hectic                 

The turn of the millennium of our time corresponds approximately to the end of the 13th cycle or bakun of the Maya calendar, on 21 December 2012. Since then, time seems to be accelerating, and we are stuffing more and more content into every day.

We owe this speedy development to our competition, the semiconductors. These tiny chips have forced their effectivity on us. That’s why we are not only chronically-electronically charged, but under constant pressure to make more of a life that used to be more leisurely. Living in the here and now means arming ourselves with crash helmets and rain jackets and throwing ourselves onto our ecologically certified bikes, to take off in search of a time already lost one hundred and ten years ago. That’s how old Marcel Proust’s monumental work is this year.

What saves us is nature, and I am very optimistic in that respect. We can spend time outdoors again and decompress if we are not constantly on our cell phones or PCs. Let’s leave them at home and do without incessant availability. The word smacks of sacrifices made with religious devotion on the inexorable altar of success. Priorities set; regimes enforced. More time is less, and what for

A good time was had by all on Bicycle Day. We would like to make this memorable event an annual celebration from now on so it may grow and prosper. First, it is a beautiful route and second, there was a little sensation. A few of us were invited to the house where Albert Hofmann lived when he made his famous first intentional LSD trip. He must have felt so miserable that he headed for the next best seating so he could at least die lying down. The couch he threw himself on stood right next to the entrance. At some point we will see the house and the living room and meet the current owners: Swiss television accompanied us, sending two cameramen and a female director. More about their documentary in due course.

Wishing you a wonderful spring!
Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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

uptown minneapolis, minnesota

bicycle day 2023   

Eighty years ago, on April 19th, Albert Hofmann and his lab assistant Susi Ramstein – the first woman to take LSD – rode their bicycles from the Sandoz headquarters in Basel’s Wettstein district to Bottmingen, the suburb where the chemist lived with his family. Hofmann had intentionally taken LSD for the first time about an hour earlier.

This year’s Bicycle Day, we will retrace the approximately four-mile route he rode with young Susi’s help, as we do every year, reflecting on the many mental adventures Albert Hofmann underwent and on Susi Ramstein’s courage as the first psychedelic trip sitter.

Doors will open at 5 p.m. at the Gaia Lounge on Hochstrasse 70, providing a protected space from which we can depart and return in case of bad weather. Pre-registration is not required, refreshments and trippy music before and after the ride guaranteed.

This congenial event follows a weekend of superlatives. On Friday, April 14, at the Hotel Hofmatt in Münchenstein, the SÄPT (Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy) will host LSD80, a celebration of the most significant day in the psychonautic year, with presentations on LSD in research, therapy, and society, as well as an evening program. For the first time, there will also be a parallel program in French. As the German-language event is sold out, I will be attending the French program and look forward to meeting new people.

On Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 16, you’ll find me at the LSD80 – DOWN TO EARTH festival at the Ostquai of the Rhine harbor, where an impressive industrial environment and an explosion of art and communication on all levels awaits us. We will also pay tribute to the late anthropologist Christian Rätsch, who passed away unexpectedly last September. You’ll find the complete program here.

In honour of LSD’s 80th anniversary, we are giving away free memberships to the Gaia Media Foundation. Anyone who attends the LSD Festival and completes the on-site coupon will automatically become a member for one year, receive our newsletter, access our library, and the use our lounge for their own – related – events, as well as other perks. We want the Gaia Media Lounge to once again become a lively meeting place, and a hub for the consciousness movement.

I hope you have the time and inclination to join us.

Festively Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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

