Goats

clipped from writersalmanac.publicradio.org

Filmmaker Jon Ronson [was] born in Cardiff, Wales (1967). He's also a journalist and the author of four books. Two were international best-sellers: Them: Adventures with Extremists (2001) and The Men Who Stare at Goats (2004).

The Men Who Stare at Goats is about a secret, idealistic New Age movement within the U.S. military, which began in the late 1970s. It's a non-fiction book. After the quagmire of Vietnam, Robson reports, high-ranking U.S. Army officials decided they needed to reassess the strategies used by American soldiers during warfare after Vietnam. They hired a consultant, a high-ranking retired military officer, who was familiar with the New Age/Human Potential Movement in California.

The consultant, Jim Channon, returned with a 125-page First Earth Battalion Operations Manual in 1979. It contained suggestions for training "warrior monks." It proposed that soldiers should be mostly vegetarian, practice meditation and yoga and primal screams, and use ginseng. They should carry into battle acupuncture kits, peace offerings like baby lambs, and audio speakers that would be used to play "indigenous music and words of peace" ahead of them. The book's title stems from Ronson's investigation of a former head of intelligence, Major General Stubblebine, who believed that with preparation and mindful channeling, people could kill goats by staring at them.

In the book, Ronson argues that this post-Vietnam secret New Age movement in the military evolved to influence the "psychological warfare" interrogation techniques used in the War on Terror. His book was made into a movie last year, starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor.