Cosmopolitan, Humanist, Activist, Musician, Philosopher. What’s that spell? Champ. And this guy is a champ to me. We met as teenagers and with his cosmopolitan flair he pulled me through some of my most reclusive, neurotic, geeky, weirdo moments. He encouraged me to express myself, and authentic individualism is still what he inspires in others today.

The dictionary definition of cosmopolitan reads: Someone who is cosmopolitan has had a lot of contact with people and things from many different countries and as a result is very open to different ideas and ways of doing things.

Also: the description leaves out that he’s also an accomplished athlete. He played in the premiere league (I think that’s what it’s called) of basketball in Belgium. Although he was a soccer player up until he was 18 and had never played basketball professionally. So he immediately joined the big boys the moment he picked up a basketball…

We used to bike to school and back, rain or shine, and even back then we always thought out loud about a wide range of unusual topics. When we were supposed to be cramming for exams, we were watching documentaries or hanging out in the library reading anything NOT on our required reading lists.

You will not agree with everything he says. Neither do I, although he is clearly on to something. If we would all always agree on everything there wouldn’t be any progress. Any written interview doesn’t do his philosophy justice. But untill you get to talk to the guy in person, you’ll have to settle for a short introductory interview like this. Perhaps next time I will tape one of our marathon nocturnal conversations. I’m very much behind the times and soing a podcast still sounds like futuristic magic to me… Am an old fashioned blogger.

Lots of ground is covered here, he’s trying to describe our entire system, a daunting task in any form, so if you have questions, just drop them below and we’ll make sure he gets them.

Without further ado, here’s Ruben Shobiye or Parallel Heimat as he’s known online.

You studied classical Greek and Latin in high school, so you’re very familiar with the concept of democracy. Do we – in the West – live in democracies?

I wouldn’t say so. We live in a corporatocracy, as John Perkins (author of ‘Confessions of an economic hitman’) calls it. Even with a minimum of research, it is clear that our political system, where we vote for representatives, has very little influence on our daily lives. Instead we have a society that is governed by corporations and banking elites who have a monopoly on the resources of the world and the labor we as humans provide for them. Elections and the whole political puppet-show in general are there to give us, the people the illusion of choice, change and freedom. In reality we have none of them. On top of that I am also convinced that this corporatocracy is yet just another layer of a power structure that has been ruling our species from the shadows for the last several thousand years. A situation that started in the so-called cradle of civilization: Sumer, which very conveniently is also the alleged beginning of our history.

People usually don’t know much about history, not seeing how it could possibly serve them today, and of all periods, the dark ages or the middle ages is ignored above all, except for clichés about knights and the crusades and some plundering Vikings. Even the name of this period sounds like it doesn’t matter. But a lot was going on back then that still has a huge influence today, especially when it comes to the power elite. Can you give some examples?

Well, first of all we have to keep in mind that the Roman Empire never really fell. It just morphed into a new form. When Rome was sacked in 476 AD, the elite of that time had already adopted Christianity as a means to maintain their power. With the council of Nicea in 325 AD Rome became The Holy Roman Empire, and together with the Jesuits, the Knights of Malta and many other “secret” organizations, it maintains absolute power in our world to this day. It was also the Vatican that was responsible for most of the horrors we see during this time period in the Western world. One of these atrocities that is less known are The Albigensian Crusades in the early 1300’s, where together with the Knights Templar they slaughtered the Cathars: a free people of Gnostic Christians who lived in the South of France and North of Spain.

The Knights Templar were founded in the early 12th century and they quickly gained power and wealth through their influential members. This influence at the highest levels provided them with many privileges like tax exemption, granted by kings and popes, which only added to their already vast wealth. During the crusades they also established many of the trade routes from the Eastern to the Western world that we know today. In a couple hundreds of years they had control over such a vast amount of land and resources that they started lending money with usury (interest). This made them the first modern bankers, and to this day they control a large part of the financial world through the IMF.

Another crucial element of medieval history that is never taught in schools is that of the Venetian empire. Venice was a stronghold of old Roman patrician families that would become a major competitor of their mother city Constantinople. Especially during the late Middle Ages it rose to enormous power through maritime dominance, usurious banking and the manipulation of the European aristocracy. Together with the papacy they were behind the crusades and eventually managed to destroy the Byzantine Empire. This gave them complete control over the gold and silver bullion market in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In the following centuries they moved their nefarious operations from Venice to Amsterdam and eventually to the City of London, which is still the financial center of the world.

You’ve mentioned that banks simply steal our money. Most people think banks give you a little bit of money for letting the bank use your savings, is that a misconception?

Well yes and no, In theory the national banks -which in reality are anything but national, these are privately owned banks- are there to regulate our free market, and under “normal market conditions” banks sometimes pay a dividend to their customers. However, we all know that has not been the case, these last couple of years, with the plus minus zero interest rates we have had.

