Is it the countless lies, the corruption, war, destruction, hunger, inequality, injustice? It makes me sad to think about these things, and I think about them every day, whether I want to or not. If I were to seriously engage with the tragedies unfolding before my eyes, I would probably go mad. Am I even aware of what is going on? Isn’t everything much worse? The lies, the deception, the murders and executions, not only in Gaza, but all over the world?

It doesn’t help to dwell on events that are beyond our control. We empathise, we are angry, we feel helpless, broken – and we are glad to be far away. We feel we are entitled to be relieved and privileged, and while relief is human, privilege remains relative. People are generally fed up with our chaotic times. Their lives are less affordable, their jobs are often a drudgery they drag themselves to five days a week. Even people with good middle-class jobs and decent pay want out. At art openings and during our psychedelic salons at Cabaret Voltaire, I sometimes meet people who tend to feign a certain sense of professional optimism. Behind their masks lurks pure despair: What will become of my job? What about AI? What will become of my money, my family, my life? People on the next rung up the social ladder worry about their reputation. How do I look in the eyes of “the world”? Will I be publicly defamed and destroyed, my ego in shambles, my pride in the dust? Does anyone love me at all?

What should we all do? It seems clear that those who have enough should share with those who have less, and many people do. It is too easy to blame those who could but do not because they are so greedy and needy. For them, as for us, the question is how to make the world a better place without sacrificing ourselves. After all, any kind of commitment, from love to business, not to mention politics, requires an investment of time, money and effort that we may not have the energy or the means to make.

When it comes to difficult times, there are two tricks: if you consume less, you save money, and if you save money, you feel more secure. Give away some of that money and you’ll not only feel rich, but also good!

Nature is free and accessible to all. We call her our mother; she is the gift that keeps on giving. By spending time in the forest or the mountains, by the sea or in the desert, we show our affection and admiration for her. It responds to this love by bringing us closer to ourselves and, step by step, liberating us from everything that weighs us down. Until we feel free to dive into ourselves and recognise who we were when that was still enough.

Let’s escape from the cities as often as possible. To build a more natural and largely autonomous life together wherever possible. To love nature, our lives and each other.

Have a colourful autumn, everyone!
Susanne Seiler

Cogito ergo sum. Most of us encountered this dictum by scientist and mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, as schoolchildren. Already back then I disagreed: how could I think at all without a brain? Or without a body?

This leads us to the much more difficult question of what consciousness actually is. I won’t pretend to have the answer. However, neuroscience increasingly assumes that consciousness is not a prerequisite for perception, but rather a consequence of it. Before we form a thought, we must become aware of our surroundings and engage with reality through our senses. We share this with all sentient beings. Animals and other life forms may not think like us, but they are conscious enough to survive in an often hostile environment, and they are often better adapted to life than we are, having become largely alienated from nature – including our own.

While thinking is linked to neural activity in the brain, consciousness can also occur without understanding, as in meditation or in babies before they learn to speak. The same applies to patients in a coma or on the operating table, who perceive what is being said and done around them without reflecting it. It applies to the cat enjoying a ray of sunshine, or the mouse perceiving the rustling of the grass around it, to the bird dancing in the wind, and the puma prowling through the jungle.

Could it be that we have misunderstood Descartes? Perhaps he simply wanted to tell us that thinking was his raison d’être and that without intellectual engagement with the world, he felt like a fish out of water. Does our human dignity really depend on our ability to analyse and produce, rather than springing from our being, the feeling of ‘I am’? Our perception arises from our lived experience of the world. We should use both our hearts and our minds to engage with it. Consciousness is more than thinking!

Thoughtfully Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

 

“Utterly brilliant and inspired in every direction – writing, ethnobotany, chemistry, psychonautics, pharmacology, drug history, gardening, house building, hydroelectrics (he powered his house and village at one point with a hydroelectric system he installed), teaching, editing, and pretty much everything else you could ever find interest in. Jonathan had a gargantuan knowledge bank, skill set and even bigger heart. He will be so missed by so many.”
Hattie Wells, Psychedelic practitioner and co-director Breaking Convention

Jonathan Ott was born on 2 June 1949 in Hartford, Connecticut, where he spent his childhood with his three sisters. According to Claudia Müller-Ebeling, who knew him well, he had to overcome «familial, political, and academic boundaries and mostly limited spheres of awareness,” before studying organic chemistry at the Evergreen State College in Olympia (Washington), and later in Mexico, where he made his home.

