Can you imagine never having heard of an individual whose influence upon your life is, without exaggeration, incalculable? Why do we rarely hear of the man from whose inventions George Westinghouse amassed a great fortune, whose work was supported by J.P. Morgan, who produced a real earthquake in New York city, who saved Thomas Edison thousands of dollars in a day (and was cheated by Edison of even more money), who refused the Nobel Prize, who made lightning? We’re told who invented the incandescent bulb. But who invented the fluorescent bulb? Who made possible the worldwide distribution of a new type of electricity, generated in a new kind of generator, all conceived and developed without assistance, as a system, and given to humanity for a pittance? Who built and demonstrated the first radio, discovered X-rays prior to Roentgen, invented the telephone speaker and devised the system still used to tune to one specific frequency (station or channel) in radio and television? All these, this unheralded fellow did and a great deal more while harboring a phobia for germs that led to his using 20 napkins at dinner. Omitted from textbooks, his name as well as his extraordinary discoveries and inventions are unknown to most Americans. Thus, we are indebted to Brotherhood of Life Publishing for reprinting a book about this astounding man. Prodigal Genius, the Life of Nikola Tesla, sensitively and intelligently written by John J. O’Neill, was published first in 1944, one year after the death, at age 87, of Nikola Tesla, a man Americans should know much more about.

Mr. O’Neill knew Dr. Tesla well and fathomed the immense significance of his discoveries and inventions. He also understood electricity sufficiently well to facilitate his reader’s comprehension where necessary: appreciating this book is possible without knowledge of electricity. Additionally, Mr. O’Neill imparts Dr. Tesla’s high character, his true individuality, his incredible imagination, his extraordinary inventive method and even his profound humanity, which Tesla himself devoted effort to conceal.

Prodigal Genius presents a dynamic period in America and Europe when great discoveries were being made by the scientists, especially of Europe. Tesla’s work, which began in the field of electricity but ranged broadly beyond it, transcended the work of virtually all the academic scientists. Tesla didn’t just discover a new principle and announce this in a journal article. Rather, he studied the principle until he understood it sufficiently well to invent an apparatus that clearly and effectively demonstrated it. His lectures, given before a variety of scientific organizations were filled with demonstrations that strained the credulity of the attendees, whose "scientific understanding" was exceeded by what they saw, even more powerfully than by what they heard. Tesla regularly brought the experts of the day to the limit of their knowledge. Empiricism and impartiality regularly gave way to denial, ridicule, denigration and eventually copying his discoveries, of course without giving credit.

Even in those days, few scientists were also inventors. But Tesla understood every phase of the actualizing-a-principle process. He kept thoroughly detailed plans in his head. Engineers who deviated from his verbal instructions invariably discovered they should have taken him at his word. By 1896, when Tesla’s generators began producing electricity at Niagara Falls, the efficacy of his original designs was becoming established. However, Tesla’s creative powers were so advanced, the enduring reaction to the more than 100 patented inventions of his was often disbelief. On that account, the world has profited less from his unpredictable discoveries than it might have, had it been ready for Tesla.

Tesla appears to have taken his rollercoaster life in stride. It seemed often sad to me, and sometimes difficult. Mr. O’Neill discusses Tesla as an admirer of Tesla’s powerful intellect, yet he doesn’t dismiss Tesla’s foibles and faults. Nikola Tesla was, truly, a genius of the highest magnitude, and a generous, good man besides. It pains me to know that the world treated him so poorly. Still, no man of the 20th century (including Einstein and every other scientific luminary) bit off a larger piece of the knowledge of the universe, mentally digested and assimilated it, and returned more gifts from this metabolism than did Nikola Tesla.

What Nikola Tesla was in the developing field of electricity, another virtual unknown, Viktor Schauberger, was in the "field" of natural energy. The book, Living Water, Viktor Schauberger and the Secrets of Natural Energy by Swedish electrical engineer and conservationist Olof Alexandersson, is a brief biography of an Austrian forester and naturalist who discovered and proved (to disbelieving eyes) many strange ideas about water and natural energy. The book, from 1976, was translated into English in 1982, and is currently published by Gateway Books of Great Britain.

