cover image Psychic Battlefield

Psychic Battlefield

W. Adam Mandelbaum. Thomas Dunne Books, $26.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-312-20955-1

As far back as ancient Egypt, when King Nectanebus used magic and wax figurines to control the outcome of an upcoming battle, military leaders and heads of state have used virtually every magic trick in the occult book to influence the course of international relations. Bizarre as it may seem to those impatient with such things, the practice continues to the present day, with even the Pentagon and the CIA trying a hand at metaphysical warfare. In this work spanning 5,000 years, Mandelbaum--a former U.S. intelligence agent who claims to be a psychic--recounts the means by which various nations have pressed the supernatural world into military service. Some sections, such as that on the mystic Rasputin, mostly recount what has already been told many times over. Elsewhere, the material intrigues, if only by showing the extent to which government agencies have placed their faith in psychic phenomena. In one episode, Mandelbaum recounts that in the 1970s a U.S. government-employed psychic warned that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger would be attacked by Libyan assassins in Saudi Arabia, and that Kissinger's wife, Nancy, would be killed. The warning came while Kissinger was actually en route to Riyadh; the psychic was part of the secret Project Bluebird, which sought to read the mind of Libya's Moammar Khadafy. In response to the psychic's prediction, U.S. authorities had Kissinger whisked away immediately upon landing. Mandelbaum's forthright belief in the occult (""The Force does exist--within us"") will raise eyebrows and even a few guffaws among skeptics, but his material is both informative and entertaining, and will find a readership among military history buffs and believers in the paranormal. (Feb.)