Monday, June 30, 2014

Montague Keen - June 29, 2014

Thank you Monty and Veronica!
*** WE ARE ALL ONE

The world of Spirit wishes to join you, my dear, in thanking all those who made your visit to Ireland a resounding success. We shared every moment of it with you. Again, you have managed to release more of the blocked energy. It will take time and effort to completely release it. This is why, my dear, it has become imperative that you move to Ireland. All this travelling to and fro is too much to ask of you. Again, I will repeat, Ireland is the key that will unlock everything.

We guided you to the perfect place for this transition to take place. Nothing happens by chance; even before it was viewed, D recognised its potential. It is the chosen place. Now you must ask for help to purchase it for the Foundation. It will be our first Centre. Ireland is waking up. It needs the strength to walk away from the indoctrination imposed by the Vatican. It needs to face up to its true history and recognise just who the people of Ireland are.

You, my dear, know the two keys that need to be fully unlocked. You began this process on the 26 May and continued on the 23 June. It takes time and effort and, unfortunately, expense. We are grateful to MM for funding this last visit. Each step ensures the process proceeds speedily and successfully. Your world is in peril and certain factions are still doing their utmost to create a "reason" to start World War III. All those of the light must come together to prevent this happening. We ask a lot of you, my dear. We endeavour to bring the right people to you to help you along the way. It is not possible for you to do it alone. I promise that the right people will be at your side; we will see to that. The sooner this unlocking of energy is completed, the better for humanity. The suffering in your world must cease and those creating it must remove themselves from your planet.

Until the horror of what, until now, was hidden from you, is out in the open, and people fully realise how you have been betrayed by those in whom you were encouraged to place your trust, nothing can move forward. You must see this. You must also see people as they are, not as you are led to believe they are. Unpleasant facts have to be faced and there is no escape from this. The Cabal has created a fantasy world with people you have been encouraged to revere and respect, but now the curtain will open, and the truth will be revealed in all its uglyness. It will not be easy to accept that you have been fooled by these people. We ask that you deal with them calmly and with dignity. They know that their time is up. Many will throw themselves at your mercy and expect you to be understanding. Many were born into situations that were not of their choosing. Look at each case individually. Do not condemn all. Many will truly repent and plead for mercy. Remember, they will lose all that they have accumulated at your expense. They are in fear of you.

You have friends from other planets who are ready and willing to come to your aid. You have nothing to fear. Be willing to help and advise, especially those who are still in 3D-mode. Things are proceeding rapidly, so be prepared to move forward at a moment's notice. We will put things in place so that certain operations will happen without problems. We will indicate when to move on this. Nothing can happen until we give the word to proceed. You have been told what to expect, so be prepared and ready for action. This is the Divine Plan, it cannot be altered or prevented. Those you trust, know what is expected of them and they will be there for you. It has taken many years to bring this plan to fruition. The timing will be right to proceed when we give the word. You, my dear, have been preparing for many years for this moment. You were guided to people and places so that this can be achieved and it will be.

Our Centres are essential as people need advice and guidance. We will provide help and advice on how to grow food which is safe for consumption, and how to produce safe medication. All natural produce that will remove the illnesses caused by the poisons in your food, water, and air. This is an essential part of the process that you must go through as you proceed into the light. We have thought of everything. We will not let you down.

Please continue the work on the ley lines. You are successfully unblocking their energy. This work is essential, so use your minds also to link with Tara and Uisneach in order to help release their energy as well. You are doing a wonderful job. One day, you will see how your effort has paid off. You are taking control and releasing what is rightfully yours. YOU ARE THE CREATORS OF YOUR NEW WORLD. IT IS AN EXCITING ADVENTURE. LET PEACE AND HARMONY BE YOUR AIM. You will be surprised at how easy it will be to remove all the "reasons" for war. Those who now demand war will no longer be with you.

Other planets are looking to you to lead the way. Help those around you to understand what is happening; become their guides, share your knowledge. As you step forward into the light, you will automatically bring those around you along with you. This is a massive learning process for all of you. Prepare to discard all the old belief systems that served to imprison you.

We need this Centre in Ireland as a meeting place where those who need help can come. It can be used for all sorts of gatherings, conferences, seances, natural treatments, etc. Please help Veronica to purchase it. She will set up six centres in the world before she passes to Spirit. She will leave in place those who will continue her work and they will set up Centres in every country in your world. This is our aim. Please help us to achieve it. Our work must go on. You will understand, in time, why this must be so.

My dear, we are making progress. Your hard work in Ireland is showing dividends. Please keep up the connections you made there. We are on our way to success. Others will come forward to share this heavy burden.

I am with you in Spirit. Always at your side. 
Your adoring, Monty.
by Veronica Keen

Website: The Montague Keen Foundation 

SaLuSa, June 27, 2014

Thank you SaLuSa and Mike!
*** WE ARE ALL ONE

The changes continue to proceed as planned, and will bring about the anticipated changes that will bring you freedom from the activities of the dark Ones. Their power and control carries less weight and those who work for the Light are gaining more confidence as each day passes. So much good work is taking place and as it continues to spread, the dark Ones find that they are having less and less influence. It is you the people that carry the responsibility for spreading the Light, but we can assist where you have already made decisions to begin the process of change. Do not worry if at first progress appears to be slow as momentous changes cannot be achieved overnight, and are more likely to be successful when care and attention are given. We oversee your work and at all times will do our best to guide you and ensure your success. More and more souls are awakening to their real selves and seeking more power to achieve their vision of permanent peace upon Earth. It will come and is already affecting decisions being made to prevent any future wars from taking place. 

