Stories about the Montauk Project have circulated since the early 1980s. According to
UFO researcher
Jacques Vallée, the Montauk Experiment stories seem to have originated with the highly questionable account of
Preston Nichols and Al Bielek, who both claimed to have recovered
repressed memories of their own involvement. Preston Nichols also claims that he was periodically abducted to continue his participation against his will. and he has written a series of books, known as the
Montauk Project series, along with Peter Moon, whose real name is Vincent Barbarick. The primary topic of the Montauk Project concerns the alleged activities at Montauk Point. These center on topics including United States government/military experiments in fields such as time travel, teleportation, mind control, contact with extraterrestrial life, and staging
faked Apollo Moon landings, framed as developments that followed the 1943
Philadelphia Experiment. Both Peter Moon and Preston Nichols have encouraged speculation about the contents; for example, they wrote, "Whether you read this as science fiction or non-fiction you are in for an amazing story" in their first chapter, describing much of the content as "soft facts" in a
Guide For Readers and publishing a newsletter with updates to the story. The work has been characterized as fiction. ==In media ==