Science
Stranger Things Was REAL: Inside the Montauk Project
Explore the eerie connections between the fictional world of 'Stranger Things' and the real-life Montauk Project, a decommissioned military base on Long Island. This episode delves into the ...
Stranger Things Was REAL: Inside the Montauk Project
Science •
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Interactive Transcript
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People think stranger things is just a TV show,
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but it was actually based on a real place.
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A place with sealed tunnels, cold war, radar towers,
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and a history the government tried to cover up.
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This is Camp Hero, a decommissioned military base
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on the far edge of Long Island.
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On paper, it's just a state park,
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but in reality, it is the center
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of one of the most insane conspiracy theories
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in American history, the Montenegro Project.
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This is a supposed secret program involving time travel
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in psychic kids and mind control programs,
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and allegedly a creature manifested by consciousness itself.
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But here's a thing, none of this started as a conspiracy.
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This was a real place, and it had a mission,
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a purpose, and some of the most advanced tech of its time.
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And today, we're getting to the bottom of it all.
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So sit back, relax, and welcome to camp.
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What's up, people?
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And welcome back to camp.
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What the hell was that, dude?
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Guys, we got an amazing episode for you.
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All right, thank you so much for joining me in my tent,
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where every single week I explore the most interesting
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fascinating conspiracy stories from around the world
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from all time forever.
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That's right, this channel is my attempt
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to understand everything that's ever happened ever on this,
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you know, the history of this big beautiful dot
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that we all inhabit.
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Now it was always, this episode is not possible
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without my dear friend David hanging up.
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How you doing?
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And also my friend, Kree's done,
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it's Kree's done, so everybody.
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Let's go.
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All right, come on, Kree's done a time.
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All right, we can't be deviating.
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All the people in the comments are pissed off.
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Today, we're talking about the story
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that inspired stranger things.
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You guys have all seen stranger things, right?
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It's a wonderful show.
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It's, oh, it's great.
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It's, you should.
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Give me the clip, that's real quick.
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I'm about to, actually, I'm glad you brought that up.
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We're gonna go through the whole thing.
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All right, stranger things, if you've seen it,
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where you got these kids who played this game,
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they got the upside down.
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There's this demigorgon that escapes from like,
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you know, a testing facility that the government's running
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and then there's the girl escapes
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and she's the one that's able to like see them
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and she basically tries to save the world.
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It's awesome, but it didn't just come out of nowhere.
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It came out of a real book known as the Montauk Project,
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which is basically an expose on this experimental military base
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that was built out in Long Island
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by a couple of dallians back in the day in 1942.
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So we're going through all the details.
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Let's start at the very beginning, shall we?
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Can I ask you a quick question?
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Yeah, go ahead.
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Have you ever seen a stranger things?
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I have.
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I have.
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I've seen every single episode every season.
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You don't watch movies or shows.
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How is this?
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Hopper, officer hopper, okay?
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Winona Ryder is in it.
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It's bad, but even as a mom, she's frantic,
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but I'm just like, I could save you.
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You know, the kids are fun, great actors.
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I don't know what?
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They're hell.
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No, guys, we're going in to the real stranger things, all right?
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So it all starts at a place called Camp Hero.
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This was established in 1942 as Fort Hero,
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part of a like a coastal defense network
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that was built to protect the New York Harbor
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during World War II.
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You know, there's freaking Nazis
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were trying to fuck shit up.
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So the military was concerned that these Nazi U-boats,
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which had been sinking, you know,
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merchant ships along the East Coast,
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might attempt to attack American cities.
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So they equipped the camp with two 16 inch gun batteries,
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search light barracks and an underground ammunition
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storage bunker that was connected by a bunch of different tunnels,
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all right, the perfect place to do an experimental mind control thing.
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But after the war ended,
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the threat had obviously shifted, right?
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World War II ends now.
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We're not worried about the Nazis.
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We're worried about both damn Soviets.
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So the Soviet Union had developed long range bombers,
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cable of reaching the US of A,
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and the military needed a way to detect them
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before they could strike American cities.
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So 1951, the Air Force, you know,
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takes the look at Camp Hero and they're like, this'll work.
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And they transformed it into a radar surveillance station.
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Now, the centerpiece of the change
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was this 80 foot tall radar system,
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one of the most powerful search radars
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in the Air Force arsenal at the time.
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The radar operated on L band frequencies
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and could detect aircraft at ranges of over 200 miles away.
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And it would send that data to the semi-automatic ground
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environment, also known as SAGE,
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and SAGE is basically like this giant computer network
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that linked radar stations across North America,
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data from Camp Hero and a bunch of other sites
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was transmitted to the SAGE direction centers
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where, you know, obviously the skilled operators
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and analysts would track aircraft
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and, you know, do like a coordinated response.
