This episode deviates slightly from the stories of ghosts and demons featured in most episodes to discuss one of the internet’s earliest conspiracy theories. This story contains travel to alternate Earths, encounters with paranormal phenomena, mysticism and chaos magic, shadowy government agents bent on stripping humanity of freedom, and lots of drugs and sex. It can also teach us a lot about how paranormal folklore develops and spreads online. Also, it explains how a pulp science fiction writer popular with the hippies is connected to Reaganomics and Q-Anon. So, listen and learn about Ong’s Hat and the Incunabula.
You can skip to the 1 hour 23 minutes mark to listen an audio clip I sent to the hosts and listen to Constantinos & Pavlos reaction.
H φίλη και host του “Breaking the 20%” έρχεται στο στούντιο για να μας μιλήσει για την πρώτη θεωρία συνομωσίας του ιντερνετ! Παράλληλοι κόσμοι, μυστικοί κωδικοί και ένα twist στο τέλος που ΘΑ ΣΑΣ ΑΝΑΤΙΝΑΞΕΙ ΤΑ ΜΥΑΛΑ!
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5bowWlyJlkwtZb1eEFMd6L
The strange saga of Ong’s Hat is one of the earliest and most enduring legends of the internet — an elaborate blend of fact, fiction, and possibility. Born in the early days of online bulletin boards, the “Ong’s Hat” story told of a secret interdimensional travel project hidden deep in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, accessible only to those who could find the right clues.
Was it an Alternate Reality Game before the term even existed? An experimental art piece? Or something more? We explore its origins, the ideas behind the mysterious Incunabula Papers, and the strange way it spread like a meme through the early digital underground.
In this video, we’ll uncover how the story took root, why it captured so many imaginations, the ethics behind its creation, and — just for a moment — we’ll ask: What if it was real?
p. 27 I Read It On The Internet So It Must Be True w. Joseph Matheny. Joseph joins us to discuss Ong’s Hat, and how the Internet caused his social experiment to have a life of it’s own. A fun little interview I did with EarMobPodcast 08/11/25, just having some fun and reliving some memories. The host is a nice guy and was pleasant to talk to. Audio version on all major podcast platforms.
New addition: Hat Complete soundtrack! The dl now includes a PDF of the text version of the book, kindly provided by Joseph Matheny. It’s full of links to take you down that rabbithole. If you’ve already got it, just dl it again to get the PDF.
Back in the early 1990s, a conspiracy theory/urban legend was doing the rounds on internet messageboards, about a group of scientists and mystics who opened a portal to an alternative dimension in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. In Ong’s Hat:Compleat, the creator of this fascinating piece of living, infinite art, Joseph Matheny, talks to podcaster and AI wizard Sequoya Kennedy about its intentions and origins, and all manner of highly weird shit that happened in the process.
It’s a tale that intertwines early AI, paranormal encounters, emergent phenomena, and the nascent Internet culture of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The story is a rich tapestry woven from diverse cultural threads:
Psychedelic and avant-garde art movements
Punk rock and industrial music scenes
Experimental theater and method acting
Hermetic magick and beat literature
The Esalen Institute’s influence
Philip K. Dick’s literary works
This narrative is a modern spiritual quest that blends these eclectic elements into a compelling journey.
I’m super-thrilled to be involved with this, as a big fan of both Matheny and Kennedy’s previous work. Those who are watching carefully might remember that Matheny’s Ong’s Hat project was a big inspiration behind my album “There Are Other Worlds”, so it really means a lot to be onboard.
The soundtrack was created using a modular synthesizer I put together for the occasion, relying on a number of techniques including (but not limited to) chaos, random generation, feedback loops, tarot, the I Ching, cybernetic systems, trance, self-generation, mind-altering chemicals, The Gateway Tapes, and automatic writing.
I hope some of you will check this out, it’s a fascinating story, weirder than most fiction, and somehow still self-perpetuating…
Callie: Fun Fact — no one knew it was a Blair Witch remake until we were already attached. To be honest, I did not understand how we were supposed to recreate one of the most conspiratorial films of all time, especially since such a huge part of why the original was so terrifying was due to the fact that there was all this folklore around it. Ong’s Hat was a reference for INVENTION when we first started to explore the conspiratorial themes in the film. I weirdly feel like there are a lot of similarities between Ong’s Hat and the origin stories of how the original Blair Witch came to be…
Joseph Matheny’s website: https://josephmatheny.com/ Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT: http://bit.ly/45GMtWx Ong’s Hat: The Beginning https://bit.ly/4jLOXGM Today’s story is about Ong’s Hat, a story involving dimensional travel. The rabbit hole we’re plunging into today takes place in the early days of the internet and escalated from a short story to something more than it probably should have. Today’s case provides an exciting insight that couldn’t be better, because not only do I have an interesting report for you, but Joseph Matheny, who is at the center of the topic, was willing to do an interview with me, giving us some more firsthand insight. Intro (0:00) What is Ong’s Hat? (1:30) The Story (4:51) Background and Development (9:21) Theories and Paranormal Speculations (21:18) Q&A – Interview with Joseph Matheny (24:08) What does Ong’s Hat show us? (30:35) Outro (31:49) ———————————————————————– Images and Videos: “MuffinTerm screenshots” by blakespot is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Author-historian Henry Charlton Beck.jpeg by William F. Augustine published by Rutgers University Press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Au… Peter Lamborn Wilson, circa 1970s.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pe…https://brooklynrail.org/2022/10/in-m… [4K] Bats Flyby Transition – Green Screen Visual king • [4K] Bats Flyby Transition – Green Screen Map images from Google Earth pixabay.com Pexel.com and commons.wikimedia.org ——————————————————————————- Music and sounds: There was a simple answer CO.AG Music • There was a Simple Answer – Documentary M… The Disappearance Documentary Music CO.AG Music • The Disappearance Documentary Music Duplicator. Edit mix Futuristic Sci-fi Electronic Background Music CO.AG Music • Duplicator. Edit mix Futuristic Sci-fi Ele… ——————————————————————————- Sources: Ong’s Hat: The Beginning: Authorized Version – Joseph Matheny Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT – Joseph Matheny Incunabula.org https://incunabula.org/wp-content/upl… Legend Tripping Online – Michael Kinsellas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong%27s…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong%27s…
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I have decided to dig through the old archives and periodically present some media from the past here on Substack.
Today’s radio interview is from 2003 in LA. Yeah, I was thinking about AI even then. If you read COMPLEAT, you know my interest dates back to the late 1980s. Have a great weekend.
An interview with Joseph Matheny, recorded 08-07-03 from Radio Alchymy- KPFK – Los Angeles. Radio Alchymy
