I don't know which part of the book worries me most. The claim that the Army may use a serial rapist capable of becoming invisible for secret missions. Or the claim that the Army had a major general so convinced that he could walk through walls that tried, and failed, repeatedly to do so. I know which one I find more believable.
There is another person mentioned in Ronson's book named Guy Savelli, who actually laid claim to the "death stare" ability that the title of the film is derived from. He is a martial arts instructor in Ohio, who claims to have been trained by an Indonesian master.
As a prospective student once long ago, Savelli showed me video of Special Forces soldiers using his techniques and documentation carried out by a UNC researcher of the effects of his "death stare" on the goats who were used by SF medics for training. All I seem to remember is that Savelli was proud in the changes of the heart rates in the goats (as documented) and he never claimed to have brought one down.
There was also quite a bit of documentation showing Savelli's relationship with Colonel Nick Rowe, former POW and founder of the SF's SERE school. (Rowe was murdered in the Philippines in 1989). According to Savelli, Rowe somehow found him and was so impressed with Savelli's brand of martial arts (according to Savelli, his martial arts techniques were the closest thing that Rowe had seen to what his Vietnamese captors had practiced) that he brought him down to Fort Bragg to train SF personnel.
There were several members of the local Ohio Special Forces Association (Chapter 45 The Smoking Gun, if I recall) who used to take classes with Savelli. There were plenty of photos around his studio of Savelli at Ft. Bragg showing SF people his technique....and video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zKGx-HWIvU
A SF Vietnam vet once told me that Savelli had inflated his claims about his connections with the SF Community and the SERE school. The Special Forces eventually gave Savelli a "request" to cease and desist promoting himself in that manner.
Last edited by Corto; 11-03-2009 at 10:57 AM.
So staring at a goat, in a intense fashion, can distress the goat to the degree where it's heart rate increases? I think I can do that.Originally Posted by Corto
Alternatively, if the heart rate decreases perhaps the goat was merely getting bored!!
Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"
- The job of the British Army out here is to kill or capture Communist Terrorists in Malaya.
- If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
Sir Gerald Templer, foreword to the "Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya," 1958 Edition
The BBC documentary on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RraL...layer_embedded
That's the first ten minutes of episode one. You'll find the remander linked on the right side of the page if you'd like to see the whole think, including intervieweds with some of the folks mentioned above.
A Bush-bashing angle in the documentary, does that appear in the book, too? Always good for a few more sales/viewers back in 2004-2008.
Hopefully Clooney & Co stick with the humor angle per the tralers.
Speaking of trailers, here's Green Zone, the Hollywood version of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, coming soon to a theater near you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F20ov...layer_embedded
(apologiez for any typos above, I'm using mentl powers to enter this post insted of keybrd. Stil lernang.)
I know a lot of folks in Slapout that could do that....how much you get paid for that?
I'm only half-joking when I suggest that we should put together a team of country good ole boys to go after Bin Ladin.I know a lot of folks in Slapout that could do that....how much you get paid for that?
Training would be easy. The boys from my home already know the hills. I'd just have to explain that in this part of the woods, we do lamb roasts instead of pig pickens.
And, I'd have to find a way to keep them off the heroin
Mike
It don't worry me none, I reckon.
Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"
- The job of the British Army out here is to kill or capture Communist Terrorists in Malaya.
- If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
Sir Gerald Templer, foreword to the "Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya," 1958 Edition
Savelli had a stare that would probably make Rasputin whimper.So staring at a goat, in a intense fashion, can distress the goat to the degree where it's heart rate increases? I think I can do that.
Alternatively, if the heart rate decreases perhaps the goat was merely getting bored!!
He had a whole strange para-psychological/spiritual methodology behind the "Death Stare" that if I recall correctly could only be utilized with a strong moral rationale. This was many, many years ago, so my memory may be faulty. He was a scary guy. I'm sure he's having conniptions over this movie.
Last edited by Corto; 11-03-2009 at 06:29 PM.
Related discussion ....
is in the MindWar thread here at SWC from Jan 2009.
There is also an on-going "discourse" at Professional Soldiers, involving a former ASA guy and the SF folks there (arising out of the ASA guy's comments to the media re: the movie and that he was in Special Forces). That led me to a Remote Viewing webpage (Mr Wheaton's), which defines that as:
Since I am lucky or unlucky enough to have an ASA vet in house (no, he does not claim to have been in Special Forces), I asked him what he thought of "Remote Viewing" (as viewed by Mr Wheaton et al). "You gotta be kidding."Remote Viewing is the trained ability to acquire accurate direct knowledge not available to the ordinary physical senses, of things and events or 'targets' — distant in time or space, in the past, present, or future.
Originally developed for and utilized by The Department Of Defense for intelligence collection purposes with the famed 'Stargate' project, it has a long history (30+ years) as an intelligence gathering tool.
Now, I have to get back to concentrating on the next judge I want to influence - already know what he thinks he wants to decide.
Cheers
Mike
The difference being, of course....
