First Earth Battalion

The First Earth Battalion was the name proposed by Lieutenant Colonel Jim Channon, a U.S. soldier who had served in Vietnam, for his idea of a new military to be organized along New Age lines.

Principles

LTC Channon believes the Army can be the principal moral and ethical basis on which politics can harmonize in the name of the Earth. Since "Earthkind" has grown from pack to village, to tribe, to territory, and then to nation, LTC Channon envisions going from nation to planet next, and thereby declares the First Earth Battalion's primary allegiance to the planet.^[1] Making the planet whole requires the ethical use of force based on the collective conscience. In his operations field manual titled Evolutionary Tactics,^[2] LTC Channon lists some of the important missions of the Earth Battalion as:

• Urban pioneers
• Counter hostage force
• Disaster rescue
• Eco pioneers
• Animal rescue

The First Earth Battalion will organize itself informally: uniforms without uniformity, structure without status, and unity powered by diversity, since its members will be multicultural, with each race contributing to "rainbow power."^[3] As a guiding principle, members of the First Earth Battalion seek nondestructive methods of conflict resolution because their first loyalty is to the planet.^[4]

The Warrior Monk Ethos

Service members of the First Earth Battalion would practice meditation, yogic cat stretches and primal screams to attain battle-readiness, and use tui na or shiatsu as battlefield first aid. First Earth Battalion trainees would learn to fast for a week drinking only juice and then eat only nuts and grains for a month. They would be able to: fall in love with everyone, realize the different paths of spirit, perceive the auras of living organisms, attain the power to pass through objects such as walls (phasing), bend metal by using the power of the mind (i.e. psychokinesis), walk on fire, operate based on spirit communications (e.g. mediumship), become a peacemaker, actually change a violent pattern in the world (e.g. the Maharishi Effect), organize a tree plant with kids, calculate faster than a computer, control their heart rate—including making it stop—with no ill effects, intuit information from the past (retrocognition) or future (precognition), have out-of-body experiences, live off nature for twenty days, be 90%+ a vegetarian, and be able to intuit other people's thoughts and feelings via telepathy^[5] LTC Channon coined the term "warrior monk" for these new service members of the First Earth Battalion,^[6] which is anyone who has the presence, service and dedication of a monk and the absolute skill and precision of a warrior. In “The Warrior Monk’s Vision,” Channon imagines an Army made up of awakened warriors.^[7] Channon’s ideal warrior monk would be proficient at every level of force.^[8] The warrior monk will learn different self-defense systems of martial arts (such as taiji, aikido, etc.), which are based on the notion of using the force of their attackers against themselves. To alleviate negative stressors and promote healing in self and others, the warrior monk will employ various affirmation, relaxation and visualization techniques, as well as a number of methods like yoga ^[9] qigong and reiki ^[10] to help strengthen and improve the mind/body connection with spirit.

The Credo

According to the book Mind Wars by Ronald McRae, each member of the First Earth Battalion is sworn to uphold the credo of "high commandos and guerrilla gurus":

• I have the capacity and therefore the duty to contribute to the development of myself, my associates, and our planet, simultaneously, now!
• I will organize a self-supporting high commando group that will create and perform evolutionary breakthrough actions on behalf of people and planet. One people, one planet.
• I will then pass on this concept to others who are capable of generating further self-organizing commando teams.
• I will await the time when my group can connect naturally with others at higher and higher levels of awareness and performance—the Natural Guard.

SAMURAI

One highly emphasized teaching of the First Earth Battalion is known as the New Age Synthesis for a Samurai:^[11]

• Seek your own spiritual path of God.
• Actively improve your physical condition.
• Master mental self control for combat.
• Understand others.
• Reinforce team interdependence.
• Actively serve people and planet.
• Indulge in happiness and humor.

Earth Prayer

In the operations field manual Evolutionary Tactics, it states that members of the First Earth Battalion will practice non-denominational techniques for spiritual bonding. One spiritual practice of the First Earth Battalion is called the Earth Prayer:^[12]

Mother Earth… my life support system… as a soldier… I must drink your blue water… live inside your red clay and eat your green skin.

I pray… my boots will always kiss your face and my footsteps match your heartbeat.

Carry my body through space and time… you are my connection to the Universe… and all that comes after.

I am yours and you are mine.

I salute you.

