December 31, 2024

Esoteric Island Discs: Gary Lachman

[Esoteric Island Discs is an esoteric homage to the great Desert Island Discs, a classic radio programme which is owned entirely by the British Broadcasting Corporation. We hope they receive it in the loving spirit in which it is intended.]

Our castaway today is Gary Lachman, scholar and author of many books on modern currents of the western esoteric traditions, and survivor of rock ‘n’ roll in the ‘seventies and ‘eighties . His personal website will lead you to his many books and articles about aspects of the modern esoteric in Europe and North America, on the 1960’s “counterculture”, and on a host of other subjects in the weird history of ideas. Before he started writing about the esoteric, however, he lived through the sixties, moved to New York at rather an interesting time in that city’s music history, joined the band Blondie, and rocked hard on the legendary CBGB scene. He then moved to California, formed his own band, The Know, and continued to rock hard, while pursuing a career-evolution which would eventually lead, via a degree in philosophy, to the life of an author which he currently enjoys in London.

Download Esoteric Island Discs: Gary Lachman

Playlist:

The Lovin’ Spoonful – ‘Do You Believe in Magic?’ off the album of the same name, Kama Sutra Records, 1965.

Santana – ‘Black Magic Woman’ off the album Abraxas, Columbia/CBS, 1970.

The Modern Lovers – ‘Astral Plane’ off the album The Modern Lovers, on Home of the Hits and other labels, 1976.

The Beatles – ‘The Inner Light’, b-side to the single ‘Lady Madonna’, Capitol/Parlophone/&c., 1968.

The Jefferson Airplane – ‘Have You Seen the Saucers?’, a-side of 7” with b-side ‘Mexico’, RCA Victor, 1970.

The Know – ‘(I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear’, off the rare CD-compilation Amor Fati, 2022.

Amboy Dukes – ‘Journey to the Center of the Mind’, off the album of the same name, Mainstream Records, 1968.

Books Mentioned in the Interview

Gary Lachman:

Gary Lachman. Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius. Macmillan, London, 2001. UK edition Dedalus 2022.

Idem. Politics and the Occult. Quest Books, Wheaton, IL, 2008.

Idem. Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump. Tarcher/Penguin, New York, 2018.

Idem. The Return of Holy Russia. Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT, 2020.

Idem. Touched By The Presence: From Blondie’s Bowery and Rock and Roll to Magic and the Occult. Inner Traditions, Rochester, VT, 2025. Forthcoming November 2025.

The Guardian article about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame can be read here.

Other:

Vera Stanley Adler. The Fifth Dimension. Red Wheel/Weiser, 1992.

Egil Asprem. The Magical Theory of Politics: Memes Magic, and the Enchantment of Social Forces in the American Magic War. Nova Religio, 23(4):15-42, 2020.

Aleister Crowley. The Diary of a Drug Fiend. E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, NY, 1922.

Umberto Eco. Ur-fascism. The New York Review of Books, 22 June 1995.

Hermann Hesse. Demian: The Story of a Boyhood. Boni and Liveright, New York, NY, 1923.

Jeffrey J. Kripal. Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2011.

Thomas Mann. The Magic Mountain. Vintage, London, 1999. H.T. Lowe-Porter trans.

Louis Pauwels, Jacques Bergier, and Yvone Lenard. Le matin des magiciens. Harper & Row, 1967.

Village of the Damned, dir. Wolf Rilla, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 1960.

Fredric Wertham. Seduction of the Innocent: The Influence of Comic Books on Today’s Youth. Rinehart & Company, United States, 1954.

Colin Wilson. The Occult: A History. Random House, New York, NY, 1971.

John Wyndham. The Midwich Cuckoos. Michæl Joseph, London, 1957.

The ‘New Chronology’ of Anatoly Fomenko is truly bonkers.