Now the 79-year-old British- born Oregon resident is tackling theoretical physics.

He says he's discovered a limitless source of free energy - gravitational force - that will illuminate the world's cities and power faster-than-light spaceships to the stars.

A yet-to-be-built "electromagnetic vacuum engine" will harness gravity and supply "an endless, clean supply of energy that would free us from foreign oil," according to Masters.

The American Physical Society says Masters' theory is bunk.

Yet it's allowing him to present his ideas today at its Denver meeting, which has drawn more than 7,000 physicists.

Why would a pre-eminent scientific society, whose 46,000 members include Nobel Prize winners, permit a presentation it considers nonsensical?