'Stranger Things' Was Inspired By a True (And Horrific) Story

You might have binge-watched hours of the new 'Stranger Things ' season, but did you know that the show was originally supposed to be called 'Montauk', in a nod to what conspiracies claim to have actually occurred in real life?

Well, now you know. While we won't take the liberty of claiming that the 'Montauk' conspiracies are true, it's still interesting to know how the Duffer brothers appeared to take the stories by heart.

For instance, a man who was apparently involved in the 'Montauk' project, Alfred Bielek, has claimed that the experiments that took place in Montauk in the 1980s opened a hyperspace hole between 1983 and 1943. According to Bielek, the said hole threatened to "engulf part of the planet", not just New York City, where the Montauk lab was located.

Per Bielek, he and his brother Duncan actually saved the world from the "hyperspace hole" after they destroyed all the equipment. But the incident did not wrap things up. Later, Duncan allegedly began to age rapidly, and the two had to travel back in time to convince their parents to have another son, so that his soul could be transferred into a new body.

This is how Duncan is claimed to have stayed alive, but after the "procedure" he began to display bizarre psychic powers: not just telekinesis, but even the ability to materialize objects out of thin air.

While time travelling is not part of 'Stranger Things' (yet), it is easy to spot the similarities between the Montauk conspiracy, even though Eleven from the show is not able to create objects out of nowhere. But the most interesting parallel is that Duncan is claimed to have brought some kind of a monster into the real world – just like Eleven did in the show.

Conspiracies go on to suggest that Duncan was not the only kid who was subject to horrific mind experiments in Montauk, but it is still unknown to which extent the crazy story can be considered close to reality.

For the Duffer brothers, this extent did not seem of much importance, because the Montauk story has been woven into the lore of 'Stranger Things', inspiring what is now one of Netflix 's biggest hits.

'Stranger Things' is set to conclude season 4 on July 1, when Volume 2 becomes available for streaming.