A Little History of Giants: Update

Wow. First off I've been so totally distracted by visits to my family, the pub and work that I've been unable to work on my current giant project. So today, before a quick lunch, I thought I'd finish off my first post... whereby I followed some leads and ended up discovering so much material that I'm now having to split things up even more... and thus have delayed myself even further.

So my first post WILL be done by tonight, even if I have to stop enjoying my Sunday, and it will be based solely on evidence from religious texts regarding giants... who knew about the Abrahamic Book of Giants? Not me... until now!

Blessed Be, It's Samhain

No serious post today, just like Buffy used to say no paranormal entity would be seen out on Halloween... it's so uncool!

As someone who only gave up their pagan faith a couple of years ago, I still feel Samhain is a special day. I hope you find it peaceful and relaxing. Don't worry I'm over that fad...

On my other blogs it's sort of a Samhain tradition to show the Hocus Pocus clip of Bette Midler singing "I Put A Spell On You" but I thought I'd subvert that tradition for you, My Dear Constant Reader, and instead place a rather enchanting long version of another song from that movie... "Come Little Children"



Tonight is the night to grab a cheesy horror movie, curl up with someone you love (pets do fine) and scare/laugh yourself silly. I recommend Killer Klowns From Outer Space



Of course they aren't half as scary as Pennywise...



Or, if you're feeling brave, you could spent the night with Jason, Freddy... or Michael...



But don't watch anything after Halloween II (other than Halloween H20) or else you will suffer a face worse than death... you'll have to live with the memories of those terrible movies for the rest of you life. Trust me. I've watched Halloween 6. I know the pain...

Further Reading

It by Stephen King - I have a policy of reading this book once a year. It's like a cross between a really heartwarming tale of a perfect children's summer mixed with the truly horrific events of a bloody serial killer rampage with an added touch of alien mischief. It's the scariest book I've ever read. If you have not read it, I demand you get off the internet this instant and get a copy. You will not regret doing it.

Giants Part One: The Set Up

One of my memories as a child is peeking out my bedroom window one night and seeing a giant red haired man walking across the fence between my garden and the neighbours. Of course I was almost certainly dreaming but it's a memory that has stuck with me anyway... now I, myself, am the giant wandering through the sea of short people. Being 2.03m (6'8") I feel an affinity for those who truly are giants, and maintain an interest in both the mythology and the history of the tall. This post will not cover all the history, mythology or finds about/of giants but is intended merely to set the scene of a series over the next week or so (ok two weeks if we count all the days I skive off posting...)

Now what is a giant? Most people have different ideas but my criteria, for these posts, is simple... anyone who was taller than Robert Wadlow, the tallest man known to have existed, he was a trifing 2.72m (8'11.1") tall. So really we are talking about anyone who was 9 foot tall or above. It's the height above which we know of no one and thus is worthy of special attention. Could anyone have really reached this height in our history? Check out the following documentary on Robert Wadlow so you can really get a feel for just how tall he was.



Across the world's literary traditions, even into the modern day, giants feature widely. Sometimes benevolent, often violent, could these creatures be anything more than fantasy? Reports have been made of extremely large skeletons being found in the Americas, perhaps there is more to the legends than first meets the eye.

For as long as there have been giants, there have been insecure short guys trying to start fights with them.

So tomorrow we'll look at the giants of myth, then after that the giants of history and finally the evidence they just might show us that the giants of the past weren't just figments of the imagination...

Apologies

Sorry to say there is again no proper post today. I'm working on a series of posts about a topic close to my heart (as a tall person); giants. I was planning on completing the first today, but now realise I have to go down the pub. Darn it... ;)

But just something to consider: my other half has made me rather jealous by vlogging on Youtube. As the person in our relationship who is meant to be ahead in social media terms I was wondering if I should do a Moonlight Investigation podcast. Most the weird and paranormal orientated podcasts out there are either done by crazy people with no sceptical analysis or stop after just a few episodes. What do you think? I'll try and do a test one by the middle of November and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Anyway... I'm off to drink myself silly whilst answering quiz questions... wish me luck!!

