Up to the end of 2025, the online edition of Share International magazine presents a selection of items from the printed edition. Each online edition includes a complete article by Benjamin Creme's Master. Most other articles reproduced here, covering a wide range of topics, are excerpts. The online edition usually also includes a selection of Questions and Answers, Readers' letters, and photographs of Signs of Maitreya's presence. From the beginning of 2026, the printed edition is no longer being produced, but the entire magazine is available on this website.
See the full table of contents of the printed edition at the foot of the page.
From the inception of Share International magazine, Benjamin Creme’s Master provided an article every month for nearly 35 years. These were intended to be published not only at the time they were written, but also whenever appropriate according to world circumstances.
Since man first emerged on Earth, his history has been one of conflict and strife, aggression and war. Seldom has there been a time when these tendencies have not been uppermost, until it would seem that they represent the essential nature of man. Yet, despite all evidence to the contrary, this is emphatically not the case. Why, then, does man present such a distorted image of himself? From whence comes this capacity for chaotic action and destructive violence?
Man is essentially a soul, a perfect reflection of God. Through countless incarnations over untold ages, man’s soul seeks to express its divine nature in time and space. Creating for itself a physical counterpart, the soul endows that with the means of evolution to its own perfection. Thus does the Plan of God work out. The key to this development is aspiration. Indwelling in all men is the desire for perfection and the urge to express the good, the beautiful and the true — the attributes of the soul. No one, however faltering in action, is bereft of this desire for betterment, however expressed. In no one does this longing not exist. How then to account for man’s aberrations, his violence and hate?
The answer lies in man’s unique position, the meeting ground of spirit and matter, and the tensions which their concurrence evokes. Man is an immortal soul plunged in matter, subject, therefore, to the limitations which that matter imposes. His struggle for perfection involves the bringing into total union and resolution of these twin poles of his nature.
Through repeated incarnations, the evolutionary process gradually achieves this aim, until the quality and radiation of the matter coincides with that of spirit. The Plan is fulfilled and another Son of God has returned home.
For long ages, the dominance of matter precludes a major expression of the soul; evolution proceeds but slowly. When, at long last, the opposing poles of his nature are resolved, man realizes that the dichotomy is but seeming, the oppositions unreal. Then he sees that all is One, spirit and matter but two aspects of one divine Whole, the limitations of the past naught but illusion.
Without the struggle of opposites and the friction which ensues, man’s progress would be slow indeed. Friction is the fire which impels him on his way, aspiration the light which calls him ever upwards. Thus does man discard, in time, the limitations of matter, endowing it with the radiance of his spiritual truth. Man’s task is to spiritualize matter and to bring the substance of the planet, in every kingdom, into a perfect reflection of the Heavenly Man Whose body it is. Conflict and war, violence and hate, are but the passing manifestation of man’s inability, as yet, to demonstrate his true nature. The time is fast coming when his truth will prevail, his beauty radiate and his good demonstrate for all to see.
(Share International, July/August 1989)
These articles are by a senior member of the Hierarchy of Masters of Wisdom. His name, well-known in esoteric circles, is not yet being revealed. Benjamin Creme, a principal spokesman about the emergence of Maitreya, was in constant telepathic contact with this Master who dictated his articles to him.
These commentaries and teachings were given by Maitreya in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They outline existing difficulties then and point to probable effects in the future given the tendencies and policies pursued at the time. Considering current challenges and the rapid changes taking place in the United States now, the insights presented here are cautionary words of wisdom that we may care to consider. (See: Maitreya’s Teachings — The Laws of Life)
The USA — America was adamant about capitalism. Now it realizes capitalism on its own cannot bring harmony. Americans are becoming open to the flow of different forces. In the political sphere, all these different elements will gradually converge, creating equilibrium. “Equilibrium creates harmony.”
“Do not say: ‘I am right, you are wrong.’”
