Share International welcomes the opportunity to renew itself and has taken to the digital world: we are now only available online having left paper and ink behind. At this new moment it seems appropriate to go back to basics — even if to remind ourselves and to inform new readers of our self-defined brief first made so long ago that some may have forgotten.

Since its inception, this magazine has advanced under a broad and inclusive banner: “Bringing together two major directions of contemporary thought — the political and the spiritual — Share International shows the synthesis underlying the political, social, economic and spiritual changes now occurring on a worldwide scale, and seeks to stimulate practical action to rebuild our world along more just and compassionate lines.” In that sense of synthesis is to be found the definition of spirituality — our essential unity acknowledged in all walks of life, made practical in all of our structures. To create the kind of global society most people hope and long for “We shall have to make a shift in consciousness to include every aspect of our being in our definition of spiritual,” wrote Benjamin Creme.

In 1982, as this publication was launched, Share International adopted Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because it encapsulated our principles so well. We have carried it on our masthead ever since. It was emblazoned in the colophon of each issue of the magazine. When Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is finally implemented what a world we will create! Our chosen name says it all: Share — and on an international scale.

To underline this definition we have chosen to republish parts of an article called “Spirituality” written by founding editor, Benjamin Creme, in January 1982, for the first edition. This concept is not new, but it is so broad in its implications that it has still not become part of the world’s prevailing narrative to any great extent. Ask most people for their definition of spirituality. Ask most people what the fundamental issue is on which progress founders — this concept will probably not feature in their answers.

Spirituality
“Today we have built systems which are based on the wrong principles: competition, division, separatism, inequality, in direct opposition to the inner reality. The inner reality is man’s Oneness — a shared divine nature which is the potential in every single human being — which needs the correct outer forms to allow that inner radiance to be expressed. Much of the violence today is the result of the inner tension between man’s knowledge of himself — inwardly perceived — and his inability to manifest that recognition on the outer plane. He feels he has no control over the political and economic structures which put him into sharply divided categories — a caste system. He reacts against the outer circumstance which bears no relation to his sense of himself as a divine being. He is at war with himself, and, as an extension of himself, with the society of which he is a part. This is at the root of a great deal of the present social tension and violence in the world. Only by a re-education of humanity into the knowledge of the true constitution of man as a threefold reality — spirit, soul and personality — and of the law of cause and effect in its relation to the law of rebirth, can a true expression on the physical plane of man as a soul take place.”

What the world will come to know as a source of joy and lived experience is that the Spiritual Hierarchy of this Planet stands; that Maitreya the World Teacher and the Masters of Wisdom stand with humanity; that life is not random, that there is a Plan — a Plan of God; that humanity is an essential and evolving part of that Reality, as is all life on our living Planet; that there is meaning and purpose to our lives which the Masters exemplify and show the way to achieve.

Simply knowing these basic facts is a source of hope and a springboard that converts hope into action on behalf of those who are suffering. To help bring our daily lives into line with the Plan and to aid us to become the gods we are in potential is the unending service Maitreya and the Masters provide. These are the ancient verities that stand, not susceptible of being swept away by the cruelty and horrors prevalent today.

The stark contrast between this definition of spirituality, this understanding of the purpose of life on our Planet on the one hand, and the current misery of our daily dystopia on the other, is deeply distressing to all who have a heart and conscience. We cannot and may not hide from the deliberate dehumanizing evil we see day after day, pretending it is not happening. We cannot allow ourselves to be frightened by unhinged greed and power as the forces of chaos rampage through our lives and communities, sowing separativeness so that we view our neighbour as an enemy. “‘The other’ is the problem” we are told and whole countries are presented as hostile and dangerous. War is the only solution provided in the propaganda that passes for foreign policy.

What the world will come to know is that help is at hand. Maitreya says: “If you take one step towards Me, I will take two steps towards you. I will lend you My strength. I am always with you.” (March 1992) However appalling the world circumstances now, we, the people, need to take action, take that one step, and do everything in our power to reclaim our humanity, our sense of ourselves as being part of the divine whole, to live in peace, to co-operate and to establish justice and freedom for all.

In this painting Benjamin Creme depicts the ultimate alignment of the three major centres of our planet — Shamballa, Hierarchy and Humanity. To illustrate the completed alignment he superimposes the intense blue of Shamballa, depicted by a circle, the turquoise green-blue triangle representing Hierarchy, and the golden square symbolizing Humanity.

Above them, held in space, is the brilliant blue-white form of the Flaming Diamond, the Rod of Initiation used from the Third Initiation onwards.

With the alignment of these three centres — Shamballa, the Spiritual Hierarchy and Humanity — the Planetary Logos achieves on the planetary level the equivalent of the Third Initiation in the human kingdom. Our planet — His body of manifestation — then becomes a Sacred Planet and embarks on the next phase of its evolution, taking all life on our planet with it to new heights. This ‘moment’ is known in the ancient archives as the Shining Forth. As Benjamin Creme described it during a public lecture in 1975: “One day this planet will shine like a diamond in the heavens.”

A charming detail in this work is that Benjamin Creme used whatever suited his intention. In this case, if the viewer looks closely it is clear that the shape symbolizing the Flaming Diamond was made by folding open an envelope making use of its inherent diamond shape — perfect for the purpose.

‘Three Planetary Centres’, 1975, 30×24 inches (76×61 cms), oil and collage on canvas.

The theme of light is fundamental to man’s whole existence. During the early stages of his development he is unconscious of this light, but as lives go by he gradually becomes aware of the various forms of light which affect his being. In the first instance there is the light of the Sun, providing all kingdoms of nature not only with the light of day, but also with warmth. As man develops, he displays an ever-growing demand for more light, which amongst others is demonstrated by the provision he is making for artificial illumination during the dark hours of the night. He is simultaneously also exhibiting an increasing need for the more subtle forms of light — for the light of knowledge. This is reflected by the many schools of learning, encompassing ever-extending fields of interest, and reaching an ever-larger proportion of the human race. All these aspects are contributing towards the awakening and final recognition of the light in the head, and the guiding of humanity as a whole towards this consciousness.

With the evolution of man, the One Light is finally attained after progressively advancing through four stages:

1. The Light of Instinct, which is normally associated with the animal stage and is the guiding force before the light of reason supersedes.
2. By means of the Light of Knowledge, the glamours of the astral plane are dispelled by the light of the mind.
3. The Light of Wisdom is the light of the soul, which is blended with the light of knowledge to carry the aspirant another step forward on the Path of Light.
4. The Light of Intuition is the instrument of the initiate. This is a blending of all lesser lights and leads to illumination.

New spiritual environments
It should be remembered, however, that these stages are not clearly demarcated. They merge and overlap, and are merely used symbolically to illustrate the progressive spiritual unfoldment of the disciple. With each of these steps, new spiritual environments will be revealed and closer contact will be effected with the soul. Each step will lead to further expansions and increased competence and capacities.

Attainment of more light will automatically also increase man’s responsibilities, for it will exact from its recipients that such light should be effectively applied to the benefit and service of mankind.

Once the aspirant has distinguished the first glimmering of light in the head, the inner darkness becomes accentuated. In the beginning this may lead to despair and the depths of depression, but this stage must be endured, until the dark shadows are eventually dispersed by the pure light of the soul — then will life be brightened by the sun in the head, diffusing its light in all its glory.

This light in the head will lead the aspirant to soul consciousness and the Path of Light. By entering this Path, he himself becomes a light and may then function as a lamp, carrying illumination to others and thus lighting their way for them. The radiance of this light may be intensified by concentrating attention on the inner life by means of consciously directed love and meditation. As the disciple advances along the Path he progressively acquires the ability to utilize stronger light, thus becoming aware of fresh revelations.

Students sometimes become conscious of a diffused light or glow in the head — this is the light of the physical atoms composing the brain. When later they see something like the sun in their heads, this indicates a recognition of the combined etheric light. The semblance of an intensely bright electric light would probably denote a merging of the etheric and atomic lights with that of the soul.

The recording of these light phenomena must not be regarded as essential criteria for evaluating the stage of spiritual development. There are disciples who have already achieved an advanced stage of spiritual development without becoming aware of the brain radiances described above. Disciples should therefore not be disturbed if they fail to discern these lights in the head.

In the field of science, one point of light after another is systematically being revealed, gradually serving to tie up the relationship which exists between its numerous branches and the subjective world of energies. With new discoveries now rapidly succeeding each other, previous findings are being supported and amplified, and these separate points of light are now being associated and co-ordinated, thus synthesizing the original single strands of light into one comprehensive beam of radiance that will herald the New Era and will revolutionize practically all basic concepts.

This new light to which science is being subjected largely concerns the etheric spheres, better known in scientific terminology as the field of electro-magnetism, which sustains and interpenetrates every substantial form in nature, and which serves as the common link uniting every phenomenal manifestation into the One Whole. In this connection it should also be kept in mind that ‘light and matter are fundamentally synonymous terms’. The present scientific interest is largely focused on the many aspects of radiation, their direction, control, reception, action, interaction and relationships with the mineral, vegetable, animal, human and finally the spiritual kingdoms. At the same time this new ‘light’ is definitely leading science to the recognition and acknowledgement of the soul and of the Spirit.

Divine Light
On his evolutionary path in the physical world, the disciple has made contact with the light of matter, the light of mind, and the light of the soul and intuition. These will serve to sustain him till perfection on Earth is achieved, and therefore till such time when there will be no further need for his return to phenomenal life for the sake of experience. When the radiant life of the soul is blended with the magnetic light of the vital body, it stimulates the atoms of the physical body, till each atom in turn becomes a small radiant centre. Therefore, when the man is under control of the soul, there eventuates the shining forth of the Light throughout the body. This is the radiance emanating from the bodies of sages and saints, encircling them with Light. The initiate will now enter the Supernal Light, the Light Divine, emanating from the Logos and channelled through the spiritual Triad. This greater Light will reveal to him undreamt-of new horizons, which are beyond the description and comprehension of the limited human mind.

(Source: Bridges, ISBN 3-929345-11-0, Bridges Publishing, Freiburg, Germany, 2001, 2007. www.bridges-publishing.de)

Mr President, Distinguished Members of the Security Council, the issue before the Council today is not the character of the Government of Venezuela. The issue is whether any Member State — by force, coercion, or economic strangulation — has the right to determine Venezuela’s political future or to exercise control over its affairs.

This question goes directly to Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

The Council must decide whether that prohibition is to be upheld or abandoned.

Abandoning it would carry consequences of the gravest kind.

Background and context
Since 1947, United States foreign policy has repeatedly employed force, covert action, and political manipulation to bring about regime change in other countries. This is a matter of carefully documented historical record. In her book Covert Regime Change (2018), political scientist Lindsey O’Rourke documents 70 attempted US regime-change operations between 1947 and 1989 alone.

These practices did not end with the Cold War. Since 1989, major United States regime-change operations undertaken without authorization by the Security Council have included, among the most consequential: Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), Syria (from 2011), Honduras (2009), Ukraine (2014), and Venezuela (from 2002 onward).

