Joseph Matheny's Art is War Talks

Joseph Matheny

Art is War: Fear and Loathing on the Internet josephmatheny.substack.com

  1. Aug 25

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts: Final Thoughts and Credits

    This is the final segment of the free podcast/post series of Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT For reviews regarding this work, go here. You may subscribe to this series via RSS here. https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/232444.rss Other platforms where you can subscribe and/or download are available here. The COMPLEAT Broadcasts Archive Chapter 0 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 This completes the COMPLEAT Broadcast series. It will remain here on this Substack so you may revisit it or share it. If you’d like a print copy of the book section of this work, it is available through https://compleat.store SUPERSTORY: La Virgen de Guadalupe en el Inframundo - Sacred Protection in High-Risk Worlds More at: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidmetcalfe_how-do-sacred-symbols-function-inside-high-risk-activity-7490775977598423041-Am3u Synthesizing research from Kendall Haven (DARPA’s Narrative Networks project), Carl Jung’s theory of synchronicity, Jeffrey Kripal’s concept of the Super Story, and Joseph Matheny’s transmedia ARG experiment (Ong’s Hat), Jose explored how human attention is hardwired by story structure. A powerful narrative environment organizes human perception, expectation, and search behavior so effectively that meaningful coincidences and anomalous events become active, trajectory-shaping realities for the participant. Chapel Perilous Audiobook Kickstarter Relaunched Today Same rewards, updated target and timeline!! Help us get across the finish line. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chapelperilous/chapel-perilous-the-robert-anton-wilson-biography-audiobook Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment Link: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/remembering-the-pre-google-web-when-search-was-an-experiment/ The first anti-AI protester to be jailed has a message for OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta: ‘Regain your humanity’ Wynd Kaufmyn, 69, chained and locked the front doors of OpenAI’s headquarters last year with members of StopAI LINK: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/16/california-openai-protester-wynd-kaufman Silicon Valley Dreams of Authoritarianism Gil Durán’s new book, The Nerd Reich, catalogs how tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel took over America. LINK: https://slate.com/culture/2026/08/tech-silicon-valley-elon-musk-peter-thiel-trump-politics-fascism-gil-duran.html Ed Zitron killed the god of AGI Interviews- Reviews Get full access to Joseph Matheny's Newsletter at josephmatheny.substack.com/subscribe

  2. Aug 11

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts, Chapter 8

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts, Chapter 8 Print section This is a free podcast/post series of Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT This is a free podcast/post series of Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT For reviews regarding this work, go here. You may subscribe to this series via RSS here. https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/232444.rss Other platforms where you can subscribe and/or download are available here. The COMPLEAT Broadcasts Archive Chapter 0 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson Audiobook Kickstarter The Award-Winning Biography of Robert Anton Wilson—Now Coming to Audio A Kirkus Star. Recipient of the S.I. Hayakawa Book Prize. The definitive biography of Robert Anton Wilson. Chapel Perilous: The Life & Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson has become a landmark biography of one of the twentieth century’s most original thinkers. The book earned a Kirkus Star for exceptional merit and won the Institute of General Semantics’ S.I. Hayakawa Book Prize. Critics highlight its depth of research, engaging narrative, and its ability to bring Wilson’s extraordinary life and ideas to listeners—whether you’ve been with RAW for years or you’re discovering him now. Now it’s time to bring the definitive biography of Robert Anton Wilson to audio. LINK: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chapelperilous/chapel-perilous-the-audiobook The Man From 2036: John Titor, the IBM 5100 and the Internet's Greatest Unsolved Mystery They’re just never gonna let this one go, are they? I guess that was kinda the point. 😜 (Hint: Some things are more fun if left a mystery) Queued up at the relevant point in the video, but feel free to watch the entire thing. Starshinescribbles CU’s Top 10 Esoteric and Paranormal Destinations Take a CU approved road trip! Ben and Dave each share five personal favorite occult, esoteric, and paranormal destinations in the US. From crash site deserts to eerie woods, temples to prisons, you’ll be scrawling all over your maps. The boys talk on their favorite hidden gems stateside, some weird encounters, and also touch on some well tread American occult legend tripping zones. Who doesn’t love a classic list episode!? https://consensusunreality.podbean.com/e/cus-top-10-esoteric-and-paranormal-destinations/ Interviews- Reviews Get full access to Joseph Matheny's Newsletter at josephmatheny.substack.com/subscribe

