George Clooney's New Movie, Peaceful Warriors and Sound Healing


© 2009
Steven Halpern

By the time you read this, George Clooney's new movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats should be getting lots of well-deserved PR. I have a personal connection to the movie, or shall I say, the book that it was based on, by British investigative journalist Jon Ronson.

Chances are you never heard about the book when it was released, and probably wondered about the title, as I did. So here's a bit of “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.

Five years ago, I was presenting at the bi-annual “A Course in Miracles” conference, following presentations by the publisher of the Course, Judith Skutch, and right before Marianne Williamson. One of the staff came up to me and asked; “Did you know you are featured in the new book, The Men Who Stare at Goats?”

At first, I didn’t know what he meant. But as soon as he mentioned the name Jim Channon, it all came back to me in an instant. I remembered speaking with a guy that came up to me at one of the first mind-body conferences who said he worked for the army.

A bit of background: In the late 1970s and early 1980s a visionary Army colonel named Jim Channon started an extraordinary division called First Earth Battalion. Channon researched the breakthroughs in Esalen and mind body conferences, and wanted to bring the best of these techniques into the military. Jim wanted to teach generals and selected soldiers how to meditate, for starters.

For those who know their history of martial arts, of course, this was an ancient concept. Zen and the Art of Archery was an underground bestseller in the 1970s; David Carradine immortalized the meditative trainings in his hit TV series, Kung Fu. And of course, The Karate Kid brought the concept of mindfulness and relaxed alertness— a clear meditative proprioceptive awareness— to a mass audience in the l980s.

Then, out of the blue, a few years ago I received an email from a British investigative journalist who wanted to interview me for a documentary film he was working on with a producer from the BBC. No mention was made of the possibility of turning the material into a book, much less a major film.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

The title, The Men Who Stare at Goats isn’t as strange as it would seem on first sight. You see, recently declassified papers and books confirmed rumors which were circulating that both the US and USSR were conducting a good deal of research into the area of “remote viewing.” This had become the accepted term to describe the phenomenon wherein certain individuals, like super psychic subject and researcher Ingo Swann, could be given coordinates of latitude and longitude and told to draw and describe what they “saw” at that remote location.

At some point or other, at least some of the generals wondered if that passive observation skill could be transformed into the active mode, i.e., could they stop the heart of a goat and kill it simply by staring at it? Hence, the title.

Although it’s already clear that the movie does not follow the book closely, if you begin reading on page 31,and again on pages following 122, you'll find Jon's version of the interview he filmed with me and a BBC producer. Although Jon left out most of the more interesting and relevant information, he had independent confirmation that indeed, my music was only used for positive purposes.

It must be noted: what you will most likely hear about is the negative purposes that sound and music were used for, including torture and crowd control.

The Early Era of Mind-Body Conferences— Setting the Stage

In 1976, I began my public presentations of my work as a bridge between science, spirituality and the arts. I was honored to be invited to the first wave of mind-body conferences, with mega-stars including Uri Geller, Marilyn Ferguson (The Aquarian Conspiracy), William Tiller (What the Bleep), Marcel Vogel (IBM scientist and crystal healing pioneer) and many other scientists. My presentation typically included an introduction to the concept of bio-harmonics, rhythm entrainment, Schumann resonance and the power of intention. (This was long before any of the other individuals who now claim to be pioneers had even heard these terms, much less used them in their work.) And then I guided the audience through the CHAKRA SUITE, a chakra-balancing meditation with a slide show highlighting the seven colors of the rainbow, and performing the music live on the extraordinary Rhodes electric piano, which was virtually unknown at that time outside of modern jazz circles.

As my life has unfolded, I've experienced a surprising number of life-changing synchronicities and have deepened my connection to my work with sound healing and inner peace. (See James Redfield’s Celestine Prophecy for a more in-depth description.) One such event was being connected to the now legendary bio-medical inventor Itzhak Bentov. Best-known as the author of Stalking the Wild Pendulum, Ben introduced us to the phenomenon of entrainment. He encouraged me to pursue my research, and allowed us to use his proprietary measuring devices to confirm that specific musical keynotes resonated at specific chakra areas of the body.

In his book, Ben goes into great detail about how, in meditation, we literally link up to the dominant electro-magnetic frequency of the earth (popularly now known as the Schumann Resonance.) He was quite amusing in his light-hearted suggestion that the fact that the brainwave frequencies of deep alpha are in precisely the same range as the “brainwave” of the earth.

