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BLOGJune 20, 2017

How Innovators, Athletes and Warriors Hijack Their Senses for Off-The-Chart Productivity

It’s the biggest revolution you’ve never heard of, and it’s hiding in plain sight. Over the past decade, Silicon Valley executives like Eric Schmidt and Elon Musk, Special Operators like the Navy SEALs and the Green Berets, and maverick scientists like Sasha Shulgin and Amy Cuddy have turned everything we thought we knew about high performance upside down. Instead of grit, better habits, or 10,000 hours, these trailblazers have found a surprising short cut. They're harnessing rare and controversial states of consciousness to solve critical challenges and outperform the competition.

In his new book Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work, co-author Steven Kotler details this place called "the flow" where creativity and performance are heightened. Getting in the flow isn't all sunshine and lollipops, however. Kotler joined Glenn on radio to discuss the phenomenon.

"If I understand you right, what you're saying is, whether it's drugs, whether it's a spiritual experience, no matter how you get there, there's this place called the flow, and it makes you so much more focused and productive," Glenn said.

Kotler explained.

"What we know about flow is that . . . in these states, all of the brain's kind of information processing machinery gets amplified, right? We take in more information per second. We process it more quickly. We're able to, like, link ideas together. So creativity goes through the roof, motivation goes through the roof, cooperation, collaboration --- all the so-called twenty-first century skills, the skills that we need so badly right now," Kotler said.

This state of consciousness floods the brain with dopamine, the chemical that underlies all addictive behavior --- like gambling, sex, shopping or cocaine addictions.

Glenn experienced his own version of it for several years from a "deep spiritual connection of profound gratitude and service" called "helper's flow."

According to Kotler, there are ten individual triggers that could drive someone into the flow, as well as group or shared triggers.

"There's a shared collective version of a flow state, known as group flow. It's what happens if you've ever been in a great brainstorming session or if you watched a band come together and the music just starts to soar, or for that matter, if you saw the Super Bowl last year . . . what the Patriots did in the fourth quarter. Everybody comes together, and football looks more like ballet. That's group flow. It's what the SEALs rely on so heavily too," Kotler said.

Based on brain research and four years of investigation, Stealing Fire explains how the driving forces of psychology, neurobiology, technology and pharmacology are fueling a trillion dollar underground economy.

Enjoy the complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

GLENN: Steve, welcome to the program. Glad you're here.

I have to be honest with you, I've only read, you know, 50 pages of the book. And I'm not sure I -- I understand. Let me just ask you one question before we get into it, to make sure I do understand what the point is here. Is James Valentine -- he was not taking any drugs. He was just -- he had a different kind of experience. But the same effect.

STEVEN: Yeah.

GLENN: Okay. So I just wanted to know that. Now you can start at the beginning because now I think I got it.

STEVEN: Absolutely. Let me just put it in historical context for you because it's the -- thank you for having me, by the way.

GLENN: You bet.

STEVEN: But it's the easiest way to frame this up.

Back at the turn of the century, 1902, William James, who is a Harvard philosopher and psychologist and has used sort -- he's sort of the godfather of western philosophy -- he makes the observation that a whole slew of experiences, what all the experiences that are sort of found north of happy -- so these are states of awe. Certain kinds of mystical experiences, like trance states or states produced by prayer or yoga or meditation, or even in some cases, psychedelic states or flow states, which is what we study at the Flow Juneau Project, myself and Jamie Weil, who I wrote the book with. Which are those states of -- kind of optimal states of consciousness where we feel are best, where we perform our best.

You notice that all these states were really, really similar. They produce very similar psychological changes in us. They seem to heal anxiety, heal trauma, and they seem to lift us up to incredible heights. And they produce a very similar kind of physical experiences in us.

And we sort of turned our back on it. Like we weren't really interested in all states of consciousness at that point. Freud came along. He said, hey, pathological problems are much more interesting. Let's try to fix people.

And that's what psychology did, for about a hundred years, until the late '90s, when somebody -- hey, you know, there's this whole upper realm of experiences we haven't looked at. And now we have.

And as it turns out, using, you know, high-powered brain imaging technology, James was right. There's very, very little difference in the brain of a skier in the zone, moving down a mountain base, or say, as you pointed out, in the beginning, a billionaire microdosing with psychedelics or somebody meditating. Very similar things happen in the brain. They produce very similar feelings. And, thus, they have similar benefits.

GLENN: Okay. So let's get into this. Because I -- I've read 55 pages this morning, just trying to get ready for this. And I wish I would have picked the book up earlier. Because I think --

STEVEN: I got to tell you, by the way, 55 pages, you're doing well compared to a lot of people I talk to.

GLENN: Well, I'm embarrassed --

STEVEN: I appreciate that.

GLENN: I'm embarrassed that I've only read 55.