The Men Who Stare at Goats

According to the book The Men Who Stare at Goats (ISBN 0-330-37548-2) by journalist Jon Ronson, Channon spent time in the seventies with many of the people in California credited with starting the human potential movement, and subsequently wrote an operations manual for a First Earth Battalion.^[13] This manual was a 125-page mixture of drawings, graphs, maps, polemical essays and point-by-point redesigns of every aspect of military life. In LTC Channon's First Earth Battalion, the new battlefield uniform would include pouches for ginseng regulators, divining tools, food stuffs to enhance night vision, and a loud speaker that would automatically emit "indigenous music and words of peace."^[14] Warrior monks will carry the best equipment modern technology can produce into the battlefield: lightweight laser stun guns, hallucinogen mortars, acupuncture kits, dowsing rods for locating hidden tunnels and mines, etc. Rather than using bullets and munitions, Channon envisaged how this new force would attempt to first win the hearts and minds of the enemy by: using positive vibrations, carrying "symbolic animals" of peace—such as baby lambs—into hostile countries, greeting them with "sparkly eyes," and then gently place the lambs on the ground and give the enemy "an automatic hug."^[15] If these measures were not enough to pacify the enemy, members would employ the use of unconventional but non-lethal weapons^[16] to subdue them. Lethal force was to be a last resort. Intuition would be consulted first and foremost by battalion members.^[17] A movie based on the book—released in Autumn 2009—starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, retitled the First Earth Battalion as the New Earth Army.

New directions

A number of Channon’s ideas on training were investigated by the Pentagon, and the First Earth Battalion had over 800 officers and bureaucrats on its mailing list, including eight generals and an undersecretary of defense.^[18] Some ideas proposed in the writings of Channon later found their way into military procedures for psychological warfare. Within weeks of the publication of the First Earth Battalion operations manual in the spring of 1979, soldiers throughout the U.S. Army began seriously trying to implement his ideas. One example was when the Army's Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) began developing its own remote viewing program in 1979, which was a parapsychological intelligence gathering method that had already been experimentally tested at Stanford Research Institute since 1972 by parapsychologists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff. Channon's principles may have even contributed to the Army slogan Be All You Can Be.^[19] Keying off of Channon’s blueprint, a Special Operations experimental team, dubbed “Jedi Warriors,” after the Star Wars craze, were trained in a wide array of Eastern oriental martial arts and meditative techniques, combined with super strenuous physical training programs.^[20] Ronson specifically cites the First Earth Battalion manual's proposal to use music to effect "psychic mind-change" as one.^[21]

See also

• Hearts and Minds (Vietnam)

References

1. ^ Grant De Pauw, L. (2000). Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. Oklahoma City, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
2. ^ http://www.neweartharmy.com
3. ^ McRae, R.F. (1984). Mind Wars: The True Story of Government Research into the Military Potential of Psychic Weapons. New York: St. Martin's Press.
4. ^ Ferguson, M. (1980). The Aquarian Conspiracy: Personal and Social Transformation in Our Time. Los Angeles, CA: J.P. Tarcher, Inc.
5. ^ Channon, J. (2009). Evolutionary Tactics (First Earth Battalion's Operation Mannual: Reprint of Original Mannual of the 70's). Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace.
6. ^ Druckman, D., & Swets, J.A. (eds.). (1988). Enhancing Human Performance: Issues, Theories, and Techniques. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
7. ^ Fields, R. (1994). The Awakened Warrior: Living with Courage, Compassion & Discipline. New York: Tarcher.
8. ^ Mandelbaum, W.A. (2002). The Psychic Battlefield: A History of the Military-Occult Complex. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.
9. ^ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/05/walter-reed-usi
10. ^ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/army-bioenergy
11. ^ http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/10/samurai-soldier
12. ^ http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_channon_0200.htm
13. ^ http://arcturus.org/field_manual.pdf
14. ^ Thomas, B. (2006). Immortal Combat: Portrait of a True Warrior. Berkeley, CA: Blue Snake Books.
15. ^ Ronson, J. (2004). The Men Who Stare at Goats. New York: Simon & Schuster.
16. ^ http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/jfq_pubs/1621.pdf
17. ^ http://www.wie.org/j32/first-earth.asp
18. ^ Hables Gray, C. (1998). Postmodern War: The New Politics of Conflict. New York: The Guilford Press.
19. ^ http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2005/04/17/when_the_x_files_met_the_army
20. ^ http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2005/2005_30-39/2005_30-39/2005-34/pdf/04-10_33_feat.pdf]
21. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1348558,00.html

External links

• First Earth Battalion Field Manual (text only)
• First Earth Battalion Article
• FirstEarthBattalion.org
• PDF of original First Earth Battalion manual