This book began in earnest in the late 1970s, and has continued unabated until this point in 1996. Along the way, there were many individuals and institutions that helped me in my research. The first person to thank is my former partner in the field of consciousness research, Howard Smukler, who gave me the O’Neill book in 1976 along with the nutty text Wall of Light: Nikola Tesla and the Venusian Space Ship. Shortly thereafter, in 1977, I wrote my first article on the inventor. The second major hurdle was accomplished in 1979, after spending two years poring through the microfilm letters between Tesla and J. Pierpont Morgan, George Westinghouse, George Scherff, and Robert Underwood Johnson, which were obtained from the Library of Congress by Roberta Doren of the Interlibrary Loan Department at the University of Rhode Island (URI). After Roberta transferred to a different division, Vernice (Vicky) Burnett took over helping me, and she continued to do so unabated for another dozen years. I would like to thank Vicky for her resourcefulness and extraordinary efforts, and the rest of the staff at the URI library.
In 1980, I began a doctoral program at Saybrook Institute, San Francisco. The work resulted in a 725-page doctoral dissertation entitled Nikola Tesla: Psychohistory of a Forgotten Inventor. Stanley Krippner was not only my mentor; he was also a keen editor who corrected and criticized the entire treatise. It was a mammoth undertaking for him, and I am most appreciative. Other Saybrook committee members I wish to thank include Henry Alker, Octave Baker, Jurgen Kramer, Debra White, and the outside reader William Braud of the Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio, Texas. The dissertation was completed in 1986.
In 1987, I began to work full-time on a full-blown biography. Many entirely new avenues were revealed not covered in the doctoral dissertation. A number of key individuals, particularly Tesla experts, helped me enormously. From the start, Mike Markovitch of Long Island University provided me with important source material and translations; William Terbo, Tesla’s grandnephew, spent endless hours over many years with me discussing various details. In Belgrade, Alexander Marincic, director of the Tesla Museum and, in particular, his assistant, Branimir (Branko) Jovanovic, aided me in vital ways. And in the United States, I must also thank heartily Dr. Ljubo Vujovic, Jim and Ken Corum, and the patriarch of Tesla experts, Leland Anderson, whose cache of material, which, like the documents provided by the Tesla Museum, was indispensable in creating this treatise.
Other experts who helped include John Ratzlaff, of the original Tesla Book Company, John Pettibone of Hammond Castle, Paul Baker, Nick Basura, Tom Bearden, Ralph Bergstresser, Zoran Bobic, Nancy Czito, Steve Elswick, Uri Geller, Elmer Gertz, Robert Golka, Toby Grotz, James Hardetsky, Mrs. R. U. Johnson, Jr., John Karanfilovsky, Nicholas Kosanovich, John Langdon, J. W. McGinnis, Sanford Neuschatz, Nicholas Pribic, Dr. Andrija Puharich, Sid Romero, Lynn Sevigny, Richard Vangermeersch, J. T. Walsh, Tad Wise, and Japanese inventor extraordinaire Dr. Yoshiro NakaMats. Through their works, Hugo Gernsback, Kenneth Swezey, Inez Hunt and Wanetta Draper, Herbert Satterlee, and particularly Matthew Josephson and John O’Neill.
Important institutions included the Berkeley, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Brown, and Yale University libraries, archives from the University of Prague, Columbia University Butler and Avery libraries, the New York Public Library and New York Historical Society, the Edison Menlo Park Archives, the J. Pierpont Morgan Library, Hammond Castle, the Westinghouse Corporation Archives, Hugo Gernsback Publications, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian Institution, the FBI, the OAP and the instrument known as the Freedom of Information Act.
I would also like to thank my close friend Elliott Shriftman for his wisdom, great generosity, and continuing encouragement; the late Prof. Edwin Gora for his understanding of Tesla’s link to theoretical physics, Roger Pearson, former dean of Providence College School of Continuing Education; and Raymond LaVertue, of Bristol Community College, for helping me put bread on my table; my sagacious agent John White, who has been with the project for over ten years; Allan Wilson (for believing in me) and Donald Davidson of Carol Publishing Group; and my loyal and altruistic partner in the screenplay Tesla: The Lost Wizard, Tim Eaton, visual effects editor for Industrial Light & Magic of Marin County.
The treatise is dedicated to my parents, Thelma and Stanley Seifer, my sister Meri Shardin, her husband, John Keithley and their children, Devin and Dara; my brother, Bruce Seifer, and his wife, Julie Davis; and my wonderful and understanding spouse, Lois Mary Pazienza, who has been with me throughout the entire twenty-year project.
This book is also dedicated to the Teslarians, who seek the truth from the past and a sane, ecologically minded technology for the future.