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Essentially, if the Soviet Union and their bombers appeared,
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SAGE would just shoot jets to intercept them.
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But by the late 1960s, the threat had changed once again.
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By this time, countries were producing ICBMs.
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This was intercontinental ballistic missiles.
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You probably heard of these.
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And they could reach the United States in minutes,
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making bomber detection kind of useless.
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So the radar camp at Camp Hero was deactivated in 1969.
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Now, it's worth mentioning the Air Force maintained
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a small presence at the camp for a while,
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but in 1981, the base was officially closed
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and most of the equipment was removed or decommissioned.
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What remained was just a massive, largely abandoned installation.
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I mean, the bunkers were sealed with concrete
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and the tunnels led to nowhere
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and the radar tower was basically just left to rot.
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And that is the official story.
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Now, before we get into what happened at Montauk,
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we need to talk about a much older story
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that would eventually become connected to this one.
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And this is known as the Philadelphia Experiment.
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According to the story, in October 1943,
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the US Navy conducted a classified experiment aboard
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the Destroyer Escort, the USS Eldridge.
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Now, the goal was to achieve radar invisibility
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using a technology inspired by what's known
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as unified field theory.
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Now, this is the idea that electromagnetic and gravitational fields
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could be manipulated through intense magnetic fields
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generated by powerful equipment installed on the ship.
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Basically, that the electromagnetic and gravitational fields
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in our actual Earth could be affected
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if we were able to blast it with a hard enough magnet.
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And that could affect planes and radar
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and all sorts of different things
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that would be beneficial during World War II.
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Now, this experiment allegedly took place
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on October 28th, 1943.
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Witnesses claimed that when the equipment was activated,
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a greenish fog engulfed the USS Eldridge
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and the ship, according to the story,
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completely vanished from the shipyard.
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And it reappeared briefly in Norfolk, Virginia,
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roughly 200 miles away,
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and then returned to Philadelphia minutes later.
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But when the ship basically reappeared back in Philadelphia,
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the crew was in terrible condition.
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According to the stories,
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some of these sailors aboard the ship were dead
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and their bodies were stuck between decks.
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They were all in these places that basically,
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like you couldn't even get to,
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like basically fused into the ship itself.
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The ones that weren't actually basically reintegrated
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back into the ship just went crazy
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and they experienced this disorientation and memory loss.
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According to the story,
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some crew members allegedly vanished entirely
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and they were never seen again.
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And a few reportedly were basically burned
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and they were phasing in and out of visibility.
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Now it sounds crazy, okay?
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And the main source of this story was Carlos Miguel Alande,
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who was also known as Carl Allen,
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who sent a letter to the astronomer in UFO researcher,
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Morris Cajesa.
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But the issue is that Alande provided no evidence.
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And his letters were filled with unusual capitalization
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and like cryptic language and references to like Einstein's work
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that was kind of like misunderstood
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or just sort of like made up.
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I mean, in the letter Carlos says,
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I have read your book,
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the case for the UFO with great interest
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and I feel that you are going to go down in history
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as the first man to prove to the world
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that flying objects are real
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and that we can travel by them.
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I know this to be a fact because in October 1943,
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the Navy made a ship invisible
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and it disappeared from Philly
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and only appeared in Norfolk, Virginia
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and then back again in a few minutes.
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This was done using Einstein's unified field theory
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and by wrapping the ship in powerful electromagnetic fields.
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He goes on to say,
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the result was complete invisibility to the human eye
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but what they had not counted on was that the crew
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of the ship was affected terribly.
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Someone insane, some as I know were found embedded
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into the steel of the ship, some were alive
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but their bodies were half in and out
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of the metal of the ship.
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It was horrible.
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Others simply disappeared.
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It was a shocking experiment.
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It was never repeated and the Navy hushed it up, of course.
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He even continues the letter and says,
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I was there on a merchant ship close by
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and we saw the whole thing, Greenwich fog
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arose around the ship and the ship disappeared
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and whenever turned some men were screaming
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as if they were being burned alive
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and others were frozen in place, I will never forget it.
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Now it sounds crazy,
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but I'm just telling you what the letter said.
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After receiving the letter,
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Jessup actually started to speak with Carlos
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and reached out to him asking for any evidence
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or any other supporting research that could support this claim
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but he was unable to recall any specific dates
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or news reports of the incident or anything like that.
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Now the US Navy has repeatedly
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and officially denied that this Philadelphia experiment
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had ever occurred and no Navy records show any evidence
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of such an experiment, no missing crew,
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no classified projects, matching the description,
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the ship logs, placing the USS Eldridge
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in New York waters at the same time of this,
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supposed event that happened in Philadelphia.
