<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Teleportation is an instantaneous transportation of an object or person from one location to another by the power of one's own mind & not by mechanical means. This may occur through solid objects and over long distances. Teleportation as an innate paranormal ability has been explored in books such as Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination (1957) and Steven Gould's Jumper (1992). Teleportation via technology was made famous by the TV series Star Trek. It is often referred to as "beaming," as in the series' signature line, "Beam me up, Scotty." But this is a corruption of the Teleportation definition and is in reality called "Matter Transmission". The first known corruption of the proper definition of "teleportation" is attributed to the original Legion of Super-Heroes comic where some villians used a "teleport ray" to escape from the legion.

The term is credited to Charles Fort, an early 20th century chronicler of anomalous events. Fort's use suggested that it could happen spontaneously and involuntarily.

Fort on Teleportation

Charles Fort addresses the issue most thoroughly in Lo! (1931). Here is Fort talking about the origin:

The look to me is that, throughout what is loosely called Nature, teleportation exists as a means of distribution of things and materials, and that sometimes human beings have command, mostly unconsciously, though perhaps sometimes as a development from research and development of this force.

Fort sees a future for the use of it a bit further on in the book:

The outstanding suggestion which, however, like many other suggestions, I cannot now develop, is that, if Teleportation exits, it may be used. It may be criminally used, or it may be used commercially. Cargoes, without ships, and freights, without trains, may be all the traffics of the future. There may be teleportative voyages from planet to planet.