Doing The Impossible

Eccentric Vancouver inventor John Hutchison has caught the attention of Canadian and U.S. governments because of his claims to have discovered a way to use a form of anti-magnetism to make objects levitate, fly off into space, melt or do various other things that defy the known laws of physics.

Since he made his initial discoveries in 1979 and in the years of research since, his discover, dubbed “The Hutchison Effect,” has been the subject of various television and magazine stories, excited military researchers, and scorned by critics who have called him a crackpot.

Hutchison tells his own story on his website: http://www.hutchisoneffect.ca/ and offers photos and videos of many of his experiments. He operates in a make-shift lab created from various electronic instruments and army surplus equipment in an especially equipped bus after being forced out of his Vancouver apartment.

One critic, Alan Bellows, produced a lengthy review of Hutchison's work in an effort to show that the man's claims are "outlandish and his credibility damaged by admitted fakery."

The problem has been that Hutchison has not produced papers detailing his experiments, he has refused to sell his discoveries to government agencies, and he admits that his array of electronic equipment does not always produce the desired effect, and if it does, the results are sometimes surprising.

As Bellows puts it: "He seems to be the only one who can produce the effects, but not even he can replicate them - at least not in the presence of unbiased observers. His evidence consists mainly of his word and his videos."

Hutchison developed an interest in electronics when he learned about the work of Nikola Tesla in high school. He has devoted his life to experimenting with various electrical coils and gadgets. His bus is packed with Tesla coils, a static electricity machine called a Van de Graaf generator, oscilloscopes, digital readouts, gauges, switches, lights and a variety of other things one might find in the laboratory of an inventor.

Nobody, not even Hutchison seems to understand just how he achieves the Hutchison Effect. Enthusiasts theorize that a hypothetical electromagnetic wave allowed the apparatus, while working together, to tap what they have dubbed "zero-point energy."

The first time it happened in 1976 Hutchison had his Tesla coils, an electrostatic generator and other equipment operating at the same time, and apparently creating a strange electromagnetic field. Suddenly heavy pieces of metal levitated, then shot to the ceiling. Other metalic pieces shredded. Still others broke apart or jellified.

Hutchison has produced videos of metals fracturing, holes appearing in glass or in aluminum cans, dissimilar materials fusing, and some objects just disappearing and then returning to view again.

On his own website, he says he believes that he has discovered that "fundamental frequencies can shield gravity." He also writes: "Some theorists think the effect is the result of opposing electromagnetic fields canceling each other out, creating a powerful flow of space energy."

Hutchison has appeared on various television and radio shows, his story has appeared in several publications, and his work has drawn the attention of the Canadian, German and United States governments, the military and private agencies. Over the years he has worked in partnership with other researchers.

For some unexplained reason, Hutchison's laboratories have been closed down and his equipment seized at least three times by the Canadian government over the years. He now lives in and works out of a bus that travels the North American continent.

Is Hutchison's story real or is it an elaborate hoax? It would seem strange that the man would devote his life to the research if it was the latter.