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Chameleo: A Strange but True Story of Invisible Spies, Heroin Addiction, and Homeland Security

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A mesmerizing mix of Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, and Philip K. Dick, Chameleo is a true account of what happened in a seedy Southern California town when an enthusiastic and unrepentant heroin addict named Dion Fuller sheltered a U.S. Marine who’d stolen night vision goggles and perhaps a few top secret files from a nearby military base.Dion found himself arrested (under the ostensible auspices of The Patriot Act) for conspiring with international terrorists to smuggle Top Secret military equipment out of Camp Pendleton. The fact that Dion had absolutely nothing to do with international terrorists, smuggling, Top Secret military equipment, or Camp Pendleton didn’t seem to bother the military. He was released from jail after a six-day-long Abu-Ghraib-style interrogation. Subsequently, he believed himself under intense government scrutiny — and, he suspected, the subject of bizarre experimentation involving “cloaking”— electro-optical camouflage so extreme it renders observers practically invisible from a distance of some meters — by the Department of Homeland Security. Hallucination? Perhaps — except Robert Guffey, an English teacher and Dion’s friend, tracked down and interviewed one of the scientists behind the project codenamed “Chameleo,” experimental technology which appears to have been stolen by the U.S. Department of Defense and deployed on American soil. More shocking still, Guffey discovered that the DoD has been experimenting with its newest technologies on a number of American citizens.A condensed version of this story was the cover feature of Fortean Times Magazine (September 2013).

282 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2015

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745 people want to read

About the author

Robert Guffey

39 books33 followers
Robert Guffey is the author of Chameleo a lecturer in the Department of English at California State University – Long Beach. A graduate of the famed Clarion Writers Workshop in Seattle, he is the author of a collection of novellas entitled Spies & Saucers (PS Publishing, 2014). His first book of nonfiction, Cryptoscatology: Conspiracy Theory as Art Form, was published in 2012. He’s written stories and articles for numerous magazines and anthologies, among them Fortean Times, Mysteries, Nameless Magazine, New Dawn, The New York Review of Science Fiction, Paranoia, The Third Alternative, and Video Watchdog Magazine.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
Profile Image for Osiris Oliphant.
582 reviews278 followers
Want to read
November 3, 2023
Certain aspects of this book reminded me of something... it was around 1992, i was growing up in san diego, in 7 or 8th grade, a weird guy was inviting neighborhood kids over to his place to watch videos he had made with one of the old style vhs camcorders. the videos were mostly shot at night under streetlights through a window or from a few blocks away. in one a guy appeared to be unloading invisible objects from the trunk of a car. then a couple different people carrying the invisible objects into the darkness where there was a canyon. the dude shot videos of the canyon at night after seeing people go into it, and he had lots of these very dark grainy videos where you could almost make out invisible green jelly predator cloaked people. then he had videos where he was filming from the street into trees that grew in the canyon. you could sort of make out people walking around in barely visible structures up in the trees.
Profile Image for Donna Davis.
1,946 reviews323 followers
March 20, 2018
Chameleo is a twisted but true story of an addict who unwittingly becomes an experimental subject in a classified government research program, and the bizarre events that took place then and in the aftermath. My thanks go to the author, who provided me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Dion Fuller (not the person’s actual name) had been released from a psychiatric hospital in Southern California. He had procured some heroin and nodded off, permitting various equally marginal characters access to his home. Sometimes he was out of it and had no idea what was happening. It was likely during this time that the guy with the stolen classified documents and a couple dozen pairs of night-vision goggles belonging to the US government made his way into the apartment. The ensuing chaos proves once and for all that just because a person is crazy does not mean nobody is out to get them. Just ask Dion!

Full review:
http://seattlebookmamablog.org/2015/1...
Profile Image for Joe McFall.
8 reviews
March 5, 2015
First, let me say that I've read some weird stuff in my life. I'm ok with strange or outlandish claims. I've read Charles Fort, John Keel, Phil Dick, any number of conspiracy books, UFO studies, bigfoot, ghosts, goblins, on and on and on. I'm no stranger to the kinds of stories told in this book.

