The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 29: Tesla's technology to talk to spirits of the dead

Episode Date: June 26, 2022

GHOST PHONE vs SPIRIT RADIO.  Edison versus Tesla. One of history's greatest rivalries. They would never admit it but as different as these men were, they also had many similarities. For instance, they also both dabbled in paranormal technology.   Nikola Tesla was convinced he could invent a device to communicate with the spirit world. And Thomas Edison was convinced he could get there first.   Let's find out why. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thewhyfiles/support

You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth. While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish.

Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer. Do you have a phone? Of course

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You don't want to support your kids? What are you, my wife's lawyer now? Never mind. And I don't know if you noticed, but all Y-Files episodes are video, too. And there's a ton of other features, but you... But we can't be here all day. Will you settle down? I need you to hurry up with this stupid commercial.

I got a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for Podcasters. It's free, no catch, and a packed calendar today. I'm sorry about him. Anyway, check out Spotify for podcasters. It's free, no catch, and you could start today. Are we done? We're done, but you need to check your attitude. Excuse me, but I don't have all day to sit here and talk about Spotify. This would go a lot faster if you would just let me get through it. Edison versus Tesla, one of history's greatest rivalries. Now, they would never admit it, but as different as these men were, they also had many similarities.

For instance, both were obsessive, workaholic, egomaniacal geniuses. They also both dabbled in paranormal technology. Wait, wait, wait, what? Well, Nikola Tesla was convinced he could invent a device to communicate with the spirit world. And Thomas Edison was convinced he could get there first. Oh, this is going to be a good one. In 1882, Tesla was a promising young engineer working for Edison. As time went on, the differences between them became a problem.

Edison liked hands-on experiments. Tesla preferred working out inventions on paper before picking up any tools. Tesla was meticulous and tidy. Edison was a notorious slob. Well, finally, Tesla went out on his own and quickly made a name for himself. And the Tesla-Edison conflict was global news in the late 19th century with the War of Currents. And Tesla's more versatile alternating current eventually beat Edison's direct current. And this was Tesla's biggest victory over his former boss,

and one that Edison would never forgive or forget. So when Tesla claimed he invented a device that could tune into the spirit world, Edison wanted in on the action. And Tesla called his device a spirit radio. Edison's was called a ghost phone. But what I found most interesting about the story is, why did two of history's most famous scientists think that talking to ghosts was even possible? Well, because science.

So why would famous scientists be interested in contacting ghosts or even think such a thing is possible? Well, in the early 20th century, psychics, mediums and seances were very fashionable. It was actually pretty mainstream to think that it might be possible to communicate with the dead. Edison was initially skeptical of the paranormal. And when he learned Tesla was building a radio to listen to spirits, he dismissed them. But then Tesla started grabbing headlines and patents. Now, this was something Edison could not abide, so he got to work on his own machine. One night in 1920 at his Menlo Park, New Jersey lab, Thomas Edison gathered a group of

scientists and friends to witness his latest experiment, a project he had been working on in secret. As the audience watched, they heard the quiet hum of an electric current, then from a device that looked kind of like a motion picture projector, shot a beam of light into a photoelectric cell. Edison explained that this light would register any disturbance that crossed through it, no matter how small, and no matter whether it was visible or not. And this disturbance would be detected using a finely calibrated meter. Now, at this point, Edison's guests had no idea what he was talking about. But then he finally said, I have been thinking for some time of a machine or apparatus which

could be operated by personalities which have passed on to another existence or sphere. He claimed to have invented a device which would allow the dead to communicate with the living, and he called it the ghost phone. The ghost phone? Yes, the ghost phone. Talk about a long-distance call. Please, no one-liners when I'm building suspense. Okay, sorry, sorry. Go ahead, Dr. Venkman. Now, along with the scientists in the room that night were psychics and mediums who used objects like Ouija boards to speak to souls of the dead. Edison argued that most spiritualists were fakes. But tonight he was making an exception.

Tonight he needed them to prove that they can do what they claimed, summon spirits. And those spirits would register on the device and prove that the ghost phone worked. So the lights were turned off, candles were lit, and a seance had begun. And it was time for the psychics to go to work. It was time for the ghosts to come home. You searched for your informant, who disappeared without a trace. You knew there were witnesses, but lips were sealed. You swept the city, driving closer to the truth.

While curled up on the couch with your cat. There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover heart-pounding thrillers on Audible. You sailed beyond the horizon. In search of an island, scrubbed from every map. You battled krakens and navigated through storms. Your spade struck the lid of a long-lost treasure chest. While you cooked a lasagna.

There's more to imagine when you listen. Discover best-selling adventure stories on Audible. They're here. As the seance progressed, the scientists kept their eyes fixed upon the needle on the meter, waiting to see if something, anything would meter, waiting to see if something, anything would register, waiting to see if there were spirits present. So the mediums said ghosts were there, but the needle didn't move. So were the powers of the psychics not strong enough?

