Introduction
Can you believe the words of your fellow man, or do you trust our deceitful government? What really happens behind the closed doors of government facilities? In one case, at the Montauk Air Force Station in Montauk, Newyork, Preston Nichols along with many others believe our government is hiding their inhumane experiments and new riveting technology consisting of psychological torture, psychics, time travel, and more. Nichols claims to have repressed memory of his involvement within the program, claiming to have been abducted and forced into it (Neog). This leads to the question of whom to trust, do we believe the evidence provided to us by a few individuals, or do we place our trust in a possibly duplicitous tyrannical regime? Let us take a look at the Montauk Project and decide whether our government is hiding something from us or if the theories behind it are blasphemy made up by crazy people.
Preston Nichols
Preston Nichols is an American author who has a degree in
parapsychology, psychology, and electrical engineering and worked for a company he refers to as BJM. Note that Nichols keeps the actual name of the company secret and refers to it as BJM (Nichols and Moon 13). Nichols was a very cautious and skeptical person, who upon receiving a grant to study mental telepathy, originally did not believe in it and decided that he would try to disprove it (14). However, that was not the case, he instead found evidence of its existence which then led to him furthering his research into the subject. He was further challenged when exploring the abandoned Montauk Base and meeting a man who had recognized him and “remembered him well, in fact, Nichols had been his boss on the project” (18). Nichols did not initially believe him but would later find out that this was the start of the Montauk Project being real, or perhaps Nichols himself was just crazy.
Preston Nichols was an interesting figure, believing in many outlandish things surrounding his own life, especially when
relating to the Montauk Airforce base. In his book, The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time he expresses his belief that he was living a double life through an alternate timeline (Nichols and Moon 34). He had his normal life where he was “working for BJM, a well-known defense contractor on Long Island” as a “specialist in electromagnetic phenomena” (13). As well as his second life, where he was the “Assistant Project Director,” he uses this fact to explain why random people who worked on the Montauk Project recognized him, why he had random cuts, bruises, and band-aids on his hands, as well as receiving higher clearance in the facility when he should not be, as well as mail met for executives (32). He believed that he was able to work these two jobs because of the technology the higher-ups used to manipulate time and repress his memories so that he would not remember his other life (34). These claims are ridiculous and implausible, it is impossible for someone to live a second life through time travel, and it also does not make sense why they would choose Nichols specifically for it.
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Preston Nichols is confident and seems to fully believe all his claims, it is not just a work of fiction made to entertain or
concern people. This leads to the conclusion that Preston Nichols is crazy. There is simply no way that the time travel he claims to have occurred existed. Nichols states in an interview with Richard Metzger that “they would turn on a machine that would transport him back to nine 'o'clock in the morning where he would repeat the day in a different quantum reality” (Metzger). He believes that after regaining his memories of the alternate timeline, he was “laid off … no longer had any links or friends to the company.” and his “information sources had been effectively severed” (Nichols 35). While this is what he remembers, in reality the reasoning is much simpler; he had been going into parts of the company without the required clearance. Eventually, the Project Director found out and took him aside, emphasizing that “he did not have a desk in here” (34). This eventually led to security taking Nichols out and giving him a warning (34). Yet, Nichols continued to snoop around and try working outside of his field which led to his termination. This shows Nichols beginning to go mad through becoming obsessed with the Montauk Project leading him to many delusions, which eventually spurred to his whole life revolving around this conspiracy.
Not only was Nichols crazy, but he was also a very manipulative and devious person. He used
others for selfish endeavors or just to promote the far-off ideas he created in his grotesque mind. He even claims that he has “the ability through his empathy to scan and look into a human being” by" feeling their auras and frequencies” through things, like hand scans and sexual deprogramming techniques in order to make people recover their repressed memories (Metzger). According to an interview with Chica Bruce, another person closely related to the Montauk project, to deprogram people he would “masturbate young men while questioning them” and that “Steward Swerdlow underwent these sexual deprogramming techniques employed by Preston... and there are other and better ways to deprogram.” (1). Nichols used his reality that he had conjured in his head to bring other weak-minded individuals, like Stewart Swerdlow, into this conspiracy so he could further expand it as well as gain sexual gratification. Whatever is going through this man’s head is crazy, from how he is exploiting others or from the ideas he crafted himself.
Nichols may not even believe in the Montauk Project, but instead authored the book for the purpose of fictitious
entertainment. In his book The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time, he states, “This work is being presented as non-fiction ... However, it can also be read as pure science fiction if that is more suitable to the reader” (Nichols and Moon 10). This shows that Nichols himself may or may not believe in his conspiracy. However, he continues to market and claim it to be real and, possibly, play a character during interviews despite the negative repercussions his efforts in the Montauk Conspiracy have had on others. This makes him a very manipulative human being. An example of this case is a man named Joe Loffreno, who after reading Nichols books and learning more about him and the Montauk Project, believed that he was a part of the Montauk Project; “he also sincerely believes he’s one of the lost and tortured “Montauk Boys” popularized in Nichols’ book” (Kennedy). Nichols effectively made this man crazy through his works and how he presents himself in the eyes of the public. Through Nichols' writings, he manipulates others into negatively affecting their own lives because of his unethical exploitation of impressionable people.
