Gary Lachman is the guest on this week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show.  

He is the author of several books and has lectured across the United States, Britain and Europe on the relationship between consciousness, esoteric knowledge, politics, history and culture. He is perhaps best known as a founding member of the New York new wave band Blondie, in which he played bass from 1975 to 1977. His new book is Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump.

During this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Gary and Chauncey discuss mass psychology and how symbols and other types of images and narratives influence emotion, Trump's power over his followers, the concept of synchronicity and "magic", and the ways that Vladimir Putin has been able to recreate reality for the Russian people with the goal of expanding Russian empire. Gary also explains the deep connections between the occult and esoteric knowledge as practiced by such figures as Stephen Bannon and the so-called "alt-right" movement. In this week's episode, Chauncey DeVega comments on the anti-climactic meeting in Helsinki where Donald Trump publicly betrays the United States to his handler and boss Vladimir Putin. 

And at the end of this week's show Chauncey shares a warning from Harry Leslie Smith, who is 94-years-old and a veteran of the RAF in World War 2 and also a writer for The Guardian, about the rise of Trumpism and right-wing authoritarian movements around the world.