74: The Montauk Project: The Truth is Darker Than You Think
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Hey, it's your buddy AJ from the Y-Files. And Hecklefish. Right, and Hecklefish. We just wanted to tell you that if you want to start a podcast, Spotify makes it easy. It'd have to be easy for humans to understand it. Will you stop that? I'm just saying. Spotify for Podcasters lets you record and edit podcasts from your computer. I don't have a computer. Do you have a phone? Of course I have a phone. I'm not a savage. Well, with Spotify, you can record podcasts from your phone, too.

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In 1943, the USS Eldridge was made invisible and teleported from Philadelphia to Virginia. And this event was known as the Philadelphia Experiment. When the Eldridge reappeared, some crew materialized in walls and bulkheads

and they died in agony. But two sailors didn't reappear at all. The two men, who happened to be brothers, were presumed dead or lost. They weren't dead. They traveled 40 years into the future, into a secret military base on the east end of Long Island. They became unwitting participants of the Montauk Project.

In the early 70s, Preston Nichols, an engineer who specialized in electromagnetism, worked for a defense contractor on Long Island. And during this time, he was working with a group of psychics studying telepathy and getting good results. He discovered that telepathy behaves exactly like a radio wave. For some reason, at the same time every day, his subjects' minds would be blocked, and he had no idea why.

After three years of this strange phenomenon, Nichols brought in radio equipment to monitor the signals during the psychic blackout.

He learned that whenever 410 to 420 megahertz was detected, his subjects were jammed and after 20 minutes the signal would dissipate and the psychics would open back up. Nichols built a mobile transceiver and tracked the origin of the signal to Montauk Point on the east end of Long Island, New York. More specifically, he traced the signal to a large radar tower on Montauk Air Force Base.

So there was nothing he could do about it. The radio interference continued for a few years and eventually stopped. Nichols didn't give it much thought until he received a call from a friend who said the Air Force base was now abandoned and he should go check it out. And the base was deserted. But for some reason, it was a mess. You would expect the military to decommission a base in a clean and orderly way, but not Montauk. It was as if whoever was working here cleared out in a hurry.

And after exploring, Nichols came across a young homeless man who was living in one of the abandoned buildings. The young man acted nervous. He said he was a military technician who worked there, but he deserted when a large beast appeared and tore through the facility, forcing the project to shut down. Nichols asked the man what he meant by a beast and a project. The young man seemed confused. He said, you don't remember? You're Preston Nichols. You ran the Montauk Project.

In 1984, Nichols began working with a gifted psychic named Duncan Cameron, who he brought to the deserted base. Immediately, Duncan knew his way around. He recognized the buildings and knew specific details like where the mess hall was. The more they explored, the more information Duncan was able to provide.

A number of disturbing experiments happened on the property for years. Duncan started to realize he was part of them. When they entered the large transmitter building, Duncan went into a trance. While in this trance, Duncan said he was programmed to find Nichols, befriend him and then kill him. And once that objective was achieved, Duncan was programmed to destroy Nichols lab and all his research.

Now because Duncan was now aware of his programming, he was able to resist it. And back at his lab, Nichols used a deprogramming technique to give Duncan back full control of his consciousness. After working with Duncan for a while, Preston Nichols started to realize he had been involved with the Montauk Project also. He just didn't know how or why. Over time, more of Duncan Cameron's memories surfaced.

Duncan realized he had served aboard the USS Eldridge with his brother Edward. They were the two sailors who were lost during the Philadelphia experiment. Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on, hold on. That experiment took place in the 40s. That's right. Duncan Cameron and his brother Edward had been transported from 1943 to 1983, 40 years into the future. Preston Nichols started to notice strange things when he was at work.

People he didn't know seemed to recognize him. He was copied on mail and included in meetings that didn't apply to his position in the company. One day, Nichols was sitting at his desk when he felt an ache in his hand. He looked down at the back of his hand and he had a band-aid covering a fresh wound. A wound he didn't have 15 minutes earlier. And this happened more than a few times. On one occasion, Nichols even confronted the company nurse and asked her if he'd been there for a band-aid.