The methods employed are well established and well documented. They include open warfare; covert intelligence operations; instigation of unrest; support for armed groups; manipulation of mass and social media; bribery of military and civilian officials; targeted assassinations; false-flag operations; and economic warfare aimed at collapsing civilian life.

These measures are illegal under the UN Charter, and they typically result in ongoing violence, lethal conflict, political instability, and deep suffering of the civilian population.

The case of Venezuela
The recent United States record with respect to Venezuela is clear.

In April 2002, the United States knew of and approved an attempted coup against the Venezuelan Government.

In the 2010s, the United States funded civil society groups actively engaged in anti-Government protests, notably in 2014. When the Government cracked down on the protests, the US followed with a series of sanctions. In 2015, President Barrack Obama declared Venezuela to be “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States”.

In 2017, at a dinner with Latin American leaders on the margins of the UN General Assembly, President Trump openly discussed the option of the US invading Venezuela to overthrow the Government.

During 2017 to 2020, the US imposed sweeping sanctions on the state oil company. Oil production fell by 75 percent from 2016 to 2020, and real GDP per capita (PPP) declined by 62 percent.

The UN General Assembly has repeatedly voted overwhelmingly against such unilateral coercive measures. Under international law, only the Security Council has the authority to impose such sanctions.

On 23 January 2019, the United States unilaterally recognized Juan Guaidó as “interim president” of Venezuela, and, on 28 January 2019, froze approximately $7 billion of Venezuelan sovereign assets held abroad and gave Guaidó authority over certain assets.

These actions form part of a continuous United States regime-change effort spanning more than two decades.

Recent United States global escalation
In the past year, the United States has carried out bombing operations in seven countries, none of which were authorized by the Security Council and none of which were undertaken in lawful self-defense under the Charter. The targeted countries include Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and now Venezuela.

In the past month, President Trump has issued direct threats against at least six UN member states, including Colombia, Denmark, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria and, of course, Venezuela. These threats are summarized in Annex I to this statement.

What is at stake today
Members of the Council are not called upon to judge Nicolás Maduro.

They are not called upon to assess whether the recent United States attack and ongoing naval quarantine of Venezuela result in freedom or in subjugation.

Members of the Council are called upon to defend international law, and specifically the United Nations Charter.

The realist school of international relations, articulated most brilliantly by John Mearsheimer, accurately describes the condition of international anarchy as “the tragedy of great power politics”. Realism is therefore a description of geopolitics, not a solution for peace. Its own conclusion is that international anarchy leads to tragedy.

In the aftermath of World War I, the League of Nations was created to end the tragedy through the application of international law. Yet the world’s leading nations failed to defend international law in the 1930s, leading to renewed global war.

The United Nations emerged from that catastrophe as humanity’s second great effort to place international law above anarchy. In the words of the Charter, the UN was created “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”.

Given that we are in the nuclear age, failure cannot be repeated. Humanity would perish. There would be no third chance.

Measures required of the Security Council
To fulfill its responsibilities under the Charter, the Security Council should immediately affirm the following actions:

1. The United States shall immediately cease and desist from all explicit and implicit threats or use of force against Venezuela.
2. The United States shall terminate its naval quarantine and all related coercive military measures undertaken in the absence of authorization by the Security Council.
3. The United States shall immediately withdraw its military forces from within and along the perimeter of Venezuela, including intelligence, naval, air, and other forward-deployed assets positioned for coercive purposes.
4. Venezuela shall adhere to the UN Charter and to the human rights protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
5. The Secretary-General shall immediately appoint a Special Envoy, mandated to engage relevant Venezuelan and international stakeholders and to report back to the Security Council within fourteen days with recommendations consistent with the Charter of the United Nations, and the Security Council shall remain urgently seized of this matter.
6. All Member States shall refrain from unilateral threats, coercive measures, or armed actions undertaken outside the authority of the Security Council, in strict conformity with the Charter.

In Closing
Mr President, Distinguished Members,

Peace and the survival of humanity depend on whether the United Nations Charter remains a living instrument of international law or is allowed to wither into irrelevance.

That is the choice before this Council today.

Thank you.

(Source: Common Dreams)

Plestia Alaqad is a young Palestinian journalist and author who grew up in the Gaza strip. She began keeping a diary when she was 12 years old, initially writing about teenage issues such as crushes, and being bullied about her school grades. Motivated by a teacher with a journalistic background, she soon resolved to become a journalist herself, with the idealistic aim of sharing the beauty of her homeland with the world.

After graduating from her media and journalism course at Eastern Mediterranean University in North Cyprus, she returned to Gaza a few months before the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7 2023, which led to the deadliest war so far in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At age 21, she quickly gained international attention for her daily coverage of Israel’s offensive, amassing millions of Instagram followers, and featuring in international media including Al Jazeera, the BBC, and The New York Times, earning her the nickname of ‘the eyes of Gaza’. Her exceptional and brave journalism has earned her many accolades, including being named one of the BBC’s 100 Women in 2024, and winning the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award.

Her book The Eyes of Gaza, published in 2025, mostly consists of diary extracts written during the first 45 days of Israel’s bombardment campaign.

“When the sword is as mighty as Israel’s, then the pen becomes all the more important.” [from Day 23 diary entry]

Plestia has a way of expressing herself that draws the reader into her world as if you are a friend she’s communicating with. That world, of course, is far from being a normal existence.

When she returned home post-graduation, she was determined to show Gaza to other countries through her eyes, and for people to learn about its citizens’ lives, rather than just their deaths. Having tried and not been satisfied with desk jobs at media agencies, and yearning for more life experience, she had finally found a role she loved: conducting interviews at a human resources firm.

Plestia’s life dramatically changed on 7 October, when she woke up to a flurry of messages on her phone, relaying news of a wave of Israeli air strikes after the attack on Israel by Palestinian fighters. A few hours later, she was asked if her number could be shared with a British television journalist, which led to a one minute report filmed from her family’s apartment. This was promptly followed up with a request to speak live on TV from Press House Palestine.

By Day 3, already 100,000 Palestinians had been displaced and they learnt that the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) had sent out a warning that they were about to bomb a university near Plestia’s home. The reader is taken through the experience of having your world disintegrate around you — her family’s apartment complex bombed, sheltering overnight in the hospital, returning to salvage what they could fit into a suitcase, and then moving into a relative’s house.

On Day 6, Al Jazeera reports that Israel has placed Gaza under ‘total siege’ — preventing food and fuel reaching the over two million people dependent on aid. And on Day 7, they woke up to a notice from Israel warning every Palestinian in North Gaza to flee south within the next 24 hours — for many, an impossible task.

In her diary entry on Day 12, she realises that this isn’t the usual ‘Aggression’ any more, but a Genocide. “…It’s a calculated, deliberate and ruthless ethnic cleansing… why do we live in a world where Genocide has been normalized?”

Wearing the press vest and helmet, she teams up with other journalists, who on a daily basis film interviews with doctors and locals, witnessing firsthand the destruction of hospitals, churches, mosques and homes. People they speak with assume they have the latest information, so are constantly asked about whether the borders are open and if humanitarian aid is getting through.

Plestia observes the struggles to survive around her, for example, people queuing for hours every day for gas and something to eat. She is torn between her role as a journalist, and helping others as they search through the rubble to salvage belongings.

At one time, the Israeli propaganda machine turned against her — claiming that she wasn’t a journalist and was actually a member of Hamas. She could see that her high-profile reporting was making her and her family a target for the Israeli forces.

In November 2023, Plestia and her family left Gaza via the Rafah Border Crossing for Egypt and then went on to Australia, having secured visas via her uncle.

Shortly after, she was awarded the Shireen Abu Akleh Memorial Scholarship for a Master’s degree in media studies at the American University of Beirut. Plestia has continued her advocacy work, drawing attention to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine.

The Eyes of Gaza is a harrowing but insightful read, her diary entries a mix of descriptions of time spent with family and friends, contrasted with journalistic experiences describing the devastation and tragedies witnessed firsthand. Knowing as a reader that this is only the beginning of an ongoing genocide is immensely saddening and shocking, but at the same time we are uplifted and inspired by Plestia Alaqad’s courage, resilience and determination in the face of such extreme adversity, which is, no doubt, reflective of the spirit of Palestinians as a whole.

In 2006, Harvard political scientist Erica Chenoweth, still a PhD student at the time, attended a week-long conference on non-violent resistance. At that time, she viewed the idea that non-violent protests could elicit major political shifts, such as regime change or the overthrow of a dictator, to be “well-intentioned but dangerously naïve”. She later stated: “In a society that celebrates battlefield heroes on national holidays, I guess it was natural to grow up believing that violence and courage are one and the same, and that true victories cannot come without bloodshed on both sides.”

However, at that conference she was approached by Maria Stephan, soon to become her co-researcher, who challenged her to prove (or disprove) her assertion that it was mainly through violence that major change occurs. It turns out that up to that time, no detailed systematic research had ever been conducted to ascertain the effectiveness of non-violent protest versus armed conflict in producing major political transformation.

Chenoweth and Stephan then studied a wide range of major civil resistance movements occurring from 1900 to 2006, both violent and non-violent, all of which had the aim of complete regime change. The findings were a real eye-opener for Chenoweth as they indicated that the non-violent movements were more than twice as successful at reaching their objectives as armed conflict. Further, the non-violent actions attracted on average about four times as many people as the violent ones. The long-term effects of these non-violent movements were also more positive, often leading, for example, to much more democratic governments.

Chenoweth also discovered another significant statistical pattern within the research. In all the cases they had studied, no sustained movements that had attained peak participation of at least 3.5% of the population had failed to reach their goal, even when opposing brutally repressive authoritarian dictatorships. Chenoweth called this the “3.5% Rule”. She noted as well that in every single case, movements that reached the 3.5% margin were non-violent ones.

Some of the examples Chenoweth cites as fitting this 3.5% Rule include: the Cedar Revolution in 2005 in Lebanon, resulting in the expulsion of Syrian forces and the election of a new independent government; the Singing Revolution from 1987 to 1991 which restored the independence of the Soviet-occupied Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; and The People Power Revolution in the Philippines in 1986 leading to the departure of long-time dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Further, many non-violent resistance movements achieve their goals with less than the 3.5% participation. A very recent example is the Gen Z-led protests of over 100,000 people in the capital of Bulgaria in early December 2025, resulting in the resignation of Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov.

It is believed that the greater success of non-violent uprisings occurs for a variety of reasons. They are more likely to shift the pillars of support that enable authoritarian regimes to retain power. Police forces are less inclined to use violence against unarmed civilians once the numbers become large enough, due to the fact that crowds are likely to include friends and family of police officers. This was the case in protests in Serbia in 2000 when police began to disobey orders to fire on demonstrators. Non-violent protests are more inclusive and can mobilize more people more easily than violent ones. The non-violent approach and increased numbers allow potential participants to feel safer, and therefore more likely to take part than they would in violent uprisings. These sustained non-violent movements can tend to build political, economic, cultural, and social power and influence, leading to defections throughout the various pillars of support.

