The 1970s were a very explorative decade. It followed on the heels of arguably the most transformative decade for thought, action, and belief. So, it is not a stretch to say that some weird stuff happened in the 1970s. Starting then and continuing, the US Army, in an effort to develop better soldiers, experimented with the vast potential of the human brain. 

An officer named Jim Channon, who served in the Army from 1962 to 1982, conceptualized a new type of warrior that would develop and use psychic abilities for battles of the future. Lieutenant Colonel Channon was assigned as the commander of the First Earth Battalion and adopted the term “warrior monk” for his soldiers. He also wrote a manual called Evolutionary Tactics that emphasized a positive, holistic view of the Earth and mankind’s interactions upon it. 

According to recent interviews with some of the soldiers involved in these paranormal programs, there actually was a lab with goats located at Fort Bragg, NC. According to some of the same men, there was at least one instance in which an Army Master Sergeant killed a goat simply by staring at it.

Remote viewing was another paranormal effort by the US Army during these years. The main purpose of remote viewing was to acquire intelligence on America’s cold war enemy, Russia. In one alleged case, Army remote viewers saw a Russian Typhoon-class submarine that had not yet been discovered by US intelligence agencies before. The remote viewers claimed the ship’s existence, and it was later discovered that their claims were accurate.

British-American journalist Jon Ronson wrote the book The Men Who Stare at Goats, which was published in 2004. In 2009, the film by the same name starring George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges, and Ewan McGregor was released, giving audiences a satirical, modern look at the paranormal work performed by the First Earth Battalion and the US Army.

It is true that many people doubt the supposed abilities of psychics, remote viewers, and such. For sure, it is hard to believe. Most of us do not have psychic abilities, and fictional entertainment mediums have only strengthened our dogmatic views against such ideas. Still, there is a glimmer of interest in all of us. If only we could have seen that goat keel over dead from nothing other than the honed stare of a warrior. Maybe then we would believe.