Perhaps the Philadelphia Experiment is one of the most conspiracy-laden experiments in history, encompassing many of the most mysterious elements of science fiction such as time travel, teleportation, Einstein’s unified theory, military secrets, and more.
This all seems to have begun with a name – Jessup, an amateur astronomer who loved to write science fiction. He studied astronomy at the University of Michigan and later became very interested in UFOs, publishing numerous articles and books on the subject.
Morris Ketchum Jessup, who held a Master’s degree in Astronomy, spent most of his life as an auto parts salesman and photographer, but he is perhaps best remembered for his writings and books about UFOs.
However, on April 20, 1959, this 59-year-old man (Morris Ketchum Jessup) was found in critical condition in the driver’s seat of his car. On the way to the hospital, his vital signs such as heartbeat and breathing gradually faded, and Jessup passed away.
The police deemed it a suicide, attributing his death to self-poisoning from high levels of carbon monoxide – caused by a hose connecting the exhaust pipe to the rear window of the car, which had been sealed. Once the car was started, he would suffocate from the exhaust fumes. However, some people claim that Jessup may have been murdered rather than taking his own life.
The text is incredibly difficult to understand with dense grammatical errors. (Illustrative image).
In the 1950s, the U.S. Navy Research Agency received a mysterious package. This package had no signature; instead, it simply contained the brief message “Happy Easter.” Upon opening the package, the contents revealed the book “The Case for the UFO” written by Jessup.
Strangely, the blank sections of the title page were filled with dense notes, but the text was incredibly difficult to understand due to numerous grammatical errors. At first glance, it seemed likely that this was just a prank by someone dissatisfied with the government.
As a government agency, the U.S. Navy Research Agency received all kinds of anonymous letters every day, most of which were ignored. However, this book caught the attention of the Navy’s research department at the time, leading Jessup to be contacted by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) in Washington, D.C. for clarification on the matter.
Faced with skepticism, Jessup produced two letters he had previously received from a mysterious man, both signed by Carlos Allende. Importantly, the style and writing technique of these two letters closely resembled that of the writing found in the book sent to the U.S. Navy Research Agency.
After comparing handwriting, they confirmed that they were indeed written by the same person. However, Jessup’s letters revealed indirect references to the Philadelphia Experiment: on October 28, 1943, the U.S. Navy conducted a secret experiment on the destroyer USS Eldridge, which was undergoing repairs at the Philadelphia Dockyard.
That evening, some crew members on the destroyer could be seen from a distance. Somehow, the destroyer began to be enveloped in a bluish light. Gradually, those standing on the ship began to disappear from the deck. Before those on shore could react, both the people and the ship vanished into thin air.
Miraculously, the ship suddenly reappeared at Norfolk Pier, 479 kilometers away.
The U.S. Navy conducted a secret experiment on the destroyer USS Eldridge.
The letters also revealed that although the ship was completely inactive, it could move from one place to another. This also meant that the technique of spatial transfer had succeeded. However, this spatial transfer caused severe physical and psychological side effects for the crew.
As a result, the Navy froze the experiment for fear it would affect the war, and they destroyed all data related to the experiment. The participants in the experiment were also forced to retire, and some of them disappeared.
The signer Carlos Allende also claimed to be a crew member and one of the witnesses at the time. However, the Navy searched for information based on what he provided but found nothing and stated that all the aforementioned claims were fabrications.
Some participants in the experiment had disappeared.
During that era, humanity was still haunted by the shadow of World War II, and a large number of war records had been lost. Thus, conspiracy theories, mysticism, and extraterrestrial biology were waiting for opportunities to permeate society. When news of the Philadelphia Experiment spread, it immediately piqued people’s curiosity, and of course, individuals like Jessup would not miss the chance to gain fame and would begin writing about this experiment.
Before Jessup could complete his masterpiece, rumors about the Philadelphia Experiment’s ability to travel through time and space spread throughout the streets. This led to many speculations and conspiracy theories emerging to answer questions such as: Who was in charge of the experiment? What was its theoretical basis? How was the experiment successfully conducted?
Perhaps the most widely circulated conspiracy theory is that the mastermind behind the Philadelphia Experiment was genius physicist Nikola Tesla, who was later dismissed for refusing to allow the experiment to proceed directly. Subsequently, John von Neumann took Tesla’s place and conducted the experiment under military pressure. Furthermore, this experiment was completed through Einstein’s unified field theory, with Einstein himself participating in the research of this experiment.
This experiment was completed through Einstein’s unified field theory.
Einstein’s theory posits that gravitational fields and electromagnetic fields are related, just as matter and energy can be connected by a formula (E=mc²). Although Einstein did not study the specific relationship between gravitational and electromagnetic fields, the Philadelphia Experiment demonstrated a positive correlation between them.
The entire design of the experiment applied Tesla’s ideas, with enormous coils wrapped around the hull of the ship. The direction of the coils was determined, and once powered on, the electromagnetic field created would bend the spacetime around the ship’s hull.
At the same time, the results of the experiment spread in astonishing ways, with many believing it was related to the appearance of extraterrestrials. For instance, under the influence of the invisible field, some crew members were frozen and took six months to thaw; some crew members caught fire and suffered burns for 18 days; those who disappeared and reappeared with the ship were said to be “stuck” and “merged” partially at the molecular level with the ship, etc. Some even claimed that these crew members had superpowers and could become invisible at will, akin to wearing Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak. Consequently, many believed that this experiment could destroy Earth and condemned the military for concealing the truth.
At that time, noticing that the story was becoming increasingly one-sided, the U.S. Navy Research Agency hurriedly stepped forward to prove that the rumors about the experiment were false. To address the questions, they also specially compiled documents containing factual information. Among them, from a temporal perspective, the Philadelphia Experiment could not exist.
The destroyer USS Eldridge was not in Philadelphia on October 28, 1943. They even published a logbook for that day to dispel the rumors.
Even more absurdly, the Naval Research Institute had no involvement in the Philadelphia Experiment, as the institute was actually established in 1946, which does not align with the timeline of the rumored experiment. Both the soft and hard technologies of humanity at that time could not meet the requirements of the Philadelphia Experiment. This ridiculous story and urban legend gradually came to an end.
However, this official clarification statement is very limited. So what about Jessup’s suicide in 1959? It led some people to believe it was a conspiracy to silence him. In reality, investigations revealed that Jessup’s suicide was due to disappointment in his writing career, which had led him to severe depression. He had also expressed to friends multiple times that he no longer wanted to live.
