june 2022 – goodnews editorial

gender wars

When I was little, there were essentially four sexual orientations. One was a man, a woman, a homosexual or a lesbian. As a sub-variant, some people liked both sexes. Among the homosexuals were those who liked to dress as women, while certain women wore men’s clothes. They were transvestites. During the Olympics, in the 1950s through the 1980s, beefy-looking women from Iron Curtain countries seemed to have an advantage over more feminine competitors and were tested. If they had enough female hormones, they were waved through and kept their medals, if not, goodbye! Since antiquity, we’ve known of the hermaphrodite, a wonder introduced to a larger audience in Federico Fellini’s Satyricon (1969). It is estimated that about one in eighty-three thousand children is born with both a vagina and a penis. Once it had the means to do so, the gynaecological profession determined the sexes of these children for them. Fortunately, this presumptuous habit is on the way out. There are a significant number of known cases of hermaphrodites who have given birth. To change one’s gender, one must swallow countless hormone pills and undergo invasive surgeries; one must see a psychiatrist, and there’s a lot of paperwork involved. No one would change their gender on a whim, it is too painful and lengthy a process. That a former man should have an advantage over other women man in sports seems random. Aren’t  the hormones doing their job? If they can make breasts sprout, aren’t a few measly muscles easily reformed? Well-trained cis-women are rightly proud of their physical prowess. Why, then, should transgender women be excluded from women’s sports teams? Do we really want reduce this complex question to the sexual characteristics we were born with? And while we are at it: it’s pure ostracism not to integrate the Paralympics and the Invictus Games into the «normal» Olympics. We’re all in this together.
I hope you’ll enjoy the summer days ahead despite our disquieting times.

   Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. The 2nd Psychedelic Salon in Basel brought great guests, young and old. Our lounge is still open on Thursdays from 2 – 6 pm, with an increasing number of evening programs attached. Please feel welcome!


exit

Low cirrocumulus clouds in the west.
War in the east.
Lift teabag from cup.
Add milk.  Ask if it is happiness
or pleasure you prefer.
Watch the storm churn to the surface.
Shadows gather in the valley below.
To count them is to know their many shapes
cannot be counted.
They must be numbered among.

   Suzanne Buffam

may 2022 – goodnews editorial

the future of psychedelics

Psychedelics are the talk of the town; their healing potential has been recognized; their sell-out is ongoing. In 2021 alone, 1.8 billion US dollars were pumped into the development and production of psychedelics related to psilocybin, ayahuasca, LSD, MDMA and ketamine; by the end of 2024, this figure is expected to double. Not since Bitcoins has there been a bigger hype. The first companies are already out of the race, other players are experiencing ups and downs in the stock market. No one knows exactly where the journey will lead, but it is clear to everyone that psychedelic have enormous financial potential, alimented by millions of people worldwide who suffer from depression and other mental disorders that are difficult to treat. Not everyone is taking the same approach. Some companies largely follow nature and want to compensate the Indigenous societies whose knowledge they adopt, but in general one is always one molecule away from a new patent, except for MDMA, where MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, has been doing good work with an old patent for years now. Especially in the case of depression, the temptation might be to create a remedy that corresponds to the chemism of psychedelics but can be taken for years. No wonder many would like to extract the trip out of tripping. Without catharsis, no cure? It doesn’t matter, the climax is too uncertain, not replicable. In treatment everything should be clinically measurable, set and setting constant. Always the same furniture and the same flowerpot! Therapeutic companions (trip sitters) proceed according to script. Patients are carefully selected, only the fewest admitted. God forbid someone shows initiative or seems ‘difficult’. It’s all about permits! And where might the rejected patients go? At best, they are left to traditional healers and independently acting psychedelic therapists. But all of us who take or have taken psychedelics have a responsibility. We must show courage and humility and be there for others when they need us. The psychedelic community must fight to make psychedelics legally available to healthy people, as well as to all people who need help. Stay tuned!

Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. We enjoyed Bicycle Day & our First Psychedelic Salon very much. From now on our lounge is always open from 14 – 18 h on Thursdays, with progressively more evening programs attached. Welcome!


saying goodbye

Now you´re giving wine to the horse!
Why did I ever ask you for directions?
You ask me why I asked you?
Who´s the guide around here anyway?
Surely we´re not lost.
Are we lost?
We´re lost.
Let us never go back
May we never be found.

