Camp Gagnon - Stranger Things Was REAL: Inside the Montauk Project

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

What was the Montauk Project, and was it really sinister? Today, we take a closer look at the stories behind one of the most famous government research projects. We’ll talk about the beginning origins of the Montauk Project, the Montauk Boys Program, the Philadelphia Experiment, the Stranger Things connection, strange conspiracies, and other intriguing topics... Welcome to CAMP! 🏕️Shoutout to our sponsors:Brunt, Morgan & MorganGet $10 off at BRUNT with code "CAMP" at http://bruntworkwear.com/CAMP 👕🧢 GET YOUR CAMP DRIP HERE: http://camp-rd.com🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.com🎩👽 Daily Dose Of History Here: https://www.dailytodayinhistory.comTimestamps:0:00 Origins of Montauk Project1:50 Camp Hero Military Base4:18 The Philadelphia Experiment8:40 Camp Hero Conspiracies10:52 Preston Nichols’s Past Memories of Montauk12:42 The Montauk Chair15:54 Montauk Boys Program17:29 Duncan Cameron’s Montauk Monster20:07 Al Beich’s Philadelphia Experiment Connection24:17 Montauk Turned Into a Park25:43 Preston Nichols’s Wildest Claims28:36 The Stranger Things Connection32:55 Will Eleven DIE Last Season?33:45 Christos Has a Hot Take34:40 Christos Shoots His Shot#history #horror #mystery #scary #foryou #documentary

People think Stranger Things is just a TV show. But it was actually based on a real place. A place with sealed tunnels, Cold War, radar towers, and a history the government tried to cover up. This is Camp Hero, a decommissioned military base on the far edge of Long Island. On paper, it's just a state park. But in reality, it is the center of one of the most insane conspiracy theories in American history, the Montau Project.

This is a supposed secret program involving time travel and time travel, psychic kids and mind control programs and allegedly a creature manifested by consciousness itself. But here's a thing. None of this started as a conspiracy. This was a real place and it had a mission, a purpose, and some of the most advanced tech of its time. And today, we're getting to the bottom of it all. So sit back, relax, and welcome to camp. What's up people and welcome back to camp. What the hell is that, dude? Guys, we got an amazing, episode for you. All right. Thank you so much for joining me in my tent where every single week I explore the most interesting, fascinating controversial stories from around the world from all time

forever. That's right. This channel is my attempt to understand everything that's ever happened, ever on this, you know, the history of this big, beautiful dot that we all inhabit. Now, as always, this episode is not possible without my dear friend David hanging up. All right. How you doing? And also my friend, Chrisis, sorry, buddy. Let's come on. Come on, Chris. Come on time. All right, we can't be deviating. All the people in comments are pissed off. Today, we're talking about the story. story that inspired Stranger Things. You guys have all seen Stranger Things, right?

It's a wonderful show. I haven't. Oh, it's great. You should. Give me the clip nuts real quick. I'm about to, actually. I'm glad you brought that up. We're going to go through the whole thing.

All right. Stranger Things, if you've seen it, right? You got these kids. They're playing this game. They got the upside down. There's this demigorgon that escapes from, like, you know, a testing facility that the government's running, and then there's the girl escapes and she's the one that's able to, like, see them, and she basically tries to save the world.

It's awesome. But it didn't just come out of nowhere. It came out of a real book known as the Montauk project, which is basically an expose on this experimental military base that was built out in Long Island by a couple dallions back in the day, 1942. So we're going through all the details. Let's try at the very beginning, shall we? Can I ask you a really quick question?

Yeah, go ahead. Have you ever seen change your things? I have. I've seen every single episode, every season. You don't watch movies or shows. How is this? Hopper. Officer Hopper, okay?

Winona Ryder is in it. It's bad. But even as a mom, she's frantic, but I'm just like, I could save you. You know, the kids are fun, great actors. You know what I mean? What the hell? No, guys, we're going in to the real stranger things, all right? So it all starts at a place called Camp Hero.

This was established in 1942 as Fort Hero, part of a, like a coastal defense network that was built to protect the New York Harbor during World War II. You know, those freaking Nazis were trying to fuck shit up. So the military was concerned that these. Nazi U-boats, which had been sinking, you know, merchant ships along the East Coast, might attempt to attack American cities. So they equipped the camp with two 16-inch gun batteries, searchlight barracks, and an underground ammunition storage bunker that was connected by a bunch of different tunnels, all right?

