as reported by Skylaire Alfvegren
Phillips has been repeating the same lecture for years; very little new material has been added to their talk since "Trance-Formation" was published in 1995. Detailing his career in intelligence, Phillips makes a case that anything that can be used for good can also be used for evil--including complicated mind control techniques which he claims to have first witnessed being used to rehabilitate schizophrenics and serial murderers. Speculations that the pair are agents of disinformation, or that Phillips is O'Brien's "handler," do seem as possible as the claim that he "deprogrammed" O'Brien, allowing her to remember her years as a victim.
Whether well-rehearsed or earnest, Phillips presented O'Brien on-stage like a prized stallion, where she theorized that the Army is behind the popularity of violent video games, using them to deprogram children from as early an age as possible. But it is O'Brien's presence, and not her words, which seemed to ignite the audience. Seeing O'Brien in the flesh is sort of like finding a unicorn at the petting zoo, or debris from a crashed UFO: she's tangible, a totem: her mere existence somehow confirms that SOMETHING sinister is going on, that there really IS a shadow world in control of everything from global events to the sweetener in your coffee.
"There's a genuineness to her that's just heart-breaking," one attendee commented. "You look at the bags under Phillips' eyes... and you consider the fact that they're making a few hundred bucks per lecture. There have been senate hearings on the CIA's MK Ultra mind control experiments...a whole medical industry has been created for people seeking help. There's confusion in the psychiatry sphere as to how to treat these people, because their conditions aren't supposed to exist. You can't help but feel empathy for her." The majority of attendees seemed to walk away from her appearance believing O'Brien is legitimate, but to what extent?
While O'Brien may have gotten the tongues wagging, it was clear that British researcher David Icke is the closest thing to a rock star the conspiracy set has. His two-part lecture was vintage Icke: using an abundance of slides and jokes, he explained how a race of shape-shifting reptilians have been in control of world events since time immemorial, and how this elite bloodline has been maintained to the present.
While battle lines are sometimes drawn between "experiencers" like O'Brien and "researchers" like Icke, it was obvious that Icke has exposed the greatest number of people to these concepts. "He's a performer, a showman. He pulls it all together--all the theories--just absorbs them and compiles them," said one attendee from Seattle. "O'Brien is the real deal. With her, you feel you're getting closer to the bone, but Icke makes these ideas sexy."
