David Icke

David Vaughan Icke (pronounced //), born 29 April, 1952, is a British writer and public speaker who has devoted himself since 1990 to researching "who and what is really controlling the world." A former professional football player, reporter, television sports presenter, and spokesman for the Green Party, he is the author of 20 books explaining his views.

Icke argues that he has developed a moral and political worldview that combines New Age spiritualism with a passionate denunciation of what he sees as totalitarian trends in the modern world, a position that has been described as "New Age conspiracism."

At the heart of Icke's theories is the view that the world is ruled by a secret group called the "Global Elite" or "Illuminati," which he has linked to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic hoax. In 1999, he published The Biggest Secret, in which he wrote that the Illuminati are a race of reptilian humanoids known as the Babylonian Brotherhood, and that many prominent figures are reptilian, including George W. Bush, Queen Elizabeth II, Kris Kristofferson, and Boxcar Willie.

According to Political Research Associates, Icke's speaking engagements can draw a substantial audience in Canada, with his organisers claiming as many as 1000 people attending one in Vancouver. During an October 1999 speaking tour there, he received a standing ovation from students after a four-hour speech at the University of Toronto, while his books were removed from the shelves of Indigo Books across Ontario after protests from the Canadian Jewish Congress.

Early life and career
Icke was born in Leicester to Beric Vaughan Icke (born 1907, Leicester) and Barbara J. Icke (née Cooke) (married 1951, Leicester), and was raised on a council estate, or public housing, according to the biography on his website. He left school to play football for Coventry City and Hereford United in the Football League, playing as a goalkeeper until forced to retire in 1973 at the age of 21 because of arthritis.

He found a job with a local newspaper in Leicester and became a reporter, moving on to local sports presenter for BBC South's Programme South Today. He appeared on the first episode of British television's first national breakfast show BBC Breakfast Time presenting the sports news until 1985. He later became part of BBC Sport's presentation team, often as a stand-in host on Grandstand and snooker programmes. He worked with the BBC team at the 1988 Olympic Games. He continued to work for BBC Sport until 1990. He also became involved with the Green Party, where he rose swiftly to the position of national media spokesperson.

He wrote his first book in 1989, It Doesn't Have To Be Like This, an outline of his views on the environment and his political philosophy.

Contact with the spirit world
In his online autobiography, Icke writes that, in March 1990, while he was a national spokesperson for the Green Party, he received a message from the spirit world through a medium, identified by The Guardian as Betty Shine, a medium from Brighton. She told him he was a healer who had been chosen for his courage and sent to heal the earth, and that he had been directed into football to learn discipline. He was going to leave politics and would become famous, she said, writing five books in three years, and one day there would be a great earthquake, and the "sea will reclaim land," because human beings were abusing the earth.

When Icke told the Green Party leadership what he had experienced, he was banned from speaking at public meetings on their behalf. In 1991, after a trip to Peru, he wrote Truth Vibrations, an autobiographical work which summarised his life experiences up to that point, with an emphasis on his recent spiritual encounters. He began to wear only turquoise and on March 27, 1991, held a press conference to announce: "I am a channel for the Christ spirit. The title was given to me very recently by the Godhead."

In an interview on the Terry Wogan show that year, he announced that he was "the son of God," and that Britain would be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes. His statements were met with laughter and ridicule from the studio audience, derision in the press, and suggestions that he was mentally ill. Icke later said that he had been misinterpreted by the media. According to Icke, he used the term "the son of God" "… in the sense of being an aspect, as I understood it at the time, of the Infinite consciousness that is everything. As I have written before, we are like droplets of water in an ocean of infinite consciousness."

After being widely ridiculed, he disappeared from public view. He has written that, for several years, he was unable to walk down the street without people pointing and laughing, and that this experience helped him find the courage to develop his controversial ideas, because he was no longer afraid of what people thought of him. He told Jon Ronson:

Conspiracy writings
Icke has published at least 20 books outlining his views, a mixture of New Age philosophy and apocalyptic conspiracism. American political scientist Michael Barkun, in a 2003 study of conspiracy theory subculture, writes that Icke is "the most fluent of conspiracy authors, which gives his writings a clarity rarely found in the genre." His talent for communicating with people led The Observer to call him "the Greens' Tony Blair."

