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Taking The Men Who Stare at Goats Seriously

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Published in The Seoul Times, Chowk, Senegambia News, Frontier India World Affairs, The Liberian Dialogue, The Colombo Times, Dhivehi Observer, Australia.To, and News Blaze.

By Dr. David Leffler

I saw the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats with interest. I enjoyed the movie for what it was - a satirical look at the US military's attempt to develop more of the full potential of their warriors using so-called paranormal approaches. Unfortunately, words like "paranormal" and "supernatural" are loaded terms which carry negative connotations. For this reason, scientists are hesitant to associate themselves with people who profess interest in such things. However, since I have already been associated with one of the real-life characters of the book and movie, I would like to discuss the real-life military possibility of using more of the potential of the human mind through my area of expertise - Invincible Defense Technology (IDT), a technique that includes Yogic Flying. I would also like to recommend a book by Craig Pearson, Ph.D. titled: The Complete Book of Yogic Flying which discusses this approach in great detail. (Full disclosure: Dr. Pearson is the Executive Vice-President of Maharishi University of Management. I am employed at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS) which is affiliated with this institution.)

In The Men Who Stare at Goats, the character General Hopgood (played by Stephen Lang) is based on Major General Albert Stubblebine, US Army (Retired), a former commander of the US Army Intelligence & Security Command (INSCOM). He is satirically portrayed as attempting to walk through walls without success. In both the book and movie, a soldier under his command allegedly killed a goat by staring at it. In real life, Stubblebine served as a consultant on my Consciousness-Based Military Defense doctoral committee at The Union Institute & University. He was an intelligent pioneer in the development of human resource technologies for the US Army.

Stubblebine understood the latent potential of the human mind, and, that warriors would eventually be trained to harness it. Jon Ronson wrote in his book, The Men Who Stare at Goats, "General Stubblebine passionately believes the First Earth Battalion doctrine that every human being alive was capable of performing supernatural miracles."

While serving on my doctoral committee, Stubblebine helped organize my lecture series about Invincible Defense Technology in Moscow. Thanks to him, and the late Brig. Gen. Clarence E. Beck, U.S. Army (Ret.), I recruited another distinguished general (retired Soviet Army General-Major Leonid Shershnev, who fought in Afghanistan) as well as other military-related leaders to participate in my doctoral program in Consciousness-Based Military Defense which is now known as Invincible Defense Technology in military circles.


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Shershnev was a key figure in the Soviet's war in Afghanistan. His reflections on the futility of war were similar to Stubblebine's and those of many of our own military personnel after the Vietnam War. Shershnev regretted the inappropriate waste of lives, and has vowed to spend his life working to create world peace. Probably due to his efforts, many generals and other military-related leaders from Russia and other former Soviet-block countries attended the Third International Conference on Invincible Defense in The Netherlands in the 1990's. Senior leaders wrote encouraging assessments of the potential of Invincible Defense Technology to prevent war and terrorism and apparently reported back to their governmental leaders, urging implementation. See "The Need for a Prevention Wing of the Military by the Conference Participants" and "The Race for 'Inner Space'" for related information.

The goal of Invincible Defense Technology is to enhance the peace-keeping capabilities of the military, adding a "non-lethal weapon," a kind of national armor (called "rastri kavach" in ancient Vedic literature) that would ensure the security and invincibility of their nation. The founder and chief proponent of this approach is the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a renowned scientist of consciousness and Vedic scholar. Maharishi stated that so-called supernatural abilities are normal to a stress-free nervous system, which can be achieved through the Transcendental Meditation program and its advanced practices, if people are properly trained in the correct manner to harness them. In 1997, studying this non-religious approach, I completed my Ph.D. under the auspices of the doctoral program at The Union Institute & University. Invincible Defense Technology was labeled such because Maharishi recognized its potential to prevent the birth of an enemy, a principle he abbreviated with the phrase "victory before war." His vision was that any country taking full advantage of this technology could become invincible. He asserted that invincibility can never be attained through conventional weapons, but can be attained if a nation is incapable of creating enemies. If a nation has no collective stress, it becomes "friends" with everyone.

Prevention Wings of the Military consisting of about 3% of the military could ideally achieve this goal. These special units would be trained in the Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi programs. They would practice them in large groups, twice a day. Extensive scientific research shows these programs not only reduce stress on the individual level, but also reduce the collective societal stress that is ultimately responsible for social problems, like war, terrorism and crime. For instance, a peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution (32: 776-812, 1988) found that a group of only two hundred people practicing IDT in Israel during the Lebanon war were able to reduce war deaths there by seventy-six percent. A follow-up study of seven different TM-Sidhi assemblies published in the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality (17: 1, 285-338, 2005) showed similar results as well as a 68% reduction of war injuries.

These "effects at a distance" have been studied in other ways, such as research showing changes in EEG (brainwave) coherence. During the practice of Transcendental Meditation, an individual experiences "transcendental consciousness," a proposed fourth state of consciousness. This state is characterized by increased coherence of the EEG where different parts of the brain are working together more coherently. Increased EEG coherence during the TM program correlates with increased creativity and achievement outside the TM program, in activity. When many people practice this technique (or the more advanced TM-Sidhi program) together in one place, the coherence-generating effect is enhanced. Also, when meditating groups are large, similar increases in coherence are produced in subjects far removed from the group. One experiment showed increases in EEG coherence one thousand miles from the group.

Another study offers a proposed explanation of causality in biological terms. Research conducted on the powerful neurotransmitter serotonin shows that it produces feelings of contentment, happiness and even euphoria. Low levels of serotonin, according to research, correlate with violence, aggression, and poor emotional moods. The peer-reviewed study showed that higher numbers of Invincible Defense Technology experts correlated with a marked increase in serotonin production among other community members. This finding offers a plausible neurophysiologic mechanism to explain reduced hostility and aggression in society at large. Another peer-reviewed study conducted globally showed that international terrorism dropped 72% and world conflict dropped 32% during the global experiment and went back to previous levels after it was over.

Militaries and civilian groups worldwide have already begun to harness the full potential of the human mind using Invincible Defense Technology. The book titled The Complete Book of Yogic Flying: Maharishi's Mahesh Yogi's Program for Enlightenment and Invincibility by Craig Pearson, Ph.D. is available at http://mumpress.com/p_c16.html and is the most comprehensive book available on the topic of Invincible Defense Technology.


About the Author:

Dr. David R. Leffler is a Special Columnist for The Seoul Times. He serves as the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS) http://www.StrongMilitary.org. David received his Ph.D. in Consciousness-Based Military Defense from The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a member of the U.S. Air Force for eight years. Dr. Leffler serves on the Board of Editors for the Journal of Management & Social Sciences (JMSS) Institute of Business & Technology BIZTEK in Pakistan. He served as an Associate of the Proteus Management Group (PMG) at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College. His article about Invincible Defense Technology "An Overlooked, Proven Solution to Terrorism" was published by PMG in "55 Trends Now Shaping the Future of Terrorism." Dr. Leffler has published articles on the topic of Invincible Defense Technology in over 100 venues and maintains a comprehensive list of Invincible Defense Technology related links, including a link to his 177-page doctoral dissertation available at http://www.DavidLeffler.com.

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Dr. David Leffler, a United States Air Force veteran, is the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS). David served as an Associate of the Proteus Management Group at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War (more...)
 

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