the beauty way

paths to legalization 

Despite the medical and social damage caused by alcohol running into millions and billions every year, when I go to any supermarket and buy liquor, wine, and beer for hundreds of dollars, no one asks me if I am entitled to do so. Meanwhile the proposed model for cannabis consumption requires registration. Should I write “stoner” on my forehead and potentially be discriminated against by insurance companies, health insurers and employers?
And if cannabis would – finally –be decriminalized, how do we proceed with psychedelics and finally with all other substances? As already mentioned in the last editorial, this is medically not a problem, at least in Switzerland, where close to seventy therapists have official licenses to provide psychedelic care to their clientele. The author Claude Weill, who wrote a great book about the use of psychedelics late in life, says: “Adults who have the necessary basic knowledge and have had their first experience with psychedelics under guidance should be allowed to consume legally.” In the same article of the ‘Beobachter’ of March 30, 2020, addiction specialist Toni Berthel insists that we “don’t need lifestyle moralists.”
But how should this happen in concrete terms? What we certainly need is a network for spiritual emergencies, because even those who obtain a license to consume psychedelics cannot always cope with their experiences alone. Group work is called for, and we need a network of volunteer caregivers as well. We must find our own ways to counter the commercialism of the burgeoning psychedelics industry if we don’t want to be taken over and exploited. Where the substances are to come from must also be regulated. The medical model mentioned at the beginning shows a possible approach. How can private persons profit from it and thus flush money into the right coffers, namely into the university environment, where it is not about money, but about a different kind of gain, an increase in awareness?
And finally, what do we do with the countless cocaine addicts and other users of addictive substances? How are they to get what they need or want safely if they are not among the hard cases who benefit from our national heroin program? Should they be, like in the Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want,’ standing in line with Mr. Jimmy at a pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled? Addicts do not only need safe spaces to consume, but also affordable and safe housing. We must not make the mistake of leaving people out in the cold who are interested in substances, but not necessarily in consciousness expansion. The psychedelic ethos is humane, and inclusive. Everything else remains to be seen.
Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station, tram stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

a thousand winters

come together 

At the beginning of the New Year, I would like to wish you all the best: be well, stay chill and kind!
For the coming year, I am hoping for friendships and communities to develop among psychonauts. We are dealing with at least four separate issues you can get involved in.
The first question concerns the decriminalization of psychedelics for indigenous populations around the globe, whose right to the traditional use of the substances they use must be recognized internationally. Without them, we would not know about psychoactive plants and other herbs.
We do not need to worry about the medical field. This is well covered by psychiatrists and psychologists, by universities, hospitals and clinics that are in good contact with the authorities. I remind you that research is being done with natural or synthetic psychedelic substances at all major Swiss universities, and at many renowned international universities.
The third area that awaits better regulation concerns the private and ritual use of psychedelics, within or outside of a (spiritual) community. It cannot be that I commit a crime with an action that takes place far from the public and concerns only myself.
The fourth area, often scornfully dismissed, concerns the large group of young people who prefer the use of substances, usually in small doses, to dance the night away at parties and raves, giving expression to their inner world through their bodies. Many adults seem to have forgotten how much energy young people have! A body in motion may be able to process and shake off trauma precisely because verbalization is not possible, as emotional experience and conscious content are still lacking. Many admonitions and prohibitions from childhood find their silent grave in the disco.
No matter where and in which of these four areas, it is always about freedom and self-determination. Achieving them is up to all of us. I hope we’ll find ways to bring the right people together!
Please get through the winter well – with or without substantial support!

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station,  tram stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

prairie snows

hard times 

I have to find a way to balance our troubled world with my own optimism, joy and obligations.
 Patti Smith

The pandemic and the brutal war in the Ukraine have thrown us off track. Life has become expensive. In America, some madman mows down innocent people at least once a week. Women around the world are the targets of male violence, underreported cases the rule. Excess mortality everywhere, especially in battered nature. Not that everything was better before; we know what ails and offends us and have fewer illusions about who we are and what we are capable of.
Christmas is just around the corner, despite everything a reason to rejoice. Our family decided a few years ago that we only give presents to the children. I do not adhere to it: the adults are my children too, as are their partners, by proxy.
As for gifts, since the verdict against the adults, I rely on natural produce. For my grandson, who has a talent for pottery, I asked the potter down the street if he can spend an afternoon with her, and if she’ll fire his creations for him. One third of the family is abroad this year. I had my gifts delivered there – unfortunately not in kind, but something for the entire stirp. I’m still looking for gifts for a teenage girl and for a young woman. Anyone can just buy stuff.
I am grateful that we are healthy, that we love each other (with occasional exceptions) and that we may enjoy the celebration of the returning light in peace and safety this year too.
Remembering people who are not as fortunate as we are, is just as much a part of our Christmas as a hopefully successful big meal (I am the cook this year) and, most of all, the joy of being together.

