Men Who Stare at Goats and Toward a Mystical Military

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.

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.