Chenoweth does caution that the ‘Rule’ is not necessarily predictive, that it may not continue to hold true in all cases going forward. (There have been one or two exceptions since the 2011 release of Chenoweth and Stephan’s book, Why Civil Resistance Works.) And the shifting political, economic, and technological landscape will likely lead to alternative outcomes for protests in the future. She notes that technological tools such as social media and advanced surveillance mechanisms may shift trends in the effectiveness of civil resistance. Authoritarian regimes have also no doubt learned from successes of past protest movements, and will alter their approach to offset the influence and tendencies of civil resistance to incite defections. This will necessitate altered tactics on the part of protest movements as well, in order to facilitate further successful resistance efforts.

In her 2013 TED talk on the 3.5% Rule, Chenowith made a strong case for changing how we view history, based on their findings on the power of non-violent resistance: “What if our history courses emphasized the decade of mass civil disobedience that came before the Declaration of Independence, rather than the war that came after? What if our social studies text books emphasized Gandhi and King in the first chapter, rather than as an afterthought? And what if every child left elementary school knowing more about the suffragist movement than they did about the Battle of Bunker Hill?”

This year, the No Kings demonstrations in the United States, protesting authoritarian aspects of the Trump administration, have been seen by many as a potential manifestation of the 3.5% Rule in action. The second No Kings event in October 2025 garnered participation by about 7 million people throughout the country, by many estimates the single largest demonstration in US history. So the numbers are already in the right ballpark and approaching the required threshold as 3.5% of the current US population would be around 11 to 12 million.

Many who attended No Kings rallies noted the celebratory, almost joyous atmosphere of the events. This represents both a necessary element of helping to maintain the non-violent nature of the events, as well as a manifestation of the sense of hope and potential that participation by so many holds out. If this many people are standing up for change, it begins to be perceived as a real possibility.

This represents a sharp contrast from the hopelessness that many have experienced in reaction to rampant tyrannical, oppressive, undemocratic actions blatantly taking place since the beginning of the second Trump administration. A third No Kings event is currently being planned for 28 March 2026. This may be the beginning of generating the sustained participation necessary for change.

Again, Chenoweth cautions applying the 3.5% Rule too literally: “This is where it’s really important to learn from the history of these movements, which is that it’s usually not about a single day of protest. It’s about building power for the long haul.” She does call the 3.5% margin a “hopeful number”, in that people get the sense that it’s within reach to effectively mobilize against an authoritarian regime. Can the No Kings events be a step in the right direction in this regard?

Chenoweth closes her TED talk with a plea to use our new historical knowledge of the effectiveness of people power more deliberately: “Now that we know what we know about the power of non-violent conflict, I see it as our shared responsibility to spread the word, so that future generations don’t fall for the myth that violence is their only way out.”

Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University and at the City College of the City University of New York. In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris I (Sorbonne), France. He is also the co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update. He is considered by a number of media outlets to be influential in the field of Marxian economics, and The New York Times Magazine has named him “America’s most prominent Marxist economist”.

Felicity Eliot interviewed him for Share International in November 2025, a few hours after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York. Their very detailed conversation is being presented in several installments. (The first installment was published in December 2025.)

Share International: We were just talking about the growth in importance of alternative media, since mainstream media has been bought by corporate interests and serves them rather than the facts.
Richard Wolff: I have a program that I do on radio and TV here in the United States.

SI: I think you’re referring to ‘Democracy at work’?
RW: That’s right. And we have, you know, 600,000 YouTube followers. That’s quite an audience. If I were a newspaper, 600,000 subscribers would make me a very successful newspaper. I’m not claiming that. But I have a chance. In the mass mainstream media, that’s over. They will not print anything of mine.

RW: If I had to tell you what’s the single most important economic process that has shaped the United States over the last half century? The answer I would give you is the relocation of capitalist industry out of the United States and mostly into Asia, but also into Latin America, Africa and so on.

SI: Of course, go where there’s cheap labor. But who decides?
RW: That’s right. Cheap labor. The greatest beneficiary of this is China — which is not to take away from all of the things that the Chinese did to make their success story economically. The movement of industrial production to that country, closing the factories here and basically moving them over there is something every American experiences. They also know that the decision to close a factory in Chicago or in St. Louis or in New York or wherever and move it to Shanghai is a decision made by the major shareholders and the board of directors of each corporation that made the move. Government didn’t do it, unions didn’t do it, the public didn’t do it, they did it. According to the US Census, 3% of our people are employers. The other 97% are not. So, those are the 3% who made the decisions that their future as an industry, or a corporate entity, lay in China. The wages are much lower, the market is the biggest market in the world, and it is growing faster than anywhere else.

The problem is that it makes for an angry population because here the home country, let’s take the States, has unemployment, has rising costs. But the corporate elite of this country have made it a taboo to mention them, let alone to blame them. No, we blame the Chinese. We blame workers who are pushing for higher wealth. We blame everybody. But the elite are the exception — no blame for them. But the people are wise to this now, aren’t they? More and more. Across the spectrum, whether it’s left or right. The interesting thing that’s happening too in the States and other countries, to my mind, is that what we take for granted in the old systems no longer holds. So you find angry people on the left and on the right. But here’s the difference, and it’s a difference I articulate to you because it’s also my hope, and I don’t want to deny that it’s partly my hope. Here it’s all embodied by Mr Trump. The right wing seeks in its behavior to articulate the bitter, angry frustration of a working class that has been abandoned. When Mr Trump gets up there and behaves outrageously toward women, toward non-white people, toward his political enemies, he is acting out the bitterness and the rage of the people that support him.

SI: So, it’s crude populism.
RW: The 30 to 40 per cent, depending on how you count, who are MAGA, as we call them here. But what Mr Trump is doing is he’s trying to articulate the anger of the abandoned working class without alienating the super rich who fund him. And he has to walk that narrow political line because he has to worry lest he offend his donors. The people at the top of the Democratic Party are likewise hamstrung because they have the support of women and of non-white people overwhelmingly. But they have allowed themselves to become dependent on the money as well, because you have to spend billions to run for office in the United States. So these two old leaderships are hamstrung by having to observe the taboo and yet speak to an angry population. The one group of people who are not in that problem are the left. Bernie, Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani, they are groping their way to being what: the articulation of the abandoned working class without a dependence on the donor class.

What Mr Mamdani’s race indicated was that more American billionaires live in the New York area than anywhere else. New York is a rich person’s city. I live in Manhattan. I am speaking to you from Manhattan, and I can assure you that if you do not have money, this is not a comfortable place to live. It’s simply too expensive. So the big donors did what they normally did. They outspent Mamdani seven to one. Wow! And they lost! Whatever you hear in the public, I can assure you they are meeting a few blocks from where I’m sitting right now, and they are having meeting with their advisors on how to now deal with this situation: how are they going to make sure that there are no more Mamdanis!

The smart ones among them are going to tell them, you’ve got to solve this dilemma. You’re dependent on the money and you’re losing your base because your dependence on the money is hamstringing your ability to articulate rage. The right wing comes back and says, no, we have the solution. We will take the ugliest manifestations of working-class rage, and we will hype them, we will concentrate them, we will magnify them. We will hang black people from trees the way we once did. We will subordinate women in a way that will remind everyone of the German phrase, ‘Kinder, Küche, Kirche’. Do you remember that?

RW: And they will go outrageous. Look what Mr Trump did in the last two months. He instructed the military to destroy boats in the Caribbean and in the Pacific occupied by people. No one knew who they are, what they’re doing, what might be in the boat. They knew nothing. They didn’t arrest them. They didn’t give them a lawyer. There was no evidence presented to anybody, by anybody, no jury, no judge, just summary execution!

Here in the United States, we arrest people for their drug business all the time. It’s a serious problem. But, nobody is ever killed for that. It is not a capital crime. In many states of the United States, nobody is executed. They get a trial. They get a lawyer. They get etc., etc. But now we summarily kill these people who aren’t even citizens, who are in a boat a thousand miles away, and therefore present no imminent danger to any American. What is this about? It’s a chance to be, to articulate the rage of a working class person who’s angry and who wants to see bad people punished rather than himself. It’s the same as the ICE movement; ICE forces going out onto the streets and creating an issue so that they can then arrest people and there’s no due process, people are taken away.

SI: Are you saying it’s the same phenomenon?
RW: Well, let me drive home how remarkable that really is. The biggest support for ICE comes from the Midwest and the South, which are the strong points for Mr Trump. Another part of his constituency is the fact that the Midwest and the South is where fundamental Christianity is the strongest. Now, these are people who take going to church seriously. They go on Sunday, they listen attentively, more or less, to the minister and they know that their Bible talks about welcoming the stranger. You know, Joseph and Mary were refugees. They were welcomed in the stable. The whole story, as you know, it isn’t so easy to get Christians who are supposed to turn the other cheek and welcome the stranger to support ICE beating up* on people whose crime is they were desperate and fled some horrible situation that would lead a person to leave their home, their church, their school, their neighbors, their language, and all the rest. [*Now, since this interview took place, the state apparatus, ICE, has been seen to shoot its own white citizens.]

SI: Why are these same church-going Christians comfortable with ICE?
RW: And the answer is, that’s how angry they are. They’re so bitter that they have to have almost a psychological release or relief. Somebody has to pay for the suffering they’re going through. And they’ve been told that it’s appropriate to blame, to scapegoat the immigrant. But let me tell you, if that changes, if the left prevails, you’re going to see Mr Trump’s base turn on Mr Trump. And wow, that’s not going to be pretty. I don’t know if you know the story of what happened to Mussolini at the end of Italian fascism. Well, if I were Mr Trump, I’d worry about it. I mean, you know, soon after we spoke the first time, Charlie Kirk’s murder. And there is a turning away from Mr Trump by some of his supporters because they wanted to know all sorts of things, for example, the Epstein files and so on, and also support for Israel. All of this sort of thing has come in to make a very sort of murky and strange sort of society.

SI: Well, let me ask, if there’s that much rage and that much tension … I remember Bernie Sanders saying at some point that it feels different this time — as if the lust for power has exploded, motivated not by greed. To me it feels as if it’s not only greed and not only division, but it seems also to be a lust for power and a hunger for a kind of cruelty. And that brings me to a point where I’d like to ask if a society is so riddled with anger and the tension builds, there must come a point psychologically, culturally, socially and certainly economically where there is some kind of an explosion or implosion. I wonder what your comment is to that?
RW: Well, I could not agree more. I think it will always be, I probably shouldn’t say this, but it’s in my head. So there’ll always be a certain mystery attached to what blows, you know, what gives way? What is that moment that becomes the catalyst and brings it all to a head? Sometimes, it seems to be such an irrelevant something.

