The Age of Enlightenment
From the late 1870s breaking into the 20th Century, the world was ecstatic with philosophical furore. The diminishing importance of the Draconian pulpit from whose iron-fist, Papal decree became the commandment sacrum of Europe, meant that free-thinkers suddenly became vocal exponents of the out-moded status quo.
Writers of incontrovertible renown such as Voltaire, Friedrich Nietzsche, Immanuel Kant, and Karl Marx were able to express their ideas without afterthought – though their quills were often the purveyors of controversy. Meanwhile, provocateurs such as Gandhi and Emmeline Pankhurst took their dissatisfaction to the streets in the picket line, igniting fires one revolution at a time.
These great minds laid the monumental foundations upon which modern secular democracies are built; civic justice, freedom of speech, social equity irrespective of caste or gender; new streams of thought including rationality, self-actualization, and metaphysics among others.
Nikola Tesla
On June 6th 1884 Nikola Tesla arrived in New York City; a young Serbian emigrés in a cosmopolis teeming with ingenuity and untapered promethean insight. A prospective electro-physicist fascinated by a new wave of current induced circuitry, Tesla fell under the scrutiny of Thomas Edison, whose intent stood to harness raw energetic impulses within the incandescent lightbulb.
Direct Current – the brainchild of Edison emitted volta perpetua – a stream of constant electricity, while Tesla advocated a fluid model whereby current was impressed by flux in wavelength. In the present this could synergize with research in the field of Solfreggio Harmonics – how sound influences matter from around the point of origin. The rudimentary direct current starkly restricted the free flow of ionized particles, resulting in a loss of charge. Thus making alternative current the most timely and proficient method of electronic production.
Precedent to his employ, Tesla had spent two fantastical semesters at Gratz Polytechnic, Austria during which time his insatiable genius skyrocketed causing him to plummet and burn out – though not before refuting claims by Prof. Poeschl that an A.C. motor was impossible.
After 4 years of mental breakdowns, feigned death and a gambling addiction, Tesla had a Eureka moment and discovered that by replacing the core of the motor with copper and lining the outer rotary cylinder with 2 magnets the generator acted on self-propelled centrifugal force.†
“To create and to annihilate material substance, cause it to aggregate in forms according to his desire, would be the supreme manifestation of the power of Man’s mind – his most complete triumph over the physical world; his crowning achievement, which would place him beside his Creator, make him fulfill his Ultimate Destiny.”
— Nikola Tesla, 1888
***
The World’s Columbian Exposition Chicago Fair 1893
‘The crowds were astonished. They beheld what was for them an amazing revelation of the architectural art, of which previously they in comparison had known nothing. To them it was a veritable Apocalypse, a message inspired from on high. Upon it their imagination shaped new ideals. each of them permeated by the most subtle and slow-acting of poisons; an imperceptible miasm within the white shadow of a higher culture’ – Louis Sullivan 1924
The plazas and of Midway Plaisance were a sight to behold in and of their own glistening splendour; a rare happenstance where the crowd-bustled routes sang with the awe of families and friends stunned to silence by the marvellous circus, raucous and wild. A fête Golden Lady chimed proudly to in the Windy City. Attendance broke records and surpassed expectations numbering between a 750,000 and 23,000,000!
Amid the lofters and craftsmen of various colour and creed, were exhibits of folks high in esteem and as idiosyncratic as the human race; Hamaseloq chief of the ‘cannibal’ dancing band of the Quackuhls a native American tribe from Vancouver island; B. Romulus Perera a Christian of Ceylon, whose name would indicate ‘the
Astonishing Chicago – a city where they are always rubbing the lamp, and fetching up the genie, and contriving and achieving new impossibilities. It is hopeless for the occasional visitor to try to keep up with Chicago – she outgrows her prophecies faster then she can make them. She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you
saw when you passed through the last time.
art of parting’ has not been assimilated into Cingalese culture; Mirah Mahmoud a Pebthan Seal engraver of Tehran; “Chinese” Gordon a partying socialite from Khartoum ‘is simply a plain warrior without, a record who dances, and for nickel which may be tossed; to him. But he is a Soudanese of the Soudanese and in him will be seen the heart of Africa’; “Far Away Moses” of Israel ‘reserves his as when Mark Twain dickered with him in the marts of Constantinople.’ In total, the Chicago Tribune noted ambassadors of over at least 25 different ethnic groups.
