''The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time'' by Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon is the first book in a series detailing fictional
time travel
Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a w ...
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
as part of the
Montauk Project
The Montauk Project is a conspiracy theory that alleges there were a series of United States government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, New York, for the purpose of developing psychological warfare tech ...
.
The 1992 book and its follow up books are written in a first person style and have been classified as
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. The real photographs of the base and crude drawings of the project electronics in the book contributes to the authentic feel prompting the project to assume a
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...
status whereby websites declare it is true or false.
Using a time travel theme, the characters alter history with visits to
Jesus Christ
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
, as well as altering the outcome of
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
battles.
Book details
The Philadelphia Experiment
The book's narrative is centered around the
Montauk Project
The Montauk Project is a conspiracy theory that alleges there were a series of United States government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, New York, for the purpose of developing psychological warfare tech ...
, which is believed to be an extension or continuation of the
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment was an alleged event claimed to have been witnessed by an ex- merchant mariner named Carl M. Allen at the United States Navy's Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, sometime around ...
(also known as Project Rainbow), which supposedly took place in 1943.
Sometime in the 1950s, surviving researchers from the original Project Rainbow began to discuss the project with an eye to continuing the research into technical aspects of manipulating the electromagnetic bottle that had been used to make the invisible, and the reasons and possible military applications of the psychological effects of the
magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
.
A report was supposedly prepared and presented to the
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
, and was soundly rejected as far too dangerous. So a proposal was made directly to the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
promising a powerful new weapon that could drive an enemy insane, inducing the symptoms of
schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by continuous or relapsing episodes of psychosis. Major symptoms include hallucinations (typically hearing voices), delusions, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms include social withdra ...
at the touch of a button. Without Congressional approval, the project would have to be top secret and secretly funded. The Department of Defense approved. Funding supposedly came from a cache of US$10 billion in
Nazi gold
Nazi gold (german: Raubgold, "stolen gold") is gold possessed by Nazi Germany. Much of the focus of the discussion is about how much of this was transferred by Germany to overseas banks during World War II; the ruling Nazi party executed a policy o ...
recovered from a train found by U.S. soldiers in a train tunnel in France. The train was blown up and all the soldiers involved were killed. When those funds ran out, additional funding was secured from ITT and
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
AG in Germany.
The experiment comes to Long Island
Work was begun at
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment c ...
on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, New York under the name Phoenix Project, but it was soon realized that the project required a large radar dish, and installing one at Brookhaven would compromise the security of the project. Luckily, the U.S. Air Force had a decommissioned base at
Montauk, New York
Montauk ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318.
The ...
, not far from Brookhaven, which had a complete
Semi Automatic Ground Environment
The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE) was a system of large computers and associated networking equipment that coordinated data from many radar sites and processed it to produce a single unified image of the airspace over a wide area. S ...
(SAGE) radar installation. The site was large and remote (Montauk was not yet a tourist attraction) and water access would allow equipment to be moved in and out undetected.
Equipment was moved to
Camp Hero
Camp Hero State Park is a state park located on Montauk Point, New York, Montauk Point, New York (state), New York. The park occupies a portion of the former Montauk Air Force Station.
History
Military use
The site known as Camp Hero, or th ...
at the Montauk base in the late 1960s, and installed in an underground bunker beneath the base. According to conspiracy theorists, to mask the nature of the project the site was closed in 1969 and donated as a
wildlife refuge
A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...
/park, with the provision that everything underground would remain the property of the Air Force (although, in reality, the base remained in operation until the 1980s).
Key parts of the original book
Experiments began in earnest in the early 1970s and during this time one, some or all of the following are claimed to have occurred at the site:
* The facility was expanded to as many as twelve levels and several hundred workers, without anyone in the town noticing the tons of building materials or hundreds of workers required. Some reports have the facility extending under the town of Montauk itself.
* Homeless people were abducted and subjected to huge amounts of electromagnetic radiation. Few survived.
