military officers fail to kill a hamster with their mind, fail to make a cloud disappear, and hears how the person reputed to have killed a goat with his mind did not, in fact, do such a thing. At one point he hears that he is now on the Department of Homeland Security's list of suspected Al Qaeda associates, because he's going around asking so many questions. This gives us an explanation of the title of the book.įrom chapter to chapter, Ronson follows the trail of psychic projects, or ones which involve other topics that (if they came from anywhere except the military) sound somewhat New-Agey.
And, at least sometimes, Special Forces soldiers who are attempting psychic training try to kill them with their mind. However, most guys like dogs, and it is apparently less common to bond with a goat, so now it's goats. It was originally filled with dogs, and they would be shot in the leg, and the soldier would have to patch up the wound (to practice field dressing of serious wounds). There is, supposedly, a building in Fort Bragg which contains a large number of goats. Their program involved, among other things, trying to kill with mental powers. It was, sadly, because they had already begun their own psychic training program, and were annoyed at an outsider coming in to try to start one. As you might imagine, his idea was not warmly received.īut, contrary to what we might have hoped, this was not because they had disdain for spending our tax dollars on psychic training. In his most recent book, he begins with Major General Stubblebine, who in 1984 went to Fort Bragg to convince Special Forces commanders to try to train their men to walk through walls, levitate, and otherwise employ psychic powers to gain an advantage in the Cold War. Those types can do that all by themselves. It's a rare writer who can, as a Jew writing an article on the head of the American KKK, remain unbiased in his reporting, confident that there's no need for snide asides or pointing out to his readers how messed up the fellow's world-view is. However, regardless of how abhorrent or just plain loony his subject, he remains objective, giving them the same benefit of the doubt he would with any other (saner) subject. Ronson's master technique is the "give 'em enough rope and they'll hang themselves" interview. I'm Jewish, why am I not in on this? I'll tag along and see if they can show me." Some of you may have put up with me raving about Ronson's earlier book, "Them: Adventures with Extremists", in which he basically said, "hey, all these conspiracy theorists say that a cabal of Jews are running the world. So, I recently finished "The Men Who Stare At Goats", by Jon Ronson (no, it's not Ron Johnson, it's Jon Ronson).
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