DAVID ICKE
THE TRUTH VIBRATIONS
(AQUARIAN PRESS, LONDON, 1991)
ISBN: 1 85538 136 2
It was while promoting his book on green politics, It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This, that David Icke spent a period of time touring the UK, giving talks to fellow environmentalists, and building up a support base for his relatively new move into politics. So rapid was his rise to virtual leader of the party, just six months from registering as a member, that the ascent left him somewhat bewildered. His move from retired footballer, to sports journalist, to television presenter, was, by general standards, a pretty fast career shift, but the move into green politics was something else. Suddenly attention was focused on ‘David Icke the environmental spokesperson’, at the same time the British press began to circle, some in criticism, and some in praise – with The Observer labelling him ‘the Green’s Tony Blair’. Although he was no stranger to public presentation, or to the gaze of the television camera, the relative calm of reporting on snooker championships for BBC Sports must have seemed a lifetime ago. Icke has since admitted that the period in which he wrote It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This, as well as time spent on the subsequent promotional circuit, was one of great personal despair. Increasingly he was spending time away from his family, often alone in some generic hotel to attend a talk or conference, and this, coupled with a dramatic career shift, which itself came with a dose of intense public scrutiny, no doubt contributed to a growing level of depression for Icke. The spring of 1990 is generally viewed by him as a point of great personal transformation, but whether this was due to some form of spiritual enlightenment, or a nervous breakdown, is open to debate. Nevertheless, a change certainly came.
It was during part of his promotional tour, both for It Doesn’t Have to Be Like This, and green politics in general, that he took opportunity to stay with a couple in a house in Nottingham, likely as a welcome break from another empty and soulless hotel room. Icke has written that he saw his travels into green politics as some kind of spiritual journey, and part of a fundamental change in his thinking that had been developing for several years. It is no surprise then that the couple he stayed with in Nottingham were also interested in spiritualism, even going so far as to claim that their lives were being guided by spirits. During an evening spent with them, Icke was given a book, an account of a psychic medium, the contents of which he subsequently gorged upon. His interests in such subjects grew rapidly, and although he had held interests in alternative medicines for some years, as a way to help his arthritis, he now found himself questioning the nature of the universe. Not long after his trip to Nottingham he was again away from home, sat alone in some hotel or other, though this time vocally calling out to the spirits to contact him. Desperate for such contact, he would soon convince himself he had found it, and The Truth Vibrations details his first year after this supposed episode of spiritual enlightenment.
One Saturday in early 1990, as Icke describes it, whilst out with his young son, he stopped at the newsagents next to Ryde station, on the Isle of Wight, and was drawn to the selection of paperback books at the end of the shop. One particular book that caught his eye was Mind to Mind (1989), by Betty Shine. This book had spent several weeks on The Sunday Times best-seller list, and so its inclusion in a stack of train station paperbacks was not some mysterious happenstance (as Icke would later imply), nevertheless he took the book as a great sign, and felt compelled to take it, devouring its contents over the next twenty-four hours, he became hooked on the Betty Shine message. Shine was a self-proclaimed psychic, spiritual healer, and medium, who produced a range of books throughout her career, her final work, A Free Spirit (2002), published in the year of her death. She is best known for her ‘mind’ series of books, beginning with Mind to Mind, and including others such as Mind Magic (1991), and Mind Waves (1993). Betty herself had suffered for years from choking fits, dizziness, and palpitations, and considered medical doctors unable to adequately treat her issues. Instead she turned to to a medium, Charles Horrey, who told her that her illness was the result of a build-up of latent energy. Horrey also told Betty that he could cure her, and that her unused energy could allow her to become a powerful medium herself. Soon setting up her own energy healing practice, she made claims that she was able to see a persons mind energy, which appeared to her like a biblical halo above a persons head.
Not long after reading Mind to Mind, Icke contacted Betty Shine, soon they had arranged an appointment together, principally so she could begin energy healing his arthritis. Icke had several meetings with Betty, but it was during his third session, on 29th March 1990, that he had, as he claims, a life-changing experience. The previous meetings with Betty had, according to Icke, been enjoyable, but without incident, but this third meeting felt different. The atmosphere within Betty’s room became thick with energy, Icke began to feel hairs moving across his cheek, convinced he was locking into some great spiritual consciousness. Betty spoke to him, ready to divulge great revelations, he listened intently – one of your cats has diarrhoea David, you may have to change her diet. Soon after, Betty upped her game, and began channelling messages from Wang Yee Lee, a supposed ancient master of wisdom. The information passed on to Icke informed him that the Earth was due some cataclysmic collapse, with earthquakes powerful enough to shift the poles of the planet. It was, according to Wang Yee Lee, Ickes duty to act as a healer for the Earth.
