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, 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 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 manipulation as a means of psychological warfare.
Common versions of the tale have the researchers’ initial proposals rebuffed by the United States Congress due to fears over the potential dangers of the research. Instead, the researchers bypass Congress and receive support from the Department of Defense, 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 found in a train by U.S. soldiers near the Swiss border in France. Proponents allege that the train was destroyed, and all the soldiers involved in the discovery were killed as part of a coverup.
