This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 4 Volume 1.
real-world Project MKUltra, a CIA initiative that experimented with disturbing techniques including drugs, mind-control, and sensory deprivation.
Brenner was believed killed by the Demogorgon in Stranger Things season 1, but the second season revealed he survived. Brenner returns in Stranger Things season 4, with Sam Owens - the man tasked with containing events at Hawkins - working with him on the secret Nina Project. This was envisioned as a dramatic tool to help Eleven process repressed trauma and thus regain her powers.
The Nina Project allows Eleven to re-experience her past in a manner that, to her, feels almost like time travel. Surprisingly, like many ideas in Stranger Things, it too has its roots in real-world science - although it's been developed somewhat for the show. Here's what's currently known about the Nina Project.
The Nina Project History Explained
Project MKUltra tested using sensory deprivation to try to reprogram people and turn them into Manchurian Candidate sleeper agents, but these experiments were far from successful. Dr. Martin Brenner appears to have taken this one step further, however, coming up with the idea of using sensory deprivation as a tool to process trauma. This is an actual therapeutic tool used in the modern world, particularly with people who suffer from PTSD. It's been given a new twist, however, with the addition of screens around the tank displaying security footage from Hawkins Lab. Brenner uses this footage to control Eleven's memories, confronting her with footage from a particular day and then encouraging her to close her eyes and process the repressed memories. A basic EEG helmet is placed around Eleven's head to allow Brenner to understand how her mind is working.
Many of Dr. Brenner's experiments at Hawkins Lab were in themselves traumatizing, but in the case of the Nina Project, he appears to have dedicated himself to something that has the potential to help trauma patients. The brain represses memories it cannot process in the short term, protecting a person from the emotional pain of reliving certain experiences, but in the longer-term repressed memories can be debilitating. It is important for Eleven to deal with these memories in Stranger Things season 4 - not just to regain her powers, but also to grow as a person.
How Eleven Gets Her Powers Back In Stranger Things 4
According to Owens, the sole goal of the Nina Project is to find a way to restore Eleven's powers. Stranger Things season 4 sees Dr. Brenner suggest Eleven has lost her powers in a similar way some people who suffered a stroke experience changed character, loss of abilities impaired speech. He believes the key to restoring Eleven is by forcing her to re-experience her suppressed memory, allowing her to go through the experiences that unlocked her full potential in the first place. This culminates in Stranger Things season 4, episode 7, in which Eleven re the true story behind the opening of the Hawkins Gate - her battle with One.
It's interesting to note Dr. Brenner's Nina Project is an extension of the sensory deprivation tank he used at Hawkins Lab. Repressed memories can best be retrieved when the brain is in a similar state to the one where they were formed, and thus the sensory deprivation tank is in itself a direct link between Eleven's origin story. Given this is the case, it's not surprising the technique works, helping Eleven confront her inner demons.
Is The Nina Project Time Travel?
Eleven - and, through Eleven, viewers - experience the Nina Project as though it is almost a form of time travel. That is particularly true in Stranger Things season 4, episode 7, in which Eleven's memories of One overlap with Vecna telling Nancy Wheeler the truth about his origins. In narrative , this is a smart approach; it allows the Duffer Brothers to deliver an extended infodump that still feels like "show, not tell." The sense of time travel is compounded by the fact Vecna is speaking to Nancy in the Upside-Down, where time appears to flow differently and to be locked in 1983 - the year Eleven opened the Gate. But, of course, in reality the Nina Project is not time travel at all; it is simply a window into Eleven's repressed memories, experiences so traumatic her mind has concealed them from her in an act of self-defense. Dr. Brenner is probably right to believe Eleven must confront these memories to regain her powers in Stranger Things season 4.