Aside from the shrill heart-impounding exhilaration of festive chants, and jeers of spectators swept by the sometimes exotic, and swashbuckling perfomers – which took on a dizzying sensationalism in Buffalo Bill’s impromptu arena – the avant-garde conceptualism sponsored by the Bohemian patrons-dès-artes was the main feature.
Eminent mystic Swamiji Vivekananda – a hindu monk whose scholarly forté lay in Metaphysics, Dualism and Universalism (Panentheism) and echoed words of humanitarian brotherhood and optimistic gesticulations toward human progress. Meanwhile the Electrical Wizard captivated hearts with illusions of a mad scientist.
– Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, 1888
Chicago World’s Fair 1893 lights at night
“there are some people who are letting the chance of seeing this White City, that rose like a Venus from the waters of Lake Michigan, slip from them forever.
They are missing the greatest event in the history of the country since the Civil War”
– Richard Harding Davis
Oracle of A New Dawn
— Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration.
I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.
I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation.” — Swami Vivekananda
Swamiji, Man In The Robe
Prior to becoming a member at the Parliament of World Religions, Narendranath Datta discovered his devotion to the Hindu scriptures in 1884, becoming a monk thereafter. Within a year, Datta founded the Monastic Order of Ramakrishna in honour of the mentor who attracted him to a life in service, who sadly died earlier that year.
Upon receiving his spiritual name thence, Vivekananda toured India as a Parivrâjaka; for 5 years the wandering monk survived with just the clothes on his back and the generosity of strangers, watching the livelihoods of his kinsfolk in despair and admiration; learnt their habits and heard their dreams.
In spite of his personal adventures, it was his theories which were moving mountains at the time of his accession. As a proponent of Dvaita Vedanta and Transcendentalism, Vivekananda – whose namesake meant “the bliss of discerning wisdom” certainly lived up to his reputation.
“Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.”
Dvaita Vedanta is the core belief that the soul of the individual is distinct from Brahma (God), in some ways this prescribes to the notion that a ‘god consciousness’ can be achieved – such as the case of the Krishna Consciousness movement.
This is almost a natural evolution of transcendentalism owing to a principle of spiritual self-endowment – taking responsibility for the soul’s fate apposite to awaiting saviour. The Transcendent Movement then is receiving higher knowledge through meditation, which can overlap into psychic attunement and parapsychological Ayurvedism.
However the incentive to selecting Vivekananda came from his delving in Theosophy and Western Esotericism beginning in 1884 after initiating as a Freemason, after which time he toured Japan leading up to the World Fair in 1893.
The Electrical Wizard, Scalar Energy 1893-1900
Artistic representation of Tesla’s demonstration
At the grand opening ceremony of the Chicago World Fair 1893, Nikola Tesla stood an icon unto the world – the last Titan whose rebellion against the Old Gods of inhibition, greed and cynicism and admonished the paradigm of human limitation. He tamed the forks of lightning that pulsated through his body; as a sceptre of linfa vitale inexorable, with the blinding glint of Zeus’ bolt.
The poster-boy of alternating current it would seem had won the race to power the festival, after a hard won victory during the War of Currents – when former employer Edison tried to sabotage Tesla’s technological superiority in a series of immoral stunts aimed discrediting his work.
‘I am unwilling to accord to some small−minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it.’ — On J. Pierpont
The spunky electro-physicist ran short of realizing his true dream however, having invented an oscillating ‘brush’ earlier that year – conducive to electricity and receptive to magnetic fields. An excerpt from Tesla’s ‘The Problem of Increasing Human Energy…’ states:
‘I delivered before some scientific societies abroad… a “rotating brush”… This light-bundle is rapidly rotated by the earth’s magnetism as many as twenty thousand times pre second, the rotation in these parts being opposite to what it would be in the southern hemisphere, while in the region of the magnetic equator it should not rotate at all.
contrary to the established opinion, low and easily accessible strata of the atmosphere are capable of conducting electricity, the transmission of electrical energy without wires has become a rational task of the engineer, and one surpassing all others in importance.
Its practical consummation would mean that energy would be available for the uses of man at any point of the globe, not in small amounts such as might be derived from the ambient medium by suitable machinery, but in quantities virtually unlimited, from waterfalls’
‘through a discovery which I made I obtained absolute certitude. Popularly explained, it is exactly this: When we raise the voice and hear an echo in reply, we know that the sound of the voice must have reached a distant wall, or boundary, and must have been reflected from the same.