The perfect place to do an experimental mind control thing. But after the war ended, the threat had obviously shifted, right? World War II ends. Now we're not worried about the Nazis. We're worried about those damn Soviets. So the Soviet Union had developed long-range bomb. capable of reaching the US of A. And the military needed a way to detect them before they could strike American cities.

So, 1951, the Air Force, you know, takes a look at Camp Hero, and they're like, this will work. And they transformed it into a radar surveillance station. Now, the centerpiece of the change was this 80-foot-tall radar system, one of the most powerful search radars in the Air Force Arsenal at the time. The radar operated on L-band frequencies and could detect aircraft at ranges of over 200 miles away. and it would send that data to the semi-automatic ground environment, also known as Sage. And Sage was basically like this giant computer network that linked radar stations across North America. Data from Camp Hero and a bunch of other sites was transmitted to the Sage direction centers

where, you know, obviously the skilled operators and analysts would track aircraft and, you know, do like a coordinated response. Essentially, if the Soviet Union and their bombers appeared, Sage would just shoot jets to intercept them. But by the late 1960s, the threat had changed once again. By this time, countries were producing ICBMs. This was intercontinental ballistic missiles. You probably heard of these. And they could reach the United States in minutes, making bomber detection kind of useless.

So the radar camp at Camp Hero was deactivated in 1969. Now, it's worth mentioning the Air Force maintained a small presence at the camp for a while. But in 1981, the base was officially closed and most of the equipment was removed or decommissioned. What remained was just a massive, largely abandoned installation. I mean, the bunkers were sealed with concrete and the tunnels led to nowhere and the radar tower is basically just left to rot. And that is the official story. Now, before we get into what happened at Montauk, we need to talk about a much older story

that would eventually become connected to this one. And this is known as the Philadelphia experiment. According to the story, in October 1943, the U.S. Navy conducted a classified experiment aboard the destroyer escort the USS Eldridge. Now, the goal was to achieve radar invisibility using a technology inspired by what's known as unified field theory. Now, this is the idea that electromagnetic and gravitational fields could be manipulated through intense magnetic fields

generated by powerful equipment installed on the ship. Basically, that, you know, the electromagnetic and gravitational fields in our actual Earth could be affected if we were able to blast it with a hard enough magnet. and that could affect, you know, planes and radar and all sorts of different things, that would be beneficial during World War II. Now, this experiment allegedly took place on October 28, 1943.

Witnesses claimed that when the equipment was activated, a greenish fog engulfed the USS Eldridge and the ship, according to the story, completely vanished from the shipyard. And it reappeared briefly in Norfolk, Virginia, roughly 200 miles away, and then returned to Philadelphia minutes later. But when the ship basically reappeared back in Philadelphia, the crew was in terrible condition. According to the stories, some of these sailors aboard the ship were dead and their bodies were stuck between decks. They were all in these places that basically, like, you couldn't even get to,

like basically fused into the ship itself. The ones that weren't actually like, you know, basically like reintegrated back into the ship just went crazy and they experienced this disorientation and memory loss. According to the story, some crew members allegedly vanished entirely and they were never seen again. And a few reportedly were basically burned and they were phasing in and out of visibility. Now, it sounds crazy, okay? And the main source of this story was Carlos Miguel Alande, who was also known as Carl Allen, who sent a letter to the astronomer and UFO researcher, Morris K. Jessa. But the issue is that Alande provided no evidence. And his letters were filled with unusual capitalization and, like, cryptic language and references

to Einstein's work that was kind of like misunderstood or just sort of like made up. I mean, in the letter, Carlos says, I have read your book, The Case for the UFO with Great Interest, and I feel that you are going to go down in history as the first man to prove to the world that flying objects are real and that we can travel by them. I know this to be a fact, because in October, 1943, the Navy made a ship invisible and it disappeared from Philly and only appeared in Norfolk, Virginia, and then back again in a few minutes.

This was done using Einstein's unified field theory, and by wrapping the ship in powerful electromagnetic fields. He goes on to say, the result was complete invisibility to the human eye, but what they had not counted on was that the crew of the ship was affected terribly. Someone insane. Some, as I know, were found embedded into the steel of the ship. Some were alive, but their bodies were half in and out of the metal of the ship. It was horrible.

