John Hutchison

October 5th, 2006

John Hutchison is a controversial inventor who claims to have harnessed quantum energy to perform a number of spectacular phenomena. This includes the levitation of heavy objects, fusing of wood and metal, spontaneous splitting of metals, temporary and permanent changes in the crystalline structure of materials and the heating of metals without scorching of adjacent materials. These phenomena are collectively known as the Hutchison Effect. To date, the phenomenon of being published in a peer-reviewed journal is not included in the Hutchison Effect.

Hutchison claims to have worked for a number of intelligence and military services, alternately accusing military and intelligence services of suppressing his work. His experiments take place in a lab built from army and navy surplus equipment, constructed in his apartment. It was here that, in trying to replicate the experiments of Nicola Tesla, he discovered the “H-Effect”. As proof, his website features videos of various objects levitating, with more in-depth videos on sale for $150. Hutchison claims that he is able to utilise “zero-point energy“. This mysterious energy is also known as vacuum energy, because it exists as the small but measurable fluctuations of electromagnetic forces seen in a perfect vacuum – i.e. where nothing should be happening. Because it exists in a vacuum, it is believed by some to be a “background” energy permeating everything: apparently there is enough of this zero-point energy in a cubic centimeter/mug of water/John Hutchison’s head to boil all the world’s oceans, etc etc, [insert amazing factoid here]. As such, it’s often invoked by crackpots as an endless energy supply for their dreamt-up machines.

There are a few problems with Hutchison’s claims: firstly, no-one is able to replicate his experiments. Secondly: Hutchison is not able to replicate his experiments. Although he has been the subject of several documentaries, he has been unable to demonstrate any of the H-Effect phenomena for anyone’s cameras but his own. He did make a toy UFO levitate for the Discovery Channel:

However, this was achieved via the decidedly un-amazing effect of tying it to a piece of string, clearly visible in the top-left corner of the picture. When confronted by this, Hutchison replied:

The string is not string but #32-gauge double polythermalized wire on a takeup up reel with 20 to 50000 volts DC.

This ridiculous self-denial must have got embarrassing because Hutchison later admitted the fraud, commenting that he was under pressure to produce material for the cameras, and that he was unable to reproduce the original effect. Skeptics point out that almost all of the videos look as though they were produced using an upside-down camera to record falling objects. A history of fraud, irreproducible results, unclear methodology, undisclosed apparatus, lack of academic record, work in isolation, and dissemination of results via the media mean that while his toy UFOs rise and fall, Hutchison is stuck firmly in the category of pseudoscientist.

Entry Filed under: Bad Scientists

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