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And despite the lack of evidence,
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the Philadelphia experiment actually introduced
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a lot of key themes that would resurface decades later.
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This was a secret military tech,
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invisibility, teleportation,
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and catastrophic consequences when humans interfere
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with physics, all that kind of stuff.
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Now keep these themes in mind
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because they're going to come back with this montage project.
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What's up guys,
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we're gonna take a break really quick
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because I gotta tell you a story.
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Imagine you're sitting in your house,
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or something like that and it never gets to you.
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You're looking at the app, you're like, dude,
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it's been four hours, where's my penini?
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Your colon, no one answers.
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Well, this is a true story that happened.
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There was a woman, a client that was working
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as a door dash driver and she slipped and fell
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on an icy walkway outside of a panero bread
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and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
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She breaks her elbow, which leads to surgery
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and hardware having to get inserted into her arms.
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She can't work.
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And originally, you know, she sued panero and panero,
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and I was like, okay, we'll give you like 125,000.
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But then the good people over at Morgan and Morgan fought
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for her and got her at the million dollar verdict
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that she deserved.
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Yes.
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If you've never heard of Morgan, Morgan is America's
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Yes, and there that way for a reason they've been fighting
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Now, I'll be honest, if I ordered, you know, a panini
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I mean, it's a tragic thing to happen, of course,
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but I deserve a little bit of that.
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I should get a cut at least, right?
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It's I have the will in the order of the panini.
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If I never ordered that panini,
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she never would have slipped, never got a million bucks,
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which obviously she deserves, you know what I mean?
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But maybe next time she gets a million,
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a million point one, I can get a cool 100,000 out of that.
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Well, let's get back to the show.
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So when the Air Force closed Camp Hero, this is the one all the way
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at the end of Wang Island in 1981, the base didn't immediately
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transfer to civilian control.
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So for several years, it sat abandoned.
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Local residents would see security guards like maintenance crews,
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but the site remained basically off limits to the public.
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This period when the base was not active by the military,
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but also not open to the public became all the juice needed for
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speculation.
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You had a lot of independent researchers and conspiracy theorists
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that started theorized that the radar equipment and the underground
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facilities weren't actually abandoned.
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Instead, they claimed that the Air Force with draw was actually just a cover
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story for something more serious.
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First off, Camp Hero's remote location in Montauk made it ideal
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for classified work, right?
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It's close to the city, but still very far away from people
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milling around.
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Second, this massive underground tunnel network from World War II
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provided this kind of like a ready-made facility for these covert operations.
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And third, the base's radar equipment and the connection to SAID
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suggested that it had some capacity for electric magnetic research.
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Now, a lot of research is also point to the base's proximity
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to Brookhaven National Laboratory, which is about 50 miles west.
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Now, Brookhaven was the real nuclear research facility involved in particle
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physics and obviously had historical ties to government research.
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Fun fact, actually, Brookhaven is where one of the first particle
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accelerators called the Cosmotron was actually created in 1952,
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which of course didn't help any of the accusations.
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Now, conspiracy theorists speculated that Brookhaven scientists might have
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used Camp Hero as this remote testing site for their more dangerous
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experiments that couldn't be conducted near very populated areas.
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Now, the theories began by claiming that this camp was a mind-control
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experiment, essentially like the new MK Ultra after MK Ultra was done,
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and then they swapped it to weather manipulation, and then it made the biggest leap of all,
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obviously, to massive-scale time travel.
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Now, these ideas circulated in small circles and through the pre-internet
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kind of conspiracy world throughout the 1980s, and they remained largely underground,
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no pun intended, until one person decided to turn all of these theories into a complete story.
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The Montauk project. Now, Preston B. Nichols was an electrical engineer living online island
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who became interested in electromagnetic research and radio technology, but in the early 1980s,
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according to his later claims, he began experiencing unusual memories and psychological phenomena
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that he couldn't explain. Now, Nichols said that these symptoms led him to seeking professional
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help. He went therapy and meditation, and he recovered suppressed memories of actually working
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at Camp Hero between 1971 and 1983. He claimed he had been recruited to work on a classified
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project involving mind control and electromagnetic manipulation and eventually time travel,
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all conducted at the underground facility beneath the decommissioned base.
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So, in 1992, Nichols co-authored the book The Montauk Project,
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Experiments in Time with Peter Moon, a paranormal researcher.
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Now, this book became the foundation of this modern Montauk legend. It laid out
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a detailed narrative of what supposedly happened at Camp Hero in the 70s.