But the idea here -- I'm fascinated by it because I believe -- as long as we're not talking about a drug-only state, in the flow, I really truly believe that from 2007 to about 2012, I experienced that. And it -- just being in the flow. And it was a very different feeling and real high, high clarity.

Mine was a -- mine was a -- not drug induced. But I could explain it to you. And I think it's the way John Valentine --

STEVEN: James Valentine.

GLENN: Or, James Valentine would explain it as well. So I think there is something here to people --

STEVEN: Do I mind if I ask you a question?

GLENN: Yeah, go ahead.

STEVEN: What triggered that experience in you? At the front end of it, what was going on in your life that brought that on?

GLENN: It was a -- a -- a deep spiritual connection of profound gratitude and service.

STEVEN: So, interestingly, you had an experience, and it's very long-lasting. It's known as helper's high. It was discovered by Allan Luks, founder of Big Brothers Big Sisters back in the '90s. It's essentially a flow state. Right? And let's just define "flow" for your listeners who don't know what exactly it is. Flow is a fancy term for being in the zone, being unconscious, if you play a lot of basketball. Those moments of wrapped attention and total absorption, where you get so focused on what you're doing, everything else vanishes. So your sense of self goes away. Time passes strangely. It slows down, or it will speed up.

GLENN: It's what, like, SEALs and people describe when they're at their height of, you know, going in to kill Osama bin Laden. Time slows down. Everything else disappears.

STEVEN: Yes. Now, that's a very acute -- when time slows down, it has to be very acute. There's a lot of additional brain processes being involved a little bit

GLENN: Right.

STEVEN: But essentially, helper's high is a flow state produced by altruism. You can even get a little taste for it -- if you've ever donated to Kiva or an online charity or anything like that, you'll get a little flush of that kind of feel-good feeling on the back end.

GLENN: Yes.

STEVEN: You just got it for a very long time. My wife and I were on a dog sanctuary and -- so we do hospice care and special needs care, and we live in a very poor community. And we work here intentionally and live here intentionally to do this work. And she runs on helper's high.

GLENN: So the difference between that and just the dopamine that you get from -- you know, the (sound effect) from your Facebook or your email.

STEVEN: Yeah, exactly.

GLENN: What is what is the difference?

STEVEN: So the differences are, as we move into flow, a couple of things happen: First of all, you get -- so most of what -- what they call 21st century normal, you and I, where our brains are right now, there's a lot of activity kind of behind our forehead, in what's known as the prefrontal cortex, which is your executive function, your attention, your sense of morality, your sense of will, language, function, all that stuff. That's going crazy.

And we -- most of us live with like the steady drip, drip of stress hormones like cortisol and norepinephrine. That's what psychologists talk about as 21st century normal, essentially.

As you move into all of these states -- this happens in meditation. It happens in conflative states like yoga. It happens in flow states, whether they're triggered by action/adventure sports or by music. James Valentine's experience was he got into these deep trances playing music.

You can -- chess is -- Josh Waitzkin talks a lot about chess and flow. Very common in a lot of things that require intense focus in the present moment or altruism, in your case.

And so what happens is you move into those states -- and in the prefrontal cortex, it gets really quiet. It dies down.

That's why your sense of self disappears. Right? The inner critic -- that nagging, always on, defeatist voice in your head goes quiet in those states because the inner critic is basically calculated in your prefrontal cortex. And if that part of the brain starts to shut down, we can't perform the calculations. So your inner critic goes away. Time passes, strangely. Because time is calculated all over the prefrontal cortex. And what goes away, we can't separate past, present, from future. It all blends together into what researchers call the "deep now."

And to your question, the stress hormones, norepinephrine and cortisol, they get flushed out of our system. And they get replaced by not just dopamine. Dopamine itself is a very powerful, you know, feel-good neural chemical with a lot of performance-enhancing benefit. But you also get endorphins and serotonin and monoamine and oxytocin. It's the cocktail that is so popular.

And what that cocktail does -- you talked about the clarity, besides -- you know, it makes us feel selfless. It makes us feel timeless. It also gives -- it massively -- it massively boosts motivation.

So McKinsey, for example, did a ten-year study of top executives in flow. And they found that top executives were 500 percent more productive in flow. That's a huge boost. And it's because all of these same neural chemicals, they're feel-good drugs. Some of the most addictive pleasure chemicals the brain can produce -- flow is the only time we get all at once. And so it produced this huge spike in motivation. A positive spike, right? Like a positive addiction.

GLENN: And so your -- your job now is to try to figure out how to trip us into this flow?

STEVEN: Yeah. We -- so over the past -- you know, flow science has -- stretches back 150 years. But recently, the past ten years, we've been able to look under the hood for the first time. Where are these experiences coming from? And we've been able to work backwards. And we now know that flow states have triggers, preconditions that lead to more flow.