Bob Hofman

april 2022 – goodnews editorial

annual report

The year 2021 was marked by a twist of fate for us. Due to Covid-19, everything proceeded quietly at first. In the Gaia Media Lounge, Ethnobotanika GmbH organized the first courses and integration circles, the number of registered library books grew slowly but steadily. Unfortunately, visitors only showed up sporadically. Socially, we were shut down. Almost a year ago, out of the blue, the tragic news hit us: Lucius Werthmüller, our foundation president, friend and advisor, is dead. We were blindsided. We never expected to lose him so suddenly. We miss Luci very much. His death brought many changes and cost us not only Luci’s broad knowledge, but also the professional support from the Parapsychological Association of Basel, which we regret very much. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Therese Hartmann, who supported us on the part of the PSI Association, for her valuable work and to wish her the very best. As Luci’s immediate collaborator, she was particularly affected by his death. These changes meant that the Gaia Media Foundation had to reinvent itself, so to speak. The Board of Trustees needs to be supplemented. Projects that were driven by Luci fell away, and those that were planned had to be rethought. This process is ongoing. And will continue to progress this year. Gaia Media firmly believes that good things come from transformation. We are happy to announce that the Foundation has been reorienting itself since the beginning of 2022, and will be happy to let you participate in our progress.We will be open every Wednesday from now on, from 12 to 18 h, and from May on every Saturday at the same time. We hope to see you soon at the Gaia Lounge at Hochstrasse 70, 4054 Basel, and please feel welcome!

Kerim Seiler / Susanne G. Seiler
Board of Trustees Editor goodnews

P.S. This year we’ll celebrate Bicycle Day with a small party. Details can be found under ‘good to visit/stream)’. And the first ‘The Psychedelic Salon’ will take place in Basel too, info ibidem.


visitors

Every door stands an open door:
our human settlements all temporary.

We share together the incidental shore
and teach the young to tend the lamp’s wick,

weary of anyone small enough to bar our entry.

Joan Kane

march 2022 – goodnews editorial

War

I felt sad when I got up this morning. There’s war on European soil. First, I would like to apologize to our non-European friends if this sounds hollow to them. In some countries, every day means war, even if it is called something else. These conflicts take place elsewhere. That’s the only reason why they concern us less here. It’s as stupid and as simple as that. The horror of the situation in Ukraine unsettles me. It hurts me when innocent people are harmed. History repeats itself. The first bitter pill we Europeans had to swallow was the tragic Yugoslavian war in the late twentieth century. And now this. There will be refugees again, traumatized women, children, and elders. People intending to return to their country will have lost their homes again. We will pick ourselves up again and collect and donate and yet stand by helplessly again. And afterwards we will vow: «Never again!» again. Lately we have seen more of «us» against «them» the world over. I know things will eventually get better, but I feel like crying. Am I a ridiculous softie, a sentimental crybaby who has nothing more to offer reality than a few cheap tears? Ninety-five percent of all Europeans, from the Atlantic to the Urals, disagree with this war. We have to make the best of this situation and we want to remain confident. We will benefit Ukrainians the most if we believe in them and focus our energy on them! Ukraine is the recipient of international backing and worldwide expressions of solidarity. Countries that have never taken in refugees want to welcome Ukrainians. Elon Musk is providing Internet access via Starlink, which will keep the government and the people in touch with the outside world and give them courage. More effective economic sanctions than before are hurting more of the right people. The war has taken a different turn than anticipated by the aggressor. The population and the army are fighting back. They have many strategic advantages. Maybe our demands, prayers and wishes will help, and justice will prevail? Positive news in general: We will reopen our lounge soon; there are no more mandates. I am happy that I am no longer constantly asking myself where my mask is, that I can see the faces of the essential workers in our stores and that I feel a little closer to people. And even under sad circumstances, spring is coming.