She said he hadn't and had no idea what he was talking about. As time went on, Preston Nichols began to realize that he was living two separate lives. One day he had what he calls an intuitive urge to visit the basement. This was a high security area. Only maybe 10 people in the company had the clearance to be there, and he wasn't one of them. He reluctantly took the elevator down.

He gathered himself to try to appear natural and walked right up to the security guard. And even though he had never been in this area and had no idea what happened here, the guard gave him a badge with his name on it and waved him through. Whether by muscle memory or just by using his gut, Nichols seemed to know where he was going. He finally arrived at a plush office much nicer than his own. On the large desk was a nameplate, Preston B. Nichols, Assistant Project Director. Preston B. Nichols, Assistant Project Director.

Preston Nichols now had real physical evidence that he was living two lives, one as an engineer, the other as a senior member of a top secret government program called the Montauk Project. By early 1990, all of Nichols' memories of the project had come back, and it was worse than he could have imagined.

About 50 years after the Philadelphia Experiment, a man named Al Bielek would start to have glimpses, visions, and then entire memories of the life of Edward Cameron, a young naval officer serving aboard the Eldridge with his brother, Duncan Cameron. Wait, isn't Duncan Cameron the psychic working with the Preston guy? Yep. 40 years in the future? That's right.

I love it. Please continue. Bielek wrote books, spoke at conferences, and gave many interviews describing his time on the USS Eldridge while living in the body of Edward Cameron. Aboard the Eldridge, when what was called a magnetic bottle was engaged, the ship began to slip through time. In a panic...

Al Beelik, aka Edward Cameron, along with his brother Duncan, jumped ship. And when they landed, it was the year 2137. Edward woke up in a hospital and was being treated for radiation injuries. Duncan was nowhere to be seen. When his health improved, Edward learned more about the world he was now in. In 2137, the geography of the United States is vastly different.

Florida and most of the eastern seaboard is underwater. California is a series of islands, and the Great Lakes have combined into one giant lake. After a devastating nuclear war fought between the West and Russia and China, the world's population has been reduced to 300 million people. The United States, Canada, and most governments were gone. Areas were under local martial law.

And just when Edward was becoming overwhelmed, he was transported hundreds of years in the future and arrived in the year 2749. He would spend two years living in this time. And life in the 28th century was much different than life in the 22nd. The most obvious change was anti-gravity technology. This allowed people to live in floating cities more than two miles above the earth. And these cities were run by an advanced AI,

all interconnected with one another. And human life was easy. As long as you contributed to society, all your needs were met. The AI operating robotic equipment on the ground handled all farming and food production. - Hippie communist paradise. - Pretty much. And Edward felt like people lost their identities.

Sure, their lives were easier, but they were now mindless drones. Welcome to paradise, comrade. Then suddenly, Edward felt the world shifting again. Now, he and his brother Duncan appeared in 1983. When they arrived, they were briefed by government officials and told to never discuss what happened. Now, Edward would be going on his most important mission of all, but he would be going as Al Bilek.

In 1990, Al Belick's brother, Duncan Cameron, now had full recollection of the Philadelphia Experiment and the Montauk Project, as did Preston Nichols, and their memories were terrifying. Back in 1967, their story of time travel and teleportation intrigued researchers at Brookhaven National Labs.

technicians at Brookhaven had made an interesting discovery. The men serving aboard the USS Eldridge were susceptible to mind control. This breakthrough obviously had military applications. The United States could use this technology to tell an enemy's army to not fight. Wars could be won without losing a single life. In America,

That's a scary thought. What do you mean? Okay, look, having a point of view is not really mind control. People can still think for themselves. No!

