Imagine the possibility of time travel—the ability to visit any point in the past or future, witnessing the rise and fall of empires or meeting people who shaped the world as we know it.
Time travel has long been a staple of science fiction, inspiring imaginations through novels, films, and comic books. But what if someone, against all odds, made time travel a reality?
This brings us to the story of Mike Marham—a man who claims to have built a time machine in his very own backyard.
We’ll explore who Mike Marham is, how he claims to have constructed his time machine, and why his story has captivated the minds of so many.
Is this a hoax, or is there a sliver of truth to the wild claims?
Who Is Mike Marham?
Mike Marham wasn’t always the eccentric figure the world now knows.
Born in 1975 in a small town in upstate New York, Mike grew up with a deep passion for science, particularly physics. His early years were relatively ordinary—no significant academic achievements, no early signs of genius that might have hinted at his future endeavors. He was the middle child of a family of five, and his father worked as a mechanic while his mother stayed at home to raise him and his siblings.
As a child, Marham was obsessed with two things: building things with his hands and reading science fiction novels. He found solace in the works of Isaac Asimov, H.G. Wells, and Arthur C. Clarke. His favorite was Wells’ The Time Machine, a novel that captivated him so much that he claimed to have read it over a hundred times by the age of fifteen. While most kids his age were content with typical childhood hobbies, Marham was dissecting the mechanics behind science fiction concepts and dreaming of the day he could replicate them.
After finishing high school, Marham pursued a degree in mechanical engineering at a small, local college. He wasn’t particularly notable in his academic performance—no groundbreaking discoveries or notable inventions—but he was persistent, and his professors often remarked on his curiosity and hunger for knowledge.
A Mind on the Edge
After college, Marham took a regular job at an industrial equipment manufacturer. His life seemed to settle into an ordinary rhythm—working a 9-to-5 job, spending his weekends tinkering in his garage, and continuing to devour science fiction. But everything changed in 2012, when Marham had what he described as a “moment of profound clarity.” According to him, the idea for building a time machine came to him while he was daydreaming during lunch break.
In interviews, Marham often describes this moment as an epiphany. He claims that a flood of complex equations and ideas filled his mind, something he now believes was a form of “divine intervention” or “cosmic insight.” Skeptics, of course, chalk it up to an overactive imagination, but Marham insists that this was the point where everything began to change.
Armed with a newfound sense of purpose, Marham quit his job and began working on his time machine full-time. It was a decision that raised more than a few eyebrows in his small town. Friends and family thought he was having a mid-life crisis, but Marham pressed on, pouring all his savings into obscure pieces of machinery, books on quantum physics, and online courses in theoretical physics.
Building the Time Machine
Marham began constructing his time machine in his backyard, documenting the entire process meticulously through notes, video diaries, and sketches. His “time machine,” as he referred to it, started as a strange assemblage of scrap metal, discarded electronics, and unusual parts he found online. At first glance, it looked like an oversized and incredibly messy engine from a failed invention.
But according to Marham, it wasn’t the machine’s appearance that mattered—it was the way it worked. He based his design on a combination of quantum mechanics, relativity theory, and a lesser-known concept called “tesseract theory.” Tesseract theory, popular in science fiction but rarely discussed seriously in scientific circles, postulates that time is another dimension that can be manipulated similarly to spatial dimensions.
Marham’s machine was essentially a large, spherical chamber made from reinforced steel. Inside, it housed a complex array of magnets, lasers, and rotating gyroscopic systems that, when activated, were supposed to bend the space-time continuum. Marham spent over three years developing his machine, sourcing rare parts from across the world and using his engineering skills to construct it on a shoestring budget.
First “Test” of the Time Machine
On June 13, 2016, Marham announced on a social media post that he had successfully “traveled through time.” According to his post, after months of testing and small-scale trials, he had activated the machine and experienced a brief “dislocation from time.” He claimed to have jumped forward by two hours during his first test.
At first, no one believed him. His small online following treated it as a joke, dismissing his claim as either delusional or a failed attempt to garner attention. But Marham remained adamant. He provided a series of video logs and timestamped footage showing what he claimed to be his proof. In one video, Marham appears inside his machine, recording himself at 12:00 noon. The next clip shows him emerging from the machine with his clock now reading 2:00 PM, even though he insists that only a few minutes passed inside the chamber.
Critics quickly pointed out that the video could easily have been faked with clever editing, and no independent verification was available. However, Marham wasn’t deterred by the skepticism and continued experimenting with his machine, even claiming to have traveled days into the future in later tests.
Controversial Figure
Despite the lack of concrete evidence, Mike Marham’s story began to gain traction online. As people shared his videos, his followers grew, and soon, mainstream media outlets started picking up the story. Was this a brilliant hoax, or had an ordinary man stumbled onto one of the greatest discoveries in human history? The more Marham talked about his time machine, the more the public’s fascination grew.
Some compared him to Nikola Tesla—a misunderstood genius who saw the world in ways no one else could. Others branded him a modern-day con artist, exploiting people’s love of science fiction for fame and possibly financial gain. A number of scientific skeptics debunked his theories, pointing out the impossibility of time travel as described by Marham. But for every scientist who dismissed him, there were just as many online communities rooting for him to prove the skeptics wrong.
The Science (or Lack Thereof)
It’s essential to consider the actual science behind Mike Marham’s claims.
Mainstream physics has a clear stance on time travel: it’s theoretically possible to travel into the future under certain extreme conditions, but nowhere near practical.
Einstein’s theory of general relativity allows for the possibility of “closed timelike curves” or wormholes, but these ideas exist mostly in the realm of theoretical physics, far removed from anything that could be constructed in a backyard.
Quantum mechanics also introduces intriguing possibilities like quantum entanglement and time dilation, but the scales at which these phenomena occur are microscopic and have never been observed to transport objects—or people—through time.
Marham’s claims largely ignore these constraints. His explanations are filled with buzzwords like “quantum flux” and “gravitational distortion,” but when scrutinized, they fall short of scientific rigor. His reliance on fringe concepts like tesseract theory only adds to the skepticism surrounding his story.
A Modern Myth?
Today, Mike Marham’s time machine is both an enigma and a source of entertainment. To his ardent supporters, he is an unsung genius—a backyard scientist who has done the impossible. To others, he is nothing more than a modern snake oil salesman. Despite the polarized opinions, his story has sparked new conversations about time travel, the limits of science, and the power of human imagination.
The machine now sits dormant in Marham’s backyard, rusting and weathering with time. He claims he’s still refining the machine, waiting for the perfect moment to prove the world wrong. Whether that moment will ever come remains to be seen. But for now, Marham is content to remain an icon of modern folklore—the man who tried to bend time itself with nothing more than spare parts and an unshakable belief in the impossible.
Fact or Fiction?
Mike Marham’s tale is a blend of fact and fiction, science and fantasy. Whether or not he truly built a working time machine, his story is a testament to our fascination with the concept of time travel.
Mike Marham will never prove that his time machine works, but his story raises bigger questions.
How far are we willing to go in pursuit of the unknown? And at what point does the line between genius and madness blur beyond recognition?
The man who built a time machine in his backyard may never travel through time, but his tale will certainly live on for years to come.