The role of the Lightworker is to be inspired and bring more people to the realisation that the future is taking shape, and the voices that have influence are no longer prepared to go along with those who advocate war to solve problems. At long last it is being realised that war is futile and that there are no winners in the sense that all who are involved suffer loss of one kind or another. When you look back you will realise that using war to achieve your aims is often short lived, and at last there is an understanding that peaceful negotiation is the only way to solve differences. As you will find out in due course, wars are often contrived to set one against another and neither benefit as a result. As time has passed more and more people have tired of being used to settle differences, and now see that there are other ways which are far more acceptable. You are currently seeing the result of religious prejudice fuel the differences between some nations, and we wish we could get the message to them that you are all One. There is only One God of Absolute Love for all souls regardless of their colour or beliefs. However, there will come a time when it will be accepted that you are One Race, with the same destiny and eternally loved by the One God of All. 

The elusive peace that you seek will first come to individuals who have accepted the Oneness of all Souls, and through them others will also follow. All knowledge is carried within, and those of you who feel particularly intuitive are able to measure the value and truthfulness of any message. There will however still be those who totally rely on others to walk the path with them. For them it is part of their necessary experience and as they become more understanding of the truth of their real selves, they will gain the confidence to travel their own path. Often the changes are the result of many lives whereby they have tested their own beliefs and have moved on where they have been found wanting. As you stand at this time you are represent the totality of your experience, and cannot help but be strongly influenced by it. There are however times when you will incarnate with a stronger attachment to certain beliefs that will give you a specific experience that you need. You are in fact much greater than you presently know, and whilst on Earth you play out each role you have undertaken which can greatly vary from one incarnation to another. 

You may have wondered what our beliefs are based upon, and whether we have what you know as organised religion. The simple answer is that we are sufficiently understanding of the truth and the One God, that we live by example and realise that every other soul is either our brother or sister. Therefore our love is extended to all souls, and even those of the darkness are seen as being exactly the same as all others. It must be so as you have all come from the Source of All That Is, and undertaken your experiences so as to bring the truth to others. Where you are now in the lower levels of vibration you cannot become fully ascended and remain in them, so of necessity you only incarnate with a vibration that allows you to experience as chosen. We will also point out that this is why you must respect what other souls have chosen to experience, as it is all of value and will help others to evolve. Some souls have elected to serve on Earth to help others, whilst the majority are travelling their paths as they work their way back to the higher dimensions. There is not as you say a “quick fix” and the only positive way to evolve is through personal experience, although you can also learn from others who have gone before you. 

Mother Earth is also taking part in the changes, and these are of a grand scale to prepare for those that will change the very surface of the Earth. Of necessity there will be unavoidable upheaval in some places, but you rest assured that every caution will be taken to avoid loss of life. Some are inevitable but there are also souls that have expressed a desire to leave the Earth. It may sound strange or unlikely that souls would choose to leave in such a way, but release from the physical body is instantaneous. Any trauma associated with such an experience is soon overcome and forgotten. Death as such is painless but is often thought differently and this is usually due to an accompanying illness. Understanding the truth of such an experience as death prevents what is otherwise looked upon by many as a traumatic time in your life. Be assured that as soon as you pass over your loved ones will be there to greet you and make you welcome. Perhaps the most welcome surprise is that you are “whole” again and through the power of thought can also become a young person again, full of health and without any of the problems you may have had whilst on Earth.

I am SaLuSa from Sirius, and have today touched upon life in the higher dimensions, which is far removed from what you have experienced upon Earth. Can you imagine an existence where within certain limitations you can “think” things into existence, therefore money is not needed? That is perhaps the most significant change although as mentioned above, the prospect of permanent good health must be music to the ears of those who have had a life of ill health. You have so much to look forward to so do your best while still on Earth. I leave you with my love and blessings.