Brookhaven scientists were excited to get started. The Montauk Air Force Station was the perfect place. It was deserted, remote and had all the equipment they needed. It even had the largest radar antenna in the world, an antenna powerful enough to broadcast high powered signals for hundreds of miles or more. The goal was to broadcast on the right frequency that could alter and control the human mind. The Montauk experiment had now begun.

Duncan Cameron having superior psychic abilities was key to the project.

He was able to withstand a tremendous amount of electromagnetic energy, and this was necessary to survive the Montauk Chair. The Montauk Chair was essentially a mind-reading device. It was a large metal chair covered in coils and sensors. And also connected to the chair were three receivers, six channels, and a Cray supercomputer. If you sat in the Montauk Chair, your psychic abilities could be tremendously amplified.

Whatever image was in your mind was displayed on the computer screen. The first tests were to see what would happen when Cameron was electrocuted with different amounts and frequencies of energy. They learned that different frequencies could elicit different emotions and specific frequencies could make him sleep.

That could be useful. Animals in the area were also affected by transmissions. There were reports of deer running out of the woods, into town, and throwing themselves against the glass windows of the stores on Main Street. Soon, they were able to perform what researchers called the seeing eye. If Cameron had a lock of someone's hair or some personal object,

he could see through that person's eyes, hear through their ears and feel whatever that person's body felt. He could do this with anyone on the planet, very similar to what remote viewers can do. Using Duncan Cameron's psychic abilities and the technology at Montauk,

scientists were finally able to control people's thoughts. Then they learned how to load information, commands, and entire programs onto an individual's mind. And this technique could be adjusted to make people do things they wouldn't normally do. Assassination, sabotage, even self-sacrifice if that was the mission. Over time, the experiments became even more advanced.

Cameron was now able to manifest physical objects with his mind. If he thought of an apple or a baseball, the object would appear first on the computer screen, then holographically, and then finally as an actual solid object in the real world. This breakthrough would lead the researchers of the Montauk Project to their main experiment. Using a huge new antenna and multiple transmitters, they could create a vortex, a vortex that someone could step through.

and into another time. Dr. John Van Neumann was one of the great mathematicians of his time. He also made contributions to physics, computer science, economics, quantum mechanics, and lots more. Naturally, the United States put him to work on the Manhattan Project, as well as many other top secret government programs. Dr. Van Neumann died young of cancer in 1958,

But that turned out to be a lie. He was actually placed in a program similar to witness protection to hide his identity. And Preston Nichols was able to find him and talk to him about the experiments in Montauk and how they connected to the Philadelphia experiment. Van Neumann, now an old man, had been waiting 40 years for this very moment. He said when the USS Eldridge reappeared after the experiment, it was fatal to most of the crew. Van Neumann knew how to fix this.

One of the ship's power generators had malfunctioned during the experiment. This is why so many men died. But if someone could go back and disable the faulty generator, the ship would come back properly and no lives would be lost. Al Belick and Duncan Cameron were selected to go, but they were nervous about it. Dr. Van Neumann told them not to worry. He knew this would work. According to the ship's records, they had already succeeded. Back in Montauk,

Duncan sat in the chair and created a portal to the USS Eldridge in 1943. Duncan and his brother jumped back onto the ship and disabled the generator. Edward decided to stay in 1943, and when Duncan returned back to Montauk, something had happened. His

His many jumps through time had caused him to age very rapidly, and he was now dying of old age. Now, this could be a disaster because Duncan is linked to so many events in the past that paradoxes could form. To prevent these disasters, the Montauk technology was used to send a message through time to Duncan's father, Duncan Cameron Sr. At that point, Duncan Sr. only had one child, a daughter, but he was instructed to get busy and make baby boys because a lot depended on it.

When Duncan Jr. was born in 1951, the Montauk scientists used the boy as a vessel for Duncan's current electromagnetic signature. This would ensure continuity of the timeline without paradoxes. And using a similar technique called age regression, Edward Cameron's consciousness was installed into the body of young Al Bielek. Now, if you're finding this hard to follow, you're not the only one.

