#134 - Gary Lachman - Touched by the Presence - From Blondie’s Bowery and Rock and Roll to Magic and the Occult

2026 is a year when the wheel is turning in a big way, and I have the honor of speaking with Gary Lachman shortly after he’s turned the big seventy; his own significant turn. Gary is a writer and musician, he was a major influence in mid-1970s as a founding member of the rock
band Blondie Blondie and other bands. In the 1990s, he transitioned to full-time writing, producing influential works on mysticism and occultism. This intro is inspired by wikipedia but the book we speak about today is a much more accurate and detailed "presentation" - as we speak of his book that is a memoir of magic, rock and roll, and becoming who you are! It is called "Touched by the Presence: From Blondie’s Bowery and Rock and Roll to Magic and the Occult" published november 2025 by Inner Traditions.

In the publishers intro it says about Gary that he is a prolific author and lecturer on consciousness, counterculture, and the Western esoteric tradition. The big question about how we went from big music business to that of an esoteric writer, is what the book we speak about, will answer.

And. Here we are in the beginning of 2026 talking in way about the forces than can be controlled and those which cannot. At least these my after-reflections. Here are some clues about what you will be tapping into with this wonderful interview with Gary Lachman:

-The true self beneath layers of sleep, social conditioning, and optimization

-why Gary wrote this memoir differently than his other books: not commissioned, no plan, written during a difficult period as a way to assert and protect his sense of self

-a key turning point in 1975: discovering Colin Wilson’s The Occult while living on the Bowery and playing with Blondie, and how that book became the doorway into consciousness studies and the esoteric

-R.D. Laing and “the sane response to an insane world”: family double-binds and gaslighting

-the “false world” theme through existentialism and Gnosticism: gnosis as direct felt knowledge, the demiurge idea, and modern parallels like post-truth

-"You’re poking your finger through this paper wall… it was just scenery, but you had accepted it as reality, and suddenly you realized you could do that"

-You might know the name that’s on your passport, but who is that person?

-the explanation on Gurdjieff’s core teaching that is about waking up from “sleep” or mechanical living:

-The purpose of the Work (also called the Fourth Way) was to break habitual, unconscious patterns that keep people functioning automatically and Gary personally tried this discipline, and also Aleister Crowleys.

-systems of esoteric psychological development

-many people (including himself) first encounter the Work through Ouspensky’s writing, not through Gurdjieff directly

-books like "A New Model of the Universe "opened entire fields for him: the idea of an esoteric current running through history

-Gary is honest about having gone through a hard time when writing this book and as a related theme I ask him to pull up a poem he write when teenager, that I (Mannah) relate to personally. I was surprised he had it in his memory, and could recite it so well - look forward to that part of the interview!!! At least if you also know that feeling of "what is there to tell"... The poem is dark and romantic, dealing with death, defeat, and resignation, not necessarily a literal wish to die, but a youthful fascination with world-weariness, sorrow, and the idea of giving up.

-choosing to transcend by writing, by working, by staying alive and engaged

You also get the story of the title of the book "touched by presence" and here is a recommendation from Gary, a short (and super cool!!!) film his son made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=919SNRJtMRc

 

thank you all for listening, and i hope you’re settling into the new year..and into your own power;  as you will have noticed, the wheel is already on the move.

-Mannah

LINKS

the book we speak about: https://www.innertraditions.com/touched-by-the-presence

https://garylachman.co.uk/

https://www.gary-lachman.com/

Video version of this podcast: https://youtu.be/Mt1vmWzkuT4

 

More Mannah:

https://www.therapeuticastrologer.com/