Similar near-death experiences of Nikola Tesla and Harry Houdini

Have you ever had a near death experience? Many of those who have given remarkably similar accounts. Here are two similar accounts from two of the most brilliant people of the 20th century.

Nikola Tesla was one of the most talented scientists the world has ever known. His two greatest inventions, the alternating current transformer and the step-up transformer that became the basis of television broadcasting, have historical significance for the modern world. And although Marconi is credited with discovering the radio, Tesla had patents on much of the required equipment. Another familiar, though less important, invention was Jacob’s Ladder, which appeared in almost every early science fiction movie made in the 1960s. (According to some film historians, Tesla was the basis for Dracula.) However, another invention has led to low-intensity radio transmissions used to communicate with submarines and a tracking device that would have allowed the government to track all submarines in the navy. Tesla also imagined and experimented with countless other things that were unsuccessful because his ideas were centuries before his time.

Needless to say, Tesla was a scientific giant. But he also had uncontrollable visions that could be described as hallucinations. These visions often haunted him, but at least on occasion, they helped save his life. As a child he swam in the river near his hometown in Croatia. To impress his friends, he dived and swam underwater to a dive dock some distance from shore, intending to swim underneath and emerge where his friends couldn’t see him. He swam until he was sure he was off the dock and surfaced. He hit his head on a beam under the pier. He swam farther, came back up, and hit his head once more. Now out of breath, he had a vision of the entire floating dock and realized that he could reach a point between the slats and breathe that way. Luckily for him, the strategy worked. It still took him many tries before he reached the open sea.

A similar event occurred in the life of Harry Houdini who made one of his escapes from a straitjacket after being lowered, chained, down a hole drilled in the frozen Detroit River. He easily escaped from the straitjacket and chains and paddled up to the surface toward the hole. To his horror, the hole was not above him. The current had carried him downstream and he had no idea where the escape hole was located. His chest ached from shortness of breath and he had resigned himself to choking. Instead, he saw a bright light above his head and swam towards it. He found his forehead above the water, but not in the hole. He had gotten into a pocket of natural air. Able to breathe, he fought against the current to return to where he found the chain and straitjacket. After two more trips back to his airbag, he located his leak and emerged.

Both men had several closer escapes in their lives. They both died in unusual circumstances, though not the ones you can imagine. Houdini liked to challenge people to punch him in the stomach. He tensed his muscles and the blow never hurt him. On one occasion, the beater caught him off guard. Houdini doubled over in pain. The blow had ruptured his appendix, which was on the right side instead of the left. Tesla was hit by a motorist in 1943 while crossing an uncongested street.

Life is strange, isn’t it?