ShortHand: The Men Who Stare at Goats & The Psychic Arms Race
Summary
This episode explores the US military’s decades-long, multi-million dollar pursuit of psychic super soldiers, sparked by Lt. Col. Jim Channon’s “First Earth Battalion” manual. The hosts detail projects like Stargate and Operation Grill Flame, which tested remote viewing and spoon-bending to counter Soviet psychic threats. The narrative covers bizarre experiments, including attempts to kill goats with mind power, before concluding that the CIA ultimately deemed these efforts scientifically invalid.
Topics discussed
Sponsors: Progressive and Chime
Introduction: Psychic super soldiers
Col. Jim Channon's Vietnam experience and proposal
The Warrior Monk manual and non-lethal combat
Sponsors: Honeylove and Shopify
Soviet psychic research and US response
SCANATE and the Yuri Geller tests
Operation Grill Flame and remote viewing successes
Project Stargate and Gen. Albert Stubblebine
Sponsors: Honeylove and Shopify
Stubblebine's retirement and Project Stargate closure
The Goat Lab: Killing goats with psychic energy
Outro and final sponsors
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