Solutions
In the case of the Montauk Project Conspiracy, there are various conspiracies and solutions called to attention. The
first of which being the Montauk Project is real and Nichols really is providing firsthand accounts. The other solution is that the Montauk project is a work of fiction made up by Nichols in order to use it as an excuse to exploit others, mostly young boys, for sexual indulgences.
The first conspiracy proposes the idea that the accounts of the Montauk
Project are true and that the facts surrounding it are not made up. This conspiracy has already been largely disproven due to the fact of the surreal, absurd, and outright impossible nature of the events described in Nichols and others works and interviews. The main idea behind this theory is that the Montauk Airforce Base was not an abandoned military settlement but was instead used as a research facility that abducted children and used them as psychics for experiments. Children were abducted and abused within the Montauk Airforce base:
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Gray aliens picked up about fifty kids and delivered them to Montauk… in some cases, the older youths, ages 17-22 were also groomed to be slave workers… The programmers concentrated on three particular ages: 9, 14, and 19… They would put the kids in a room stark naked. Radio sensitive electronic paraphernalia was placed on them, and a diabolic program was started where they would be treated brutally… These kids would be beaten to within inches of their lives until they were mentally broken, consciousness hulks. Many died (Nichols and Moon 99).
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These claims have little to no evidence to support them and are just the
words of possible deranged minds. There is no actual proof of any sort of abductions or experiments other than the so-called firsthand accounts provided by individuals such as Nichols.
The other and most likely solution to the Montauk Project
Conspiracy is that Nichols and many other terrible people use the Montauk Project as a front for a pedophilia ring that was used to sexually exploit and abuse young boys and other weak-minded individuals. Some of the leading figures in the Montauk Project Conspiracy, Al Bielek, Duncan Cameron, and Preston Nichols were all involved in sexually abusing and assaulting minors. Nichols is stated to have been “doing side experiments on kids at his house...Preston and Cameron were doing psych sexual procedures on all the kids. Preston has no conscience whatsoever and said he would do it all over again” (Hochheimer). These disgusting men try to justify their heinous actions by claiming “it’s all for deprogramming purposes, it’s just like a medical procedure,” despite none of them having any form of credentials or medical license to perform these procedures (1). The truth behind the Montauk Project is that it is a front for these monstrous people to manipulate and sexually exploit others, mostly children, by making it seem as if they are helping them or just plainly hiding the reasonings behind their elaborate and absurd conspiracies.
Conclusion
Preston Nichols was the leading and prominent figure in the Montauk Project through the books he authored,
interviews, and the ways he conducted himself in the eyes of the public. His works fueled the fire behind the Montauk Conspiracies. However, the reality behind him, his work, and the Montauk Project as a whole was something much darker and more sinister. The message he conveyed of the government hiding their inhumane experiments and new riveting technology consisting of psychological torture, psychics, time travel, and more was in reality just a front to hide his own heinous and monstrous actions. The Montauk Project was a front for bad people to do bad things, through exploiting minors and ruining the lives of innocent people. Leading figures of this conspiracy, like Nichols, used it to hide their pedophilia ring behind layers of so-called scientific study and surreal claims. As of now. Nichols passed away on October 5th, 2018, but not before ruining the lives of many others not only with his harmful conspiracies but also his grotesque actions. To this day this is the only plausible solution to the ideas presented in the Montauk Project and the evidence to support it is substantial.
Works Cited
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Hochheimer, Andrew H. “The Montauk Project: Stranger Times.” The Philadelphia Experiment From A-Z, Andrew H., 22
June 2021, www.de173.com/the-montauk-project/.
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Kennedy, Dana. “Inside the Real-Life Lab and 'Secret Experiments' That Inspired 'Stranger Things'.” New York Post, New
York Post, 25 Oct. 2020, nypost.com/article/camp-hero-montauk-project-conspiracy/.
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Metzger, Richard. “The Montauk Project: The Idiotic Conspiracy Theory That INSPIRED 'Stranger Things'.”
DangerousMinds, Dangerous Minds, 4 May 2020, dangerousminds.net/comments/the_montauk_project.
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Neog, Jeeta. “The Montauk Project and the Alleged Mysteries behind It.” Procaffenation, 15 Aug. 2020,
procaffenation.com/the-montauk-project/.
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Nichols, Preston B., and Peter Moon. Montauk Revisited: Adventures in Synchronicity. Page 99 Sky Books, 1994.
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Nichols, Preston B., and Peter Moon. The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time. Pages 10,13-14,18,32,34-35. Sky Books,
2018.