Well, when we talk about Nikola Tesla now, we should be a little careful, because Tesla is no longer just an important inventor who benefited from the age of electricity, but now he is more like a "prophet" for some social media users, he is the "extraordinary genius" and "the most important and greatest inventor in history", as members of the "Tesla sect" or "Tesla fan club" claim, and the latter is a name given to them by the famous American physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
But in fact, Tesla's online videos, "Pyramids Power Stations," "Free Energy for All," "Ray of Death," and "The Magic of Numbers 3, 6 and 9," was not what nerds imagined it to be today.
In this context, a story is famous that Einstein was once asked what it means to be the smartest man alive, and he replied: "I don't know, ask Nikola Tesla", this is of course a false quote that Einstein never said, not only because it was not mentioned in any of the books that collected Einstein's quotes, but because Tesla originally openly declared his rejection of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Tesla and Einstein
Not only that, but Tesla constantly tried to discredit Einstein and said that the theory of relativity is a pseudoscience, in one of his public statements to the New York Times Tesla says: "Einstein's work of relativity is a wonderful mathematical system that fascinates and fascinates people, but makes them blind to the errors inherent in it, the theory of relativity is like a beggar wearing purple and ignorant people give him the status of king."
One of the reasons Tesla was so confident that the theory of relativity was wrong was that he thought he was measuring motions that occurred faster than the speed of light. (Shutterstock)
Tesla adds in another statement: "I think space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it cannot have properties, and if we say that space has properties, it is like saying that God has properties." In a third statement, he says: "To say that in the presence of large-mass objects space becomes curved is tantamount to saying that something can work in the middle of nothing. I refuse to accept such an opinion."
One of the reasons Tesla was so confident that the theory of relativity was wrong was that he thought he had measured motions that occurred at a speed faster than the speed of light, as he thought that he had picked up a cosmic ray from the star "Antares" moving at 50 times faster than the speed of light, and added in another context that he would like to transmit electricity greater than the speed of light, which is the maximum speed in the universe according to the theory of relativity.
Another reason related to the fact that Tesla believed until the end of his life in the ether hypothesis, which is related to the fact that this universe is filled with a medium of something is the reason for the flow of light waves in the space between the sun and the earth, as scientists believed before the emergence of relativity that light must run in a medium, because it is a wave like the sea wave, and the wave by definition is a vibration in the middle, but the experiment of Albert Mickelson and Edward Morley in 1886 was the first building block in proving the ether hypothesis wrong, followed by The emergence of the theory of relativity that has already made it clear that the ether is not real.
Tesla's assumptions about relativity quickly fell one after another, while Einstein's theory has withstood a lot of experimental tests for more than a hundred years now, and scientists have clearly monitored its results (whereas Tesla has provided no evidence for his claims). You can see this in several achievements, not the least of which is the observation of gravitational waves, the subject of which won the Nobel Prize in 2017, or the observation of black holes and taking realistic pictures of them for the first time in 2022, where the results of observing these objects accurately agreed with the assumptions of the theory of relativity.
Academy Fellow Prof Susan Scott (@Our_ANU) says the image bears remarkable similarity to the first image obtained by the EHT of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy M87, even though that black hole is about 1,000 times larger. Learn more: pic.twitter.com/CsFCQWYkCS
— Australian Academy of Science (@Science_Academy) May 12, 2022
In addition, scientists have been able to observe the curvature of light with the curvature of space through telescopes such as Hubble, James Webb and others, in a phenomenon now known as the "gravitational lens." In 2004, the satellite called the "gravity probe-b" was launched to measure the curvature of space due to the presence of the planet in it, and after analyzing the vehicle's data, studies released by the University of Oxford in 2011 confirmed that the hypotheses of Einstein's theory of relativity were highly accurate.
Of course, it is not excluded that one day a more comprehensive theory will emerge that digests relativity within it, especially since there are already problems related to the union of the two theories that explain the nature of this universe at its major and minor levels, namely relativity and quantum (quantum), but of course we are sure that the theory of relativity was not a pseudoscience, in fact Karl Popper, the most famous philosopher of science, used the theory of relativity as an ideal model to distinguish between science and non-science, because of the accuracy of its hypotheses.
Not only relativity
It seems that the problem was not related to relativity in particular, but to other scales in physics, for example, Tesla did not believe in the existence of electrons (which make electric current), and he insisted that atoms are the smallest building blocks of the universe and there is nothing smaller than them, because if it exists, it will work in an ideal vacuum, which is impossible.