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And according to Nichols, the Montauk project was divided into several phases,
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each building on the previous one. The initial phase supposedly ran from 1971 to 1973 and
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focused on mind control. Nichols claimed that the project was a continuation of CIA programs,
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like MK Ultra, but it used advanced electromagnetic technology instead of drugs.
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And its main goal was basically to use radio waves to influence human thoughts and behavior.
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Now, Nichols described these massive rooms filled with transmitters and amplifiers and computer
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systems that could target individuals and broadcast even wider areas. And the equipment
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supposedly consisted of modified radar transmitters based on the old sage systems.
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It had also had reconfigured broadcast frequencies that could not only affect
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brand activity, but even induce emotional states such as fear or calmness or aggression
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just by adjusting the frequencies and the modulation of the transmitted signals.
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Now, the second phase introduced what Nichols basically called the Montauk chair.
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Now, the most detailed and frequently discussed piece of this allergic technology in the entire
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story is the Montauk chair. Now, according to Nichols, the Montauk chair was built around 1974.
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It was described as like kind of like a specialized seat, like almost like a dentist chair,
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basically surrounded by all these electromagnetic coils, specifically three sets of delta T coils
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arranged in like a triangle around where the subject would sit. The chair also featured a hood
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or like a helmet that would fit over the subject's head all lined with all these sensors and coils.
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Now, Nichols claimed that the purpose of the chair was like psychic amplification.
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The theory was that human thoughts produce this electromagnetic signal, but it's a weak signal.
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And if those signals could be detected, amplified and then broadcast, see what I'm going on,
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a person's thoughts could then manifest physical effects. Now, here's how Nichols described
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the process. A psychically sensitive individual, basically someone who scored high like ESP tests
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or demonstrated these telepathic abilities would sit in the chair. The sensors in the helmet
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would then detect their electromagnetic patterns produced by their brain activity, and then these
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signals would be fed into a computer system, then translate the brain patterns into a format that
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could be amplified and the amplified signals would then be broadcast through the chair's coils,
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and then through the basis, you know, more powerful transmitters. When this works successfully,
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the psychic thoughts could then manifest in a bunch of different ways. One was thought materialization.
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The subject could supposedly think of an object, say like, you know, a chair, like a hammer.
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And then it would physically appear nearby, pulled from some other location, or even some other
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timeline. Now, I know this is crazy. This is just what Preston Nichols wrote in his book.
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Another thing that he says can happen with this, you know, psychic amplifier is mind projection.
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Now, the subject's consciousness could be projected to a different location. They could see
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what was happening miles away or even in different time periods, though their body was still in the
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chair, basically like, and, you know, a scientific version of like remote viewing. And then finally,
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there is time portal generation. This was described as the most advanced technique. And basically,
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if the subject focused on a specific time and a place while in the chair, the equipment could
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supposedly generate what Nichols called a time vortex, or like a time tunnel. And basically,
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this is like an opening in space time that connected the Montauk facility to another time period
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completely. Now, Nichols claimed that the computer system was using a process to amplify these
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signals and was based on technology by Dr. John Vaughn Newman. This was a mathematician who worked
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on early computing systems in one of the key architects of the Manhattan Project for the thing that,
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you know, made the nuclear bomb. Now, to show you that Nichols may have been a little bit out there.
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He basically suggested that Vaughn Newman, this mathematician, had secretly continued research
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into consciousness and electromagnetic fields after his death in 1957. Yes, he claims that Vaughn Newman
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either faked his death or that his consciousness was like transferred and then still continued to work
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or something like that. He doesn't really provide a ton of evidence, but that is what he claims.
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Now, as the project supposedly progressed into the late 70s, Nichols claimed that researchers needed more,
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you know, psychically gifted subjects. And then this led to what they called the Montauk Boys program.
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According to Nichols, they would get, you know, these young teenage boys like from like 10 to 16,
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and they were recruited or even abducted from local areas and brought to Camp Hero. He claimed
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that these boys were chosen because younger minds were more, you know, psychically malleable and
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could be more easily trained or programmed. And the boys were allegedly subjected to intensive
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psychological conditioning or electromagnetic exposure or like trauma-based programming design
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to enhance their psychic abilities and basically make them more compliant test subjects. Now,
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Nichols described these underground dormitory areas where dozens of boys were housed, separated from
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the main research area. Now, he claims in his book that many boys were used for time travel experiments
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and basically sent through like these portals and, you know, basically to, you know, go see these
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different points either in history or in the future. Some supposedly never returned while others
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came back with, you know, trauma or missing memories or just altered memories completely.
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And Nichols said that after experiments concluded the boys would be subject to memory
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erasure and that they returned to their normal lives with no recollection of what happened.