There are ten individual triggers, what you or I could have used on our own to drive ourselves into flow. And then there's a shared collective version of a flow state, known as group flow. It's what happens if you've ever been in a great brainstorming session or if you watched a band come together and the music just starts to soar, or for that matter, if you saw the Super Bowl last year. Saw fourth quarter comeback, right? The spectacular -- what the Patriots did in the fourth quarter. Everybody comes together, and football looks more like ballet. That's group flow.

It's what the SEALs rely on so heavily too. It's a team coming together, being able to kind of behave like a collective organism.

GLENN: Okay. When we come back, I want to have you go through some of those ten things that can trip us into it. The name of the book is Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Work and the Way We Live.

[break]

GLENN: I'm fascinated by this. Steven Kotler. The name of the book is called Stealing Fire.

And, Steven, if I understand you right, what you're saying is, whether it's drugs, whether it's a spiritual experience, no matter how you get there, there's this place called the flow, and it makes you so much more focused and productive. And however you get there, you're trying to figure out how to trip yourself into it. Correct?

STEVEN: Yeah.

GLENN: Okay.

STEVEN: What we know about flow is that -- you know, in these states, all of the brain's kind of information processing machinery gets amplified. Right? We take in more information per second. We process it more quickly. We're able to like link ideas together. Find -- so creativity goes through the roof. Motivation goes through the roof. Cooperation, collaboration, all the so-called 21st Century skills, the skills that we need so badly right now.

GLENN: Okay. So give me -- we have about five minutes. Give me the high points on how to trip yourself into it.

STEVEN: So, you know, some really kind of basic stuff is pretty simple. First thing you need to know is that flow shows up when all of our attention is focused on the right here, right now.

So at a very practical level, we go into companies, one of the first things we tell them is if -- you can't hang a sign that says, bleep off, I'm flowing. You are in trouble. Because flow requires 90- to 120-minute periods of concentration to really bring it out. Which is, by the way, one of the reasons Montessori education is so effective. It's built around to 90 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted concentration periods, right? They use this. And it's why Montessori kids, you know, see so much flow and end up testing better than so many other kids on any test you throw at them. Very simple thing.

Want to get it -- take it one notch up. We'll go into a trigger that's often called the golden rule of flow, known as the challenge skills balance. The idea here is really simple: All of flow's triggers are things that help drive attention to the present moment. Right?

So we pay the most attention to the task at hand, when the challenge of the task slightly exceeds our skill set. So you want to stretch, but not snap. And this is tricky. Because if you're sort of shy or timid, maybe a bit of an underachiever, whatever, the sweet spot is outside of your comfort zone. You have to be pushing yourself outside your standard comfort zone.

For a really super high productive, top performers, type A types, the problem here is they blow past the sweet spot. They will take on challenges that are so much bigger than they need to be.

And so one of the things we always tell people is in this stuff -- especially if you're type A, you got to go slow to go fast. There's a kind of neuro biologically sweet spot as to how we pay attention. And when you hit it, it really drives focus.

GLENN: Okay. Go ahead.

STEVEN: I mean, just a couple places to start.

GLENN: All right. So do you do this with -- are you guys doing this work with companies coming in and saying --

STEVEN: Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, last week, we spent a day with all the top senior management, top executives at Ameritrade. And the bigger point is this, we've learned this over the years in our digitally delivered classes -- and, for example, we did a six-week training at Google a couple years ago. It was a joint learning exercise, where we were trying some of this stuff out. And we train them up in kind of four high performance basics like sleep hygiene. Get enough sleep at night kind of stuff. Real basic. And then four flow triggers. How do you deploy these in your life?

And after a six-week period -- and they did about an hour of homework a day, spread out throughout the day, but it took some work. But not a ton. They saw a 35 to 80 percent increase in flow.

Now, within context, same McKinsey article I talked about earlier, the same study, found that a 15 percent increase in workplace flow will double overall workplace productivity. So what we've learned is, not only does flow have triggers, the stuff is really easy to teach. It's not -- and it's funny because everybody -- everybody is basically -- we're hard-wired the same. We're wired for high performance. So once you start understanding how this stuff works, you can really step on the gas.

PAT: So you don't have to do this through drugs, through chemical means, right?

STEVEN: No. No.

PAT: In fact --

STEVEN: There are a lot -- you have to understand that what you're talking about is pharmacology today, which has a long history of strong reactions. Lots of politics. Lots of mess. Goes back a long time.

Tomorrow, you're going to be talking about a EEG headset that zaps your brain in a particular way. We're already getting there. Right? We have EEG headsets that can dial up a lot of kind of the underlying neural biology of flow. And they're getting better. Virtual reality is better. Is really good at this as well. So like you have feelings of, hey, I don't want to take a pharmacological route. Totally fine. Right? Absolutely valid. You know what I mean? Not for everybody.