But the real questions that we have to look at here are: What are banks? How do they operate? And most importantly what is money? Questions that a lot of us don’t really ask. There are several documentaries on Youtube that explain this very well however. Bill Still’s ‘The Money Masters’ is an absolute classic. A massive work, packed to the rafters with quotes and documents of historical figures. Also Mike Maloney’s ‘Hidden Secret of Money’ series are excellent. Short, thirty minutes videos, which explain the hocus-pocus of banking and money creation in a very logical way.

But in short, our global monetary system essentially comes down to this. Money is a representation of value and true value, apart from land and resources, is our time and our energy. So when you go to a bank for a loan, you promise to work, in other words to give your time and energy, in order to pay back this loan plus interest. Now the thing is that when banks give you a loan, they themselves do not have the money. This is because of a corrupt system called fractional reserve banking. Basically they just print some paper or type in some numbers on a computer, and abracadabra, currency is created. There is nothing that represents any value backing up this currency. Especially since president Nixon abolished whatever was left of the gold standard of the US dollar in 1971. So it is basically worthless. That is why it is called currency and not money by the way. On top of that you also have to pay interest, or usury as it once was rightly called. And here is where banks make their money. By making you pay them back, often times double or more of what you loaned, on money that they never had. And if that is not enough, we also pay taxes, of which the most part is used to pay off our national debt.

Because where do countries get their money? We borrow it from these same international banks. Virtually all countries in the world, except Iran, Cuba and North Korea, have a “national” bank, through which they lend currency plus interest. But since there is interest on every euro or dollar in existence, there is never enough currency to pay this back. And so we find ourselves in a perpetual system of debt with most of us being debt-slaves that have to work all their life just to pay of corrupt government taxes and illegal banking interests.

What exactly is fractional reserve banking? It’s really a concept most people would not ever think about. What is it and why does it matter?

With fractional reserve banking, banks are allowed to give out loans that generally are tenfold the amount of the money they actually have. In other words, when you or I go to a bank and deposit, let’s say 100 euro, the next time somebody else comes to the bank and asks for a loan, they are allowed to lend this person 1000 euro. Ten times the amount it actually has. This is a pyramid and a ponzi scheme and if you or I would do this, it would be illegal, but for banks it is not. Again I refer to the documentaries mentioned above to learn how this totally illegal and absurd situation came about.

I grew up with you, so it’s hard to picture you as anti-science, you’ve always been driven to uncover the truth and to keep asking questions, especially when in school we were asked to simply assume something was the way it was said to be. What about modern science rubs you the wrong way?

One of the problems with modern, mainstream science is that it is often as fundamentalist as the religions they claim to be so different from. That is why it is sometimes called scientism: a religion of science. Most of the science in the western world is extremely dogmatic and is seldom open to any suggestions that challenge its assumptions. To me modern science generally represents only one part of our consciousness: the logical, male and rigid part. But to have a full understanding of humanity and the Universe you also need the intuitive, female, and fluent part. I look at the Universe as a whole; as an interacting, infinite and ever-evolving entity, which can never be viewed separately.

Mainstream science maintains a fallacy of division through fragmentation and framing. First they break up the Universe into fragments. These fragments are then framed into measurable units. If the measurements fit the proposed frame, a consensus is reached which forms the basis for a theory. This theory is then presented as the highest form of knowledge that renders all other views irrelevant and obsolete. Once this monopoly on truth is established, it is then repeated as a mantra through media, culture and education until it becomes the generally accepted view and the basis for our schools, societies, cultures and thinking, ultimately creating the illusion of separation between man, nature and The Universe. I believe this is profoundly wrong and also the reason why science in its current form will never achieve a whole understanding of our Universe.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love science. In fact there are many scientists, in many various fields, that do fantastic work, who do keep an open mind and dare to explore new roads. Many of which reach very different and fascinating conclusions. Sadly you rarely hear them or any of their theories in our mainstream media. And this disturbs me because in this way a lot of profound ancient and spiritual teachings about consciousness and the unseen world are being overlooked.

When asked about the trends you’re expecting for 2018 you mentioned something about transhumanism. This sounds very sci-fi-ish. Are we gradually going to be turned into robots or what is it?

Yes, in my opinion that is literally what is happening. Transhumanism or posthumanism is a plan to control our minds and bodies to a physical degree, under the guise of a beneficial evolution in technology for the security and well being of humanity.

What we have seen over the past 2 decades is a gradual transition to a more “enhanced” society: microchips, DNA-identification, artificial intelligence, next-gen robotics, nanotechnologies and mental and physical enhancements, accompanied by strong moves towards a centralized cashless society, pervasive breaches of privacy, ubiquitous surveillance and the adoption of social media as a societal and governmental value system. Ask yourself who ever asked for all of this to happen? I surely didn’t. In my opinion, these are all stepping-stones to an incrementally developing police state, which in turn is part of a century old agenda for world domination by those who rule the planet from behind the scenes.

