Customer Reviews

The Hunt for Zero Point: Inside the Classified World of Antigravity Technology

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

When I first came across Nick Cook's "The Hunt for Zero Point" in a bookstore, I scoffed at the subtitle: "Inside the classified world of antigravity technology." As an aerospace engineer, historian and dyed-in-the-wool skeptic, I figured it was probably full of mystical, pseudo-scientific nonsense that would appeal only to those with absolutely no understanding of how the world works. Surely, I thought, it would offer nothing of value to knowledgeable, sophisticated, discriminating readers. In fact, I initially lumped it into the same category as Philip Corso's "The Day After Roswell," which remains possibly the most shamelessly self-serving, manifestly ridiculous and blatantly fabricated "true story" ever concocted.

Then, later, I checked a copy of "The Hunt for Zero Point" out of the library and read it. My opinion is now completely different. I highly recommend it if you are interested in learning about an obscure, previously unknown aspect of aerospace history that, if true, has major implications for the future of nearly every high-technology enterprise on Earth.

Mr. Cook has impressive qualifications. He served for over a decade as the Aviation Editor of the highly respected aerospace journal "Jane's Defence Weekly." His knowledge of the people, companies, hardware, technology and politics of today's "military/industrial complex" is extraordinary. Quite simply, he gets it right. A useful way to gauge the knowledge and attention to detail that an author brings to his work is to check if he defines acronyms correctly. Mr. Cook does. As best I can tell, he also gets right every person, place, date, event and company that he mentions--at least, the ones that I could verify. Finally--and this is most unusual--he even gets the name of one of America's largest aerospace corporations right. The name is "Lockheed Martin," not "Lockheed-Martin." Virtually every author who mentions the company inserts a hyphen in the name that should not be there. "Attention to detail" means getting things like this right, and Mr. Cook does so.

His hunt for "zero point" began in the early 1990s when a copy of a 1956 magazine article mysteriously appeared on his desk in his London office. Entitled "The G-Engines Are Coming," the article stimulated him to seek answers to questions regarding super-secret "black programs" that, before, he had not even thought to ask. He pored through dusty Government archives, had clandestine meetings with secretive characters and saw potential contacts suddenly silenced. His quest took him from the "edge of tomorrow" at the legendary "Skunk Works" in Palmdale, California, to the ruins of the infamous Nazi underground rocket-production factory, the "Mittelwerk," in Germany's Harz Mountains, where he tried to pick up the 50-year-old trail of the elusive SS Obergruppenfuehrer Hans Kammler. Kammler was one of the least-known but most-powerful men in the last days of the Third Reich. He reportedly ran an ultra-secret SS "special projects office" tasked to develop advanced weapons--weapons that could turn the tide of the War, and that were so far ahead of their time that even today they remain the stuff of science fiction.

"The Hunt for Zero Point" is more of a scientific detective story than a revelation of secret "antigravity" technology. Taken as such, it is an excellent read. Whether Mr. Cook's conclusions are convincing is up to each reader to decide. But he does offer several insights that cannot be disputed. One is that "they" deliberately put forth "disinformation" (i.e., "lies") to impede the chances that researchers into "black programs" will discover the truth about them. Another is that companies sometimes pursue lines of research that, unbeknownst to them, are already active in the "black world." When this happens, they are "brought into" the program and, very effectively, forced to shut up as far as the outside world is concerned. These are two more things that Mr. Cook gets right.

This is an interesting book. The author is a British aerospace journalist, who is up on his cutting edge technology. The subject is his personal quest to uncover, between assignments, the covert science of our government which operates in the "black" beyond public scrutiny. The style is a first person action narrative in which most of the action is a guy researching on the internet and making important phone calls while his plane is boarding. This is where I knock off the 5th star, as a journalist adventure story written by a technician is sometimes not such a page turner.

The titular zero point is the inexhaustable energy that exists in the quantum foam of our universe, which thus far has been proven to be there, but has not yet been harnessed. Obviously, the government who gets at it first will rule the planet for some time.