But, you know, it's an interesting bias because, you know, our idea that we -- it's internal and comes from us. It's pure and whole and sacred. And, you know, drugs are -- drugs are a cheater's way there, or they're bad or whatever. Fine. Okay. That's where we are now.

But tomorrow, it's going to be an app on your phone. That's where it starts to get really interesting.

PAT: Wow.

GLENN: Well, I want to talk to you about that a little bit. Because you say this can be really, really good or highly destructive.

STEVEN: Well, so earlier I mentioned that you get all five of these really potent neural chemicals. They're very addictive. All -- I mean, there's no external drugs, cocaine, for example, most addictive drug on earth. All it does is flood the brain with dopamine, right? Dopamine is the drug that makes -- that underlies all addictive behavior.

GLENN: Yes, yes, yes.

STEVEN: Gambling addiction, sex addiction, shopping addiction. You know, cocaine addiction. It doesn't matter. So you're getting the into the same neuro chemistry. So these states can be very, very addictive.

Did the Minneapolis mayor just put Somalis before American taxpayers?!play icon
RADIO

Did the Minneapolis mayor just put Somalis before American taxpayers?!

Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey recently kowtowed to Somali immigrants, even speaking Somali in a speech, amid a fraud scandal. But his decision to do so doesn't just appear to put Somalis before American taxpayers. Glenn Beck explains the dangerous secret it reveals about how the Democratic Party really views immigrants...

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I've been talking about not making enemies, but speaking the truth.

That's the important part. Speak the truth.

Because I have now in my life, and you do too. I have evidence now, I've always -- I've always felt God existed. I feel like I know him.

I -- I have accepted him into my life. I have asked for forgiveness. And asked for salvation. I've received it.

I feel these things. And I have personal witnesses of a testimony to say, he exists. But for the very first time, we all have, as a collective, evidence that not only does he exist, he is involved in the affairs of man.

And the first one, that we all can agree on, is the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

That was an act of God. I'm sorry. But it was.

There was no way. There is no way, that was an act of God. God inserting himself in the affairs of men.

Because he's not neutral on things. That doesn't mean he's a Donald Trump guy, or a MAGA supporter.

It means, he will use things, you know, whether we like it or not, he will use things to further his agenda.

And that's not a political agenda. I also feel that it was a miracle. And this gets a little more sketchy. But I think it was a miracle in retrospect, what happened in 2020. Because we wouldn't have the president that we had today, if he had been elected in 2020. The other miracle is what we saw after Charlie Kirk. So why we don't put more faith into God. We're not alone.

We're seeing, he's showing up for the first time.

And we don't need to have these big arguments on big esoteric things.

We -- you know what, we just need people -- here's one. Let's agree that we should arrest people, that break the law.

Whether they're the president, or an illegal alien that has nothing.

You break the law. You pay the price!

Why -- how is it we can't agree on this. I don't know. Did you hear the Minneapolis mayor on this fraud? This taxpayer fraud?

We're talks about a billion dollars in fraud. Okay?

Your tax dollars going to Somalia, and going to some of it, Al-Shabaab, one of the worst terrorist organizations in the world. Your tax dollars, in fraud.

And here's the Minneapolis mayor. Play cut one please. Listen to this.

VOICE: Good afternoon, my name is Jacob Fry. I'm the mayor of Minneapolis. And we are here to respond to a number of credible reports from several media outlets relaying that there are as many as 100 federal agents, that will be deployed to the Twin Cities with a specific focus, targeting our Somali community.

To our Somali community, we love you. And we stand with you. That commitment is rock solid.

Minneapolis is proud to be home to the largest Somali community in the entire country.

They've been here for decades, in many instances.

They're entrepreneurs, and fathers. They benefit both the culture and the economic --

GLENN: Is anybody arguing with this?

Is anybody arguing with the Somali community?

They are not coming in to target the Somali community. They are coming in to target the fraud that is happening in the Somali community. See, he immediately jumps to race.

Because that's what that means. Once you tart talking about a collective. They're coming after the Somali community. You know you're into racism. You're into some ism, okay?

That's very reminiscent of Hitler. Because that's what he did, and everybody is the same. Only the certain German elites. Only the certain Germans with blue eyes and blond hair. Well, except for the Hitler leader, can rule the world. Okay?

That's racism. When you're saying, they're coming after the Somali community, what you're saying is, oh, well, they're racists coming in. But what he's actually saying is, look, we -- we're lumping every Somali in our community as clean!

Well, no. No. You can't say that. That's racism.

Just like I can't say, every Somali is dirty. You send in teams of professionals to find out, who is involved in this.

And I don't care if they're Somali or they're the governor, if they broke the law, they need to go to jail.

But let me tell you what's actually happening here. What's actually happening here, is 100 percent all about politics.

If he doesn't protect or appear to be on the side of the Somali community. If he doesn't make -- if he allows Feds to come in and mess with the Somali community, even the lawbreakers, he feels he can't win.

