Montauk chair

From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event

Contents 8
Montauk chair
AN-FPS-35 radar at Camp Hero State Park, Montauk, New York
AN-FPS-35 radar at Camp Hero State Park, Montauk, New York Photo: Hayden Soloviev · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
DateJanuary 1971
TopicsBeings & bodies (topic), Government programs (topic), Remote viewing & psi (topic)
PeoplePreston Nichols, Andrew Basiago
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 74
Year1971 in UFO history
Timeline1971 on the UAP Timeline
Sources13

The "Montauk chair" is part of the Montauk Project legend: an alleged device at Camp Hero on Long Island, New York, that used electronics linked to an old radar to amplify a psychic's thoughts, said to be able to create objects or open "portholes" in time.[1][2]

Origins

Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

The legend began with The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time (1992), written in the first person by Preston Nichols and Peter Moon (real name Vincent Barbarick). The authors said it was based on recovered memories of being experimented on, while also inviting readers to treat it as either fact or science fiction.[1][3]

The claims

Illustration of a government hearing
Illustration: a government hearing. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

According to the book, a secret project funded outside Congress moved equipment to the Montauk base's old SAGE radar site in the late 1960s. Experiments said to have followed included enhancing people's psychic abilities until they could materialise objects, teleportation, and a stable "time tunnel". Nichols said the psychic Duncan Cameron took part. Cameron and Al Bielek later claimed they had jumped from the USS Eldridge during the 1943 Philadelphia Experiment and arrived at Camp Hero in 1983.[1][3][4]

Spread

Illustration of a screen showing a flying saucer
Illustration: a screen showing a flying saucer. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

From around 1988 Nichols, Bielek and Cameron toured and lectured on the story. Stewart Swerdlow also claimed to have taken part. The Montauk legend was a widely reported influence on the television series Stranger Things.[3][4]

Assessment

Jacques Vallée 2024
Jacques Vallée 2024 Photo: Cmichel67 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

There is no official documentation or verifiable evidence of any such project. In reality Camp Hero remained an operating radar station into the 1980s, and Jacques Vallée traced the stories to the questionable recovered-memory accounts of Nichols and Bielek.[2][3]

People and topics

Illustration of a disc-shaped craft in the night sky
Illustration: a disc-shaped craft in the night sky. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
  • Preston Nichols — Engineer who claimed in The Montauk Project that he worked on secret experiments at Camp Hero.
  • Montauk Project — Montauk Project
  • Andrew Basiago — Lawyer who claims he took part in a secret time-travel program called Project Pegasus.
  • DARPA — The Pentagon's advanced research agency.
  • Project Pegasus — The alleged time-travel program described by Andrew Basiago.

On the Timeline

Illustration of a jet meeting an unknown object
Illustration: a jet meeting an unknown object. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
  • Montauk Project (January 1971) — Preston Nichols claims he worked on exotic projects at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York.
  • USS John F. Kennedy encounter (1971) (June/July 1971) — A Navy yeoman says the USS John F. Kennedy's systems failed during a UAP encounter in the Caribbean.

See every 1971 event on the UAP Timeline →

References

Further reading

This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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