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Now, this Montalk boys narrative became one of the most disturbing aspects of the story because,
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you know, it's obviously connected to child abduction and abuse and to government experiments
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in mind control, right? And it's pretty obvious. However, no missing children from the Montalk area
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during the 1970s have ever been connected to Nichols' claims. What's up, guys? We're going to take a
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break real quick because buying work boots is annoying. Okay, take it from me. Stand-up comedian
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you got to choose, all right, do I want them to be comfortable? Do I want them to be really durable?
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Do I want them to be safe? Or do I want them to be affordable, you know? And so now you're going
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through all the different brands. You're like, okay, well, these are going to wreck my feet.
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Uh, you know, these ones are going to last a long time with their super expensive. These ones
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feel good, but they're going to get destroyed. Well, now you don't have to choose. And that's
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because I want to talk to you about Brunt Workwear. This was started by just a regular blue-collar guy
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that basically was talking to all his friends that work in trade jobs and they kept on being like,
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hey, these big brands don't listen to us and, you know, they either haven't changed in 100 years
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or they've changed too much and now they're super cheap and poorly made. But that's why he invented
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Brunt because these are products that are used by real hardworking tradesmen that want something
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be not crazy expensive and they want them to last a long time. And that's why Brunt is amazing.
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I've been wearing these around the city because, you know, it's a little bit chilly now and I put
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on my boots just to make people think that I have a blue-collar job. And they're comfy right out of
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the box. I mean, like I wear, you know, like running shoes, regular shoes all the time. And these
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kind of feel like that. Like, it feels like I'm just wearing like a normal boot. But these are awesome
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because they are super safe. They're waterproof. They are, you know, lace up. They are great ankle
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the whole year and they keep your feet warm. They last a super long time. They've dropped like
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brunt is doing. And that's because brunt stands by what they make. You can wear them to work. And if
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they're not right for you, you can send them right back. I don't know any of the brand that does
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it. That's a company that is standing on business. So all that to say, brunt stands on what they
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And now let's get back to the show. Now all of the claims that Nichols made none would even
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match up to the story of Duncan Cameron. Now, Duncan was said to be the primary psychic used
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in the Montauk chair in the late 70s. Now, according to Nichols, Duncan had exceptional
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psychic abilities and could generate time portals more reliably than any other subject. He claimed
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that this guy Duncan would sit in the Montauk chair and focus on dates and locations. And then
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equipment would basically generate like a visible portal that he described as like a swirling vortex.
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Now researchers and military personnel would supposedly walk or drive vehicles through these
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portals and they would emerge at different points in time. Now Cameron claimed that he was sent to
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various historical periods all to basically gather information or like go get objects. So
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in ancient Egypt, he brought back scrolls and tablets. He went to the Civil War, he brought back maps
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and some logistics and from the far future, he even retrieved information about future civilizations.
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But according to Nichols, the Montauk project came to an abrupt end in 1983 due to an incident
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in evolving Duncan Cameron and this Montauk chair. According to Nichols, in his book, he claims
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that on August 12, 1983 during a routine time portal experiment, if there is such a thing as a
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routine one, Duncan either accidentally or intentionally through his psychic ability manifested
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this like aggressive, massive beast thing while he was sitting in the chair. And because he was able
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to manifest this in his mind, it then became a reality. And the creature allegedly materialized
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in the facility and began to destroy equipment and attack personnel. Now the creature supposedly
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couldn't be controlled or eliminated through these conventional means because it was sustained by
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Duncan's thoughts as long as he remained in the chair. Now according to Nichols, the only way
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to stop it was basically to shut down the entire system, all the technology shut down the chair
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and basically get Duncan out of there. Now Nichols claimed that he and other technicians began to
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destroy the transmitters and sever the power connections and smash critical equipment
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causing this time portal to collapse and then this creature was then vanished. Now this shutdown
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supposedly ended the Montauk project permanently with the facility being a bandage or the afterwards.
