When 'The X-Files' met the Army

The Pentagon's experiments with the paranormal

April 17, 2005

The Men Who Stare at Goats
By Jon Ronson
Simon & Schuster, 259 pp., illustrated, $24

We know about the use of dogs and sexual humiliation to break down prisoners at Abu Ghraib but haven't read much about the use of subliminal sounds. Count on Jon Ronson, the talented British journalist, to address this oversight. Journalists who wade into the world of conspiracy theory open themselves up to ridicule for even dignifying weirdos with time and attention. Ronson, however, is making a name for himself by doing exactly that. Critics hailed the humor and unnerving insight of his 2001 book, ''Them: Adventures With Extremists," in which he details his time hanging out with racists, religious fundamentalists, and crazed conspiracists. In his latest work, ''The Men Who Stare at Goats," Ronson tracks down a number of current and former military officials who believe in telepathy, subliminal sounds, and psychic power, and he delivers a hilarious and unsettling book.

''Quite often journalists think that it's all down to facts," said Ronson in a recent interview. ''But I think it's all down to people. If you can work out why people behave the way they do, you can get to the bottom of the story." Indeed, ''The Men Who Stare at Goats" is driven by a cast of strange individuals whose ideas are in some way traced back to a Vietnam veteran named Jim Channon.

In 1977, Channon convinced the Pentagon to fund his research into ways the Army could be more ''cunning." His fact-finding mission led him to California, where he immersed himself in new age music and spirituality. Two years later, Channon delivered to high-ranking military officials his First Earth Battalion Operations Manual, a report of his findings motivated by the idea that ''the U.S. Army doesn't really have any serious alternative than to be wonderful."

The report envisioned the US Warrior Monk, a soldier whose weapons of first resort would not be M16 rifles or Abrams tanks, but sparkly eyes, a powerful mind, symbolic animals (baby lambs), hugs, and -- if things got nasty -- nonlethal weapons that could direct positive energy into hostile crowds, or loudspeakers blaring ''discordant sounds."

Channon's superiors could have easily dismissed the report as hogwash. But the new age spirituality actually struck a chord with the brass, who were emotionally devastated by Vietnam, so they created the First Earth Battalion. Channon's principles trickled through the services and even contributed -- through ramblings about lifting soldiers to a higher spiritual realm -- the Army slogan ''Be All You Can Be."