Ong's Hat

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Ong's Hat (aka Incunabula) was one of the earliest internet-based secret history/conspiracy theory works created as a piece of collaborative fiction by four core individuals, although the membership changed over time.

1 History
2 Plot
3 See also
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] History

The threads of this can be traced back as far as the 1980s on Bulletin board systems and old xerox mail art networks. The aim was to create a false document, passing it off as a real account, for unspecified aims. It may have started as an in-joke or the first alternate reality game (said to have inspired Chasing the Wish [1]) or as an attempt to see how far the meme could spread. It could have been inspired by the Montauk Project - the links with Peter Moon and Sky Books (see further reading) would support such an interpretation.

The initial ground rules acknowledged the possibility that such an experiment could end up going down similar darker paths and it specifically rules out Ong's Hat being used for cult-like activity. This doesn't appear to have stopped some claiming that it is really a front for a cult and/or that, even though it is a fiction, it may contain a kernel of truth.

Joseph Matheny was intimately involved (although his exact role is unclear) and eventually pulled the plug on the whole venture possibly because of such claims and the idea that it had got out of hand.

[edit] Plot

The urban legend (or alternate history text) states that a facility manned by renegade Princeton professors conducted quantum physics experiments, and according to conspiracy theories, discovered a new theory for dimensional travel.

They were largely based in the ghost town of Ong's Hat, New Jersey, hence the name.

[edit] See also

Church of the Subgenius
The Blair Witch Project
Finding Ong's Hat, poet Laura McCullough's first novel.

[edit] Further reading

Matheny, Joseph; Moon, Peter (2002). Ong's Hat: The Beginning. New York: Sky Books, 186 pages. ISBN 0-9678162-2-X.
Szulborski, Dave (2005). This Is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming. Lulu Press, 384 pages. ISBN 1-4116-2595-1.
Matheny, Joseph (1999). The Incunabula Papers: Ong's Hat and Other Gateways to New Dimensions. Santa Cruz: iMMERSION. ISBN 0-9674890-1-6.