Icke took such a revelation in his stride, claiming he wasn’t that surprised by it all. Not long after there was a minor tremor reported on the BBC occurring near the town of Bishop’s Castle on the English-Welsh border. Equally one of his cats’ offerings of faecal matter was indeed a bit loose. This was sufficient evidence for Icke that all of what Wang Yee Lee has said was true. Soon Icke felt compelled to buy another book, this time from a health food store, the book – We Are The Earthquake Generation (1978), by Jeffrey Goodman. Goodman is an independent archaeologist, with a PhD in anthropology from California Coast University, an institution with a somewhat questionable history of awarding non-accredited degrees (it is the same organisation that awarded UFO enthusiast Kevin Randle with his PhD). Goodman’s ideas are viewed by mainstream archaeology as, at best, controversial, and at worst, as complete pseudoscience. In the late 1970s Goodman was an avid follower of psychic archaeology – the use of extrasensory perception to locate sites for archaeological digs, such as through remote viewing, channeling, or through the use of dowsing rods. Goodman’s writings also exposed Icke to various concepts as promoted by Edgar Cayce, an American clairvoyant who was influential in shaping New Age beliefs at the start of the twentieth century. Cayce made claims regarding Atlantis, the benefits of an alkaline rich diet, astral projection, as well as being a supporter of polygenism – the belief that humans are made up of at least five distinct, and separate races. Edgar Cayce was also an avid psychic archaeologist, engaging in remote viewing as a method of observing the ancient Akashic records – a supposed compendium of all human events as described in the belief of Theosophy.
The third chapter of The Truth Vibrations, ‘Letters from the Gods’, makes clear Ickes embracing of the concept of Theosophy. An esoteric spiritualist movement that has its roots in late nineteenth century America, Theosophy was founded in large part by, and also based on the writings of, Helena Blavatsky, an aristocratic Russian-German émigré. Theosophy borrows numerous things, including its own name, from pre-existing religions, mythologies, occult practices, and fringe philosophical belief structures. Very briefly, much of Theosophy concerns spiritual masters who guide humanity toward a next great evolutionary phase, and do so by tapping into the energy of the Solar Logos, literally pulling humanity physically closer toward the Sun (our Solar Deity). Much of this belief system concerns ideas around reincarnation and karma, with actions in our past lives impacting on our tangible circumstances and experiences in our current life, as we progress on a journey of spiritual development. Icke certainly has some curious ideas involving karma. He claims that people do not suffer mental illness or physical disabilities by chance, rather, they are being given such life experiences as a lesson for their soul – as no doubt in a past life they have treated someone badly, or need experience in overcoming suffering. Cot deaths too, are, according to Icke, purely the result of karma.
Icke began to be guided by a collective of psychics and energy healers, tapping into the energies of the earth, or the Godhead as he describes it – a phrase he would spend several years explaining following the publication of The Truth Vibrations. It was again whilst on a speaking tour for green politics, this time in Birmingham, that Icke used some of his free time to converse with representatives for Kindred Spirit magazine, a publication for people interested in spiritual matters. He was soon put in touch with another psychic, who this time held several automatic writing sessions with Icke. These meetings expanded his circle of like minded individuals, it was also how he was introduced to Deborah Shaw, a spiritual teacher, and shamanic sound healer, who would be a significant influence on Icke for several years.