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Now if you remember from earlier, Camp Hero was officially shut down in 1981, not 83 like Nichols
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suggests, but people of the town claimed that military officials continued to operate in and
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around the area. So Nichols claim of work still going out of the facility kind of holds up
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based off of eyewitness account. But the accusations of what exactly that work consisted of
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is still what causes so much controversy. Now this takes us to the late 1980s when the Montauk
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legend was officially connected directly to the Philadelphia experiment. In the late 1980s,
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there was a man named Al Beleck and he basically began appearing at UFO conferences and paranormal
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gatherings with the most unbelievable claim. He was one of the survivors of the Philadelphia
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experiment and he had lived for decades without knowing his true identity. Now Beleck was born
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Alfred Beleck in 1927 and until the 1980s he lived a pretty unremarkable life as you know,
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electronics engineer. Not that there's anything wrong with it. There's maybe some
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electrical electronic engineers listening. Okay, so no disrespect. But according to his later
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claims, his memories were actually false and planted by the government and their mind control
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program to cover up his real past. He said his original name was Edward Cameron and in 1943 at the
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age of 16, kids served aboard the USS Eldridge during this Philadelphia experiment alongside his
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brother Duncan Cameron. Yes, the same Duncan that Nichols would eventually write about. Now,
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according to Beleck, when the electromagnetic field generators were activated on October 28th in
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1943 in Philadelphia, the ship didn't just become invisible. It ripped a hole in space time
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and realizing that something had gone catastrophically wrong, he and Duncan jumped off the ship to
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escape. But instead of landing on the water, they fell through what he described as a time vortex.
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Now, Beleck claimed they emerged in the year 2137 and they found themselves in this underground
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hospital facility where they were being treated for radiation and temporal displacement.
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Now, according to Beleck, this future earth was radically different. Much of the planet's
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surface was damaged and humanity lived in basically like these controlled underground cities.
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Now, after their recovery, Beleck said that they were not allowed to stay at this facility.
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Supposedly, according to Beleck, future authorities transferred them forward and time again
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through another controlled time jump this year to the year 2749. Now, Al claimed that they lived
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for a full two years in this like basically floating AI-governed society. And this is where he
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described like neural implants and you know, cities and societies with no money and like these
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cities that were hovering above earth and eventually claimed that agents from this future era
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informed him that he had returned to 1943 to complete a mission, basically shutting down
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this Philadelphia experiment to prevent a larger catastrophe. When they were sent back,
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Beleck said that they arrived not in 1943, but in 1983 at Montauk. There, he claimed generators
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from the original Philadelphia experiment had been connected to the equipment at Camp Hero where the
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Montauk project allegedly happened and basically created a time lock between two dates exactly 40
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years apart. He and Duncan supposedly helped deactivate the Montauk equipment and closed this
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temporal connection. Now, it sounds crazy, but after this, Beleck said that his memories were then
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erased. His identity was changed through a process involving drugs and hypnosis and age regression
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technology. And he was given the identity of Al Beleck, complete with fabricated documents and
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a fake personal history and he basically lived his fake life until the late 1980s when his memories
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began to resurface. Now, another fun fact throughout the 90s and the 2000s, Beleck was a frequent
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guest on Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell and appeared in a bunch of conspiracy-related documentaries.
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But of course, as fun as these stories are, no evidence has ever been found to support any of
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these claims. There are no military records placing anyone with the name of Edward Cameron or
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Al Beleck aboard the USS Eldridge and his personal history before the 1980s matches the
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documented life of this guy, Alfred Beleck, not the fictional Edward Cameron identity that he
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claimed was, you know, his actual identity beforehand. Now, Duncan Cameron himself came forward
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later with his own testimony, claiming that he had been the main time traveler in the Montauk
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chair experiments, conveniently aligning his story with both Nichols and Beleck. So now we have
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the publication of Nichols' book in 1992 and Beleck's growing presence in the paranormal circuit
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and this brought the Montauk legend to a much wider audience. You have news outlets,
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curious researchers and paranormal investigators, they start to actually show up to this abandoned
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Camp Hero site. Now, the property was technically still government land and it was surrounded by
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fencing and these big no trespassing signs, but that obviously didn't stop like these explorers
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finding ways in. Now, these trespassers reported finding concrete bunkers and sealed tunnel entrances
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and some even claimed to experience unusual phenomena like their electronic equipment that they
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were using to record started malfunction and they had feelings of being watched or time loss,
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they would go in for 20 minutes and it would feel like three hours or they would go in for five
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hours and it would feel like five minutes. And in response to growing public interest, New York
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state began the process of converting Camp Hero into a state park. Now during this process,
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they found exactly what would be expected at a decommissioned Cold War radar station, the band
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buildings, tunnels and ammunition bunkers and deteriorating infrastructure, no equipment of
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laboratories or experimental equipment or time travel or facilities for holding abducted children
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was ever officially discovered. Now, the underground tunnel network was definitely real,
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but these had been sealed as concrete back in the 40s and 50s. Now throughout the 1990s,
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Preston Nichols released more books expanding on this original narrative. He wrote
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Montauk revisited pyramids of Montauk and the Montauk project and then the Montauk chair in 1997.
