The text of an email...

[telophase]

...that I sent to rachelmanija, who encouraged me to post it here:

So I figure: hey, I'll look for a book on that Army remote viewing project (and since it was codenamed "Project Stargate," it's damn hard to sift that out of Google), and it might give me ideas for a PBR story - preferably from a non-credulous viewpoint. And I find this one on Amazon, where the Publishers Weekly review includes the sentence:

"As Ronson reveals, a secret wing of the U.S. military called First Earth Battalion was created in 1979 with the purpose of creating "Warrior Monks," soldiers capable of walking through walls, becoming invisible, reading minds and even killing a goat simply by staring at it."

The book title is, of course, "The Men Who Stare at Goats".

Now how's /that/ for a failed Blue Rose? The one whose only talent is killing a goat by staring at it. XD

I'm amazed at what people have received funding for, sometimes.

rachelmanija's response was:

I think you need to post that on LJ! It's up there with "creates unlimited amounts of Silly String" for a valuable military skill.

* "PBR" referring to Project Blue Rose, natch.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I really want to know what boot camp was like.

I'm picturing R. Lee Ermey from Full Metal Jacket bellowing, "DO YOU COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKING PUSSIES CALL THAT STARING?! I COULD HAVE FUCKED THAT GOAT UP THE ASS IN THE TIME IT'S TAKEN YOU BALLESS WONDERS JUST TO FOCUS YOUR MOTHERFUCKING EYEBALLS ON IT!!!"

Via imdb

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Former US Marine Corps Drill Instructor R. Lee Ermey was not originally hired to play Gunnery Sgt. Hartman but as a consultant for the Marine Corps boot camp portion of the film. He performed a demonstration on videotape in which he yelled obscene insults and abuse for 15 minutes without stopping, repeating himself or even flinching - despite being continuously pelted with tennis balls and oranges. Stanley Kubrick was so impressed that he cast Ermey as Gunnery Sgt. Hartmann.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I dare you to put that in a PBR story. XD

[selenite.livejournal.com]

I ran into that one previously. I file it under "Proof that reporters will believe anything a retired NCO tells them." They got some good laughs at the club over that one . . .

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I ran across this whole thing after listening to a podcast that interviewed a guy who not only claims to have been part of Project Stargate, but is still teaching remote viewing to people and corporate groups.* There seems to be an actual industry in retired NCOs writing books and running psychic conventions and so on. There's at least three different guys out there doing it.

Of course, the whole idea of training psychic spies is exactly what Project Blue Rose is about, so I hope to get some actual story ideas sparked by the book, even if it's "That's exactly the sort of ridiculous thing Project Blue Rose would never do!"




* Although he tells them very sternly that remote viewing is not to be used for corporate espionage.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

Best title ever.

Dale E. Graff has a couple of books that might help...

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Googling for [Project-Stargate] doesn't seem to have a lot of false positives.