Thank you SaLuSa.
BY Mike Quinsey


Website: Tree of the Golden Light 

Monday, June 23, 2014

Ceremony of Honor: Your Degree in Mastery by Lauren Gorgo

Thank you Sisters of PHC and Lauren!
*** WE ARE ALL ONE
graduationreport-
Crazy to think that 2014 is already at the halfway point…and with all that has been awakened, acknowledged, shifted and transmuted within us since the year began, we are at once  a c h i n g  to bust out of our cocoons and get on with some new earth living already, while stilllllll bearing witness to so much physical distress.
From the December to June solstice, many of us have been dedicating ourselves solely the massive inner alignment process that has been required for the activation of our personal merkaba, that which initiates the descension of our spiritual self into physical form.  This alignment is not only the motor  behind ensoulment, it has since precipitated the unveiling of a core revelation in each of our lives in preparation for the emergence of our true soular Self.
Now that we have all but anchored ourselves in the new reality system that is available to all those ready to live in LOVE (non-polarity), the solstice will deliver us to the next 2-part phase of incarnation where we will be spending the next 6 months and two full seasons integrating our newborn Self into our lives on earth…learning what it means to be “ensouled” while resurrecting every facet of lives to reflect our new crystalline core makeup.
This never-before-attempted-on-earth-endeavor is ultimately one that the Pleiadians say will empower each of us to “unleash the gift of divine grace unto the world at large” as we begin to experience our spiritual selves in the flesh for the first time on earth.  This process, whilst unfamiliar in this lifetime, is also deeply familiar to us at a core level in that we are simply returning to our true (spiritual) state of BEing.
The burgeoning unfoldment of grace, seems to be a running theme post-soulstice…and not the type of grace that we are used to either…from what I am being shown it goes further beyond anything we have felt in the past, an experience described to me as: the most high.
There is a sparkling, effervescent and blissful permeation of spirit coming alive in our heart and cells and slowly oozing into every aspect of our BEingship…this new sensorial experience of life is the perceptible glow generated from the inception of God’s holy LOVE.  This is only the very beginning of new life, yes, but the shimmering light radiating from the rising new sun is clearly reminiscent of Home, of the LOVE we temporarily lost sight of when our people “fell from grace.”
Talk about a sight for sore eyes….
And while this latest excavation process has been longer, deeper and more difficult than anyone could have possibly anticipated, SO much has been resolved and wholed within us to enable this colossal rebirth. In one way or another we have all been gutted yet again, but in order to completely cauterize all remaining ties with our karmic past….a necessary evil to ensure our footing in unity is secure.  When all of our past is resolved within us there is nothing pulling us out of the present, out of our true Home, where we are free to live fully in the ONEness.
For those of you still in the thick of it, realize that the Wesak season…which kicked up the bulk of our remaining density and lingering karmic debris….also ends here, which means smoother sailing ahead.  In April/May we went thru a major unhooking from the tendrils of our past and in some cases we are still resolving these energies. If you are not yet feeling relief from that major uprooting, know that there are mere moments left in this suffocating band of seemingly endless darkness…that much is certain.
From what I am seeing/hearing, we are still being sucked up in the backdraft of an incoming and giant wave of LOVE, the likes of which I have never sensed before, and after this energy peaks ...it will crash upon our shores in a rush of forward sweeping motion. Then, as it recedes, it will effectively wash all loosened remains from our former life out to sea. This, I am told, will be a “momentous ending” to a Herculean purification cycle.
In my mind this means:  Time for some rapid resolutions to some long standing (core) issues…and with a side order of long-overdue replenishment please.
In the mind of the star beings this means:  Time to receive our diplomas!
...[section protected: to read FULL report and comments see membership OPTIONS & PRICING ]...
 




http://thinkwithyourheart.com/17772/ceremony-of-honor-your-degree-in-mastery/

Intend That the Changes Must Be For the Good of All by Marlene Swetlishoff

Thank you Hilarion and Marlene!
*** WE ARE ALL ONE
hilarion2Beloved Ones,
There has been a great influx of the energy of love and compassion which has been directed from the hearts of many light-workers around the world as they joined together in unity to bring about beneficent changes in the monetary systems of the Earth and within the hearts of humanity. And this energy has been magnified by the ascended realms as requested by many.
As mentioned before, the changes occurring on Earth are wrought in peaceful ways that carry the higher vibrational impact in a vision which include the intent that the changes must be for the highest good of all.
The impetus of this activity will now filter down to effect changes within the hearts of those who have long controlled the world’s systems in a self-serving way. When many are gathered together with focused intent for the highest good of all, there is nothing that can long delay the desired outcome.
The creation of a new world is being intended by those who carry the spark of the Creator strongly within their hearts. These ones are remembering that this is a part of the mission they came to implement in voluntary service to the Divine Plan. They are realizing that change begins with their input, and that they must take peaceful and loving action personally in order to bring these changes into manifestation.
They understand that appearances as they play out are not what really is, and they maintain their higher vision. The qualities of faith, hope and determination can move mountains, and this will become more noticeable as the events envisioned come into manifestation in the every day life of humanity. We of the ascended realms bow to all who work together in unity in these ways and encourage more efforts such as these to take place with regularity.
The Goddess energy is permeating the atmosphere of Earth and all her inhabitants, and this will affect humanity in surprising ways that will uplift the hearts of the majority of people on the planet. As greater balance of the divine feminine and masculine energies takes place within each soul, there will be balance in their outer world as well.
The intent and desire to live in a peaceful and prosperous world will come into fruition for humanity. This vision is required to be maintained and affirmed each day by all who understand the power that they wield by such activity. Let them also understand that they do not stand alone in this effort; that many unseen forces are assisting and encouraging this work to continue.
It is the inner thought processes of humanity that meld together to create their reality, and when more people realize this, the changes to their world will be phenomenal. It is most important to join minds to recreate a new type of civilization that will serve all upon the planet.
As more people become governed by spirit, they begin to release and let go of all that has been holding them back from pursuing their dreams with passion. Their desires will be in alignment with their soul’s natural inclinations, and they will begin to move into their best role in the new world that is being created.
Each person will live each day by following their natural passions and that which brings them joy, and this will help in creating a synchronistic and harmonious lifestyle for each. There are as many paths to the new world as there are souls upon it, and all are needed in their communities as these come into manifestation. They must be open to sharing with others and helping each other share their particular gifts, as each is needed to contribute in the best way for all.
As people in the new world are unfolding their inner capabilities, they are beginning to have a greater ability to discern the intentions of others, and are able to more easily deflect these frequencies and energies from interfering with the direction they have set for themselves and their world.
Keeping focus on their higher aspirations will ensure that only those who are in tune with their intentions can influence them, and many there are who are awakening to the knowledge that they do not need governance by any external force as long as they follow their own soul’s path.
Each person is being guided to the highest contribution they can give to the collective of humanity to create a new and rewarding life for all humankind. The possibility of creating something beyond what has been dreamed of is now upon the people of Earth. It is a most exciting time to be a part of and here you are, poised for take-off!
Until next week…
I AM Hilarion
by Marlene Swetlishoff
©2014 Marlene Swetlishoff/Tsu-tana (Soo-tam-ah) Keeper of the Symphonies of Grace Permission is given to share this message as long as the message is posted in its entirety and nothing has been changed, or altered in any way and Scribe’s credit, copyright and websites are included. Thank you for including the website links when posting this message.
www.therainbowscribe.com, 
www.movingintoluminosity.com 