* People had their psychic abilities enhanced to the point where they could materialize objects out of thin air.
Stewart Swerdlow
Stewart may refer to:
People
*Stewart (name), Scottish surname and given name
*Clan Stewart, a Scottish clan
*Clan Stewart of Appin, a Scottish clan
Places
Canada
*Stewart, British Columbia
*Stewart Township, Nipissing District, Ontario (histor ...
claims to have been involved in the Montauk Project, and as a result, he says, his "psionic" faculties were boosted, but at the cost of emotional instability, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other issues.
* Experiments were conducted in
teleportation
Teleportation is the hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them. It is a common subject in science fiction literature and in other popular culture. Teleportation is oft ...
.
* A "porthole in time" was created which allowed researchers to travel anywhere in time or space. This was developed into a stable "Time Tunnel".
* Contact was made with alien
extraterrestrials
Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...
through the Time Tunnel and technology was exchanged with them which enhanced the project. This allowed broader access to "
hyperspace
In science fiction, hyperspace (also known as nulspace, subspace, overspace, jumpspace and similar terms) is a concept relating to higher dimensions as well as parallel universes and a faster-than-light (FTL) method of interstellar travel. ...
".
* An alien monster traveled through the time tunnel, destroyed equipment, and devoured researchers. The tunnel was shut down and the creature destroyed.
* Mind control experiments were conducted and runaway boys were abducted and brought out to the base where they underwent excruciating periods of both physical and mental torture in order to break their minds, then their minds were re-programmed. Many were supposedly killed during the process and buried on the site.
* On or about August 12, 1983, the time travel project at
Camp Hero
Camp Hero State Park is a state park located on Montauk Point, New York, Montauk Point, New York (state), New York. The park occupies a portion of the former Montauk Air Force Station.
History
Military use
The site known as Camp Hero, or th ...
interlocked in hyperspace with the original Rainbow Project back in 1943. The USS ''Eldridge'' was drawn into hyperspace and trapped there. Two men,
Al Bielek
The Philadelphia Experiment was an alleged event claimed to have been witnessed by an ex-United States Merchant Marine, merchant mariner named Carl Meredith Allen, Carl M. Allen at the United States Navy's Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadel ...
and Duncan Cameron, both claim to have leaped from the deck of the ''Eldridge'' while it was in hyperspace and ended up after a period of severe disorientation at Camp Hero in the year 1983. Here they claim to have met
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest cove ...
, a famous physicist and mathematician, even though he was known to have died in 1957. Von Neumann had supposedly worked on the original
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment was an alleged event claimed to have been witnessed by an ex- merchant mariner named Carl M. Allen at the United States Navy's Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, sometime around ...
, but the U.S. Navy denies this.
* Staff from the Camp Hero site traveled to the and shut down the generators, causing the ship to return to Philadelphia naval yard in 1943 and causing the time tunnel to collapse.
*
Metahuman
In DC Comics' DC Universe, a metahuman is a human with superpowers. The term is roughly synonymous with both ''mutant'' and ''mutate'' in the Marvel Universe and '' posthuman'' in the Wildstorm and Ultimate Marvel Universes. In DC Comics, the term ...
s and experiments in special serums to create such individuals were tested there.
* After the experiments were completed or the destruction of the facility, depending on which book you read, the facility was closed for good, all the staff were brainwashed, shot, or sworn to absolute secrecy, and all records destroyed. According to some stories, research continues at the site to this day with enhanced security.
Experiments discussed in the other books of the series
* Filmmakers were brought to the facility to begin work on a project that would culminate with the
Moon landing hoax
Moon landing conspiracy theories claim that some or all elements of the Apollo program and the associated Moon landings were hoaxes staged by NASA, possibly with the aid of other organizations. The most notable claim is that the six crewed ...
.
* The military personnel in charge were in fact cultists who built a
ziggurat
A ziggurat (; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ', D-stem of ' 'to protrude, to build high', cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew ''zaqar'' (זָקַר) 'protrude') is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has ...
or step pyramid out of titanium for some esoteric reason.