Cook does some stellar research to make real world sense out of the legends and myths that have arisen from the ashes of WWII. He discovers the truth behind the rumors that the Nazis were building flying saucers towards the end of the war. He also reveals the great genius of the American conquistadors was in their highly efficient absorbtion of German secret technology and scientists at the close of the war.

We all know that the Germans invented (discovered?) quantum mechanics in the early part of the century, and the Nazis had workable technology far in advance of the Allies during the war. We also know that the greatest of the German scientists did work for America upon conclusion of the war, and were the engineers that put us on the moon a couple of decades later. What we don't know is what else they were working on.

The best part of this book for me was the introduction to the little remembered Nazi, Hans Kammler, who was literally the architect of the concentration camps. By the end of the war, Kammler had usurped all of the power that Himmler's SS had usurped from Hitler. Kammler pioneered the state-within-a-state concept with his unregulated think tank in Prague conducting experiments at the very fringe of conventional science. There is compelling evidence that Kammler would have been among the war criminals repatriated to America, and with him came his technology, and frighteningly, his state-within-a-state design, which came to be the modern structure of our military-industrial complex. The good news is that he was by all rights belonging to the Soviets, as they were promised the Czech Republic, but in a good showing of bad faith, Patton went in and got the goods before the Reds arrived.

The final analysis seems to be that anti-gravity is a workable technology, but not one that we yet fully understand. Mass reduction can be achieved in the laboratory, as can levitation and transmutation of metals, but it is unpredictable and more akin to poltergeist activity than science. The science will not go mainstream until there is an easily digestable formula which underpins and predicts consistent results.

Meanwhile, the ongoing experimentation of anti-gravity propulsion takes place at such black locations as Area 51, and most probably accounts for the majority of UFO sightings around the globe. The day does not seem far off when some scientist will successfully sap into the zero point energy, which was predicted by Nikola Tesla a century ago. Let's hope it's the good guys (private sector Americans) that get there first. Unlimited energy = good thing. Controlled by Naziesque government rogues = bad thing.

Another interesting aspect of this cutting edge technology is the odd effect on space-time that can be achieved with high-RPM superconductive magnetrons. Is it possible that in attempting to build a viable flying saucer, the Nazis were actually attempting to build a time machine? It is notable that many alien abduction experiences claim to have seen soldiers in uniform aboard the offending ship. Betty Hill's 1961 account being the first and most famous. Strange days indeed. Mengele escaped to Argentina and Kammler escaped to the 5th dimension, only to torment us with continued genetic experimentation. Most peculiar, Momma. I'd like to presume the Nazis were defeated and not that they now control space-time.

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This book was written by a British aerospace journalist that writes for Jane's. If you are familiar with Jane's then `nuff said. If not, let me put it this way... if Jane's publishes it, you can bet you life on it; and somebody, some where is doing just that as you read this.

Jane's Publications are the gold standard in military technology. End of story.

Let me grossly over simplify, everything in our universe is made from energy in some form...atoms and their components, dark matter... zero point is about tapping into this energy. This book states that this connection has already been made by Nicola Tesla, and that others have done a great deal more in developing this technology.

