Montauk Project
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
government projects conducted at Camp Hero or Montauk Air Force Station
Montauk Air Force Station
Montauk Air Force Station was a military base at Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. It was decommissioned in 1981 and is now owned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as Camp Hero State Park....
on Montauk
Montauk, New York
Montauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
for the purpose of developing psychological warfare
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
techniques and exotic research including time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
. Jacques Vallée
Jacques Vallée
Jacques Fabrice Vallée is a venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California....
describes allegations of the Montauk Project as an outgrowth of stories about the Philadelphia Experiment
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is the name of an alleged naval military experiment said to have been carried out at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA sometime around October 28, 1943. It is alleged that the U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered...
.
Overview
Conspiracy theories about the Montauk Project have circulated since the early 1980s. According to astrophysicist and UFO researcher Jacques ValléeJacques Vallée
Jacques Fabrice Vallée is a venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former astronomer currently residing in San Francisco, California....
, the Montauk Experiment stories seem to have originated with the account of Preston Nichols
Preston Nichols
Preston B. Nichols is an American author.He claims to have degrees in parapsychology, psychology, and electrical engineering . Nichols is the main author of a series of books revolving around "The Montauk Project"http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/247.Preston_B_Nichols...
, who claimed to have recovered repressed memories
Repressed memory
Repressed memory is a hypothetical concept used to describe a significant memory, usually of a traumatic nature, that has become unavailable for recall; also called motivated forgetting in which a subject blocks out painful or traumatic times in one's life...
of his own involvement.
There is no definitive version of the Montauk Project narrative, but the most common accounts describe it as an extension or a continuation of the Philadelphia Experiment
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is the name of an alleged naval military experiment said to have been carried out at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA sometime around October 28, 1943. It is alleged that the U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered...
, alleged to have taken place in 1943. According to proponents, the Philadelphia Experiment supposedly aimed to render the USS Eldridge invisible to radar detection with disastrous results. Surviving researchers from the Philadelphia Experiment
Philadelphia Experiment
The Philadelphia Experiment is the name of an alleged naval military experiment said to have been carried out at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA sometime around October 28, 1943. It is alleged that the U.S. Navy destroyer escort USS Eldridge was to be rendered...
met in 1952-1953 with the aim of continuing their earlier work on manipulating the "electromagnetic shielding" that had been used to make the USS Eldridge invisible to radar and to the naked eye, and they wished to investigate the possible military applications of magnetic field
Magnetic field
A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
manipulation as a means of psychological warfare
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
.
Common versions of the tale have the researchers' initial proposals rebuffed by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
due to fears over the potential dangers of the research. Instead, the researchers bypassed Congress and received support from the Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
, after promising the development of a weapon that could instantly trigger psychotic symptoms. The conspiracy theory relates that the funding came from a large cache of Nazi gold
Nazi gold
Nazi gold is the gold transferred by Nazi Germany to overseas banks during the Second World War. The regime executed a policy of looting the assets of its victims to finance the war, collecting the looted assets in central depositories. The occasional transfer of gold in return for currency took...
found in a train by U.S. soldiers near the Swiss border in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Proponents allege that the train was destroyed, and all the soldiers involved in the discovery were killed as part of a coverup.
After funding was in place, work allegedly began at Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory , is a United States national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base...
(BNL) on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
under the name of the "Phoenix Project", but the project soon required a large and advanced radar dish. The United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
had a decommissioned base at Montauk, New York
Montauk, New York
Montauk [ˈmɒntɒk] is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet with the same name located in the town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP population was 3,851 as of 2000...
, not far from BNL, which had a complete SAGE
Semi Automatic Ground Environment
The Semi-Automatic Ground Environment was an automated control system for tracking and intercepting enemy bomber aircraft used by NORAD from the late 1950s into the 1980s...
radar installation. The site was large and remote, with Montauk Point not yet a tourist attraction. Water access supposedly allowed equipment to be moved in and out undetected. Key to the Montauk Project allegations, the SAGE radar worked on a frequency of 400 MHz - 425 MHz, providing access to the range of 410 MHz - 420 MHz signals said by theory proponents to influence the human mind
Mind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
.
However, Montauk Air Force Station
Montauk Air Force Station
Montauk Air Force Station was a military base at Montauk Point on the eastern tip of Long Island, New York. It was decommissioned in 1981 and is now owned by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation as Camp Hero State Park....
remained in operation until 1981. The site was opened to the public on September 18, 2002 as Camp Hero State Park
Camp Hero State Park
Camp Hero State Park is a park located on Montauk Point, New York that offers a beach, fishing, hiking, a bridle path, biking, and cross-country skiing. It is the former site of Montauk Air Force Station.-Post-military use:...
. The radar tower has been placed on the State and National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. There are plans for a museum and interpretive center, focusing on World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
-era history.