For all politicians, educationists, doctors, etc., the message is: “Everyone is important. Life itself cannot be dissected.” For politicians the particular message is: “You are here to work for the masses, the people, to create harmony instead of divisions.” (August 1988)
Independence — The movement towards independence has already begun in America. Individual states want to govern themselves and do not see why their money should go to Washington.
Only a few states are prosperous, while there are many millions of poor people in America. Meanwhile the drug problem has reached huge proportions. The American states want to tackle the problems of controlling poverty, drug abuse and ignorance.
“The heart of a person is My parliament where I give experiences. It is My temple. When I speak there, changes take place in the individual’s mind, spirit and body and no one can stop them.” (January 1990)
US: Power shift to individual states — Just as the individual is becoming aware, so awareness is governing nations and countries. No politician can impose ideologies on nations. What has happened in the USSR is about to happen, in a somewhat different form, in the US. Individual states are going to seek their own powers, destiny and guidance, free from excessive control at the centre. California, for example, will point out that it has a certain degree of wealth, and at the same time a range of social problems it must solve. Defence will be centrally governed. Central government cannot be done away with completely, but increasingly it will be a case of “looking after your own house first” – that is, looking after the unemployed, dealing with the drug problem, education and general health issues, violence in the cities, etc, on a local, regional basis.
In America, political corruption is such that even senators and some members of the judiciary are on the payroll of drug dealers. (August 1991)
Fundamentalism in the US — Fundamentalism in the name of Christ is also counter-productive. Christ is Oneness. “Do not take donations from the poor while you, the leaders, live in luxury.” President G H Bush has opened the door to the fundamentalists so that he can win the presidential elections. (November 1991)
There will be changes — It is difficult to govern a people who have lost faith. American society has reached danger point: the tempo of life is too fast, lacking in compassion; it suffocates people who cannot keep up. There is too much suffering. Here, too, there will be changes; America cannot be left as it is. (December 1991)
We present a selection of quotations on the theme of freeing ourselves from conditioning. The quotations are taken from Maitreya, through an associate (Maitreya’s Teachings — The Laws of Life), Benjamin Creme’s Master (A Master Speaks, Volume One), and Benjamin Creme’s writings.
For instance, if you see yourself as a capitalist, socialist, Christian, Buddhist or whatever, you do not have honesty of mind; it is not possible. In every situation, you will bring to bear your particular ideology. That will influence the functioning of your mind. It will restrict the freedom of your mind; therefore, your mind cannot be honest to itself.
Maitreya sees any ideology, however noble, as a stepping stone. He calls ideologies steps on the ladder. When you are on the roof, you do not need a ladder; you can throw it away. An honest mind is an unconditioned mind. Only a non-conditioned mind can know what freedom is. The purpose of life is to become free. If you are locked into an ideology or belief system of any kind, your freedom is that much limited. (Benjamin Creme, Maitreya’s Mission Volume Two)
The spiritual life is not to do with beliefs and/or worship. It is the moment-to-moment sense of connection with the divine, of not being separate from that, or from its expression in others. Show this, by example, to your children and they will grow as examples of that divinity before your eyes. (Benjamin Creme, The Gathering of the Forces of Light)
For decades — or perhaps centuries — collapse has been underway: the fragmentation of social, economic and political order; the hollowing-out of law at both domestic and international levels; and the unrelenting duplicity and hypocrisy of those in power pushing the boundaries.
Today, chaos reigns: widespread violent extremism, state impunity, acute social divisions, and appalling environmental degradation. It was always going to come to this. Death and destruction are inbuilt. Structural injustices and destructive behaviours are pushing planetary and socio-economic systems beyond their carrying capacities, toward critical tipping points and potential collapse.
The destruction of civilization’s architecture, visible all around us, is the inevitable outcome of the poisonous ideology that underpins our age — colonial neoliberalism, coupled with State complacency. Neoliberalism is inherently divisive and unjust, and therefore incapable of producing peace or social justice. Entwined with imperialism, it functions as the ideological instrument of global domination, suppression, and control.
