In 1979 a secret unit is set up in the US Army to research the possibility of using psychic abilities. Ronson follows the clues across American following many of the people involved and being told a lot of stories, some of which were quite far-fetched. Amusing in a kind of scattered way, there is no attempt to understand the information but to document his travels through the strange world of psychic research and spies. ( )

The Men Who Stare at Goats was not the book I expected it to be. It's billed as a humorous look at research into parapsychology and remote viewing by Army intelligence, and for the first half, it is. It turns out that after Vietnam, a few officers influenced by the human potential and New Age movements in California attempted to bring these ideas into the Army - resulting in the creation of the "First Earth Battalion" manual, a description of a new army where opponents are psychically manipulated into surrender and no weapons are needed. Some results - a general that repeatedly tries and repeatedly fails to walk through walls, remote viewers spying on the Loch Ness Monster, and the attempt to create real Jedi warriors that can kill goats by staring at them.

But just like Star Wars, there's a dark side to the Force. About halfway through the book, Ronson digs into the movement away from peaceful research into things like acoustic weaponry used to break prisoners and shows how these ideas were implemented in the Noriega arrest, Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo Bay. This is not funny stuff. The Psychological Operations folks treated these situations as laboratories to put into actual experiment all the wild ideas they've been thinking about all these years - leading to the abuses we've been reading about in the papers over the years. The Men Who Stare at Goats is a good book, make no mistake. It's just not quite what it's advertised to be. ( )

I enjoyed this book but it didn't make me laugh as much as I had expected. I suppose I am glad that maybe the government is looking "outside the box" for solutions to things. But I also find it a bit disturbing too. I suppose I will still see the movie since it looked funny... ( )

I can see how this book provided material for an amusing film, but I was very disappointed in the book itself. I read it because my son said the film was funny, so I wanted to read the book before watching the film, which I still intend doing. The book, however, is no more than a string of magazine article level chapters full of hearsay and conjecture.

No structure to the book and no evidence of rigour. It presented a collection of stories about the US military's attempts to use paranormal and psychic weapons/tools. At times it seemed to confuse psychic and psychological.

Not a book I would recommend people waste time reading. Just go and watch the film. (I may, of course, change my mind about watching the film after I've seen it.) ( )

I have one word for this book......WOW!

Not only does this book provide a head scratching look into some of the US government’s odd tactics, it also connects some of the most seemingly unrelated events in our history.

Take the following events as a for instance: Heaven's Gate mass suicide, Waco TX, David Koresh and the Davidians, one of the terrorists who piloted a plane on 911, Private Lynndie England, and don't forget the goats! If you haven't heard of these events, be sure to Google them as a point of reference. It is amazing when multiple events which apparently have no relevance to one another come together so like a puzzle. It’s almost like reading a mystery novel with plot lines which seem irrelevant to one another until the final climax.

This story was interesting, funny and bizarre all at the same time. I’ll never look at a goat the same way again, especially if it has been debleated. I just wonder how much of it is actually true. ( )