the men who stare at goats

goats, originally uploaded by John Barleycorn.

The Men Who Stare at Goats is a great, funny and very frightening book. It reminds me a bit of both the work of Hunter S. Thompson and the Illuminatus! Trilogy. The journalist Jon Ronson takes a close look at Jim Channon, Uri Geller and many others who were involved in the secret New Age projects within the US Army called the First Earth Battalion and Project Jedi. It's just as crazy as it sounds. In 1979 a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying both military practice and the laws of physics, they believed a soldier could become invisible, pass through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Ronson has traced the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past three decades. It seems like the ideas behind the First Earth Battalion and Project Jedi are still being used by the army but in a very twisted way. As one of the interviewed persons say - it's the dark side of the force that is being used in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the global war on terrorism. Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune of Barney the Purple Dinosaur and songs from Sesame Street? This fantastic book actually tries to give you an answer. It also tells the dark stories of Frank Olsen, the Heavens Gate and the siege at Waco. Everything is connected - the truth is out there!