The sequence only lasts a few seconds. “Do you believe in free energy?” Says rapper Lorenzo in the video “Who will be the best inventor” by youtuber Michou, published on July 2 and which has 3.2 million views. Two young entrepreneurs have just presented their innovative renewable energy project. Lorenzo, member of the jury, then looks them straight in the eye: “I am serious in what I tell you (sic), find out”, he adds in front of a hilarious audience.
The “free” energy to which the young man refers, Pokémon bob and sunglasses screwed on his nose, is on the rise. On TikTok, videos revealing the “truth” about this miracle solution, accumulate hundreds of thousands of views. While the electricity bill jumped again by 10% in August, the supporters of this belief promise free and unlimited access.
Non-approved devices at 15,000 euros
If the definition of “free” energy varies from one follower to another, one idea always comes up: the principle known as “supernumerary” or “surplus”. By sucking in the surrounding magnetism, the “resonance of water” or even “plasma”, a machine could produce more electricity than is needed for its operation, and thus make it possible to achieve energy autonomy. . Very often, the devices thus include magnets, supposed to harvest this force “derived from the vacuum of space”, such as the Teslabox, a machine at 11,000 euros offered by the company Genecotec, or the “plasma” generator of the Keshe Foundation. , sold for 15,000 euros.
By discovering the existence of these products, the physicist Marie D’Angelo fell from the clouds. “This goes against the principle of conservation – the energy of a system can neither be created nor destroyed, it is conserved – established in the 19th century and never contradicted”, reacts the researcher at the CNRS and Pierre University and Marie Curie in Paris. “The concept of ‘free energy’ also has a very precise meaning in physics, which has nothing to do with these experiments: it is the maximum energy that a system can provide during a transformation at constant temperature”.
Whatever, Roland tried the experiment. This former jack-of-all-trades electromechanic discovered in 2015 the work of a certain Merhan Keshe who presented himself as a “nuclear physicist” and claimed to have discovered “plasma energy”. This Iranian speaker is in fact well known to the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes), which has received ten reports concerning his very lucrative “foundation” between 2016 and today.
At home, Roland reproduces the devices whose plans are freely available online. Fascinated, he decided to travel around France with his wife Violaine to offer workshops to those who would like to set up their own “MaGrav” generators, for “Magnétique gravitationnelle”.
Magnetism, resonance and esotericism
“Our agenda is full until May 2024”, assures the one who offers his services to fifteen people every two weeks for the trifle of 200 euros for the two days of workshops. The activity would have provided him with enough to buy half of the building where he lives in the Haut-Jura. He now trains his disciples there. Roland will not reveal its power consumption to us. But he warns: “these generators only work for 60% of people, we don’t know why, but when it does, it changes the surrounding energy: the neighbors start saying hello,” he smiles.
If the anecdote can make you laugh, Romy Sauvayre takes this kind of allegation very seriously. For the sociologist of science and beliefs at the University of Clermont-Auvergne, this part of mysticism is fertile ground for the sectarian phenomenon. Especially since the two worlds, that of the small electrical hackers and that of the great alternative spiritual people, often intersect. Like Jean-Christophe Dumas, one of the pundits of free energy, the main instigator of the movement, and guest of honor at many esoteric salons.
Since 2013, this “independent researcher” claims to have discovered a form of free energy by immersing a metal ball connected to 220 volts in water. The steam emitted would release more energy than it consumes, by “collapse the vacuum of water particles”, he tries to explain at the beginning of May, at the Demain show. Today is an esoteric gathering organized by the MEET association in Montpellier. A new form of fusion, he launches to the public. Sitting in the front row, a viewer asks: “Why has no application invaded the market for ten years?” The industrial sector and scientists would have remained deaf to its proposals despite its effectiveness, regrets the speaker.
Beyond an antisystem discourse often prized in esoteric circles, Jean-Christophe Dumas integrates occult notions directly into his calculations. According to him, his “resonance reactor” would draw its power from its ideal dimensions. These would correspond in part to the “golden ratio”, a mathematical element which would have magical properties, according to certain spiritual preachers. Still, his calculations have been shown to be false on numerous occasions by scientists.
Autodidacts and geniuses prevented
To understand the craze for these pseudoscientific theories that are easy to refute with measuring devices, according to sociologist Romy Sauvayre, it is necessary to imagine the followers “in a kind of parallel world, in which what seems obvious to the vast majority of people goes be presented as false. Gurus will then rely on the idea that there is a mysterious knowledge, inaccessible, except to insiders, continues the researcher at the CNRS. It is science enthusiasts who will summon it to then trample and show that their theory is better”.
“Electricity fascinates because we do not yet know its limits”, adds historian Alain Beltran, who published in 2016 with Patrice Carré the book Electrical life: 18th-21st century history and imagination (Belin). “Humanity has always dreamed of having access to free and unlimited energy and has placed its hopes in this vector with its absolutely astonishing growth potential, continues the CNRS research director. Electricity has a magical aspect and mysterious that you don’t find in oil, for example”.
A wonder shared by Christophe, to say the least. This autodidact spent more than fifteen years fiddling with coils in his apartment before launching his business of “free energy” generators. The ex-soldier, who calls himself Promethelios in reference to the Greek myth of the appearance of fire on Earth, is convinced: this technology is a new scientific paradigm.
“I am followed by the intelligence services, they often call me,” swears this thirty-year-old who wants to lead a “revolution” inspired by the work of Nikola Tesla, a censored genius according to him. A costly revolution, because you have to pay several thousand euros to get one of your inventions. The reason ? “Those who make the world” block funding.
French law allows people who feel wronged to turn against the crooks, recalls lawyer Jocelyn Ziegler. “They have the right to invent stories, but the case must not be a deception”, summarizes the one who accompanies the victims of online scams. It is then possible to request the nullity of the contract and to be reimbursed. The fraudulent company can be controlled and exposed to a fine between 15,000 and 75,000 euros, or even be closed by the courts for fraud in an organized gang. It is still necessary that the main interested parties realize the deception…