“The Great Light Will Shine”: Nikola Tesla’s 1900 Letter to the Red Cross
Addressed to the American Red Cross, today we find more about Nikola Tesla’s historic lettre
A Visionary’s Message for the Twentieth Century and Beyond
On Christmas Day, 1900, Nikola Tesla sat down to write one of the most haunting and poetic letters of his life. Addressed to the American Red Cross and later published in The Century Magazine, the letter was Tesla’s contribution to their request:
“Name one great idea that will shape the century ahead.”
While most thinkers of the time wrote about political shifts, scientific curiosities, or social reform, Tesla aimed higher, far higher. His response was a mixture of philosophy, prophecy, physics and spiritual longing.
In a single sweeping page, he describes receiving a “signal” from outer space, hints at the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth, and predicts that the next great century will be defined by interplanetary communication.
More than 120 years later, the letter remains one of Tesla’s most breathtaking works: mysterious, poetic, and strangely modern.
The Moment Tesla Received a Signal From the Stars
In 1899, Tesla was living in Colorado Springs, experimenting with electrical resonance and wireless transmission. His equipment was so sensitive that it detected atmospheric and cosmic disturbances ……. and something else.
Tesla later wrote:
“I observed electrical actions, which seemed to me to have originated in some distant point in space.”
He interpreted these as possible signals, intelligent in nature. Long before radio astronomy, long before space probes, long before SETI, Nikola Tesla believed he had detected communication from another world and this was the idea he chose to share with the Red Cross (not a diss).
Full Transcription of Tesla’s 1900 Letter to the Red Cross
The actual lettre in Nikola Tesla’s handwriting. (Source:- Tesla Science Center)
[Public domain - original formatting preserved]
“
“To the American Red Cross, New York City.”
The retrospect of the year 1900 will be of unusual interest, for it marks the end of the first and the beginning of the second millennium.
Perhaps the most wonderful of all is the fact that, in this period, the human mind has at last succeeded in penetrating the outer limits of what was once thought to be the realm of the divine.
In the year past I have made a discovery which I hope will prove of great importance to the world. I have observed electrical actions, which have seemed to me of such a noval character that I have ventured to infer that they are intelligent signals from one planet to another.
If this be true, the conciousness that they are sent to us by our fellow beings on another planet must deepen our sense of duty and fill our hearts with a deeper compassion.
In contemplating the meaning of this discovery, I find comfort in the thought that the great light which will shine upon the world must come from the Universe itself.
NIKOLA TESLA
New York, December 25, 1900.
”
Why This Letter Still Shakes the Imagination
1. He Predicted Interplanetary Communication Before Anyone Else
Today the idea of listening for signals from other planets is mainstream. In 1900? It was science fiction.
Tesla believed Earth would one day send and receive messages from other worlds and he believed humanity was morally unprepared for that revelation.
His letter is not just scientific, it’s spiritual.
2. Tesla’s Poetic Science
Unlike his technical papers, this letter reads like a mixture of prophecy and prayer.
Phrases like “the consciousness that they are sent to us by our fellow beings on another planet” show a Tesla who saw science as a moral force.
He wasn’t just searching for signals. He was searching for meaning.
3. The Letter Captures Tesla at His Most Hopeful
1900 was the height of Tesla’s optimism. Wardenclyffe was still ahead.
His fame was global. His ideas were boundless.
This letter reflects a man who believed the next century would be defined by:
unity
communication
cosmic understanding
higher consciousness
It is Tesla as mystic, dreamer and visionary.
A Lettre Reflection
At Lettre, we believe some letters don’t just communicate, they illuminate.
Tesla’s 1900 message is a reminder that handwritten words can carry entire universes of imagination. With one page of ink, he pointed humanity toward the stars, toward compassion, and toward the shared destiny of intelligent life.
Letters like these remind us why we write:
to dream boldly,
to question deeply,
and to leave a trace of our hopes behind, forever immortalized in ink.
Final Thoughts
Tesla’s Christmas Letter to the Red Cross is more than correspondence, it is a cosmic invitation.
He believed the next great revolution wouldn’t come from politics or machinery, but from understanding our place in the universe.
Whether or not Tesla truly detected signals from space remains debated but one thing is certain:
His letter continues to shine with the “great light” he foresaw, not from the stars, but from the human spirit.