Others simply disappeared. It was a shocking experiment and was never repeated, and the Navy hushed it up, of course. He even continues the letter and says, I was there on a merchant ship close by and we saw the whole thing. Greenish fog arose around the ship and the ship disappeared. And when it returned, some men were screaming as if they were being burned alive and others were frozen in place. I will never forget it. Now, it sounds crazy, but I'm just telling you what the letter said.

After receiving the letter, Jessup actually started to speak with Carlos and reached out to him asking for any evidence or any other supporting research that could support this claim. But he was unable to recall any specific dates or news reports. of the incident or anything like that. Now, the U.S. Navy has repeatedly and officially denied that this Philadelphia experiment had ever occurred. And no Navy records show any evidence of such an experiment, no missing crew, no classified projects matching the description, the ship logs placed in the USS Eldridge in New York waters at the same time of this, you know, supposed event that happened in Philadelphia.

And despite the lack of evidence, the Philadelphia experiment actually introduced a lot of key themes that would resurface decades later. This was, you know, secret military tech. invisibility, teleportation, catastrophic consequences when humans interfere with, you know, physics, all that kind of stuff. Now, keep these themes in mind because they're going to come back with this Monarche project. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because I got to tell you a story. Imagine you're sitting in your house. It's cold outside. It's a little snowy. And you're like, man, I just want a pinini. So you go and you order it, you know, from a, from DoorDash or something like that. And it never gets to you.

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Or dial pound law that's pound 529 from your cell phone. That's for the people.com slash gagnon or click the link in the description below. And thank you so much to the good folks over at Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this program. and making this show possible with this paid advertisement. Let's get back to the show. So, when the Air Force closed Camp Hero, this is the one all the way at the end of Long Island in 1981, the base didn't immediately transfer to civilian control.

So for several years, it sat abandoned. Local residents would see security guards like maintenance crews, but the site remained basically off limits to the public. This period when the base was not active by the military, but also not open to the public, became all the juice needed for speculation. You had a lot of independent researchers and conspiracy theorists that started to theorize that the radar equipment and the underground facilities weren't actually abandoned.

Instead, they claimed that the Air Force withdrawal was actually just a cover story for something more secretive. First off, Camp Heroes remote location in Montauk made it ideal for classified work, right? It's close to the city, but still very far away from, you know, people milling around. Second, this massive underground tunnel network from World War II provided this kind of like a ready-made facility for these covert operations. And third, the basis radar equipment and the connection to SAGE suggested that it had some capacity for electromagnetic research. Now, a lot of researches also point to the base's proximity to Brookhaven National Laboratory,

which is about 50 miles west. Now, Brookhaven was the real nuclear research facility involved in particle physics and obviously had historical ties to government research. And fun fact, actually. Brookhaven is where one of the first particle accelerators called the Cosmotron was actually created in 1952, which of course didn't help any of the accusations. Now, conspiracy theory is speculated that Brookhaven scientists might have used Camp Hero as this remote testing site for their more dangerous experiments that couldn't be conducted near, you know, very populated areas. Now, the theories began by claiming that this camp was a mind control experiment, essentially like the new MK Ultra after MK Ultra was done.

then they swapped it to weather manipulation, and then it made the biggest leap of all, obviously, to, you know, massive scale time travel. Now, these ideas circulated in small circles and through, like, the pre-internet, you know, kind of conspiracy world throughout the 1980s, and they remained largely underground, no pun intended, until one person decided to turn all of these theories into a complete story, the Montauk Project. Now, Preston B. Nichols was an electrical engineer living on Long Island who became interested in electromagnetic research and radio technology. But in the early 1980s, according to his later claims, he began experiencing unusual memories and psychological phenomena that he couldn't explain.

Now, Nichols said that these symptoms led him to, you know, seeking professional help. He went to therapy and meditation, and he recovered suppressed memories of actually working at Camp Hero between 1971 and 1983. He claimed he had been recruited to work on a classified project involving mind control and electromagnetic manipulation and eventually time travel, all conducted at the underground facility beneath the decommissioned base. So in 1992, Nichols co-authored the book, The Montauk Project, experiments in time with Peter Moon, a paranormal researcher. Now this book became the foundation of this modern Montauk legend. It laid out a detailed narrative of what supposedly happened

at Camp Hero in the 70s. And according to Nichols, the Montau project was divided into several phases, each building on the previous one. The initial phase supposedly ran from 71 to 73 and focused on mind control. Nichols claimed that the project was a continuation of CIA programs like MK Ultra, but it used advanced electromagnetic technology instead of drugs. And its main goal was basically used radio waves to influence human thoughts and behavior. Now, Nichols described like these massive rooms filled with transmitters and amplifiers and computer systems that could like target individuals and broadcast even like wider areas. And the equipment supposedly can, consisted of modified radar transmitters based on the old sage systems.