Tesla once believed, "The idea of atomic energy is deceptive, but it has so strongly captured the mind that even though I've been opposed to it for 25 years, there are still some who believe it's achievable." Despite the success of nuclear fission tests, Tesla did not believe in it, and he died just two years before the first military use of nuclear fission forces, when two nuclear bombs exploded in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a power of 15 and 20 kilotons, killing hundreds of thousands.
Tesla's "unsubstantiated" assumptions were many, and may indeed have related to his esoteric inclinations, his belief in cosmic mysteries and special ways of exploring them. (Shutterstock)
We haven't talked about Tesla's view of mathematics, when he said in 1934: "Today's scientists have replaced mathematics with experiments, and they go from equation to equation and eventually build things that have nothing to do with reality." This view may indeed be accepted in the criticism of mathematics for some, but the problem is that Tesla lived through the peak of physics maturity, a period that witnessed the rise of relativity and quantum in what we can call a scientific revolution, these sciences benefited greatly from mathematics in predicting phenomena that could not have occurred to the mind of a scientist.
The bottom line in Tesla's problem with science seems to be related to his job and his main passion: he was an inventor, not a scientist in the understandable sense, so loyal to that idea that he may have thought that nothing was more important than invention, and that theoretical science – in one way or another – was not at the same level or importance.
There is another reason that may explain Tesla's rejection of some science, and here we will talk specifically about his adherence to the concept of ether, although he was scientifically rejected, as Tesla was talking about "unlimited energy stored in the universe", adding that the eternal receiver and sender of this infinite energy is "ether", and here some researchers believe that Tesla's words indicate that he was almost certainly influenced by his meetings with the Indian sage Swami Vivekananda, which began in 1896.
Tesla "Cosmic"
Tesla saw the source of life in the universe as the energy that fills the universe (prana), and he pondered deeper into his reflection and came up with more strange ideas. (Social Media)
Tesla's assumptions, which were characterized as "without evidence", were many, and may have already related to his esoteric tendencies, and his belief in the existence of cosmic mysteries and special ways to explore them, for example: "Everything we perceive from matter comes from an unfathomable primary center, which fills all space, whether you call it "Akashic records" or "ether", it works on the creative power of life called prana, in infinite circles that include all things and phenomena."
In Buddhism and Hinduism, the "Akashite Records" are a huge library that represents the repository of every thought, word and action of every living being on earth in the past, present and future, and these records are also known as the Book of Life, and according to Tibetan monks, these records can be found in "Akasha", which means sky, star light, or ether element in Eastern belief systems.
Tesla believed, in agreement with these beliefs, that the source of life in the universe is that energy that fills the universe (prana), and he deepened his meditation to come up with more strange ideas, for example, he says in his book "My Inventions": "When someone close to me is hurt, I feel physical pain, because our bodies are made of the same thing and communicate with each other wirelessly", and Tesla developed this idea to talk about "cosmic pain" that includes everyone, an idea that says that you respond, through depression A surprise that you feel and think is without reason, for the pain of others in different parts of the world, adding that the disappearance of a star from the sky or the arrival of a comet affects us more than we think.
In one of his quotes, Tesla says, "If I cut my finger I hurt, and if my friend's finger hurts as well, doesn't that mean that we are one, that this whole universe is one?" "My brain is just a receiver and in the universe there is a center from which we draw knowledge, power and inspiration," he adds in another quote.
(Social Media)
Tesla mania
Our need to refer to this aspect of Tesla's life is not aimed at defaming his personal beliefs, but knowing the above is very necessary to understand his quotes spread across the Internet, in which engineering and innovation blended with esoteric oriental beliefs with his desire to market his work, and this is what created the myth of Tesla's mystery, people think that the man was for example close to creating what will change the face of the earth, but his statements were closer to "religious" reflections, and the difference is clear between the two.
For example, Tesla has never given any scientific evidence in the form of a diagram, equation, or even a draft explaining what he meant by "cosmic free energy," "death ray," or "pyramid power," and he didn't succeed in his experiments that tried to connect electricity without wires (and we'll dedicate a special report to that), yet all people know about Tesla are these things.