Emerging in the late 20th century under Thatcher and Reagan, neoliberalism was exported globally through institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization (WTO). Social protections and workers’ rights were dismantled, public industries privatized, and industry deregulated.
Through debt, trade agreements administered via the WTO, and Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), nations in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia were subordinated economically and politically to the Global North — extending colonial control through economic and political mechanisms.
At its ideological core, neoliberalism rests on a nihilistic doctrine: that materialism, profit, and individual desire are key human values. Within this reductive worldview, production is organized solely around what is profitable for capital — exploiting labour, resources, and productive assets, enriching imperial and colonial centres rather than meeting human needs or safeguarding the planet. It is an inhumane, violent system, administered by colonial powers dominated by the US, to the detriment of the poor everywhere and of the natural world.
Colonial neoliberalism builds upon centuries of domination of the Global South by the North. From the 1500s onwards, European powers plundered Africa, Asia, and the Americas, extracting resources and subjugating populations into forced labour for their enrichment. After the Second World War, the United States took up the reins of exploitation, using economic and military power to assert its will. Hundreds of thousands were killed in suppressive acts of violence in Korea, Vietnam, the Congo, and Chile. Through direct actions, coups, and covert operations, economic control and political suppression were used by US administrations of both parties to subjugate these nations.
Today, the same inhumane playbook is being applied in Palestine, where Israel — a Euro-American settler colony and imperial outpost in the Middle East — is, as the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry recently confirmed, carrying out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, alongside the systematic destruction of Palestinian society and the environment. Hamza Hamouchene describes this as a Holocide: “the total destruction of the social and ecological life in Palestine”, capturing the entwined human and environmental devastation, in full view, and to the shame of all.
Economic democracy
Whilst Western democracies may allow a degree of political participation, there is no economic democracy. Neoliberalism concentrates economic power in the hands of a tiny few — a number that shrinks year on year, even as their wealth expands. Ordinary people — the 99.9% — have no meaningful control over the economic systems that govern their lives. The central force driving economic policy and corporate life is the pursuit of profitable returns for capital — a goal almost always prioritized over social needs such as healthcare, education, and affordable housing. The consequences of this doctrine are manifold: vast inequalities of wealth, income, and opportunity; austerity and crushing debt; weak, dependent governments at the mercy of markets and multinational corporations; inadequate public services; and ongoing environmental destruction, compounded by governmental inaction.
Alongside these structural injustices, the ideology of greed and division promotes a self-perpetuating series of destructive values: selfishness, conformity, and relentless competition are elevated, while co-operation and compassion are marginalized. It fuels divisions of all kinds, and division begets conflict, within individuals, communities, nations, and globally. The extreme fractures now visible across society — economic, social, political, legal, and ecological — are tearing at the very fabric of life.
This total chaos was always going to happen. This divisive, unjust, and unhealthy way of living, founded on a violent ideology rooted in exploitation, greed and division, could only lead to this point — and beyond. We may not yet have reached the limit of destruction: a colossal crisis of interrelated failures. Nowhere is the system’s barbarism clearer than in Palestine, where Israel’s genocide lays bare the vicious logic of empire: impunity for the powerful, the abandonment of international law, unrestrained violence, and the subjugation of truth.
It is a system of violence without limits, driven by men obsessed with power and control, that enables figures like Netanyahu — and others, including Trump — to seize power and commit unimaginable crimes.
Benjamin Creme often observed that all of humanity’s problems are essentially spiritual problems and that they are currently focused primarily in the political and economic fields. In his book, The Racket — a Rogue Reporter vs the American Empire1, author and journalist Matt Kennard gives us a revealing, highly detailed look at the forces at play working relentlessly behind the scenes to maintain this pervasive and increasingly dysfunctional economic and political status quo.