And it also had reconfigured broadcast frequencies that could not only affect, you know, brain activity, but even induced like emotional states such as fear or calmness or aggression just by adjusting the frequencies and the modulation of the transmitted signals. Now, the second phase introduced what Nichols basically called the Montauk chair. Now, the most detailed and frequently discussed piece of this alleged technology in the entire story is the Montau chair. Now, according to Nichols, the Montauk chair was built around 1974. It was described as like a specialized seat,

like almost like a dentist chair, basically, surrounded by all these electromagnetic coils, specifically three sets of delta T coils arranged in like a triangle around where the subject would sit. The chair also featured a hood or like a helmet that would fit over the subject's head, all lined with all these sensors and coils. Now, Nichols claimed that the purpose of the chair was like psychic,

amplification. The theory was that human thoughts produce this electric magnetic signal, but it's a weak signal. And if those signals could be detected, amplified and then broadcast, see where I'm gone, a person's thoughts could then manifest, you know, physical effects. Now here's how Nichols described the process. A psychically sensitive individual, basically someone who scored high on like ESP tests or demonstrated, you know, these telepathic abilities, would sit in the chair. The sensors in the helmet would then detect their electromagnetic patterns produced by their brain activity. And then these signals would be fed into a computer system, then translate the brain patterns into a format that could be amplified.

And the amplified signals would then be broadcast through the chair's coils and then through the base's, you know, more powerful transmitters. And when this works successfully, the psychic thoughts could then manifest in a bunch of different ways. One was thought materialization. The subject could supposedly think of an object, say like, you know, a chair, like a hammer. and then it would physically appear nearby pulled from some other location or even some other timeline. Now, I know this is crazy. This is just what Preston Nichols wrote in his book.

Another thing that he says can happen with this, you know, psychic amplifier is mind projection. Now, the subject's consciousness could be projected to a different location. They could see what was happening miles away or even in different time periods, though their body was still in the chair. basically like a scientific version of like remote viewing. And then finally there is time portal generation. This was described as the most advanced technique. And basically if the subject focused on a specific time and a place while in the chair, the equipment could supposedly generate what Nichols called a time vortex.

So like a time tunnel. And basically this is like an opening in space time that connected the Montauk facility to another time period completely. Now, Nichols claimed that the computer system was using a process to amplify these signals and was based on technology by Dr. John von Neumann. This was a mathematician who worked on early computing systems and one of the key architects of the Manhattan Project, the thing that, you know, made the nuclear bomb. Now, to show you that Nichols may have been a little bit out there, he basically suggested that von Newman, this mathematician, had secretly continued research into consciousness and electromagnetic fields after his death. 1957. Yes, he claims that Von Newman either faked his death or that his consciousness was like transferred and then still continued to work or something like that. He doesn't really provide a ton of evidence, but that is what he claims. Now, as the project supposedly progressed

into the late 70s, Nichols claimed that researchers needed more, you know, psychically gifted subjects, and then this led to what they called the Montauk Boys program. According to Nichols, they would get, you know, these young teenage boys, like from like 10 to 16, and they were recruited or even abducted from local areas and brought to Camp Hero. He claimed that these boys were chosen because younger minds were more, you know, psychically malleable and could be more easily trained or programmed. And the boys were allegedly subjected to intensive psychological conditioning or electromagnetic exposure or like trauma-based programming designed to enhance their psychic abilities

and basically make them more compliant test subjects. Now, Nichols described these underground dormitory areas where dozens of boys were housed, separated from the main research area. Now, he claims in his book that many boys were used for time travel experiments and basically sent through like these portals and, you know, basically to, you know, go see these different points either in history or in the future. Some supposedly never returned while others came back with, you know, trauma or missing memories or just altered memories completely. And Nichols said that after experiments concluded, the boys would be subject to memory erasure and that they returned to their normal lives with no recollection of what happened.