In 1973, a fateful encounter brought him together with Richard Evans Schultes. He, Albert Hofmann and R. Gordon Wasson remained Jonathan’s most important mentors. He also collaborated with other passionate ethnobotanical researchers such as Pablo Blas Reko, Christian Rätsch and Jochen Gartz. Along with Alexander Shulgin and Antonio Escohotado, who also left us recently, he has now joined them in the land beyond the rainbow, where I hope they are having a good time together.

Among many other things, Jonathan Ott is famous for having been the English translator of Albert Hofmann’s book LSD My Problem Child, and for having co-coined the term «entheogen.» Not only was his Engish most elegant, and a pleasure to hear and read: his German was also remarkable, spoken with only the slightest accent. Other than Spanish, he was a scholar on Indigenous languages. He authored and co-authored a large number of books and articles, the most famous being his Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History (1993), Ayahuasca Analogues. Pangean Enthogens (1984) and Hallucinogenic Plants of North America (1976). You’ll find a selection of his available writings here.

Ott was an experienced field collector in Mexico, where managed a small natural-products laboratory and botanical garden of medicinal herbs. In March 2010, his home was destroyed by arson. In a vindictive act, the books given to him by Albert Hofmann were reportedly used as fuel, meaning the arsonist must have acted with premeditated intent. Fortunately Jonathan Ott was not home when it happened.

From 1976 onward, Jonathan initiated several psychedelic conferences along with various partners, The psychedelic movements owes him more than we’ll ever know or be able to express.

The Gaia Media Foundation hosted or co-hosted him on several occasions. You’ll find his talks «The Hermit of a Latter-Day St-Anthony Entertains St Albert» (LSD80, Basel 2023), «Albert Hofmann’s Contributions to Chemical and Pharmaceutical Research» (2014) as well as an «Interview with Faustin Bray» (World Psychedelic Forum 2008) and «Albert Hofmann & Jonathan Ott on Consciousness & Mystical Experience” (Outside Dr. Hofmann’s home on the Rittimatte 2002) on our YouTube Channel. I also found him here. Keep on scrollling…

Jonathan Ott and I were about the same age. He was a warm-hearted man, and I am very sorry he’s no longer with us. He passed on 5 July; the cause of his death remains to be revealed,

In fond memory,
Susanne G. Seiler

50 years of ecotopia

In the late Seventies, I first read Ernest Callenbach’s utopian novel, published in 1975, about a time in the not-too-distant future (1999) when the northern part of California, as well as Oregon, and Washington secede from the rest of the United States to form their own state, Ecotopia, which is also the title of the book. It concerns a skeptical reporter named William Wesson who is sent by the president of the remaining States to see how this lost land might be recaptured.

I picked it up again disgusted by the political events surrounding Trump’s rogue state, in which anonymous agents of the Department of Homeland Security invade homes, schools, and supermarkets to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, on whose starvation wages much of the American economy depends. This book inspires courage and anticipates many things that we could hardly imagine back then, but which are part of our everyday life today: recycling stations, remote viewing, the legalization of cannabis, fitness as a cult, a helicopter war in no way inferior to today’s drone wars, war games with real victims. I don’t want to give too much away, I’d like you to read it, available from Banyan Tree Books as The Complete Ecotopia, including the sequel Ecotopia Emerging, which describes how the secession came about and what made it possible.

Even though most of us in Europe are better off than many US citizens, we are still a long way from where we need to be in order to cope with, let alone avert what is rapidly approaching. This summer is already beating all records and making  reality what climate scientists are urgently warning us about: earlier and earlier, hotter and hotter!

When Wesson arrives in Ecotopia, he is suspicious and fears for his life, recording his observations and experiences in official reports and private notes. Over time, however, he learns to understand the country that hosts him. And he falls in love.

Perhaps you’ll find some ideas in this exciting book that you can apply to your everyday life and will lead you to defend our threatened planet at the ballot box. Denial is futile. Ernest Callenbach, author, filmmaker, and advocate of a simple life, showed fifty years ago that there is another way.

Thoughtfully yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. If you are a European citizen, please consider signing the following:

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but what does it all mean?

Last Sunday, towards morning, I had the most lovely dream about Ram Dass, who I met at Timothy Leary’s on Wonderland Drive in L.A. many years ago. I’ve written about it in my book In the Jungle of the Mind.

In the dream, he was young, lean, and tanned, wearing jeans, a dark turtleneck sweater, and a stylish leather jacket reaching down to his thighs. He had swept his longish brown hair out of his face. and didn’t look like Ram Dass but more like “a handsome tall stranger”, as in a prediction by a fortune teller. We talked about life, as he morphed into an older version of himself, looking more like the Ram Dass we all know and admire. I asked him if he was looking forward to passing on. He answered: I like it here. And me: Don’t we all – at the end of the day. We laughed like mischievous children about this ambiguous answer.