* Early work on inventing the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
and its implementation were undertaken there.
* Nazi scientists from
Operation Paperclip
Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World Wa ...
were involved in some of the experiments there.
* Experimental "flying saucer" aircraft prototypes were created there, and shipped to other secret bases for testing.
* Bioengineering projects undertaken there eventually created the
Jersey Devil
In South Jersey and Philadelphia folklore in the United States, the Jersey Devil (also known as the Leeds Devil) is a legendary creature said to inhabit the forest of Pine Barrens in South Jersey. The creature is often described as a flying bipe ...
.
*
Black helicopters
The black helicopter is a symbol of an alleged conspiratorial military takeover of the United States in the American militia movement, and has also been associated with UFOs, especially in the UK, men in black, and similar conspiracies.
Over ...
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...
, was the chief director of operations at the base.
* Mass psychological experiments, such as the use of enormous subliminal messages projects and the creation of a "
Men in Black
In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses t ...
" corps to confuse and frighten the public, were invented there.
* The
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
virus was created there.
The Montauk Gang
The authors have never officially declared their books to be fiction and have encouraged speculation that it is true on their publisher's website. They publish a newsletter ''The Pulse'' which continues to extend the myth and promises new books. Believers in the project regularly visit
Camp Hero
Camp Hero State Park is a state park located on Montauk Point, New York, Montauk Point, New York (state), New York. The park occupies a portion of the former Montauk Air Force Station.
History
Military use
The site known as Camp Hero, or th ...
.
A March 2006 article in the '' East Hampton Star'' noted that a rock with ornate carvings found just below the base had been pushed over a cliff by a neighbor rather than time traveling.
The site
The massive
AN/FPS-35
The AN/FPS-35 frequency diversity radar was a long range search radar used in the early 1960s. It was one of the largest air defense radars ever produced, with its antenna and supporting structure mounted on one of the largest rolling-element bear ...
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
(more than wide, weighing 70 to 90 tons), sitting atop an high blast-resistant concrete bunker, was built in the 1960s as part of a coastal defense for
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
during an era when airplane
bombers
A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an aircraf ...
were considered a primary threat. The early computers of this era were massive in size and housed in the bunker. Both the radar and the computers quickly became obsolete. Although the radars were dismantled elsewhere, the Montauk radar was subject to an intense petition drive by boaters on the crowded
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
who thought it was a more obvious landmark than the nearby
Montauk Lighthouse
The Montauk Point Light, or Montauk Point Lighthouse, is a lighthouse located adjacent to Montauk Point State Park, at the easternmost point of Long Island, in the hamlet of Montauk in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York. T ...
.
The site was also full of massive gun emplacements from
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, built in blast-resistant concrete bunkers. There is also a modern
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
of support buildings. All of this was intentionally disguised to hide it from the air.
The site was opened to the public on September 18, 2002, as
Camp Hero State Park
Camp Hero State Park is a state park located on Montauk Point, New York. The park occupies a portion of the former Montauk Air Force Station.
History
Military use
The site known as Camp Hero, or the Montauk Air Force Station, was original ...
. The radar tower has been placed on the State and
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. There are plans for a museum and interpretive center focusing on World War II and
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
era history.
Other books in the Montauk Project series
The following books have been published by Sky Books which lists its home at Westbury in
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of New York. At the 2020 U.S. census, Nassau County's population is 1,395,774. The county seat is Mineola and the largest town is Hempstead.
Nassau County is situated on western Long Island ...
on Long Island.
* ''Montauk Revisited: Adventures in Synchronicity'' by Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon published in 1993 ()
* ''Pyramids of Montauk: Explorations in Consciousness'' by Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon published in 1995 ()
* ''The Black Sun: Montauk's Nazi-Tibetan Connection'' by Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon published in 1997 ()
* ''Montauk: The Alien Connection'' by Stewart Swerdlow with Peter Moon (editor) published in 1998 ()