Snodland Big Cat Not So Big But Still Bigger Than A Small Cat

That's the verdict of Cryptomundo and Big Cats In Britain. It's a shame... check out my post on the original story here

Link with thanks to Kent Big Cat Research

The Mongolian Death Worm

The Mongolian Death Worm (known locally as allghoi khorkhoi [intestine worm]) is not very well known outside of cryptozoological circles. The reasons for this are pretty obvious; there's no media friendly pictures, very little hard evidence and it's supposedly based in the Gobi Desert which is not a good place for investigating. But nevertheless, once you've heard about the Mongolian Death Worm, you won't soon forget about it!


It has been described thus:

"Sausage-like worm over half a metre (20 inches) long, and thick as a man’s arm, resembling the intestine of cattle. Its tail is short, as [if] it were cut off, but not tapered. It is difficult to tell its head from its tail because it has no visible eyes, nostrils or mouth. Its colour is dark red, like blood or salami… It moves in odd ways – either it rolls around or squirms sideways, sweeping its way about. It lives in desolate sand dunes and in the hot valleys of the Gobi desert with saxaul plants underground. It is possible to see it only during the hottest months of the year, June and July; later it burrows into the sand and sleeps. It gets out on the ground mainly after the rain, when the ground is wet. It is dangerous, because it can kill people and animals instantly at a range of several metres."
Ivan Mackerle, an explorer from the Czech Republic

What gives it the name "Death Worm" and allows it to kill at a range of "several metres"?

Well three things:

1) it is said to be able to spray an acidic, poisonous substance at it's prey and when threatened.
2) it is also, rather more bizarrely, supposedly able to electrocute others at a distance of several metres like some sort of land based electric eel.
3) if it's failed to stop you with electricity or acid then it has one final trick up it's sleeve... one touch and you'll die instantly.

Whilst any attempts by explorers or researchers to find this creature have ended in failure, local eyewitness testimony is both numerous and consistent, rendering at least some credibility to claims of the existence of this outlandish creature.

Well supposedly, whilst the testimony is consistent and numerous it tends not to be from an eyewitness but from a friend of a friend. I've had a look around and only this third hand account from Dr. Karl Shuker's awesome book "The Beasts That Hide From Man".

"My brother living in Oboto Chajun aimak knew a man who encountered an allghoi khorkhoi. His name was Altan. Once he returned with a friend from a neighbouring camp. They were riding their horses, and it was just after noon, on a day in July. The sun was shining..."

"Suddenly Altan's friend's horse fell down. The rider stood up and went to the horse, but suddenly cried out and fell again. Altan was 5 metres behind and saw a big fat worm slowly crawling away. Altan stood in horror and then ran to his friend. But he was dead, and so too was his horse."

Unnamed herdsman

What could it be?

Richard Freeman who lead a Centre of Fortean Zoology expedition, codenamed Operation Death Worm, says:

"I don't think that it's a worm at all. True worms need moisture. I think it is a limbless, burrowing reptile, probably a giant member of a group of reptiles known as amphisbaenas or worm lizards. These are a primitive group of poorly studied animals. They are not snakes or lizards but are related to both. I think the Death Worm is a giant member of this group."

Personally I find the claims of it's use of electricity to be quite outlandish, the amount of power needed for that without the aid of salty water would be fairly immense. But these of course could be misidentification of some other mechanism so perhaps it might be true. However more depressing is the lack of first hand eyewitness testimony. The quality and nature of the stories take on the feel of a Mongolian "Urban" legend and do not impress me too greatly. But unlike bigfoot or Nessie there is one thing in favour of the existence of this creature; if it truly is as deadly as believed then there might not be that many people who've survived long enough to report an encounter...