Russell Brand Calls for ‘Joyful Revolution’ as Tens of Thousands March in London Against Government’s Austerity Measures

Thank you Russell, Kevin and both your Guides!
*** WE ARE ALL ONE
Russell Brand told the marchers there will be a 'peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution' against austerity in the UK. Photograph: Rex Features
Russell Brand told the marchers there will be a ‘peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution’ against austerity in the UK. Photograph: Rex Features
Stephen Cook/golden age gaia:  Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday afternoon in protest at austerity measures introduced by the coalition government.
The demonstrators gathered before the Houses of Parliament, where they were addressed by speakers, including comedians Russell Brand and Mark Steel.
An estimated 50,000 people marched from the BBC’s New Broadcasting House in central London to Westminster.
“The people of this building [the House of Commons] generally speaking do not represent us, they represent their friends in big business. It’s time for us to take back our power,” said Brand.
“This will be a peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution and I’m very grateful to be involved in the People’s Assembly.”
“Power isn’t there, it is here, within us,” he added. “The revolution that’s required isn’t a revolution of radical ideas, but the implementation of ideas we already have.”
A spokesman for the People’s Assembly, which organised the march, said the turnout was “testament to the level of anger there is at the moment”.
He said that Saturday’s action was “just the start”, with a second march planned for October in conjunction with the Trades Union Congress, as well as strike action expected next month.
People’s Assembly spokesman Clare Solomon said: “It is essential for the welfare of millions of people that we stop austerity and halt this coalition government dead in its tracks before it does lasting damage to people’s lives and our public services.”
Sam Fairburn, the group’s national secretary, added: “Cuts are killing people and destroying cherished public services which have served generations.”
Activists from the Stop The War Coalition and CND also joined the demonstration.
The protest outside the UK Houses of Parliament.
The protest outside the UK Houses of Parliament.
The crowds heard speeches at Parliament Square from People’s Assembly supporters, including Caroline Lucas MP and journalist Owen Jones. Addressing the marchers, Jones said: “Who is really responsible for the mess this country is in? Is it the Polish fruit pickers or the Nigerian nurses? Or is it the bankers who plunged it into economic disaster – or the tax avoiders? It is selective anger.”
He added: “The Conservatives are using the crisis to push policies they have always supported. For example, the sell-off of the NHS. They have built a country in which most people who are in poverty are also in work.”
The People’s Assembly was set up with an open letter to the Guardian in February 2013. Signatories to letter included Tony Benn, who died in March this year, journalist John Pilger and filmmaker Ken Loach.
In the letter, they wrote: “This is a call to all those millions of people in Britain who face an impoverished and uncertain year as their wages, jobs, conditions and welfare provision come under renewed attack by the government.
“The assembly will provide a national forum for anti-austerity views which, while increasingly popular, are barely represented in parliament.”
The Metropolitan police refused to provide an estimate. A police spokesman said the force had received no reports of arrests.
A spokesman for the prime minister declined to comment.
By Kevin Rawlinson, The Guardian – June 22, 2014- 
http://tinyurl.com/qf2qchg

Russell Brand and fellow anti-austerity speaker, Caroline Lucas
Russell Brand and fellow anti-austerity speaker, Caroline Lucas

Russell Brand Calls On 50,000 Protesters To Stage ‘Joyful Revolution’

