As it turns out, Netflix's wildly popular hit, Stranger Things, is derivative of a larger government conspiracy that has never been addressed by the individuals in power. Believe what you will about the legitimacy of these claims, but the government has lied to us before...
The Dark, Confusing Past
In the early 1980s, rumors about some bizarre government activity started circulating. The source of these rumors was the Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, New York. Also known as “Camp Hero,” the base was rumored to be a secret government operation to develop psychological warfare techniques, telepathy, and possibly even time travel. These stories became the basis for the Netflix show “Stranger Things.”
Paving the Way
The first account of these experiments came from a man named Preston Nichols. According to him, he was one of the test subjects in the Montauk project. He claimed to have recovered repressed memories of his involvement in the experiments, and he even claimed that he would be periodically brought back to Camp Hero against his will to continue being experimented on…
Pressed and Published
In 1992, Nichols published a book called “The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time.” Although many dismissed this book as science fiction and “the ramblings of an uneducated madman,” he amassed a surprising number of supporters. In this book, he mostly detailed the story of the Philadelphia Experiment and how it led to the Montauk Project.
The Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is a long speculated WWII era conspiracy theory in which several individuals claimed that the USS Eldridge battleship was transported to an alien dimension through a space-time portal, killing numerous members of the crew by fusing them to the hull of the ship. This story was later made into a movie, which caused another individual to recollect his repressed memories from the two experiences in the same fashion that Nichols did. That man was named Al Bielek, or, that’s who he thought he was before he had his awakening…
Unlocking His True Self
While Al was watching the Philadelphia Experiment in the theaters, he experienced some of the most profound deja vu that he had ever felt. He left the theater in a stupor, his memories returning to him rapidly, overwhelmingly even. The deeper he dug into the recesses of his own mind, the more terrified he became of what he had been repressing for all those years.
Feeling Like a New Man
Al came to the conclusion that he was involved in the Philadelphia Experiment. He claimed that he remembered the events thoroughly, and he was even able to recall some specific insider information about the USS Eldridge. In addition to that, he remembered details of the Montauk project too. He also claimed that Al wasn’t even his real name…
Drawing Conclusions from Revelations
Al believed his real name was Edward Cameron. He claimed that he and his brother Duncan were on the USS Eldridge when it vanished into space in 1943. He then stated that he was transported to the future when the ship rematerialized. He stated that he landed on the ground in Camp Hero surrounded by armed guards.
Tying It All Together
Edward and Duncan became pseudo-celebrities in the conspiracy theory world. Their theories were absurd and hard to believe, but if they had not spoken out about their thoughts, there was a good chance that nobody would have ever talked about the Montauk Project. In fact, if their words didn’t travel as far as they did, Stranger Things might never have existed…
The 'Montauk Chair'
Ed and Duncan talked extensively about a device called the Montauk Chair. They claimed that they both helped create the device, which functioned similarly to the X-Men’s famous “Cerebro” device. This chair supposedly assisted psychics by enhancing their abilities using electromagnetism.
A Realistic Representation
A similar helmet device was used by Eleven in Stranger Things season 1. Her mother was a participant in MK-Ultra in the show, and when she was born she was subjected to the same testing that Ed and Duncan claimed they were put up to. Just like Eleven, Ed and Duncan claimed that the experiments that they underwent caused them to develop similar psychic powers that allowed them to perform feats that were outside the realm of reality…
Some Direct Inspiration
The creators of Stranger Things, Matt and Russ Duffer, used “The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time” as the basis for their show. They originally wanted to set the story to be set near Long Island, but they were threatened by a plagiarization lawsuit before they could even get the idea out of the boardroom. Instead, they decided to switch the location to Indiana...
Things Are Getting Stranger...
The character of Eleven was completely built around the experiences that Ed and Duncan claimed to have gone through. The Duffer brothers tried to visualize and personify what a person would actually look and act like if they were removed from society since birth. Preston Nichols talked about individuals that were in similar situations to the one that Stranger Things put Eleven in. But, in his book, these individuals suffered even more than Eleven did in the show…
The 'Montauk Boys'
According to Nichols, the people that were involved in the Montauk Project were exclusively young men. He referred to them as the “Montauk Boys” and claimed that they lived terrible lives while being tested. Nichols detailed that the Montauk Boys were starved, dosed with research chemicals, and put through jarring fluctuations in temperature to test their physical limits.
Nichol's Biggest Supporter
All of the allegations that Preston Nichols made in his book were backed by a man that claimed that he was one of the Montauk Boys, Stewart Swerdlow. This man claims that he was brought onto the project for 13 years, and as a result, he claims that he can see energy fields, read DNA sequences, detect mind patterns, and even telepathically travel to other planets…
Traveling Through Time and Space
Stewart Swerdlow claimed that he and the other members of the Montauk Project projected themselves to the surface of Mars. Swerdlow believed this so strongly that he could describe what it felt like to be on the surface of the Red Planet. On top of that, he claimed that he and the other Montauk Boys traveled back to Biblical times. Allegedly, they even met Jesus.
The Monster Materializes...
Evidently, the Montauk Boys endured their psychic journeys until tragedy struck. The end of Camp Hero went down similarly to the way that the Hawkins laboratory operations were shuttered. The Montauk Boys accidentally conjured a monster…
A Monster Enters the Real World
According to Nichol’s book, Duncan was sitting in the Montauk Chair conjuring items in the recesses of his mind. Suddenly, an unknown voice whispered into his mind’s ear, “The time is now.” As soon as that happened, a monster appeared in front of him in his mind-world, then it appeared in reality.
