Teleportation How to Guide : From Star Trek to Tesla

Reader Reviews
Have you ever dreamed of being somewhere, anywhere, in the blink of an eye? When you watch old episodes of "Star Trek," do you envy the ease with which Captain Kirk and company are "beamed" down to a waiting planet below? If so, then you should surely enjoy "Teleportation: A How-To Guide" by the winning team of Commander X and Tim Swartz. The authors have managed to cover the subject of teleportation in more depth than you might have thought possible. Everything from the latest findings in the New Physics to tales of 19th Century spiritualists and their apparently supernatural ability to move objects from one place to another using only the power of their minds are chronicled in this lively and intelligent examination of a subject that both appeals to the imagination and challenges the intellect. Commander X and Swartz address the "Star Trek" comparisons early in the book. While the authors readily admit that we are still light years away from developing anything even remotely resembling the science fiction technology used in the old television program, some of the strange theoretical problems are evident even now. For instance, if we ever do develop a machine that can take our bodies apart atom by atom and then reassemble them somewhere else, mustn't we also transfer the life essence, what you might call the soul, that animates our bodies? From the outset, there are so many obstacles in our path if we take the technology route that it hardly seems worth pursuing. Which is why the authors begin to make their case for mastering the science of teleportation with our minds instead. In a chapter called "Practical Teleportation," a series of meditations and mental exercises are offered to the beginner as a means of freeing the soul and even the body from the constraints of time and space and traveling instantly to any desired destination. Will the techniques described by the authors actually work? Only time and patience and practice can answer that question, but the chapter is still fascinating reading nonetheless. Also fascinating are the many stories and anecdotes the authors relate regarding real life experiences with teleportation. The aforementioned spiritualists have extremely interesting case histories, as do the many UFO abductees who are frequently teleported from their cars and bedrooms into waiting spaceships nearby. Commander X also recounts his own personal experience as a government intelligence agent assigned to learn to fly a recovered UFO at Area 51 using only the power of his mind. While he achieved only partial success, the chapter goes a long way toward making the many rumors about Area 51 seem palpably real. The infamous Philadelphia Experiment, in which a 1943 military effort to achieve invisibility for a Navy battleship went horribly awry, is the subject of another chapter. The battleship being used for the experiment did indeed become invisible, but it was also inadvertently teleported to a shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, many miles away, and left a trail of death and madness in its wake when it reappeared in the Philadelphia Naval Yard several minutes later. There is obviously a dark side to teleportation that should lead us to approach the subject with extreme caution. Commander X and Tim Swartz have turned in still another excellent performance as co-authors, and "Teleportation: A How-To Guide" is a worthy product of their continuing teamwork. And who knows? Maybe you really can learn to "beam yourself aboard" with a little meditation and practice.