Into The Dark – Episode 147: The True Story Behind Stranger Things - The Montauk Project

Host: Payton Moreland
Air Date: November 26, 2025

Overview

In this captivating episode, Payton Moreland explores the unsettling real-life inspirations behind the hit Netflix series "Stranger Things." Specifically, she dives into the confirmed history of the CIA's MK Ultra mind control experiments and the shadowy, conspiracy-laden legend of the Montauk Project. The episode blends true crime, horror, and conspiracy to ponder the unsettling question: How much of our reality is stranger than fiction, and what might the government be hiding?

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Stranger Things: The Pop Culture Phenomenon (06:05)

• Payton sets the stage by explaining the premise of "Stranger Things" for any uninitiated listeners, highlighting its allusions to 1980s sci-fi and horror classics.
• She notes the show’s central plot: A government conspiracy involving children with psychic powers, secret experiments, and monstrous interdimentional threats in small-town America.
• Quote:
  “If you didn’t know, Stranger Things takes inspiration from a supposedly true story. Now, this all comes down to how you define the word true and whether you believe in tinfoil tales.” – Payton (09:45)

2. MK Ultra – Fact Over Fiction (11:15)

• MK Ultra is revealed as the "100% real" backbone of the "Stranger Things" premise.
• The CIA’s Cold War fear that the Soviets had mastered brainwashing led to inhumane experiments—dosing unwitting civilians and even CIA staff with LSD, using shock therapy, and hypnosis to attempt total mind control.
• Tests were conducted on civilians, prisoners, patients, and even children, often without consent and sometimes resulting in lifelong trauma or death.
• Notable Quotes:
  “They wanted to find a way to completely erase someone’s personality and turn them into an entirely different individual—basically treating human beings like an electronic device that could be wiped or reprogrammed. This is very scary and very real.” – Payton (12:45) “MK Ultra is a historical fact. They released all of the information they had on the program in the late 1970s. But of course, it’s impossible to say how much more data never even saw the light of day.” – Payton (20:09)
• The Duffer Brothers, creators of Stranger Things, were directly inspired by MK Ultra after learning about it, shaping the show's character Eleven and the show's government antagonist storyline.

3. The Montauk Project – Tinfoil or Truth? (23:55)

• Transitioning from the confirmed to the controversial, Payton introduces The Montauk Project—the true root of "Stranger Things."
• She details how the series was originally titled "Montauk" because it drew so heavily from these legends.
• The primary source: Preston Nichols’ book—based on "soft facts" and eyewitness memories, not hard evidence.
• Quote:
  “Keep in mind, a lot of the claims in it haven’t been verified. We’re going deep into Tinfoil tale territory here, but so did the [Duffer] brothers.” – Payton (25:00)

a. Preston Nichols’ Testimonies (26:15)

• Nichols, an electronics expert, claimed he intercepted secret Soviet signals, leading to a government contract to research telepathy.
• Recruited in 1971 for psychic experiments, Nichols claims he uncovered real telepathic abilities—hallmarked by bizarre interference at the same time daily, traced to the Montauk Air Force Base (“the end” of Long Island).
• Persistent interference led to suspicions of government suppression of psychic phenomena.

b. Montauk Base, The End, and Strange Events (31:50)

• The Air Force base, always shrouded in secrecy and equipped with a huge radio tower, is at the story’s core. After its abandonment in 1984 (becoming Camp Hero), Nichols routinely visited to scavenge for clues.
• Multiple men, seemingly strangers, approached Nichols and insisted they had worked with him on psychic studies at Montauk—despite Nichols having no memory of these events.

c. Duncan Cameron & Recovered Memories (36:05)

• Duncan, recognized for potent psychic abilities, underwent a trance upon visiting the base with Nichols and recalled participating in government psychic experiments as a boy.
• He claimed the government erased both his and Preston’s memories—a la “Men in Black.”
• Using techniques to recover suppressed memories, Nichols and Duncan piece together their supposed roles: identifying, training, and exploiting psychic children for the military.
• Quote:
  “Both of the men were forced to forget about the work they had done at Montauk, AKA Men in Black. They Men in Blacked them.” – Payton (38:45)

d. The Montauk Chair, Manifesting Monsters, and Sabotage (41:00)