If you don't have the Somali community in many Minneapolis, you're not going to win.

Now, how un-American of me to say that.

Well, it's funny. Because he speaks about how un-American it is for Donald Trump to come in and send people into the community. To fight crime. How un-American.

Play what is it? Cut 42?

VOICE: That's not American. That's not what we are about. We're going to do right by every single person in our cities.

And to our Somali community (foreign language).

STU: Oh, my God. At least practice it in the mirror first.

GLENN: That's like me doing it.

That's like me speaking English. I mean, that is just -- that's embarrassing. That's embarrassing.

I mean -- and to follow that. Or to proceed that with, that's just un-American!

We're going to support every member of our community. That's un-American.

And so to our Somali community, you mean the American community? That has been here for decades?

Why are you speaking Somalian to them?

Why? Have they not melted in? No. Because we're a salad bowl. We're not a salad bowl.

You want a salad bowl, go over to Europe. And you'll have that delicious salad, that will not satiate any kind of hunger, ever!

We're a melting pot. Which would imply that you speak English, especially when you say, you know, everybody here, they're great Americans. They're great Americans.

Great. So let me say in English, because I know you're learning English, oh, you're not learning English. Oh, okay.

Well, that -- oh, that's right. We're a salad bowl. That's un-American. That's un-American.

I want -- somebody said to me the other day, you know, Glenn why -- why -- why -- why don't people understand immigration?

And I said, what do you mean by that? Well, you know, people want immigration, and they don't want people coming in. And they're saying they're for immigration.

Wait a minute. Hang on just a second. Everyone I know, that I think is reasonable, everyone that I know, they love immigrants. They love immigrants.

The immigrants that come over and they're like, thank God I'm here. I got here as fast as I could. I mean, I'm a citizen. And they light up when they say they're a citizen. They'll talk about our Founders. They've -- and they'll speak English.

They want to be citizens. Because they know what freedom actually means. Okay?

I want those -- I want those people in every day. I would love to have Somali citizens here, that realize what they escaped.

And realize, wow. That was a really bad scene. I'm glad I'm out of that. And I'm here.

Because I have the opportunity to be me.
I don't want the ones that were here, that are just trying to re-create Somalia. Go to Somalia. What! Why are you here?

Hang on -- you moved from Somalia so you could create another Somalia, except with loads of snow? I mean, help me out with that one.

STU: That was the problem with Somalia. Too warm. That was the big one.

GLENN: Too warm. Too warm. Not --

STU: Just everything else about it was great.

GLENN: Not just endless mountains of snow for months on end. I mean, come on. Come on.

STU: It's so strange.

You know, the -- the instinct behind a politician to think that the right thing to do is to come out, in the most awkward way possible and fumble your way through the language of a few of the residents of your city.

Like, what -- it's so pathetic, the pandering is just awful. And, you know, look, no one cares. I'm sure there's plenty of people in the Somali community that are entrepreneurs. And I'm sure they're doing a great job. And for the people that came here legally and are doing a great job, great. Those are not the people being charged with these crimes. Those are not the people who are defrauding autism programs to bilk the state out of millions and up to a billion dollars. That should be going to kids who actually have autism. Right?

GLENN: How about food?

STU: Food. Housing.

GLENN: How about food?

STU: Basic human needs, these programs that obviously, shouldn't exist to the levels that they do. As they're being manipulated this way.

If they're going to exist, they should be going to people who need the help.

People that might exist.

GLENN: And you know who is really hurt?

You know who really this mayor and this kind of philosophy hurts?

The Somali that wanted to come here, because they knew what America was.

What's happening is, they are allowing this growth of crime, corruption. You'll have warlords. You'll have Sharia law.

You'll have all of it.

The Somalis that came here for a new life, that wanted to escape all that, they're being forced right back into it by the politicians they thought represented the United States of America and our Constitution. And our rule of law!

Instead, they're speaking Somalian. Somalis. Somali -- instead, they're speaking that language, and -- and the Somali that came here for a better life has got to be like, what the hell? What? You've got to be kidding me! You're going to create what we just left!

It's sick. It's really sick.

And dare I say, un-American.

The peril of rewriting history: Hitler's villainy cannot be redeemedplay icon
RADIO

The peril of rewriting history: Hitler's villainy cannot be redeemed

Attempts to recast Hitler as a misunderstood figure and paint Churchill as the true villain are spreading again... and the historical consequences of that distortion are dangerous. The reality is that Hitler sought domination, not coexistence; prepared for war long before Britain acted; and pursued a worldview fundamentally incompatible with Western civilization. Revisiting these facts matters now more than ever, as modern ideological confusion threatens to blur the line between tyranny and freedom. This is a sober reminder that history’s villains are clearly identified, and the record proves it.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I saw an interview yesterday, talks about Hitler again. Trying to make Hitler into the good guy.

And Winston Churchill into the bad guy.