The Racket is a story of domineering economic empire building, mainly by the United States and their various financial allies: “transnational corporations, banks, hedge and mutual funds, and insurance companies” — and most prominently, the mainstream Western media. The ‘Racket’ in this context refers both to the players in this worldwide conspiracy, as well as the various means they employ to reach their desired ends.2 Kennard’s background as a financial reporter for such outlets as the Financial Times and UK’s The Guardian, as well as his inside experience reporting around the world, with access to many top officials both within The Racket and those working to overcome its reach — not to mention several of those victimized by it — lends a unique perspective to the subject.
Kennard’s historical account begins at the end of World War II, with the formation of the Bretton Woods institutions — the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Supported by a well-oiled propaganda machine that consistently portrays the US and its commercial allies as world heroes — spreading democracy, prosperity, and economic justice internationally — the true story is far darker.
“American planners set about designing an international monetary system that would put the rest of humanity under the crack of their whip.” They realized that doing so while also presenting themselves as the knights in shining armor would be challenging. So they constructed “a series of global institutions that would… decide how the world’s poorest would manage their economies. The ideology driving these… would be a US-backed form of capitalism that brooked no dissent from its precepts.”
In one country after another, these institutions would come to the ‘rescue’ of nations in severe economic crisis — often crises instigated by the racketeers themselves — by offering highly conditional loans demanding a high price from recipient nations. The ‘aid’ usually comes in the form of foreign investment in narrow segments of the country’s infrastructure, to set up foreign-owned industries of various kinds. Profits from these industries, based mainly on export products, go back to the foreign investors, commercial allies of the US empire builders, with demands that the host country waive taxation on the new industries.
With the occasional exception of small groups of local oligarchs who participate in the neoliberal approach of the racketeers, no benefits go to the people of the host nation other than extremely low-paying ‘slave labor’ jobs. They’re unable to benefit from the products produced: from taxation, from living-wage jobs, or from usable public amenities or services.
Even agricultural production is appropriated by foreign companies and developed for commercial export, often replacing local subsistence farming, so food resources also become increasingly out of reach for the at-risk populace. If the local labor force pushes back by attempting to organize and make demands for better wages and working conditions, the movement is quashed, or where that proves too difficult, the foreign companies simply pull up roots and move operations to some other more destitute country where they can get workers to work for even less.
Other demands placed upon the victimized nations include insisting that the government shift public funds from supporting social welfare and other public services to servicing the loans, which often come with high interest rates. Countries such as Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Indonesia, and most prominently, Haiti, have all fallen victim to the often devastating impact of Racket policies. …
Kennard’s narrative is however, not without hope. He cites a number of leaders, such as Evo Morales in Bolivia, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and others, who have pushed back, mobilizing strong public approval, creating effective support systems for their citizens, ejecting US military, and in some cases collaborating economically instead with China, which doesn’t require the restrictions of the Racket policies.
Kennard also expresses a great deal of faith in the people power demonstrated in uprisings such as the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, and independent media and online activism. As readers of Share International will know, Benjamin Creme’s Master predicted that people power would become the next world ‘super-power’ against which no government could stand. Kennard seems to echo this perspective. He ends the book with a chapter on people-powered public art and its potent influence in shaping both public opinion and the direction of social justice policies. …
Notes
1 The Racket — a Rogue Reporter vs the American Empire, second edition published 2024 by Bloomsbury Academic.
2 The term ‘racket’ is a common UK/US slang term used to refer to an organized criminal enterprise designed for financial gain.
“What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.”
From ‘Anthem for doomed youth’, written in 1917 by war poet, Wilfred Owen, who died in combat one week before the end of World War 1, aged 25.
When reading Monstrous Anger of the Guns*, it is difficult not to conclude that it is the arms trade, the global market in death and suppression, which drives the global economy. As discussed in Part One of this review, the book’s many contributors — activists, campaigners, journalists, academics from across five different continents — offer such daunting evidence of the duplicity, vested interests and networks of political and economic power oiling the military-industrial machine that it is almost impossible to see a dividing line between the arms trade and the interests of shareholder capitalism. They are so enmeshed, both driven by greed and love of power, and facilitated by the lies and manipulation essential to the neoliberal doctrine of winners and losers.
