The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility

by Charles Berlitz

  Ivan Sanderson, one of Jessup's closest friends, was moved to comment some years later that it was the consensus of several of Jessup's friends and associates who had once gotten together to discuss the matter that the bizarre events surrounding the 'Allende case' were directly responsible for triggering the 'chain of events' which ultimately led to Jessup's death. In Uninvited Visitors, he described Jessup as 'an ebullient enthusiast... almost too enthusiastic and confident of his theories' prior to receiving the letters. After that, 'he seemed to suddenly doubt everything.' Sanderson went on:

  'He told us in his last meeting that he frankly just could not "think cosmically," explaining that the concepts put forward by Allende in his letters and the annotations in the book were beyond his comprehension but set at naught all he thought he had gained in knowledge of what he had always considered was a fairly straightforward and more or less "insulated" business - namely, the UFOs.'

  While Sanderson pictured Jessup as being 'completely mystified' by the entire Allende affair, he agreed with Jessup's analysis that there seemed to be 'too much in these letters to ignore them wholly.' 'UFOlogy.' wrote Sanderson, 'is a truly funny business. It cannot be all bunkum; yet some of its implications are so bizarre as to be almost beyond comprehension.' Summing it all up, he concluded that he felt the mystery of the Allende affair 'more worthy of further investigation than any other T have come across.'

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SOME CLUES AND A FEW CONJECTURES

  Did the so-called Philadelphia Experiment really happen? During the years since Jessup's death the controversy has continued to rage, occasionally enhanced by bits of new evidence, but with the basic mystery remaining unsolved. Certainly a story of such strange and bizarre proportions would not just fade away regardless of circumstances. But with the passing of the man who was the obvious central figure in the affair up to this point, the perplexing matter of the Allende letters proceeded quite rapidly (and quite predictably, I suppose) to become something of a legend.

  The story seems to have been kept alive by an at first very small but gradually expanding group of believers who, upon examination, seem to fit quite nicely into two different categories: They either had been personally acquainted with Dr Jessup during his life and hence had some firsthand knowledge of the letters and the events surrounding them, or they knew someone in the former category who had discussed the story with them. In any event, interest has continued unabated right up to the present day, generally centring around what possible clues, if indeed any, these letters and the events surrounding them might be able to provide with respect to the existence and effect of hitherto supposedly unknown and untapped forms of energy. While Sherby and Hoover's initial involvement seems to have stemmed from their interest in uncovering possible clues to the secrets of antigravity and UFO propulsion, interest has continued over the years for a whole variety of reasons, ranging all the way from simple curiosity to theoretical physics.

  Einstein's Unified Field Theory is even today a misty and little-understood concept. The mysteries that may eventually be unlocked by some future application of that theory could well be more staggering to the world than was the development of atomic power from E=mc2. Those who read Allende's letters and did not reject them out of hand as mere rubbish or the ravings of a psychopath - in short, those who took the trouble to question whether there might possibly be some element of truth in them - found their minds whirling with speculations about a host of unfathomable subjects. If in fact the Navy did somehow succeed, either by accident or design, in creating force-field invisibility -or even teleportation (the instantaneous transfer of solid objects from one place to another) - then, for example, might not the results of such experiments also offer some clues towards explaining the strange series of events and disappearances that seem to plague the area popularly known as the Bermuda Triangle where electromagnetic clouds seem to herald the disappearances of planes and ships? Is there a possibility that these craft, stuck in time and oblivious to the passing of time, continue to travel to a destination they will never reach? Did the experiment perhaps provide evidence of the existence of other dimensions in time and space? Did it reveal clues to a new and cheap way of travel or energy production, not to mention the fact that in such a fantastic discovery might lie the key to the ultimate secret weapon? The possibilities are both endless and staggering!

  But are the letters authentic? For if they are not - if they have not even the slightest basis in fact - then they are obviously keys to nothing at all, and all of the hoopla which has been associated with them for the past two decades means nothing.

  There seem to be, then, three possibilities: (1) The ship experiment, the Allende letters, and consequently Allende himself are nothing but fakes and frauds and as a consequence should be completely discounted. (2) The letters are a true account of a real event. (3) They are an exaggerated, distorted, and highly sensationalized account of a real event and hence do have some foundation in fact but are only partially true.

  If we select option (1), then not only have we closed our minds without proper examination of the evidence, but there is no further need to continue investigating the matter. And if we select either of the other two options, it seems only reasonable and proper to expect that we do so out of reasons based on fact rather than opinion. In spite of the all too frequent initial reaction (even Jessup himself was guilty of it) that this matter is 'just too fantastic to believe,' the more one tends to think about it, the more it fixes itself within one's mind. While the impulse to dismiss the whole thing as nothing but a hoax (a cruel hoax indeed, for it was fatal for Dr Jessup) is admittedly illogical, it is at least the most convenient route that one can take out of the affair. For to do otherwise is quickly to discover that this story has a peculiar way of returning to haunt one; of reaching out to ensnare the investigator in a net: Either prove it, or lay it to rest - but do something with it. The merely curious remain interested; the dedicated are trapped.