We Don't Know What We Do Know
According to Nichols, the monster completely destroyed the lab, setting all the Montauk Boys free. The boys were later rounded up and their memories were wiped. They were released back into society, some with different names, as if nothing happened to them before. This all may seem crazy, but the government recently confirmed the existence of MK-Ultra—a WWII era program where individuals were tortured, drugged, and abused to try and force people to develop psionic abilities. At this point, anything might be real…
Go See It Yourself
The actual existence of the Montauk Project is still highly scrutinized to this day. Camp Hero has become a hot tourist attraction for those who want to get a closer look at the boarded-up facility. Despite the government’s denial of any unsavory activity being conducted there, the ground floor of the base has been cemented over, and the area surrounding the base is constantly surveyed.
Visit, But Beware
Most of the grounds of Camp Hero operate as part of the Montauk State Park. However, armed guards stand around the fort during the day to make sure that nobody gets too curious when examining the entrance to the portion of the base that’s hidden underground. This kind of thing really makes you think, doesn’t it? It’s almost as if the government is hiding something in plain sight. Despite your obvious curiosity, it might be best to let government secrets remain the way they are. If not, you might end up like Garrett Graff…
Garrett Graff: Journalist Extraordinaire
Garret Graff was a political writer that tackled a lot of major issues within the internal intelligence department of the U.S. government. He was the man who collected the majority of the field reports in the 2008 War on Terror, he reported on the end of George Bush Jr.’s time in office into the Obama administration, and he even published the first oral history collection of the events leading up to 9/11. However, one of the most significant reports that he filed didn’t come from the oval office. It began with a lost ID card that one of his friends found in a parking lot...
Misplaced Identity
Garrett Graff’s friend discovered the ID of someone that worked in government intelligence in the parking lot of his apartment building when he was leaving for work one morning. He figured that he should give it to Graff because he had written about government intelligence workers before, but this was no normal ID. The identification card that was given to Graff had all of the standard government information on it, except there were step-by-step driving instructions printed on the back of it. Graff had a similar identification card himself, but his (and everyone else’s) was blank on the back…
Seeking Out the Source
Graff, being the curious man that he is, tried to find the address that was on the back of the ID card on google maps. To his surprise, the address didn’t exist. The coordinates led to a mountain peak that’s roughly 70 miles outside of Washington D.C. On the map, the road leading up to the site just ended at the face of the cliff. But, Graff knew that there was something else up there. He knew because he had taken that trip recently, and he saw a concrete bunker up there, just before the road ended…
Diving Back In
Strangely, he didn’t really think about the area on top of the mountain when he took his initial trip out there. Now that he knew that something was amiss, he had to get to the bottom of it. Graff drove back up the mountain to find that the concrete bunker was blocked off by chainlink fences topped with barbed wire. Signs warning trespassers that they were risking their lives by entering the facility. Graff had no idea what he stumbled upon initially, but as he dug into the construction records from the site, he learned some shocking information...
The Area in Question
Graff had discovered a structure that was formerly called “Site R.” In the later notes recorded about the building, it was referred to as the Raven Rock Mountain Complex. The blueprints that Graff found indicated that the entrance to the Raven Rock Mountain Complex led to a series of descending tunnels that were hollowed out into the mountain. All of these tunnels led to an underground chamber that appeared to be a nuclear fallout shelter...
The Soviet Nuclear Threat
According to Graff’s research, this area was designed as part of the United States government’s nuclear contingency plan. Evidently, the Truman administration sanctioned construction on the shelter in 1951 when the Cold War began. They hired the same team that carved out the New York City subway tunnels to conduct the excavation, and they kept the project a secret by refusing to tell the workers why they were digging…
Secrets Kept are Weapons Wasted
A man named Laborer Gene Bowman was paid $1.35 an hour to work on the project in 1951. He released a statement about the project when he was approached by reporters after he was discharged from the job in the early 1950s. He stated, “They just said they were building a tunnel. Wasn’t nobody interested in what they were doing...”
Higher-Up Selfishness
This bunker was outfitted to hold 1,400 government officials, no spouses, and no families. The government officials that were in charge of developing this bunker set up offices and operation plans for every branch of the federal government, including the IRS and the post office. There were already ordinances in place in the bunker that assigned tasks to each branch of the federal government...
They're Not Looking Out for You
However, these ordinances were extremely selfish and problematic. The majority of them were about restarting the economy, none offered citizens medical care, housing, or even plans to restart society. The plan was to desert the citizens of America, prioritize the lives of the government officials, and attempt to profit off of those who did not lose their lives in the prospective nuclear attack…
Taking the Airwaves
After conducting more research and drawing conclusions about the bunker, Graff went on NPR to describe his findings. He stated that then Raven Rock Complex was “a free-standing city… built inside of this mountain.” He said that the site was intended to be a backup Pentagon and that the entrances to the shelter had two 34-ton blast doors that were capable of withstanding a nuclear explosion…
The Exposé
Outraged, Graff wrote a book that he titled “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself—While the Rest of Us Die.” Over the course of his writing process, Graff discovered that there were dozens of these shelters hidden around America. All of these bunkers were built with taxpayer money, and none of them offered shelter to the citizens who indirectly paid them to be built...
Operations Have Ceased (We Think)
Since then, the government has shut down the operations within these bunkers (that we know of) and ceased funding the nuclear contingency plan. However, it’s important moments like these where you should start building your own nuclear contingency plan. No, we’re not suggesting that you dig a bunker in your back yard, but it’s best to be prepared for the unexpected. Having a backup of supplies and some savings can help you through difficult societal situations, kind of like what’s going on in the world right now.