>When I asked Rushton about it, he said Padgett distorted the rhythm and mixed between the major and minor keys to get it to harmonize.

Mixing and matching disparate things and bastardizing them to synthesize them into some whole is also a hallmark crankpot move. Add in things like turning to God for direction, a codebreaking obsession, and so on, and yes, this all walks and talks like a crankpot theory.

Add in Elgar's apparent appreciation of playing jokes on people, and you have what seems like the full story here.