Profile of David Icke on Famous Like Me

David Icke (pronounced "Ike," born April 29, 1952) is a former professional football player, reporter, BBC television sports presenter, and British Green Party national spokesperson. Since 1990, he has been what he calls a "full-time investigator into who and what is really controlling the world."

The Green Party distanced itself from him in 1991 after he announced during a television interview that he was a "son of the Godhead." He began to dress only in turquoise and later maintained that the world was ruled by a secret group called "The Elite", or "Illuminati", which he linked to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an anti-Semitic tract. In 1999, he published a book claiming that the world had been taken over by a race of reptiles called the Babylonian Brotherhood, and that some prominent people were in fact lizards, including George H. W. Bush, the Queen Mother, and Kris Kristofferson. He has also claimed that members of the Bush family perform human sacrifices; that Henry Kissinger abuses children; and that Queen Elizabeth II is a satanist.

Icke has further claimed that a small group of Jews, particularly the Rothschild family, financed Adolf Hitler and supported the Holocaust. These claims have led to his speaking tours attracting the interest of British neo-Nazis, particularly Combat 18, as well as facing opposition from Jewish groups and anti-racism activists. In response to these allegations, Icke has strongly denied that he is an anti-Semite, and has stressed his belief that the Illuminati, including the Rothschild family, are lizards, not Jews.

Icke argues that he has developed a moral and political worldview combining a passionate denunciation of what he sees as totalitarian trends in the modern world with a New Age spiritualism. According to Political Research Associates, an American research group that tracks right-wing extremists, Icke's ideas are popular in Canada, where the New Age aspect of his philosophy overshadows his more controversial beliefs. He received a standing ovation after a five-hour speech to students at the University of Toronto in 1999. He is the author of 15 books explaining his views.

Life and career

Icke was born in the city of Leicester in the English Midlands, into a working class family and 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 English league, playing as a goalkeeper until forced to retire 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 radio, regional television, and eventually national television with the BBC, where he became a sports presenter. He left the BBC to become an activist for the Green Party, rising swiftly to the position of national media spokesperson.

In his online autobiography, he writes that, in March 1990, he received a message from the spirit world through a medium. She told him that he was a healer who had been chosen for his courage and sent to heal the earth, and had been directed into football to learn discipline. He was going to leave politics and would become famous, writing five books in three years, and one day there will be a great earthquake, and the "sea will reclaim land", because human beings are abusing the earth.

When Icke told the Green Party leadership what he had experienced, he was immediately banned from speaking at party public meetings. He began to wear only turquoise and in different interviews claimed that he was God or the son of God. In an interview on the Terry Wogan show in 1991, his announcement that he was "a son of the Godhead," and that Britain would be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes, was met with laughter from the studio audience, derision in the press, and suggestions that he was mentally ill. His supporters say that he was in fact describing all humans as children of God, or of some sort of deity, and that the confusion resulted from his scrambling to explain his spiritual apotheosis.

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 reptilian ideas, because he was no longer afraid of what people thought of him.

One of my very greatest fears as a child was being ridiculed in public. And there it was coming true. As a television presenter, I'd been respected. People come up to you in the street and shake your hand and talk to you in a respectful way. And suddenly, overnight, this was transformed into 'Icke's a nutter'. I couldn't walk down any street in Britain without being laughed at. It was a nightmare. My children were devastated because their dad was a figure of ridicule.

He lives in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where he makes occasional public appearances. Some newspapers stated in 2004 that he might appear on the UK Big Brother television programme in 2005, but Icke later said that he was interested in "the REAL Big Brother, not adding to the diversions that allow him to operate unchallenged".

Conspiracy writings

Icke has published 15 books outlining his views, which are a mixture of New Age philosophy and apocalyptic conspiracism, combined with what many interpret as anti-Semitic views. Michael Barkun, in his 2003 study of conspiracy theory subculture, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America, writes that Icke is "the most fluent of conspiracy authors, which gives his writings a clarity rarely found in the genre."

At the heart of Icke's ideas is the belief that the world is being controlled by a secret government. In 1996, in his book ... and the truth will set you free, he claimed this government was financed by bankers and businessmen such as the Rothschilds and Rockefellers, though he later clarified that he believes the Jewish members of the ruling elite are not actually Jews, but lizards. According to British journalist Simon Jones, Icke claims that:

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 ... Now you may be wondering just what nefarious activities these people could possibly get up to. Icke, of course, has the answer. 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 cites the Holocaust, Oklahoma City bombing, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the war in Bosnia, and the September 11, 2001 attacks as examples of events caused by the secret government.