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In each new book layered on new claims connecting the Montauk experiment to
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basically everything ever, extraterrestrials and underground civilizations, ancient technology,
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post-war Nazi science and Nichols claimed that during excavations beneath Camp Hero, researchers
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discovered massive subterranean chambers that actually predated the military base itself. He
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claimed that they found like a pre-human technology or some type of ancient civilization or
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even some type of Atlantis type thing and devices allegedly built thousands of years ago that
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could manipulate energy and consciousness or even time, which was why this site was chosen as
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a military lab. One of the most wild claims was that the Montauk chair was actually reverse
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engineered from this ancient machinery. He also introduced like extraterrestrials and aliens
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into the story more explicitly. Nichols wrote that aliens sometimes described as grays,
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were sometimes tall. They might be Nordic-looking beings and they were working alongside scientists
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at Montauk to provide the technical guidance on stabilizing these time tunnels and in some accounts,
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they used the base to pursue their own experiments and their own agenda. He even went on to claim that
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certain rooms in this underground complex were kept at alien compatible atmospheric conditions.
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I don't even know like what exactly he means by that, but they were just off limits to human staff.
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Now another thread that Nichols added was this you know link to Operation Paperclip. Now this
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was a real post-World War II US program that brought up a bunch of Nazi scientists to America,
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like Warner von Braun who helped with the space program, etc. Nichols alleged that German scientists
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who had worked on basically secret electromagnetic and psychic research for the Nazi regime to
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Third Reich were relocated to Montauk after the war. He implied that these individuals blended
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like Nazi occult science with ancient technology with some help from aliens and this created
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like this bizarre hybrid program focused on like mind control and time travel and interdimensional
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contact. Now he also tied Montauk and the project there to the pyramids and basically like pyramidal
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energy systems, hence the title you know pyramids of Montauk. He claimed that the layout of Camp
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Hero Correspondent to Geometric alignments found in the great pyramids of Giza and that these shapes
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basically acted like an antenna that was able to channel and focus like subtle energy necessary for
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these types of like portal experiments. So that's what Preston Nichol says again I don't there's no
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evidence really to support this but these are what is in his books. Now although there are a lot of
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fans of the story it's also attracted you know a ton of skeptics. So Albelec died in 2011,
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Preston Nichol was died in 2018 and Duncan Cameron died in 2019 and they never provided
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like any evidence or you know documents, photographs or any type of like physical artifacts from
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these experiments and you know people pointed out that many of the details and his books seem to be
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drawn from like science fiction rather than like actual science. But all that science fiction led us
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to Netflix basically to stranger things. In 2015 the Duffer Brothers were developing a science
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fiction TV series titled Montauk. That's what they called it and this is basically like a supernatural
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thriller that was based in you know the end of Long Island and they pitched the show as like
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this love letter to the 80s like you know Stephen King, small town horror and like Spielberg
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adventure and then like you know tied in with like this actual Cold War conspiracy theory that was
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written by this guy Preston Nichols and the original plan was to involve secret government
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experiments conducted at a military base in Montauk and child test subjects with you know psychic
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powers and then an interdimensional riff that creates a creature that can go through the void and
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their pilot script opened with a boy vanishing near Montauk Air Force Base triggering this
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mystery involving agents in a lab and a young girl with powers and the Duffers shopped this
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Montauk pilot around Hollywood eventually catching the attention of the executives at Netflix
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but somehow their pitch of the original concept leaked online revealing the differences from what
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would eventually become stranger things. The monster was referred to as the Montauk Monster and this
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was a direct reference to the creature that Duncan had allegedly manifested in Preston's book.
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The government lab focused on mind control and remote viewing and time manipulation while
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psychic children were trained to basically open riffs to other dimensions. This is obviously a
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clear parallel to the Montauk boys project and the Montauk chair experiments etc. However before
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production began Netflix pushed the brothers to basically relocate the story from Montauk to
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just a fictional town you know Hawkins, Indiana and mostly because shooting on Monge Island was
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expensive and complicated and partially for creative reasons. By inventing Hawkins the Duffers could
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make the world basically whatever they wanted without being tied to like the real geography or even
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facing like legal headaches from people connected to the town of Montauk. Now despite the changes
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in setting the core story kind of stayed the same. Camp Hero becomes Hawkins National Laboratory.
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The Montauk chair became 11 sensory deprivation tank and the rift between the timelines ends
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up becoming the upside down and the government psychic child program ends up becoming the lab
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secret project to train and weaponize you know these kids with these you know psychic abilities.
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Now in interviews the Duffer brothers openly acknowledged that Montauk was their starting point
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and they described their creative process as taking basically a real urban legend and reimagining
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it through this like supernatural lens. So in short, stranger things isn't just like loosely
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inspired it's essentially the Montauk project with you know some new packaging you know the show
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kept all the core elements of the conspiracy but then packed them in with you know more nostalgia.