Check out the video below for a little look at another expedition in search of the elusive worm...



P.S. Check out this Prague Post interview with Ivan Mackerle, the man who has done the most to research and attempt to find the Mongolian Death Worm.

Further Reading

Ghosts Of South East Asia

I love South East Asia! For two major reasons:

1) I've spent 2 months in Thailand over the last two years and I'm absolutely head over heels in love with the place and,
2) After the United States and the United Kingdom, Malaysia is the third highest country of origin for readers to this blog.

So I thought I'd do an occasional series on ghost stories from that part of the world. Today's story will be from Thailand...

Thais are, on the whole, an extremely religious people. They practice a form of Buddhism that borrows heavily from Hinduism and spirit worship and this has lead to belief in ghosts and spirits being rather high across the Thai population. Belief in spirits is so well established that it is a common feature of Thai life and little highlights this better than the Thai door threshold.

Every door I've ever encountered in Thailand has a raised threshold which makes it necessary to always watch your step when entering buildings (newbie note: always watch your step in Thailand, their pavements tend to be... uneven)! One reason for this was structural (due to the weird traditional Thai building methods every little bit of support was welcome), and another practical (Thais are, originally, a water people so having a raised threshold helped keep babies from escaping and falling into a body of water). But the third reason is the one I'm interested in; the threshold keeps spirits (especially evil ones!) from getting into or moving around the home (another newbie note: don't step on the threshold, always step over it)

A lot of the idiosyncrasies of Thai life also reflect this, such as every Thai having a nickname (in order to confuse and dissuade the evil spirits, i.e. the Thai baby will be given a nice name but will only be referred to a nickname such as Ling [monkey] so that the spirits will think them unworthy of further attention. Genius!).

But the Thais fear of spirits has had one beneficial effect; the creation of beautiful spirit houses that almost every building in Thailand has. The reason is to give the spirits, who lived on the land before the building was built, a nice place to live! Generally it'll be in the most prime position on the land plot so as to keep those location sensitive spirits happy. I love spirit houses!

Mae Nak of Phra Khanong

A Shrine To Mae Nak on Suhkumvit Road

The tale of Mae (Nang) Naak is a cross between a historical ghost story, an urban legend and a boogieman story used by parents to scare their children into doing things they want them to do (don't you just love boogieman stories, proving once and for all... parents suck).

Thanks to these origins there are probably more versions of this story out there than there are Disney ripoffs of old fashioned fairy tales. And the story is very popular, leading to over 20 hit movies based around the various tales. I'm going to focus on the one I think is most widely known. But be aware it's not the only version out there!!

During the reign of Rama IV in the mid 18th Century, Mae Nak fell in love with, and married, a man named Nai Maak. Their love was deep but whilst Mae was pregnant with their child Maak was called off to war.

He was seriously injured and was forced to stay in Bangkok whilst he recovered. While he is there Mae went into labour, but both she and her unborn baby died during childbirth. Their neighbours in their home village quickly bury the bodies, Mae's spirit is too strong to be held by their hastily arranged grave.

Maak returns home, not knowing the fate of his wife and child, and finds much to his relief nothing amiss. His wife and his newborn child are there waiting for him as though nothing untoward had happened.

He is under a spell and his neighbours attempts to warn him that his wife is dead end in failure. Mae, enraged at their intrusion, slaughters brutally any that try to get Maak to understand the truth.

But even she is unable to hide the truth forever and one day makes a mistake. Whilst cooking in the kitchen she drops a lemon which falls through a hole into the cellar below. In her haste to finish the meal she decides not to go and get it by using the stairs and instead elongates her arm to reach down to the floor below and fetch the lemon. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your viewpoint, Maak sees this and his eyes are opened to the true nature of his wife.

That night Maak hatches a plan. As they lie together in bed, he pretends he needs to relieve himself. He goes outside, grabbing a pot of water on the way and precedes to cut a hole in the pot. As it drains away, creating the illusion of him going about his business, he sneaks away from the house.