Was Edison's device not sensitive enough? Were spirits even present? I mean, after a few hours, Edison thanked everyone, sent them home and went back to work. Now, remember, he saw every failure as an opportunity to learn. So he kept experimenting and refining the ghost phone. Now, unfortunately, Edison died a few years later, but he insisted that in time he could get the ghost phone to work. But strangely, his estate deleted all mention of the ghost phone from his research, his notes, and his personal diary. We know he was working on a ghost phone because he's been quoted in major newspapers talking about it. But nobody really knows what happened to the research.

So Edison didn't get this to work? No. Oh. But Tesla did. Ho, ho! Late one night, about 20 years before Edison's ghost phone demo, Nikola Tesla was in his lab building a radio. Now, without it being connected to any power or energy source, he started hearing sounds that frightened him. He said,

The sounds appeared to be human voices conversing back and forth in a language I cannot understand. But I was alone in my laboratory at night. Now, what made this extra spooky for Tesla is that he was building a crystal radio. Now, crystal radio is a type of receiver that doesn't use any external power, no electricity at all. The only power it uses is what's generated from the electromagnetic waves that it receives. So Tesla was picking up these sounds literally from thin air. Now, Tesla knew that every human being creates electricity and anything that creates electricity creates an electromagnetic field that using the proper equipment can be tuned into.

Now, Tesla also agreed with Einstein that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another. So if a human being's soul is electromagnetic energy that cannot be destroyed, when someone dies, that energy should still be around. Ooh, this is giving me chills. Tesla felt that if he could just find the right frequency, he could create a radio to listen to these disembodied spirits. So felt that if he could just find the right frequency, he could create a radio to listen to these disembodied spirits.

So that's what he did. And today we're going to hear what Tesla heard. We're going to hear ghosts. Well, I don't know if they're ghosts, but what Tesla heard, it scared the hell out of him. Hey, want to play hide and clap? Remember we said that Edison was an experimenter and Tesla was a documenter? Edison was just tinkering the lab for hours, failing over and over until he just brute forced his way to progress.

And when you think about the famous quotes attributed to Edison, you get a good understanding of the man. Like, I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work. Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Brute force. Tesla was different. Tesla was an introvert who lived much of his time in his own mind. Now, before he jumped into the lab, he would spend countless hours working out the math and the physics of an idea on paper,

still not turning a wrench. When he was finally satisfied that his idea would work, he'd document it and he'd file a patent. Now, long before Edison's ghost phone demo in 1920, Tesla filed patents for the technology used in his spirit radio. And because there are patents, it can be built. And if it can be built, someone on the internet has built it.

You can build a ghost radio? Yep. And it's not expensive. I'll put links in the description. So now, let's listen to the Tesla Spirit Radio. Well, I just wet my bowl. Are they ghosts? Now, ghost hunters say yes. In fact, the technology they use to listen to spirits is the same technology that Tesla used.

So let's see how that works. Within the ghost hunting community, electronic voice phenomena, or EVP, is the recording of voices onto electronic equipment. A newer term for the phenomenon is ITC or instrumental transcommunication. Now, voices are rarely heard during recording, only during playback, and they usually have to be analyzed and enhanced. I hear a woman's voice. Now. Ma. voice. Now, ma. Sometimes the voices seem to be speaking to themselves or nobody specific, but sometimes they answer direct questions.

So if ghosts are electromagnetic energy, then it's perfectly logical and scientifically sound that they could be heard in a recording. Now, maybe the EVP are electromagnetic disturbances that are layered onto radio waves that can be picked up by a receiver. Or maybe the spirit's electromagnetic energy kind of piggybacks onto the EM field generated by the electricity of the recording device. A tape recorder, camcorder, cell phone, or whatever. If you're here, can you tell us your name, please? Hello? Are these sounds ghosts? Well, that's up to you to decide.

Skeptics consider EVP auditory pareidolia, which is interpreting random sounds as voices, or as apophenia, which is perceiving patterns in random information. What makes EVP and really anything paranormal fun is whether you believe in ghosts or you don't believe in ghosts. Either way, you can't prove it. And what do you think about EVPs? Are these real? Now, if you want a more detailed video explaining EVPs and electromagnetism, let me know in the comments. There's a whole video waiting to be born. So why were two of history's most prolific scientists so obsessed with creating a device to communicate with the other side?

Well, during that time, the Spanish flu was raging and that pandemic was far worse than anything we've experienced the past couple of years, far worse. And the world was far worse than anything we've experienced the past couple of years. Far worse. And the world was still dealing with the pain and loss of World War I. So death was everywhere. It was affecting everyone. And no matter how logical or scientific or pragmatic you are, when personal tragedy strikes, your feelings on the paranormal may change. Have you ever suddenly lost someone close to you? I have. They say that time heals all wounds, but when you lose a child or a parent or a brother, sister, a best friend, that pain never really heals. And regardless of whether you believe in ghosts or not,

it doesn't really matter. But be honest, what would you do? What would you give just for one last conversation with that person to say, I miss you, to say, I love you, to say, I'm sorry, me, I would give anything for one last chance. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. That's Hecklefish. This has been the Y Files. If you had fun or learned anything today, do me a favor and like subscribe, comment and share.

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