In our days of dangerous disagreement, trashing of nuclear treaties, climate change denial and the question of AI, friend or foe, I make note herein of a unique and exceptional consensus promoting a fuller recognition of Nikola Tesla for his unmeasured as yet contributions with a dedicated special day for his celebration through the international community. The consensual group of independent parties working separately has come together in final concert. They include the competent authorities of Serbia (MFA, Ambassador Dr Ljiljana Niksic, National Coordinator, Strategic Campaign “Tesla-Energy of Peace", 2023; the Serbian House of Engineers (President, Ilija Ćosić), Belgrade; the World Philosophical Forum, Athens; and participants from many countries who, in the United Nations Palais des Nations, Geneva (December 2025), supported the resolution of the World Philosophical Forum. It was hoped that this consensual resolution would fan the still glowing embers of Tesla’s fire into flame and, if acted upon, help illuminate the prestige of the international community and give it additional prominence. Certainly, its signal is on the rise, but the background noise is still significant.

Nikolas Tesla was a giant in several dimensions. Its magnitude still awaits accurate establishment. While UNESCO’s Memory of the World registry recognises his significant influence on the technological development of our entire civilisation, there is also a sense of awareness that the world has not yet paid tribute to his achievements in a way they deserve. Consequently, his value to humanity is continually being reevaluated and further recognised. Two recent examples: His name has been given to an electric car and to the strength of magnets and is used, for example, in magnetic tomography where free water in the body can be excited and, in relaxation, emit a signal that provides an image of the body part.

At this time of geopolitical crisis, his name is a current reminder of electricity, which is the end goal from all fuel use and alternate energy sources (solar). The coming energy crisis means a reduced flow of electricity to homes, which will challenge humanity to the limits. Just imagine returning home one evening and there is no light in the house or going to the office in the morning and no computer turns on to tell you the date and time, no candle and no abacus. Now imagine life without electricity and think of Nikola Tesla. Now think of the unfulfilled life and ponder Socrates. What? No eggs? What? No electricity. What a muddled world we live in with good and bad wars.

The window to avert the crisis is closing. Its opening a bit or more should not cultivate a sense of false security. The existential risks are alive and thriving. Averting global catastrophe should concern all of us. Our highest-level goal should be to preserve our humanity by reinforcing human rights, exerting our civic responsibility as global citizens and with policy enactment that ensures that our children and our children’s children have the means to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives.

On the 18th of December 2025, the World Philosophical Forum, Athens, participated in an international conference entitled Non-Governmental Organisations of Europe and Asia: Dialogue for Sustainable Development 2026 (18/12/2025) under the umbrella of the International Association of Peace Foundations and its president, Chess Master Anatoly Karpov. It was a means to build upon the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals. It was held in the inspirational setting of the Palais des Nations, where I had the privilege of moderating the first panel, Sustainable Development Goals and the Philosophy of NGOs, in 2026. I saw Geneva as another opportunity to focus on the life of Nikola Tesla, an illustrious American coming from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as a triumphant culmination of collaboration with the legitimate Serbian authorities along a trajectory which took off in Athens in 2023 during the 14th Dialectical Symposium of the World Philosophical Forum (2023). In Athens and in Delphi Nikola Tesla was cross-examined by Socrates while electromagnetics enlivened the creative dialogue.

I refer to my Tesla challenge, which grew into a memorable experience, a challenge that at times seemed far beyond my current abilities or those of the World Philosophical Forum. It became an all-consuming goal to promote a specific designated day in his name by the international community. The way to such a day has proved an interesting adventure. During the event in Geneva, I presented a talk entitled Flights of fancy in the company of accelerated and potentiated cognition (AI) and presented a resolution that, if acted upon by the United Nations, would result in the establishment of an International Day of Remembrance for Nikola Tesla coincident with 170 years since his birth and specifically July 10th, 2026. Our resolution was unanimously adopted. In Geneva, I referred to the UN’s upcoming revisit to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which is now ongoing in New York, as this article sees the light of day.

I left Geneva hopeful that Nikola Tesla would be remembered by the United Nations in New York at the end of January 2026, thinking that such a UN action can help replenish faith in democratic government, provide hope for the future and help strengthen the international community. A surprise invitation to be in Belgrade on Earth Day 2026 gave my adventure a new lease on life. The event was a new stimulus.

The recent Belgrade event has given me yet another chance to raise my voice and call for the return of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) to the world’s front stage and to be remembered as a prodigious inventor, luminary and linguist as well as a master of holy and physical light. Herein, I provide a few highlights on his life and describe acts of profound respect and solidarity that symbolise a strong bond between Serbian technological talent and American progress. He helped lay the foundations of the modern world. Will I be heard?