Thanks to Jo.
Russell Brand has called on thousands of protesters to be part of a “peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution” that seizes power back from Westminster.
The former Big Brother’s Big Mouth presenter, who this year implored readers of the New Statesman magazine to abandon the current political system, told crowds gathered in London’s Parliament Square that MPs no longer represented the people.
Speaking in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament at the end of a march marking the one-year anniversary of the People’s Assembly being formed, Brand stripped off his T-shirt and replaced it with one carrying the message “Firefighters rescue people not bankers”.
He said: “The people of this building (the House of Commons) generally speaking do not represent us, they represent their friends in big business. It’s time for us to take back our power.
“This will be a peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution and I’m very grateful to be involved in the People’s Assembly.”
An estimated 50,000 people took part in the march, which started at the BBC in Portland Place where protesters accused the broadcaster of ignoring the plight of impoverished Britons.
Brand, one of several speakers who also included comedian and commentator Mark Steel, MP Caroline Lucas and journalist Owen Jones, said: “I obviously face accusations of being part of the 1% (of the country’s wealthy elite) myself but I wasn’t designed in a laboratory with Jimmy Carr and Adele, I’m from Grays in Essex.”
Referencing his previous drug addiction, of which he has spoken frequently, Brand joked: “I signed on for eight years, I lived on benefits. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have been able to work on my quite severe crack and heroin addiction.
“Where I grew up I felt there were low expectations.”
In the run-up to the march, Brand talked of the “toxic swindle” of austerity.
He added today: “Power isn’t there (in the House of Commons), it is here, within us.
“The revolution that’s required isn’t a revolution of radical ideas, but the implementation of ideas we already have.”
Bowing to calls from members of the crowd to replace his T-shirt with the pro-firefighter garment, Brand replied: “See, I’ve given you even my vanity.”
Brand has enjoyed an increased standing on social commentary in recent years, penning an article in the New Statesman two months ago entitled “We no longer have the luxury of tradition”.
In it, he also called for a “total revolution”, encouraging young people to abstain from voting, adding: “I will never vote and I don’t think you should, either.” It was a message he was to repeat on BBC Newsnight.
Sam Fairbairn, national secretary of the People’s Assembly, said: “Make no mistake, these cuts are killing people and destroying cherished public services which have served generations.
“Alongside May Day demonstrations in memory of the legendary Bob Crow, who helped launch the People’s Assembly, and Tony Benn, who was Assembly president when he died, we are now turning up the heat on Cameron and Clegg.
“Later this autumn, we will unite with the trade union and labour movement when it holds another monster march against austerity and the ConDems.
“Soon we will reach a size and influence where neither the BBC nor this austerity Government will be able to ignore us.”
He said the group will aim to hold the biggest protest in British history later this year.
To watch 1.5 minute video of some of the protest, click on link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrp7n2NyEz0

From  The Huffington Post, UK  – June 22, 2014 – 
http://tinyurl.com/mczl39t

http://goldenageofgaia.com/2014/06/23/russell-brand-calls-for-joyful-revolution-as-tens-of-thousands-march-in-london-against-governments-austerity-measures/

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The ‘Open Source’ Revolution is Coming and It Will Conquer the 1 Per Cent – Ex-CIA Spy: “The collective buying power of the five billion poor is four times that of the one billion rich according to the late Harvard business thinker Prof C. K. Prahalad – open source everything is about the five billion poor coming together to reclaim their collective wealth and mobilise it to transform their lives. There is zero chance of the revolution being put down. Public agency is emergent, and the ability of the public to literally put any bank or corporation out of business overnight is looming. To paraphrase Abe Lincoln, you cannot screw all of the people all of the time. We’re there. All we lack is a major precipitant – our Tunisian fruit seller. When it happens the revolution will be deep and lasting.”

OMG, this article is invigorating!!  "Open Source" has typically been a term frequently used within the IT industry and yet, here's the evolution of the concept ...where it is heading and what it means for our daily lives!  Thank you Nafeez. Thank you Robert!!  Be sure to read all ...there are so many concepts piecing this together throughout --truly fascinating!
*** WE ARE ALL ONE