The New-Age aspect of Icke's philosophy, writes Jones, argues that people live in a "multi-dimensional consciousness," and should abandon the false existence the world government provides, which will cause the hierarchy to collapse.

In 1999, Icke wrote and published The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World, in which he said the planet was being run by a New World Order controlled by a race of reptilian humanoids called the "Babylonian Brotherhood". He wrote: "My own resaerch [sic] suggests that it is from another dimension, the lower fourth dimension, that the reptilian control and manipulation is primarily orchestrated. Other people know this as the lower astral dimension, the legendary home of demons and malevolent antities [sic] in their black magic rituals ..."

According to Icke, the reptiles' "hybrid reptilian-human DNA" allows them to change from reptilian to human form if they consume human blood. He has drawn parallels with the 1980s science-fiction series V, in which the earth is taken over by reptiloid aliens disguised as humans.

The reptilian group involves many prominent people and practically every world leader from Britain's late Queen Mother to George H.W. Bush, Bill 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 — the reptilian-mammalian DNA combination which allows them to 'shape-shift'."

He describes "shape-shifting" as a "phenomena in which witnesses have reported seeing people (most often those in positions of power), transform before their eyes, from a human form to a reptilian one and then back again". According to Christine Fitzgerald, a confidante of Diana, Princess of Wales, Diana believed that the British royal family was connected to reptiles and that she had seen them shape-shift.

Icke has since published a number of additional books on the same theme. His latest work sees George W. Bush, also a reptiloid, playing a key role in what Icke alleges is a 9/11 conspiracy (see also Bush family conspiracy theory).

Allegations of anti-Semitism

Icke's theories have been attacked as anti-Semitic because his views of a reptilian takeover amid references to international bankers have echoes of conspiracy theories involving Jews.

Icke has strongly denied that his reptiles represent Jews. "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. He also says that what he calls the "white race" is most susceptible to reptilian influence, particularly white people with blue eyes.

However, Icke's statements that a cabal of Jewish bankers planned the Holocaust and financed Hitler's rise to power are regarded as anti-Semitic by Jewish groups and others. Icke has cited white supremacist, neo-Nazi and other far-right publications in his books. Simon Jones notes that the bibliography of ... and the truth will 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 organized 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."

During a question-and-answer session after one of his lectures, Icke told Jones: "I believe that people have a right to believe, to read, and have access to all information, so that they can then make up their own minds what to think. If something is a nonsense, and if something doesn't stand up, it will be shown to be a nonsense in the spotlight of the public arena."

In 1999, Icke's books were removed from Indigo stores across Ontario, and several venues on his speaking tour were cancelled, after protests from the Canadian Jewish Congress. The University of Toronto allowed his planned speech there to go ahead, despite the presence of 70 protesters, including the Green Party of Ontario, outside the Hart House Theatre. Icke received a standing ovation from the audience after speaking for five 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 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."

British journalist Louis Theroux, reviewing Jon Ronson's Them: Adventures with Extremists, cautioned against accusing Icke 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 — let's face it — very, very silly."

Pop culture references

• Comic book writer Mark Millar developed several plot and character elements of the Marvel Comics series "The Ultimates" (a revamp of "The Avengers") based on Icke's worldview. In creating Thor for a modern audience, Millar gave readers a handsome, blond European with vague ties to radical environmentalist groups, who inexplicably insists that he is the incarnation of that Norse god. As of 2005, the series has remained coy as to whether Ultimate Thor is crazy or divine. Icke also unwittingly contributed the name for an invading reptilian alien race called the Chitauri, called Skrulls in the earlier Avengers series.

• Ewigkeit's album Radio Ixtlan recommends And the Truth Shall Set You Free as further reading alongside 8 other books.

• 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 song is more famous for the inevitable Rolling Stones copyright lawsuit. The band stated that the lyrics were actually about domestic abuse.

• The British cable channel E4, in selling its lineup of Sunday reruns, features a series of ads in which a fruity-voiced, corrupt and letcherous cult leader tempts the audience to join his "Church of Second-Chance Sunday", leading them through his massive mansion staffed by beautiful women and chanting, zombie-like cult members. "And we've just heard," he says enthusiastically in one of the ads, "that David Icke will be joining the Church next week."

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article David Icke