- Stranger Things is based on real-life CIA experiments conducted under Project MKUltra and Project Montauk.
- Project MKUltra is confirmed to be a project experimenting with mind control and psychological manipulation, and Project Montaku is said to be experimenting with things like extraterrestrial life and psychological warfare.
- The show was initially named Montaku but its name was later changed to Stranger Things.
Have you ever had a moment where you watch a movie that scares the life out of you, but you’re comforted by the fact that it’s fiction? However, just before the end credits roll, you get a message on screen, “Based on a True Story,” and then all you are left with is an impending sense of doom. This is what makes fiction a go-to for most people: the comfort of what we see not being real. However, every piece of drama, literature, or screenplay draws inspiration from the real world in one way or another and then shapes it into fiction. Stranger Things is no “stranger” to this, and I am here to tell you the real-life story behind the global phenomenon on track to release its season 5.
Is Stranger Things Based on a True Story?
Stranger Things draws inspiration from one of the most infamous CIA projects known as Project MKUltra or The Montauk Project. According to the official, incomplete, and declassified files, Project MKUltra ran from the 1950s to the 1970s.
The goal of this project was to experiment with mind control and psychological manipulation. While everyone understood what the CIA was actually trying to do, the US Government sold the project as an experiment to develop “Advanced Interrogation Techniques.”
Now, while there are confirmed reports of MKUltra, Project Montauk, an extension of MKUltra, remains a mystery, denied by the United States to date. According to reports and claims, multiple secret experiments were undertaken at an Air Force Base located in Montauk, New York. It is believed that the Montauk Project involved many sinister experiments, such as mind control, psychological warfare, and contact with extraterrestrial life were conducted on both willing and unwilling subjects.
Even though the US Government denies any credibility, the locals have seen and documented things that cannot be explained. Interestingly, there are confirmed reports that initially, Stranger Things was to be named “Montauk” for Netflix, but the name was changed later on. Now, whether you decide to believe it or not, on paper, the experiments which inspired the show exist in real life, and who knows what else does?