However, I really wanted the narrator here to be more skeptical. There were parts of the book where he neglected the obvious explanation for things (that the subject of the book, the narrator's friend Dion, is, in fact, mentally ill) in favor of what he considered the only 'logical' explanation: that his friend was actually being stalked by midgets in invisibility suits, hounded at every turn and driven to the brink of insanity by hundreds (thousands?) of government agents assigned to pester him 24/7.

I've read a few accounts of gangstalking, and Dion's claims (as suspect as they are, even by the narrator's own admission) fits in with that schema. But, at the same time, I tend to see claims of gangstalking as evidence of mental illness. Let me be clear: I'm not diagnosing anyone as mentally ill, but it's really a better explanation for Dion's experiences than the ones unflinchingly accepted by the narrator. Because the narrator barely raises this or explores this as a possibility, he comes across as unreliable, which isn't something you really want for a book that purports to be nonfiction, a 'true' story.

Aside from that, this book should have been much shorter/better edited/generally better written. There were entire swaths of transcripts from phone conversations, for example, that added virtually nothing to narrative. If the writing was better, this book might have deserved an extra star.

Profile Image for Chad Post.
251 reviews309 followers
July 15, 2015
DISCLAIMER: I am not the publisher of this book. (Since GoodReads has decided to scold me for reviewing Open Letter and Dalkey titles I published, I'm going to start every review with this bullshit.)

What's fascinating about this book to me isn't the specifics of the claims that Dion makes about the way the government is surveilling and harassing him (midgets using cloaking technology, sound wave attacks, annoying street performance attacks, etc.), but the way in which paranoid literature gets you to believe it in. The repetitions, the "proof" found by talking to technology experts, the way it gets you to buy into the first core idea: would the U.S. military test it's new bad-ass technology on "expendable" citizens? It's amazing how the rhetorical devices and structure works in this book, climaxing with the conversation with the Project Chameleo expert in which Dion and Robert reaffirm what they want to believe is true, then take that as proof that it's all true. Fucking fascinating.

There are bits of this that are really tedious, but on the whole, I think it's an amazing book to read for structural and argumentative reasons.

Also, once again, I didn't publish this book, so I have no skin in the game, but you should buy it anyway, since O/R is pretty cool.
Profile Image for Tessa Dick.
8 reviews8 followers
February 20, 2016
This book is frightening, not only because of what happened to Dion, but also because he was a mostly innocent bystander who got caught up in a cloak-and-dagger situation. I need to read it again, and then maybe again. It sounds a lot like what happened to Philip K. Dick in 1971 and the years following.
Profile Image for Christine Best.
251 reviews1 follower
March 28, 2021
This was not good. The first three quarters of an hour or so were very promising, and then it all went rapidly downhill. I’m not sure if the central character is actually mentally ill or if the author is trying to write some sort of homage to Philip K Dick. The writing feels like satire and the tone is off for a factual account, also the author is entirely credulous. A very odd book.
Profile Image for Lis Anna-Langston.
Author 13 books329 followers
August 18, 2020
This is easily one of the best books I've ever read. Period. Let's take this from both angles. Say this is all utter and complete lies and it never happened, Dion Fuller is still one of the BEST anti-heroes I've ever read.

The next angle is that I have every reason to believe this is real because accounts like this are reported, it's just that most people don't write a book about it. In that case, I really love this book. I love the writing and the style. I love how the narrator is engaged in the story and not afraid to question what he's doing.

Guffey isn't an investigative journalist so reviews holding him to those standards are silly. This is a far out ride and I loved it. I do love Hunter S. Thompson as well. Am I comparing the two? Not really I'm just saying that every little tiny detail Thompson wrote wasn't constantly under question. Part of the appeal of this story is that not all facts will ever be known. The story hinges on that a little. And for people trying to discount Fuller, I say that you missed the point of the entire book. The POINT is that people like Fuller will be called into question by their very nature which is why they are chosen in the first place.

With that said, imma not sayin it's real. I'm saying it's a great book. If it is real, wow! Seriously.

