John Charles Bedini
(1949-2016)
John Bedini was born in Glendale, Ca. on July 13,1949 to Rosalee and Alex Bedini. Growing up John had a passion for the electrical sciences. He and his brother Gary ran electronics manufacturing businesses for over 40 years. John had a natural talent for designing electronic circuits, and one of his passions was designing prototype energy devices, some of which he went on to share with the public.
Johns first design released to the public was in 1984 in a booklet.
The design was a DC motor which drove a magneto style energizer and a flywheel and commutator arrangement which switched between motor and generator functions. John noticed that when all of the variables and timing were correct that the battery driving the machine charged itself. It led John on a journey to try and explain how this could occur within the realms of thermodynamic understanding.
John would spend countless hours studying his designs, the waveforms they produced, the counter-intuitive nature of the circuits and the works of others who came before him and who wrestled to understand their observations within their disciplines.
The Evolution of Bedini’s Design: A Shift in Understanding
John Bedini’s earliest energizer designs relied on commutator switching, a method that introduced inefficiencies and operational instability. As he refined his work, he transitioned to a two-battery system, integrating the drive and energizer functions into a single rotor while employing transistors for improved reliability. This journey led him to question the nature of reactive power in impulse DC systems and the enigmatic role of electrical transients—those fleeting bursts of energy that conventional circuits sought to suppress.
The monopole motor was born from these inquiries, and Bedini chose to share his discoveries with the world. Yet, instead of appreciation, he was met with skepticism, misinterpretation, and fierce debate. The response to his work revealed more about human nature than electrical engineering. Many saw his invention as the key to boundless wealth and effortless energy, believing it could lead to a machine that powers itself indefinitely. But those who pursued Bedini’s work solely for personal gain ultimately found themselves frustrated, unable to achieve the impossible dream of endless energy. I must admit, I once shared this mindset.
The Bedini Monopole: A Single Cycle in Action
What John originally called the Monopole was never just a motor. It was a teaching tool, a demonstrator of principle—a living parable in copper and magnets. But as the design evolved, so did the understanding of what it truly represented. Today, we might better describe it as a Rotary Amplifier.
In essence, this system does not “produce” energy. It amplifies a hidden form of energy already present—drawing it out through timing, impedance control, and inductive collapse. Much like a Class D audio amplifier pulses current to generate sound, this machine pulses magnetic collapse to generate a high-voltage signal—only here, the output isn’t a speaker. It’s a battery. A wet cell. A chemical abyss.
The battery—often thought of as a static reservoir—is in fact more like a field of potential, an abyss of entropy. And what is the amplifier doing? It is speaking into the deep.
The operation of this amplifier is a cycle of transduction and timing. It begins when the rotor magnet triggers a transistor, allowing a pulse of current to energize the coil. This creates a magnetic field, which imparts movement to the rotor. But the real magic happens not in the energizing, but in the collapse.
When the pulse ends and the field collapses, it produces a sharp, high-voltage transient—what some call back EMF, but is more accurately described as the energy of inductive collapse. In most systems, this is wasted, quenched, or suppressed. But here, it is harnessed. Directed. Conditioned.
The coil acts as a reactive pump, and the capacitor or secondary battery becomes the reservoir. But crucially, the machine is not prioritizing current—it is prioritizing voltage. As Bedini and Lindemann noted, current is what causes drag under Lenz’s Law. Voltage alone does not.
“The motor must operate in a pure ‘free wheel mode’ in between torque pulses. The energizer must charge into a capacitor so its output is biased toward voltage production and away from current… This reduces the reverse motoring effect.”
Even the flywheel becomes symbolically rich. It stores mechanical energy between pulses, smoothing out the system. But more than that, it allows the motor to breathe—to coast between input bursts, embodying the rhythm of rest and action, pulse and glide. The rotary amplifier is not a brute-force engine. It’s an instrument—tuned for resonance.
“The system can produce 100% of its energy at reduced back EMF and make all of it available to the battery… This machine cannot work without a proportional flywheel and a good, low-friction bearing system.”
The popular obsession with perpetual motion machines misses the point entirely. This system does not run forever. It invites energy. It opens a gate. It interacts with the surrounding field—not as a taker, but as a translator. What we call “overunity” is not magic, but tuning—reducing resistance, managing impedance, increasing the quality of transference.
The Illusion of Power and the Reality of Transference
The greatest misunderstanding surrounding Bedini’s work was the obsession with perpetual motion—the belief that energy could be harvested endlessly, without cost. Many saw his invention as a means to escape scarcity, to dominate energy rather than understand it. But energy, by nature, is not something to be hoarded. It is something that moves, that transforms, that passes through.
“The term ‘free energy’ is false and should not be used because it’s not free—you must work for it, to use it.”
—John Bedini
And yet, that “work” is not heavy labor—it is tuning, timing, understanding. It is the careful management of impedance, the alignment of a system with the qualities that allow for smooth exchange. Voltage, not current. Rest, not resistance. Harmony, not coercion. Bedini’s system does not generate energy from nothing. Like an amplifier, it magnifies what is already present. And like a resonant chamber, it must be shaped to let the signal pass through cleanly. This is the subtle but profound truth at the heart of his work: power is not about possession—it is about transference.
“After my 35 years of experiments with the term ‘free energy’ and ‘over unity machines’… this is what it turns out to be: reactive power. And that’s it.”
—John Bedini
The Two Paths: A Reflection on Inquiry and Intent
It took nearly a decade of study before I realized that Bedini’s design was not merely a lesson in electrical principles—it was a mirror reflecting the human condition. Some approached his work as a means to achieve independence, mastery, even dominance over energy. They pursued control, expecting a formula that would deliver predictable power. But the deeper nature of the system resists that posture. It does not yield to force—it responds to alignment.
This divergence in approach mirrors a broader tension—between those who seek knowledge as leverage, and those who seek it as language. One aims to extract results. The other to tune with reality.
Just as the machine must be balanced, timed, and allowed to breathe, so too must the heart of the inquirer. Curiosity must replace conquest. Reverence must replace demand.
Those who treat the circuit as a mystery to be aligned with often find more than answers. They find transformation.
The Bedini Circuit as an Allegory for Energy and Humanity
John’s circuit behaves much like an audio amplifier or a DC-DC boost converter—devices designed not to create energy, but to manage and transform it. This distinction is crucial: the system is not about extraction, but exchange. Energy is not merely spent—it is conditioned, redirected, and renewed.
To grasp what Bedini was demonstrating, one must go beyond conventional electrical engineering and ask deeper questions: Where does energy originate? What enables its movement? And what kind of system allows it to grow rather than decay?
Modern science often frames all systems as entropic—destined to lose energy over time. But Bedini’s design hints at something different. It behaves more like a life system—a syntropic mechanism that increases capacity through alignment and rhythm. An open-loop system that breathes.
Man cannot build a machine that lifts an apple without burning energy. Yet a tree lifts tons of apples into the sky—gracefully, silently—without violating any laws. What if growth, not decay, is the deeper logic of creation?
This circuit does not violate the laws of thermodynamics. It reorients them. It reveals that reactive energy—when tuned with care—can be amplified. That potential, when honored rather than controlled, can become power. And that power, when released in rhythm, can give life to what was once dormant.
To see Bedini’s machine rightly is to see ourselves differently.
Not as consumers.
But as conductors.
Not as extractors.
But as those invited to participate in the cyclical transformation of energy and being.
Perhaps this leads us to ponder the age-old question…
What, if anything, is eternal?