Schauberger did not come by his knowledge of water and the natural world academically. Rather, through his years as a youngster and as a fifth-generation forester in the mountainous regions of Austria, he gradually developed a truly sublime understanding of nature and the manner in which she uses and dispenses energy. Initially, he focused upon water, especially curious about the relationship between its temperature, its motion and its density. Later, he studied natural implosion, the vortex and spiral form, biosynthesis, biological techniques in agriculture and the natural generation of power. Little of his work was accepted and that only when refuting it was impossible. Schauberger’s remarkable ideas and discoveries have proven their correctness when tested: hence, the established scientific paradigm-builders chose to remain ignorant of them.

All substances have density, which is more easily conceived in the metric system: it is the mass (grams) of a substance divided by the volume (cubic centimeters) it takes up. A gram is defined as the mass of one cc of water: its density is one gm/cc. The specific gravity of any substance relates its own density to that of water. Disconcertingly, Schauberger discovered that the density of water varies importantly according to its temperature. Deliciously cold water, about 39° F, is denser than water at colder and especially at warmer temperatures. Practically, this means that logs, for example, will float higher in the water when it is cool! No one had noticed this and many still wouldn’t believe it after Schauberger floated hundreds of logs in the same water others had failed doing so. He built many flumes which utilized the greater density of cold water to function effectively.

Schauberger believed that the world’s established economic structure could retain power as long as little or nothing was discovered about water. Learning the secrets of water, which he conceived as the lifeblood of the earth, would enable us to have free power, unlimited pure, excellent water, surpluses of food; agricultural machinery would be unnecessary. The power of those with capital would diminish drastically. Little wonder that his iconoclastic and radical ideas met resistance almost everywhere they were presented.

Using knowledge gained through his acute perception of nature acting, Schauberger developed a means of purifying water polluted by industry. This system, used now in Europe, produced dynamic vortices in the flowing water. These vibrating spirals allowed, in essence, the water to cleanse itself by itself.

Water flows best in a spiral. Reproducing, as pipes, the spiral forms in nature energized water as well. He developed an "artificial spring water" maker based upon spiral motion ingeniously induced into the water flow. Unpredictably, the internal friction of water flowing in a spiral pipe, compared to a straight pipe is notably lower. And a copper pipe facilitates water flow better than a glass pipe: the intrinsic characteristics of water were the cause of this and similarly strange experimental results.

Great Nature, said Schauberger, submitted water to a cleansing and vitalizing cycle. Drawing water from beneath the earth (as is done all over America and Europe) produces untoward effects for us and the ecosystem. Water is a living entity and forests, especially, play an essential role in its maturing. Immature water from deep wells can perform its various functions no better than immature people.

Later in his life, Schauberger began to study implosion as a means to produce levitation, i.e., flying. His were the first successful flying saucers. The Russian and United States governments confiscated the contents of his apartment (as the FBI had done when Tesla died). But Schauberger had not yet died! Understandably, he distrusted governments.

Author Alexandersson conveys Schauberger’s great sensitivity to and love for nature. All of his inventions and writings spring from this reservoir. His extensive criticism of modern society focused upon our ignorance of nature’s mechanisms. He advocated copper plows, which in experiments led to increased yields. And, he said, the old traditions of European farmers were based upon now-forgotten knowledge: they were effective. Humanity had been decaying spiritually—this explained in his mind, our current ignorance. He, himself, did all he could to enable us to "realign" ourselves.

Viktor Schauberger also was a genius. Not unlike Tesla, the world treated him poorly, and worse, ignored most of his work and teaching. He practiced science with ingenuity, examining subjects of great significance to modern humanity. Any one of us can put into effect many of his recommendations in this book. The more self sustaining one becomes, the more useful will Schauberger’s teachings be.

By contrast with the two preceding, our third book shows little appreciation of its subject and inadequate humility when writing about matters, people or experiences that exceed one’s personal experience. This hubris is common amongst academics among whom Dr. Washington counts himself. His book, Madam Blavatsky’s Baboon, a History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America, reveals more about him than it does about the general subject, "spiritualism" and the individuals he has selected to write about. Nevertheless, I recommend reading it, particularly in conjunction with one of the two foregoing. From this effort a clear notion would emerge— of what passes for scholarship these days, of the subtle, one might say invidious insertion of the writer’s judgment and values when none is called for and of the ease with which a "history" may be concocted simply on the basis of personal choice.

