Re: how about wilhelm reich?

Reich's story certainly carries more weight in that respect. Tesla was at least widely respected if cheated out of his own inventions.

I think that the real moral of both stories is that the smarter one is, and the more advanced his/hers ideas are, the more one needs to be carefull. Big ideas and truths which threaten the establishment are certain to be a magnet for the most sinister of characters pretending to be friends and helpers and colleagues (Edison and JP Morgan in Tesla's case, and whole psycho/political establishment in Reich's case).

One more person that I think belongs with Reich and Tesla was Dr. Semmelweis who lived and worked in the 19th century. He was the first to claim that the cause of many diseases were microscopic living beings and that therefore it would be prudent for doctors to wash their hands and instruments between surgeries and deliveries of babies. At that time mortality was especially high among women who delivered babies in hospitals, much higher then among those who did it at home. His part of the hospital applied those rules and as a result the mortality rate dropped tenfold. The other doctors were saying same old same old: "it's impractical", "it's madness", "scientifically impossible", and so on. The "madness" part caught on (after all he claimed that there were these "invisible evil things" out there), and he was quickly instituionalized and killed. That way doctors could continue with their practices undisturbed by some lunatic's claims and proofs.