'Simultaneously frightening and hilarious' - The Times The Men Who Stare at Goats reveals the extraordinary - and completely nutty - national secrets at the core of Bush's government. Often funny, sometimes chilling and with first-hand access to the leading players, Jon Ronson's Sunday Times bestseller is a story so unbelievable it has to be true. In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed ...
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'Simultaneously frightening and hilarious' - The Times The Men Who Stare at Goats reveals the extraordinary - and completely nutty - national secrets at the core of Bush's government. Often funny, sometimes chilling and with first-hand access to the leading players, Jon Ronson's Sunday Times bestseller is a story so unbelievable it has to be true. In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, in the early 2000s, they're back and fighting George W. Bush's War on Terror. But why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to the Barney the Purple Dinosaur show? Why have one hundred de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? And how was the US military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego? Now a feature film starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.
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Imagine a colonel in the United States Army, spends his days sitting in his office trying to convince himself he can walk through walls. Three or four or ten times a day, he gets up from his chair and actually tries to do it. Bumps his nose every time. Sometimes he hurts himself.
You'd think they'd lock him up, right? Confine him to an institution before he sustains a serious injury. But no! The Army wants him to spend his days trying to walk through walls. They're hoping he'll succeed.
Outside the colonel's office, the men of his command spend their days in barrack rooms staring at goats. In each case, soldiers are to concentrate on killing the goat by stopping its heart with their mental powers! If looks could kill. . . .
The project hasn't had much success, even though they've spent millions on goat food and other necessities. The whole bunch of them were momentarily encouraged one day when a goat actually died while they were staring at it, but an autopsy showed it died from something other than lethal psychic power exerted by the G.I.s. Regardless, the project continues apace.
The whole idea is to develop a team of psychic warriors who can sneak into secret Russian facilities and steal Russian secrets without actually having to enter the building. One supposes that if the G.I.s could develop such powers they'd use them against the Chinese, too. Their success could inspire a holenuther business model for Chinese takeout joints.
Anyway, you see your tax dollars at work there. American G.I.s channeling Uri Geller. That kind of stuff. Jon Ronson has the story. It's in this little book: 'The Men Who Stare at Goats.' Read it and weep -- or laugh if you please.
Brie
Aug 28, 2007
The Army's Weird Side
The author takes an incredulous look at the strange world of U.S. Military paranormal research and activity and researches the origins of modern Army philosophies. The book is often entertaining, always informative, and a blast to read.
