British journalist (Them, 2001) and documentary filmmaker Ronson
digs into the various psychic operations of the U.S. armed forces,
from their origins in Vietnam to their uses today. In 1979,
Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon created the First Earth Battalion
Operations Manual, expressing the visionary position that soldiers
of the future would, among other things, "fall in love with
everyone, . . . bend metal with their minds, walk on fire, [and]
calculate faster than a computer." The Army, eager for a new kind
of fighter, bought into it, and Ronson now traces the circuitous
routes of men who have since attempted to bring the super-soldier
into being. The writer's sources are a mix of ranking military men
and fringe characters attracted by the idea of psychic doings.
Former U.S. Army Chief of Intelligence, Major General Albert
Stubblebine III, who held his post in the early '80s, recalls his
frustrated efforts to get the Special Forces to adopt Channon's
strategies; Special Forces reps failed to disclose that they
already had their own psychic division up and running.
Stubblebine's protege in things psychic, Major Ed Dames, has long
been a public face of PSYOPS (psychic operations), principally
through his appearances on the same syndicated radio program whose
reporting on the Hale-Bopp comet prompted the Heaven's Gate cult
members to kill themselves in the hopes of catching a ride. In his
quest into the realms of the weird, Ronson has turned up any number
of eerily credible tales: just for starters, there's murder by the
CIA; current torture schemes in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay (some
involve playing Fleetwood Mac in prisoners' cells), and a man who
claims to be able to stop a hamster's heart by staring at it. Very
funny, and packed with oddities. If Ronson doesn't manage to expose
this official hall of mirrors entirely, he still makes an admirable
effort, entertaining and alarming in equal parts. (Kirkus Reviews)
American military paranoia at its most extreme, insane, amusing --
and alarming Why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the
theme tune to Barney the Purple Dinosaur? And why have 100
de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces
command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? 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. With
first-hand access to the leading players in the story, Ronson has
traced the evolution of these bizarre activities over the past
three decades, and poses questions no-one else has yet dared to ask
about which of them -- and more -- are happening still.
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