Now, this Montauk boys narrative became one of the most disturbing aspects of the story because, you know, it's obviously connected to child abduction and abuse and to government experiments in mind control, right? That seems pretty obvious. However, no missing children from the Montauk area during the 1970s have ever been connected to Nichols's claims. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because buying work boots is annoying, okay? Take it from me, standard comedian podcaster, okay? I'm busting my, I'm busting my tukas. You can see my hands here. calloused. Don't look too close. It doesn't matter. Guys, buying work boots is tough because basically you've got to choose, all right, do I want them to be comfortable? Do I want them to be really durable? Do I want them to be safe? Or do I want them to be affordable, you know? And so now you're going through all these different brands. You're like, okay, well, these are going to wreck my feet. You know, these ones are going to last a long time, but they're super expensive. These ones feel good, but they're

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Stop messing around. Your feet are important, and your health and safety is the most important thing you can do. Check out Brunt, and now let's get back to the show. Now, all of the claims that Nichols made, none would even match up to the story of Duncan Cameron. Now, Duncan was said to be the primary psychic used in the Montauk chair in the late 70s. Now, according to Nichols, Duncan had exceptional psychic abilities and could generate time portals more reliably than any other subject. He claimed that this guy, Duncan, would sit in the Montauk chair

and focus on dates and locations, and then equipment would basically generate like a visible portal that, you know, he described as like a swirling vortex. Now, researchers and military personnel would supposedly walk or drive vehicles through these portals, and they would emerge at different points in time. Now, Cameron claimed that he was sent to vortals. various historical periods, all to basically gather information or go get objects. So in ancient Egypt, he brought back scrolls and tablets. He went to the Civil War. He brought back maps and some logistics.

And from the far future, he even retrieved information about future civilizations. But according to Nichols, the Montauk Project came to an abrupt end in 1983, due to an incident involving Duncan Cameron and this Montauk chair. According to Nichols, in his book, he claims that on August 12, 1983, during a routine time portal experiment, if there is such a thing as a routine one, Duncan either accidentally or intentionally, through his psychic ability, manifested this, like, aggressive, massive beast thing

while he was sitting in the chair. And because he was able to manifest this in his mind, it then became a reality. And the creature allegedly materialized in the facility and began to destroy equipment and attack personnel. Now, the creature supposedly couldn't be controlled or eliminated through these conventional means, because it was sustained by Duncan's thoughts as long as he remained in the chair.

Now, according to Nichols, the only way to stop it was basically to shut down the entire system. All the technology shut down the chair and basically get Duncan out of there. Now, Nichols claimed that he and other technicians began to destroy the transmitters and severed the power connections and smash critical equipment, causing this time portal to collapse, and then this creature was then vanished. Now, this shutdown supposedly ended the Montauk project permanently, with the facility being abandoned shortly afterwards. Now, if you remember from earlier,

Camp Hero was officially shut down in 1981, not 83 like Nichols suggests. But people of the town claimed that military officials continued to operate in and around the area. So Nichols' claim of work still going out of the facility kind of holds up based off of eyewitness account. But the accusations of what exactly that work consisted of is still what causes so much controversy.

Now, this takes us to the late 1980s when the Montauk legend was officially connected directly to the Philadelphia experiment. In the late 1980s, there was a man named Al Baleck, and he basically began appearing at UFO conferences and paranormal gatherings with the most unbelievable claim. He was one of the survivors of the Philadelphia experiment, and he had lived for decades without knowing his true identity. Now, Baleck was born Alfred Baleck in 1927 and until the 1980s he lived a pretty unremarkable life as an electronics engineer. Not that there's anything wrong with it. There's maybe some electronic engineers listening. Okay, so no disrespect. But according to his later claims, his memories were actually false,

implanted by the government and their mind control program to cover up his real past. He said his original name was Edward Cameron. And in 1943, at the age of 16, he had served aboard the USS Eldridge during this Philadelphia experiment, along. alongside his brother, Duncan Cameron. Yes, the same Duncan that Nichols would eventually write about. Now, according to Belich, when the electromagnetic field generators were activated on October 28th in 1943 in Philadelphia, the ship didn't just become invisible, it ripped a hole in space time. And realizing that something had gone catastrophically wrong, he and Duncan jumped off the ship to escape.