If this is ever made into a film I wanna write the screenplay. Totally serious. I wrote it in my head while I read it.
Profile Image for Seriah Azkath.
14 reviews5 followers
March 10, 2018
Chameleo is an awesome read, a fascinating story, and important to many fields of the paranormal. It suggests that the goverment's level of technology is severly advanced to what we know. It's hard to put down, and not as hard to believe as it may have been even a few years ago. Highly recommended.
Profile Image for fire_on_the_mountain.
304 reviews13 followers
April 16, 2021
Reading this made me keep reflecting on Heller: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you." It sounds like the main protagonist (antagonist?) was stuck in this loop. But I also can't help but wonder, is this what happens when you let your friends wind themselves up on a flight of fancy? Especially when you are indulging the paranoid fantasies of an addict in the process of hitting bottom?

All that aside, it's a fairly entertaining read about the kind of proto-fascist skulduggery that typified the post-9/11, Patriot Act aughts that just seems so quaint now. I shouldn't feel nostalgia for that but I do, in a world where the Capitol was literally overrun by a legion of unmoored paranoid fantasists. But it really loses steam with all these verbatim transcripts and a far-too-credulous interview with a scientist that seems to close the matter for some... but certainly not for me.

But maybe that's the wider point: when you lose a connection with objective reality, it's very easy to self-refer you further down the spiral into deeper disconnection. That's definitely part of what I got out of this.
Profile Image for Whitley.
Author 152 books1,260 followers
September 23, 2024
Would seem to have been written by a madman if it wasn’t true. A question: what in the name of heaven does our government spend its money on insanity like this for?
55 reviews3 followers
November 19, 2025
Quite an interesting piece of work, to say the least! Enthralling would probably be a better word for it. Definitely an entertaining read, but beneath its rather casual tone and gratuitous use of humor (dark though it may be), the book is also truly informative and enlightening on subjects that have been far too rarely or deeply explored. Although I'm sure there must be others, this is the first genuine account I've come across relating to the actual use of psychological warfare and targeted harassment (i.e. gang stalking) by factions of the US government/military on a basically random American citizen. For such an important issue with such a dire need of exposure and illumination, there seems to be a major lack of relevant literature, especially of any higher quality. Guffey is clearly a talented writer and unafraid of treading into controversial areas, despite the certainty of being maligned and receiving plenty of flak over it. He also comes off as extremely credible and trustworthy, qualities that are much needed if one is going to manage pulling off what seems like such a far fatched tale without just being written off and labeled a looney. I think he does this admirably. In fact, the book really adds weight to all the claims there have been from ordinary people about being victimized in a similar way, through bizarre methods of torture that appear to be almost pointless and to have no real motive or purpose behind them. Guffey is able to offer definitive proof that certain exotic technologies do exist, however, having located and interviewed the man responsible for inventing and patenting successful cloaking (invisibility) devices, for one. The whole concept is far less improbable than it initially may seem, and the further one gets into Chameleo, the more convincing it all becomes! Whether or not you're a believer, though, it's still a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Profile Image for Gabriel Zeros.
1 review7 followers
December 24, 2017
I own a paperback copy of this book, I have enjoyed the entire audio book, and listened to many of Robert Guffey's interviews about Chameleo. The author tells a very interesting story about a man who is harassed and driven to the brink of madness by a secret black ops government agency. Chameleo is about a lot of different things, but at it's core it is about trying to find stability while surrounded by a whirlwind of madness and chaos. I have to say the scariest part of this book is that it is very much true. Go ahead and look up the SAIC or Richard Schowengerdt's technology research. I very much believe in Robert Guffey's story about his friend who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. You can go ahead and fact check everything that is stated by Mr. Guffey, you will end up looking over your shoulder in the hopes that you aren't put on the same list as Damian! I hope to see a follow up story by Guffey sometime, maybe he can do a collection on the people who contact him about their own scary run ins with gang stalking. Even if you don't believe a word of the story it is still very well written and a fun journey that tells a compelling tale of two friends and the strain this "high strangeness" has on both of their lives. Check it out, keep a open mind, and enjoy this one of a kind ride that probably happens once in a life time.
2 reviews
January 23, 2020
This is a great book about top-secret invisible technology that is being developed and tested out on regular everyday American citizens. The book goes on to detail an amazing convergence of people who are all somehow related to this classified dark project that government agencies are running. What really gives this story its credibility is the real and current news stories that come out every day about targeted individuals. For the most part, the book focuses on the author who is friends with Dion, a drug addict conspiracy-minded individual who finds himself in the crossfire of an investigation of stolen technology. The story leads the reader into the dark and scary world of black projects and government-sponsored harassment utilizing a portfolio of new technologies. Anyone interested in the subject matter will learn a lot, and the author is diligent with providing other source materials to back up some of his claims.
Author 4 books7 followers
July 27, 2024
I never expected to read this book. This book came into my possession when I was a reporter. I think the publisher must have sent it to the newspaper in the hopes of getting a free review, but our editor was not interested in doing that. So I took the book and put it in my "to be read" rotation and after about six years it made it to the front of the line.

