The Men Who Stare At: Goats !link!

Troops would wear "sparkly eyes" to project peace.

Investigative journalist Jon Ronson’s book, , details his journey through the strange subculture of military intelligence. Ronson tracked down figures like General Albert Stubblebine III, who famously believed he could walk through walls, and investigated how these "First Earth Battalion" ideas eventually influenced darker military practices, including the use of psychological "PsyOps".

A deeper dive into the specific remote viewing experiments conducted by the US Army?

, a Vietnam vet who spent his leave in the late '70s studying the New Age movement. He returned to write the , a real document that proposed soldiers should carry baby lambs into battle to give the enemy "an automatic hug" and use "sparkly eyes" to promote peace. 2. Can You Actually Kill a Goat by Staring? The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

He draws a disquieting line from the "Warrior Monk" philosophy of non-violence to the psychological operations—or psyops —used at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. The "positive energy" techniques intended for the First Earth Battalion, Ronson argues, were twisted into weapons of disorientation and torture. He recounts how the U.S. military used the theme song from the children’s television show Barney , played on a loop for hours, and blasted heavy metal music and Fleetwood Mac CD's to break the will of prisoners. The notion of using discordant sounds as a weapon, once a goofy idea in a manual filled with sparkly eyes and hugs, had become a real-world tool of psychological warfare. The Men Who Stare At Goats

(or R) for violence, foul language, and drug use (notably the use of LSD in military experiments). Prime Video The Original Book (2004)

According to intelligence insiders interviewed by Ronson, a few soldiers—most notably a Special Forces veteran named Michael Echanis —allegedly succeeded in killing a goat using nothing but a concentrated glare. While skeptics argue the goats may have suffered from natural cardiac issues or were prone to "fainting" (a trait common to specific breeds), the legend of the psychic goat-slayers became institutional lore. 3. Jon Ronson’s Journalistic Breakthrough The Men Who Stare At Goats | The Ted K Archive

1. The Origin: The New Earth Army and "First Earth Battalion"

Channon traveled the country, immersing himself in the human potential movement at places like the Esalen Institute. He brought these concepts back to high-ranking military officials, many of whom were desperate for innovative strategies to counter asymmetric warfare threats. Staring at Goats: The Fort Bragg Experiments Troops would wear "sparkly eyes" to project peace

Savelli claimed he did it. He said the goat stiffened, its eyes glazed over, and the monitors flatlined. Then, a medic rushed in to revive the animal.

Ultimately, Ronson's work illustrates that the true madness was not just in the staring at the goats, but in the belief that such methods were a viable replacement for traditional intelligence and human ethics.

So, what about the goat?

The manual was a vibrant, borderline psychedelic mix of graphs, drawings, and manifestos. Instead of standard camouflage, Channon envisioned uniforms with pouches for ginseng regulators and loudspeakers that would automatically emit "indigenous music and words of peace" into hostile territory. Instead of killing the enemy, the soldiers of the First Earth Battalion—or "Warrior Monks"—were trained to greet people with "sparkly eyes" and give them "automatic hugs." They would carry symbolic animals like baby lambs and use "psycho-electric" guns that directed positive energy into crowds. A deeper dive into the specific remote viewing

Loudspeakers would blast indigenous music and words of peace to neutralize enemy combatants without spilling blood.

Shockingly, some of their results were eerily accurate. McMoneagle once described a secret submarine base on the coast of Russia that the CIA had not yet discovered. When satellites checked the location, McMoneagle’s sketch was correct.

The story begins in the late 1970s, during the twilight of the Cold War. Following the trauma of the Vietnam War and fueled by paranoia that the Soviet Union was successfully researching "psychotronic" warfare, the U.S. military decided to launch its own unconventional experiments.