Every once in awhile we get onto the subject of time travel. This is a very controversial subject because at least half of the people don't believe it is possible. There are little hints here and there in science that it might be, but nothing concrete as to traveling backwards in time. We have all heard the story of the Philadelphia Experiment where supposedly a ship, the Eldridge, was made to disappear and appear again somewhere else and then come back and reappear. Some say that this was also a time travel experiment. Unfortunately for these people, there is far more evidence indicating that nothing ever happened then evidence that it did. As a matter of fact, there is no evidence at all that anything ever happened, only the writings of a man who was either a hoaxer or unbalanced. When you think about it, how did a man who wrote notations in the margins of books ever get the military thinking that something strange was going on? I would have thought it was strange getting a book mailed to me with these notations all over it was the work of a madman.

One of the most mysterious scientists that ever lived was Nikola Tesla. He had worked for Edison for awhile, but Edison got to hate him because he discovered alternating current and Edison was pushing to have direct current used to electrify our cities. There are some people that swear that they have found evidence that Tesla had discovered that he could influence time and space. He was a great experimenter with electricity and magnetic fields and it is said that he discovered how to create a doorway through time. Of course many people say that this is ridiculous and who can blame them, it does sound silly at first blush, but it may not be as silly as it sounds. Today scientists mostly believe that it may be possible to alter time and travel through it. They believe that if you travel at almost the speed of light in a spaceship, everything inside that spaceship will slow down. The result might be that a person inside one of these fast ships would only age a year while the people on Earth had aged many more years. Here is the kicker with Tesla. One day while he was working with his assistant, he was struck by a bolt of electricity. He believed that it was 3.5 million volts and claimed that if his assistant hadn't turned off the current instantly, he would have been killed. He went on to say that he could see events taking place in the past, present and future. Was he delirious or did he actually create a time portal? The man was the greatest electrical genius that ever lived.

The Russian newspaper Pravda reported on a very interesting time travel event. They claim that ten years ago American and British scientists were at Antarctica and they saw a strange whirling gray cloud. The paper said that originally they thought it was some sort of sand storm, but when it didn't move they sent a balloon into it which disappeared instantly. Luckily it had a rope attached, so they pulled it back down. They noticed something very odd. The balloon had a chronometer attached to it and it showed the same day, but thirty years earlier. More balloons with clocks on them were sent into the cloud and each time they were brought back, the date on the clock showed thirty years earlier. It is said that it was reported to the president and the event was given a nickname, the time gate.

Vadim Chernobrov is a Russian that is said to have conducted time experiments. Don't think of a machine like the famous time machine in the H.G. Wells novel, rather think of a demonstration machine that will slow down time. It is said that a machine constructed in 1987 by Chemobrov is able to slow down time by 1.5 seconds. Supposedly the machine was improved and in 2001 it slowed down time by 3 seconds. The machine enabled people to actually get inside of it and experience this phenomena. The people who experienced the trip, short as it may have been, said that it was a very strange feeling. They felt like they were in two places at once. It took 30 minutes to achieve a 3 second slowdown of time. Could time travel experiments have caused the destruction of an almost 800 ton module.? That is what is claimed along with the explanation that a parallel universe was involved. Could this have been the reason for the explosion in 1987 that wiped out an Anjou island.? If you believe the facts as stated, it well could have been.

In an interview with Carl Sagan, Nova had asked him if he thought that traveling back in time was possible?

Here is his answer: "Such questions are purely a matter of evidence, and if the evidence is inconsistent or insufficient, then we withhold judgment until there is better evidence. Right now we're in one of those classic, wonderfully evocative moments in science when we don't know, when there are those on both sides of the debate, and when what is at stake is very mystifying and very profound. If we could travel into the past, it's mind-boggling what would be possible. For one thing, history would become an experimental science, which it certainly isn't today. The possible insights into our own past and nature and origins would be dazzling. For another, we would be facing the deep paradoxes of interfering with the scheme of causality that has led to our own time and ourselves. I have no idea whether it's possible, but it's certainly worth exploring."

So you can see by Dr. Sagan's answer that the question of whether we can travel backwards in time can not be answered with certainty right now. As I said before, traveling forward is only a matter of speed and we certainly can do that now, but only ever so slightly. Every time an astronauts gets into a rocket he is moving ahead in time but only by the percentage of the speed of light he is traveling at. Are you confused yet? It is quite simple. If you are traveling at the speed of light, which is claimed to be impossible, you will face time dilation and age slower than someone left back at Earth. Light travels at about 186,000 miles per second so 25,000 mph is only a tiny fraction of that speed, so aging on the rocket will have only slowed a tiny amount and not even be noticeable by the astronauts.

Time travel movies seem to pop up every once in a while. There is a general interest in the subject. Those that believe it is possible are hot to get a machine built that will accomplish this travel. Those that don't believe in time travel cite the fact that if time travel was possible there would be travelers here already. The believers say, how would we know if visitors were here or not? Both points are valid. I guess the only way we will find out if backward time travel is possible is if we build a successful time travel machine.