I first became aware of this book though a brief review
published in a British tabloid.
As a former aerospace engineer with a background that
includes stints at NASAs Johnson Space Center solving
complex Space Shuttle engineering issues, I was understandably
interested in reading Cooks book.
I noticed early in the book that the
author decided to write it in an uneven, folksy, first-person,
bad-detective-novel mode. I also realized that as Cook
related his adventures, he carefully avoided providing a
timeline for his investigation. The reader is left wondering
whether he pursued this for six months or six years, during
this decade or the last. Why this was done one can only
guess at; it does make it very difficult to evaluate Cooks
claims.
Cooks understanding of science and technology is low, his
apparent gullibility is high. Cook begins to give this away by repeatedly
bragging about his close contacts with the public relations people at
various aerospace concerns, yet the one time that he seeks
to speak to an actual industry technologist it is such an investigative
reporting breakthrough for him that he places great pride in
such an original idea.
We then follow along with Sam SpadesorryNick
Cook as he chases down leads in captured Nazi documents,
old photos of mysterious foreign experiments, and anecdotal
tales of suspense. These are the same tired Nazi flying saucer
tales that have been published elsewhere.
Rather than bore myself with a further retelling of these
chapters, just let me point out that they suffer from Cooks
all-too-apparent lack of understanding of the basic principles
of aerospace technologies, real or imagined. One
recurring case in point is his theme of antigravity research.
He is confused about the meaning of antigravity, often
confusing gravity-shielding with gravity-overcoming engines.
This basic misunderstanding is staggering.
Now to heighten the drama in Cooks quest we need
just one more ingredient: the mysterious Deep Throat
like informant. Luckily, Cook gives us just the person we
and his publishers are looking for, in the person of the
supermysterious evil genius, the pseudonymous Dr. Marckus!
Marckus is blamed in the book for leading Cook all
over Earth and WWII history as he bravely tries to uncover
the truth. The best/worst part of the book occurs as Cook
relates his first meeting with the amusingly secretive Marckus
character as he forces Cook to rendezvous with him on a
small ferryboat in the North Sea. A little too John Steed and
Emma Peel for my tastes.
As I mentioned, the book is a bit overdramatized, with
many conversations repeated verbatim, yet I cannot believe
he can recapture all the dialogue accurately (such as his
discussion with Marckus in little restaurants, or on cell
phones when traveling.)
So what are the results of Cooks quest? He doesnt
reach any conclusion, but at the end he strongly hints that
there really was some type of transfer of technology from
the Nazis to the Americans, and that this technology involved
exotic propulsion methods of some type, possibly
antigravity.
After finishing the book, I think Cooks just not that capable
at analyzing information, despite what he thinks.
I suspect that the explanation for the antigravity stuff is
simple technological hubris in the aerospace community,
plus perhaps some disinformation to confuse the Soviets
and make them think they had to put research money into
antigravity studies.

Anti-gravity, Zero Point Energy, Torsion Fields and time warps are the stuff of science fiction - right?

Well maybe not quite. Nick Cook delivers a book that deserves careful consideration. He follows the data and comes to incredible revelations. Perhaps, there is a way to either shield gravity or to produce an anti-gravity effect. Maybe there is more energy resting in a show box than all the oil fields and nuclear power plants dotting the globe. And what if the speed of light is not the boundary we have come to believe it is?

Before you discard the notion, I dare you to read the book and then go to your browser and start looking up names or places or ideas. There is a wealth of knowledge out there that is way outside the box.

Coupled with a tremendous scientific story are the efforts by the American government to keep much of this technology under wraps and behind closed doors. The black world (as Cook calls it) rarely meets the white world.

For anyone remotely interested in cutting edge technology, this is a must must read.

You will enjoy this book if you:
(1) have considered becoming an investigative journalist. Nick Cook provides a close up view of what an investigative journalist does -- including satisfactions and disappointments.
(2) are fascinated by World War 2.
(3) would like to get a feel for how governments manage, protect, and pursue top secret advanced technology innovation.

You will be disappointed in this book if you:
(1) prefer to see endings where a quest is achieved.
(2) expect to learn many insider secrets about exotic new energy breakthroughs.
(3) already know all you want to know about WW2.

If learning more about breakthrough energy technology itself is your main interest, then you're better of to use an Internet search engine with the phrase "zero point".

The first half of this book was gripping, well-researched and well-argued. I didn't find anything new that I hadn't already read in dozens of UFO and conspiracy web sites, but it was put together and rationalized nicely.

The second half fell apart completely. I think the technical editor just threw his hands up and said "I can't fix this". The second half was a huge Nazi history lesson, without the interesting analysis that the first half contained. It became largely unsupportable conspiracy fluff and was a disappointment.