Indeed, reading this book, one wonders what would happen if we were able to bring the arms trade to a halt? Would the whole economic system collapse irretrievably? Is it fear of such a crash that is holding politicians back from fully empowering the UN and enforcing its General Council decisions? Do we agree that a complete crash is a price worth paying to bring peace and justice to our world and, in the process, save our planet? If we do, how can we set about trying to bring such a powerful system to account and at least rein it in?
In answer to this last question, many have responded to the call to act in whatever way they can: through investigating and exposing the truth to public view; information sharing; local and global networking, particularly with campaign groups working on social justice and climate issues; and educating for peace, not war. Lindsey German, UK activist and convener of Stop the War Coalition, reminds us that it was calling out the lies that led to mass mobilization against the Iraq war, politicizing a whole generation. …
Industrial action
In November 2023, transport workers’ trade unions in Italy, Turkey and Greece issued this joint statement demanding an end to the transfer of arms to Israel through their ports.
“The history of transport workers has always been clearly on the side of peace, against fascism, racism, against any occupation and oppression of peoples. For this reason, we cannot tolerate the transformation of the ports, airports, ships and trains of Europe into centres of trafficking of death.”
Like the Belgian port workers who had blocked loading explosives destined for Israel on the MV Kathrin in October 2023, they were responding to an urgent call from Palestinian trade unions for trade unions and “all people of conscience to end all forms of complicity with Israel’s crimes — most urgently halting the arms trade with Israel, as well as all funding for military research”. The Belgian port workers’ action, supported by other activists, held up the transport of those explosives for two months. …
Lorenzo Buzzoni, of Investigate Europe, comments on the failure of the law and regulations to protect human rights saying: “Mass industrial action could turn the tide and ensure that those responsible for our failed arms export controls are held to account.”
Stuart Parkinson, Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, criticizes the idea that militaries are able to ‘go green’. He shows that it is not just the industry itself that places such a heavy burden on the planet, but also the stuck thinking about what constitutes security — leading to much secrecy and obstructing accurate assessments of their contribution to climate threat.
In 1997, in response to pressure from the US Government, the carbon emissions of many military activities were excluded from being reported under the Kyoto Protocol. Even under the 2015 Paris Agreement, reporting stayed voluntary. Militaries often gain exemptions from environmental regulations, meaning that their bases on foreign soil are likely to be far more polluting than similar structures in civilian society. …
In March 2022, Hawaii, described by Kawena‘ulaokala Kapahua as the weaponized and highly profitable linchpin of US imperialism in the Pacific, succeeded in permanently closing down the highly toxic Red Hill fuel storage facility. As in so many of their struggles against what they see as a brutal occupation — the theft of land, the habitat destruction, the war games, the dehumanization — young and old alike, he says, stood together on the frontline. Closing Red Hill took months of mass protests, direct actions and grassroots organizing; driven by a sense of responsibility to all who are being oppressed, not just themselves.
“For every bomb that the US and its allies drop on Hawai‘ian land, another will fall on a Palestinian home, or in West Papua, or in the Philippines. Therefore it stands as the duty of the Hawai‘ian movement to do what it can to stop the harm being launched from our homeland against our brothers and sisters abroad.”
“If it is possible for us to shutter a facility of the most powerful military on Earth, then the future free of imperialist wars of profit seems closer than ever before.”
*Published 2024
(Additional sources: BBC; Liberty; Prospect Magazine; Middle East Crisis; Hawai‘ian Tribune Herald)
There are over 5,000 local jails and state and federal prisons in the US where roughly two million people are incarcerated. The US population is only 4.2 percent of the world’s population but its jails and prisons hold 20 percent of the world’s prisoners.
