F. David was released which used The Philadelphia Experiment in his Psychological Thriller to exploit the minds of the readers.

[edit] Hollywood interpretation and the Bielek testimony

In 1984, the story was eventually adapted into a motion picture, The Philadelphia Experiment directed by Stewart Raffill. Though based only loosely on prior accounts of the experiment, it served to bring the core elements of the original story into mainstream scrutiny.

In 1990, Alfred Bielek, a self-proclaimed former crew-member of the Eldridge and alleged witness of the experiment, supported the version as it was portrayed in the movie, adding embellishments which were disseminated via the internet, eventually to surface in various mainstream outlets. In 2003, Bielek's version of his participation in the Philadelphia Experiment was debunked by a small team of investigators including American Marshall Barnes, Canadian Fred Houpt and German Gerold Schelm, and the general consensus now is that he was nowhere near the ship at the proposed time of the experiment.^[8]

[edit] Discussion

Detractors, skeptics, and other researchers have noted several serious issues and problems with the story of the Philadelphia Experiment.

[edit] Evidence and research

Many observers argue it inappropriate to put much credence in an unusual story put forward by one individual, in the absence of more conclusive corroborating evidence. An article written by Robert Goerman for Fate in 1980, determined that “Carlos Allende”/“Carl Allen” was in fact Carl Meredith Allen of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who had an established psychiatric history and may have fabricated the primary history of the experiment as a result of his illness.

Historian Mike Dash^[2] notes that many of the those who publicized the story after Jessup seemed to have conducted little or no research: through the late '70s, for example, Allende/Allen was often described as mysterious and difficult to locate, but after only a few telephone calls, Goerman was able to determine Allende/Allen's identity. Others speculate that much of the key literature has more emphasis on dramatic embellishment rather than pertinent research. Though Berlitz and Moore's famous account of the story (The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility) contained much supposedly factual information, such as transcripts of an interview with a scientist involved in the experiment, it has also been criticised for plagiarising key story elements from the fictitious novel Thin Air published a year earlier, which, it is argued, undermines the credibility of the text as a whole.

[edit] Scientific aspects

No fully developed Unified Field Theory currently exists. Shortly before his death in 1943, Nikola Tesla claimed to have completed a Unified Field Theory; however, it was never published.^[9] Relatives of Nikola Tesla propose that much of Tesla's research papers were seized by the FBI promptly following his death, and highlight the apparent coincidence between the year of his death and the supposed date of the Philadelphia Experiment.

While very limited "invisibility cloaks" have recently been developed,^[10] these are unrelated to theories linking electromagnetism with gravity.

[edit] Timeline inconsistencies

USS Eldridge was not commissioned until August 27, 1943, and remained in port in New York City until September 1943. The October experiment allegedly took place while the ship was on its first shakedown cruise in the Bahamas.

A reunion of veterans who served aboard the Eldridge told a Philadelphia newspaper in April 1999 that the ship had never made port in Philadelphia.^[11] Further evidence against the Philadelphia experiment timeline comes from Eldridge’s complete World War II action report, including the remarks section of the 1943 deck log, available on microfilm.^[4]

[edit] Alternative explanations

Researcher Jacques Vallee^[12][13] describes a procedure on board USS Engstrom (DE-50), which was docked alongside Eldridge in 1943. The operation involved the generation of a powerful electromagnetic field on board the ship in order to degauss it, with the goal of rendering the ship undetectable — "invisible" — to magnetically-triggered torpedoes and mines. This system was invented by a Canadian, and the British used it widely during the Second World War. British ships of the era often included such systems built-in on the upper decks (the conduits are still visible on the deck of the HMS Belfast (C35) in London). Degaussing is still used today; however, it has no effect on visible light or radar. Vallee speculates that accounts of the Engstrom’s degaussing may have been garbled in subsequent retellings, and these accounts may have influenced the story of the Philadelphia Experiment.