On the recent Day of Logic (mathematical, physiological, and philosophical) I recalled Nikola Tesla and continued to promote his own special day in the sun, while at the time of Easter I asked that candles be lit for Tesla, whose fate was to become a neglected genius. In continuum, the World Philosophical Forum, Athens, still fully caught up in an attempt to bridge the philosophies of Socrates and Tesla, now makes renewed efforts to convince the international community to support a special award in his name, having, late last year in Geneva, arrived at our resolution that was inserted into many corridors of the international community. The corridors of power seem binary in nature, sometimes acting as a communications conduit, but they more often act as a wind tunnel. Our resolution served as footwork and feedback on Earth Day, 2026.

Thomas Jefferson was right to raise his voice, however, to ask, 'Is anybody there?' He was unsure of any listener! He was worried about whether there would be any listeners; he was unsure of control. It seems difficult to be heard. Trying to penetrate the international community is almost impossible. But why not? Perhaps we have not yet convinced António Guterres, UN Secretary General, that Tesla’s visionary thought can continue to inspire the world today. While the UN Secretary General has, of course, the most challenging role of keeping hell at bay on earth, the international community needs all the help it can get. We have addressed it in many ways, through Geneva and through New York and through UN ambassadors. We have addressed the Economic and Social Council Committee (ECOSOC), New York, (Coordination Segment, 28 - 29 January 2026) directly and through the good offices of Viktor Fersht, International Association of Peace Foundations, with consultative status to ECOSOC. We forwarded our Nikola Tesla resolution on in a timely proposal through the International Association of Peace Foundations. Maybe this time around…?

On Earth Day 2026 and 170 years since Tesla’s birth, a number of prestigious earthlings were honoured and will add charge and steam to our mission. The Tesla medallists of Earth Day include Maria Stromme, member of the Swedish and Norwegian Academies of Science, consultant of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry and specialist in nanotechnology; Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, Inc.; Barry Gusi, founder of the prestigious Gusi Peace Prize and now the Museum of Peace “Nikola Tesla”, Manila, a world first; Barbara Daddino, owner of the historical house of Nikola Tesla and author of the book Tesla’s Cottage; Aleksandra Vasilijevic, youngest engineer and alumni of Tesla Motors Inc.; and Hu Peng, founder of the first Nikola Tesla Academy in Asia.

Earth Day 2026 was chosen to mark the 170th anniversary of the birth of Nikola Tesla, our most significant scientist, who was honoured with great ceremony by the House of Engineers in Belgrade. It occurred during an international conference, 'Vision for the Development of Electrical Engineering Sciences in the Republic of Serbia in the First Half of the 21st Century'. Representatives of the scientific and academic community, engineers, professors, and students from the country and from abroad gathered to highlight the significance of the vision of one of the greatest ever minds in world history. In addressing the conference, the President of the House said, 'Today we pay tribute to a giant produced by this small Balkan nation who is respected by the entire planet, having had a great influence on the historical currents of our civilisation and having made a key contribution to the progress of humanity.'

Nikola Tesla came close to marriage and to an ordinary path through life. Whether true or not, he is said to have said, 'Few great inventions have been made by married men.' Towards the final curtain and with nostalgia he recalled a girl he had known in his youth who had hypnotic eyes. While in his cottage at Wardenclyffe-on-Sound, he looked back on his life. He didn’t look back with regret, except perhaps with respect to his mother, from whom he acquired experience in making things and a bent for innovation. He wrote, 'My thoughts are of you, Mother…. I wish I could be beside you now to bring you a glass of water….

These years that I have spent in the service of mankind brought nothing but insults and humiliation.' He hid from reporters in the cottage and remembered the days of swimming and walking through woods in childhood. He took the path to greatness, carrying with him the contraptions and memories of childhood, theatre and imagination and knowledge of languages, religions and philosophy as his formative mind straddled the Greek-Latin line. He was one with nature, water and animals. To the end, he found joy in toys. In Chicago (1917) he demonstrated an electrically driven and controlled toy boat that had only two directions. In Seattle, and in temporal overlap, another boat of larger proportions was riding the waves. Throughout life he would feed pigeons and identified with the white dove of peace. He died poor and abandoned. At the Chicago International Exposition, Grover Cleveland, the 24th president of the United States, illuminated the city of Chicago with lamps that operated with alternating current.

The World Philosophical Forum is on record of having requested the President of the USA through his good offices to approve a commemorative U.S. 24-karat gold coin featuring on one side the portrait of Nikola Tesla and on the other an American eagle over Niagara Falls. We also suggested that he has a window of opportunity with the 2026 Semiquincentennial Coin and Medal Program Liberty (Then, Now and Forever).

Nikola Tesla’s face and his technology are found on several American stamps printed to celebrate his phenomenal work. As a scientist he stood on a par with three American Nobel Prize winners in physics, namely Edward Williams Morley (1838 – 1923), who measured the atomic weight of oxygen and presided over the American Chemistry Society; Robert Andrews Millikan (1868 – 1953), who with his oil drop experiment confirmed quantum theory; and Albert Michelson (1852), who invented the interferometer, added meaning to the concept of wave-particle duality, and pinned down the elusive velocity of light. The latter was born in Poland and arrived in America as a young boy. Tesla arrived as a young adult and died in New York. All three have been honoured by the United States of America. Adding some limited edition to celebrate Tesla keyed to his birthday, 10th July, will add to the American journey through history. It will serve as an inspiring knock-on effect to the United Nations.

