PLN 26

The book The Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson, that was rescently made into a movie, matters today because it gives an insight into the secret workings of the American military from the 1970's to the present. The story is about a reporter, Jon Ronson, who travels the country researching a former U.S. military program to create super soldiers. These soldiers were hand selected from the ranks of the U.S. Special Forces. They were trained by many people who where masters, gurus and scientists involved with the new age movement. The goal of these "Jedi warriors" was to reach a state of ultimate tranquility, a state of mind where levitation, walking through walls, bending metal, and psychic spying can be achieved. The most powerful of these Jedi, were said to be able to stare at a goat and stop or burst its heart, just by using their minds; thus the title of the book is The Men Who Stare at Goats. The whole story is about Jon interviewing people involved with "goat lab" in an attempt to find out if it really existed, and if the U.S. military had really achieved supernatural powers. This book, is not a fiction book, it is based on a true story. That is why this book matters in the world today. If the U.S. military really did have psychic spies, then they would be able to find where Bin Laden is, they would be able to spy on people right here in America, violating our amendment rights. Obviously this is a very scary topic because "nobody would want to mess with an army that could do that."(walk through walls and kill things with their minds). According to the book the ideas came from Vietnam veterans, who did not want future soldiers to have to go through the same perils they did, so they devised the First Earth Battalion, or a unit of super soldiers. If these soldiers really did exist, they did not accomplish their goals, because if they had, they would still be around today. If this unit had existed, it was not very practical, because in the accounts told in the book, it took at the least two days for a Jedi to stare the goat to death, in that amount of time on the battle field, they would be dead. This story is still shrouded in mystery, and I personally want to believe that the army really did achieve these powers, because that would be really cool. If they did have people capable of the supernatural, I am willing to bet that we would never know the truth about it, unless we were there. So now I ask you, what do you think happened? Most likely, we will never know.