Apparently, Stranger Things might not be totally out of the realm of possibility. Netflix’s hit original show lured people in with mystery, darkness and a creepy '80s vibe, but it turns out the show itself was inspired by quote-unquote real events. Intriguing yes, but also WTF. Thrillist recently dug deep into the conspiracy theory that inspired the show.
The “Montauk Project” was supposedly a government experiment program focused on time travel, creating wormholes and harnessing psychic abilities. In 1982 Preston B. Nichols wrote The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time, which shared his recovered memories about being a subject of experiments at Camp Hero in Montauk, Long Island. After the book was published, other subjects came forward to corroborate his account.
Al Bileak would go on to claim he and his brother had been sent forward in time on a ship from a similar government program, the “Philadelphia Project,” in 1943—and would then work on the “Montauk Project.” He claimed that with the technology they harnessed his brother, Duncan Cameron, turned into a psychic and subsequently they made him the subject of experiments with the “Montauk Chair,” which was meant to heighten his psychic abilities.
As if none of this was already crazy enough, Bileak says they abducted children to become the test subjects of the various experiments at Camp Hero. But only then did things get complicated with a wormhole supposedly connecting to 1943, two Duncans wandering around and a bunch of missing children's investigations. With all that was going on, they decided Duncan, who was apparently superhuman at this point, should release a monster from his subconscious which would go on to destroy everything in sight. This conveniently means there isn’t actual proof of anything Biliak or Nichols said.
So far Stranger Things only incorporates some aspects of the Bileak’s suggestions—like time portals, monsters and psychic powers—but with the announcement of a Season 2, who knows what sort of a turn things could take. You can believe what you want of the theories, but at least it’s given us one hell of a TV show.