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.
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.
¿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.
Join me for the strange tale of Ong’s Hat, rumored to be the internets first conspiracy theory.
UFO…No!
Episode 215: Ong’s Hat
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
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