  3. Jun 16

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts, Chapter 4

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts, Chapter 4 Print section This is a free podcast/post series of Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT For reviews regarding this work, go here. You may subscribe to this series via RSS here. https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/232444.rss Other platforms where you can subscribe and/or download are available here. The COMPLEAT Broadcasts Archive Chapter 0 Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Here we go again Sometimes it sucks to be prescient. LINK: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/31/us/ufo-files-pentagon.html?unlocked_article_code=1.mlA.3RU7.NkHAVAk7C53J&smid=nytcore-android-share Does this sound familiar? "Whatever was controlling that object, was also connecting through my mind." UFO Whistleblower Jake Barber says the Egg shaped UFO telepathically connected with him.He also says that the Egg UFO was pursuaded to land by using "Psionic Operators". Gifted psychics who can make a mental connection with UFOs. Love this reply ‘Alternate Reality Gaming’–in Spades REPRINT A dot on a map of New Jersey called “Ong’s Hat,” in the heart of the Pine Barrens, has fascinated people for years. What kind of town would have a name like that? Patty and I went there once, just to see it for ourselves. But there was nothing to see: just a lot of trees and a little-traveled road. And then one Joseph Matheny in the 1990s invented an Internet game called “Ong’s Hat,” billed as “the secret to interdimensional travel.” And it took off. LINK: https://leeduigon.com/2026/06/12/alternate-reality-gaming-in-spades/ Interviews- Reviews Get full access to Joseph Matheny's Newsletter at josephmatheny.substack.com/subscribe

  4. May 19

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts, Chapter 2

    The COMPLEAT Broadcasts, Chapter 2 Print section This is a free podcast/post series of Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT For reviews regarding this work, go here. You may subscribe to this series via RSS here. https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/232444.rss Other platforms where you can subscribe and/or download are available here. The COMPLEAT Broadcasts Archive Chapter 0 Chapter 1 Narrative fiction podcast with a call-out to Ong’s Hat Stuff like this continues to appear on YouTube Spooky New Jersey Road Trip: From Cape May to Clinton Road Ong’s Hat is less of an attraction and more of a folklore stop. Once a tiny Pine Barrens settlement, it later became attached to stories of secret experiments, underground researchers, and interdimensional travel. The legend spread through zines, mail art, bulletin boards, and early internet culture, often described as one of the first alternate reality games. Today, treat Ong’s Hat as a drive-through legend rather than a preserved ghost town. Link: https://eerieescapesbook.com/eerie-escapes-blog/spooky-new-jersey-road-trip/ Birds of a feather “In his 1977 nonfiction book, Cosmic Trigger: Final Secret of the Illuminati, Wilson elaborates: [The underground press was] intensely gullible and eager to believe all manner of . . . conspiracy theories, the weirder the better. Most Discordians, at this time, were contributors to underground newspapers all over the country. We began surfacing the Discordian Society, issuing position papers offering nonviolent anarchist techniques to mutate our robot-society [. . .] Along with this we planted numerous stories about the Discordian Society’s aeon-old war against the sinister Illuminati. We accused everybody of being in the Illuminati—Nixon, Johnson, William Buckley, Jr., ourselves, Martian invaders, all the conspiracy buffs, everybody. We did not regard this as a hoax or prank in the ordinary sense. We still considered it guerilla ontology. My personal attitude was that if the New Left wanted to live in the particular tunnel-reality of the hard-core paranoid, they had an absolute right to that neurological choice. I saw Discordianism as the Cosmic Giggle Factor, introducing so many alternative paranoias that everybody could pick a favorite, if they were inclined that way. I also hoped that some less gullible souls, overwhelmed by this embarrassment of riches, might see through the whole paranoia game and decide to mutate to a wider, funnier, more hopeful reality-map.” LINK: https://evergreenreview.com/read/donald-trumps-operation-mindfuck/ Get full access to Joseph Matheny's Newsletter at josephmatheny.substack.com/subscribe

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Art is War: Fear and Loathing on the Internet josephmatheny.substack.com