SI: That’s right. Like in the World War I started in that way.
RW: Right, yes. With something insignificant so that when you look back, there’s no possible way to justify World War I because an obscure Archduke is assassinated by an obscure anarchist or whatever he was. There are guesses being made here in the United States about what it might be. For example, there’s a view pretty widespread that underneath the surface of that which we know about the Epstein story lies a much bigger story and that a great deal of effort has been put out by the Trump administration in alliance with others who do not want that remainder of the story to become public knowledge. There’s a process of hiding and document shredding. But enough people know enough. …

RW: There’s a lot of prurient interest in such a subject. It will be all over the press. Even the most docile corporate press will have to attend to it because it will be in the air. That’s one thing and here’s another. Mr Trump won the election in part because he took a remarkable stance throughout his campaign: he’s against war. He said it over and over again. He’s against these endless wars, by which he meant Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam. ‘I will stop the war.’ Remember? ‘I will stop it in the first week. I will make a phone call. I will, I will, I will.’

What has he done? Well, so far, basically nothing. Israel continues to do in the Gaza Strip what it did before. This is a ceasefire of the most bizarre kind. The Ukraine war goes on without a stop. He has attacked Iran, so that war sits there. Meanwhile, he threatens Venezuela. Over the last few days, he has threatened Nigeria and he also threatened Mexico. And he has a standing threat against Canada. Instead of ending wars, Mr Trump is proliferating them. And the truth of the matter is, at some point, somebody is going to see a political opportunity here. My guess is it’ll be a Republican, especially now that all of the people Mr Trump endorsed for the election yesterday were defeated. Everyone who won was an opponent of the person he supported. That weakens him and it is his second of two terms. It’s not at all clear that he could get another term. My guess is he probably can’t, and therefore he is what we call here a lame duck. And that means other Republicans, starting with his own vice president, are going to have a vested interest in beginning to try [to sideline or unseat him] without offending him.

In Part One of this article, I present an analysis of the current international neoliberal economic order that has resulted in a deeply divided world, and which maintains injustice, and frustrates attempts to find solutions to restore the planet’s health and to ensure peace. In particular, I focus on the specific key role played by the very rich in order to maintain the status quo at all costs and prevent any deep reform of the economic system.

In Part Two, I investigate some possible solutions to today’s impasse that would greatly contribute to unlocking the blocks imposed by this ‘caste’ of the ultra rich, and which are urgently needed to ensure the future.

The trick they played — how to get ‘water’ to trickle up
The international neoliberal economic order has failed to deliver on its promise of the so-called trickle-down effect, which, in substance, was: let the rich get richer and money will naturally trickle down and ‘irrigate’ all the economic actors, thus bringing balance and harmony. The system has produced the reverse effect: the hoarding of riches and resources, of power and influence, by a ‘caste’ of a small number of extremely rich people.

Of course, this situation did not happen by chance but was intended to bring about just such a result, by the very oligarchs who used their power to influence political decisions that served their interest and determination to free themselves of controls, restrictions — in fact, any, and all — possible limitations.

The narrative given by this ultra-rich caste to the masses was essentially a distraction, in order to force ordinary people to participate in the neoliberal system.

Based on the hoarding and accumulation of capital, the system enables the richest to siphon off the riches and resources of the world, and thus hoard and accumulate more wealth and capital. Beyond a certain threshold of accumulation, you almost cannot be defeated, as the system is spiralling wealth and power at high speed towards to the top of the social pyramid. And this is how the ‘winners’ reach a status of autonomy and freedom, whatever the world situation. They have become ‘the untouchables’ at the top of society.

As a first step we need to try to understand the way the very rich think, behave and act.

A strong sense of separation
Apart from influencing national politics and policy to avoid income and asset tax, the caste makes massive use of tax havens around the world to avoid paying the taxes needed to fund social civil society investment — in social security, education and infrastructure. They reject the notion that their accumulated wealth is the result of the participation of the entire society in the economic system. It is most certainly also a product of historical, political and social evolutions — cultural, educational, trade agreements and technological progress, for instance. It is not self-created wealth grown out of nothing, but accrued from within society itself.

Financialization — the name of their game
By accelerating the financialization of the economy, through the dominance of the financial markets over the real economy, the caste has grown its share of the world’s economic and financial cake at an unprecedented speed. Stock markets are used as a weapon of a mass accumulation of wealth, which has grown out of the commodification of most human achievements in all fields of activity: science, medicine, education. Every human endeavour has become a commodity which can be priced and traded.

Directly or indirectly, the very rich control the big commercial and financial corporations which operate on, or through, the stock markets.

The richer you are, the faster your fortune has grown, even skyrocketed, in the last twenty years or so. According to Oxfam, billionaire wealth increased by $2 trillion (2000 billion) in 2024.

The very rich do not care about climate change: save yourself!
The very rich could significantly contribute positively to the fight against climate change, but most of them couldn’t care less. Worse, they seem to be convinced that they can separate themselves from the rest of the world. So, a number of global millionaires and billionaires have acquired lands and properties in countries like New Zealand, in order to build their own personal safe haven and shelter¹, in case life becomes too difficult in their own countries — or in case of massive revolutions against the very rich around the globe!

Another example lies in the lucrative business of private jets. The level of pollution produced by the numerous airplanes flying all over the world has been pinpointed as a significant source of pollution. Yet the very rich want to maintain their privileges of flying freely over the world as much as they wish.

You may remember the famous recent episode of Jeff Bezos’ wedding in Venice, Italy. More than ninety private jets landed in the city airport, bringing wealthy guests to ceremonies and festivities — a totally contemptuous attitude which exemplifies the psyche of the new lords.

The strategies of the very rich
The caste uses various strategies of self-preservation to keep afloat, and maintain, stratospheric levels of wealth and total impunity at the cost of others. These were enumerated by Noam Chomsky in The Ten Strategies of Mass Manipulation. Of course, it goes without saying that all of these strategies involve a strong and complicit interaction between the ruling oligarchs, political leaders and mainstream media.

• Distraction
  The use of the smokescreen is one of their favourite weapons, to distract and divert the attention of the public. Examples abound. One of them is the ‘ecological transition’ used by the world’s oligarchy in order to prevent any profound reform and change in the energy and the economic system worldwide. After decades of disinformation campaigns which failed in the face of rising public awareness and the accumulated scientific proof of climate change, their strategy has changed. If they cannot fight it efficiently, they intend to influence it from inside and make sure apparent changes stay well below any significant threshold. The oligarchy is providing funds to some NGOs connected with environmental issues — while the extraction of fossil fuel energies continues at a sustained pace.

According to Chomsky other current strategies include various manipulative tactics:

• Create problems, then offer the solutions
• Gradual undermining
  When a ‘reform’ that the very rich want is too difficult to be implemented in a short period, it is applied gradually over a number of years. This is a typical tactic as evidenced in the downgrading of public social services (for example, healthcare) with a progressive replacement of public services by private and paid services.
• The strategy of delaying
  Another way to get an unpopular decision accepted is to present it as painful but necessary in the time ahead.
• Patronize and infantilize the audience
• Appeal to emotion, rather than encouraging analysis and reflection
  Fear, and feelings of helplessness, generate primary reactions which in turn lead to anxiety and individualism.
• Keep the public in ignorance and stupidity
  The oligarchy is not interested in ‘social improvement’, which has long been the motivation in most educational politics in western countries like France. Children born in the upper classes have the best chances to go to the best schools. Privatizing education and making it expensive is a corollary meant to make sure that the wealthy classes maintain themselves and that intruders from lower classes are kept out.
• Encourage the public to wallow in mediocrity
  No need to expand on that, it is enough to look at the quality of TV programs.
• Encourage guilt instead of revolt
• Know individuals better than they know themselves

To this list I would add a recent phenomenon which appeared with digital technology:

• Keep young people isolated and busy on their smartphones for many hours a day
  Keep them mostly ignorant, absorbed in their favorite mental distraction and unable to discriminate between the real and the fake. Oligarchy, as well as fascism, flourishes on individualism, ignorance, isolation and separation.

To summarize, the fundamental intention is to control people’s thinking.

This definitely involves the control of media. In France, 90% of the mainstream media is owned by a handful of media moguls, a tiny number of billionaires. They have good reason for this:

The billionaires want to make the utmost use of the present system. They fear that the present horn of plenty will dry up — either under apocalyptic conditions, or because of huge social revolts against their oligarchic domination as the numbers grow of marginalized but savvy citizens demanding social justice.

The system seems to be well embedded, locked in place, and only a big blow could make it crumble, making way for something else.

A turning point: US oligarchs against the rest of the world
With the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, a new development began. It has long been the dream of Western oligarchies to directly exercise political power at the highest level. Now they have it. This oligarchic clique in power intends to obtain absolute control over political life. ‘Problematic agencies’ (in particular those in relation to environmental issues and climate change) are being either underfunded or dismantled entirely. A political purge is in progress at all levels — brutality is the current way they rule.

And what’s more, they have started a war against other world oligarchies in order to achieve a state of complete domination:

• US multinationals will no longer be subject to the 15% global minimum tax, which had been intended as a step towards more fiscal harmony and fairness internationally.
• Together with his infamous ‘tariffs’ policy imposed on imported goods and services, Trump also obliged European countries to buy billions of US oil and weapons.
• The principle or law of extraterritoriality², often imposed by the US, is strengthened, and conversely no extraterritoriality can be imposed on US corporations and citizens.
• All multinational policies and institutions such as WTO, WHO and other UN agencies, that would hamper US oligarchs, multinational corporations, banks, and other private financial institutions are systematically undermined in order to weaken them.

So an unsustainable asymmetry is being set in place, based on a crude and brutal unilateral imposition of unfair conditions, and denial of rights — the US authorities may harass or assault their traditional allies and partners, and at the same time deprive them of any legal recourse to justice in response, or any means to retaliatory action — a situation exacerbated by the absence of accountability to the international community.

The underlying purpose is to dismantle and disband all international cooperation and regulations — a replay of the Wild West at the global level. The ‘robber barons’ (as in the old time of JP Morgan and his acolytes) are back. This time their playing field is the world.

At this stage, after the initial shock which has literally paralyzed both internal and international opposition (with a few exceptions such as China, Russia, Brazil), the brutal strategy of this branch of the US oligarchy seems to be successful beyond even Trump’s expectations.

What’s next? That’s the question. How can we stop this madness, defeat this oligarchy and change the fate of the world — that is the key question for the future.

According to a new Oxfam report, in 2025, billionaire wealth reached its highest peak ever: jumping over 16 percent, three times faster than the past five-year average to $18.3 trillion. As billionaires are 4,000 times more likely than ordinary people to hold political office this represents an unprecedented time of political inequality. A World Values Survey of 66 countries found that almost half of all people polled say that the rich often buy elections in their country.

The report Resisting the Rule of the Rich: Defending Freedom from Billionaire Power analyses how the super-rich are securing political power to shape the rules of our economies and societies for their own gain and to the detriment of the rights and freedoms of people around the world.

