Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN One afternoon, feeling at a low ebb, I was browsing in my local library. In the middle of one of the shelves, I noticed the title Uri Geller. I had met Geller and had once been interested in his paranormal abilities. I took the book from the shelf and saw that it had been written by the English author, Colin Wilson. Several years ago Wilson and I had exchanged letters. I knew that he was interested in the future development of human abilities and the evolution of the conscious mind. As I stood in the library and thumbed through the book, the thought struck me that Nikola Tesla, with his dreams of the future and his unusual ability to create inventions in his imagination, would be the sort of person to appeal to Colin Wilson's interest. I walked home with the book and was soon immersed in the text. I read the book in one sitting and learned of Wilson's meeting with Geller and saw the name Andrija Puharich crop up again and again. Suddenly it struck me that I should write a book on my encounter with Tesla. A lack of focus I had felt during the past weeks must have been some subtle message from my unconscious mind telling me that I should not leave Tesla behind. Even if I had no faith in Tesla power trasmission I could not bring myself to leave his work in some dry government report. I began at once to plan out how I would write the book, telling myself that I would have to spend several weeks in the National Archives and the Science Library looking up references. But as I began to collect all my material together a curious thought struck me. I realized that in one sense I had no need of all this material, for the book was already mapped out somewhere in my head and was simply waiting to be written. I felt that it was rather like one of Tesla's inventions, which sprang ready-made into his imagination. The book I would write would be far from an academic study of power 136