It is not long before Mae discovers his deceit and heads off after him through the wilds around their home. Maak attempts to hide from her, including successfully concealing himself inside a Blumea bush (something legends now say Mae is scared of).

She eventually tracks him to Phra Khanong, but he seeks sanctuary in the local temple, Wat Mahabut and she is unable to pursue him onto the holy ground. Instead she unleashes her rage upon the local populace for daring to keep her from her beloved until finally she is exorcised by means of being captured in a pot and unceremoniously dumped into the nearby river.

But the story doesn't end there, for Mae supposedly terrorises people to this day and is still searching for her true love, Maak.

Some stories suggest that after being cast into the pot she escaped to terrorise an elderly couple. Finally Somdet Phra Phutthachan (a rather famous Buddhist monk) defeated her and used part of her skull to make a belt buckle. Rumour has it the belt buckle is currently in the possession of the Thai Royal Family.

Despite her murderous rampages, the Thai people generally like Mae Nak because of her devotion to her husband, hence why there are shrines to her. Just proves the old adage one persons terrifying mass murdering spooks is another persons hero...

You can watch the 1999 movie "Nang Nak" on youtube (Part one is here in Thai) or check out the more recent trailer for the 2005 movie "The Ghost of Mae Nak" below.



Further... Watching

Mammoth Quickie

So... one of my favourite things to do is to read and watch the words and broadcasts of crazy folks. That's why one of my favourite sites is Fundies Say The Darndest Things. In a similar vein there's a few Youtube feeds that I indulge in every so often for kicks and giggles. Below is a very recent video from one of the more insane, but strangely sane sounding, youtubers I watch.



Around about 5 and half minutes in he talks about Mammoths freezing and a little slide comes up saying "Along with all the OTHER dinosaurs" (my capitals added). Mammoths were not dinosaurs!! Sadness... even if you believe in a young Earth, surely you can recognise the difference between the dinosauria and mammalia?

So much bad science in that video my head exploded, and it had only just got itself back together after the time he had suggested the LHC was/is (I don't know his timeframe) actually going to create a wormhole to Hell.

But it did remind me of a good post by Nick Redfern about the possible continued survival of mammoths into the modern age

The Last Dinosaurs

Imagine, you are hiking through the undergrowth of some far distant jungle. As you concentrate on not tripping over or sinking into the mud, you nonchalantly brush aside an oversized leaf in your way and, after regaining your balance as you nearly fall over a cliff, you see there before you a valley that takes your breath away... and it's beauty is not the only thing causing you to gasp... for there rising above the trees is the long, unmistakable neck of a sauropod.

Fantasy? Or could members of the superorder Dinosauria have survived into the modern day to share this world with their successors the mammals and the birds?

Christian Craziness? Erm... yes.

According to our current understanding of natural history the dinosaurs, along with many other orders of animals such as the pterosaurs, died out about 65 million years ago. But some claim that not only did they not die out but that they continued to live through to, at the very least, the "recent" past or even to this day. And a few even claim to have encountered creatures they have identified as dinosaurs.

What's the evidence?

Dragons are often proposed as incorrectly identified dinosaurs. Could our ancestors stories of giant reptilian monsters be based upon early humans encounters with the last remnants of a surviving population of dinosaurs?

It wasn't an asteroid! Did St. George hunt the dinosaurs into extinction?

The idea is beguiling, but there is far more evidence of a different understanding of the origins of dragons. For instance the heraldic dragon (i.e. the stereotypical dragon which could easily pass for a badly drawn dinosaur) is NOT what a dragon of British folklore was originally meant to look like. In fact almost all dragon myths were based on giant worm like creatures such as the Lambton worm. It was only later that British dragons were reimagined as having legs and appearing as we now know them. This image was aided by the use of dragon imaginary to symbolise the superiority of Christianity over pagans (dragons) by the Christian authorities in the early years of the Christian church on our islands. But the British Isles were not alone in believing in dragons, dragon myths appear from around the world. Hmm... surely if dinosaurs were so widespread within such recent times would there not be more evidence of their existence? But there are no modern bones, footprints nor any evidence whatsoever of these ancient encounters with dinosaurs.