The glaring errors included saying that the Nazis used gold to shield gamma rays, Uranium-234 is used for atomic bombs, and an even more gross mistake was saying that a Gigawatt of electricity was more than a terawatt of electricity. He also said a gigawatt was what an atomic bomb releases. The fact is an atomic bomb releases millions of terawatts instantly. A single coal power plant or nuclear reactor can trickle out a gigawatt of power.

Those glaring mistakes and the unsupported and unanalyzed tidal wave of Nazi conspiracy fluff ruined this book's credibility.

Nick Cook who writes and edits for Jane's Defence had a good premise for this book. Has anyone discovered Zero Point Energy and its offshoot, anti-gravity? Ultimately, Cook doesn't really prove anything. He covers the history of the Nazi's secret technology projects during WWII at some length. It becomes clear that the US government had obtained this information and has since buried it away in numerous black projects. The one item that sticks in my mind is how Cook was so close minded about the technology he was seeking. His take was if it didn't show up in a technical journal, then the technology was highly suspect to him. He changes his tune towards the end of the book, but his mantra throughout the book is if anyone brings up the term "anti-gravity", they should be questioned for their sanity. The book should be read as a story about how our government operates in secrecy and we can never know the full truth about anything they might tell us.

If you enjoy "X Files", "Roswell", even "Star Trek" for the entertainment value (as I do) you will probably like this book. If you are a passionate believer, or disbeliever, you won't. In "The Hunt for Zero Point" Nick Cook has crafted a very readable, entertaining novel around a subject for which there is little hard evidence, historical or current. And in a field which is rife with conspiracy theories and theorists he manages to underplay this aspect - as a respectable journalist should.

My father-in-law turned me on to this book. He is a taciturn fellow; his comment to me was "there is not a lot here, but you might enjoy it." He was right on both counts, and my guess is he should know. He was an electrical engineer, drafted into the Army during WWII, worked for ARPA, was posted to Germany towards the end of hostilities to help "clean up" after the Wehrmacht, and then went back to DARPA until he retired as a full colonel. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both of his sons work for large defense contractors managing "confidential" engineering projects.

So, regarding that conspiracy theory stuff? Hey, humans hide things from each other - you aren't telling your friends that you dress up in a tutu, suck your thumb and cry while your spouse spanks you, are you? We have our reasons. Our governments have their reasons (security) and our industries do too (to protect revenue).

Imagine trillions of dollars invested in a world-wide infrastructure, millions of people directly employed and many millions more indirectly, large profits and tax revenue generated, and maybe even a belief in the manifest destiny of humankind to fully utilize the resources that God has provided. Along comes a technology that will render the infrastructure obsolete, put all those people out of work, and destroy the profits and tax revenue - overnight. What do you do? You sit on the new technology until the resources are depleted (or until the asteroid strike). That's not a conspiracy, that's just common sense.

Recommended. Buy this book, and enjoy it. Then get on the web and find out that maybe it is not all smoke after all.

This book is absolutely recommended reading for anyone that is interested in the unseen portion of the US military. It also makes a very strong case that many new technologies and events are happening outside the view of the public in the name of national security.

This guy is a terrific author and journalist, no doubt about it. His ability to architect the facts into a compelling story is just icing on the cake. Frankly, his research is compelling enough and the chronology of events he uses to make his case are very well mapped out. He makes some very complex events and theories easily comprehensive to a science novice.

You really need to read the book if you are interested in new technology, old technology, the evolution of technology or want to understand where our society may have recieved many abstract ideas for high tech. The vast military complex is abstract and secretive, Nick Cook does a stellar job of piecing together history and current events.

This is not some nutjob UFO book. He doesn't ramble (as many UFO books do) and doesn't pursue huge conspiracy theories. He does watch the facts and makes me want to go out and do research on my own.

I wish more journalists did work like this guy.... This book is consistently interesting, I couldn't put it down.