In addition, the above is very important in the context of the deification of amateurs of human development and supporters of the worlds of pseudoscience such as energy therapies, yin and yang abilities, astral projection, etc. of Nikola Tesla, he is a great inventor that everyone testifies to, and when quotes come out of it in that nature, it must be a fertile material for circulation, and because the world is currently (including the Arab world, of course) is witnessing the rise of this type of superstition, Tesla also ascended with it again.
The problem here is that it's not just about inventions, but about Tesla's views in general, which are glorified by extension while glorifying his achievements. For example, in his last days, Tesla became an advocate of eugenics and the need to "purify the human race," and in a 1935 issue of Liberty magazine, he said: "Several European countries and a number of countries of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not enough, the trend of opinion among eugenics scientists is that we should make marriage more difficult, anyone who is not a desirable parent should not be allowed to have offspring."
Eugenics was popular in the early decades of the twentieth century, and was associated with the practices of Nazi Germany, and was present in the United States providing justifications for killing the disabled and sick, or at least castrating them and preventing them from reproducing and marrying.
Tesla and mental disorder
Tesla has had obsessive-compulsive disorder along with glimpses of other disorders, often fluctuating between depression and mania. (Social Media)
It is worth mentioning, in the context of talking about the obsession Betzla, that the man faced during the period between 1885-1905 a state of decline in the level of his technical achievements, and suddenly became mired in debt, and his psychological state began to collapse, and at that point we must clarify that Tesla was mainly a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder along with glimpses of other disorders, and often fluctuates between depression and mania, the first is a state of decline and isolation, and the last is a state of emotion or brilliance of mood in a way Abnormal and excitement and high energy levels, this was very evident in Tesla's personality, sometimes he worked all night and did not sleep for more than two hours, and in other cases he was retreated to his room for weeks.
Indeed, one of the reasons he fell in love with electricity and its world was related to visions he experienced in his wakefulness as a child, where he watched flashes of light in front of his eyes shine for a moment and then pass, and he also experienced the phenomenon of astral projection, which is the thought that man leaves his body to travel to other places, and contemporary neuroscience has proven that this phenomenon is not about real travel, but rather an illusory feeling. For more on this, see the report: Can Your Soul Really Travel Away from Your Body?
Here in particular appear some of Tesla's oddities, where he often said that he "almost gets a fever if he sees a bokeh", and that he is "very confused if he sees an earring in a woman's ear", but the strangest thing is that he was obsessed with a white pigeon that he thought was communicating with him telepathically, she visited him every day with a group of pigeons because he kept his window open and provided food to the bathroom around the clock, he said about this: "I used to feed the bathroom for years, but one of those pigeons caught my eye, it was beautiful, white with some gray spots on the wings," he said a little later, "I loved this pigeon as a man loves a woman!" This pigeon died in Tesla's hands, Tesla said that he saw in her eyes at the time of death a bright sparkle that he had never seen before.
Tesla did not provide any evidence of the validity of his claims about the relationship of numbers (3, 6, 9) to the center of the universe, but only statements in which his problems with numbers were mixed with his inner tendencies. (Social Media)
These clear references about Tesla's obsessive-compulsive disorder make us consider some of his controversial quotes that filled social media, such as those quotes that say that Tesla sees that the secrets of the universe are found in the numbers 3, 6 and 9, and this is true, Tesla stated that, but those who provide these quotes or passages do not tell you the second part of the story, which is that many OCD patients form special relationships with numbers, and fall into the trap of repeated counting.
In swimming exercises, Tesla would do 33 rounds, and if he miscounted, he would repeat from the beginning, and this is an explicit sign of OCD, he would also revolve around any residential square he entered 3 times, and in his kitchen there were 18 towels divided into three categories of 9, 6 and 3, and of course in hotels he lived only in a room with a number divisible by 3.
All of this has to do with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and magical thinking about the superiority of some numbers over others is also one of the symptoms of the disease, and consequently because of this we can at least question the validity of Tesla's hypothesis about those numbers, something he did not realize at a time when mental illness was not known in the form we know now, especially since Tesla did not originally provide any evidence of the validity of his claims about the relationship of these numbers to the center of the universe, but only statements that mixed his problems With numbers with his esoteric inclinations.
In the end, Tesla remains one of the most important inventors in history, and one of the founders of the electric age, with about 300 patents in more than 25 countries, including 111 inventions in the United States, in addition to many great contributions to the scope of electricity. But this has not stopped him from practicing misinformation and sometimes falling into the captivity of misunderstanding, like any human being.
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