But instead of landing in the water, they fell through what he described as a time vortex. Now, Belich claimed they emerged in the year 2,137, and they found themselves in this underground hospital facility where they were being treated for radiation and temporal displacement. Now, according to Belich, this future Earth was radically different. Much of the planet's surface was damaged and humanity lived in basically like these controlled underground cities. Now, after their recovery, Belich said that they were not allowed to stay at this facility. Supposedly, according to Belak, future authorities,

transferred them forward in time again through another controlled time jump this year to the year 2749. Now, Al claimed that they lived for a full two years in this like basically floating AI governed society. And this is where he described like neural implants and, you know, cities and societies with no money and like these cities that were hovering above earth. And eventually he claimed that agents from this future era informed him that he had returned to 1943.

to complete a mission, basically shutting down this Philadelphia experiment to prevent a larger catastrophe. When they were sent back, Baleck said that they arrived not in 1943, but in 1983, at Montauk. There, he claimed generators from the original Philadelphia experiment had been connected to the equipment at Camp Hero, where the Montauk project allegedly happened, and basically created a time lock between two dates exactly 40 years apart. He and Duncan supposedly helped deactivate the Montauk equipment and close this temporal connection. Now, it sounds crazy, but after this, Belak said that his memories were then erased. His identity was changed through a process involving drugs and hypnosis and age regression

technology, and he was given the identity of Al Belak, complete with fabricated documents and a fake personal history. And he basically lived his fake life until the late 1980s when his memories began to resurface. Now, another fun fact, throughout the 90s and the 2000s, Belac was a frequent guest on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell and appeared in, you know, a bunch of, you know, conspiracy-related documentaries. But of course, as fun as these stories are, no evidence has ever been found to support any of these claims. There are no military records placing anyone with the name of Edward Cameron or Al-Belak aboard the USS Eldridge and his personal history

before the 1980s matches the documented life of this guy, Alfred Baleck, not the fictional Edward Cameron identity that he claimed was, you know, his actual identity beforehand. Now, Duncan Cameron himself came forward later with his own testimony, claiming that he had been the main time traveler in the Montauk chair experiments, conveniently aligning his story with both Nichols and Baleck. So now we have the publication of Nichols' book in 1992 and Baleck's growing presence in the paranormal circuit. And this brought the Montauk legend to a much wider audience. You have news outlets and curious researchers and paranormal investigators. They start to actually show up to this abandoned camp hero site. Now, the property was technically

still government land, and it was surrounded by fencing and these big no trespassing signs, but that obviously didn't stop like these explorers from, you know, finding ways in. Now, these trespassers reported, you know, finding concrete bunkers and sealed tunnel entrances and some even claimed to experience unusual phenomena, like their electronic equipment that they were using. to record started to malfunction and they had feelings of being watched or, you know, time loss they would go in for, you know, 20 minutes and it would feel like, you know, three hours or they would go in for five hours and it would feel like, you know, five minutes. And in response to growing public interest, New York State began the process of converting Camp Hero into a state

park. Now, during this process, they found exactly what would be expected at a decommissioned Cold War radar station, right? Abandoned buildings, you know, tunnels and ammunition bunkers and deteriorating infrastructure, no equipment of laboratories or experimental equipment or time travel or facilities for holding abducted children was ever officially discovered. Now, the underground tunnel network was definitely real, but these had been sealed with concrete back in the 40s and 50s. Now, throughout the 1990s, Preston Nichols released more books expanding on this, you know, original narrative. He wrote Montauk revisited, pyramids of Montauk, and the Montauk project, and then the Montau chair in 1997.

In each new book layered on new claims connecting the Montau experiment to basically everything ever, extraterrestrials and underground civilizations, ancient technology, post-war, Nazi science, and Nichols claimed that during excavations beneath Camp Hero, researchers discovered massive subterranean chambers that actually predated the military base itself. He claimed that they found, like, you know,

a pre-human technology or, some type of ancient civilization or like even like some type of Atlantis type thing. And, you know, devices allegedly built thousands of years ago that could manipulate energy and consciousness or even time, which was why this site was chosen as, you know, a military lab. One of the most wild claims was that the Montauk chair was actually reverse engineered from this ancient machinery. He also introduced like extraterrestrials and aliens into the story more explicitly. Nichols wrote that aliens sometimes described as grays were, you know, sometimes tall, they might be Nordic-looking beings, and they were working alongside scientists at Montauk to provide the technical guidance

on stabilizing these time tunnels. And in some accounts, they used the base to pursue their own experiments and their own agenda. He even went on to claim that certain rooms in this underground complex were kept at alien-compatible atmospheric conditions. I don't even know like what exactly he means by that. But they were just off limits to human staff. Now, another thread that Nichols added was this, you know, link to Operation Paperclip. And now this was a real post-World War II U.S. program that brought a bunch of Nazi scientists to America, like, you know, Warner von Braun, who helped the space program, etc.

