The Men Who Stare at Goats

[slapout9]

Dr. C what is your expert opinion on psychic phenomenon?

[Dr. C]

Originally Posted by slapout9

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."

[Hacksaw]

Dr C,
As an "off the charts NT" ... I'd like to know how to stare more effectively....
Thought my "glare" worked very effectively with my two daughters who are nearly grown and on their own ....

However, my son (15mths) is another story ... are there any indications that some of the goats laughed at the "starers" 'cuz that's all the reaction I get out of my mid-life surpise....

[omarali50]

Originally Posted by slapout9

Dr. C what is your expert opinion on psychic phenomenon?

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....

[jmm99]

via the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), in Nov 2008, The council, INTJ - including yours truly in this revealing analysis of the INTJ (JMM) and ENTJ (Stan) types. This true piece of work (pure science) is an invaluable reference to our present study of psychic energy applied to goats.

What is proof of the pudding is Ted's introduction of sheep into the equation; and 120mm's coup de grace introducing the goat - foretelling the present discussion by almost 12 months. Verily, need we more evidence than that presented to our lying eyes.

Cheers

Mike

[selil]

We used to arrest people who stared at farm animals to long... Never really knew their intentions if you know what I mean. As to the movie? Well I'm hoping it is funny even if most people won't get the jokes. I was figuring it would be in the same genre as "Burn after reading".

[IntelTrooper]

Originally Posted by selil

I was figuring it would be in the same genre as "Burn after reading".

I hope so. That movie was brilliant.

[Van]

LTC (ret) Jim Channon's "First Earth Battalion" can be found here. This is the guy played by Jeff Bridges in the movie. Interesting stuff...

[jcustis]

That's some FBCB2 stuff right there!!!

[Ski]

You have to go to the top to understand how all of this emerged. A guy named General Stubblebine was the INSCOM commander in the 80's, and there is all sorts of weird stuff associated with him. The First Earth Battalion is one of his projects, he also did a lot of weird stuff that can be read about in "The Hunt for Zero Point" book.

A very good friend of mine who retired as a CW3 and was a career MI NCO/Warrant said Stubblebine used to bend spoons with his mind, a la Uri Geller. My buddy is now a SES-level civilian in the MI world and I have zero reason to doubt him.

I'm looking forward to the movie, the book was wildly entertaining, even if there was some poetic license taken.

[Spud]

If you want his 1st Earth Battalion Field Manual OM-1 it is here

I am pretty sure that if you download it someone will notice though

Reading it makes you long for the day that doctrine becomes more like a graphic novel

[MikeF]

Selil will probably have a much better synopis, but here's my take.

The movie had so much potential if they had stuck to comedy particularly just the concept of a "hippie" batallion running around Fort Bragg; however, half way through the movie, it went serious. They tried to politicize issues of private contractors in Iraq shooting recklessly in Ramadi and PsychOps units going rogue and torturing prisoners. Not cool.

Other than that, if you're a non-military person into drugs, then you might really like it as a way to expand your mind.

Mike

[Van]

An alternate version of Earth First Manual online through Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences's mis-named "Journal of Non-lethal Combatives". This version includes some really groovy stuff that was dropped from the .pdf in the previous links. The commentary and endnotes by the EJMAS staff are also interesting.