Icke's core ideas are outlined in four books written over seven years: The Robots' Rebellion (1994), … And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995), The Biggest Secret: The Book that Will Change the World (1999), and Children of the Matrix (2001). The basic conspiracy theory is that the world is controlled by a network of secret societies referred to as the "Brotherhood," at the apex of which stand the "Illuminati" or "Global Elite." The goal of the Brotherhood is a world government, a plan that Icke says was laid out in the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Icke says are really the revealed plans of the Illuminati. Icke, in common with many other conspiracy theorists, says the methods of these conspirators include control of the world's economies and the use of mind-control techniques.

The Global Elite controls the Brotherhood and the world using what Icke calls a "pyramid of manipulation," consisting of sets of hierarchical structures involving banking, business, the military, education, the media, religion, drug companies, intelligence agencies, and organised crime. At the very top of the pyramid are what Icke calls the "Prison Warders," who are not human. He writes that: "A pyramidal structure of human beings has been created under the influence and design of the extraterrestrial Prison Warders and their overall master, the Luciferic Consciousness. They control the human clique at the top of the pyramid, which I have dubbed the Global Elite."

Icke cites the Holocaust, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of events financed and organised by the Global Elite. British journalist Simon Jones writes that, according to Icke, "Ordinary people are being massively duped into believing that the ordinary course of world events are the consequence of known political forces and random, uncontrollable events. However, the course of humanity is being manipulated at every level. These individuals arrange for incidents to occur around the world, which then elicit a response from the public ('something must be done'), and in turn allows those in power to do whatever they had planned to do in the first place." Icke refers to this as problem-reaction-solution, a variation of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's "Hegelian Dialectic".

Reptilian humanoids
In 1999, Icke wrote and published The Biggest Secret: The Book that Will Change the World, in which he identified the extraterrestrial Prison Warders as reptilians from the constellation Draco. They walk erect and appear to be human, living not only on the planets they come from, but also in caverns and tunnels under the earth. They have cross-bred with humans, which has created "hybrids" who are "possessed" by the full-blooded reptilians. The reptiles' hybrid reptilian-human DNA allows them to change from reptilian to human form if they consume human blood. Icke has drawn parallels with the 1980s science-fiction series V, in which the earth is taken over by reptiloid aliens disguised as humans.

According to Icke, the reptilian group includes many prominent people and practically every world leader from Britain's late Queen Mother to George H.W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Harold Wilson, and Tony Blair. These people are either themselves reptilian, or work for the reptiles as what Icke calls slave-like victims of multiple personality disorder: "The Rothschilds, Rockefellers, the British royal family, and the ruling political and economic families of the U.S. and the rest of the world come from these SAME bloodlines. It is not because of snobbery, it is to hold as best they can a genetic structure &mdash; the reptilian-mammalian DNA combination which allows them to 'shape-shift'."

In Tales From The Time Loop and other works, Icke states that most organised religions, especially Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are Illuminati creations designed to divide and conquer the human race through endless conflicts. In a similar vein, Icke believes racial and ethnic divisions are an illusion promoted by the reptilians, and that racism fuels the Illuminati agenda.

Relationship with the far right
Michael Barkun, Professor of Political Science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, writes that Icke has moved aggressively to increase the size of his audience with the use of an elaborate website, by arranging speaking tours in the UK, North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and by selling books and videotapes.

Barkun writes that Icke has "clearly sought to cultivate the extreme right," citing a London Evening Standard story from 1995, which alleged that "uncanny parallels [were] emerging" between Icke's work and that of senior figures in the American armed militia movement. Barkun argues that the relationship between Icke, the militias, and the Christian Patriots is complex and tense because of the New Age baggage Icke brings with him. On the one hand, Icke believes Christian patriots to be the only Americans who understand the truth about the New World Order, but on the other, he reportedly told a Christian Patriot group: "I don't know which I dislike more, the world controlled by the Brotherhood, or the one you want to replace it with."