Perhaps, just perhaps, people finding fossils of dinosaurs may have been so impressed that they invented the dragons to explain these finds. But more likely the dragon was the UFO of it's day. It is known many societies considered the sighting of anything unusual (such as lights in the sky) to be indicative of the presence of dragons.

Kent Hovind, a former evangelist creationist and current inmate of Federal Correctional Institution Edgefield in South Carolina, is a keen proponent of dragons. He suggests they were simply killed off by humans along with all the other megafauna whereever we settled. Hmm... but we have evidence of the other megafauna, why is there no physical evidence of dragons during that same time period? Of course that's not a problem for him, he thinks the whole world is only 6000 years old. He claims that prehistoric paintings and ancient pottery designs are evidence of dinosaur contact. This is a sort of backhanded insult towards our ancestors. Do people really not believe that they had imagination, and creativity equal to our own? Why is it we believe ourselves to be able to comprehend abstract concepts but everything our ancestors did is interpreted literally? Our ancestors were just as intelligent as we are today. That's why we are here. Plus he keeps calling pterosaurs and plesiosaurs "dinosaurs". That annoys me. It's fine to call them dinosaurs for shorthand purposes in casual conversation. But if you are going to have a lecture about dinosaurs and related prehistoric orders it'd be nice to refer to them by their "kinds" as he insists on doing for everything else, using that stupid childish term. Check out one of his lectures on dinosaurs below, for entertainment purposes only!



But despite my quick dismissal of dragons, people still claim to encounter them. There's a couple of pictures here. But whether you believe those sightings or not, a flying dragon is not a dinosaur. A flying dinosaur is called something quite different, which we will come to at the end...

So have there been any sightings of actual dinosaurs? Well of course there's mokele-mbembe. Reports come from western Africa of a large long necked creature whose tracks are round. What could it be? Some believe it to be a dinosaur.



Whilst locals have been talking about mokele-mbembe for a long time the first European to reference it was probably a French missionary working along the Congo river named Abbé Lievain Bonaventure. He reported that he encountered footprints which he says was created by something that ""must have been monstrous: the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, and these formed a print about three feet in circumference."

Other than sightings that were heard about or tracks that were seen by European adventurers the first time someone claimed first hand to have seen the mysterious creature was in 1932. Zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson claimed he observed a creature with a long neck lurch into a river and said it was dark coloured with a head the size of a hippo! That would be a very large animal indeed.

Most reports place it at about 15 to 30 feet (9.1 m) long. That would probably be too small for a long necked animal to have a head the size of a hippo though...

Locals claim several things about the mokele mbembe. They say it eats the flowering liana, that where it lives it clears the area of hippos and crocodiles, and that eating it is a bad idea indeed (thanks to a story of a tribe who killed and ate one and subsequently all died of poisoning).

Many expeditions have been to search for the animal but most have failed either due to not seeing it at all or suffering the usual camera malfunctions.

My problem with identifying mokele-mbembe as a dinosaur is that it stretches credibility too far with little evidence. Could it not just as easily be a member of the Hyracodontidae or some other extinct line? Why do people automatically assume it must be a sauropod dinosaur simply because it has a long neck and tail? Laziness? Giraffes have long necks, and they are mammals. Just because it looks like a sauropod does not a dinosaur make, has no one ever heard of convergent evolution? *Probably not, creationists who are big fans of mokele-mbembe don't believe in evolution after all* Hmm... that of course presumes that the mokele-mbembe exists at all and is not either a made up creature or a misidentified known one.