A businessman tries to break through a line of Occupy Wall Street protesters who had blocked access to the New York Stock Exchange area in November 2011. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
A businessman tries to break through a line of Occupy Wall Street protesters who had blocked access to the New York Stock Exchange area in November 2011. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images
Stephen Cook/golden age gaia: The term ‘Open Source’ is becoming today’s catch cry. Open source is a development model which promotes free and universal access to a product’s design or blueprint, and also allows universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone. Thanks to Chris.
Robert David Steele, former Marine, CIA case officer, and US co-founder of the US Marine Corps intelligence activity, is a man on a mission. But it’s a mission that frightens the US intelligence establishment to its core. With 18 years experience working across the US intelligence community, followed by 20 more years in commercial intelligence and training, Steele’s exemplary career has spanned almost all areas of both the clandestine world.
Steele started off as a Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer. After four years on active duty, he joined the CIA for about a decade before co-founding the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, where he was deputy director. Widely recognised as the leader of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) paradigm, Steele went on to write the handbooks on OSINT for NATO, the US Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Special Operations Forces. In passing, he personally trained 7,500 officers from over 66 countries.
In 1992, despite opposition from the CIA, he obtained Marine Corps permission to organise a landmark international conference on open source intelligence – the paradigm of deriving information to support policy decisions not through secret activities, but from open public sources available to all. The conference was such a success it brought in over 620 attendees from the intelligence world.
But the CIA wasn’t happy, and ensured that Steele was prohibited from running a second conference. The clash prompted him to resign from his position as second-ranking civilian in Marine Corps intelligence, and pursue the open source paradigm elsewhere. He went on to found and head up the Open Source Solutions Network Inc. and later the non-profit Earth Intelligence Network which runs the Public Intelligence Blog.
Former CIA spy and Open Source Intelligence pioneer, Robert David Steele speaking at the Inter-American Defense Board in 2013
Former CIA spy and Open Source Intelligence pioneer, Robert David Steele speaking at the Inter-American Defense Board in 2013
I first came across Steele when I discovered his Amazon review of my third book, The War on Truth: 9/11, Disinformation and the Anatomy of Terrorism. A voracious reader, Steele is the number 1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction across 98 categories. He also reviewed my latest book, A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization, but told me I’d overlooked an important early work – ‘A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility, Report of the UN High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change.’
Last month, Steele presented a startling paper at the Libtech conference in New York, sponsored by the Internet Society and Reclaim. Drawing on principles set out in his latest book, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth and Trust, he told the audience that all the major preconditions for revolution – set out in his 1976 graduate thesis – were now present in the United States and Britain.
Steele’s book is a must-read, a powerful yet still pragmatic roadmap to a new civilisational paradigm that simultaneously offers a trenchant, unrelenting critique of the prevailing global order. His interdisciplinary ‘whole systems’ approach dramatically connects up the increasing corruption, inefficiency and unaccountability of the intelligence system and its political and financial masters with escalating inequalities and environmental crises. But he also offers a comprehensive vision of hope that activist networks like Reclaim are implementing today.
“We are at the end of a five-thousand-year-plus historical process during which human society grew in scale while it abandoned the early indigenous wisdom councils and communal decision-making,” he writes in The Open Source Everything Manifesto. “Power was centralised in the hands of increasingly specialised ‘elites’ and ‘experts’ who not only failed to achieve all they promised but used secrecy and the control of information to deceive the public into allowing them to retain power over community resources that they ultimately looted.”
Today’s capitalism, he argues, is inherently predatory and destructive:
“Over the course of the last centuries, the commons was fenced, and everything from agriculture to water was commoditised without regard to the true cost in non-renewable resources. Human beings, who had spent centuries evolving away from slavery, were re-commoditised by the Industrial Era.”
Open source everything, in this context, offers us the chance to build on what we’ve learned through industrialisation, to learn from our mistakes, and catalyse the re-opening of the commons, in the process breaking the grip of defunct power structures and enabling the possibility of prosperity for all.
“Sharing, not secrecy, is the means by which we realise such a lofty destiny as well as create infinite wealth. The wealth of networks, the wealth of knowledge, revolutionary wealth – all can create a nonzero win-win Earth that works for one hundred percent of humanity. This is the ‘utopia’ that Buckminster Fuller foresaw, now within our reach.”
The goal, he concludes, is to reject:
“… concentrated illicitly aggregated and largely phantom wealth in favor of community wealth defined by community knowledge, community sharing of information, and community definition of truth derived in transparency and authenticity, the latter being the ultimate arbiter of shared wealth.”
Despite this unabashedly radical vision, Steele is hugely respected by senior military intelligence experts across the world. As a researcher at the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, he has authored several monographs advocating the need for open source methods to transform the craft of intelligence. He has lectured to the US State Department and Department of Homeland Security as well as National Security Councils in various countries, and his new book has received accolades from senior intelligence officials across multiple countries including France and Turkey.
Yet he remains an outspoken critic of US intelligence practices and what he sees as their integral role in aggravating rather than ameliorating the world’s greatest threats and challenges.
This week, I had the good fortune of being able to touch base with Steele to dig deeper into his recent analysis of the future of US politics in the context of our accelerating environmental challenges. The first thing I asked him was where he sees things going over the next decade, given his holistic take.
“Properly educated people always appreciate holistic approaches to any challenge. This means that they understand both cause and effect, and intertwined complexities,” he said. “A major part of our problem in the public policy arena is the decline in intelligence with integrity among key politicians and staff at the same time that think tanks and universities and non-governmental organisations have also suffered a similar intellectual diminishment.