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So today Camp Hero State Park is open to the public and visitors can walk the trails past
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some old bunkers and photographs of radar tower and explore you know the bluffs overlooking the
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Atlantic but there is no mention of the infamous Montauk project and that legend gentlemen is where
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the story stranger things came from and why this urban legend existed in the first place.
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So there you have it. I'll be honest I would like casually hear about the Montauk project and I was
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like yeah I guess it was like a real thing that happened after doing some research it probably
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didn't happen. Now MK Ultra obviously happened and you know maybe some mind control shit happened in
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the US you know government back in the day but these guys you know Preston Nichols and you know his
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research again I don't want to call myself a hater I haven't read his books I'm sorry Preston
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RIP, I'm pouring out for the for the homie but I have some pretty strong skepticism you would
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think that they have you know people to drop one document you know maybe just like a photo or just
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anything that would be like oh yeah maybe but with this one there's kind of just kind of nothing but
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I mean I don't know what do you think when you think there's I think we got mind control I hear
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I don't know I think 11 might die in the last season no you think oh I guess you probably has to
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you know what I mean like it's it would just be you know she's basically Jesus
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and so if she doesn't die it's like what's the point you know what I mean like she's gonna save us
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from all of our sins you you follow Millie Bobby Brown in this room baddie it's not what I was gonna say
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how old is she? She's 23 okay I'm just saying all right I just know her from the show or
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she's a child why are you googling so furiously I'm nervous now what do you think Chris does what do
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you think of Molly Molly Billy Billy Bobby Brown? He won nice so anyone 9 plus 10 I have a theory
spk_0
about her go ahead and I'm not afraid to say it go I don't think she's great actress but she plays a
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role where she doesn't have to speak for most of the series oh I feel like not speaking is kind
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of harder though she's like Chaplin yeah that's good point just a specialized skill
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how I just broke my knuckle uh yeah I uh what else is she in though uh something like
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English movie about some bullshit yeah that is the thing she is British
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which I'm not gonna hold that against her you know she's she's married to Bon Jovi's son how
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crazy is that I kind of like that about a piece yeah oh Bon Jovi's kid yeah and I can't
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speak that kid's and that kid's got one she looks like a new Jersey wife no fire dude this is what
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the podcast should be dude she she's given Jordan Belfres wife how does person on the show
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yeah by my I mean we know no rider in her prime you give me prime Winona Maya Hawk is a dark horse
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oh yeah Maya Hawks my Hawks very beautiful love her I'd like to take this opportunity to say that
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I'm out here she's 27 over the over the over the over the I mean my Hawks beautiful she does
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have like a unique look like she's someone that you would double take on you like she's not just
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like a run of the mill Hawk really put her Ethan Hawk and uma Thurman stock that's crazy yeah that's
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a good point that is an excellent point Chris does I mean all right I wish we could we should go
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to Montau we should take a little field trip and discover the truth of the pyramids gets to the
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bottom of the good the Hampton oh yeah we were talking about the project yeah yeah yeah
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what were you talking about a little project in your pants right now you go a horny bitch we
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should go out there and just take our flashlights and really get to the bottom of it our flashlights
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what did I say yeah I think that'd be great you know let's take our flashlights and get to the
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bottom of these pyramids dude I think it'd be nice I think we just I feel like we can go figure it
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out once and for all you know or do you do you believe in ghost David sorry I'm trying to get on
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camera oh no I do not at all at all have you ever experienced anything supernatural in your whole life
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no I truly not I'm in tree loves first guest what first guess tree loves I've never been in love you've
spk_0
never been in love no really dude I'm 27 how sad is that oh over though we should wrap up here
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I think this is a good place to stop guys thank you so much for joining us for another episode camp
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check out religion camp check out history camp check out all the camps that we got uh check out camp
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hero and see what they got going over there all right listen to the episode no I relic into
spk_0
it and you'll be like wow this is pretty interesting this is crazy um if you got any stories or any
spk_0
crazy conspiracy lore that we should dive into specifically around the holiday season Halloween this
spk_0
is the time to do it so send them my way please drop a comment if there's anything I missed I would
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love to know that there's anything wrong keep it to yourself okay I don't want I don't
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want to be incorrect it makes me insecure I read all the comments spotifying YouTube and the top
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comment on this episode in all future episodes will begin some free march from the camp store we'll
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send you whatever I don't know how we're gonna find you probably remote viewing I'll just use a
spk_0
satellite that I called David's forehead and we will figure it out so we will see you guys we will
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see you guys the next episode thank you guys so much and we will see you next time in the tent so long
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in peace buisio