part 1 of 12
Jon Ronson on Coast to Coast AM…
Experiments & Conspiracies
Documentary film maker and author, Jon Ronson spoke about his investigation into the US military’s strange experiments with the paranormal. At the “Goat Lab,” tests were made to see if people could kill animals by simply staring at them. One man, Guy Savelli, who Ronson interviewed, told him that he was able to knock down one of the goats through remote influencing.
Other experiments such as walking through walls and becoming invisible were less successful, Ronson reported. The unit that conducted the tests, known as The First Earth Battalion, was spearheaded by Jim Channon who incorporated a number of “new age” teachings into the program. Ronson believes that the use of sound on prisoners at such places at Guantanamo Bay developed out of the Battalion’s tests.
He also discussed his infiltration of the Bilderberg Group and Bohemian Grove. One of the “Bilderbergers” told him that they do have an agenda towards a one-world government. He characterized the rituals he witnessed at the Bohemian Grove as a “weird mix of paganism and Broadway,” but not necessarily of evil intent. This was in contrast to Alex Jones, who joined the program for a segment to offer his viewpoint that the Bohemian ceremonies, such as a mock human sacrifice, were “Luciferian in nature”.
Jon Ronson’s first book, Them: Adventures With Extremists, is an investigative account of his experiences with people labelled extreme by others. These include David Icke, Randy Weaver, Omar Bakri Muhammad, Ian Paisley and Thom Robb. Ronson also follows independent investigators of secretive groups such as the Bilderberg Group. The narrative tells of Ronson’s attempts to infiltrate the “shadowy cabal” fabled, by these conspiracy theorists, to rule the world. The book, a bestseller, was described by Louis Theroux as “a funny, picaresque adventure through a paranoid shadowy world”.
Variety magazine announced in September 2005 that Them has been purchased by Universal Pictures to be turned into a feature film. The screenplay is being written by Mike White (School of Rock, The Good Girl), produced by White and the comedian Jack Black, and directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead). Ronson is reportedly being played by a woman.
Ronson’s second book The Men Who Stare At Goats deals with the secret New Age unit within the US Army called the First Earth Battalion. Ronson investigates people such as Major General Albert Stubblebine III, former head of intelligence, who believe that people can walk through walls with the right mental preparation, and that goats can be killed simply by staring at them. Much was based on the ideas of Lt. Col. Jim Channon, ret., who wrote the First Earth Battalion Operations Manual in 1979, inspired by the emerging human potential movement of California. The book tells how these New Age military ideas mutated over the decades to influence interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay.
Ronson’s third book, Out of the Ordinary: True Tales of Everyday Craziness was published by Picador and Guardian Books in November 2006. It is a collection of Ronson’s Guardian articles that share a common theme: how people get themselves into wholly irrational bubbles, within which all manner of lunacy makes perfect sense. A second volume, What I Do: More True Tales of Everyday Craziness, will be published in November 2007…
Show first aired on September 6th 2005.
Anomaly TeleVision 