Wow! This was a heady stew of strange facts and speculation that was impossible to put down. I don't know why I hadn't read it before, Jon Ronson's Them: Adventures With Extremists is one of my favorite books to read and re-read, and this one was as interesting, if even more disturbing.
A look into how some very New Age-y theories combined with some pretty insane generals has led to some of the clusterf*ck bizarro spectacles that have astounded and horrified the world, the book kept making me jump.
From 1970's gurus to Gitmo, the arc of progression of some of the ideas about how to influence people was really sad, actually- people who were thinking about using music, for example, to send messages subliminally had their research co-opted into military uses for interrogation. The goat staring is so bizarre that it seems laughable- but it is true that the US Army had a group of soldiers who spent a few years trying to be psychic and trying to stare goats to death.
A wonderful, bizarre read.
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