Oxfam’s report finds:

• The collective wealth of billionaires last year surged by $2.5 trillion, almost equivalent to the total wealth held by the bottom half of humanity — 4.1 billion people.
• The number of billionaires topped 3,000 last year for the first time, while the richest, Elon Musk, became the first ever to surpass half a trillion dollars.
• Billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people.
• The $2.5 trillion rise in billionaires’ wealth would be enough to eradicate extreme poverty 26 times over.

At the same time, billions of people are being left facing avoidable hardships of poverty, hunger and death from preventable diseases because the system is rigged against them. Worldwide, one in four people face food insecurity, having to regularly skip meals.

(Source: https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/resisting-rule-rich)

Your Majesties, your Royal Highnesses, Excellences, dear laureates, ladies and gentlemen — on behalf of my co-laureates Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson, and myself, I thank the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Nobel Foundation for this extraordinary honor.

Tonight, we celebrate not only achievement but possibility — the power of human curiosity to reshape the world. Our development of metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, began with a simple but bold idea: that we could design materials with atomic precision, forming strong purposeful bonds that unlock remarkable functions.

From this idea came new possibilities: the power of pulling pure water from desert air, capturing carbon dioxide directly from the sky. These are only early chapters. With countless structures and applications, MOFs are rapidly moving from promise to practical tools that are changing countless lives.

My journey began far from any laboratory. I grew up in Amman, Jordan, in a refugee family of ten children, in a home with no running water and no electricity, sharing our space with livestock, our family’s livelihood. Hardship was everywhere. My chances for success were slim — except for the surprising ways nature reveals itself and helps us overcome.

My turning point came at the age of ten, when I discovered drawings of molecules in my school library. Their beauty and mystery captivated me, and when I learned that they are the building blocks of everything, living and non-living, they ignited my passion for chemistry, and I was hooked forever. It became my escape and my direction.

Another childhood experience shaped me just as deeply. In the desert, water arrived from the government once every week or two. I remember the whisper through our neighborhood, “the water is coming”, and the urgency as I rushed to fill every container I could find before the flow stopped.

Many years later, while studying how MOFs take and release water, I recognized something revolutionary in what seemed like an ordinary behavior. I saw how this MOF could pull water from desert air and turn it into clean drinking water. It echoed the rhythm of my childhood — yet now offered a solution to the very hardship we had once endured. I often wonder whether I would have recognized that pattern of data had I not lived it first.

But MOF’s deeper lesson lies in their metaphor: an MOF’s strength comes from the bonds between its molecules — just as our future depends on the bonds we build across nations and generations. MOF science is now practised in more than 100 countries, inspiring young people everywhere, especially in the developing world.

And here lies our greatest hope: a science capable of re-imagining matter, and a generation eager to move it forward. I urge our leaders to act. Scientists are not asking for privilege, but for possibility. Support their curiosity. Remove barriers. Protect academic freedom. Welcome global talent.

And on climate, the hour for collective action has already arrived. The science is here. What we need now is courage — courage scaled to the enormity of the task — so we may gift the next generation not only carbon capture, but a planet worthy of their hopes.
I imagine a future where practising chemistry does not require being a chemist, where discovery is accessible to all. Advances in AI may make this possible — a future where chemistry becomes not only a science of progress but a science of hope. A future where no child faces the limitations I once knew, but grows into a world more stable, more abundant, and more just.

Thank you.

(Sources: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2025/yaghi/speech/; aljazeera.com)

In the spring of 1948 Dr Macdonald-Bayne gave a series of talks in South Africa. A Miss I Bagot-Smith who was present described the experience as unforgettable: “It was not the actual words that made these lectures so amazing; it was the way they were delivered. …no description could ever convey the tremendous force of the Presence of the Master. …”

Miss Bagot-Smith went on to describe how the smiling, gentle, man who gave the talks was transformed by the overshadowing presence of his Master — the Master Jesus: “Then suddenly an amazing change took place: a short, sharp intake of breath and the very Master was present, in the same body, but utterly different. We knew perfectly well that the lecturer was still the man we had all known and respected for years, but at the same time he was someone completely different. The change was so startling that our benumbed senses could scarcely credit it. But at the same time it was true, and we knew it was true. The man before us now appeared unusually tall, much taller than the lecturer himself. Words cannot tell the strength of this astounding truth but it was so. …

“’My peace I bring to you’, was his greeting and blessing, or ‘My peace and my love I bring to you.’ The Blessing was given with two fingers of the right hand raised in the manner of a king. A quietness spread through the hall: a vibrating power like a stream of warmth passed through our bodies, burning wherever any part was imperfect, and healing as it flowed.”

According to Benjamin Creme, Dr Murdo MacDonald-Bayne (1887-1955) was 2.0 degrees initiate and received training from the Masters in Tibet. He was a renowned healer and the author of many books, most notably Beyond the Himalayas and Divine Healing of Mind and Body. He established centres in many countries around the world for the dissemination of “the true teachings of the Christ” (Source: M MacDonald-Bayne, Divine Healing of Mind and Body)

As we watch the dysfunctional structures and systems that were created and fueled by receding Piscean^* energies crumble, we can likewise see the seeds of a new civilization emerging. For these, we must look beyond the mainstream media though, as many are just tiny embryos of what, with nurture, they may someday become. (^*Piscean: the predominating tendencies of the last 2000 years.)

Some of these are new scientific discoveries, such as microplastic-eating fungi, lab-grown leather from living animals, a new gel that can help restore coral reefs, and a sustainable battery technology that can hold power for over 100 hours. Each discovery may potentially help solve some major problems that our outdated systems have created.

Microplastic-eating fungi

Scientists at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have discovered microplastic-eating fungi. Testing various marine fungi species, they found that some — over 60% — can naturally degrade polyurethane, a plastic used in many disposable consumer products. Further, the researchers found that the fungi could be conditioned within three months to consume it about 15% faster. Since plastics are extremely harmful to marine ecosystems and are polluting our oceans, finding ways to degrade them is critical. Next up for discovery: other fungi that can break down less degradable plastics like polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate, which are even larger sources of marine pollution.

Lab-grown leather

A North Carolina biotech company, Cultivated Biomaterials, has grown in their lab, for the first time, leather produced from the cells of a living cow. George Engelmayr, the biomedical engineer who started the company, grows the cells on plant-based scaffolds made from materials like dandelion fluff and milkweed fibers. When the mature leather is tanned, it’s done with tree bark powders rather than the harsh chemicals used by most tanneries, so it’s not environmentally destructive.

Other environmental benefits of lab-grown cow leather could also be significant. Livestock farming produces tons of greenhouse gases and uses huge amounts of water. Research, though not independently tested, suggests that cultivated leather may use 80% less water (which can be recycled!) and create 90% fewer emissions than conventional leather production.

The concept is proven; now the big challenge is making enough leather at a low enough price to be competitive. Lab-grown leather, still a very small operation, may not transform the industry anytime soon; however, as we become more concerned with reducing emissions and preventing cruelty to animals, the technology may attract more attention and investors.

A gel for restoring coral reefs

Coral reefs are dying around the world as a result of ocean warming due to human-caused climate change. Although scientists have been working on reef restoration, they’ve had difficulty getting coral larvae to settle on damaged reefs or human-created structures. This is because the larvae are very selective about where they attach; if they don’t sense chemical cues that tell them “this is a good place to live”, they won’t settle there.

Now, researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Jacobs School of Engineering have developed a gel that slowly releases some of coral larvae’s favorite chemical cues. The gel, dubbed SNAP-X, is created from chemicals released by certain types of algae known to encourage baby corals to attach to surfaces. The chemicals are encapsulated in nanoparticles of silica suspended in a liquid gel that solidifies like Jell-O[1.1] when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. When painted or sprayed onto a surface and cured with UV light, the gel releases the chemicals for up to a month — long enough to increase the likelihood of being active during a coral spawning event.

In experiments that featured flowing water to simulate reef environments, SNAP-X increased larval settlement by up to 20 times. The chief researchers are scaling up this success with a startup company called Hybrid Reef Solutions, because they want the materials to be widely used and to have a sizeable impact on coral restoration.

A cheap, sustainable, grid-scale battery technology

Current energy storage systems have several limitations: the length of time they hold their charge, their cost, and safety. Each of those limitations has been overcome by a new technology developed by the Dutch startup Ore Energy. Using only iron, water and air, the technology mimics natural rusting — it literally rusts and un-rusts to store electricity. When storing energy, electricity converts rust back into pure iron metal. When releasing energy, the iron reacts with oxygen to form rust again.

Compared to lithium batteries, which lose their charge after four to six hours, the Ore Batteries can hold power for over 100 hours. With that longevity, the technology solves the renewable energy problem of providing energy when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Having such long-lasting battery storage could eliminate entirely the need for fossil fuel backup power to fill those supply gaps.

Because of the widely available and inexpensive materials used, the cost per kilowatt-hour for Ore Batteries is only about $20, while lithium batteries run from $300-$400 per kilowatt-hour. In addition, the Ore Batteries use water-based electrolytes instead of flammable chemicals, so they can’t catch fire and explode like lithium batteries are prone to do. Therefore, they’re much safer for large-scale installations near communities. As an added plus for the environment, they’re also recyclable.

These are only a few of many discoveries that could help correct the mistakes made under our old, separative paradigms and propel us into a new, more conscious way of living on Earth.

Affordable solar panels changing lives in Africa

China’s focus on dominating the renewables market has caused a glut in solar panels, electric vehicles and batteries, which in turn has led to reduced prices and a scramble to find buyers.

They’ve found huge new markets in Africa, where around 600 million people don’t have reliable electricity. For more than a century, populations in Africa and elsewhere have largely depended on giant coal-burning plants for their electricity, and struggled with a broken system that provided unreliable and expensive electricity — or none at all.

In Cape Town, Chinese solar panels are now so affordable that businesses and families are snapping them up. Power from the sun currently makes up approximately 10% of South Africa’s electricity generating capacity and is changing everyday life, trade and industry in Africa’s biggest economy.

What’s happening in South Africa is also happening in Chad, where Chinese solar panels contribute to almost half of its total current electricity-generating capacity, and in Sierra Leone, to over 50%.

The downside is that most of the jobs relating to the solar panel industry are where the panels are produced — only the installation is performed by locals. Therefore the surge in solar power doesn’t address serious social and economic problems in developing countries such as South Africa.

A researcher with the Institute of Security Studies, Marvellous Ngundu, a think tank in Pretoria, said in a New York Times article: “… South Africa consumes advanced green technologies without capturing the industrial benefits.”

However, if policies were in place to manufacture solar panels locally, it would drive up costs: prices of made-in-China panels are by far the lowest, as they continue to lead the field in the manufacturing of solar panels and batteries.