All that being said. I loved it. This book caught me by surprise over and over again and I laughed multiple times with the exploits of the characters and it was a joy ride to read it. I do not want to give any spoilers because it was nothing like I expected from the book jacket/cover and I started it with great hesitation. Now I want to read the other books Guffey has written. I truly enjoyed it and I gave it to a buddy yesterday since he would probably enjoy it to.

I do not read a lot of fiction, but this made me want to read more. The book is hilarious.
Profile Image for Shtluck.
11 reviews
January 23, 2024
Thought this was going to be some sort of MK-Ultra lite type story with some actual proof, but the story comes from a mentally ill-drug addict and his friend who is a creative writing teacher that believes in Alex Jones conspiracies. At first I thought the author believed some but not all of the outlandish claims and I was willing to follow along, but it became apparent half-way through that he believed it all. Had to stop reading at that point and will not be finishing this book. If this was a fictional tale, or perhaps if the author took a more irreverent stance I think the writing quality could stand on it's own like an Inherent Vice type story, but as is, I can't bring myself to continue it.
Profile Image for Alexander McLeese.
22 reviews3 followers
May 24, 2019
One of the most genuinely funny and yet at times truly dark if not sinister true stories that i have come across and had the pleasure of reading. It will give you a glimpse into and make you realize how the technology we have in the public sector is at least 2 or more decades behind that what is possible especially when compared to the technological toys that the military and intelligence services have. It will also give you a taste of what happens should you, while being a good Samaritan, inadvertently get caught up in something and they set their eye and their techy toys on you, a citizen of the same country as the military. Well worth the read
Profile Image for Jeremy Hornik.
830 reviews21 followers
March 30, 2024
Strange little tale that exists on the flickering edge of plausibility. The sort of thing where one minute you dismiss it entirely, and the next, you have to admit that if you can get by the weirdness and the unreliable witnesses, it makes a good deal of sense. And haven’t the marginalized been too often disbelieved? Anyhow, a good yarn, true, partly true, or stitched from whole cloth.
Profile Image for Olivia Meads.
60 reviews1 follower
November 8, 2021
A really fascinating and gripping book, but I became skeptical after gangstalking was mentioned, as gangstalking has been debunked and is more like a moral panic. I still thoroughly enjoyed it though!
Profile Image for John Hull.
1 review
September 10, 2023
I’m a lifelong fan of good fiction and a slightly more recent fan of esoteric/Fortean/“conspiracy” writing. This book is almost singular in its balanced composition of relentless driving narrative and esoteric depth. 10/10.
Profile Image for Fiona.
1,240 reviews15 followers
March 30, 2018
Very interesting material but Guffey's obviously not much for rewrites and his writing's really choppy.
Profile Image for Sara.
186 reviews10 followers
April 14, 2022
While I doubt the story behind this book, I can’t deny that it was a pretty entertaining listen and had great narration courtesy of Steven Roy Grimsley.
Profile Image for Brooks.
735 reviews7 followers
March 23, 2017
It wasn't self-aware enough to be satire, and it wasn't sceptical enough to be compelling. So I felt like I had to be sceptical to make up for it, and that ruined my enjoyment of this bizarre trip through a lived conspiracy theory.
Profile Image for Thomas Hale.
977 reviews34 followers
September 30, 2016
So this is nonfiction, and the blurb makes it sound like a cool "weird shit the US Government did/is doing" exposé. Like, a 'Men Who Stare At Goats' MK Ultra kinda thing with invisibility and a vulnerable guy out of his depth. Turns out it's about said vulnerable guy's deep paranoia and a whole lotta writing about "gang stalking". Guffey writes about his friend Dion, a junkie and general burnout with clear bouts of paranoia and schizophrenia. After being hassled by government workers over some stolen equipment, Dion reports being followed by "invisible midgets" and stalked and harassed as he tries to flee across the mainland US. Inbetween telling of Dion's plight - which includes a preposterous scene in which he's kidnapped by conspiratorial rednecks - we are treated to a mix of interesting "stuff the US military has actually worked on / is working on", and "Nixon attacked political enemies in secret, so the Bush government could totally be harassing my friend for the hell of it".
I spent most of the book waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Guffey to be like "okay so all of this was bullshit but interesting, right?" But it becomes clear that he's a true believer. There's a fifty-page interview transcript between Guffey, Dion and a scientist who patented a form of "invisibility" technology, which is really interesting until they start talking about UFO coverups and how 'the transistor was reverse-engineered from the Roswell crash'. Also our author can't stop talking about how he's a 32nd-level Mason.
The book is a disappointing, rambling mess, delivered with the smug, ironic prose style of an Internet radio shock jock from the mid-00s. Guffey is either immensely credulous or exploiting his friend's severe mental issues: either way, he's kind of an arsehole. At least there are some funny bits.
Profile Image for HillbillyMystic.
510 reviews37 followers
June 27, 2015
Well comparing this to Bukowski was a stretch however like a Charles B. novel I could not put this piece down. At times I was not sure if I was reading the manic ravings of a schizoaffective drug addict in acute paranoid psychosis or if he was really just telling the truth. Look the U.S. Government spends 585 billion USD per annum on defense. That is 460 billion more than China who comes in a very distant second place on military spending. This of course does not even touch the Black Budget which is estimated to be anywhere from 69 billion USD to upwards of 500 billion USD although we will never truly know. We do however know some of the experimentation the military has done covertly on our citizens in the past so I would not put any of this past them. This was most definitely a wild ride from start to finish that left me a little paranoid myself at times. I felt like I was reading top secret Intel and was surely being traced for doi so on my Kindle. Thankfully with the SCOTUS decision of 6/26/15 my plans to lead a revolution have been curtailed for the moment. Christ knows the last thing I need is invisible Navy Intelligence midgets and flying saucer drones following me. I had enough of that shit in the 90's.
Profile Image for ♡.
80 reviews75 followers
March 28, 2023
4 stars. This novel is for the conspiracy theorist in all of us - but with splashes of Robert Guffey's humor, the book shone all the more. I couldn't listen to the audiobook as I worked out, because I'd start laughing between sit-ups over invisible midgets and devil-worshippers in Hollywood.