Nichols alleged that German scientists who had work on, you know, basically secret electromagnetic and, you know, psychic research for the Nazi regime, the Third Reich, were relocated to Montauk after the war. He implied that these individuals blended like Nazi occult science with, you know, ancient technology with like some help from like aliens. And this created like this bizarre hybrid program focused on like mind control and time travel and interdimensional contact. Now he also tied Montak, Montauk and the project there to the pyramids and basically like pyramidal energy systems, hence the title, you know, pyramids of Montau. He claimed that the layout of Camp Hero corresponded to geometric alignments,

in the great pyramids of Giza, and that these shapes basically acted like an antenna that was able to channel and focus like subtle energy necessary for these types of like portal experiments. So that's what Preston Nichols says. Again, there's no evidence really to support this, but these are what is in his books. Now, although there are a lot of fans of the story, it's also attracted, you know, a ton of skeptics. So Al Belich died in 2011. Preston Nichols died in 2018.

and Duncan Cameron died in 2019, and they never provided, like, any evidence or, you know, documents, photographs or any type of, like, physical artifacts from these experiments. And, you know, people pointed out that many of the details in his books seem to be drawn from, like, science fiction rather than, like, actual science. But all that science fiction led us to Netflix, basically to stranger things. In 2015, the Duffer brothers were developing a science fiction TV series titled Montauk. That's what they called it.

And this was basically like a supernatural thriller that was based in, you know, the end of Long Island. And they pitched the show as like this love letter to the 80s, like, you know, Stephen King's small town horror and like Spielberg Adventure. Then like, you know, tied in with like this actual Cold War conspiracy theory that was written by this guy Preston Nichols. And the original plan was to involve secret government experiments conducted at a military base in Montauk in child test subjects with, you know, psychic powers. and then an interdimensional riff that creates a creature that can go through the void. And their pilot script opened with a boy vanishing near Montauk Air Force Base, triggering this mystery involving agents in a lab and a young girl with powers. And the duffers shopped this Montauk pilot around Hollywood,

eventually catching the attention of the executives at Netflix. But somehow their pitch of the original concept leaked online, revealing the differences from what would eventually become stranger things. The monster was referred to as the Montauk Monster, and this was a direct reference to the creature that Duncan had allegedly manifested in Preston's book. The government lab focused on mind control and remote viewing and time manipulation while psychic children were trained to basically open riffs to other dimensions. This is obviously a clear parallel to the Montauk Boys Project and the Montauk Chair experiments, etc. However, before production began, Netflix pushed the brothers to basically relocate the story from Montauk to just a fictional town.

you know, Hawkins, Indiana. And mostly because shooting on Long Island was expensive and complicated and, you know, partially for creative reasons. By inventing Hawkins, the Duffers could make the world basically whatever they wanted without being tied to, like, the real geography or even, you know, facing like legal headaches from people connected to, you know, the town of Montauk. Now, despite the changes in the setting, the core story kind of stayed the same. You have, you know, Camp Hero becomes Hawkins National Laboratory. The Montauk chair became, you know, 11's sensory deprivation tank, and the rift between the timelines ends up becoming the upside down, and the government's psychic child program ends up becoming the lab secret project

to train and weaponize, you know, these kids with these, you know, psychic abilities. Now, in interviews, the Dufford brothers openly acknowledged that Montauk was their starting point, and they described their creative process as taking basically like a real urban legend and reimagining it through this, like, supernatural lens. So in short, Stranger Things isn't just like loosely inspired. It's essentially the Montauk project with, you know, some new packaging. You know, the show kept all the core elements of the conspiracy, but then packed them in with, you know, more nostalgia. So today, Camp Hero State Park is open to the public and visitors can walk the trails past some old bunkers and photograph the radar tower and explore, you know, the bluffs overlooking the Atlantic.