  And so, what began innocently enough as a serious effort to try to disprove the whole thing has blossomed into the book you are now reading. The more one tried to discount the story, the more one found oneself confronted by evidence that seemed to support it.

  Exactly why or how the ship experiment outlined in the Allende letters came to be called the Philadelphia Experiment is not exactly known, although it is certain that the designation is definitely not an official one. As far as is known there has never been a military undertaking of any sort which used that project title. It is more likely that the name arose out of the need of one or more of the early researchers into the matter to call it something; and since at least a portion of the project allegedly took place at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, it seemed only appropriate to refer to the entire affair as the Philadelphia Experiment. In any event the name stuck, and we might as well continue to use it.

  Perhaps what is indicated at this point is a concise summary of the matter we are dealing with, After all, these letters when properly examined do indeed contain a variety of clues in their own right; and these clues set apart by themselves, constitute quite a body around which an investigation can be constructed. Research should always start with the basic available information.

  Here then is a synopsis of the two surviving Allende letters, including those points which can justifiably be viewed as a basis from which to begin any serious investigation into the matter.

  According to Carlos Miguel Allende:

  1. Dr Albert Einstein's Unified Field Theory was in fact completed in 1925-27, but Dr Einstein withdrew it because he was allegedly 'horrified' by the possible uses it might be put to by a mankind not yet ready for it. This, according to Allende, could be confirmed by 'Dr B. Russell.'

  (This item constitutes no small matter in itself, for any proper examination of such a statement with an eye toward possible substantiation would seem to require not

  only a discussion of what the Unified Field Theory is all about, but a reasonably close look into th
e life and personality of Dr Einstein as well.)

  2. During World War II, the concepts of the Unified Field Theory were tested by the Navy 'with a view to any and every possible quick use of it, if feasible, in a very short time.' Someone called Dr. Franklin Reno, a man Allende refers to as 'my friend,' allegedly had something to do with producing 'results' at this stage of the game.

  3. The 'results' thus produced were used to achieve 'complete invisibility of a ship, destroyer type, and all of its crew, while at sea (Oct. 1943)' by means of some sort of energy or force field which had been created around the ship. The men on the ship were apparently able to see one another vaguely, but all that could be seen by anyone outside of the field was 'the clearly defined shape of the ship's hull in the water.' The effects of this invisibility-creating force field upon the men involved was, according to Allende, 'disastrous.' The experiment, he says, was a complete success, but the men were complete failures.

  4. There was a special berth for the experimental ship at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.

  5. A small item once appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper which would verify the tale. This supposedly described the 'sailors' activities after their initial voyage' when they 'raided' a local bar, allegedly the 'Seamen's Lounge,' and where they presumably were either still exhibiting the effects of the field, or proceeded to discuss the experiment in such graphic terms that it terrified the waitresses. One is left to assume that the Shore Patrol was called and that some reporter picked up the story and wrote it up without quite believing it.

  6. Allende himself claims to have observed at least portions of this experiment while at sea on board the Liberty Ship S.S. Andrew Furuseth, a Matson Lines ship out of Norfolk. This was sometime in October 1943. According to Allende, other men who were on deck at the time and witnessed the tests were: Chief Mate Mowsely, Richard 'Splicey' Price, an eighteen- or nineteen-year-old sailor from Roanoke, Virginia, a man named 'Connally' from New England (possibly Boston).

  7. Rear Admiral Rawson Bennett, Navy Chief of Research, could supposedly verify that the experiment had in fact occurred.

  8. The experimental ship also somehow mysteriously disappeared from its Philadelphia dock and showed up only minutes later in the Norfolk area. It then subsequently vanished again only to reappear at its Philadelphia dock. Total elapsed time - a matter of minutes. Allende says he only heard about this phase of it, and that this may have been as late as 1946 'after the experiments were discontinued.'

  9. Allende indicates that the Office of Naval Research was under the direction of 'the present [at the time of the letter - 1956] boss of the Navy, Burke' at the time that the force-field experiments were conducted, and that it was because of his

  'curiosity and willingness and prompting that this experiment was enabled to be carried out.' This Burke is described by Allende as a man who possessed a very positive attitude towards research.

  10. Finally, in addition to his then current address, Allende also supplies Jessup with the following data about himself: his presumed merchant sailor's Z number, Z416175; the fact that he served on the S.S. Andrew Furuseth for some six months; and that he considers himself as 'something of a dialectician' and 'stargazer' and that he travels a great deal 'around the country.'