He hugged me and pulled me to his side. I said: It has been one of the great honours of my life to have met you. And he: I think about you all the time! Really? He claimed he had been born in 1910. That would have made him 115 years old!

I’m not sure what it all means and asked CHatGTP. AIs are good at interpreting dreams and giving psychological advice, even though they tend to hallucinate when dealing with unknown facts. Don’t we all?

It called my dream tender and luminous, like two souls meeting and not just a random encounter or a jumble of impressions. It’s true that the dream seems meaningful, playful, and somehow mysterious. Ram Dass appearing young, tanned, and unfamiliar but fully present in spirit is in keeping with his teachings on identity, form, and the eternal soul behind the mask, ChatGTP said..

That he said ‘I like it here’ impressed my artificial friend as simple, human and unpretentious. My retort: ‘Don’t we all – at the end of the day,’ seemed paradox, but also full of humour. That Ram Dass and I should have laughed about it, embraced and recognized each other carried an emotional truth, rather than an accurate chronology or names.

The year of birth also had an emotional meaning rather than referring to facts, not uncommon, when dealng with matters of the heart.

Such an insightful interpretation! I felt good all day. What do you think? Do our dreams have meaning or is it just mental diarrhoea, a way of digesting what happened to us during the day? I obviously believe our dreams lend themselves to interpretation and would like to think that it wanted to tell me that my spirit is eternal too! Why is it sometimes so hard to believe?

Happily Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. We are only able to staff our lounge and library at Hochstrasse 70  by appointment. Please contact the editorial team if you’d like to make an appointment

Dear readers

Bicycle Day proved a growing success: A beautiful crowd made it to Basel and joined our yearly ride; more came to the party in the evening on Gannet, Basel’s ‘Culture Boat.’ Our thanks go to all participants, and to the organizers for their creative effort.

On the occasion of our annual celebration of Albert Hofmann and Susi Ramstein’s bicycle ride, we relaunched our website bicycleday.ch. Take a look and check out the online shop, too. Order a button, a t-shirt or one of the limited artist edition blotter sheets. You can take out a subscription including some of our new merch and tell a friend to suscribe to the free monthly gaiamedia goodnews. We are happy to welcome our new Bicycle Day x Gaia Media Members who subscribed during the occasion.

The Gaia Media Foundation has been active since 1993, the year it was established by Dieter A. Hagenbach, publisher of Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna and many others, as well as the author of a definitive biography of Albert Hofmann together with Lucius Werthmüller, Mystic Chemist. Dr. Hofmann joined the board of Gaia Media and remained with us till his passing. The conference ‘LSD – Wonder Drug and Problem Child,’ held on the occasion of his 100th birthday, attracted more than 2200 visitors from all over the world. It included presentations, panels and workshops covering all aspects of the transformative power of LSD and hosted practically everyone with a name in the field, such as Sasha and Ann Shulgin, Mountain Girl Carolyn Garcia, Myron Stolaroff, or Amanda Fielding, and was covered by more than 200 journalists from every well-known international publication you can think of. You can see most of those presentation on Gaia Media’s YouTube Channel (scroll to find the English contributions). It kicked off the Psychedelic Revival, leading to new medical research at universities the world over, as well as to a greater acceptance of psychedelics as a road to mental health, and substances that help more than they hurt.

Our efforts were recognized at the highest level and lead to a promise by the Swiss government to reconsider and advance psychedelic research and therapy, ultimately leading to the decriminilization of these mind-altering substances.

We are committed to keeping up our good work. Please consider supporting us, if you aren’t a subscriber/member of our psychedelic family already. Thank you very much.

Yours, as always,
Susanne G.Seiler

P.S. We are only able to staff our lounge and library at Hochstrasse 70  by appointment. Please contact the editorial team if you’d like to make an appointment

The way America’s government and policies are being skewed makes evil the new normal. We Europeans urgently need to take action. Most of us had it better than ever for a long time. Is it really over now? One of the new battlefields in the scheme of the new world order is the internet.

Might we come forward and infiltrate it? I have an idea… How about we take down the powers-that-be with positive fake news? Preferably in such a way that they feel compelled to deny their supposed benevolence. Here are some examples:

Donald Trump: ‘Improving Prison Conditions Shows Love for All Americans’ 
Washington, D.C. – Donald Trump announces a nationwide initiative to improve prison conditions. “Every American deserves dignity, even those behind bars.”