The particular "history" of spiritualism in this book concerns Theosophy primarily and includes individuals especially active in Great Britain. A dozen or more significant individuals in America and Europe have been omitted. Swami Rama Tirtha, who had been a mathematics professor, came to the United States in 1902, lectured on Vedanta to large and appreciative audiences in every major city for several years; invited to lecture in Boston, Paramahansa Yogananda arrived here in 1920, and stayed then for 15 years, founding the still viable Self-Realization Fellowship. His Autobiography of a Yogi is a wonderful book, known ev-erywhere true spiritualism is known. Yogi Ramacharaka wrote the The Science of Breath in 1904 as well as many other books. He was affiliated with a yogic society in Chicago. Swami Akhilananda, affiliated with the Vedanta society, spoke spontaneously in the psychology departments of Harvard and Brown Universities, repeatedly. These teachings were eventually published as Hindu Psychology. And, in a direct connection to Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society, Guy and Edna Ballard founded the "I Am" movement. According to Gerald Bryan in Psychic Dictatorship in America, the Ballards exemplified the mundane values (power, influence, greed) attributed by Dr. Washington to nearly everyone discussed in his book. They were, actually, a part of his "history".

Madame B.’s Baboon will interest anyone who enjoys gossip. It’s chock full of one dirty story after another (do historians call these anecdotes)? Bishop Leadbeater, an early and important Theosophist, sought power and worse, he liked boys. Mdm. B. was fat as a horse and had to be hoisted in a cradle onto ships. Krishnamurti, discovered by Leadbeater (with a pederastic glint in his eye?), raised celibately, had an affair with the wife of Raja, his compatriot of many years. I kept on wondering, "Is this the stuff of history or the product of a prurient mind"? Had an unconscious agenda, to invalidate all those considered, guided the selection of individuals as well as other aspects of this exercise?

Often, Mdm. B.’s Baboon will cause you to chuckle, for some of the tales are really funny and Dr. Washington renders them well. Mdm. B. particularly, possessed both humor and insight. But she was also an intelligent lady, a fact you’d not discover from Dr. W.’s discussion of her work, including her first book, the 650-page Isis Unveiled, initially published in 1877. Clearly it transcends Mdm. B.’s Baboon in both erudition and scholarship: devoid of gossip, it contains interesting ideas, knowledge and reason, and will take much longer to read.

For reasons unassociated with historical accuracy, (but perhaps with tales and gossip) many chapters are devoted to Gurdjieff and several of his followers, especially Englishman John G. Bennett. What’s written does not reflect what I’ve learned in the Gurdjieff Work itself with two Gurdjieff students and in studying Gurdjieff’s writings for years. (A Ph.D. friend and long-time student of Emanuel Swedenborg’s works said to me, "Washington doesn’t understand Swedenborg at all.") So it was with Gurdjieff. Put it like this: everyone’s cerebral intelligence performs a filtering function. When confronted by ideas that disturb it or are too grand for it to comprehend, it rejects them. Often it concocts a limited, distorted notion to replace the one too big to be satisfactorily accommodated. This phenomenon, especially common among academics, arises through this book. Said Gurdjieff, "A university is the hearth upon which the truth is burned."

Dr. Washington, because he has no understanding of things spiritual (as the baseball follower who never could play at all but learned the names of great players from the past) applies his personal "inch-stick" to measure things sometimes miles long: it can’t be done accurately. Not all "spiritual teachers" are as he seems to think. So too, not all who pursue a spiritual "path" are gullible, stupid or even misfits.

This book can disturb sincere seekers of the truth. The agent is the sometimes arrogant, sometimes cynical, sometimes snide, sometimes ridiculing, sometimes pejorative quality that pervades it. Gurdjieff used the term "atmosphere." Even so, the book can inform one. However, long after Mdm. B.’s Baboon has vanished from everyone’s memory, Isis Unveiled will still be assisting people, for different reasons and from various backgrounds and avenues, to gain the "spiritual foothold" that much of humanity has long sought for and so desperately needs today.