According to Ronson's book, Channon spent time between 1977 and 1979 with many of the people in California credited with starting the human potential movement (including forays to the Esalen Institute) and in 1979 wrote a 125-page "operations manual" for a proposed "First Earth Battalion".

[8] (Channon has also told a slightly different version of this story which takes place during a meeting of the "think tank" Task Force Delta, which first convened in 1983 and occurred at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

[9]) After retiring from the Army, Channon continued to promote his concepts and worked as an "organizational transformation consultant" to such companies as AT&T, Du Pont, and Whirlpool.

He was described as specializing in "helping managers express their vision by creating a picture that makes corporate goals tangible against a starry universe or earthscape background.

[12] In a 2004 video interview with Ronson, Channon said that he was still consulted by "top brass" ("like the Chief of Staff of the Army") and was still officially the commander of the First Earth Battalion.