Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Award-winning journalist Don Lattin joins me to explore the disturbing parallels between cult leaders like Jim Jones and the rise of Donald Trump — plus the hidden links between psychedelics, religion, and modern political movements.

In this episode of LIMINAL NEWS, I’m joined by journalist and author Don Lattin, who spent decades as the religion beat reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, covering cults, new religious movements, and American spirituality from the inside.

We begin with a provocative question: Is Donald Trump functioning as a modern messianic cult leader? Drawing on his firsthand reporting on Jim Jones, Jonestown, and the cult “wars” of the 1970s, Don breaks down the psychological, political, and religious dynamics that define cult leadership — and why so many of those same patterns are visible today.

From Christian nationalism and the New Apostolic Reformation to the strange convergence of psychedelics, wellness culture, tech elites, and authoritarian politics, this conversation maps the deeper forces shaping our current moment. We also explore Don’s long engagement with psychedelics and religion, including insights from his books “The Harvard Psychedelic Club” and “God on Psychedelics.”

This is a wide-ranging, unsettling, and deeply informed conversation about belief, power, charisma, and the future of American consciousness.

donlattin.com

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Trump’s “messianic” psychology
02:30 Cult leaders & the legacy of Jim Jones
06:45 Why Trump fits the cult leader pattern
10:30 What happens when cults begin to fracture
13:00 Christian nationalism & political theology
16:00 Psychedelics, mysticism & organized religion
21:30 The commodification of the psychedelic renaissance
26:00 Tech elites, power, and authoritarian convergence
31:00 Cult psychology: leaders vs. inner circles
36:00 Sex, spirituality & coercive movements (OneTaste)
42:00 Spiritual-but-not-religious America
48:00 Are we witnessing a religious revival — or an illusion?
54:00 Can societies escape cult dynamics?

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