• The so-called Montauk Chair supposedly amplified children’s psychic powers, enabling them to create physical manifestations of their thoughts—objects could appear and vanish at will.
• Duncan, exploited as a child subject, rebelled by manifesting a monstrous creature that terrorized the base—paralleling Eleven’s feats and the “Demogorgon” in Stranger Things.
• Quote:
  “Instead of picturing something harmless and safe, he imagined the scariest, biggest, most violent monster he could think of. And since the chair was bringing his thoughts to life, the monster appeared somewhere on the base.” – Payton (44:25)
• Nichols claims he shut down the chair and destroyed the power supply, ending the experiments and effectively “saving” the children.

4. The Legacy and Ongoing Mystery (47:50)

• The credibility of Nichols’ extravagant tale is questioned, but Payton draws attention to its massive influence on pop culture and conspiracy lore.
• Quote:
  “You may have also noticed the story of the Montauk Project... is even more similar to Stranger Things, the plot of Stranger Things, than MK Ultra.” – Payton (48:30)
• Camp Hero is now a public park, yet significant portions remain off-limits, officially to protect wildlife—though rumors abound of secret tunnels, residual equipment, and a lingering sense of unease.
• In 2008, the so-called "Montauk Monster" (an unidentified animal carcass) was found near the base, fueling local legend and speculation.

5. Reflection: Trust, Truth, and the Unknown (52:20)

• Payton raises profound questions about government secrecy, credibility, and the ease with which truth and fiction bleed together.
• She encourages skepticism but also open-minded curiosity.
• Final Quote:
  “There are stranger things on this earth than we can even figure out if we had a hundred lifetimes.” – (Robert McCammon, quoted by Payton at 53:21)
• She concludes that perhaps tales like MK Ultra and the Montauk Project, however outlandish, remind us to question the boundaries of what's possible and what governments might be capable of behind closed doors.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On MK Ultra’s Reality:
  “This is a horrible, shocking, and ultimately deadly government program, and it didn’t even work.” – Payton (17:55)
• On the Speculative Nature of Montauk:
  “A lot of the claims in it haven’t been verified. We’re going deep into Tinfoil tale territory here...” – Payton (25:00)
• On Government Memory Erasure:
  “They Men in Blacked them.” – Payton (38:45)
• On the Creepiness of Camp Hero:
  “Locals report that it gives them bad dreams and eerie feelings. It just messes with their energy.” – Payton (51:40)
• On Stranger than Fiction:
  “Maybe even wild stories like Stranger Things, Montauk, MK Ultra, the government running experiments, Monsters, the Upside Down... Maybe it could all be true.” – Payton (53:11)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 06:05 – Recap of Stranger Things and its inspiration
• 11:15 – Introduction and breakdown of MK Ultra
• 20:09 – Transition: Duffer Brothers’ inspiration for Stranger Things
• 23:55 – Introduction to The Montauk Project legend
• 26:15 – Preston Nichols’ psychic research and origin story
• 31:50 – Dangers and secrets of Montauk Air Force Base
• 36:05 – Encounters with “forgotten” psychic colleagues, Duncan Cameron
• 41:00 – The Montauk Chair and the materialization of monsters
• 44:25 – The monster event and the experiment’s shutdown
• 47:50 – Pop culture influence and current mysteries of Camp Hero
• 52:20 – Reflections on government secrecy, skepticism, and believing the unbelievable

Conclusion

This episode offers an eerie and thought-provoking journey through the shadowy overlap between true crime, conspiracy, and pop culture mythmaking. Payton’s storytelling stays grounded in skepticism but open to the mystery, leaving listeners wondering just how much we might not know about the world—and how real-life weirdness shapes the stories we love.

“Maybe even wild stories like Stranger Things...Maybe it could all be true.” – Payton (53:11)