Three seasons of Stranger Things. We laughed, we cried, we went to Amazon and bought every Funko Pop figure available (including Barb, because…#justiceforbarb).
We can make a whole case study for the number of pop-culture references littered throughout this 80’s movie love-letter show, but there’s another inspiration that often remains overlooked.
Enter Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon, authors of The Montauk Project, Experiments in Time. The 1992 book exposes the alleged secret experiments conducted at Montauk Air Force Station, now sitting in ruins in Long Island, New York. It was decommissioned in 1981.
Where it all began.
Nichols claims that the experiments were a continuation of the Philadelphia experiment, a story reported in 1955. It involved a Navy Destroyer that was rendered invisible to enemy devices, courtesy of Nikola Tesla.
The story was labeled a hoax, though Nichols claims that the Navy Destroyer traveled to another time/dimension, and completely messed with the minds of its passengers.
The alleged project was picked up again at the Montauk base in the 1970’s, where Nichols was stationed to work on the Montauk Chair. The Montauk Chair used…electromagnetic…technology…to amplify psychic abilities? stranger things happened (pun semi-intended) when someone used it to open a portal to other times and places.
The darker and unfortunate side of these claims involves kids who were kidnapped and taken to the base, where they were experimented on. The goal was to create soldiers for psychological warfare, and the Montauk Chair would allow them to spy on foreign nations.
Eleven in the sensory deprivation tank, Stranger Things.
In Stranger Things, a child called Eleven is placed in a sensory deprivation tank and forced to spy on the Russians during the Cold War, because…well, deprivation tanks are more cinematic than chairs.
When these claims were published, many of the former kids “regained” their repressed memories of being abducted and taken to Montauk. Some of these alleged victims were featured in The Montauk Chronicles, a 2015 documentary in which they recounted their horrific experiences.
The Montauk Chronicles documentary…be sure to keep the lights on and hug your pet for this one.
Things took a turn for the weirder still when someone summoned a hairy monster from their subconscious to jump out of the portal and wreak havoc upon the base (there’s always that one guy who has to unleash a vicious, bloodthirsty monster, isn’t there?)
Nichols defeated the monster by smashing all the equipment in the lab, making it vanish.
It doesn’t help that in 2008 an unidentified creature washed up on the shores of Montauk. It later disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It’s mostly theorized to be the remains of a raccoon having a bad day, but others claim its legs were too long for that.
Is it a dog? is it a raccoon? or is it the remains of my grandma’s tamales?
The Montauk project was canceled after the monster fiasco, the lower levels filled with cement. All memories were conveniently wiped.
Though there has never been evidence of experimentation in Montauk, local trespassers and graffiti artists still like to report occasional hauntings and voices coming from there.
What’s left of Montauk Air Force base, also known as Camp Hero.
Stranger Things was originally titled Montauk, with filming set on location in Montauk, New York. The Duffer brothers haven’t commented much on the connection, aside from the fact that changing the title and location was very painful for them.
Child abductions, government conspiracies, and monsters running amuck are all major plot elements in Stranger Things, showing a clear inspiration from Nichol’s reports.
Via Thrillist.
If you could open up a portal to another time or place, where would you go on vacation? Hawaii? Uranus? Medieval Europe? As far as I know, there’s only one way to ponder this…and that is to snuggle up in my Stranger Things sweater, with my Stranger Things mug full of rumkinspice latte, and a box of Eggos while re-binging on the third season (is re-binging even a term yet? we should make it a term).
Don’t forget to tune in to Stranger Things season three! unless you haven’t seen seasons one and two yet, in which case, definitely watch seasons one and two.
Written by Michael Gonzalez.