All these paradoxes and time travel missions were weighing on Preston Nichols. He started to feel like he was doing more harm than good to the people in the program, to the planet, and to space-time itself. He decided it was time to shut down the program. And for just the scenario, the Montauk Project had a contingency protocol. Someone quietly walked up to Duncan while he was in the chair and whispered, The time is now. The phrase worked, and a nightmare followed. ♪

Upon hearing the words, the time is now, Duncan Cameron unleashed a monster from his subconscious. But it wasn't in the lab, it was somewhere on the base. Preston Nichols describes it as at least 10 feet tall, hairy and vicious. It was tearing through the base, attacking everything in its path.

Nichols' supervisor ordered the power generators shut down, but that had no effect. The creature was still wreaking havoc, building after building. The Montauk transmitter was shut down. That didn't work. The main power coming from the utility company was cut. That didn't work. Power was still on, being generated from somewhere. And worst of all, the creature was still on the loose. Nichols grabbed an acetylene torch and went to the building that housed the transmitter control unit.

He yanked out every wire he could reach. The building lights went out, but the transmitter continued to work and he could hear distant screams coming from somewhere on the base. Nichols then took the torch to the transmitter itself. He cut wires, conduits, even large chunks of equipment. He destroyed everything he could. He says the burn marks can still be seen to this day. Finally, the portal Duncan Cameron created closed and the creature vanished.

And for Preston Nichols, this would be the end of the Montauk Project. But for many of the victims, this was only the beginning. Since the late 1940s and early 50s, the government has had the capacity to what I call bend time.

The Montauk Project ran from the early 70s until 1983, and the story does sound far-fetched. But there are many people who say Preston Nichols is telling the truth. While the Montauk Project was operating, it needed a constant supply of people for its experiments. Unfortunately, most of these were children, usually boys between 10 and 15 years old. These children became known as the Montauk Boys.

Montauk boys were usually runaways, were taken from troubled homes, like families suffering alcoholism, drug addiction, or abuse. One of the Montauk boys is named Stuart Swerdlow. And as a boy, Swerdlow recalls having dreams of waking up in a dark room strapped to a hospital bed surrounded by strangers. And the room was dark and damp, and the walls were made of rock.

And Preston Nichols did say that the experiments took place deep underneath the Montauk Air Force Base. One disturbing goal of the Montauk project was to create an army of children whose minds could be programmed and controlled. Then they could be activated at any time.

They would carry out any mission, no matter how horrible, and not remember any of it. Montauk boys have been linked to events like Columbine and the Oklahoma City bombing. In order to prepare the children for programming, their minds had to be broken down. This included starvation and torture. They received electric shocks. They were submerged in cold water to the point of almost drowning. This was done day after day until the child's mind was ready to accept new programming.

And many other men have come forward claiming to be one of the Montauk boys. One said he was forced to take LSD in what became known as the acid house. Another said his body was used as a sort of generator to feed psychics sitting in the Montauk chair, usually Duncan Cameron. As you would expect, many children did not survive this phase of the experiment. And they're said to be buried somewhere deep under the base, still presumed missing after 40 years.

They wanted a large number of programmed boys to be used for mind control operations. The experiments at Montauk affected everything in the area. Television and radio signals were disrupted. Animals behaved strangely. In 2008, this animal washed up on the beach at Montauk. It's been called the Montauk Monster.

What is this? Now, I should also point out that directly across the Long Island Sound is Plum Island, the location of the Animal Disease Center. Rumors say this island has been used for animal experiments, biological weapons and even testing human animal hybrids. Could this animal have come from Plum Island?

What's interesting is the CDC, Center for Disease Control, is part of America's Health and Human Services Department. Plum Island, allegedly a scientific research facility, is part of Homeland Security. Maybe we need to do an episode on this. Back to Montauk. Christopher Garitano was eight years old in 1983 and playing on Montauk Beach. He found strange metal objects in the sand.