A veteran who served on board the Engstrom noted that the Eldridge could indeed have traveled from Philadelphia to Norfolk and back again in a single day at a time when merchant ships could not have — by use of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, which at the time was open only to naval vessels.^{[citation needed]} Use of this channel was kept quiet: German submarines had recently been ravaging East Coast shipping during Operation Drumbeat, and thus military ships unable to protect themselves were secretly moved via canals to avoid this threat.^{[citation needed]} It should be noted that this same veteran claims to be the man whom Allende witnessed “disappear” at a bar. He claims that when the fight broke out, friendly barmaids whisked him out the back door of the bar before the police arrived, because he was under age. They then covered for him by claiming that he disappeared.^{[citation needed]}

In a more speculative and strongly paranormal vein, Al Bielek and Duncan Cameron both claim to have leapt from the deck of the Eldridge while it was in “hyperspace” between Philadelphia and Norfolk, and ended up, after a period of severe disorientation, at the Air Force station Montauk Point, Long Island in 1983, having experienced not only teleportation but time travel. They claim John von Neumann met them there (although officially he died in 1957).^{[citation needed]} This story is part of a continuum involving another alleged secret US Government experiment into the paranormal known as the Montauk Project.

[edit] Cultural references

The Philadelphia Experiment, its results, and the potential of the technology involved have been the subject of many books, films, soundtracks, and video games.

[edit] Audio/visual media

In the film Orka (2007) a German equivalent of Einstein's research related to the Philadelphia Experiment is sought out and uncovered.

An early film to dramatize the experiment is The Bermuda Triangle (1979). One portion of the film shows a Navy ship rigged with power cables to create the disappearing field. The ship is made to appear to vanish into the sea, and the sailors experience the effects attributed to the experiment, i.e., vomiting, and disappearing and reappearing.

Two full-length films have been released on the subject: The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) and Philadelphia Experiment II (1993).

The experiment has been the subject of several television shows dealing with the paranormal and conspiracy theories, including The Unexplained, a series produced by Bill Kurtis on the Arts and Entertainment Network (A&E). One episode of The History Channel's History's Mysteries discusses the theory. A similar story also ran on the show Unsolved Mysteries on Lifetime. It is also a frequent topic on the late night radio show Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell and George Noory.

In The Final Countdown, a US Navy ship is featured traveling in time (but backwards).

In the “Død Kalm” (2X19) episode of The X-Files, Mulder and Scully are tipped off to a U.S. Navy ship that had caused its crew to rapidly age; Mulder at first believed the aging had to do with the failed Philadelphia Experiment.

"The Pegasus," an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation had a plot similar to the Philadelphia Experiment. Tests of an experimental type of cloaking device result in the deaths of most of the crew of the ship; in particular, some deceased crew members are found "fused" to parts of the ship, similar to deaths attributed to the Philadelphia Experiment.

The 1997 science-fiction movie Event Horizon details a salvage mission of the titular spaceship, a prototype equipped with a gravity-powered "gravity drive" intended to teleport the ship and crew instantly across several light years. While in the movie the vessel was teleported successfully, the side effects of the process depicted are similarly horrific as those attributed to the Philadelphia Experiment.

On the Sci Fi Channel, the TV miniseries The Triangle, the Philadelphia Project was thought to be the cause of the disruptions in the Bermuda Triangle, when it was in fact the attempt to fix it in the 21st century (time space distortion, etc).

In the 1979 Disney movie The Black Hole a demented spaceship captain intends to travel through space and time by entering a black hole, employing Einsteinian theory. The captain's name is Reinhart (see above), prompting speculation that the movie was inspired at least in part by the Philadelphia Experiment or the idea of it.

The Philadelphia Experiment is a jazz/funk album featuring Christian McBride, Ahmir Thompson, and Uri Caine. All three are from the Philadelphia area.

On the album Darker Than Black by the American heavy metal band Cage there is a song called "Philadelphia Experiment."

The hip-hop sci-fi EP "Projecto: 2501" by Tajai and SupremeEx ends with a lengthy audio clip of a journalist speaking about the Philadelphia Experiment.

[edit] Video games

The Command & Conquer: Red Alert games involves a means of time travel/teleportation which was developed by Einstein as an evolution of the Philadelphia Experiment. He used it to eliminate Hitler before the rise of Nazi Germany, but in doing so inadvertently caused an alternate Second World War to take place between the Soviet Union and the Allied powers (now including Germany). The experiment led to two devices, based on its two variations. The Chronosphere, a potent but dangerous teleportation device—for it teleports only mechanized units while killing any biological matter—and secondly the Gap Generator, a building- and vehicle-mounted device that blocks radar and sight in a certain radius around the Gap unit. The game has a cut scene that briefly shows an Iowa-class battleship disappearing and mentions the “horrible aftermath” the sailors experienced. The Chronosphere also has a side effect, essentially a "return shift", when the teleported object phase itself back to the initial position after a short time. Repeated use of the Chronosphere risks the occurrence of a "chronal vortex", which is an extremely destructive phenomenon, though only for a short time.