Restoratively Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station,  tram stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

lost in the forest

 Pablo Neruda

wokeness

Many of you are too young to know what rough tones prevailed in the heated, revolutionary sixties and seventies. We saw ourselves as street fighting men or women, we were part of the student movement or the underground and, unfortunately, some turned to terrorism. All this in the name of a revolution that didn’t happen the way it was planned. That it had been cultural in nature only surfaced a decade later. In psychology, encounter groups were popular, where people yelled at each other and called each names. Anything went if it was confrontative and brought one’s feelings out in the open: to abandon the social masks imposed by the stifling social norms of afterwar society.
When I compare this hostility with what I heard at my dentist’s, it makes me laugh. Said one assistant to the other, “Would you feel comfortable coming to work an hour early tomorrow?” These are sensitivities we simply couldn’t afford.
It must be possible to put others through unpleasantness and communicate directly without attacking them or striking the demanding tone common in offices and factories in the old days. And these others must be willing to accept criticism without running off to sulk. Since the wild hippie & revolutionary years, we’ve turned within and become more considerate of each other and increasingly also of other religions, races, ethnicities, and cultures. These have long become part of the mainstream and populate even the smallest villages, as I am always interested to note. I like multicultural society, it enriches our lives, and if we travel abroad for the most diverse purposes, I see no reason why other nationalities shouldn’t do the same.
There have always been people who believe they have risen above others. Aware, enlightened, woke, they know what is right and what is wrong, what one should believe, what is proper, and what good taste is. Jokes about other nationalities or religions? Fie! Barefaced in any way? Oh My God! Everything must be veiled, except for Moslem women. Adopt values and expressions of other cultures? Certainly not! We keep our values pure here. No mixing please or you will be canceled! If I tell my Sicilian neighbour an Italian joke with a wink, it can no longer be banter, because I am insulting his values, his country, his integrity. The same goes for the tiresome dreadlocks debate, and who should wear them. And what about old movies and books giving an incorrect view of Native Americans, Black Americans, and Asian Americans? Of course, I’m for the representation of minorities in cinematography and elsewhere. But to throw out the baby with the bath water seems unwise to me. Children should still be allowed to read Tom Sawyer (some Dr. Seuss books less so). Negro used to be a common word. But, for reasons of segregation and racism, black people feel hurt by this designation, let alone the n-word. Calling people names is always out. That’s what our children need to be told.
Common sense is the order of the day, you choose what works and what you can’t expect your neighbors and fellow citizens to understand or suffer. Or would you rather stick to self-appointed moralizers or form your opinion in the social media, where a bunch of losers and haters troll themselves to sad celebrity?
By the way, I am looking for 2.2 million Swiss francs for the narrow house on Spalenberg in Basel, where Dieter Hagenbach, who started the Gaia Media Foundation, lived for many years. We would like to turn it into an LSD museum. Is anyone out there willing and able to help us out?

Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station,  tram stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

i was surviving

 Jarrett Moseley

sad news

We were shocked and saddened to learn that Christian Rätsch (1957-2022) died on September 17. He was exceptionally gifted and will be missed by many.

When we first met, shamanism was largely unknown outside of professional circles and, moreover, suspect because it was associated with “drugs”. Three days after his death, the Börsenblatt (the German Financial Times) dedicated an obituary to him — Christian Rätsch’s work and thinking had long become a part of the mainstream. The well-known cultural anthropologist, ethnopharmacologist, author, and speaker leaves behind an extensive body of written and oral work; his books have been translated into several languages, and his lectures and television interviews have been heard and seen by millions.

Together with his lifelong partner Claudia Müller-Ebeling, he has done much to ensure that psychoactive substances are receiving greater recognition, especially in Germany, and that their demonization is giving way to a broader understanding of the achievements of indigenous cultures and their medicinal plants.

As a young anthropologist, Christian spent a total of four years among the Lacandones, a small group of Mayans in the Mexican state of Chiapas, whose language and healing rituals he learned and studied. Shortly before his death, Christian completed The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants – Volume 2 (co-authored by Markus Berger), the second part of the highly anticipated, internationally recognized standard work in the field, and, with it, his life’s work. It encompasses and defines an entire era of psychedelic creativity.

As a person, the long-haired academic fascinated with a mixture of detachment and friendliness. He was sixty-five years old when he died of a neglected stomach ulcer.

We also lost Yatra Barbosa, on 25 July. The Brazilian musician and ayahuasca activist, godmother of the Mãe D’Agua Tribe and co-founder of the so-called Eagle-Condor Festival in Alto Paraíso de Golás worked and lived in Amsterdam for an extended period, before returning to her native land. She died of heart failure at the age of eighty-one.

Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station,  Stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

remember

Sing no sad songs for me;

 Christina Rossetti

downsizing

As in the Chinese parable of the farmer who lost his horses but gained his son’s life (and, in the end, retrieved the horses, too), negative events may lead to positive outcomes.
What does this mean in relation to the energy crisis (overpopulation, depleted soils, the meat sector)? The former escalated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a first positive outcome, people showed tremendous solidarity with Ukraine. This had a liberating effect; giving us an opportunity to resist what had befallen us. This winter, we may get down to the nitty-gritty of our comfort and luxuries. Will we still stand behind Ukraine then? The destruction, the killing, the suffering and the cruelties of war must end! But at what cost?
After the oil crisis of 1974-75, we downsized our economies. According to the business dictionary, “Healthy downsizing is the term used to describe efforts to reduce the scope of a company’s business to a certain planned level.” That’s what it’s all about. Not only because of the energy-saving potential of the downsizing process, which requires a little insight, but is not difficult to implement, but because we have come to realize that the “planned measure” has long been lost. We just never got enough.
But that’s all over now, as much as it may rain this fall to fill our empty rivers and reservoirs! Will we have to dress for an Arctic winter? Get used to bed socks, hot water bottles, and night caps? Will we have to retire to the bedroom with our beloved, with the cat, with a book, or with all the above, instead of shivering in front of the TV? Time will tell.
To get us through this difficult time, let us keep moving and be outdoors as much as possible! Nature offers us its beauty and healing power any time of the year. Let us recover and be strengthened by enjoying its magnificence. As to the urban environment: never have people wanted public spaces to be greener, more natural, and more sustainable. Never have as many – private and public – steps been taken to express and fulfil this desire!
Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. The Psychedelic Salons are back, and you’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station,  Stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

virus

I caught the happy virus last night
When I was out singing beneath the stars
It is remarkably contagious
So kiss me!
 Hafiz

transience

On 9 July, Ann Shulgin passed away. She was ninety-six. Born in New Zealand, a writer, and a psychologist, she married the visionary chemist Alexander ‘Sasha’ Shulgin, in 1978. Ann was an exceptionally gifted communicator and very outspoken. She was glamourous and unconventional, a bold, and motivated woman, someone to look up to. I was lucky to meet her at the Esalen Institute, in Big Sur, CA, introduced by Rupert Sheldrake. Since the Internet was still in its infancy then, I’ve found no trace of the memorable evening of June 17, 1985, Sasha Shulgin’s 60th birthday. In the early evening Terence McKenna gave a much-attended talk. While Terence introduced us to some of his ideas, Claudio Naranjo, Andrew Weil, Rick Doblin, Rupert Sheldrake, and Jill Purce, students, and staff members were sitting on pillows on the floor. The only two chairs in the room, brought for this purpose, were occupied by the smiling Shulgins. When everybody was done talking, we all had a bite to eat in the kitchen of Esalen’s Big House. Later, Sasha blew out the candles on his birthday cake and shared it with everyone. Later still, he got out his violin and serenaded us to enthusiastic applause. You’ll find Ann and Alexander Shulgins intrepid story in their famous books PIKHAL and TIKHAL. May they remain united in spirit and rest in peace.
Six years ago, on 17 August 2016, Dieter Hagenbach, initiator, and President of the Gaia Media Foundation, passed away. A sad day. He gave the foundation its name. Born out of Chaos, Gaia is a chthonic goddess. She brings forth all that grows and moves on earth and in the skies above. In Greek mythology, she has at least thirty-five children with many different men. This mother of mothers has bestowed her blessings upon us for eons, while defending herself whenever her laws were not respected. To be on the side of Gaia and give expression to her wisdom was one of Dieter’s objectives. The other was to spread consciousness about the manifold possibilities of the mind, and to inform about substances that can show us how to become more attuned to our own nature.
Five stormy years ago, I offered to keep Dieter’s newsletter alive by becoming its editor. Dieter’s but too brief successor, Lucius Werthmüller, and our team, gradually turned Dieter’s goodnewsletter into the gaiamedia goodnews, while staying true to his ideas. Please allow me to thank all of you who have shown appreciation for our efforts throughout the past five years, either by mail, by being our readers, by subscribing, and/or by becoming sponsors or patrons.
Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. The Psychedelic Salons will be back in September, In the meantime, we’re at the Gaia Lounge in Basel every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

first fig 

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!

 Edna St. Vincent Millay