..that us SF guys make a goat nervous by staring into its eyes....never could get the dang Brits to stop making them nervous by the way they stared at the other end!So staring at a goat, in a intense fashion, can distress the goat to the degree where it's heart rate increases? I think I can do that.
Alternatively, if the heart rate decreases perhaps the goat was merely getting bored!!
(Movie sounds enjoyable, but I doubt it exposes any deep national security secrets to public review.)
Robert C. Jones
Intellectus Supra Scientia
(Understanding is more important than Knowledge)
"The modern COIN mindset is when one arrogantly goes to some foreign land and attempts to make those who live there a lesser version of one's self. The FID mindset is when one humbly goes to some foreign land and seeks first to understand, and then to help in some small way for those who live there to be the best version of their own self." Colonel Robert C. Jones, US Army Special Forces (Retired)
First Earth Battalion still active???
Army apologizes for Ryan Seacrest stalker
Ryan Seacrest may be back to tweeting about Rihanna songs and preparing for the next season of American Idol, but his bizarre stalker ordeal just took a new twist.
Reports reveal that Chidi Uzomah Jr., 25, who is in police custody under suspicion of stalking Seacrest, is a sergeant with the Army Reserves under the 426th Civil Affairs Battalion – a part of the Army's special forces.
Uzomah, who entered the E! offices on Friday armed with a knife to find Seacrest, served in the Army National Guard from 2005 to 2009 before being honorably discharged. Soon after, he transferred to the Army Reserve. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks told TMZ, "We apologize to Ryan Seacrest. Pending the outcome of the local investigation, the Army will decide what further action to take. We take all matters of our personnel seriously."
Uzomah is already on probation following a September incident in which he attacked one of Seacrest's bodyguards after being refused a meeting with the radio/TV host. He faces a three-year restraining order, as well as possible Army discipline.
In justifying the restraining order to the court, Seacrest declared, "His aggressive and violent efforts to come into physical contact with me are extremely frightening to me. They have jeopardized not only my personal safety but also the safety and well-being of those around me."
Dr. C what is your expert opinion on psychic phenomenon?
Well, right now I'm very much enjoying that my message posting in the "what are you currently reading?" thread was moved and deserved its own threaded discussion.
As for my expert opinion on psychic phenomenon, I do think that there are "intuitives" who have very strong intuition and take in information this way. The Army uses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Based on the MBTI, intuitives or "Ns" make up a smaller number than sensors or "Ss" in the general population and in the Army. Sensors are those who take in information with their five senses, and put more value in their experiences than in "hunches."
Michele Costanza, Ph.D., CKM/CKEE (Contractor)
I once took up palmistry as a way to hold girl's hands but then found that in a few weeks I had become "psychic" and my subjects were revealing scarily personal details to me. Another friend tried "graphology" at the same time. After comparing notes, we decided that its not the particular mumbo-jumbo. ANY such exercise improves your intuition of subtle clues (mostly without your having any idea what clues you are using).
My current belief is that there is nothing supernatural in any of this, but "natural" is a much more interesting category than we think and there is gold in them thaar hills for anyone who puts in some effort (naturally, some people are intrinsically better at it than others..."gifted"). But in the end, one well placed 7.62 mm round trumps all psychic abilities....
Remote Viewing
Hi folks,
Read Ronson's book and saw the premier in Dublin, with Ronson in attendance. I spoke with him after the movie as I know something about a number of the characters portrayed in the movie. Ronson takes no credit for the movie script; when you sell your story to Hollywood, you sell the rights with it, so he had no editorial control over how his story was portrayed.
The movie is a mish-mash of a number of different stories and personalities.
The key character is a gut called Jim Channon, who first promoted the conceptual idea of the First Earth Battalion.That's one story.
A completely seperate story is the one about the Army's Remote Viewing operational unit which was based at Fort Meade, Maryland, with the research component based in SRI in Palo Alto. The program ran from the early seventies, until it was declassified in 1995 and over 40,000 documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
I tracked down one of the unit trainers, a guy called Lyn Buchanan of P>S>I Inc in Alamogordo www.crviewer.com and brought him to Ireland to give training in the technique.
It's not some psychic woo-woo stuff. It's grounded in hard science, research and operations it actually works. The program had to fight for its funding each year for 23 years, and each year they got their money.
I recently gave a lecture about it at a UFO conference in Ireland, which was recorded and uploaded onto YouTube here. Ignore the title and UFO-related stuff.
The first part is a historical background, including the story about how it was used to identify the first 'Boomer' Typhoon Class Russian submarine. In the middle is a 10 minute video of an actual remote viewing session, to show what's possible at the most basic level of training.
There's a lot more I could say on the subject, and I have a lot more stories of its use in operational circumstances, and there's more info on my blog.
Regards,
Paul
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Professional Remote Viewing Services
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Last edited by Jedburgh; 03-09-2010 at 03:59 PM.
According to the book, as a test of his powers, 30 numbered goats were led into a room and Savelli was supposed to focus on one of them, say No. 16. Ronson says one of the goats did fall over and die, but it wasn't the one Savelli was staring at. He says that Savelli also accidentally killed his pet hamster by staring at it too long.
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