In Red Alert 2, Einstein has perfected the Chronosphere's technology to the point where certain infantry units and the Allied Chrono Miner can teleport across the map; additionally, this second generation Chronosphere allowed for the teleportation of up to 9 mechanized units at once. At the end of the game Einstein discovers that the Chronosphere's potential can be increased by building it inside the magnetosphere's "hot spot". The result of this is that USA can use the Chronosphere on Florida Keys to initiate Operation: Chrono Storm, an all-out assault against Moscow through time-space. The expansion pack, Yuri's Revenge explains that after the war, Einstein had further upgraded the technology, resulting in the creation of the Temporal Displacement Device, which has abandoned movement through space in favor of movement through time. The only prototype is used by the Time Commando to travel back in time to the war's outbreak and erase Yuri's Psychic Dominators from existence before he has a chance to mind control the whole world.

In Tiberian Sun, the command vehicle of General Anton Slavik is called the Montauk, and the GDI's space HQ is called The Philadelphia.

In the 1998 PlayStation RPG Xenogears, the starship in the opening cinematic is named the Eldridge.

In the game Half-Life 2: Episode 2, mention is made of a large ship named the Borealis - much like the Eldridge - which disappeared under mysterious circumstances (vanishing into thin air with part of the shipyard.)

In the game Assassin's Creed, it states that the experiment did take place and was performed by the Templars by using a "Piece of Eden". An email you uncover during the game confirms this. It reads:

"Philadelphia Project - Data provided from Animus Subject Twelve indicates that the ship briefly manifested in a future state for approximately 18 minutes. It is unclear whether the time line is consistent with or parallel to our own. Although we have recovered enough data to reconstruct and repair the original artifact used in the experiment, Administration has refused to move forward on the project, citing paradox concerns. Corporate policy remains in place: any objects found to interfere with or manipulate time must be contained. Artifact will be moved to secure storage."

[edit] Literature

In "Green Fire" (1998), a collaborative novella by Eileen Gunn, Michael Swanwick, Pat Murphy, and Andy Duncan, the science fiction masters Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and L. Sprague De Camp, besides Grace Hopper, take part in the Philadelphia Experiment, with the assistance of Nicola Tesla and the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl.

[edit] See also

• Andrew Furuseth, namesake of the S.S. Andrew Furuseth
• Morris K. Jessup
• Camp Hero
• Ouroboros
• List of conspiracy theories
• John Hutchison

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• History of the Eldridge
• Science Article about High Tech Materials that can funnel light around an object
• British scientists make a "Cloaking Device" for radar using Metamaterials
• Link catalogue for the Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Project
• Site debunking the claims of one Alfred Bielek, allegedly an eyewitness and survivor of the Philadelphia Experiment
• Excerpts from The Case for the UFO
• Transcription of the Varo Edition of The Case for the UFO
• 2 chapters of Gone Dark by "W.B. Smyth", supposed "document" of the experiment. 50 Years after Albert Einstein: The Failure of the Unified Field
• Naval Historical Center's entry for the "Philadelphia Experiment"
• Navweaps.com entry for the "Philadelphia Experiment"
• Skeptic's Dictionary entry for the "Philadelphia Experiment"
• The Philadelphia Experiment at the Internet Movie Database
• The UFO and the Sailor
• Robert Goerman's Alias Carlos Allende: The Mystery Man Behind the Philadelphia Experiment
• Joe Turner's The Philadelphia Experiment: What They Don't Want You to Know
• Anatomy Of A Hoax: The Philadelphia Experiment 50 Years Later
• Straight Dope on the Philadelphia Experiment
• Recreation of the Philadelphia Experiment in 2006
• Dr. Ron Milione's overview of the 2006 Philadelphia Experiment replication.
• "Einstein's Antigravity": A documentary connecting the Philadelphia Experiment with Einstein's Unified Field Theory and the Nazi-Bell Device