Books through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement covers the history and ongoing work of the prison books movement in the US, and the rights of prisoners to have access to books. Twenty-five people contributed to Books through Bars. There are also letters written by prisoners in the book.
Books through Bars is co-edited by Dave “Mac” Marquis, a lifelong activist. He is the executive assistant for the Labor and Working-Class History Association, and he helped create the Asheville Prison Books program and the Saxapahaw Prison Books program. Marquis is also a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina. He was interviewed for Share International by Jason Francis.
Incarceration nation
Share International: Why are so many people incarcerated in the US? More people are imprisoned in the US than any other nation.
Mac Marquis: That is a systemic issue. Because we incarcerate people at a higher rate than any other country per capita, we have to ask ourselves, “Is there something unique about the people in this country that predisposes them to criminality or are there systemic problems that have led to these mass incarceration rates?”
Clearly, one [systemic problem] is racism — the fact that black and brown people are incarcerated at a disproportionately higher rate than Caucasians. There are all sorts of other factors. There is the education system that’s been left to fail. You have unjust sentencing laws. There is the focus on prosecutions of crimes of opportunity and crimes committed by people who are poor. And you don’t have prosecutions of white-collar crime* and people who are wealthy in the same manner. It’s [focused on] people who cannot afford to mount their defenses. And you have mandatory sentencing laws. There is a bevy of reasons why the US incarceration rates are so high and those are just a few.
Beginnings of prison books movement
SI: What is the prison books movement and how did it get started?
MM: The prison books movement started in the 1970s, as best as we can tell. Some of that early history has been lost. The three oldest programs in the country that are still in existence all started in the early 1970s around the same time. One started in Boston, Massachusetts; one was in Durham, North Carolina; another was on the West Coast.
Based on the year, it’s possible this grew out of a response to the Attica Prison rebellion [September 1971]. We don’t know that for sure, but ultimately, as the essay from Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin [author and activist] in the book [Books through Bars] shows, it was the actions of incarcerated people who were behind the movement and worked to allow books inside in the first place. Kom’boa and others picked up on Martin Sostre’s work across the country and started organizing from the inside to get books, and then outside support networks began to provide assistance. The prison books movement likely grew out of that.
SI: You mentioned Martin Sostre (1923-2015). He was an activist who was convicted in 1967 of criminal charges that were later proven to have been fabricated. He spent 10 years in prison before he was granted clemency. Could you tell us about his work for prisoner rights?
MM: He was incarcerated in Attica State Prison in New York. He mounted a series of lawsuits on behalf of incarcerated people. One of those lawsuits was because he was banned from receiving certain material. Some of those materials were about the teaching of Islam. He was an adherent of the Nation of Islam. Sostre vs. Rockefeller and Sostre vs. McGinnis are two of the famous cases. He won access to reading materials and people were able to use those lawsuits to challenge prisons across the country for access to reading materials. …
The books are almost always donated. Different organizations have ‘wish lists’ at a local bookstore. Somebody might come in and buy a book from that wish list for the prison books program. Somebody else may donate their personal books. For the most part the books are donated. Sometimes programs will take some of the money from fundraising and use it to buy specific books they have a hard time getting enough donations for. Those will be dictionaries, sometimes self-help or special requests. Sometimes there are a lot of people looking to learn trades on the inside or exercise in small spaces, and also legal books. But dictionaries are for sure the most requested book.
The programs get money in a variety of ways. It really depends on each local organization. There are a couple of national organizations that provide micro-grants to prison books programs. Some apply for larger grants. Some are associated with academic institutions and may be able to get some funding from student organizations. But, for the most part, these are programs that are going to be organizing local benefits such as bake sales. It really runs the gamut. …
[For more information: Books through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement by Moira Marquis and Dave “Mac” Marquis (2024)]
* White-collar crime refers to financially motivated crimes committed by individuals or organizations in business or government settings. Common examples include fraud, embezzlement, and insider trading, often involving deceit and concealment for financial gain.