(Source: article by Somini Sengupta of the New York Times)

Financial markets are already phasing out fossil fuels

Environmentalists and others were deeply disappointed that the recent COP30 negotiations failed to call for a phaseout of fossil fuels. However, according to Ingmar Rentzhog, Founder and CEO of the climate media platform We Don’t Have Time, such political agreements may be less significant than financial markets in determining whether or not fossil fuels are phased out. In fact, he writes in a recent article in Forbes magazine that capital is already behaving as if such a phaseout is underway.

Yes, the COP30 agreement was weak, but its real significance in terms of the determination to phase out fossil fuels was not the lack of consensus, but the formation of a “coalition of the willing”: 83 countries that backed a roadmap away from fossil fuels. Further, that Colombia and the Netherlands committed to co-hosting the first international conference in 2026 to facilitate that work. As Rentzhog points out, investors don’t need all major emitters to agree in order to start repricing risk.

Morgan Stanley’s Institute for Sustainable Investing surveyed over 900 institutional investors in November 2025, and the report showed that “86% of asset owners expect to increase allocations to sustainable investments in the next two years.” Many of these represent “mega” institutions, so the survey covers decision-makers managing tens of trillions of dollars altogether. Finances are trumping politics.

This growth counters the “ESG backlash” story line — ESG meaning an investing principle that prioritizes environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance. In fact, North American investors have a higher expectation of increasing allocations in sustainable funds (90%) than do European or Asian Pacific investors, when that region is thought to be the epicenter of backlash.

Another signal pointing to a fossil fuel phaseout is the “green economy’s” rise from a niche market to a multi-trillion-dollar growth market. In 2025, green energy investment was already larger than investment in fossil fuels. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), of a projected $3.3 trillion total energy investment, about $2.2 trillion was for clean energy related categories, while about $1.1 trillion was for fossil fuels.

Also, in December 2025, global inventories of barrels of oil rose to four-year highs, according to the IEA, and this glut could cause sudden changes in pricing as storage becomes a problem. The growing battery storage industry is now a sharp competitor that’s scaling rapidly and can handle variability in energy supply without burning anything at all. The big picture doesn’t look good for fossil fuels.

People power preserves threatened part of Patagonia

In 2012, the authorities planned to flood the Chilean Cochamó Valley for a huge hydroelectric project. Then a private company wanted to build a high-end vacation home development and pave roads through the valley. But these plans and other large-scale projects were killed by loud community opposition. In 2025, a grassroots funding campaign including rancher families, climbers, backpackers, tour operators and explorers led by the NGO Puelo Patagonia went a step further. Instead of allowing them to be developed, the coalition purchased 133,000 hectares (328,000 acres) of the pristine wilderness for $63 million (£479 million) and transferred the title to the Chilean nonprofit Fundación Conserva Puchegüín last December.

The size of the protected ecosystem is 383 times that of Manhattan’s Central Park, or 800 times as large as London’s Regent’s Park, and its ancient forests include groves of Alerce trees that have been growing there since about 1000BC. There are no roads through the valley, and the few homes generate their own electricity with solar or wind. It’s an important biological corridor connecting to surrounding protected lands in both Chile and Argentina.

The Cochamó conservation effort was inspired by the work of Kris and Doug Tompkins, who left leadership roles at the Patagonia and Esprit clothing companies respectively and founded the Tompkins conservation group, now renamed Rewilding Chile. Over 25 years, the group spent $300 million buying huge parcels of land and then negotiating with the Chilean government to expand its existing parks. More than 5.7 million hectares of wildlands were protected in this way.

The plans for Cochamó are to place 80% of the land in protected national park status, and the other 20% will be left for tourism, family farms, and small ranches, to provide a living for locals. As the area’s popularity grows, a limit of 15,000 visitors a year has been set, and reservations are now required. A master plan of hiking trails, base camps and horse stables is being developed with direct participation from local communities. The people have spoken — and won!

In October 2025, a group of Buddhist monks began a 2,300-mile Walk for Peace across the United States. Led by the Venerable Bhikku Pannakara, they started from a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Fort Worth, Texas, and will conclude their journey in Washington DC in February 2026.

Explaining the purpose behind the Walk for Peace, Pannakara said: “We want to raise awareness of peace to all the people. That is because I have seen so much suffering around us already. So I just wanted to share a moment, a message to all the people who we meet around the road. So that way everybody can practice to have peace of mind, to have a peaceful life; just to want to share that message of mindfulness, loving kindness and compassion. So, hopefully, everybody will live in unity and harmony.”

The monks’ journey is taking them through 10 states of southern US, where they stop in the capital of each state. Their journey has brought out thousands and thousands of people to see them along the way. Many applaud or hand the monks flowers, while others can be seen crying with joy as the monks pass by. Their social media site has over one million followers.

While welcoming the monks at the state house in Columbia, South Carolina, Mayor Daniel Rickenmann addressed the crowd: “It’s amazing this walk took its turn through our city and through our state at a time when we really needed it. We need it as a community.” The Mayor, along with South Carolina State Senator Deon Teddor, declared 10 January the Walk of Peace Day in Columbia.

“It definitely gives us hope”
Bhikku Pannakara also addressed the crowd at the statehouse: “Let us now let go of all the hatred, all those angers. Let all those see with loving kindness and compassion so that peace can bloom and flourish throughout this country and around the world.” While addressing another crowd he said: “Peace always begins within. We don’t have to look outward to find peace. We just have to look within.”

One woman of the thousands of people who came to welcome the monks in South Carolina said: “I think it definitely gives us hope. I’m glad we got to witness this. I think that it’s going to be a part of history … but more importantly just really ‘hope’.” Another woman said: “I think its great everybody came out; everybody from different backgrounds coming to support the Walk for Peace. I think no matter what religion you are you should come out and support the Walk for Peace.”

However, the walk has not come without risks. A Buddhist monk who undertook the journey, the Venerable Maha Dam, suffered severe injuries when a truck hit the monks’ escort vehicle and caused it to careen into him, resulting in a leg having to be amputated. This brought the number of monks undertaking the walk down to 18. Reflecting on his participation in the Walk for Peace, Maha Dam said: “No regrets. I made the decision coming into this knowing the risk, knowing if anything is going to happen to me I would be willing to sacrifice that. I’m just overwhelmed with the feeling of getting the message across about spreading peace, compassion, love, harmony and, again, community gathering.”

And a dog that was rescued by Pannakara in India named Aloka (“divine light” in Sanskrit) had a pre-existing injury to his leg aggravated during the walk, which resulted in his undergoing surgery in North Carolina. He has since been reunited with the monks and is slowly being eased back into walking, riding in a van for breaks. Local news in South Carolina showed a young girl holding a sign written in many colors that read “Aloka for President”. He has garnered half a million followers on social media.

And the Venerable Bhikku Pannakara has suffered some minor injuries. Similar to a walk for peace he undertook in India in 2022, he is walking across the US in his bare feet. However, the roads in the US have resulted in his feet being bandaged at the end of every day due to injuries from rocks, nails and glass.

Two of the monks are adhering to the Buddhist discipline of dhutanga, which allows them to adopt only three postures along their journey: walking, standing and sitting. Therefore, unable to lie down they spend the entire night sitting and meditating. “[T]hat’s how they replenish their energy,” said Neerak Bajracharya, the Government liaison and press coordinator for the walk.

Reaching the hearts of all Americans
After leading a group in Buddhist prayers, the Venerable Bhikku Pannakara spoke about the importance of continuing with peace: “Now that we already ask for forgiveness from all the others and we also forgive them and forgive ourselves, so now we have a new life. Is that right? We should continue doing this for the rest of our life.”

As to why the walk ends in the nation’s capital, Bajracharya said: “We are planning to go to Washington DC, because Washington DC is the heart of the nation. By reaching to the heart of the nation, we believe that we can reach to the hearts of all Americans across the United States, and by being able to deliver the peace message from there, we think that we can reach to all these American people across the United States.” In Washington DC, the group will ask Congress to recognize the day the Buddha was born and his enlightenment known as Vesak [Wesak] as a federal holiday.

Bajracharya stated the foundational reasons for the Walk for Peace: “The core, foundational stone of this initiative is peace, unity, compassion and healing. And we want to reach out to each and every individual in America.” He was amazed at the response from the public, “We are getting calls from all over the world.” (Sources: The Guardian; US Current Affairs & WIS News 10)

Rutger Bregman (1988-) is a Dutch writer who now lives in the US, and an original founder of The School for Moral Ambition. He has strongly argued for a universal basic income among other social reforms. He wrote his first book Utopia for Realists when he was 25, in 2014. The son of a pastor, he is idealistic, though no longer religious, and has a strong sense of a moral mission to help to do good in the world.

He was chosen this year to give the four BBC Reith lectures, an annual event held in honour of the founder of the BBC — they are always interesting and always serious. The question and answer/discussion section with the live audience makes up a large part of the proceedings. Bregman’s series was called ‘The Moral Revolution’. The four lectures were delivered in both the UK and at Stanford University in the US, and Bregman promised that his themes would be ‘Misery’, ‘Redemption’, ‘Thankfulness or Gratitude’, and ‘Fighting for Humanity in the Age of the Machine’.

So, his first lecture was a scathing critique of big business, and the materialism and cynicism of present-day society. The BBC censored his intended statement about Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history”.

In his lectures, Bregman asked: “Can we make goodness fashionable again?” His essential message is that it only takes small groups of people to end up spreading goodness, almost like a virus. The originators of a moral movement might be annoying in their fervour and determination, but they can make change happen. As an example, he told the story of the abolitionist movement in Britain, famously led by William Wilberforce and a small group, who helped to make the UK the first country to abolish the abomination of slavery. Bregman also told the story of the less well-known Thomas Clarkson, another abolitionist of the late 18th century, whom he describes as a “moral steam engine”.

Another of Bregman’s heroes is Lord Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), a British polymath, who was famous in the 1950s and 60s for his part in the anti-nuclear movement (and was arrested for taking part in a protest in an action reminiscent of today’s arrests of people taking part in Palestine Action demonstrations). Bregman came across an interview with Russell in 1959, where he was asked what advice he would give to future generations. His intellectual advice was to see the world as it is, his moral advice was to tolerate our differences: “Love is wise, hatred is foolish”. Russell wrote: “Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life. The longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course over a great ocean of anguish, reaching the very verge of despair.”

In his last lecture, ‘Fighting for Humanity in the Age of the Machine’, Bregman asks, “What is sacred?”. His answer, no longer believing in a God in Heaven, is to be found “here on earth”, in our own human nature. “The longing for love is sacred. The search for knowledge is sacred. The unbearable suffering of mankind is sacred. And so are the small things — laughter and song, the bonds of friendship, the joy of play, the wonder of art, the beauty of nature, the gift of attention; all of humanity is sacred. That is the revelation that flows from our history. We are not fallen sinners. We are rising apes. The real meaning of the human adventure is not to be found in the heavens, but in the future we can build together.” This is the sense of ‘gratitude’ with which Bregman ends his series of lectures.