But there is no mention of the infamous Montauk project. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the story, Stranger Things came from and why this urban legend existed in the first place. So, there you have it. I'll be honest, I would casually hear about the Montauk Project. And I was like, yeah, I guess it was like a real thing that happened. After doing some research, it probably didn't happen. Now, MK Ultra obviously happened and, you know, maybe some mind control shit happened in the U.S. government back in the day. But these guys, you know, Preston Nichols and, you know, his research, again, I don't want to call it.

call myself a hater. I haven't read his books. I'm sorry, Preston, RIP, pour me out for the, for the homie. But I, uh, I have, I have some pretty strong skepticism. You would think that they had, you know, be able to drop one document, you know, maybe just like a photo, just anything that would be like, oh, yeah, man, maybe. But with this one, there's kind of, there's kind of nothing. But, I mean, I don't know. What do you think? Do you think there's, you think we got mind control out here, dude? I don't know. I think 11 might die in the last season. No, you think, oh, I guess you probably has to. You know what I mean? in like it would just be you know she's basically Jesus and so she doesn't die it's like

what's the point you know what I mean like she's gonna save us from all of our sins you you follow Millie Bobby Brown on Instagram batty it's not what I was gonna say how old is she she's sleek she's 23 okay I'm I'm just saying all right I just know her from the show where she's a child why are you Googling so furiously I'm I'm nervous now what do you think Chris does what do you think of Molly Molly Molly, Billy, Bobby Brown? Nice. 21.

9 plus 10. I have a theory about her. Go ahead. And I'm not afraid to say it. Go. So what's your take? I don't think she's a great actress, but she plays a role where she doesn't have to speak for most of the series. Oh.

I feel like not speaking is kind of harder, though. She's like chaplain. Yeah, that's a good point. It's just a specialized skill. How? I just broke my knuckle. Yeah. What else is she?

in though. Some like English movie about some bullshit. Yeah. That is the thing. She is British. Which I'm not going to hold that against her. You know, she's married to

Bon Jovi's son. How crazy is that? I kind of like that. Talk about a piece. Yeah. Oh, Bon Jovi's kid? Yeah, no, that kid's Pete. That kid's got one. She looks like a New Jersey wife now. Fire. This is what the podcast should be. Dude, she's given Jordan Bell for his wife.

Hottest person on the? show? Yeah, by a mile. I mean, Winona Ryder and her prime. You give me Prime Winona? Maya Hawk is a dark horse. Oh yeah, Maya Hawks. Maya Hawks very beautiful. I love her. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I'm out here. She's 27 of over the hill for you.

Over the Hill. I mean, Maya Hawk's beautiful. She does have like a unique look. She's someone that you would double take on. She's not just like a run-of-the-mill Hawk girl. Also, Ethan Hawk and Uma Thurman stock? That's crazy. Yeah, that's a good point. That is an excellent point, Chrysos. I mean, all right, I wish we could, we should go to Montau. We should take a little field trip and discover the truth of the pyramids. Get to the bottom of it.

Go to the Hamptons. Oh, yeah, we were talking about the project. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What were you talking about a little project in your pants right now, a little horny bitch? We should go out there and just take our flashlights and really get to the bottom of it. Our fleshlights? What did I say? Yeah, I think that'd be great, dude.

Let's take our fleshlights and get to the bottom of these pyramids, dude. I think it'd be nice. I think we just, I feel like we can go figure it out once and for all, you know? Do you believe in ghosts, David? Sorry, I was trying to get on camera. No, I do not. At all. At all.

Have you ever experienced anything supernatural in your whole life? No. I truly not. Not even Tree Loves first kiss? What first kiss? Tree Loves? I've never been in love. You've never been in love?

No. Really? Dude, I'm 27. How sad is that? Oof, over the hell. We should wrap up here. I think this is a good place to stop. Guys, thank you so much for joining us for another episode.

Camp. Check out religion camp. Check out history camp. Check out all the camps that we got. Check out Camp Hero and see what they got going on over there, all right? Listen to the episode. No, re-listen to it, and you'll be like, wow, this is pretty interesting. This is crazy.

If you got any stories or any crazy conspiracy lore that we should dive into, specifically around the holiday season, Halloween, this is the time to do it. So send them my way. Please drop a comment. If there's anything I missed, I would love to know if there's anything wrong, keep it to yourself. Okay? I don't like being corrected. It makes me insecure.

I read all the comments, Spotify and YouTube, and the top comments. on this episode and all future episodes, we'll be getting some free merch from the camp store. We'll send you whatever. I don't know how. We're going to find you, probably remote viewing. I'll just use a satellite

that I call David's forehead, and we will figure it out. So we will see you guys. We will see you guys the next episode. Thank you guys so much, and we will see you next time in the tent. So long and peace be with you.