Elon Musk: ‘I Will Donate Half My Wealth to Public Transportation’
Austin, TX – In a shocking turn, Elon Musk pledges to invest half his fortune into high-speed rail and urban transit systems. “Cars are overrated. The future is efficient, shared mobility.” Tesla stock takes a hit, while city planners rejoice.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘Stricter Gun Laws Needed After Eye-Opening School Visit’
Washington, D.C. – After visiting inner-city schools, Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for tougher gun laws. “No child should fear for their life in a classroom.” The NRA has yet to respond.

Kristi Noem: ‘Ban Factory Farming to Protect Small Farmers’
Pierre, SD – Kristi Noem calls for limits on corporate agriculture. “Independent farmers are being crushed.” Environmentalists cheer.

It should be a large-scale campaign and can only work if the good word is spread by all. You can easily come up with your own examples (or use these). Will you?

Spring is in the air! Can you feel it too? Let’s stay tuned.

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. We are only able to staff our lounge and library at Hochstrasse by appointment. Please contact the editorial team if you’d like to make an appointment

peace, love & happiness?

“Values are principles or norms that guide behavior, decision-making, and perceptions of what is meaningful or important in life. They can be deeply personal or shared by a group, culture, or society,” ChatGPT answers my request for a definition.

Values lead to questions: How should I act? Which position should I cultivate? What do I believe in? What has led to these beliefs? What kind of life do I want, individually and collectively?

When asked about an overarching value, a highest good, many think of peace: harming no one, including nature. Showing one’s human, caring side. Compassion, understanding, willingness to compromise. Concomitantly, many believe in love. They devote themselves to others, without redeeming themselves with promises or gifts, and love everything and everyone unconditionally. The third component of the old hippie motto, happiness, goes beyond hedonism. To be happy is to influence the happiness of the world with one’s sunny disposition. An entire industry lives off our wish to be part of the chosen few.

Good intentions are not enough. We need to come out. For freedom, against oppression and against the “whole defective humanity” that, as I write, is taking hold in real time on our screens and displays. Thomas Mann, the German refugee and Nobel Laureate whose Villa Aurora in the Pacific Palisades partially escaped the flames of the recent fires in L.A. had a weekly radio program, in which he reminded people of what it means to be human. If you read German I warmly recommend you apply yourself to an article in Republik by author Melly Kylak.

The wheat is being separated from the chaff. Stay on board!

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. We can only staff our lounge and library at Hochstrasse by appointment. Please contact the editorial team if you’d like to come and visit.

a consequential fungus

The story of ergot, the parasitic fungus growing on grains such as wheat, barley and rye, reaches far back in time, as an upcoming book by Frank Petersen, Director of the Department of Natural Product Research at Novartis Pharma meticulously documents. The Mystery in the Rye. Ergot and LSD – A Cultural Historical Quest follows the history of the alkaloid Claviceps purpurea and documents how ergot was known in Mesopotamia, Persia, and as far a China and Japan, and not only in Egypt or Greece, where it was ritually used as a component of psychoactive brews.

Novartis has recently revived Sandoz, the mother company of the ergot alkaloids, as an independent firm for the production of generics.

In the Hellenic world, ergot was interwoven with the myth of Demeter and her daughter, the mysterious Persephone. As its German name, Mutterkorn, suggests, ergot was and is used in childbirth. Its healing qualities pertain to our blood, either contracting or expanding its flow. During the Middle Ages ergot lived through an inglorious period by causing poisoning in those who ate rye bread infested with the fungus, and its properties as a contractive agent at birth had to be reaffirmed. It has saved and continues to save countless lives. Ergot alkaloids have found their rank among the essential medicines. The ancients knew why they dedicated ergot to the goddess of fertility and childbirth.

In 1943,  Albert Hofmann not only discovered LSD as the 25th derivate of ergot, prepared by Sandoz under the name Delysid, until it became illegal in 1963. He also created the precursors to a number of further valuable drugs based on Claviceps purpurea.

Dr. Petersen describes how modern chemistry started with ergot, eventually turning its alkaloids into many useful medicines. Ergometrine or ergobasine, used in obstetrics around the world, is the most beneficial ergot alkaloid. LSD continues to have the greatest mental and social impact.

I wish you all an enlightening New Year!

Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the gaiamedia lounge, in the back yard of Hochstrasse 70 (behind Basel’s SBB station, tram stop Peter Merian), every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!