There are many other African "dinosaurs" such as the chipekwe, the emela-ntouka (elephant killer), Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu (the animal with planks growing out of it's back or shorthand for creationists "stegosaurus"), the nguma-monene and the mahamba (supposedly a 50 foot long crocodilian so not really a dinosaur. If anything I've got my fingers crossed for a phobosuchus).

Africa isn't the only place to have remnant dinosaurs... taken from another cryptozoological creationist site

In 1907, British Army officer Major Percy Fawcett was commissioned to settle a dispute between Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil concerning borders. While venturing deep into Amazon jungle he encountered an animal which he called a diplodocus. Major Fawcett was regard as a honest, “meticulous recorder of facts.

I desperately, desperately want there to be real live dinosaurs roaming the Earth still. But I can see no reason to accept there is when 1) there are no modern bones of dinosaurs (megalania is NOT a dinosaur, so don't try that old one on me!), 2) an ancient form of mammal (something more likely than a dinosaur to exist still, even if it's only slightly more likely) might have the same sort of skin as a stereotypical depiction of a dinosaur and look quite similar, 3) most eyewitness accounts are hearsay and many represent native folklore rather than fact and 4) the world is quite a different place now and if dinosaurs did survive past 65 million years they would look quite different...

Speaking of which... there's a brilliant news story today on the evolution of dinosaurs into birds. The theory that evolution seems to have started even earlier than previously thought seems to be proven in the form of Epidexipteryx. Because bird is just another word for "flying dinosaur". They really do still walk the Earth... and sometimes grace our skies too.

Much of the discussion of dinosaurs in the modern world is generated by creationists who form a significant part of the cryptozoological community. Their hope is that the existence of dinosaurs today would help support their belief in a young Earth. How it would is beyond me... the idea of dinosaurs existing today would not damage the theory of evolution. So for now I shake my head in bemusement at their lack of knowledge of what is and isn't a dinosaur (mosasaur... not a dinosaur) and head off to dream of one day encountering a herd of parasaurolophus. Now that'd be something to behold!

Further Reading

David Icke

David Icke, leading proponent of a philosophy many call "New Age conspiracism". Some consider him to be an enlightened fighter against the injustice of modern Western society, while others think he is a crackpot, a loon, or, worse still, an attention seeking con artist.

David Icke's beliefs stem, by his own admission, not from the head but from the heart. And I truly do believe he is a good person trying to do what he believes is right. But the things he proposes can at times seem unbelievable and crazy.

By 1990, after a varied career as a football player, reporter and TV presenter, David Icke had become a national spokesperson for the Green Party (England and Wales branch... I vote for them in EU elections but their anti Union and republican ethos means I must withhold my vote at UK elections). It was in that year that he began to express his spiritual side on a national level, and it was the year he became a laughing stock in the United Kingdom. I'll let the Guardian give you an idea of what happened:

In 1990 David Icke was a TV sports reporter/commentator tipped for the top. Then he visited a medium in Brighton called Betty Shine who, having chatted to Socrates (the philosopher not the footballer), was able to pass on the information that he was the Son of God.

Humbled, Icke instructed all his followers to wear turquoise tracksuits and travelled the world making prophesies (e.g Teesside and Kent would shortly be underwater following earthquakes measuring eight on the Richter scale). None of his prophecies came true.

'My predictions were meant to be wrong on a massive scale because I have always been scared of ridicule,' said Icke. 'Unless you have experienced hot and cold you cannot know what lukewarm is.' In later years he modified some core beliefs: 'Turquoise is an important colour,' he revealed, 'but you don't have to wear it all the time.'

Check out his early nineties appearance on Wogan (good old Wogan!)... this was not long after the Green Party had told him to, erm, step down as a spokesperson.



Following his brush with total ridicule and almost total craziness Icke moved to make things a little more sensible releasing book after book, in which he starts to crystalise his world view.