We messaged the World Economic Forum, which is committed to improving the state of the world by engaging the foremost political, business, cultural, and other leaders of society with enormous knowledge to shape global, regional, and industrial agendas; it has never invested a shred in philosophy. one message: Dear Davosians, in the absence of philosophically enhanced civic education, the brain can be melded in more destructive ways, and social dementia will continue to grow. Tell your special guest Mr Trump and all representatives of the international community about Nikola Tesla. It can help strengthen your motto, Rebuilding Trust 2024. Such an initiative might hold back snowmelt on the slopes of Davos and act as a knock-on effect to a needed new mindset. Let Tesla be the catalyst.

Nikola Tesla became a dedicated New Yorker and a stylish, dapper dresser. Important musical compositions have been written in his memory, including a mini-opera, while a special brandy named after him is available. The well-known plum brandy Slivovitz has been added to the World Heritage list, and once the Serbian flag flew over the White House (1918). Another Serbian-American scientist, Mihajlo Pupin, played an important role in American science and as a founding member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which later became NASA, that helped take America to the moon. Recently America and Artemis have enabled man to look onto its dark side. Tesla can help enlighten the dark shadows on earth.

Quoting from Tesla’s official calendar for this year, 2026, if hatred could be transformed into electricity, there would be enough energy for the whole world. Today no one is winning much of anything while earth and humanity are suffering great loss. My birthday wishes to Michelle Obama said, 'However bright your candles are, my candle for you is a lighthouse brighter.' Have a wonderful birthday. And please light a candle in the name of Nikola Tesla, who in 1897 switched on the world's first hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls to light up the night and enlighten humanity.

In 1900 Tesla received a patent for the wireless transmission of electrical energy, just one of his several hundred. One was designated an energy shield. So let’s remember his great achievements, his works which respected earth and humanity and his endurance. Let Tesla be our catalyst. We need the Teslas of the world to save it.

While we have made great effort to gain contact at several levels and through many channels, no feedback has been forthcoming. It reminded me of several previous messages conveying the message that it is very difficult to reach the UN, so please forgive this misaddressed message, and if there is a good Samaritan within your ranks, good; then please take this article into consideration.

In a most timely way and with no Good Samaritan coming down the road, Nikola Tesla was celebrated at home on Earth Day, 170 years from his birth, as a creative means to imagine and visualise the development of electrical sciences in the Republic of Serbia in the first half of the 21st century. Permit me another electrical metaphor by wishing that this conference will contribute to an impedance matching between Serbia’s present and future as well as a knock-on force to the international community to accept its Tesla Charter. Tesla’s Hymn of the Planet, performed by prima donna Aleksandra Stanišić, can provide no better finale.

For those wrapped up in the necessary restoration of the Non-Proliferation Treaty of Nuclear Weapons, a cornerstone of global security and stability, I say that the ongoing 11th Review Conference should not forget the concept of parallel development. While the UN Secretary-General says that hard-won norms are eroding and arms control is dying as a result of a state of collective amnesia placing mankind under the shadow of potential nuclear Armageddon, we say that the still resonant voice of Nikola Tesla and the global reverberations calling for a return of his contemplative philosophical know-how in our uncertain age of existential issues and of artificial intelligence should not be postponed by the international community. Let me add that Tesla’s Hymn of the Planet is a good finale for the 11th Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. A day in the sun of the United Nations for Nikola Tesla, namely each 10th July, is easy and reasonable.

Notes

On Tesla’s birthday (10 July 2026) I will hold my own private event on a summery Greek island, while in autumn the WPF, Athens, will conduct a small special event in Delphi, the centre of the universe.
A message to the UN General Assembly. Jeffrey Levett.
Nikola Tesla cross-examined by Socrates., Jeffrey Levett.
A decade of windmill tilting, Athens 2009-19?, Jeffrey Levett.
On Reading Your Press Release (INFIMES): Additions and New Thoughts While Promoting a Day in the Sun for Nikola Tesla (1856-2026).
Barbara Daddino, Tesla’s Cottage. Amazon Publishing.
Richard Gunderman, “The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla: The Eccentric Inventor and Modern Prometheus Died 75 Years Ago, After a Rags-to-Riches-to-Rags Life.” The Conversation, 2018.
Jeffrey Levett, various messages, documentation, and requests addressed to participants in Geneva and entities within the international community. These communications highlighted, among other concerns, the difficulty of reaching the United Nations and finding meaningful support within the international community. They also emphasized the exceptional legacy of Nikola Tesla, which was later incorporated into a unanimously adopted resolution circulated widely within the United Nations system. The documentation additionally referred to adverse weather conditions over the Balkans, which prevented the Belgrade delegation from arriving in Geneva.
The Nikola Tesla Jubilee Charter. House of Engineers Belgrade, 22 April 2026.