Despite long-standing ‘incompatibility issues’ between science and religion — in reality, down to a matter of perception — it would seem that science, not without some irony and befitting of a Shakespearean drama, has cross-dressed itself into a faux religious outfit. In its current iteration, it appears more concerned with protecting and maintaining an orthodox belief system, historically the preserve of conventional religions, than with its previous endeavour to freely explore and enquire into nature’s secrets. Where are the freethinking mavericks of science to be found today — the ‘Teslas’, ‘Einsteins’, ‘Heisenbergs’, ‘Curies’, and ‘Faradays’, whose remarkable breakthroughs transformed us into a technologically modern world? They are, in the main, pushed off to the outer reaches of a pseudo-scientific orthodoxy that believes more in its well-funded, ‘established truths’ than in reviewing and challenging those very truths.

Tesla, for example, who revolutionized the entire planet with his creation of an AC (Alternating Current) power generation and distribution system, had all his technical and scientific papers confiscated when he died in 1943. This was carried out, as a matter of ‘national security’, by an arcane-sounding US Government department known as the Office of Alien Property (OAP), though some suspect it was, in fact, the FBI.

Tesla had lived the latter part of his life in relative poverty and obscurity, despite his achievements, having been ostracized by the powers that be, who found his unconventional views, particularly on so-called Free Energy, problematic; powers that represented an unholy alliance between the worst aspects of government and private business, or as President Eisenhower famously called it, “the military-industrial complex”.

As inventor James F. Murray III has stated, the search for an unlimited, clean form of energy will prove to be extremely difficult “… not because of the technical limitations, but rather because of our inability to think outside the existing paradigms and our fear of clashing with vested interests who would gladly doom us all to a perpetual era of filthy, inefficient internal combustion engines.”

Groundbreakers and gatekeepers
An overly centralized Establishment, protected by an army of ‘gatekeepers’, is able to dominate the public discourse with regard to our future needs for energy and its means of production. On the other hand, ‘innovators’, working against all the odds, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, so to speak, attempt to make inroads into that well-protected centre. It is a kind of intellectual insurgency, asymmetric in nature, with one side having all the resources and the other operating by audacious means and sheer bloody-minded conviction. William Zebuhr, technical editor of the Infinite Energy magazine, puts it well when he says, “Most evidence of the possibility of radically different and better technology is not actually hidden, but simply ignored and belittled by the mainstream.”

So, who are these groundbreaking, innovative thinkers that most of us have never heard of, thanks to the assiduous work of said gatekeepers whose job it is to keep it that way? Most prominent among them, as previously mentioned, is Nikola Tesla, the Croatian prodigy who emigrated to America with a dream of inventing an electrical system that was capable of supplying Free Energy for all. Back in the late 19th Century, he was able to see the inventions he was thinking about as clearly as if the device was solidly in front of him, or like a hologram that could be looked at and studied from every angle. This is how he developed the AC generator that would go on to produce the world’s electricity. He envisaged an elegant, simple motor that was revolutionary at the time. It comprised a rotating magnetic field, which produced alternating currents that are out of phase with each other. Electrical power distribution up until that point was DC (Direct Current), which had been developed by Thomas Edison, whom Tesla had worked for on first arriving in America. He eventually left his employment, as Edison, rather scurrilously, broke his side of the contract, and went on to develop his superior AC system with the support and investment of another industrialist, George Westinghouse. An embittered Edison tried to block this new form of energy generation, but, in the end, the more efficient and reliable AC won the day, and the rest is history.

Broadcasting the Divine
Tesla was certainly an unorthodox scientist/inventor, perhaps the first of his kind, with regard to the ‘new technologies’, although it could be argued that it is, in fact, the work of English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday that represents the origin of this particular technological development in human history. In the 1830s, he discovered the laws of electromagnetic induction and, as a result, invented the very first electric motors, dynamos and transformers, without which more recent explorations into Free Energy would not have been possible, let alone the modern world as we know it.

With respect to Faraday’s profound realization, Murdo MacDonald-Bayne’s book Beyond the Himalayas sheds an interesting, more esoteric light on the importance and true significance of electromagnetism. In it, MacDonald-Bayne recalls one of the many enlightening conversations he had while journeying through Tibet, in this case with a learned teacher by the name of Geshi Rimpoche. “The perfect rhythm,” Geshi Rimpoche explains, “is like the ebb and flow of the tide — nothing can withstand its smooth and regular power. For the Infinite Creativeness is within the perfect rhythm. The Creator and His creation are ‘one’, not separate, and we are in no way separated from the rhythm of the Divine Intelligence expressing Itself.”

“The perfect rhythm is flowing through and over the earth from north to south and is polarized by the sun and the moon, rising in the east and setting in the west.”

“This force now becomes electro-magnetic; it keeps the earth on its axis and holds everything on it by the power of its magnetic attraction. Should this electro-magnetic force cease to be, other magnetic currents would draw the earth towards it at such a terrific speed that it would break up into cosmic dust out of which it arose. In this electro-magnetic force lies the secret of great discoveries.”

“Yes, the whole of the ether is magnetized with electro-magnetic waves enabling the whole world to hear and feel the Divine Broadcasting station all at the same time …”

“Here we are on the roof of the world, the hub as you may call it, and with our thoughts strongly impregnated with the Love of God, we can help the world as we tune in to the rhythm of the Universe which comes from the Heart of God.”

Back to Tesla and his unusual way of seeing the world. In 1893, like MacDonald-Bayne and his encounters with great teachers in Tibet, Tesla was introduced to the renowned Indian teacher Swami Vivekananda, who, at the time, was on a tour of America, teaching the universal philosophy of Vedanta, and they met several times after that. These meetings sparked a profound exchange of ideas between the two men, and, for Tesla, an understanding of Vedic philosophy, which helped him develop his perception of what we now call Free Energy — which he referred to as Radiant Energy.

Tesla would sometimes use Sanskrit terms in his scientific writings (not standard operating procedure for scientists at the time), and, in a 1907 article called ‘Man’s Greatest Achievement’, wrote: “Long ago (human beings) recognized that all perceptible matter comes from a primary substance, or tenuity beyond conception, filling all space — the Akasha or luminiferous ether which is acted upon by the life-giving Prana or creative force, calling into existence, in never-ending cycles, all things and phenomena. The primary substance, thrown into infinitesimal whirls of prodigious velocity, becomes gross matter; the force subsiding, the motion ceases and matter disappears, reverting to the primary substance.”

In fact, the President of The International Tesla Society, electrical engineer Toby Grotz, who was also a student of the Vedas, wrote a book on Tesla titled The Influence of Vedic Philosophy on Nikola Tesla’s Understanding of Free Energy. Grotz saw, from studying the Vedas, that a 13,000-year halftime on the ‘cosmic clock’ (half the 26,000-year long movement of our solar system around the heavens in relation to the 12 constellations of our zodiac) is now ending, and that our current time of chaos can be an entry into a golden age of harmony, with extraordinary technologies being developed in this age of great change.”

Nikola Tesla was very much at the forefront of this new era, along with the arrival of extra-terrestrial ‘know-how’ in the form of UFOs.

The Wheelworks of Nature
At the very beginning of the 20th Century, Tesla was working on his ‘Magnifying Transmitter’ (the famous Wardenclyffe transmission tower in Long Island, New York), which was to be his next big invention — after AC power production — capable of transforming how we generate electricity in the future. The tower could be charged to an incredible 30 million volts with the aid of a simple device. However, his futuristic system was not, in fact, a generator, but rather a receiver intended to amplify the electrical power collected and then be able to transmit that wirelessly. Unfortunately, this invention did not come to fruition as his main financial backer, J.P. Morgan, saw that the system could not be metered and therefore billed, so he stopped all funding to the project. Tesla subsequently fell out of favour, including with certain influential elements of the scientific community, who now dismissed his ‘outlandish’ propositions as the work of a ‘crank’, belittling his earlier accomplishments.

Unhindered, he continued with his work, although under limited financial circumstances, and succeeded in harnessing Radiant Energy. He was able to utilize this form of energy with a specialized electronic circuit and powered an automobile he named the “Pierce-Arrow” with it, though this has become a controversial legend due to researchers not finding any physical evidence of the vehicle. There is, though, newly confirmed proof from a German ‘institution for inventions’, whose head at the time, Heinrich Jebens, had met with Tesla on a visit to the US in the 1920s. The famed inventor, according to Jebens’ own written records, gave him a test ride (under strict secrecy) in the new Pierce-Arrow. A device powered the vehicle, which was one of Tesla’s “earlier patents with ether energy”, as Jebens described it. He also noted that, unusually, the automobile had neither a gasoline engine nor a fuel tank. This ‘electronic car’ (before electronic cars existed), able to run on ether energy, is in keeping with a prediction Tesla made when only a young man studying in the city of Budapest, Hungary, before he had emigrated to America. He saw that, “Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point in the universe… Throughout space there is energy… it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelworks of nature.”

(Part Two will be published in the next issue of Share International)

An online poll conducted by YouGov, a company that specializes in marketing research and opinion polling, asked Americans about their experiences with the paranormal. It was conducted 1-6 October 2025 and involved 1,136 adult citizens. The results showed that a majority of Americans believe they have had some paranormal experience. Out of 13 paranormal experiences in the survey, 60% of respondents claimed they had at least one of them.

The most common occurrence was the feeling of a presence or unknown energy, which was experienced by 35% of respondents. It may be worth noting that Benjamin Creme said in an interview titled Benjamin Creme on Discovering the Self: “Maitreya says sometimes you get a feeling that there is something or someone standing behind you, around you, above you, all around you. That is the Self. This happens when you are alone.” Perhaps some of those experiences of feeling a presence or unknown energy were the Self.

The top five experiences were smelling an unexplained scent by 32%, hearing unexplained music by 31%, hearing a discarnate voice 26% and feeling an unexplained change in temperature 26%. Seeing smoke with no discernible cause and seeing a demon were at the bottom with nine and seven percent, respectively.

These numbers increase drastically by people who believe they live in a house that is haunted: feeling a presence or unknown energy 71%, hearing unexplained sound or music 62%, unexplained odors 58%, discarnate voices 56%, and unexplained changes in temperature 56%.

About 33% of respondents believe there is a scientific explanation for their experience and 35% believe the experience was truly unexplainable or paranormal.

The poll also revealed that 43% of respondents believed in the existence of demons, 42% believe in psychics and 38% in ghosts. At the bottom end of that poll only 6% believed in vampires or werewolves.

Of those polled, 29% believe they have some paranormal ability: 23% say they can sense other people’s emotions or auras; belief they can foresee the future is held by 10%; believing they can hear discarnate voices or sounds from ghosts is 9%; belief in one’s ability to see into the past is also 9%; and the percentage of respondents who either believe they can read minds, psychically see events when they are not present or believe they have the ability to communicate with the dead all stand at 7%.

Breaking it down by gender, women are more open to the existence of paranormal experiences and the existence of paranormal entities: 35% of men believe their unexplained experience has a scientific explanation whereas 28% of women do; more women believe in the existence of psychics, 47% as opposed to 36% of men; 42% of women believe in ghosts as opposed to 33% of men; and 55% of women believe some people have paranormal ability whereas 44% of men do.