Claims of antisemitism
A number of commentators have written that Icke's theories imply a form of antisemitism because of his references to a secret elite that rules the world, including prominent Jewish banking families, who he says planned the Holocaust and financed Adolf Hitler. He also makes reference to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In … And the Truth Shall Set You Free he wrote:

"I strongly believe that a small Jewish clique which has contempt for the mass of Jewish people worked with non-Jews to create the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the Second World War. This Jewish/non-Jewish Elite used the First World War to secure the Balfour Declaration and the principle of the Jewish State of Israel. They then dominated the Versailles Peace Conference and created the circumstances which made the Second World War inevitable. They financed Hitler to power in 1933 and made the funds available for his rearmament.'"

In 1995, Alick Bartholomew of Gateway, at that time Icke's publisher, told the London Evening Standard that an early draft of … And the Truth Shall Set You Free contained "revisionist Holocaust material."

Icke has cited white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other far-right publications in his books. British journalist Simon Jones notes that the bibliography of … And the Truth Shall Set You Free lists The Spotlight, formerly published by the now-defunct Liberty Lobby, and which Icke calls "excellent," and On Target, published by the Australian League of Rights, which has organised speaking tours for Holocaust denier David Irving. Jones writes: "It's tempting to dismiss David Icke as a confused and ignorant man, manipulated by extremists in order to present their philosophy in a socially acceptable format. But Icke clearly understands the implications of his words."

Mark Honigsbaum has written about the apparent link between the more extreme New Age proponents and the far-right armed militia movement in the U.S. Icke's books contain multiple references to the "Illuminati," which Icke and the militia movement believe constitutes the secret government they call the "New World Order". In 1995, Honigsbaum wrote in London's Evening Standard that Combat 18, the British neo-Nazi group, was publicising Icke's speaking tour of the UK in its internal magazine, Putsch. The magazine wrote that Icke spoke about "'the sheep' and how the 'illuminati', uses them for its own ends". The story continued: "[Icke] began to talk about the big conspiracy by a group of bankers, media moguls etc. — always being clever enough not to mention what all these had in common."

Icke believes that Combat 18 is a front for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which in turn is an "Illuminati front." The role of the ADL, he says, is to "brand as anti-Semitic" anyone who gets close to "the truth." In … And the Truth Shall Set You Free, he wrote: "In Britain, I am told by an extremely reliable source very close to the intelligence organisations that the "far-right" group, Combat 18, is a front for the sinister Anti-Defamation League, the United States arm of the Israeli/Rothschild secret service, Mossad. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been operating in Britain and Europe since at least 1991 and its role is to brand as anti-Semitic anyone who is getting close to the truth of what is going on. What better way to discredit an investigator than to have a "far-Right" group like Combat 18 to praise them?"

Icke has strongly denied that his reptiles represent Jews, calling it "friggin' nonsense." "I am not an anti-Semite!", he told The Guardian, "I have a great respect for the Jewish people." He maintains that the reptilians are not human, and therefore not Jewish, but are "extra-dimensional entities" that enter and control human minds. "This is not a Jewish plot. This is not a plot on the world by Jewish people," he told Jon Ronson.

British journalist Louis Theroux, reviewing Jon Ronson's Them: Adventures with Extremists, cautioned against accusing Icke of anti-Semitism: "Icke's 'theory' is basically The Protocols of the Elders of Zion with a new cast and a few script changes. Not surprisingly, Icke has come under suspicion of anti-Semitism… Not only might it be unfair to Icke, but by implying that he is so dangerous that he has to be censored, the watchdogs are giving a patina of seriousness to ideas that are &mdash; let's face it &mdash; very, very silly."

Protests in Canada
In 1999, following protests from the Canadian Jewish Congress, Icke's books were removed from Indigo Books and Music stores across Ontario, and several venues on his speaking tour were cancelled. Nonetheless, the University of Toronto allowed his planned speech there to go ahead, despite the presence of some 70 protesters &mdash; including the Green Party of Ontario &mdash; outside the Hart House Theatre. Icke received a standing ovation from his audience after speaking for four hours.

University of Toronto law professor Edward Morgan wrote on September 30, 1999 to the university's president, Robert Pritchard: "Having been involved in a number of the more renowned cases in Canada dealing with hate literature, it is my view that this is precisely the type of vilifying material with which the Supreme Court was concerned in its decision regarding the Criminal Code of Canada ban. The publications praise classic anti-Semitic tracts, and are replete with references to a secret society carrying on a global conspiracy led by a manipulating Jewish clique. The material which I have reviewed finds no place in the Canadian marketplace of ideas."

