Meeting David Icke in a cave
GORDON RUTTER meets a controversial conspiracy theory legend and finds that he’s… very nice
David Icke: professional footballer, sports presenter, Green Party spokesman, Son of God, conspiracy theorist. That’s a rough, chronological outline of his public career. He calls himself “a full-time investigator into who and what is really controlling the world”. Or as I said, a conspiracy theorist.
For those of a certain age there is always that Wogan interview, in which a turquoise tracksuit-clad Icke proclaimed himself to be the son of God. Wogan, and a nation, laughed. That was in April 1991 – 28 years ago, and yet everyone remembers it. Since then, Icke has published over 20 books and lectured all over the world to massive audiences, usually for hours on end; in some cases, for over 10 hours. You certainly get your money’s worth. The books are similarly substantial; if the agents of the New World Order are battering at your door you could do worse than arm yourself with a copy of his latest tome, Everything You Need to Know but Have Never been Told, which is 750 pages long.
At the end of 2017 Icke was winding down a world tour that had started the previous year. He had decided to try something a bit different – smaller, more intimate events. The first few of these were tied in with the launch of Everything You Need
to Know and as well as the book launch there was a full meal, some music (from his son Gareth) and a two-hour talk and Q and A. I managed to catch the Edinburgh show on Monday 13 November at the spookily atmospheric Caves, which was sold out (150 people) at £85
Icke says he never wants to tell people what to think
a ticket. Everyone I spoke to was happy to be there and enjoyed the entire evening. Icke wasn’t present for the meal, appearing only after everyone had eaten and then speaking for longer than the planned two hours. No one was complaining (he actually wanted to speak till 1am but the compromise was for everything to finish at 11).
For part of the time that people were eating, Icke was actually present; but we were in a back room having a chat. Like his talk, my promised 10 minutes was extended to a good half hour, so we were able to cover a few different things. First things first: what’s he like as a person? Well – he’s nice. He’s very relaxed and quite happy to talk – the sort of person you’d be happy to chat to in a pub. He also has a message, so when you ask him something he is quite happy to give the message. As he spoke to the audience at the end of the evening I realised that a lot of what he had said to me was what he had planned to say later. What he said was that he never wants to tell people what to think, he just wants people to think of other ways to look at what they are being told – for them to question things more.
That is what he had done; and he found that the more he questioned things the less they stood up to scrutiny. Did he believe the world was being run by shape-changing lizards? Yes; well, sort of. They project a field, and that is what we perceive. At times the field breaks down and we see the non-human frequency rather than the human frequency. Certain bloodlines are hybrids, with these beings in charge of institutions such as banks. There’s the bit that causes a lot of controversy: some people think he is talking about Jews. Some venues have become closed to him at the eleventh hour, but the talks have always gone on. Having heard him speak, having spoken to him, and having read some of his output, do I believe shape-changing lizards is code for Jews? No, I believe he means it: shape-changing lizard ruling elite, baby sacrifices, the lot. The audience loved it. They were all normal people, worried about what they were seeing happening around them. They were looking for answers, and Icke was helping them in their search. I did not hear anything that was racist. I heard a lot of conspiracy material. I heard a lot of exhorting people to think for themselves. And I saw a lot of people having a good time. I’m with Jon Ronson on this: with David Icke, what you see is what you get.
For details of future speaking engagements, including smaller shows, visit www.davidicke.com