Warrior monks or utopian idealists? A retrospective analysis of Jim Channon’s First Earth Battalion through the perspective of transpersonal psychology

Abstract

Jim Channon conceptualised The First Earth Battalion as a new generation of spiritual warriors within the US military, specifically through his report, Evolutionary Tactics: The First Earth Battalion Operations Manual. Both the Battalion and the report were immortalised through Jon Ronson’s book, The Men Who Stare at Goats and a subsequent film by the same title. While both take a light-hearted approach, Channon’s work may be deemed visionary to various developing themes within transpersonal psychology. This paper provides a retrospective analysis detailing how Channon’s vision was far in advance of many themes within transpersonal psychology today, specifically through (i) the inception of transpersonal psychology, (ii) transpersonal practises, (iii) transpersonal values, (iv) personal transformation, and (v) ecopsychology. Ultimately, this retrospective analysis suggests that Channon’s vision of the First Earth Battalion, along with his mantra, ‘Be all you can be’, should warrant a renewed critical perspective to his work, while advocating Channon as a transpersonal pioneer. Indeed, from a transpersonal perspective, this mantra embodies Maslow’s concept of self-actualisation and self-transcendence.