Out of all of the people who claimed to see a spirit or ghost, it has only happened once to 20%. Those who have claimed to see a spirit or ghost twice stands at 18%; three times at 17%; four times at 4% and 22% claim to have seen one at least five times. Out of those who claim to have seen a ghost, 30% believe they have both seen a ghost of someone they knew as well as someone they did not know; 23% of those who have seen a ghost have only seen someone they knew, while 30% saw a ghost of someone they did not know.

The respondents who claimed to have seen a spirit or ghost and said they were good stands at 31%; 24% believed they were neutral; 8% said the ghosts they saw were evil; 21% said they’ve seen good, evil and neutral spirits.

Overall a total of 15% of Americans believe spirits or ghosts are generally good while only 4% believe they are evil. Those who think they are neutral is 19% and 54% believe they can be good, evil and neutral.

The poll also asked people if they would buy a home if they knew the previous homeowner had been murdered in it. 23% would still buy the home but 43% said they would not. Though, 77% believed the seller should be legally required to inform a potential buyer that the previous owner was murdered in the home.

(Source: Most Americans say they have experienced at least one paranormal event by Jamie Ballard, & Benjamin Creme on Discovering the Self (Part 2))

Callum Cooper is a chartered psychologist with the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Society and senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Northampton. Among other affiliations, he is a member of the Society for Psychical Research where he serves on the council and its Survival Research Committee. He is also a professional member of the Parapsychological Association. Parapsychology is the study of mental phenomena that cannot be explained by orthodox scientific psychology.

Cooper is the author of Telephone Calls from the Dead (2012/revised edition 2024), which documents cases where people have received anomalous phone calls that purport to have come from loved ones who have died. He was interviewed for Share International by Jason Francis.

Share International: What is an anomalous phone phenomenon?
Callum Cooper: I’ll start more broadly by saying that an anomalous phenomenon could be any experience or ability which seems to defy current scientific paradigm and explanation. Usually when we talk about that we look to telepathy (a mind-to-mind interaction), clairvoyance (seeing information at a distance), precognition (a feeling or distinct vision of something before it happens), or psychokinesis (influencing the environment or biological systems by the mind alone). Or anything that suggests the mind operating outside of the body or beyond permanent bodily death.

So these telephone anomalies relate to two things. One is that something might be manipulating the telephone if the telephone company has no record of a call taking place at the time the person claims it did. And in some instances it is suggesting an interaction with the dead. You also get strange instances where living people have had a communication, but those involved in the call are adamant they were nowhere near the telephone at the time the call takes place. So it is of interest to physics and psychology.

SI: How long have anomalous phone phenomena been documented?
CC: Some of the earliest documentation goes back to the wireless telegraph. One of the instances I mention is with a man named David Wilson in 1915. He was a solicitor living in London and he published an article in the journal Light, which was a journal of the College of Psychic Studies. Wilson talks about anomalous communication over the wireless telegraph. But he assumed this communication was coming from extraterrestrials and not the dead. It was around that time that things started to really kick off with electronic communication and people reporting anomalous interactions. By the time we get to 1919 and certainly the early 1920s, we have a number of people coming forward and professing they had built a machine to contact the dead.

SI: Phone calls from people after death fall into several categories. Two of those categories you define as “simple” versus “prolonged” calls. Could you give us some examples?
CC: A simple call is very basic. These are instances where people have lost a loved one and are known to be grieving. They are potentially home alone, the telephone rings and it might be an unusual ring, certainly back when it was a landline telephone. They pick up the phone and hear static or a distant voice. Or their name is spoken, or they hear nothing. They might respond and say, “Hello, is that you?” and try to speak to their deceased loved one, but there is no one else on the line. They don’t hear the click of the receiver or the call being cut off. They’re very basic and there is very little involved with them.

With prolonged calls, you don’t know that a friend or loved one has died. You get a call and it could be Mary and she talks about a project you are both doing. It could be a book, anything — you name it — and things you do together and enjoy. She sort of mentions things that are final about what you doing. “You do this. … You’ve got it in hand. … You are so good at it. … I totally trust it with you. … You take this forward.” You speak for 15 or 20 minutes, maybe half an hour at most.

The phone goes down and then you hear the doorbell ring. You answer the door and it’s your friend John. He’s very upset and you ask him, “What’s wrong, John?” And he asks, “Haven’t you heard about Mary?” You say, “What about Mary? I’ve just been on the phone with her for half an hour.” John looks shocked. “Well, you can’t have been because she died yesterday in a car accident.” Both of you are dumbfounded. You’ve been having a conversation with a person, with the name, voice characteristics, intelligence, and knowledge this person would have, and who has been confirmed to have died yesterday. Checking with the phone company in some of those instances, there is no record of the call having taken place. Sometimes the phone is passed around to other loved ones and they have a word with that person as well.

SI: Are there cases when a person is speaking to a relative and does not know the loved one they are talking to is deceased but realize it during the call? And how does the communication change?
CC: Very rarely does that happen. But I remember D. Scott Rogo and Raymond Bayless [paranormal investigators and authors], in their original book Phone Calls from the Dead, mention that, in some instances, if someone realized they were speaking to a dead person, it shortened the call. It became abrupt and ended. So not knowing the person was deceased prolonged the call. I have no idea why that would be. By the way, their book was published in 1979 and has come back out now, with an extensive postscript I provided.

SI: Do anomalous phone calls that appear to be coming from deceased loved ones sound like a normal call between two living people?
CC: In the majority of cases it sounds fairly normal like you and me right now. It’s the same with apparitions. When someone encounters the classic apparition, they don’t realize until afterward that they couldn’t possibly be interacting with that person. Most often it just appears like you or me, and is perfectly solid.

With the calls, there are some instances where there are differences in the audible features, which are noticeable to the recipient. The other voice might sound electronic and distant as though they are talking into the phone from the other side of the room. These audible anomalies are quite unique. I think in about 36 percent of the original case collection and my case collection we notice there was audible static on the line accompanying the voice as well. But most of the time it appears like any other call.

A case involving “Carl”
SI: Could you talk about the case involving ‘Carl’, who was away from home when he received a call from his father?
CC: Carl was going through some sort of relationship trouble. He didn’t tell his family or friends where he was going and just tucked himself away to clear his head. He goes to a seaside town and looks for anywhere that offers a room. There was some form of bed and breakfast and he knocks on the door. An elderly lady answers the door and says: “Call me Grandma. Everybody does.” She has a room available and there are a few antiques in it, but he doesn’t pay any particular attention to those.

Carl decides to go for a walk on the beach to clear his head. Later that evening he gets back to the room and is getting ready for bed. It’s eleven o’clock and the telephone in the room rings. He answers it and it’s his father, who says: “There you are, Carl. Your mother has been meaning to speak to you. Make sure you speak to her. OK?” Carl asks: “Why don’t you just call her to the phone now?” He replies: “I can’t. She’s not with me.” Carl asks him: “Well, where are you?” And his father says: “I’m in a very beautiful place right now, but be sure to speak to your mother.” And the phone goes dead. Carl puts the phone back down on the receiver and picks it back up again. He tries to get any communication, even an operator, but the line is dead.

It has been a very stressful day. He thinks nothing more of it and that he’ll deal with it in the morning, and goes to bed. When he’s having breakfast with ‘Grandma’, he talks about the strange call he had last night. She says: “You wouldn’t have had a telephone call in that room.” He says: “I did.” And she replies: “No, you wouldn’t have. My late husband bought all of those antiques in the room. That telephone is just a relic of technology of decades gone by. There is no wiring in there. It’s just nailed up to the wall. You better call your mother straight away.”

She hands Carl a modern, yellow kitchen telephone. And on the first ring his mother answers. She says: “Carl, where have you been? We have all been frantic trying to find you. At eleven o’clock last night your father died of a heart attack.” Carl puts the phone down and goes home immediately.

Communications during dreams
SI: Some people have received phone calls from deceased loved ones while dreaming. How common are these experiences, and do they share any characteristics with calls received during waking consciousness?
CC: It’s an interesting element for psychology. When someone has died, we don’t always have a face-to-face interaction. In a dream, it can be whatever it wants to be. Why can’t I have a face-to-face interaction with the dead? Uniquely, there are a number of instances when in the dream you speak to them on the telephone. But it could be symbolic of communication, or of a relative that didn’t live nearby. So, most of your communication and familiarity with that person was their voice and having telephone conversations. And that’s how it has translated into the dream scenario.

There was a study by Dierdra Barrett [American psychologist] from 1991 to 1992 in Omega — The Journal of Death and Dying. She analyzed a number of dream instances of interactions with the dead and noticed there were a number of cases where people claimed there was a telephone symbolized in the dream. And that’s how they had their interaction. So she took it upon herself to look at the parapsychological literature and referenced Phone Calls from the Dead by Rogo and Bayless. People have these experiences in the waking state. There is no surprise that people are having them in the dream state as well, where it can be anything it wants to be. I think it’s a lot of psychology at play and symbolism. The only thing that would make it really unique to parapsychology is if the dead within the dream relayed specific, what we call veridical, information.

There are some instances of that. Some of the better ones are reported in the American Fate magazine, which was founded in 1948. One particular article on dream interactions with the dead, which, unfortunately, did not involve a telephone, was a [deceased] father-in-law who came to the daughter and said: “I have a second bank account and it’s got 2,000 dollars in it.” The daughter told her husband, who laughed about it and said: “That’s not possible. My dad couldn’t save a dime.” A couple of weeks later his mother called and said his father had another bank account. She had found a hidden bank book. There was exactly 2,000 dollars in the account.

For more information: Telephone Calls from the Dead by Callum Cooper (Tricorn Books, 2012/2024); Phone Calls from the Dead by D.Scott Rogo & Raymond Bayless (republished by White Crow Books, 2025).

If readers would like to contact the author about their own experiences, visit: www.CallumECooper.com.

Benjamin Creme answers:

Question: Shall we be moving towards greater contact with people who have passed on?
Benjamin Creme: Yes. There is no doubt at all that the ‘web’ between the physical plane and the astral planes is becoming thinner all the time. That weakening really began in a major way during the 1914-18 war, with the colossal bombardments and gun shocks, which were then repeated from 1939 to 1945, and again recently in Iraq. All of that breaks the web between the planes, and through that web you get all the ‘channelling’ which is taking place.
 Many people who ‘channel’ think the information is coming from the Masters but it is actually coming (when not from the ‘channel’s’ subconscious) from entities on the astral planes. A growing sensitivity is taking place in humanity which opens many to various levels of these planes — mostly the 5th. Eventually the relationship between those who have passed over and those who are still living on the physical will become closer. We will be able to communicate (according to the Master DK through Alice Bailey) not only through mediums but even through animals. We will also be able to communicate through radio — it has already begun to take place. (Maitreya’s Mission Volume Three)