Sumari Communications, which hosted Icke's tour, denied the allegations: "I dispute the anti-Semite issue because the Jewish community has chosen to isolate anti-Semitic quotes in David's books which he himself uses quotes from Jewish authors to prove his theories. No one is forcing these people to be here, but what is important is that they have the choice. It is called freedom and David doesn't even mention the Jews in his talks."

Icke himself addressed the concerns during his speech: "Is this a Jewish plot? No, No, No. Is it a plot? Yes, Yes, Yes. We are being manipulated, and I do not care if you are Jewish, Chinese, Catholic, etc. We are all being manipulated. And those people that are offended by what I have to say, they should choose not to be offended."

Dispute with Richard Warman
Canadian human rights lawyer Richard Warman gave an interview to British journalist Jon Ronson for a documentary on Icke, during which Warman says he helped scupper media interviews and book signings Icke had set up for himself in Canada in 2000. Macleans magazine writes that, despite Warman's efforts, Icke attracted an audience of 1,200 for his lecture that year in a downtown Vancouver theatre.

In 2001, when Icke's Children of the Matrix was published, Warman issued libel notices to Canadian libraries, warning them that the book contained defamatory statements, including the claim that Warman was working to stop the exposure of the abuse and sacrifice of children. The B.C. Libraries Association cited Warman's notices on an Internet database of censorship attempts.

Current activities
Icke has lived in Ryde on the Isle of Wight since 1982, and makes occasional public appearances there.

In January 2003, he travelled to Brazil, and later talked about having used Ayahuasca: "[It] is a plant – a rain forest plant – which they turn in to what they call a turn and Shaman in South America have been using it for centuries at least to take people into other realms of reality… I took it twice and it was an experience – particularly on the 2nd night – that completely transformed my view of life. What it did was take my intellectual understanding that the world is an illusion into the realms of knowing it’s an illusion and there’s a difference between intellectually understanding it’s an illusion and this level of knowing it because you’ve experienced it. I got to the age of 50 without taking a single magic mushroom and I never even had one smoke of pot or anything."

Icke has also been openly critical of Global Warming, viewing it as a hoax, Icke notes the increasing rise in sun spot variation, and the observation of the rising temperature of the climates of other planets within the solar system, viewing global warming as a natural cycle.

Independent politician
In June 2008, Icke announced that he would stand under the name "Big Brother – The Big Picture" during the Haltemprice and Howden by-election on 10 July, though in fact the ballot paper aligned him to no party. Icke stated that he did not expect to win and would not take the oath to Queen required by elected parliamentary politicians if he did win, therefore preventing him from attending Parliament. He came 12th in the polling with 110 votes causing him to lose his deposit.