“My early graduate education was in the 1970′s when Limits to Growth and World Federalism were the rage. Both sought to achieve an over-view of systemic challenges, but both also suffered from the myth of top-down hubris. What was clear in the 1970s, that has been obscured by political and financial treason in the past half-century, is that everything is connected – what we do in the way of paving over wetlands, or in poisoning ground water ‘inadvertently’ because of our reliance on pesticides and fertilisers that are not subject to the integrity of the ‘Precautionary Principle,’ ultimately leads to climate catastrophes that are acts of man, not acts of god.”
He points me to his tremendous collection of reviews of books on climate change, disease, environmental degradation, peak oil, and water scarcity. “I see five major overlapping threats on the immediate horizon,” he continues. “They are all related: the collapse of complex societies, the acceleration of the Earth’s demise with changes that used to take 10,000 years now taking three or less, predatory or shock capitalism and financial crime out of the City of London and Wall Street, and political corruption at scale, to include the west supporting 42 of 44 dictators. We are close to multiple mass catastrophes.”
What about the claim that the US is on the brink of revolution? “Revolution is overthrow – the complete reversal of the status quo ante. We are at the end of centuries of what Lionel Tiger calls ‘The Manufacture of Evil,’ in which merchant banks led by the City of London have conspired with captive governments to concentrate wealth and commoditise everything including humans. What revolution means in practical terms is that balance has been lost and the status quo ante is unsustainable. There are two ‘stops’ on greed to the nth degree: the first is the carrying capacity of Earth, and the second is human sensibility. We are now at a point where both stops are activating.”
Former CIA officer's matrix on the preconditions for revolution
Former CIA officer’s matrix on the preconditions for revolution
It’s not just the US, he adds. “The preconditions of revolution exist in the UK, and most western countries. The number of active pre-conditions is quite stunning, from elite isolation to concentrated wealth to inadequate socialisation and education, to concentrated land holdings to loss of authority to repression of new technologies especially in relation to energy, to the atrophy of the public sector and spread of corruption, to media dishonesty, to mass unemployment of young men and on and on and on.”
So why isn’t it happening yet?
“Preconditions are not the same as precipitants. We are waiting for our Tunisian fruit seller. The public will endure great repression, especially when most media outlets and schools are actively aiding the repressive meme of ‘you are helpless, this is the order of things.’ When we have a scandal so powerful that it cannot be ignored by the average Briton or American, we will have a revolution that overturns the corrupt political systems in both countries, and perhaps puts many banks out of business. Vaclav Havel calls this ‘The Power of the Powerless.’ One spark, one massive fire.”
But we need more than revolution, in the sense of overthrow, to effect change, surely. How does your manifesto for ‘open source everything’ fit into this?
“The west has pursued an industrialisation path that allows for the privatisation of wealth from the commons, along with the criminalisation of commons rights of the public, as well as the externalisation of all true costs. Never mind that fracking produces earthquakes and poisons aquifers – corrupt politicians at local, state or province, and national levels are all too happy to take money for looking the other way. Our entire commercial, diplomatic, and informational systems are now cancerous. When trade treaties have secret sections – or are entirely secret – one can be certain the public is being screwed and the secrecy is an attempt to avoid accountability. Secrecy enables corruption. So also does an inattentive public enable corruption.”
Is this a crisis of capitalism, then? Does capitalism need to end for us to resolve these problems? And if so, how?
“Predatory capitalism is based on the privatisation of profit and the externalisation of cost. It is an extension of the fencing of the commons, of enclosures, along with the criminalisation of prior common customs and rights. What we need is a system that fully accounts for all costs. Whether we call that capitalism or not is irrelevant to me. But doing so would fundamentally transform the dynamic of present day capitalism, by making capital open source. For example, and as calculated by my colleague JZ Liszkiewicz, a white cotton T-shirt contains roughly 570 gallons of water, 11 to 29 gallons of fuel, and a number of toxins and emissions including pesticides, diesel exhaust, and heavy metals and other volatile compounds – it also generally includes child labor. Accounting for those costs and their real social, human and environmental impacts has totally different implications for how we should organise production and consumption than current predatory capitalism.”
So what exactly do you mean by open source everything?
“We have over 5 billion human brains that are the one infinite resource available to us going forward. Crowd-sourcing and cognitive surplus are two terms of art for the changing power dynamic between those at the top that are ignorant and corrupt, and those across the bottom that are attentive and ethical. The open source ecology is made up of a wide range of opens – open farm technology, open source software, open hardware, open networks, open money, open small business technology, open patents – to name just a few. The key point is that they must all develop together, otherwise the existing system will isolate them into ineffectiveness. Open data is largely worthless unless you have open hardware and open software. Open government demands open cloud and open spectrum, or money will dominate feeds and speeds.”
Robert Steele's vision for open source systems
Robert Steele’s vision for open source systems
On 1st May, Steele sent an open letter to US vice president Joe Biden requesting him to consider establishing an Open Source Agency that would transform the operation of the intelligence community, dramatically reduce costs, increasing oversight and accountability, while increasing access to the best possible information to support holistic policy-making. To date, he has received no response.
I’m not particularly surprised. Open source everything pretty much undermines everything the national security state stands for. Why bother even asking vice president Biden to consider it? “The national security state is rooted in secrecy as a means of avoiding accountability. My first book, On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World – which by the way had a foreword from Senator David Boren, the immediate past chairman of the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence – made it quite clear that the national security state is an expensive, ineffective monstrosity that is simply not fit for purpose. In that sense, the national security state is it’s own worst enemy – it’s bound to fail.”
