Book synopsis The book's first five chapters examine the efforts of a handful of
U.S. Army officers in the late 1970s and early 1980s to exploit
paranormal phenomena,
New Age philosophy, and elements of the
human potential movement to enhance
U.S. military intelligence-gathering capabilities as well as overall operational effectiveness. These include the
First Earth Battalion Operations Manual (1979) and a "psychic spy unit" established by
Army Intelligence at
Fort Meade, Maryland, in the late 1970s. (This was the
Stargate Project, which the book never mentions by name.) Ronson is put on the historical trail of the "men who stare at goats"—
Special Forces soldiers who supposedly experimented with psychic powers against
de-bleated goats at
Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, at the now-decommissioned "Goat Lab" medical training facility. He examines, and dispenses with, several candidates for the legendary "
master sergeant" (Chapter 2) who was reported to have killed a goat simply by staring at it, in the earliest days of the program. A martial arts instructor named
Guy Savelli claims to be the master sergeant in question. In the middle third of the book (Chapters 6–11), the author leaps to the present day—i.e., 2004, just after the
Abu Ghraib abuse revelations—and attempts to make connections between the earlier (now terminated, and mostly discredited) military programs and the abuses resulting from the
post–9/11 war on terror (Abu Ghraib,
Guantanamo Bay,
psyops in Iraq, etc.). This includes the use of the children's song "I Love You" from
Barney & Friends on Iraqi
prisoners of war. A purported linking element is the alleged use of music and
subliminal messaging at the 1993
Waco siege and other
FBI operations. Another is the
private business "franchises" and consultancies that retired members of the "psychic unit" later pursued as civilians. A connection is also proposed between these "privatized" psychics and the
mass suicide of members of the
Heaven's Gate cult in 1997. The final section of the book (Chapters 13–16) leaps backward to the 1950s and attempts to connect the Army psychic program, and later interrogation techniques, with the
CIA's
MKUltra "mind control" research program and the notorious death of Army researcher
Frank Olson in 1953. Ronson spends time with Olson's son Eric as he attempts to uncover the mystery of his father's death. Eric suggests that Frank Olson was
murdered, not simply because he knew too much but, rather, that he was having a crisis of conscience and seriously entertaining the notion of
going public with all that he knew. The narrative ends with the suggestion that the "psychic warriors" are now back in business working for the U.S. military again, possibly in support of
assassinations.
Featured individuals Interviewed by Ronson • Glenn B. Wheaton, retired
U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant with
5th SFG;
psychic and
remote viewer; set Ronson on the trail of the "men who stare at goats" •
Albert Stubblebine, retired Army major general; career
military intelligence officer; proponent of psychic warfare,
levitation,
spoon bending and walking through walls •
Jim Channon, retired Army lieutenant colonel; author of the
First Earth Battalion Operations Manual; New Age
guru and consultant •
John B. Alexander, retired Army colonel; proponent of
non-lethal weapons and of military applications of the paranormal; introduced Channon's book to Stubblebine • Frederick Holmes "Skip" Atwater, retired Army lieutenant; Gen. Stubblebine's "psychic headhunter"; later president of the
Monroe Institute • James V. Hardt, research psychologist and expert on the
electrophysiological basis of spiritual states; assisted the "men who stare at goats" •
Steven Halpern,
new-age musician consulted by the Army on how to deploy music as a weapon or for mind control via
subliminal messages •
Guy Savelli,
martial artist and psychic; recruited to work with
U.S. Special Forces by Col. Alexander; purportedly "downed" a goat and killed a
hamster using only his mind • Pete Brusso, martial artist and psychic; inventor/marketer of a personal self-defense weapon ("the Predator"); Savelli's rival for U.S. military contract work •
Uri Geller,
spoon-bending Israeli celebrity psychic entertainer; self-described consultant to the U.S. military • Prof.
Courtney Brown,
Emory University political scientist and paranormal proponent; allegedly barred from the
Art Bell radio show after inspiring the
Heaven's Gate mass suicide • Prudence Calabrese, psychic who worked with Courtney Brown; also banned from the Art Bell radio show •
Christopher Cerf,
Sesame Street songwriter; song appropriated by U.S. Army
PSYOPs soldiers in Iraq •
Jamal al-Harith, Jamaican-British convert to
Islam; subjected to musical weirdness as
GTMO prisoner •
Edward ("Ed") A. Dames, retired Army major, intelligence officer and psychic; frequent guest on the Art Bell radio show; known as "Dr Doom" •
Joseph McMoneagle, retired Army
NCO and
chief warrant officer; intelligence officer and psychic; now runs a remote viewing business • Lyn Buchanan, retired Army intelligence NCO and psychic. • Eric Olson, son of
Frank Olson; lifelong activist to uncover cause of his father's mysterious death •
Bob Ricks, American law enforcement official; incident commander at 1993
Waco siege • Norman Cournoyer, Ft. Detrick colleague of Frank Olson; confirmed to Frank's son Eric that, in his view, his father's death was a CIA murder
Discussed in depth •
Michael Echanis, self-styled "
soldier of fortune" and psychic martial artist; "pin-up" icon for Special Forces groupies; died in a 1978 accident in Nicaragua • Gen.
Manuel Noriega, superstitious dictator of
Panama; exploited sorcery and witchcraft to wield power; nemesis of Gen. Stubblebine •
Art Bell, late-night radio host and proponent of all manner of paranormality and conspiracies; mentor to Ed Dames •
Tony Robbins, self-help guru and
firewalker; mentor to Gen. Stubblebine •
Frank Burns, retired Army colonel and Internet pioneer; purportedly coined (with Channon) the Army's '80s recruiting slogan "
Be All That You Can Be" •
Igor Smirnov, Russian psychiatrist; mind control and thought projection expert; consulted by FBI during the 1993
Waco siege •
Frank Olson, American
bacteriologist and Army
bio-weaponeer; died in 1953 in tragic CIA misadventure •
Sidney Gottlieb, American chemist and CIA spymaster; dosed Frank Olson with
LSD days before his death • "Dr. Bucha", U.S. Army scientist who, in the 1950s, investigated tactical uses of helicopter
flicker vertigo; may be an urban legend as no one knows his first name •
David Koresh, American leader of the
Branch Davidians religious sect; subjected to musical weirdness and finally killed during 1993 Waco siege ==Reception==