He dug them out and was walking back to his family to ask what they were. Then out of nowhere, someone in a military uniform appeared and chased them off the beach. This started a lifelong obsession for Garitano, and he would visit the base many times. And during these visits, he would find problems with the government's official story. The Montauk Air Force Base is not supposed to have underground levels.

Garitano notes that there are manhole covers all over the property. Now, sure, those could be used for drainage, but on one trip, Garitano brought a geophysicist along and using imaging equipment, they proved that a large concrete building was buried 20 feet down. And many people have explored the buildings over the years, and a few have video.

Video that shows evidence of an underground complex that was buried and filled by concrete. During one visit, urban explorer Brian Minnick found receipts from the late 1980s that showed over $80,000 per week was spent on food.

That's a lot of food for a base that was supposedly shut down in 1981. Preston Nichols, Stuart Swerdlow, Al Bielek, Chris Garitano, Brian Minnick. The names go on and on. There are dozens of people, maybe more, all claiming to be part of the same experiment. The U.S. government denies all of it. Who do you believe? I'm saddened today to think of those who did not survive.

and whose families will forever live with the knowledge that their death and suffering was preventable. I was a subject in radiation as well as mind control and drug experiments performed by a man I knew as Dr. Green. What the United States government did was shameful.

Dr. Green was using me mostly as a mind control subject from 1966 to 1973. What was done cannot be undone. His objective was to gain control of my mind and train me to be a spy assassin. I am sorry. The next year, I was sent to a lodge in Maryland called Deep Creek Cabots to learn how to sexually please men.

I was taught how to coerce them into talking about themselves. Only you have the power to forgive.

The Montauk Project has probably been my favorite conspiracy since Preston Nichols' book first came out in 1992. I spent a lot of my life on Long Island, so a conspiracy that takes place in your backyard is hard to resist. I've been to the Air Force Base, which is now called Camp Hero. And this story has affected a lot of people. The original title of the show Stranger Things was called Montauk.

and a lot of stories are taken from Nichols' writing. This episode was difficult to research and write because the more I learned about my favorite conspiracy theory, the less I liked the people involved. First, Al Bielek.

He's the man who said he served on the USS Eldridge in 1943 in the body of Edward Cameron. There is no record of any Beelick, Edward, or Duncan Cameron serving aboard the Eldridge, or brothers with that name serving on any ship in the Navy. Now, supporters of the theory say their names were erased or changed by the government.

That's fair. In Bielek's writings, he used pictures of his family, Edward and Duncan Cameron, and others. They were all proved to be untrue. Most suspicious of all, Bielek had no memories of the Philadelphia Experiment until he saw the movie in 1984. He said the movie brought his memories back. But his story is surprisingly similar to the movie.

He also struggled with paranoia and other psychological problems. He made a meager but sufficient living off selling CDs and merchandise and talking at UFO conventions. He died in 2007. Many people still believe his story, and they claim that the government has sponsored a disinformation campaign to discredit him.

Okay. Now, Stuart's word low. He's a character. He's still around and claims to be a Montauk boy. He also claims to speak 10 languages that no one's ever heard him speak. His DNA has been spliced with aliens. He's been imprisoned by the Illuminati. He can see auric fields. He can travel hyperspace. He's a descendant of Atlantis. I can go on. He's basically been at the center of every conspiracy theory that exists. Moon bases, hollow earth. Please, people.

Yep, even lizard people. Oh, I create such a wacky story! Well, you can hire Stuart to deprogram you for a fee. Ah, that's why. Now I'm not saying the guy's a fraud.

But I am saying a judge said he was. And if you Google him, it's not pretty. Who knows? Maybe all his potions and vitamins and dog treats will help you reach enlightenment. But I don't recommend buying his products. Did you just say dog treats? Oh yeah, he sells all kinds of stuff. Oh, speaking of selling, did you know that you could buy Y-Files merchandise right now? What's this? It's a sponsor read. Be quiet. We've got hecklefish t-shirts, mouse pads, and hoodies. We got... This is not a good time for this. Links below.

