Man Who Stared at Goats Explains ‘Earth Army’
It seems too ludicrous to be real: a U.S. Army unit that sought to acquire and refine Jedi-like powers, and trained by attempting to kill goats through mind power alone. But the movie ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’, starring George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey, is based on actual events and people.
One of those people is retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Jim Channon, who was the brains behind the loopy 1st Earth Battalion.
From Sign On San Diego:
Channon, who is loosely portrayed by a Dudelike Bridges, embarked on a two-year government-funded fact-finding mission that included naked hot tub encounters and yoga retreats so he could write a military manual in 1978 to help Army “Jedi” soldiers reach a higher spiritual plane. He envisioned a more Zenlike approach to combat, with troops wearing ginseng-equipped uniforms, offering symbolic flowers, cradling baby lambs in hostile territory and greeting enemies with “sparkly eyes.”
“If the ideas were instituted and they worked, we would be a far better world,” Heslov says. “Do I believe it could happen? Probably not. But I’ve got to give the military credit.”
Channon now lives on an “eco-homestead” in Hawaii and describes himself as a “global elder” and “mystic landcrafter” still pursuing creative ways to bring world peace. In a video posted on his Web site, firstearthbattalion.org, he takes the movie’s humor with a grain of salt and asserts that his out-of-the-box thinking for his “mythical battalion” wasn’t absurd.
“If soldiers are telepathic during a firefight, that would be very useful,” Channon explains at one point. He ends the video with his trademark “Go Planet!”
The movie definitely takes liberties with the story – director Grant Heslov figures about 65% is lifted from Jon Ronson’s non-fiction book of the same name – but fear not, Jim Channon is here to tell you the real story. His website contains all kinds of information about the 1st Earth Battalion, and he explains some of it below:
Read more at Sign On San Diego.
Link Sign On San Diego
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Consciousness, Green Living, Health, Science, Spirituality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