  Obviously the reasearch needed to run down and substantiate all of those items not only constitutes a considerable undertaking, but is equally predicated on the successful discovery of substantial additional information as well as the willing, if not outright friendly, cooperation of quite a large numbers of people along the way.

  Did the Philadelphia Experiment really happen the way Allende says it did? And if so, what are the implications with regard to the discovery and utilization of as yet undreamed-of forms of energy - energy of a type and form which, as Allende suggests, might well be the power source utilized by those strange aerial objects which we refer to as UFOs?

  Worthy of recall at this point are Allende's closing remarks at the end of the third letter with respect to this subject : 'Perhaps the Navy has used this accident of transport to build your UFOs. It is a logical advance from any standpoint.'

  Logical? Possibly; but before we can begin to offer possible answers to this question, we should first turn our attention to the character who seems at this point to be squarely in the centre of this entire mysterious affair Senor Carlos Miguel Allende.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  THE MYSTERIOUS SEKOR ALLENDE

  Although numerous attempts have been made by other researchers over the years to solve the mystery posed by the Allende letters, virtually all of them have stopped short of producing any evidence of real value because of their inability to produce the key to the whole affair: the elusive Carlos Allende himself. It was generally assumed that since Allende had written the letters, the only way to solve the mystery was to find him and add his firsthand testimony to the record. Failure to ferret out this witness resulted in an endless set of conjectures, but little else.

  The problem was further complicated by several 'fake' Allendes who surfaced during the 1960s offering to 'sell the story' if the price was right. One of these even went so far as to have his letters postmarked in New Kensington - the real Allende's supposed hometown. Fortunately, not one of the prospective buyers was convinced. Some even doubted that there was a real Carlos, and asserted that the whole thing was really a plot cooked up by Naval Intelligence to discredit private UFO research -an interesting hypothesis, but one which is unsupported by the complex facts of the matter.

  The problems encountered in trying to locate Allende were considerable. Laborious and time-consuming checks of telephone directories in various cities and rural areas, checks of military, naval and merchant marine records, police and newspaper files, obituaries, and queries to writers and researchers of unexplained phenomena were unsuccessful, until an unusual coincidence provided the answer.

  It came through Jim Lorenzen, one of the first persons contacted. Lorenzen, who is the director of the Ariel Phenomenon Research Organization (A.P.R.O.) in Tucson, Arizona, said that the A.P.R.O. Journal had carried a story on Allende in 1969 after a man claiming to be Allende had turned up at A.P.R.O. headquarters and had made certain 'confessions' (later repudiated) during an interview concerning his allegations about the Philadelphia Experiment. Lorenzen was kind enough to send a copy of a photograph he had taken of Allende during the interview, but was unable to provide anything beyond that because he hadn't heard from Allende since and had no address. But about a month later Moore again got in touch with Lorenzen on a different matter. Jim's answer was several weeks in arriving, but when it came, attached to the bottom of it as a sort of P.S. was the unexpected phrase: 'In today's mail came a letter from C.A.' followed by an address. Although the address was not Allende's, the trail it provided was now fresh enough to follow, and eventually contact was made.

  While finding Allende was certainly a step in the right direction in researching the 'Philadelphia Experiment', getting anything concrete out of him on that topic was quite another problem. Although maintaining contact with the man who calls himself Carlos Allende has produced voluminous correspondence, several lengthy telephone conversations and a couple of face-to-face meetings, it is still virtually impossible to say very much about him with any great degree of certainty.

  Allende is about six feet tall, balding, spare of frame and usually somewhat shabbily dressed. His eyes often show suspicion, but he occasionally smiles gently. He is given to rambling monologues about his thoughts on many topics besides the Philadelphia Experiment. When he does talk about the Philadelphia Experiment, he often appears to be keeping something back or avoiding a direct answer. When pressed for information, he will change the subject. He will make appointments then not show up, or will appear unannounced.

  Just who is Allende really? Aside from the fact that he is known to use no fewer than five different aliases, he certainly seems to be the same person who corresponded with Dr Jessup. Not only is his peculiar style of writing sim
ilar to that found in the Allende Letters, but he still has what he says is one of the original postcards written to him by Dr Jessup in 1956. Anything else about him however is open to conjecture; and in actuality there seem to be at least two very distinct possibilities concerning his real identity.

  The first of these, based on information coming mostly from Carlos Allende himself, has it that he was born 'Carl Allen,' the youngest of three children of an

  Irish father and a gypsy mother, on May 31, 1925 on a farm outside of a small Pennsylvania town (not New Kensington). Of his early life not much is known save that the family lived on a small farm and that young Carlos (or Carl) quit school 'in his ninth year.' We are told he was a moody or rather restless youngster who liked to lose himself in books.