Bizarre stories surrounding the infamous Philadelphia Experiment date back to the dawn of ufology itself. During that time, the legend has been repeatedly debunked, poo-poohed and dismissed as a hoax by the authorities and so-called experts. Sure, we get it. The circumstances are so mind bending and strange that it must surely have been concocted by an acid-gobbling lunatic, or something on that order. But it never goes away. It keeps coming back. And maybe there’s a reason for that—it is true.

That is the possibility we need to consider, as its implications are so far reaching and profound. And why not? This year marks the 70th anniversary of when the story originated. And as we all know, seven is a lucky number, which features prominently in occult matters. So let’s dive in.

According to the legend, a group of researchers working under the auspices of the U.S. Navy were attempting to achieve the capability of rendering objects invisible. This would no doubt be an invaluable asset for the military, as they were in the midst of World War II. There were other secret projects going on at the time, one been the Manhattan Project. It was an all out effort by the military-industrial complex to get an edge on the enemy to win the war. Freedom hung in the balance.

The scientists thought that invisibility could be accomplished by way of technology based on Albert Einstein’s unified field theory, whose mathematical formulas would manipulate the forces of electromagnetism and gravity to achieve their goals. Towards this end, massive electrical generators were fitted into the USS Eldridge at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in the summer of 1943. The purpose here was to see if the power source was strong enough to bend light around an object by way of refraction. This would effectively render the object invisible to the naked eye. Once the power switch was turned on, interesting things happened.

The ship was rendered, according to reports, partially invisible, or invisible for a a number of seconds. According to some, a “greenish fog” replaced the ship during these moments. However, what happened afterwards was totally bonkers. When the ship re-appeared, some of the sailors had become embedded into the ship itself. That is, hands and body parts became part of the metallic structure of the ship. Other crew members materialized inside out. Some completely vanished. Apparently, many sailors went “completely bananas,” that is, they went mad or suffered mental disorders, which wouldn’t be surprising if you think of what they had just gone through.

What’s more, the ship was said to have been teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, 200 miles away. Afterwards, it returned to the original site.

The origins of the Philadelphia Experiment story date back to 1955 when ex-merchant mariner Carl M. Allen sent a package marked “Happy Easter” to the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The package contained a book—The Case for the UFO: Unidentified Flying Objects, by Morris K. Jessup. The book contained numerous handwritten notes in the margins, with three different shades of ink, giving the suggestion there were three different readers. The comments discussed topics such as aliens, the unified field theory, flying saucers and the technology behind such phenomenon. They referred to themselves as “Gypsies.” One of them went by the name of Jemi.

A year later, in 1956, Allen started sending letters to Jessup himself. Here he called himself “Carlos Miguel Allende.” The letters contained warnings to Jessup regarding the dangers of getting too close to the truth with revealing the secrets of levitation in use by UFOs via the unified field theories of Einstein. They also spoke of the Philadelphia Experiment and how a scientist by the name of Frank Reno was behind the secret project. Allen goes on to claim that he had witnessed the USS Eldridge disappear from across the bay while he served on the SS Andrew Furuseth.

Jessup responded by asking for more information about the event but Allen replied that his memory would have to be “recovered,” suggesting that some type of brainwashing had taken place on his part.

In 1957, Jessup was called up to the Office of Naval Research where he was shown the heavily annotated copy of his book. He confirmed that the notations matched the handwriting in the letters sent to him from Allen. Two officers—Captain Sidney Sherby and Commander George W. Hoover—were put in charge of the case.

It’s the classic kind of paranormal, Fortean story that sends chills running down my spine. That air of wonder and possibility. This story, in and of itself, shimmers with the patina of otherworldly possibilities. There is more than this though. According to researchers, some technologies derived from the Philadelphia Experiment included what the military today calls stealth. Stealth of course provides radar invisibility to airplanes, as well as war ships.

Agent Hoover, who was in charge of the Jessup case, discussed the annotations in the book with Austin N. Stanton, president of Varo Manufacturing Corporation of Garland, Texas. His company at the time was doing contract work for the ONR. Varo took a fascination to the subject and subsequently printed 127 copies of the annotated version of Jessup’s book.

Jessup himself tried to publish more books on the subject of UFOs but ran into a succession of troubles, including the loss of his publisher and personal downturns. He died under mysterious circumstances, officially designated as suicide on 30 April, 1959, in Florida.

The story didn’t die with Jessup but was subsequently picked up by other investigators. In 1979, the author Charles Berlitz published the best selling, The Philadelphia Experiment: Project Invisibility. In 1984, the Hollywood film The Philadelphia Experiment was released, directed by Stewart Raffill.

At a MUFON conference in 1990, Alfred Bielek made the remarkable claim that he had witnessed the Philadelphia Experiment in 1943. Even more fascinating is his claims that this experiment led to the Montauk Project, a conspiracy theory asserting that the U.S. government conducted experiments based on technology garnered from the Philadelphia Experiment at a place called Camp Hero, located at Montauk, Long Island. This story, as they say, has legs. It will be interesting to see where the tracks lead.

Andrew K. Arnett is a writer/researcher and author of the book The Crowley Conspiracy available on Amazon.