Pop culture references

 * Film
 * In the 2007 German film "Free Rainer", in the first scene to show the house of the character Phillip (a paranoid techno-nerd and conspiracy-theorist), a camera shot browsing the characters cluttered flat and belongings pans past a collection of black ring binders, all with labels displaying famous clichéd conspiracies. The far right of these ring binders is labeled "David Icke".
 * Television
 * On 26 December 2006, the British television channel Five broadcast "David Icke: Was He Right?"
 * Icke was featured in the third episode of the first season of the comedy duo Penn and Teller's Bullshit! about alien abductions.
 * A similar conspiracy theorist was mentioned in the CSI episode "Leapin' Lizards" in which the murder suspect was involved with a reptilian conspiracy theory, similar to that of David Icke's.
 * Music
 * Leatherface's Bowl of Flies contained the lyrics "David Icke is right/does he need to give his life/to prove that he is right".
 * Ewigkeit's album Radio Ixtlan recommended And the Truth Shall Set You Free as further reading alongside eight other books. This connection to conspiracy was brought to a head with the release of 2005's "Conspiritus" album (Earache records) – a concept album about a dystopian world controlled by the Illuminati.
 * Carter USM's After the Watershed contained the lyrics "Goodbye Ruby Tuesday/ Come home you silly cow/ We've baked a cake and all your friends are waiting/ And David Icke would like to show us how/ To love you back to life again now." The band stated that the lyrics were actually about domestic abuse.
 * Mike Scott of The Waterboys wrote a song called "Sympathy for David Icke," which urges people to look beyond the negative media hype and read David's books. "I'm not saying he's the king, and he himself claims no such thing, He said we all are points of light, and you know what, I think he's right."
 * Clem Snide wrote a song, "The Ballad of David Icke," available on Future Soundtrack for America, that contains the lyrics "The secret rulers of the world / have stolen my girl."
 * In 2006 Daddy X of Kottonmouth Kings in his solo CD "Family Ties" track 10 titled "If I Could" states; "...they say that speech is free. But it's a high price if you're asking me, it's a high price if you're asking me, ask David I-C-K-E..."
 * In 2007 the metal band High On Fire released the song "Cyclopian Scape" on the album Death Is This Communion. The song is heavily influenced by David Icke's theories. In the magazine Terrorizer (Issue 160), Matt Pike has this to say on Icke: "Oh man, I've been reading this David Icke book, and it goes deep into some weird shit about black magic and self-realisation. There's a bunch about Atlantis and Lemuria, how the world's been dominated by alien beings that came to Earth during that time, that have crossbred down through the timeframe. It's pretty complete. I suggest you read 'Children of the Matrix' and 'And the truth will set you free' by David Icke. I was really inspired by that, so I wanna give him some credit. He's crazy as a fuckin' loon but I agree with him on a lot of stuff."
 * In 2007 Tim Bragg released – Song for David – on his album: Take the Fruit?
 * Print
 * In a poll published by BBC Homes and Antiques magazine in January 2006, Icke was voted the third most eccentric star, being beaten by Björk and Chris Eubank.
 * In Adrian Mole: The Wilderness Years, Adrian secretly expresses his respect for Icke and wishes others would treat his theories more seriously.

Books

 * It's a Tough Game, Son, Piccolo Books, 1983. ISBN 0330280473
 * It Doesn't Have To Be Like This, Green Print, 1989. ISBN 1854250337
 * Love Changes Everything, Harper Collins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 1855382474
 * In the Light of Experience: The Autobiography of David Icke, UK, Time Warner Books, 1993. ISBN 0751506036
 * Truth Vibrations, Gateway, 1991 ; Revised edition 1994. ISBN 1858600065
 * Days of Decision, Jon Carpenter Publishing, 1994. ISBN 1897766017
 * The Robot's Rebellion, Gateway, 1994. ISBN 1858600227
 * Heal the World: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Gateway, 1994. ISBN 1858600057
 * …and the Truth Shall Set You Free, UK, Bridge of Love Publications, 1996. ISBN 0953881059
 * I Am Me, I Am Free: the Robot's Guide to Freedom, Truth Seeker, 1996 ; 1998. ISBN 0952614758
 * Lifting the Veil: David Icke interviewed by Jon Rappoport, Truth Seeker, 1998. ISBN 0939040050
 * The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World, UK, Bridge of Love Publications, 1999. ISBN 0952614766
 * Children of the Matrix. How an Interdimensional Race has Controlled the World for Thousands of Years-and Still Does, UK, Bridge of Love Publications, 2001. ISBN 0953881016
 * Alice in Wonderland and the World Trade Center Disaster, UK, Bridge of Love Publications, 2002. ISBN 0953881024
 * Tales from the Time Loop: The Most Comprehensive Expos of the Global Conspiracy Ever Written and All You Need to Know to Be Truly Free, UK, Bridge of Love Publications 2003. ISBN 0953881040
 * Infinite Love Is the Only Truth: Everything Else Is Illusion, USA, Bridge of Love Publications, 2005. ISBN 0953881067
 * The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy (and how to end it), UK, David Icke Books Ltd, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9538810-8-6

DVDs and videos

 * Speaking Out: Who Really Controls the World and What We Can Do About It
 * David Icke: Turning of the Tide (1996)
 * The Reptilian Agenda (1999) (DVD)
 * David Icke: Revelations of a Mother Goddess
 * David Icke: The Freedom Road (2003)
 * David Icke: Secrets of the Matrix, Parts 1–3 (2003) (DVD)
 * David Icke, Live in Vancouver: From Prison to Paradise (2005) (DVD)
 * Freedom or Fascism: The Time to Choose (2006) (DVD)
 * Beyond The Cutting Edge (2008) (DVD)