The Men who stare at goats
Jon Ronson - The Men who stare at goats
Now, this is the non-fiction book the movie of the same name is based (where all the real-life nonsense was apparently taken somewhat seriously).
So, it seems that there are people in Pentagon who seriously believe in new-age ”mind over matter”-things. Like walking through walls if you believe in it strong enough. The name of the book comes from training of soldiers that try to kill goats through share willpower.
Image of people who have no idea what they are actually doing - or getting desperate because ”traditional” methods do not work and trying out the outre ones. One part depicts people claiming chi-based powers straigth out of martial arts movies. Ronson also refers to real-life experiments of clairvoyance (I actually have read the book he used as a reference about ”remote viewing” about Ingo Swan and others drawing blurred images and interpreting them as Cold War military targets).
One part is about Pentagon using music - including that of thrice god-forsaken Barney the Dinosaur - as a form of ”interrogation” (read ”torture”). Well, media being what it is, it makes sense they’d try to concentrate on the ridiculous aspects.
Note that USA is not the only country trying to use parapsychology - there have been books about Soviet ”psychics” as well. And at least the Serbian side of the Yugoslavian Civil War dabbled on ”psychic warfare”.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/3838.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Now, this is the non-fiction book the movie of the same name is based (where all the real-life nonsense was apparently taken somewhat seriously).
So, it seems that there are people in Pentagon who seriously believe in new-age ”mind over matter”-things. Like walking through walls if you believe in it strong enough. The name of the book comes from training of soldiers that try to kill goats through share willpower.
Image of people who have no idea what they are actually doing - or getting desperate because ”traditional” methods do not work and trying out the outre ones. One part depicts people claiming chi-based powers straigth out of martial arts movies. Ronson also refers to real-life experiments of clairvoyance (I actually have read the book he used as a reference about ”remote viewing” about Ingo Swan and others drawing blurred images and interpreting them as Cold War military targets).
One part is about Pentagon using music - including that of thrice god-forsaken Barney the Dinosaur - as a form of ”interrogation” (read ”torture”). Well, media being what it is, it makes sense they’d try to concentrate on the ridiculous aspects.
Note that USA is not the only country trying to use parapsychology - there have been books about Soviet ”psychics” as well. And at least the Serbian side of the Yugoslavian Civil War dabbled on ”psychic warfare”.
This entry was originally posted at http://elfbiter.dreamwidth.org/3838.html. Please comment there using OpenID.