From Publishers Weekly
Tom Clancy meets the Psychic Friends Network in this almost plausible primer on the history, theory and practice of paranormal intelligence gathering. The author is a veteran of the Army-CIA Project STAR GATE psychic espionage unit, where he specialized in a form of ESP known as "controlled remote viewing," whose practitioners can supposedly see events from a distance in time and space. His feats, he claims, included reading Saddam's mind during the Gulf War, divining the health and prospects of the American hostages in Iran, predicting the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and remotely viewing the surface of Mars; he even wonders whether he didn't have something to do with the fall of communism. Project STAR GATE really did exist, and Buchanan's low-key tone, full of military jargon and acronyms, detailed protocols and much griping about army red tape, lends credibility to his account of life as a GI clairvoyant. Himself the head of a psychic training and consulting firm, he insists that remote viewing is both a "martial art" to be mastered through training and rote drill, and an "application-oriented science" for use in "police work, medical diagnostics and business," rather than the romantic and familial fortune-telling that is the bread and butter of the psychic industry. Skeptics will vigorously dispute Buchanan's claims for the efficacy of remote viewing, but true believers in search of government certification for their views will be greatly reassured by this odd and interesting book. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The more you read, the more you wonder if this expose is really a put-on. But, finally, the author, at least, seems to believe what he is saying--which is that, for the last quarter century, the U.S. military has been training personnel to provide intelligence through psychic means. Buchanan claims to have been one of the best of the government's "remote viewers." He even suggests that through subliminal messaging, he may have been partly responsible for Mikhail Gorbachev's dismantling of communism! Naturally, this is all pretty interesting stuff, and even though the organization is muddled, and the discourse tends to the paranoid, the book is temptingly wide ranging, covering everything from Buchanan's various assignments (Iranian hostage situation, Desert Storm) to how to develop one's own "seventh sense." Even though Buchanan makes it clear that this is not a "how-to," he does introduce the principles on which remote viewing is based. Whether it's the new frontier or simply far-fetched, there is no doubt that remote viewing is a hot topic in the making. Ilene Cooper
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