PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The Philadelphia Experiment is an urban legend that tells of secret maneuvers by the United States Navy that caused events such as time travel, teleportation and the death of several soldiers.

Popularized thanks to a low-cost film released in 1984, and another from 2012 on the Syfy channel, the urban legend of the Philadelphia Experiment continues almost four decades after it appeared.

USS Eldridge (DE-173) 1944

This story is quite complex and has to do with two situations of the same name that occurred at separate times. However, both had to do with the same ship, the USS Eldridge, and took place in the summer of 1943, in the middle of World War II.

But what actually happened to this ship, and what evidence is there that what the stories tell is true? Today we will discover what really happened and why this peculiar story has survived to this day.

The history of the Philadelphia Experiment

In the summer of 1943, two years after the United States finally decided to join World War II, one of the toughest fronts in the battle was the sea. The American destroyers had to face the Nazi U-boat submarines, and each encounter between the two sides cost the allies a great deal of life and resources.

To avoid this problem, a top-secret mission was about to be carried out that would allow to end the Battle of the Atlantic once and for all. This mission had to do with the USS Eldridge, a destroyer equipped with large experimental generators that in principle would allow it to become invisible to enemy radars thanks to the creation of a powerful magnetic field.

Testing the new generators

This is where the paranormal version of the Philadelphia Experiment begins. Supposedly, with the entire crew on board, an attempt was made to test the operation of the new generators.

In broad daylight, and in view of several vessels belonging to the US Navy, the engines started and the ship began to generate the energy it needed to fulfill its function.

However, at this moment something went wrong. Witnesses at the time described that suddenly the ship began to be surrounded by a strange blue-green light, which covered the entire hull.

Then, suddenly, the USS Eldridge disappeared; but not only from nautical radars, but also from sight. In fact, it looked as if it had been transported to another site.

Teleportation or disappearance?

The ship was supposedly missing for hours; but later some witnesses reported that they had seen him in Virginia, whence he suddenly vanished before appearing again in Philadelphia.

According to alleged classified reports, the crew was badly injured and disoriented. Furthermore, some of the men had fused with the hull of the ship, although they were still alive.

This is the basic story of the Philadelphia Experiment, supposedly the most famous example of secret government tests that study topics such as teleportation and time travel.

Today, despite having passed 70 years and there is no evidence that the event occurred, many people still accept the story as good. But why does this happen?

The beginning of a legend

To understand what actually happened in the Philadelphia Experiment and why its story has become so famous, it is important to understand who the man was who drew attention to this event.

In addition, we will also see what is the official version of the United States government of what happened, and the story told by the survivors of the USS Eldridge.

Carlos Miguel Allende, the creator of history

Virtually everything that is told in the legend of the Philadelphia Experiment and the events related to the USS Eldridge comes from the writings of Carl M. Allen, known by his pseudonym "Carlos Miguel Allende."

In 1956, this writer tried to demonstrate to the astronomer Morris Jessup the existence of the unified field theory, which the latter would have tried to refute in a book published the previous year.

In order to prove that the field theory was real, Allende told him in more than 50 letters what supposedly had happened with the Eldridge in Philadelphia in 1943. Supposedly, the man had been a direct witness of the events, when he found himself in a nearby ship when it all happened.

According to Carlos Allende, the United States government used Einstein's ideas on the unified field theory to teleport a naval destroyer and its crew.

These letters written to Jessup were the first written mention of what would later become the legend of the Philadelphia Experiment. No other witness, in the more than 13 years that had elapsed, had spoken of what supposedly happened that day.

Research on Allende's theory

Morris Jessup, intrigued by the fantastic story Allende told him in his letters, tried to do some serious research on the subject. However, little by little he became frustrated due to the lack of evidence that the writer could provide him. A short time later, Jessup was about to throw in the towel and put the matter aside for good.

However, in 1957 two officers from the navy's Office of Naval Research contacted him. The reason was that they had received a copy of Jessup's book, with handwritten annotations mentioning alleged advanced knowledge of physics that linked extraterrestrial technology to great discoveries about unified field theory.

Even though the handwritten notes were written in such a way that it appeared that there were three different authors (one of which was supposedly an alien), Jessup recognized Carlos Allende's calligraphy. However, for some as yet unknown reason, the officers published 127 copies of the annotated edition, which became known as the "Varo editions."

