Archive for November 19th, 2009

 Taken from the powerful film, The Radicals, based on the true story of Michael and Margaretha Sattler, who defected from the Catholic church and who were martyred for their faith in Christ.

Carl Teichrib
from Kjos Ministries

Note: Some sections of this article were originally published a decade ago. However, because of a new movie [based on a true story] slatted for release this November, an updated version is being offered to Forcing Change readers.

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It’s a strange name for a movie: “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” and what makes this more remarkable is that it’s based on a “true story.” (see trailer)

Staring George Cloony, Ewan McGregor and Jeff Bridges, this flick – to be released in November 2009 – follows the bizarre story of a United States military program that attempted to employ psychic powers and occult techniques to gain an edge on the battlefield. Welcome to the “First Earth Battalion,” a New Age military concept initiated by Lt. Colonel Channon in the late 1970s.

I originally found out about the First Earth Battalion idea in the mid-1990s when I obtained a copy of its “field manual.” This book, like the program it was promoting, wasn’t in the normal military style; most of it was presented in the form of graphics, and the text promoted global citizenship, yoga, cosmic evolution, and self-godhood. It even offered a prayer to Mother Earth, and suggested that in the future this First Earth Battalion would be the foundation for an “Army of Light.”

But why the movie title, “Men Who Stare at Goats”? Apparently, participants in this occult-military program where supposed to take down enemies by projecting psychic powers. Training for this was apparently done on goats, and the warrior monks – the term used by these mind solders – would stare at goats in an attempt to kill them using mind power alone.

While all of this seems strange, even goofy (the trailer for the movie takes a comedy bent), the First Earth Battalion isn’t the only connection between occultism and the military community. Nor is the United States the only nation that has pursued spiritual/psychic links for battlefield supremacy – Russia, Germany, Great Britain, and other countries have flirted with occult/military programs. However, the US does have the largest and most proficient military in the world, and as a nation that has strong Christian roots, this occult partnering therefore needs some investigation. Click here to continue.

by Berit Kjos
Kjos Ministries

On September 17, 1995, I signed in at Mikhail Gorbachev’s well guarded State of the World Conference as an official [amateur] reporter. I wanted a first-hand glimpse of the global plans for the 21st Century. Those earlier signs helped build the foundation for today’s rapid change.

This was clearly a global event. The former head of the Soviet Union had gathered “nearly 500 senior states-people, political leaders, spiritual leaders, scientists, intellectuals, business executives, artists and youth from 50 nations to begin a process of deliberation on the central question of what priorities, values and actions should guide humanity as it moves into the next phase of development.” As Gorbachev announced,

“From the outset I would like to suggest that we consider the establishment of a global Brain Trust [forget representative government] to focus on the present and future of our civilization … this idea of a Brain Trust can only succeed if endorsed and actively pursued by people who are widely respected as world leaders and global citizens.”

The elite speakers and partners in this venture included the elder president George Bush, Carnegie Chairman David Hamburg, Ted Turner, Maurice Strong, the New Age chief of the UN’s 1992 environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, and Zbigniew Brzezinski, founder of the Trilateral Commission (with David Rockefeller), who became a foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama thirteen years later.

An elegant Baha’i singer in a flowing white gown set the spiritual tone with a prayer to her universal god: “O faithful One… O helping one… Source of all being…” The music was her own, she said — given by the unknowable, compassionate god of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and other spiritual avatars throughout time.

Her prayer-song fit the conference theme. As Mikhail Gorbachev observed during a dialogue on a new form of democracy,

“…there was no trace of the futile debate about what is better, capitalism or socialism…. We should seek a synthesis of ideas and values that have proven their viability…”

That synthesis abolishes all Biblical absolutes. Again and again, the Communist leader and his hand-picked “council of the wise” or “global brain trust” told the assembly of more than 1000 guests and participants that a new set of inclusive universal values must replace the Judeo-Christian world view. Familiar terms must be redefined to fit the new global perspective, while the old beliefs and political systems must be abandoned.

Like many other speakers, New Age author Dr. Deepak Chopra repeated the call for synthesis in his evening plenary speech. He challenged his friendly listeners with this question:

“Can you step out of the river of your own conditioning…? For only then is there an opportunity to create… a new world. We cannot do it the way we have done it in the past. It is time to change the whole paradigm through which we view physical reality.”

Apparently, these esteemed visionaries had already made that paradigm shift. The conference left little doubt that the chosen speakers and enthusiastic audience viewed reality from a decidedly evolutionary/universalist perspective — the kind that popular author Dan Brown promoted through his latest book on the philosophy behind Freemasonry and the mystical Noetic Sciences. Click here  to continue reading and for links and citations.