The Reptile Brain

 

“Anything possible of being believed is an image of truth”—William Blake.

David Icke believes the world has been ruled by reptilian aliens for thousands of years.

A lot of people believe him.

Icke’s claims seem automatically disproven by the fact that he is able to publish his claims and speak them publicly. If there were such a conspiracy of space lizards, they would have silenced him. Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

But they have to be an image of truth, because so many find them compelling.

What does “reptilian” really mean here?

The most striking thing about reptiles is that they lack concern for their young. They lay their eggs, and wander off. This seems to correspond to the fact that their brains lack the parts that, in the human brain, correspond to our emotions.

“Deep inside the skull of every one of us there is something like a brain of a crocodile. Surrounding the R-complex is the limbic system or mammalian brain, which evolved tens of millions of years ago in ancestors who were mammal but not yet primates. It is a major source of our moods and emotions, of our concern and care for the young. And finally, on the outside, living in uneasy truce with the more primitive brains beneath, is the cerebral cortex; civilization is a product of the cerebral cortex.”

— Carl Sagan, Cosmos

In other words, reptiles seem to operate only on immediate urges. They may be self-aware, but they are not aware of any other “selves” in their universe. Just things they want or do not want. This is the “reptile brain.”

Icke’s vision of reptilian humans rings true because there really are such reptilians: beings in human shape who nevertheless operate only on urges, unaware of any other “selves” in the universe. These are the people we call “narcissists.” The “type B personality disorders,” in psych speak.

Icke seems to understand this. I have not read any of his books, but I see he speaks of love as the antidote to the dominion of the lizards. 

And they do by and large rule the world. When you care for no one but yourself, and recognize no morality, you have a huge tactical advantage. Of course such people will regularly end up on top. Anyone in power should at least be suspected, as Icke does, of being a lizard.

Icke claims that society as we know it is largely designed by these reptilians to generate fear and anxiety. He says this energy is nourishing to the lizard overlords.

This too makes metaphoric sense. The narcissist has an insatiable need to show their superiority, by causing others to cower.

“There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever. ”

--George Orwell, 1984

The urge to exert power over others, and have them feel it, explains much of human life and human history.

Not to mention the dysfunctional dynamics of many families.

Icke's Reptile Apocalypse

Planetary master.

I have long been vaguely aware of David Icke, without being interested. I thought him mad. I have worked with the insane, and his claims are just what I would hear from any psychotic.

Yet this does not mean they are meaningless.

And why is it that, unlike most psychotics, Icke has not been locked away or drugged? Instead, he is making millions from books and personal appearances. What he is saying has to resonate with many people.

I account for the difference simply by the fact that, when Icke went mad, he was already a well-known athlete and highly skilled journalist and TV presenter. If you are sufficiently articulate, and already a public figure, you will not be declared mad. Being declared mad is for the little people. No one dares declare a possible social superior mad, unless he is also incapacitated, or says so himself. Which demonstrates a flaw in the concept.

Icke has instead become a shaman.

This suggests that, instead of being locked up and drugged, all psychotics could be. They actually have something of value they could offer, and instead they are being shut down. In other countries, being psychotic is a career. I saw this in Korea.

Icke is fun and energizing to read or listen to. Paranoia infuses life with meaning, makes everything significant and wonderful. A big stone near your home is suddenly the location of regular covert blood sacrifices. Something of cosmic significance might happen at any moment. You feel fully alive.

It is the same thrill as, yet far safer than, taking LSD. It is roughly the same thrill you get from art.

And it is not all nonsense.

How is it, after all, that Icke is coming up with all the same claims as the typical psychotic I have dealt with? If madness were simply random, this could not be so. Rather, whatever we call “madness” has rules and truths of its own. At a guess, we are seeing the landscape of the human psyche, terrain at least as interesting and important to our life experience as the world of the five senses. Not to study it is to be, in Icke’s term, mere “sheeple.” Only looking down and grazing.

This is what shamans and artists, and David Icke, offer: some of the rules and truths of the human mind.

There is, it is true, great danger here. Why wouldn’t there be--just as there is in the sensed world? In fact, there is far greater: hell itself is here.

O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne'er hung there.

Icke’s claims could also easily move into antisemitism and Nazi race theory; indeed, Nazism itself looks like an irruption from the imagination, a New Age movement of its day. Icke seems unable to keep separate the two realms, that of the mind and that of the senses. This is perhaps the difference between the psychotic and the true shaman, prophet, or artist.

I believe accordingly that it is wise to stay in the worn treads of the established major religions: these are the tested roadmaps.

I think of Icke just now because of his core contention that the world is secretly run by an alien reptilian race. He is probably right.

He apparently believes that most world leaders are alien reptiles capable of shape-shifting to appear human. He cites the Queen Mother, Ted Heath, and Tony Blair. Like reptiles, they are not really conscious; and they feed psychically on human fear and anxiety. Their plan is to mold a life experience of constant anxiety for us all. It will resemble Orwell’s 1984.

Icke here is actually describing the characteristics of what self-help group psychology calls a narcissist. The Bible would simply call this a bad person, a “goat.” Narcissists do indeed, the self-help groups agree, seem to have limited consciousness, an incapacity for reflection, a robotic manner, and an absence of emotions as opposed to desires and frustrations. They cannot appreciate art.

It is a reasonable suspicion, at least, that many world leaders are narcissists: a drive to put yourself above others is entirely likely to lead you to positions of power. Being in a position of power, conversely, is inclined to convince you you are more important than others. Lord Acton made the point: power corrupts.

Narcissists do feed psychically on the sufferings of others: it is a way to demonstrate superiority. They will actively try to cause anxiety and anguish for those whom they control. It makes them feel good.

For this psychic tendency, a reptile is a natural image. It is an image the Bible uses too: the Devil is depicted as a serpent or great dragon. A reptile seems to operate only at the level of stimulus-response: want, get. Lack of human emotion is suggested by the fact that they do not care for their young.

Interesting to not that, although they do not occur anywhere in the world of the senses, the dragon or great serpent is a familiar image in all lands. It must, therefore, represent such a psychic tendency.

Icke claims that the giveaway that a given figure is a reptilian is something about their eyes; they can suddenly turn “jet black.” Whatever this means—the literal meaning seems impossible—it is actually a common observation among those who have experienced narcissists: that the narcissist’s eyes can suddenly turn “black” and somehow inhuman.

To be honest, I know what they are talking about. I think I have seen it, but cannot describe it better. “Insect-like” comes to mind; but that is nonsensical in literal terms. Perhaps “a soul-less intensity.”

Icke claims that these Archons are especially prone to pedophilia and even child sacrifice. This doesn’t make great sense in the case of an alien race, but again is a familiar characteristic of the narcissist. The logic is simple. The narcissist needs to feel superior. Children are easy to dominate. They are especially vulnerable and easily hurt. They scream so nicely.

Understanding Icke’s lizard people as narcissists explains this trait best.

All told, then, Icke is probably right here, if you simply take him on a metaphoric instead of a literal level.