Exactly as the sound, so an electrical wave is reflected, and the same evidence which is afforded by an echo is offered by an electrical phenomenon known as a “stationary” wave—that is, a wave with fixed nodal and ventral regions. Instead of sending sound-vibrations toward a distant wall, I have sent electrical vibrations toward the remote boundaries of the earth, and instead of the wall the earth has replied. In place of an echo I have obtained a stationary electrical wave, a wave reflected from afar.’
we may send over the earth a wave of electricity traveling at any rate we desire, from the pace of a turtle up to lightning speed.
Wardenclyffe Tower Project
Having established a means of wireless electronic transmission, Tesla dreamt of providing his free and renewable energy power production to the world. The prolific inventor envisioned a city where everything was micromanaged remotely in a high frequency band – in short a Utopian ‘Radio City’.
In this light, a telemagnetic grid where pulsars are beamed to magnetic identifiers, would effectively operate all telecommunications -and digitized economy (Media, Entertainment) as well as illuminating the planet – as Tesla had dreamt. Although, this society could as easily placate an analogue system if preferential.
In July 1901, Tesla had secured a contract with J Pierpont to build his magnificent tower on Shoreham, Long Island Sound – with it, he was granted 200 acres of land. Furthermore, with New York City just a boat ride away (or train if you’d rather the journey) Tesla anticipated his live-in experiment to become the centre of Western Civilization; his ambition foresaw a wireless transatlantic hub of information exchange. 
The Wardenclyffe Tower was even the subject of controversy in 1899 during the initial prototype phase, when the renowned ‘Mad Scientist’ believed he had inadvertently received broadcast signals from an extraterrestrial civilization at his Colorado laboratory. His letter to the Red Cross excitedly pronounced:
“To the American Red Cross, New York City.
The retrospect is glorious, the prospect is inspiring: Much might be said of both. But one idea dominates my mind. This — my best, my dearest — is for your noble cause.
I have observed electrical actions, which have appeared inexplicable. Faint and uncertain though they were, they have given me a deep conviction and foreknowledge, that ere long all human beings on this globe, as one, will turn their eyes to the firmament above, with feelings of love and reverence, thrilled by the glad news: “Brethren! We have a message from another world, unknown and remote. It reads: one… two… three…”
In a dark twist of fate, Earth was deprived of that ideal – Tesla’s Paradise Lost. Tragically, Wall Street crashed in May 1901 and much chaos ensued; Tesla requested further funds from J P Morgan, Harriman decided to buy out the Northern Pacific Railway resulting in stock price inflation.
In addition, Morgan suffered financially, pulling from the contract and a series of would-be investors were rocked by scandal. Consequently, Tesla fell into bankruptcy and recurring mental illness which forestalled his work – leaving him destitute in disrepute.
Archimedes was my ideal. I admired the works of artists, but to my mind, they were only shadows and semblances. The inventor, I thought, gives to the world creations which are palpable, which live and work.
The Meeting of Minds
It is here that we come full circle; the friendship of Nikola Tesla and Swami Vivekananda – and a refreshingly simple yet serendipitous way to draw a climax to the article. These two prodigal souls chanced an encounter at a shindig hosted by actress Sarah Bernhardt – perhaps in a stunt of self-promotion – where she played the lead in a play called ‘Iziel’. It was a French adaptation of the life of Buddha – though the name certainly begs the question of an Ancient Christian connection to the religious scholar.
As both a transcendentalist and a freemason it was expedient that Vivekananda promulgate the fusion of eastern and western traditions as a beneficent factor of human development. Meanwhile, his divination in search of resolute truths sparked a philosophical inclination towards such minds as Hegel and Spinoza, the latter of whom’s ideology was intrinsically Hindu in outlook.
However it was during a second arranged meeting that the two got talking: “...Mr. Tesla was charmed to hear about the Vedantic Prana and Akasha and the Kalpas, which according to him are the only theories modern science can entertain…..Mr Tesla thinks he can demonstrate that mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go see him next week to get this mathematical demonstration.”
Afterwards, Swamiji realized that “In that case, the Vedantic cosmology [would] be placed on the surest of foundations”. This would bind the theory resonant in Physics and Vedanta that everything vibrates at a given frequency and so creates its own energy. The harmony between Vedantic theories and and western science was explained by the following diagram, thus science and spirituality became one:
The Singularity
BRAHMAN = THE ABSOLUTE
| |
| |
MAHAT OR ISHVARA = PRIMAL CREATIVE ENERGY
| |
+———+ +———+
PRANA and AKASHA = ENERGY and MATTER
Appendix: A.C. Motor Blueprints
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