I just don't get it. I really don't get it.

History. Really history is not a choose your own adventure kind of thing. It's ink on paper.
Orders in filing cabinets. Telegrams, diaries. Bodies.

It's what actually happened, not what we hope happened.

So let me just set the record straight on something, again, that is circulating. And it just -- somebody just has to calmly just say, what the truth is.

The thing is now that -- that Hitler had no intention toward the West.

That Britain didn't have to enter the war. That Winston Churchill. Not Adolf Hitler is the villain, who dragged the world into conflict.

Oh, my God. Let me just say this calmly, factually, and finally. Germany's plans for Poland were not reactive.

They were premeditated. The argument says that Britain roped the West into war by promising to defend Poland. No. Germany had already prepared to destroy Poland long before Neville Chamberlain ever made a pledge. How do I know this? Because in my history valuate, I have one of the clearest pieces of proof. It's called fall vice.

It's Hitler's operational blueprint for the invasion of Poland, drafted in 1938, a year before Chamberlain said, we're going to guarantee their safety.

So Poland was not a spontaneous reaction. Hitler was a liar. I know that's hard to get your arms around. But Hitler was a liar.

It was not about German minorities. It was not about self-determination. It was about conquest.

A step in Hitler's explicitly stated road map. Austria. Czechoslovakia. Poland. Then the east.

Britain didn't pull Germany into war. Germany was already marching toward war. Global war.

The second thing that has to be said, clearly. Hitler didn't have designs on Britain and the West.

Really?

Well, Hitler wanted peace with Britain. Because we have the paper trail again.

No, no, no. He wanted peace. He had no western ambitions.

Well, how do you explain Operation Sea Lion?

Hitler's detailed plan to invade and occupy Great Britain. You don't draw amphibious landing schedules across the English Channel, just in case.

And before that, Hitler deployed a different strategy. Diplomacy, and subterfuge. In May 1941, the deputy furor Rudolf Hess, that's a name, flew solo into Scotland, hoping to secure a deal with sympathetic elements with Great Britain. He parachuted down. He claimed he was carrying an offer: Let Hitler dominate Europe, and Germany would leave Britain alone.

Well, that sounds really peaceful, unless you forget what Hitler meant by dominance. He meant dismantling sovereign nations, annihilating the Jews, the Slavs, the -- the -- the gypsies. Any political opponent. Millions of human beings. Just eliminate them.

It -- in what world? In what world could a democratic nation be friends with that?

Britain had internal Nazi sympathizers. And Hitler counted on them.

Hess wasn't flying blind. Hitler believed Britain was divided, and he was right. You know why he was right?

Again, in my vault, I have it from Hitler's own schedule that was on his assistant's desk, the whole time!

Now you have the name and the time that he arrived. Former king Edward. He abdicated in 36. He had clear documented sympathies for the Nazi regime. He met Hitler in '37. I know! I have the documents!

He was courted as a possible puppet monarch. He said, reinstall me, and you can do what you want. I'll help you.

The Nazi files recovered after the war, showed explicit German plans to reinstall him, after an occupation. Hitler was not avoiding conflict with Britain. He was planning a subversion.

Well, yeah. But Hitler's ideology. You know, made friendship with the West possible. What? What?

Even if you pretend not to see the invasion plans and the Hess mission. And the internal sympathizers. Even if you erase every map, every memo, every military order, Hitler's ideology made an alliance with the Western democracies absolutely impossible. And I'm going to get to Stalin here any a second. But hear me. Hear me on this.

Hitler believed that the state was supreme. That the German people existed for the Reich.

In America, the Constitution is supreme!

And it exists to limit the states. Rights come from the fewer or and the government in Germany.

In America, rights come from God. And the government is the servant, not the master.

The individual in Germany, spendable. The West is built on the sanctity at this time of the individual.

Racial hierarchy, is destiny in Germany. The West at its best, rejects racial supremacy.

The Declaration starts with all men are created equal. Not some races are destined to rule.

Nowhere in our document does it say, the state must expand endlessly. That's not compatible with anything. Anything.

You cannot align with a regime whose foundational premise is that human dignity is a myth.

Well, well, the West chose Stalin. Because we thought he was better.

No. We chose survival. People are arguing now that the allies should have sided with Hitler instead of Stalin. No rational reading of history supports any of that.

Hitler and Stalin were both monstrous. Monstrous.

And the RIPA PAC proved that they were natural partners in evil, carving up Poland like a holiday roast, okay?

But here's the brutal truth: Once Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, is that -- was that what it's called, Stu, you know? Barbarossa, right?

STU: Barbarossa.

GLENN: Barbarossa. When they turned to Russia. The question for us was no longer, hey, which dictator was better?

The question was, which outcome prevents Hitler from ruling all of Europe?

