If you're at all interested in psychic spies, real life Jedi Knights, or men who can stare goats to death, then this book is for you. The author, Jon Ronson, a columnist for the Guardian, swears that everything in this book although secret, is true. In a nutshell, this book is about an army Lieutenant Colonel who became disillusioned with war and killing during Nam'. He felt that there had to be a better and more humane way to fight. So, he set off on a journey, which was fully paid for by the US Military, to figure it out. His journey led him to California where he studied with the new age Gurus and Monks. He learned about auras and alternative forms of healing and fighting. At the end of his journey, he compiled all that he had learned and created the First Earth Batallion Manual.
The book also talks about the various influences that this manual has had on individuals and events such as the tracking of General Manuel Noriega, The Branch Dividians and Waco Texas standoff, events surrounding Hale Bopp Comet, Guantanamo Bay, and even Abu'Graib.
But perhaps my favorite part of this book are Ronson's interviews, especially the ones with the psychic spies. In one interview with a psychic spy named Glenn Wheaton, Ronson is following a lead, trying to find a mysterious person named Ron, who supposedly has started to re-activate the psychic spies after the events of 9/11. Here is part of that interview:
Glenn was a big man with a tight crop of red hair and a Vietnam vet-style handlebar mustache. My plan was to ask Glenn about his psychic spying days and then try to broach the subject of Ron, but from the moment I sat down, our conversation veered off in a wholly unexpected direction.
Glenn leaned forward in his chair. "You've gone from the front door to the back door. How many chairs are in my house?:
There was a silence.
"Your probably can't tell me how many chairs are in my house," said Glenn
I started to look around.
"A supersoldier wouldn't need to look," he said. "He would just know."
"A supersoldier?" I asked.
"A supersoldier," said Glenn. "A Jedi Warrior. He would know where all the lights are. Most people are poor observers. They haven't got a clue about what's really happening around them."
"Whats a Jedi Warrior?" I asked.
"You're looking at one," said Glenn.
In the mid-1980s, he told me, Special Forces undertook a secret initiative, codenamed Project Jedi, to create supersoldiers--soldiers with superpowers. One such power was the ability to walk into a room and instantly be aware of every detail; that was level one.
"What was the level above that?" I asked.
"Level two," he said. "Intuition. Is there some way we can develop you so you make correct decisions? Somebody runs up and says, 'There's a fork in the road. Do we turn left or do we turn right?' And you go"--Glenn snapped his fingers--"'We go right!'"
"What was the level above that?" I asked.
"Invisibility," said Glenn.
"Actual invisibility?" I asked.
"At first," said Glenn. "But after a while we adapted it to just finding a way of not being seen."
"In what way?" I asked.
"By understanding the linkage between observation and reality, you learn to dance with invisibility," said Glenn. "If you're not observed, you are invisible. You only exist if someone sees you."
"So, like camouflage?" I asked.
"No," sighed Glenn.
"How good are you at invisibility?" I asked.
"Well," said Glenn, "I've got red hair and blue eyes, so people tend to remember me. But I get by. I'm alive today."
"What was the level above invisibilty?" I asked.
"Uh," said Glenn. He paused a moment. Then he said, "We had a master sergeant who could stop the heart of a goat."
There was silence. Glenn raised an eyebrow.
"Just by..." I said.
"Just by wanting the goat's heart to stop." Said Glenn.
"That's quite a leap," I said.
Right," said Glenn.
"And did he make the goat's heart stop?" I asked.
"He did it at least once," he said.
After this interview, Ronson goes on to learn about Goat Lab, which is a secret lab out at Fort Bragg where they actually tried to train soldgiers to stare goats to death.
Enjoy.
6 comments:
That sounds really funny. What's the genre? Is it like a book-length piece of journalism? Is it farce? Is it a work of fiction calling itself non-fiction for literary effect? Or does it defy common genre definitions?
Yes, it is a book-length piece of journalism. He interviews real people who are still in the army and who have since retired. I think that the book really focuses on the First Earth Batallion Manual (which you can goole and actually see). He talks about its origins and influences. It really started out as something that although strange, had good intentions. Ronson finds that the Military has taken the ideas taught in the manual and used them over the years for what some would consider evil. It is very interesting and very funny.
I have heard an interview with the author, Jon Ronson, and he is a very funny guy. I've looked him up on the internet and it appears that he is facinated with this type of thing. I got his other book for Christmas from Allison. It is called Them: Adventures With Extremists. In this book he interviews extremists from Terrorist groups, the KKK, different religious and political fantatics from Ireland and so on. Through these interviews he finds that one of the things that all of these people from different gourps have in common is that they all believe that there is a secret group of elites who meet on a regular basis and discuss how to rule the world. Very funny and interesting stuff.
Sounds like an interesting premise. It sounds like it is right up Ian's alley.
sounds really wacky. Cool that it's actual journalism.
There is no spoon. Neo would have stopped a thousand goat hearts.
Personally, I have felt invisible, usually until people see me.
I don't have much insight on this topic, but I wonder why they train on goats and not something useful. For example, in war we kill other humans, so unless we think that an extermination of goats will end a war, they should practice on humans, preferably detainees from guantanamo bay.
speaking of spoons judd, go to YouTube and type in Uri Geller. There are videos of him on there bending spoons and keys with the power of his mind. Its amazing.
Post a Comment