Montauk: the REAL LIFE Stranger Things
Which one’s real - the portal? The Demogorgon? An incompetent government? ...yes.
Conspirators!
Did you know that the Stranger Things television series is not-so-loosely based on a real life conspiracy theory known as the Montauk Project? In fact, the plot was so similar to the theory, that the creator of a 2012 short film on Montauk tried to sue the producers who brought Stranger Things to Netflix. (He later dropped the lawsuit for undisclosed reasons. Probably scared of what Eleven would do.)
So let’s get on our bicycles, ride around the neighborhood, and get into some 1980s, governmental, human-rights-violating shenanigans!
Can’t we Just Tauk?
The Montauk Project is a conspiracy theory alleging that the US government conducted a series of secret projects at Camp Hero (also known as Montauk Air Force Station) in Montauk, New York. The purposes of these experiments were wide ranging, but were mainly dedicated to developing psychological warfare techniques and conducting exotic research into time travel and extraterrestrials.
Nearly every detail surrounding the alleged events at Camp Hero comes from a book written by Preston Nichols and Peter Moon, titled The Montauk Project: Experiment in Time. The first person accounts in the book series (yeah, it’s a series now and apparently classified as sci-fi rather than non-fiction…) were gathered from the previously repressed memories of Nichols and others, all of whom remember being subjected to the experiments going on there.
Fuck them kids
According to Nichols, the facility housed children - all male, dubbed “Montauk Boys.” The scientists conducted experiments on them to tap into their psychokinetic abilities, sent them through spacetime portals, and broke them psychologically to implant subconscious commands. Nichols also mentions something called the “Montauk Chair” that amplifies psychic abilities.
Nichols talks about how each boy was abducted from their home, much like “Eleven” (the character played by Millie Bobby Brown in the series). In Stranger Things, the scientists wanted the children to use their psychic powers to spy on other world powers. But in Nichols book on Montauk, he claims the facility wanted the boys to use their powers to spy on extraterrestrials.
The experiment called "The Seeing Eye" described below by Nichols is insanely close to the one performed on Eleven when she opened The Upside Down:
With a lock of a person's hair or other appropriate object in his hand, [the test subject] could concentrate on the person and be able to see as if he was seeing through their eyes, hearing through their ears, and feeling through their body. He could actually see through other people anywhere on the planet.
Wait, so there really was a monster??
Yes. And it led to a shut down of the facility in 1983. Then they filled the site with cement to be safe. Check the text below from Nichols book:
The contingency program was activated by someone approaching [the test subject] while he was in the chair and simply whispering "The time is now." At this moment, he let loose a monster from his subconscious. And the transmitter actually portrayed a hairy monster. It was big, hairy, hungry and nasty. But it didn't appear underground in the null point. It showed up somewhere on the base. It would eat anything it could find. And it smashed everything in sight.
Take a trip to The Upside Down
Holy rabbit hole Batman, the research for today’s email had me reading for hours last night. Check some of it out below.
Two part podcast on Montauk. Part 1 and Part 2
Note here -- this podcast gives great overviews of the theories but definitely takes a less fun approach. They’re not trying to believe them, more so trying disprove them.
A longer read from AllThatIsInteresting.com
Also a super weird part of this theory: Nichols and another of the alleged subjects are of the belief that the time portal opened in Montauk in the 1980s actually connected to a portal in 1943, also being built by the US Government. And that the USS Eldridge disappeared through this portal during the alleged Philadelphia Experiment. (PS, the Philadelphia Experiment is wild in its own right. Recommend checking it out a bit.)
So it certainly sounds like the creators of Stranger Things just took this whole theory, stuck it in Indiana, and called it their own. What do you all think? Let us know with a comment!
And as always, stay ‘spicious.
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