Stories about the Montauk Project have circulated since the early 1980s. According to UFO researcher Jacques Vallée, the Montauk Experiment stories seem to have originated with the highly questionable account of Preston Nichols, and Stewart Swerdlow, who both claimed to have recovered repressed memories of their own involvement. Preston Nichols also claims that he was periodically abducted to continue his participation against his will. Nichols, born May 24, 1946, on Long Island, New York, claims to have degrees in parapsychology, psychology, and electrical engineering, and he has authored a series of books, known as the Montauk Project series, along with Peter Moon, whose real name is Vincent Barbarick. The primary topic of the Montauk Project concerns the alleged activities at Montauk Point. These center on topics including United States government/military experiments in fields such as time travel, teleportation, mind control, contact with alien life and staging faked Apollo Moon landings, framed as developments which followed a successful 1943 Philadelphia Experiment. These scientifically nonsensical concepts, which have no credible basis in reality, even include the idea of "a hole ripped in space-time" in 1983. Both Peter Moon and Preston Nichols have encouraged speculation about the contents; for example, they wrote, "Whether you read this as science fiction or non-fiction you are in for an amazing story" in their first chapter, describing much of the content as "soft facts" in a Guide For Readers and publishing a newsletter with updates to the story. The work has been characterized as fiction, because the entire account was fabricated by Preston Nichols, and to some extent, Stewart Swerdlow, who has consistently shown to contradict his own backstory, and it does appear as if Swerdlow just wanted to become famous in the New Age Community, and establish a reputation for himself.
In media
The fake Montauk Project story features prominently in Thomas Pynchon's 2013 novel Bleeding Edge. In 2015 Montauk Chronicles, a film adaptation of the conspiracy featuring Preston Nichols, Alfred Bielek, and Stewart Swerdlow, was released online and on DVD and Blu-ray. The film won the best documentary award at the Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York City and has been featured on Coast to Coast AM and The Huffington Post. The NetflixTV seriesStranger Things was inspired by the somewhat dubious Montauk Project, and at one time Montauk was used as its working title. In 2019, Incident at Montauk, a found footage film inspired by the conspiracy, was released online. It was written and directed by Owen Mulligan. The film has been featured on Found Footage Critic.
