Gary Lachman, known for his work with Blondie and later as a writer on consciousness and the Western tradition, tells us about his incredible life journey from the NYC underground music scene to his current focus on the mystical and occult, including his experiences with various authors and figures like Colin Wilson and Aleister Crowley. We go deep into the mysteries of chaos magic and beyond in this amazing discussion.
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Next week on Dreamland: Bill Sosa is back with a working model of the Dendera light and a detailed explanation of EXACTLY why the Egyptians could harness and use the electricity needed to make it work.
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Rock n Roll Hall of Famer Gary Lachman: Life from Blondie through Alistair Crowley to Chaos Magic — Free Video:
11 Responses
Note misspelling of Aleister (as “Alistair”) in both headline and tag. Correctly spelled within body of story, however. (Feel free to delete this pedantic advisory; just a friendly heads-up.)
I for one appreciate the proofreading!
Also– Is Bill Sosa really back next week, or is that blurb actually related to last week’s show?
From the very long (great!) comments thread from last week’s show by Bill Sosa himself:
“We did a follow up interview earlier this week. Stay tuned… Cheers…”.
Much food for thought…thank you for this interview. I, for one, would like to hear Whitley’s observations about the occult operating in these times. He mentioned, regarding the current U.S.administration that it was “occult” but that he wasn’t going to “go there”. Whitley, I would welcome you “going there” . I am always grateful for your knowledge, experience and insights.
Hi, Whitley. I am not seeing the option to cast on the subscriber edition these days. Hoping this option isn’t gone for good. I am able to cast the free edition, and other shows from other channels. It’s just the subscribers’ link edition for Dreamland. Wondering if anyone else is experiencing this challenge. Thanks for any advice you have.
Our lives often take odd trajectories, and comic books>the occult, and so much else discussed by Lachman are all more than relatable to me. And I was a girl, raised in a fundamental faith. My mother once said to my sister, “Do you think all those high fevers when she was a baby made her this way?” Good question.
I’ve dabbled in magic enough to know that it’s real, and not to be taken lightly. I understand why Whitley didn’t want to “go there” about the current administration and the occult. I felt it, deep in my bones when HE came down that escalator in June 2015. I’ll leave it at that.
I would like to hear more from Lachman in the future.
Loved Blondie ( paraell lines et. al) Sunday Girl- Hanging on teh telephone etc All those bands: Ramones-clash-jam-ian dury-buzzcocks-sex pistols-stranglers…my gen’s Music!!!!! riding around with 6×9’s and a 40 watt power amp – blasting the punk-new wave!
So many questions: I would like to read more about all the esoteric! Gurdjieff? what is the best book to read from each of these authors… all the name dropping was hard to keep up with.
Agree- lets hear more about the occult- so many pedophiles in the maga world.. creates trauma and thus abusive =experiences… I have my theories… dark vs light….even Ronald Raygun had a astrologer.
Maybe I missed it, but was David Bowie discussed at all?
I know that Miguel Conner (‘Occult Elvis’) is writing a book about Gnosticism and David Bowie. Bowie was AMAZING, and I missed him and felt his loss on a level that surprised me. Bowie had a thing about Crowley too, and I knew about Crowley as far back as the late 60’s.
‘Blackstar’ by Bowie, just before his death…wow.
One of my absolute favourites is “Oh! You Pretty Things”…I just have to hear it once now and it’s buzzing around my head for days.
https://youtu.be/IBgU0tiLy2s?si=ZeEP-1gJFTfEND_Z
Even at his strangest, he retained…elegance.
Bowie was cast in the movie version of Whitley’s, ‘The Hunger’. Another connection was Whitley’s show from 2016…about Bowie.
https://unknowncountry.com/dreamland/david-bowie-close-encounters-and-star-magic/
If Lachman returns, a discussion regarding Bowie would be great! As odd as this sounds, I don’t sense that Bowie has to ever ‘come back’ again. Perhaps he has ascended.
This was fascinating and fun, and probably wins the prize for most French spoken in a Dreamland episode!
I want to know much more about Gary Lachman now.
I’m curious about one thing, though, and wonder if Whitley can explain it. I’ve always wondered why he pronounces Gurdjieff as “GurJEEF.” But I figured that since he had been so involved with Gurdjieff’s work, he must know how to say the man’s name, and I must be wrong about what I think it should be. But Gary pronounces it as I would expect and as the web dictionaries say it should be pronounced. ???