Because if Hitler defeated the Soviet Union, the resources of the east. All the oil. All the grain. All the industry. All the manpower, would have made the Third Reich unstoppable. So the choice was between two horrors. Which one?

Or do you want to stay out, and let them have all of that power. Well, yeah. Nowhere -- he's.

Only one Hitler had a trajectory of global domination at that time. Also, racial extermination.

And total state worship, that could not coexist with Western civilization.

We knew at the time, Stalin was just as bad. We knew we were going to be in war with Stalin at some point. And you know who really knew that?
Winston Churchill? He was the one saying, we can't have this guy as an ally. Britain did not drag the world into war.

Hitler did. And so let's go back to the central point. Churchill did not force a war. Chamberlain didn't conjure up a conflict out of thin air. The West didn't provoke Hitler. Hitler provoked history. He's the one who built the camps. And if you want to say you don't believe in the camps, God help us all.

He's the one who wrote Mein Kampf. He's the one armed in secret. He invaded without cause. He sought domination, not coexistence. To suggest otherwise, I mean, what is your intent, to rehabilitate him?

Hitler?

I mean, you're repeating the arguments Hitler made to excuse his aggression.

This is not about defending Churchill, who I think is a hero. But it's about defending the record, the truth. So in our moment of confusion and upheaval and ideological extremism, we don't lose our footing on the bedrock of fact.

This is the dangerous door we must not reopen. When we begin to question whether the West should have resisted Hitler, where are we going?

Would we entertain the idea that freedom and tyranny could have co-existed?

You're not just rearranging interpretations. You're reopening a door millions died to close.

History is not there to flatter us. Did the United States do bad things in World War II? Yeah. Did England? Yeah. Were we perfect?

No. Did we do the best we could?

Yes!

You know, sometimes -- sometimes your only choice is between bad and worse!

You cannot allow somebody like Hitler just to continue to grow and grow and grow and gobble the resources. And then take over the Soviet Union.

And then what? Have all of those resources to take the rest of the world?

My God!

It's so -- hmm. Sorry. I want to just keep this about facts. History is there to warn us.

And the warning is really, really simple.

Be very careful when someone tells you the villain wasn't really the villain.

Whoa, unto him, who makes evil good and good evil.

We know who the villains were. The documentation is very clear.

Trust me, I have a vault full of it.

You want to see it?

Come. Otherwise, you're just full of it!

When you have somebody telling you the villain is not the villain, that story never ends well. Fix reason firmly in her seat.

THIS could COLLAPSE every major civilization at the SAME TIMEplay icon
RADIO

THIS could COLLAPSE every major civilization at the SAME TIME

The United States, Europe, and China are all preparing for a coming global reset. Throughout history, civilizations have risen and fallen according to the same cycle of prosperity and debt. But never before has EVERY major civilization been on the verge of collapse at the same time. Glenn Beck breaks it all down.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Because for the very first time in world history. There's something new that has happened. The entire globe is riding the same wheel at the same time.

Okay? We're all in this debt cycle. And this has never happened before.

The cycle always begins the same way. The first step in this at the time cycle is discipline.

Discipline equals prosperity. Okay.

It goes right into prosperity. And every great empire starts with discipline. Rome did, you know, rebuilding after all the wars, strict budgets. Every great empire starts with discipline. Rome did. You know, rebuilding after all the wars. The strict budgets. Silver coinage. Land reforms. It helped restore, you know, the battered middle class. The Dutch Republic did the same thing: They invented modern finance, turning the swamp into the world's largest trade hub. Then the British empire did it after the glorious revolution. It brought fiscal stability and a gold-back pound, that the world trusted for over 200 years.

When that fell, America did it. After World War II, our debts were manageable, our currency was solid, backed by gold, productivity was unmatched, and we prospered. That is stage one. Discipline into prosperity. And prosperity if not darted, always leads to the second stage. Complacency into excess, okay? So excess creates this fatal illusion. The moment, you know, where we all look at each other, and go, this is great. It's going to be like this forever. It was always like this. It will always be like that.

Rome began borrowing heavily to pay for endless bread and circuses. France, funded the palaces and the pensions and the perpetual wars, through loans it could never repay.

Britain, in the late 19th century, took its global empire for granted, and levered -- levered itself into World War I.

Then came World War II. And then America beginning in the 1970s, untethered from -- untethered the dollar from gold. And discovered that debt could replace discipline.

So the second stage of the debt cycle is the age of entitlement, expansion. Imperial overreach.

Cheap credit.

And political bribery disguised as compassion.

Any of that sound like we've been there?

Done that?

The Dutch called it win handle. The trade in the wind.

Paper promises that replace real production.

We call it stimulus.

Easy money. Deficit spending.

Different words. Same exact sin.

That lees you to stage three. Financialization.

That goes to fragility. This is the most seductive stage. Rome debased its money until it was worth less than 2 percent of the original silver. The Byzantines watered down their unshakable dollar, if you will, and confidence collapsed. France printed their money, backed by land, until they were worth less and used as wallpaper.