I've saved Preston Nichols for last.

There were rumors circulating about Montauk for a long time before Nichols came along, but Preston Nichols is the main man behind the current theory, and he's the only man behind it. He actually opens his first book like this. This word is being presented as nonfiction as it contains no falsehoods to the best knowledge of the authors. However, it can also be read as pure science fiction if that is more suitable to the reader. There are a lot of things that don't add up.

Nichols says the Montauk experiment took place 10 stories below ground, maybe lower, and that there are tunnels deep underground that connect to other secret locations in the United States. Now, that might work in some parts of the U.S., but it won't work in Montauk. When glaciers move, they pick up all kinds of sand, dirt, and debris, kind of like a push broom.

And when the glaciers recede, the debris remains. And this is called a glacial moraine. Long Island is essentially a pile of glacier debris, mostly sand. You just can't dig very deep there. This is why the only skyscrapers in the area are downtown Manhattan. That's where the bedrock is. Nothing else can support deep digging. But there's one final conspiracy about Preston Nichols we need to discuss. And if you have little ones watching, please send them away for a few minutes. Really. Okay.

You might remember Preston Nichols used a deprogramming technique on Duncan Cameron. Well, Nichols describes this technique in his books, though it rarely makes it into the fun YouTube videos about the Montauk Project.

To be deprogrammed, Preston Nichols has to touch you while you're in an aroused state. Now, I won't give the specifics here, but I think you understand what I mean. And Nichols deprogrammed a lot of young men all the time. Preston Nichols had built a replica of the Montauk chair and research room. And eyewitnesses said Nichols would go into the room with a man, usually in his early 20s, their

There'd be some noise. About 20 or 30 minutes later, the young man would come out, disheveled, often with an uneasy look on his face, and Nichols would be covered in sweat. At one point, Nichols was deprogramming as many as 25 Montauk boys a few times a week, who he unfortunately called "disciples."

And they all shared a house not far from Nichols. And nobody knows exactly how many men or deprogramming sessions were involved, but it was a lot. Now, in the books about the Montauk Project, Preston Nichols is a man caught up in a conspiracy greater than he could imagine. He lives a double life. He meets famous scientists. He makes breakthroughs in technology that exist only in science fiction. In these stories, he's a hero.

But the truth is, Preston Nichols is a villain. Because of the proliferation of the Montauk Project theory, dozens of men, most of whom had a mental illness, addiction issues, suffered child abuse, or all of the above, believed they were part of this conspiracy. This delusion gave their lives meaning.

and it gave them someone to blame that wasn't themselves or their families. And being a Montauk boy gave them a place to belong, a new family of people who understood the pain of what they were going through. And here was Preston Nichols to the rescue, able to deprogram them of all the negative experiences they suffered from the experiment. Preston Nichols took advantage of these young men for years, while others...

while other liars and frauds helped him weave a rich, complex narrative, a narrative that still continues. And this conspiracy is believable because the government has done most of the awful things Nichols claims, drugging people against their will, kidnapping, torture. They've done all of this and worse. The government also spent a lot of resources exploring psychic phenomena.

The Montauk Project is a conspiracy grounded in a whole lot of facts. But when Preston Nichols, Al Bielek, and Stuart Swerdlow added their own details, like time travel, aliens, and conjuring monsters out of thin air, they built a house of cards. None of their stories can exist without the other.

If we're able to debunk just one small detail of any one of their stories, the house of cards made of fraud and abuse collapses. And then all that's left are the victims.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. My name is AJ. That's Hecklefish. This has been the Y-Files. If you had fun or learned anything, do me a favor and like, subscribe, comment, and share. That stuff really helps the channel. And special thanks to our patrons who make this channel possible. And if you'd like to support the Y-Files, please consider joining our Patreon or buying some Y-Files merchandise. Links are below. That's going to do it. Until next time, be safe, be kind, and know that you are appreciated.

Bye.