The Montauk Project: The Experimental Lab That Inspired ‘Stranger Things’

The story behind the real mind-control lab

Stranger Things follows the story of a group of friends who decide to investigate one of their friend’s mysterious disappearance, which leads them to discover a secretive lab that supposedly has something to do with his vanishing.

But did you know that show the show is based on a supposedly real-life government experimental lab? ‘Stranger Things’ was even originally titled, ‘Montauk,’ named after ‘The Montauk Project’ which alleges that there were a series of illegal secretive government experiments conducted at Montauk Air Force Station (also referred to as “Camp Hero”) in Montauk, located at the tip of Long Island.

As far as we know, one of the first Montauk Project experiments was conducted by John von Neumann, who attempted to link computers with brains and supposedly succeeded. Sound familiar? Well, that’s because Neuralink, co-founded by Elon Musk, is attempting to do the same thing.

Project Montauk follows the legends that the government illegally recruited human subjects, specifically children, for a series of different experiments involving mind control, time travel, and teleportation just to name a few.

The stories about the project originated from the (highly-questionable) personal accounts of both Preston Nichols and Al Bielek who claim to have been involved in the project.

Witness #1: Preston Nichols

In 1992, Nichols released his book, The Montauk Project: Experiments In Time, which documents his time as a researcher at the military base, as well as the supposable secret experiments that took place deep down in the facility.

The whistleblower tells of over 3 decades of secret research, experiments, and applied technology, including mind control and time travel.

Although there were already rumors about experiments being conducted by the US military before that time, the book added fuel to the fire. Multiple witnesses have come forward since stating that they were subject to horrific abuse at the facility.

Witness #2: Al Bielek

Project Montauk intersects with another better-known and even more farfetched conspiracy theory, the 1943 Philadelphia Experiment. According to the legend, the US military created technology that could render navy ships invisible to enemy radar.

Bielik claims he participated in both Project Montauk and the Philadelphia Experiment, indicating a connection between the two.

Camp Hero really is a former military base, but it has not been confirmed by the military that the sinister experiments of The Montauk Project actually occurred.

Even if the stranger-than-life Montauk Project is fiction, which it most likely is, doesn’t mean the activities supposedly carried out by the project are all entirely fiction. Just take a read into the Central Intelligence Agency’s dark documented history of disturbing experiments involving mind control — MKULTRA, or the Holmesburg prison experiments — and you’ll soon realize that ‘Stanger Things’ is not entirely a made-up story.

Still don’t believe the government conducts secret experiments? Here is a quote from Bill Clinton himself apologizing for some of the experiments.

“Thousands of government-sponsored experiments did take place at hospitals, universities, and military bases around our nation. These experiments were kept secret. The United States of America offers a sincere apology to those of our citizens who were subjected to these experiments.” — Bill Clinton,16 May 1997.