Thus, if one were seeking to tap into this higher power source in meditation and martial arts, using specially composed music could be a very useful resource. Up until I took my research and music public, there was no one speaking or writing about this. Hard to believe at this date, but it was lonely at the top back then.

How I Met Jim Channon

The good news, of course, was that I was the go-to guy on the mind-body-music scene, and it was after one of my presentations that Jim Channon came up to me in the speakers’ lounge to introduce himself. At first, I was naturally skeptical. I was certainly familiar with the fact that “military intelligence” was a popular oxymoron popular in certain circles.

I had also spent the prior year and a half working on a soundtrack for the movie based on Ingo Swann's best selling book, Starfire. The long-awaited digital re-release of the accompanying album, Star Children, will be available on my website in early 2010. It's an amazing recording that infuses Ingo's amazing psychic energy into uptempo pop and rock arrangements that will get your body moving and your spirit soaring! Be sure to sign up to my email list so I can send you an announcement when the album is posted.

In the course of our recording sessions, vividly do I remember the day some of Ingo's “associates” paid a visit to the studio. Three no-nonsense, short-haired “suits” wanted to know why he wasn't in their lab. When they looked around at our control room, they instantly began talking among themselves and asking very insightful questions about multi-purposing some of the sound equipment. Ever since then, I've had a much more positive opinion of at least some of the higher echelon of our military.

So I agreed to share some other insights with Jim. I told him how I discovered that music was a carrier wave of consciousness. I described how the biofeedback research had proven that my music was much more effective at literally “getting our human instrument in tune” and why my recordings were virtually guaranteed to get most any listener into the “peaceful warrior” zone.

After that day, I never heard from him. He seemed to vanish into thin air. Until I recently got an email from Jon Ronson telling me that he had tracked Channon down and wanted to do a documentary about what happened in the 25 years since our conversation. I agreed. I was promised a copy of the DVD, but never received it.

So imagine my surprise, a day before Hurricane Katrina descended upon New Orleans, to discover that at least some of the interview I did with Ronson was now part of a book. And I was even more astounded when I learned that it was soon going to be a major film starring George Clooney. Alas, I was not contacted to play myself, nor did anyone contact me for pointers on how I tuned brainwaves with my music. As I write this, I have no idea if my meditation music is even mentioned or heard in the movie.

I will say, however, that I got a special enjoyment over the decades when I saw orders for my music from various branches of the military coming into the order department of my record label. But no one ever followed up my conversation with Jim with a direct call or letter, so I imagine I didn't provide enough juicy secrets for Jon to build upon.

Jon is well known for his snarky attitude. I'm sure it helps sell books. But I did find it rather frustrating that the most important subjects, compositions and CDs were omitted; about the only albums we did not talk about are the ones he mentions in the book. But that's so often the case; if you saw my entire interview with CBS-TV’s 48 Hours and then saw only the few moments that made it to prime time, you'd feel my angst more acutely. It comes with the territory, as they say, and even a little taste is better than none at all.

As the days grow shorter and we spend more time indoors, remember to take time to nurture your body, mind and spirit with music. Turn off the TV, and listen with someone you love.

For sound being, in the “hear and now”
Steven Halpern


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Steven Halpern is an internationally-renowned composer, recording artist and producer. He is a pioneering sound healer who brought the concept into the mainstream, and whose recordings radiate energies of healing, light and love each time they are played. Hear samples of his recordings, as well as download MP3s at special introductory pricing at http://www.innerpeacemusic.com (In the near future, other long out-of-print classics will also be available exclusively at his website.)


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Inner Peace Music,
700 Jefferson,
Ashland, OR 97520-0318

Hey Len, just so you know, I moved this over here as not to affect the lines of the somewhat unlinear story in the thread it was posted in. I also think I screwed up.....it's loopy len, not loony len.....right?

Loopy. As in "hang on 'loopy".

My bad. I wasn't paying enough attention to the topic and replied with some research on the psychological effects of sound. Thanks for correcting my mistake.

I'm never sure what to make of the research. It seems right but then it goes over the top a bit like flying saucer research where there is plenty of signal but then it gets over interpreted.

Len, I am Miss Post herself. I have been know to randomly post in the incorrect thread, and I am not sure it correlates to my intuitive right brain crevices or a breakdown (possibly chemical) of my linear left brain, guess the later.
I do read for fun books like Katrina Firik's Another Day in the Frontal Lobe.
Amazingly, I even have close friends who went to medical school with either her or her husband.
Take Care.

Len, I am Miss Post herself.

So mean to say...Mispost!
But I am serious about that book.