Tag Archives: podcast

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, 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.

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

The Mysterious Egg in Ong’s Hat – The First ARG

Ong’s Hat is a real place.  But the stories about it aren’t.  That didn’t stop tales about a dimension hopping, scientific, transcendentalist, sadomasochistic cult from spreading across the early internet.  This is credited as the first ever ARG and boy, is it weird Episode: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-saspu-1831e0e
Alternate Reality Game, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

Soundtrack for Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT

I’m excited to announce another addition to our COMPLEAT project.

The audiobook will feature music, sounds, and atmosphere by the multi-talented Polypores (aka Stephen James Buckley). I love Polypores’ music and soundscapes and am excited that they will provide our atmospheres.

Most of their music is at polypores.bandcamp.com, but the latest album is here:

Find Polypores on Twitter as @stephenjbuckle on Instagram as @sjbuckers, and on YouTube as @polyporeshq

See the full COMPLEAT announcement here. – https://josephmatheny.com/ongs-hat-compleat/

LINKS

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

VYSXXXX | The Real Vayse: Halloween 2024

In Cronenberg’s cinematic interpretation of Burroughs’s “Naked Lunch,” Peter Weller’s Bill Lee character is confronted by Hank with pages of reports he cannot remember writing. Bill Lee drawls laconically, “I never saw these pages before. I truly do suspect some colossal con.”
I echo that sentiment. A podcast with a voice that appears to be mine has been released. However, I have no memory of ever being involved in this podcast. Mind control? Sorcery? Technical chicanery? You be the judge.
Happy Samhain, Blessed Be.

About this Episode
Since October 2023, Vayse HQ has been regularly receiving mysterious, confusing and unsettling emails, seemingly from all over the world, all hinting towards the same impossible conclusion.

In this episode the Vayse boys launch an investigation into where these weird communications might be coming from and who might be behind them with a little help and a lot of expertise from some familiar and very welcome faces: Douglas Batchelor, Darragh Mason, Sequoyah Kennedy, Joseph Matheny, Stephanie Quick and AP Strange. The deeper they dig, the more they find themselves falling down rabbit holes within rabbit holes within rabbit holes… (Recorded October 2024)

SHOW PAGE: https://www.vayse.co.uk/vysxxxx

 

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

The Rebel Podcast: Episode 232: Ong’s Hat (The”Fake” Town)

Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stylesrebelradio/episodes/Episode-232-Ongs-Hat-TheFake-Town-e2pm74i/a-abj2nus What is going on in Ong’s Hat New Jersey? Does this abandoned town hold the secrets to interdimensional travel or the secrets to Quantum reality? Was it all just an elaborate Joke? Join in the conversation at any time on the WSRR ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Discord Server⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or by texting in! Listen to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WSRR Radio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Live wherever you go courtesy of the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LIVE365⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ App! Theme Music by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Daze⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To support the show, be sure to pick up some sweet ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠WSRR Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ from the shop! Website: https://wsrrradio.com/
Alternate Reality Game, Incunabula, Joseph Matheny, Multiverse, Ong's Hat

First Time Caller: An Art Bell Tribute

In this episode of The Computer Room, Katherine and friends talk about Art Bell’s legacy. We meet Leah Prime, who’s writing a book about Art Bell, John Steiger who on a mission to hand transcribe every single episode of Coast to Coast AM, and Joseph Matheny, the mind behind Ong’s Hat.

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

The Flatwoods Monster and Ong’s Hat, New Jersey

Welcome to another exciting episode of the Two Scaredy Cats Podcast. This week Kara dives into the story of a cryptid from West Virginia. She tells us the tale of the Flatwoods Monster and we discuss some of the different theories about what it could of possibly been, that all those people saw that day.

Our next topic is about Ong’s Hat, New Jersey. This story has lots of crazy things that have happened over the years. We start off with a brief history of the town and how it got it’s name. Then we get into all the conspiracy theories surrounding Ong’s hat from a supposed secret cult, to a gate to another dimension and other crazy stuff.