One of the poorest books I've ever met.
Tons of crazy and clumsy (even idiotical...) characters, a teased tepid action, an awkward sense of humor, I've felt punished reading it.
After reading garbage like this one, ecologists should take a stand in order to defend the forests...

I’ve loved Jon Ronson on This American Life and I remember the Movie of the same name being hilarious, so I checked out this book and really loved it! A narrative history of the weirdness (and troubling abuses) of military psy-ops.

Officially DNF’d 14/01/20

Another great read from Ronson about weird people doing weird stuff.

This started out as a hilarious read but soon degenerated into an unfocused ramble. Did not finish it.

I really thought I was going to like this book more than I did. This book was certainly interesting, with it focusing on various experiments by the US Government to adapt New Age or Paranormal tactics into their repertoire. I found the first section quite entertaining, but lost interest as the book neared a close. The book jumps around from subject to subject, with connections being very vague and uses a lot of testimony that seems very, very questionable. The book proposes a lot of questions that it never solves, and I’m not really sure what I can accept as truthful or likely by the end of all of it. Most the enjoyment/horror here comes from all of the wild characters Ronson interviews.

I listened to the audio version narrated by Jon Ronson. Towards the very end, his narration lost its charm on me. (Jon Ronson is also a pretty funny name.)

Very strange indeed!!! Probably the least favourite of all the Jon Ronson books I've read so far but stand alone, it's great.
Adventures into the world of the downright weird and strange american government.

Jon Ronson is a bloody mad man willing to research the most interesting topics. He will go from telling a Grand Wizard of the KKK to the head of intelligence for US Army to shove it up his jacksy. Throughout this book I once again realized why I became a social worker and not a soldier. I do not deal well with pain or super jocks who like to wrassle to prove their virility. I'm more like a nebbishy nerd who would rather read than inflict PSYOPS, physical torture and kill people in the name of freedom. However I would like to get down on the Jedi Warrior program. I am pretty sure I could cloud burst and drop goats with my mind already and growing up taking mail order ninja classes I have mastered invisibility.

The documentarian examines how the US military intelligence community has attempted to make use of paranormal and extra-sensory techniques and how this has impacted the war on terror today. Ronson shows how Jim Channon, a US Army colonel, who wrote the “First Earth Battalion” manual which attempted to reorganize the military along non-lethal, New Age ideals such as pacifying the enemy with indigenous music, positive energy, or discordant sounds. He interviews people such as Guy Savelli, martial arts teacher who claims to have the Death Touch and to be able to kill goats by staring them to death, and who works with the US military. He talks with former members of the Stargate Project, a US-funded program that attempted to develop telepathy. He interviews General Albert Stubblebine, who apparently firmly believes that walking through walls is possible with the right mindset. He talks with guards at Abu Ghriab, and with detainees who have been blasted by US officials with inane pop songs and strobe lights, and possibly with music with subliminal messages (the “torture lite” that Tony Lagouranis details in Fear Up Harsh). He looks into the very dark secrets of MK-ULTRA (specifically Operation Artichoke, which attempted to subvert wills through forced drug use and hypnosis), and interviews a man who believes his brother, Frank Olson, was murdered over fears he would reveal it to the press.

Like Ronson’s previous book, Them: Adventures with Extremists, this is an alternately hilarious and deeply disturbing book; if even half of the things Ronson details are true (and there’s no reason to think that any part is false of exaggerated), America’s intelligence community was or is festooned with people who are not only amoral – that’s to be expected – but passionately ignorant. Basically, despite Ronson’s smooth prose, dry wit, and chummy writing style, this is a damn scary book.

This book worked hard to earn, decisively, its crop of zero stars.

It is about what supposedly happens when new age super-abilities (flying, invisibility, the power to stop a goat's heart by staring at it...) meet the oh-so-impressive military mind.

Since the military exists to destroy people and property, guess what they experiment with in attempts to gain these powers and apply them?

Alledgedly.

All kinds of names, dates, people and conversational bits are used to 'verify' the wildly gyrating content of the book. As with all new age material, though, nothing at all is verified. Not only that, but I resent the author's ham-fisted attempts to tantalize the reader with scraps of information followed by a quick "I can't tell you any more." Completely and obviously manipulative.

The greatest mystery here is that this type of idiotic garbage ever got made into a movie. I hear it bombed and that just feels so very, very right.

I'd write more about the book, but I'm absolutely convinced they're monitoring my goodreads account...

While thinking on, or researching conspiratorial matters, the ability to resist the urge of diving nose first into the rabbit hole is of utmost importance. Which is precisely what Jon Ronson failed to do. Consequently he lost tracks of his goats around the fourth chapter, and unfortunately never found his way back to them. The result is a messy, unfocused exploration into interesting anecdotes from the history of American intelligence agencies. Possibly very interesting if you've never come across things such as MK-Ultra before.

3.5 stars

Some interesting and in some cases harrowing stories, but Ronson’s usual desire for the big claim – the grand wild narrative – leads to some pretty bold assertions that really aren’t supported.

Taken with a pinch of salt and on a case by case basis, it’s still worthwhile.