Icke set out his understanding of the way our world works. Firstly he believes the world to be controlled by a group of elites called the Brotherhood at the top of which stands the "Illuminati" or "Global Elite." They wish to control the entire planet and use many different means to gain power; economic and political control and subtle mind enslaving techniques.

He likes to believe that these people are left side of the brain thinkers, who use their "intellect" too much and don't listen to their "heart". And, being intellectually focused, these elites love structure and rule the world through what he calls a "pyramid of manipulation" with different levels of power running through multiple organisations such as the Governments, banks and corporations of the world. At the top it is lead by the "Prison Warders" who are not human. This is the most famous (or infamous) part of his philosophy.

David Icke believes that many of our worlds leaders and highly power citizens are in fact aliens or alien controlled hybrids. These aliens are reptilian humanoids and that they have been slowly taking over our world and spreading their bloodline throughout since the time of the Sumerians. He believes they moved from Sumeria, through to controlling the Roman Empire and from there spread out with the European colonisation of the planet to seats of power around the world. Their plan, so he says, is set out in the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The members of this Elite are either direct incarnations of the fourth- dimensional Prison Warders or have their minds controlled by them. The aim of the Brotherhood and its interdimensional controllers has been to centralise power in the hands of the few. This process is now very advanced and it is happening on a global scale today thanks to modern technology. The game-plan is known as the Great Work of Ages or the New World Order, and it presently seeks to introduce a world government to which all nations would be colonies; a world central bank and currency; a world army; and a micro-chipped population connected to a global computer. What is happening today is the culmination of the manipulation which has been unfolding for thousands of years.

He believes that people have encountered these creatures in their natural form, sometimes accidentally, and there are plenty of people out there who back this up with their own stories.



But his conspiracy theories aren't all he talks about, he also believes that we are all "infinite consciousness" viewing the world in different ways. He considers this life to be an "experience", not the end game for us but something we should try to enjoy while we can. He hates the Westernisation of other countries, and believes this is a sign of the new world order. He hates "sheeple" (although I doubt he's ever called them that).

I believe that the human race has developed a form of collective schizophrenia in which we are not only the slaves to this imposed thought behavior, but we are also the police force of it. The reason most people don't express their individuality and actually deny it, is not fear of what prime ministers think of us or the head of the federal reserve, It's what their families and their friends down at the bar are going to think of them. Source: Leading Edge Newspaper, July/August 1996

Here I feel he has a point, the capitalist, Western way of living is not natural nor is it very pleasant for many. But I do not believe this is a conspiracy dumped upon us by an alien elite but I believe this is what humanity deserves. We are the ultimate cause of our own unhappiness. We are selfish, unfriendly, mean creatures and thus we have the world we live in. David Icke's message includes pleas for peace and love. You can't really diss him for that. Idealism is a worthy thing.

His theories are, of course, not without controversy. Let's not focus on the truth of his claims. I'll leave that to you to decide upon (and encourage you to check out what the man himself says on his website). Instead take a look at some of the more controversial matters of his association with the far right.

The major problems I have with David Icke are actually nothing to do with the substance of his speeches or books (even if I totally disagree with most of his beliefs!). My problem is with his arrogant confidence. His self assertion that he is absolutely correct, that only his world view can be the right one makes me unable to accept what he says. In the podcast I link to below he laughs at the idea of religion and disses Richard Dawkins for worshiping science (things I agree with him on) but then confidently proclaims his way is the right way in the same blindly arrogant ways those he had just dismissed do theirs. Call me old fashioned but I like humility.

So finally check out a wonderful interview with David Icke on audio where you can appreciate that underneath it all, he's not a bad person... whatever one might think about his beliefs. At heart he wants a better world than the Westernised world we all live in. And that's something I cannot but agree with him on.

Ooo... did you spot the mention of Kent! I don't even need to try slipping them in, Kent is the new Eerie, Indiana. It pops up all the time!