If you thought "Men Who Stare at Goats" was about something that didn't work, you completely missed the point. There is no reliable evidence that anyone tried to kill goats with their mind. What we do have reliable evidence of is that they want people to think they were trying. They succeeded at that. (Fooled you, anyway.)
The fact that you think what they were doing didn't work demonstrates, itself, that in fact what they really were doing did work: they misled you about what they were doing, with complete success.
The fact that you think what they were doing didn't work demonstrates, itself, that in fact what they really were doing did work: they misled you about what they were doing, with complete success.