The story of The Men Who Stare at Goats has had a lasting impact on modern warfare. While the use of psychic powers in the military is still a topic of debate, the idea of using unconventional tactics to gain an advantage on the battlefield has become more widely accepted.
The U.S. military has continued to explore the use of unorthodox tactics, including the use of psychic powers, in various forms. While the effectiveness of these tactics is still a matter of debate, the story of The Men Who Stare at Goats remains a fascinating example of the lengths to which the military will go to gain an advantage.
One of the most famous stories associated with The Men Who Stare at Goats is the "goat experiment." According to accounts, the soldiers were tasked with killing a goat using only their minds. The goal was to demonstrate the power of the human mind and to show that, with the right training, individuals could accomplish extraordinary feats. The Men Who Stare At Goats
The experiment involved a group of soldiers who were instructed to stare at a goat and, using their psychic powers, kill the animal. The story goes that one of the soldiers, Jim Henson (not the famous puppeteer), successfully killed the goat using only his mind.
In the pantheon of bizarre military history, few chapters are as simultaneously hilarious and deeply unsettling as the one chronicled in Jon Ronson’s 2004 book, The Men Who Stare at Goats. For most people, the title conjures the image of Ewan McGregor and George Clooney in the 2009 Coen-brothers-esque comedy: a rag-tag group of Jedi warriors in desert fatigues trying to kill a goat with their minds. The story of The Men Who Stare at
But as Ronson famously discovered, the truth is funnier than fiction—and far more disturbing. Beneath the punchline about psychic spies lies a true story of $20 million squandered on New Age mysticism, a Lieutenant Colonel who believed he could walk through walls, and a secret unit so delusional that it inadvertently paved the way for the torture scandals at Abu Ghraib.
This is the story of the First Earth Battalion. military has continued to explore the use of
By the mid-1980s, the house of cards began to fall. Albert Stubblebine was forced into early retirement after he was passed over for promotion. The Pentagon brass, having recovered from its brief New Age fever, decided that meditating generals were not a good look.
The First Earth Battalion was officially disbanded. The goat lab was shuttered. The soldiers went back to reading maps and shooting rifles.
But the men didn't disappear. They drifted into the private sector, becoming motivational speakers, energy healers, and self-help gurus. They took their military bearing and their psychic confidence and sold it to corporations.