Weimar, Germany, did the same thing. They destroyed a thousand years of savings in 18 months. Japan, 1990. Papered over its real estate collapse, with 30 years of zero interest rates.

And America, after 2008, discovered this intoxicating illusion, started by George W. Bush. I can violate the free market system, to save the free market system. That's quantitative easing. Money conjured up, without cost. Without any restraint. Without any consequence.

In stage three, nations convinced themselves, they're immune to any kind of gravity. Okay?

This time, it's different! We can manage this debt. Well, modern tools, you just don't understand. You know, the rules no longer apply.

You don't understand. Really?

Don't understand. The older rules always apply.

Because math is math.

And stage three always ends exactly the same way. Wherever it's tried!

The markets no longer trust the promises they're being fed, which leads us into stage four, the breaking point. Every empire eventually reaches a moment where its debts cannot be serviced. They can't be inflated away quietly. They can't be rolled over without consequence.

Rome reached it when they froze prices and shattered the last productive parts of its competent multiply France reached it in 1788, when it can no longer borrow. And that whole thing came to a head. Britain reached it in 1931 when it abandoned the gold standard.

Weimar reached it when inflation ate the soul of the nation. And extremism took over. Yap reached it, when its bond market effectively became nationalize. Propped up by its own central bank. Right now, America, Europe, China, Japan. And every other major power, listen to this carefully, have all hit stage four at the same time.

Never before in human history has this happened.

The bond markets are shaking. The currencies are all volatile. Politicians are praying that no one notices the numbers.

You know, that they no longer add up.

Stage four is not coming. We are now living inside the opening act. This is so important.

Yesterday, there was a story that said, that this is going to be the biggest Christmas season ever. And I'm wondering to myself, I see the prices. I go to McDonald's.

I go to the grocery store.

Any of us Walmart this weekend. I see the prices. And I'm looking at the prices.

And every time I'm looking at the prices, I'm like, how's the average person afford any of this?

And yet, we're spending. Spending. Spending.

And I don't understand it. And I fear we're doing what the government is doing. We're just spending because we can -- we think we can get out of it.

Then comes stage five. It's called the reset. Hmm.

Every debt system ends in one of three ways.

They inflate the money, so they can pay off the debt. And that's just an absolute wipeout. Weimar republic did it. France did it. Rome did it.

Just a wipeout. Then there's a hard default and political upheaval. Russia did that in 1917.

Argentina did it over and over again.

War leading to a new monetary order. That's another one.

And the neo -- the -- the Napoleonic wars. The British gold standard. World War II. Bretton Woods.

All of that. But there's always a reset. Always a new order that's born from the ashes of the old.

And here's what makes this moment unprecedented. Rome collapsed by itself. France collapsed alone. Weimar collapsed by itself.

Britain declined while America rose.

It was always one country coming down, and another one coming up.

This time, all countries. All countries, on both size, the free world and the not so free world, there's no one rising.

China is drowning in its local government debt. It's never going to say this, but it's a paper tiger.

Europe is fractured. And coming apart at the seams. Japan, demographic time bomb.

America is politically frozen and insolvent fiscally.

So for the very first time in world history. Every major civilization has reached its peak of the debt cycle.

This time, all at the same moment.

No one is coming up!

So what does that mean?

Well, for the very first time in human history, it means, when it arrives, it will not be regional. It will be global. It will not be slow. It will be systemic. It will be everywhere. Now, the hope, the history books don't tell, and nobody in the media will tell you this, is when every one of those resets, every collapse, every crisis, it created the conditions for renewal.

Rome, its fall opened the door for a new Christian civilization. France, the revolution there, birthed the modern nation state. Britain's decline cleared space for America's rise. The devastation of World War II led to the great expansion of prosperity, the greatest the world has ever seen. So the next chapter is not written. What happens to us is not written.

And it -- whether we rise or fall, from what's coming depends not on Washington. Not on Wall Street. But on us. In our homes, in our families. In our churches. And our communities.

The debt cycle is not prophecy. It is a warning.

You cannot borrow your way out of moral, fiscal, or spiritual bankruptcy.

Now, I don't feel like I chose this path. This -- with Bretton Woods and then 1972 coming off the gold standard. And what they did in 2008, to bail out all the banks. I didn't have anything to say. Did you have anything to say about that?

I didn't. I didn't. I wouldn't have chosen those things. But the world is putting something together.

And I want to show you what our choices are. Because right now, people say, you know, I don't like what Donald Trump is doing. Or, I don't like the World Economic Forum.

Or, I don't like what China. Okay. Great. But I want you to know, it's going to be one of these systems. Because it's being built.

It always happens. When one is coming down, some new system, usually a country.

But not a country this time. A new system begins to rise.

And it happens before the fall.