These editions became collector's items for many lovers of the paranormal, and are sometimes cited as evidence of the veracity of the Philadelphia Experiment. However, today it is believed that they were based simply on the fantasies of Carlos Allende.

Unfortunately, Jessup could not deny the rumors about the experiment or his work, because shortly after he was in a car accident that left him badly injured, and he ended up committing suicide in 1959.

Allende, for his part, died in 1994, at which point he continued to tell his version of events to anyone who wanted to listen to him.

The true story of the Philadelphia Experiment

But what really happened to the USS Eldridge that morning in 1943? For many decades, Carlos Allende was the only alleged witness who gave his version of events. According to him, at that time he was stationed on the SS Andrew Furuseth, another navy ship that was stationed near the ship at the time of his disappearance.

Much later, after the famous movie "The Philadelphia Experiment" had been released in 1984, a man named Al Bielek publicly made his face claiming that he had been part of the secret experiment. The excuse he gave for never having spoken before the incident was that he had been brainwashed to forget it completely.

However, after seeing the film in 1988, supposedly his memories had come back to his brain, and he was now convinced that what was told on the tape had been real.

Thus, with the testimonies of Allende and Bielek, it seemed that what happened in the Philadelphia Experiment had been as strange as the two claimed.

An alternate version of the story appears

Finally, in 1994, the French astrophysicist and ufologist Jacques Vallee published an article that began to dismantle the paranormal history surrounding what happened in the Philadelphia Experiment.

Titled "Anatomy of a Sham: The Philadelphia Experiment Fifty Years Later," Vallee reveals that she had been in contact with Edward Dudgeon, a man who served in the navy between 1942 and 1945.

Dudgeon told him that he had been serving on the USS Engstrom, which on the day of the alleged events was docked at the same site as the Eldridge. His position had been that of an electrician, so he had knowledge of the top-secret devices that had been installed on both ships.

Demagnetization technology

Apparently, instead of being teleportation engines based on the work of Einstein or the aliens (as Allende defended), the technology served to eliminate the magnetic signal from the ships using a technique known as "demagnetization." When used, the ship would not be completely invisible to radars, but it could not be located by the Nazi magnetic missiles.

On the other hand, Dudgeon had also heard the rumors about the dead crew and the supposed disappearance of the ship, but said that surely they were simply due to the imagination of the sailors. The green glow that could be seen in the sky was probably due to a thunderstorm that was discharging in the area at the time.

Finally, Dudgeon also explained that the rumors regarding the teleportation could have had to do with the USS Eldridge using restricted access military channels to move between Philadelphia and Norfolk in just six hours, instead of the two days that normally they would be needed for the journey.

A third story comes into play

Many people immediately believed the version of events presented by Edward Dudgeon, which sounded much more logical and reasonable than the experiment proposed by Allende.

However, in 1999 the Philadelphia Inquirer published a report in which several seafarers who had served on the Eldridge claimed they had not been in Philadelphia at all during the supposed date of the experiment.

Interestingly, when the ship's records were searched at the time, it was discovered that the ship had been at anchor in Brooklyn on the day of her alleged disappearance.

As if this were not enough, the captain of the ship, who could be located later, confirmed that at no time had any experiments been carried out on his ship.

In any case, despite relaying different reports, both Dudgeon and the crew of the USS Eldridge confirmed what seemed more likely: that the Philadelphia Experiment was nothing more than a fictional story. However, even today many people believe in it. Here are some of the possible reasons why they do this.

Why do we believe in paranormal stories? The Philadelphia Experiment today

Despite all the evidence pointing to the story of the USS Eldridge being completely false, many people still believe that in 1943 this ship was subjected to a secret government experiment involving alien technology.

Experts on this subject argue that the reason can be found in the 1984 movie told by the legend. Despite not being particularly well done, its special effects were credible enough to implant in many people's minds the idea that the story had to be totally real.

According to studies on this subject, a good urban legend has to have related and powerful images that help convince people that what is being said is true. Some of the most famous modern myths, such as the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot, are based precisely on this idea.

As if this were not enough, for much of the 20th century, American citizens had a certain hatred of the military, due to the fact that on several occasions information was leaked that revealed that it had conducted unethical experiments with some of its soldiers.

Add to that the charisma of Allende and the interestingness of the story, it's no wonder the Philadelphia Experiment has remained in popular culture for as long as it has. However, in this case it seems that fiction outperformed reality in every way.