Through such meetings Icke started journeying the UK, exploring Ley lines and ancient stone circles, in a bid to heal various energy blockages. The chapter ‘Spirit of the Stones’ recounts a number of these adventures. Much of this seems to involve Icke travelling around the British countryside, with a psychic he calls John, who together place stones and rocks in certain locations, whilst Joan, another energy healer, would use her body as a filter for special frequencies, guided by some chanting and singing, until the energy balance of the site was restored. To aid their quest, the group were also being guided by invisible extra-terrestrial entities operating on a non-physical plane. Notable sites included a potato field, the ruins of Jervaulz Abbey, and a BBC transmitter tower in Warwickshire. Icke spends some time explaining the evils of the transmitter tower – it was, apparently, doing awful harm to the Earth’s energy grid. It was also around about the time when, in August 1990, his contract with the BBC was terminated, due in large part to his vocal refusal to pay Community Charge, a local tax scheme introduced by then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
After saving the British Isles from impending environmental collapse – John had informed the group he had received psychic confirmation that the energy lines through England had been cleared – Icke began spending time with another psychic, Judy Hall. Hall is a past-life therapist, and karmic astrologer, who has now produced over forty books, including Principles of Past Life Therapy (1996), The Art of Psychic Protection (1997), and more recently Crystal Prescriptions: The A-Z Guide To Creating Crystal Essences for Abundant Well-Being, Environmental Healing and Astral Magic (2019). It was a series of communications guided by Judy Hall that first introduced Icke to his spirit guide – the ascended master Rakorczy, Lord of the seventh ray. Ickes’ Rakorczy is also very likely the same Master Rakoczi who frequents various bits of literature from Theosophy. It was revealed to Icke that Rakorczy has had numerous incarnations here on Earth, including a High Priest of Atlantis, Joseph (father of Jesus), Merlin (of King Arthur fame), Christopher Columbus, Count Saint-Germain of France, and Francis Bacon (the English philosopher and advisor to Queen Elizabeth, not Francis Bacon the artist). Ickes’ own past-lives are subsequently explored, and include a Welsh Celt, a member of the Knights Templar, a Napoleonic General, an American witch, and Anthony Bacon, brother to Francis.
Ickes’ frequenting of psychics and fortune tellers continues, as described through the final few chapters of The Truth Vibrations. Another session of spirit communication, this time via automatic writing produced by a sensitive in Northamptonshire, claimed contact with Attarro, Avatar of the Alchemians. Attarro, according to Icke, told that the Earth had been trying to communicate via crop circles, and that a great healing would need to take place. A meeting in Calgary, as a detour from an animal rights conference in America that he was attending, reunited Icke with Deborah Shaw, the sound healer he had come into contact with through Kindred Spirit magazine. Together the pair summoned the ‘spirit forms of Indians’ and asked them to help cleanse the ground around them, apparently, if such spirits do exist, they needed to wait for two energy healers from the East Midlands to get approval for such a task. In thanks Icke was gifted with the protection of a red-eyed eagle, and also, as proclaimed by Deborah Shaw, it was decided in a past life he had also been the Chief of the Peigan Indians.
Much of The Truth Vibrations reads like a stream of consciousness from someone gradually taking increasing doses of some hallucinogenic drug. By the start of chapter eight, ‘Journey to Aquarius’, Icke is claiming that he, as well as the rest of his family, are reincarnations of souls from the planet Oerael, who later spent time living in Atlantis. The book details less than one year of transition, seven months it is claimed at one point, during which time he journeys from ‘curious about alternative medicine’, through to, ‘I am in regular contact with a reincarnated spirit of a high priest of Atlantis’. The change is swift for sure, and Ickes’ acceptance of every New Age concept he comes into contact with does somewhat parallel his rapid surge through the ranks of green politics. The question really, is, what was the point of The Truth Vibrations? According to Icke, its purpose was to provide a basic explanation of the Universe, and to prepare us for the imminent transformation for life on Earth. I’m not sure he achieves that, to any extent, the great environmental shifts he predicts at the end of the book, massive earthquakes, volcano eruptions, and the shifting of the poles of the planet, never emerged through the 1990s as he foretold – though to be fair, he did drop in a disclaimer, that ‘the exact details are subject to revision’. It is really a book about the transition of David Icke, rather than anything, or anyone else. Its overarching theme, in a superficial sense, being one of restoring an inner harmony with nature, and following your own ‘energies’, the unintentional subtext however reads more as a catalogue of manipulation, as Ickes’ world view is distorted by a catalogue of psychics, energy healers and others who seem keen to use him as an outlet for their own concerns. Icke finishes the book stating that he is aware its publication will produce laughter, ridicule and condemnation, but he is prepared for what will follow. In preparation of this, he resigned from the Green Party in March 1991, telling audience members at a conference that he was about to be at the centre of a ‘tremendous and increasing controversy’. Soon after he held a press conference of his own, and in advance of the release of The Truth Vibrations announced to those in attendance that he was the Son of the Godhead, and further that the world would end in 1997. Icke was ready for the greatest challenge of his life, though he hadn’t prepared for mild-manner chat show host Terry Wogan, with whom he agreed to meet in April. If the journey described within The Truth Vibrations was a personal one, then that journey was soon about to become very public indeed.