Given his standing as an intelligence expert, Steele’s criticisms of US intelligence excesses are beyond scathing – they are damning. “Most of what is produced through secret methods is not actually intelligence at all. It is simply secret information that is, most of the time, rather generic and therefore not actually very useful for making critical decisions at a government level. The National Security Agency (NSA) has not prevented any terrorist incidents. CIA cannot even get the population of Syria correct and provides no intelligence – decision-support – to most cabinet secretaries, assistant secretaries, and department heads. Indeed General Tony Zinni, when he was commander in chief of the US Central Command as it was at war, is on record as saying that he received, ‘at best,’ a meagre 4% of what he needed to know from secret sources and methods.”
So does open source mean you are calling for abolition of intelligence agencies as we know them, I ask. “I’m a former spy and I believe we still need spies and secrecy, but we need to redirect the vast majority of the funds now spent on secrecy toward savings and narrowly focused endeavors at home. For instance, utterly ruthless counterintelligence against corruption, or horrendous evils like paedophilia.
“Believe it or not, 95% of what we need for ethical evidence-based decision support cannot be obtained through the secret methods of standard intelligence practices. But it can be obtained quite openly and cheaply from academics, civil society, commerce, governments, law enforcement organisations, the media, all militaries, and non-governmental organisations. An Open Source Agency, as I’ve proposed it, would not just meet 95% of our intelligence requirements, it would do the same at all levels of government and carry over by enriching education, commerce, and research – it would create what I called in 1995 a ‘Smart Nation.’
“The whole point of Open Source Everything is to restore public agency. Open Source is the only form of information and information technology that is affordable to the majority, interoperable across all boundaries, and rapidly scalable from local to global without the curse of overhead that proprietary corporations impose.”
Robert Steele's graphic on open source systems thinking
Robert Steele’s graphic on open source systems thinking
It’s clear to me that when Steele talks about intelligence as ‘decision-support,’ he really does intend that we grasp “all information in all languages all the time” – that we do multidisciplinary research spanning centuries into the past as well as into the future. His most intriguing premise is that the 1% are simply not as powerful as they, and we, assume them to be.
“The collective buying power of the five billion poor is four times that of the one billion rich according to the late Harvard business thinker Prof C. K. Prahalad – open source everything is about the five billion poor coming together to reclaim their collective wealth and mobilise it to transform their lives. There is zero chance of the revolution being put down. Public agency is emergent, and the ability of the public to literally put any bank or corporation out of business overnight is looming. To paraphrase Abe Lincoln, you cannot screw all of the people all of the time. We’re there. All we lack is a major precipitant – our Tunisian fruit seller. When it happens the revolution will be deep and lasting.”
The Arab spring analogy has its negatives. So far, there really isn’t much to root for. I want to know what’s to stop this revolution from turning into a violent, destructive mess. Steele is characteristically optimistic.
“I have struggled with this question. What I see happening is an end to national dictate and the emergence of bottom-up clarity, diversity, integrity, and sustainability. Individual towns across the USA are now nullifying federal and state regulations – for example gag laws on animal cruelty, blanket permissions for fracking. Those such as my colleague Parag Khanna that speak to a new era of city-states are correct in my view. Top down power has failed in a most spectacular manner, and bottom-up consensus power is emergent. ‘Not in my neighborhood’ is beginning to trump ‘Because I say so.’
“The one unlimited resource we have on the planet is the human brain – the current strategy of 1% capitalism is failing because it is killing the Golden Goose at multiple levels. Unfortunately, the gap between those with money and power and those who actually know what they are talking about has grown catastrophic. The rich are surrounded by sycophants and pretenders whose continued employment demands that they not question the premises. As Larry Summers lectured Elizabeth Warren, ‘insiders do not criticise insiders.’”
But how can activists actually start moving toward the open source vision now?
“For starters, there are eight ‘tribes’ that among them can bring together all relevant information: academia, civil society including labor unions and religions, commerce especially small business, government especially local, law enforcement, media, military, and non-government/non-profit. At every level from local to global, across every mission area, we need to create stewardship councils integrating personalities and information from all eight tribes. We don’t need to wait around for someone else to get started. All of us who recognise the vitality of this possibility can begin creating these new grassroots structures from the bottom-up, right now.”
So how does open source everything have the potential to ‘re-engineer the Earth’? For me, this is the most important question, and Steele’s answer is inspiring.
“Open Source Everything overturns top-down ‘because I say so at the point of a gun’ power. Open Source Everything makes truth rather than violence the currency of power. Open Source Everything demands that true cost economics and the indigenous concept of ‘seventh generation thinking’ – how will this affect society 200 years ahead – become central. Most of our problems today can be traced to the ascendance of unilateral militarism, virtual colonialism, and predatory capitalism, all based on force, on lies, and on encroachment of the commons.
“The national security state works for the City of London and Wall Street – both are about to be toppled by a combination of Eastern alternative banking and alternative international development capabilities, and individuals who recognise that they have the power to pull their money out of the banks and not buy the consumer goods that subsidise corruption and the concentration of wealth. The opportunity to take back the commons for the benefit of humanity as a whole is open (source)– here and now.”
For Steele, the open source revolution is inevitable, simply because the demise of the system presided over by the 1% cannot be stopped – and because the alternatives to reclaiming the commons are too dismal to contemplate. We have no choice but to step up.
“My motto, a play on the CIA motto that is disgraced every day, is ‘the truth at any cost lowers all other costs’”, he tells me. “Others wiser than I have pointed out that nature bats last. We are at the end of an era in which lies can be used to steal from the public and the commons. We are at the beginning of an era in which truth in public service can restore us all to a state of grace.”
By Nafeez Ahmed, Earth Insight – June 19, 2014 – 
http://tinyurl.com/l5zkdpc
Nafeez Ahmed is an international security journalist and academic. He is the author of A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It, and the forthcoming science fiction thriller, ZERO POINT. ZERO POINT is set in a near future following a Fourth Iraq War. Follow Ahmed on Facebook and Twitter.