Who really rules the world? We’re guessing it’s not anyone that we voted for…

Satanic, slave trading, drug trafficking, warmongering, inbreeding pedophiles currently known as the Windsor family of England on the one hand and the Holy Roman Empire or the Vatican on the other. The family lines of these people go back almost a thousand years at the least. And together they are and have been responsible for most of the evil we endure in this world. These people are convinced that they are superior to the rest of the human race and that they have the divine right to rule over all of us. And they use fear and divide and conquer strategies to set peoples up against each other and at the same time provide us with plenty of bread and circuses to distract us from the truth that these ancient “royal” bloodlines are manipulating our minds, the economy and spirituality.

In order to hide the fact these aristocratic and religious families rule us from the shadows, they have created a vast network of secret and not so secret societies based on a pyramidal system of hierarchy.

The use of hierarchy is an age-old technique that was already used by the high priests of ancient cultures and it has three major advantages:

1. It enables them to keep secrets, by reserving these secrets for only the upper layers of the pyramid.

2. It also enables them to maintain a power differential between them and the rest of humanity by hiding knowledge about man’s micro – and macro cosmos and then using this knowledge against him.

3. And finally, good men and women who enter these hierarchies, whether it is corporate, political or religious, are filtered out and only the psychotic or corrupt that will follow their evil agendas are allowed into the higher echelons of the structure.

Knowing all this, it can be quite depressing, especially since most people just go about their jobs not realizing how almost any job is somehow part of the system that keeps us down, fosters massive inequality, addictions, poverty, petty competition and childish behavior in adults. What can be done about all this? How do you stay optimistic?

When you first discover the reality of the world we live in, some level of depression is the inevitable first phase. However this is a sane reaction to an insane environment. You should feel angry and depressed by all of this evil that is taking place. But it is also important to see the light after you have walked through the darkness. Eventually this new understanding should empower you to make better decisions in your life. The way I do this is through Knowledge, Beauty and Nature. To me, these three concepts, in its various forms, represent Truth and they give meaning to my life.

By studying and researching (esoteric) philosophy, psychology, history, mythology, etymology, symbolism and many other sciences, I have come to a much deeper understanding of the world and myself. And this has brought a balance to my life that I never had before. Knowledge truly is power or like the oracle at Delphi once said: “Know thyself and you shall know the Universe and the gods”. This Knowledge in turn enabled me to enjoy the beauty of life. Realizing that you have a body, a mind and a soul that are capable of experiencing and what an amazing gift that is. I know this is often easier said than done but appreciating the magic behind everything around you, even small and seemingly insignificant events, gives your life value. And the one thing that brings the above two so elegantly together is Nature. Through the beauty of Nature you can understand the deepest questions about yourself and everything around you. Reconnecting with Nature can also be a fundamental physical and spiritual healing process. Something that most of us in the Western world are in desperate need of.

Can you imagine a world any time soon in which people have broken these, let’s say, enslaving chains that people have been in for centuries?

I believe we live in exceptional times. A time when consciousness is reborn, so to say. Ancient peoples, from Greece to Asia and the Americas their understanding of time was cyclical rather than linear. They believed that the universal consciousness, of which we humans are all part of, continuously moved in circles, causing dark (iron) ages, marked by violence and wars and golden ages where humanity thrived. This is what ‘2012’ and the prophecy of the Mayan calendar was all about. It was not about a cataclysmic event like most of the media presented it. It was about a key-moment in time, a shift, when humanity would finally begin its ascendance to its higher form again; the first steps towards a new Golden Age.

I truly believe that this transition is already happening. The technological advances of the last decades, like the internet and now blockchain, are good indicators of this. These are groundbreaking evolutions that give us access to new knowledge and help us on the path towards more freedom. Of course it is also true that these technologies are used for negative purposes too. But this does not take away the fact that right now anyone of us has the ability to discover and learn almost all there is to know with just a computer and an internet connection. Something that for most people twenty-five years ago was unthinkable.

So yes, I see a future where humanity will be able to live free and in harmony with Nature. However, I think that first, we will have to destroy the old world before we can build the new one, just like a phoenix that rises out of its ashes.

You’re not just a philosopher, you’re also a musician. How does your expansive, and way off the beaten track, world view influence you artistically?

My experiences of the last years have added a new layer to my music. It has become more than just a way to express my emotions. It is now also a tool to spread my message of Knowledge, Beauty and Nature in an artistic way.

You can check out his music on Soundcloud or visit him on Facebook.

(Copyright for the featured image: Bram Tack)