Category Archives: Ong’s Hat

Alternate Reality Game, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Tales of perpetual fire, demons and ghosts haunt these creepy US towns

It’s that time of the year again! Every Samhain, the Internet lights up (or darkens?) with spooky stories and inevitably, Ong’s Hat gets thrown into the mix. Here’s an entry from this year’s mentions. Expect more.
One of several “ghost towns” in the New Jersey pine barrens

New Jersey’s Pine Barrens

The Pine Barrens of New Jersey encompass several towns and counties, and in the most densely populated state in the U.S., it’s a wooded wonderland of weirdness and natural beauty. Legend says the Pine Barrens, which are filled with scrub pine but are far from barren, may also contain a devil. And perhaps a portal to another dimension. In a 1936 book, “Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey,” Henry Charlton Beck described Ong’s Hat, one of many abandoned towns in the Pines, a “vanished town of murder, of prize fights and of isolated country dances,” a place that “a hundred or so years ago, we were told … was a center of life among the Pineys,” with “brawls and fisticuffs, some of them bloody enough.” Weird NJ, a magazine whose name says it all, wondered in 2023 whether there might be even more than a sketchy past, asking, “Ong’s Hat: Piney Ghost Town or Gateway to Another Dimension?” LINK: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/10/20/scariest-us-towns/86478634007/
Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Sidetracked – Ong’s Hat, Incunabula, and Online Legend Trips

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.

https://soundcloud.com/user-64125934/103-sidetracked-ongs-hat-incunabula-and-online-legend-trips

Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Unfolding Alternate Realities, Ong’s Hat, Synchronicity and more with Joseph Matheny

Consensus Unreality
LINK: https://consensusunreality.podbean.com/e/unfolding-alternate-realities-ongs-hat-synchronicity-and-more-with-joseph-matheny/ A deep and roving interview with the great artist and writer Joseph Matheny. We talk: the origins of his legendary Ong’s Hat project in the very early days of the internet; mail art, collaboration,  and finding new media; the trajectory of ARGs and the internet; the power of synchronicity and art in driving a life’s path; location and folklore; much, much more. Not to be missed! Hear this first hour on Spotify, Youtube, Apple, and other podcast sources The Full Episode and much more at https://www.patreon.com/c/consensusunreality Intro music by Treatment https://treatmentforu.bandcamp.com/album/pond-life
Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Ong’s Hat episode of Historicon (not in English)

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
Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Ong’s Hat: The Internet Myth That Became a Reality

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?

Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

EarMobPodcast Ep. 27 I Read It On The Internet So It Must Be True w. Joseph Matheny

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.

Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Ongs Hat Compleat – Official Soundtrack

LINK: https://polypores.bandcamp.com/album/ongs-hat-compleat-official-soundtrack

Also, a great write-up of this project: https://moonbuilding.substack.com/p/issue-73-1-august-2025

The soundtrack to the audiobook version of Ong’s Hat: Compleat

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…

Check it out here: josephmatheny.com/ongs-hat-compleat/

(Also available on Amazon/Google Play etc)

I’d highly recommend either paperback or audiobook “Ong’s Hat: The Beginning” as a good place to start.

Or the audiobook/podcast “This Is Not A Game” by Marc Fennell — which offers a good intro to the whole thing,

credits

released July 28, 2025

Written and performed by Stephen James Buckley — October 2024

Thanks to Joseph and Sequoya for having me onboard, and to Peter C Hine and his part in making these connections happen.

Alternate Reality Game, COMPLEAT, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Invention on Mubi

From an interview-

CH: The most surprising insight I found was in terms of examining the concept of ‘conspiracy’ itself. I was pretty heavily researching things like ‘Ong’s Hat,’ which was one of the first well-known internet-based conspiracy theories.

Invention On MUBI

Love this from the AMA:

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…

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1lx8haf/comment/n2lq9st/

Alternate Reality Game, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

ONG’S HAT, LA CIUDAD DEL EXPERIMENTO CUÁNTICO.

¿Puede una ciudad entera desaparecer sin dejar rastro?
En este episodio de Escalofríos, te contamos la perturbadora historia de Ong’s Hat, un pequeño poblado de Nueva Jersey que, según múltiples teorías, fue escenario de un experimento secreto que salió terriblemente mal. Lo que comenzó como un rumor en los márgenes de internet, terminó convirtiéndose en uno de los casos más inquietantes de desaparición colectiva y viajes interdimensionales jamás contados.

Prepárate para conocer la verdad detrás del primer ARG de la historia, los científicos del Instituto de las Ciencias del Caos, y los archivos ocultos que apuntan a una realidad más aterradora de lo que imaginamos.