I was confused during most of the transcript conversations, and sometimes I had a hard time sympathizing with Dion. Personally, my favorite parts of the story were the author's personal anecdotes - the ups & downs of his love life, stopping an exorcism, leaving a drunk man (who many or may not have been a government plant) out on the street because, well, why not?

P.S. I'd like to note that I called BOTH of the transcribed numbers in the book, and neither of them were operational. While I understand this was to protect privacy, I'd like to say that I was deeply disappointed that I couldn't ask Dion about invisible midgets myself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Peter A. Lio.
179 reviews5 followers
January 17, 2019
One of my favorite authors Jacques Vallee recommended this book, so I of course read it immediately. But I am left wondering: what did I just read/listen to?! This is a bizarre, somewhat amateurish rambling tale that—honestly—at several points I thought might be a parody! Having finished it, I’m not sure if it was a bad and unfunny parody or just a goofy story.

Is it possible that Deon was really harassed? Sure! Is it possible that the government has invisibility suits? I guess! The ideas make sense for sure and it seems possible. But is it also possible that some or most of this was paranoid ranting by a drug addict? I think that is also possible.

Most importantly, even if everything is 100% true and as they hypothesize, where are we? In my opinion, we’re not really much further along. We know the government can do these things, right? I guess I just feel like I didn’t learn anything here.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews

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