Thoughtfully, Yours
Susanne G. Seiler


nature’s first green is gold

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

february 2022 – goodnews editorial

In Praise of Boredom

Though we may not live alone, we have increasingly turned inward over the last two years. No matter if we previously described ourselves as spiritual or were committed to a more extroverted lifestyle, our inner lives have taken on a new magnitude. We had to get closer to ourselves because, collectively and individually, we were often at home, saw fewer people, slept more, loved more – or less – and saw, as if through a magnifying glass, what our individual lives are made of. Screen time. Family. Sex. Exercise. Shopping. Cooking. Eating. Maintenance. The confrontation with the essence of our inner landscape, our own nature, is not always pleasant. Not only because we may discover sides of ourselves that make us cringe or are challenged by behaviour that is hard to give up. We are used to being as productive as possible; even turning inward means ‘doing something’. Perhaps it is part of our nature, and we can’t help but strive for added value, or pleasure, whereas we would be so well served with a little boredom. Being bored is more than doing nothing. We could have many beautiful adventures of the mind, if we only allowed ourselves a little world-weariness from time to time! Staring holes in the air, our thoughts revolving around not knowing what to do with ourselves. Letting go, allowing the mind to drift, watching the clouds pass by. Letting go of the trivial as well as the significant thoughts that come to us, until they are boring too. Then we won’t be thinking of anything and delightfully unproductive. Until the next impulse arises and wriggles its way into our consciousness. When spring comes, new thought will turn into deeds.

Longingly Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler


February Twilight

Smooth with new-laid snow,
A single star looked out
From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature
That saw what I could see—
I stood and watched the evening star
As long as it watched me.

Sara Teasdale

january 2022 – goodnews editorial

how woke are you?

There are countless things that we, as supposedly informed citizens, must be aware of before we are allowed to have an opinion. Should we cancel everybody who doesn’t know about matriarchy and patriarchy, antiquity and modernity, colonial times, and industrialization, about slavery and racism, of weapons laws and genocides, parallel moons, and space missions, about responsibility and freedom, epidemics and murders, gender and sex, green hope and sustainability, the future, and mass extinction, and about how A leads to B? The problem seems to be that the conclusions we draw from our knowledge or lack thereof leads to lives in more than one reality, difficult as this may seem. There certainly is a plethora of beliefs and life models inside and outside of the mainstream that intersect, overlap, and run parallel, that align, clash, unite, fall apart, and reorganize. Is that why everybody needs a ready-made opinion about everything nowadays? To brandish it in front of them like a shield or a sword? How much power do I give others over my thoughts? How much am I influenced by what I – selectively – read, hear, or see? Do I need external mediators to know what is wrong and what is right for me? For the society in which I live? I trust myself to be able to distinguish between good and bad, truth and lies. But what about the others? To learn something about the state of the world in which I live, I must compare my opinions with outside insights. That is the practice. In addition, there are libraries full of theory. We want to stay in conversation with each other so that we can openly and effectively take responsibility for the world we want to live in.
Wishing you a blessed, healthy, and peaceful 2022

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler


Winter Lullabies

Winter speaks
in blusters
and lullabies fall
with the snow.
Some float
through the air
like flecks
of magic,
and some
settle like dreams
that didn’t want
to be caught.

Sabina Laura

december 2021 – goodnews editorial

legalize it II

The Celts already cultivated Cannabis in our latitudes, and it experienced a heyday in the 17th century, when European ships sailed the seven seas with their hemp riggings, bringing new stimulants to Europe. Due to the burgeoning chemical industry, cannabis cultivation lost importance. After the Second World War there was some increase, but as of 1982 the cultivation of cannabis was prohibited in Germany, until 1996, when hemp could be grown again as an agricultural crop. As a stimulant, cannabis experienced certain restrictions early on and remained illegal. This is about to change, as the new German coalition has taken up the cause of decriminalsing hemp, hoping that the introduction of controlled dispensing of cannabis to adults for the purpose of consumption, in licensed stores, will bring an economic upswing. Cannabis was already approved as a medicine in Germany in 2016, and it is also legal as such in Austria. There, cultivation is only punishable if one wants to obtain an ‘addictive substance’ from it. Anyone can plant hemp if the plants do not sprout female flowers containing THC. Otherwise, cultivation, processing, acquisition, possession, consumption, passing on and transport are still punishable. Germany intends to bet on a great variety of cannabis products as well, as witnessed in Switzerland in the nineties not only around the still fashionable hemp beer, hemp clothing or hemp bubble bath, but on hemp paper(s), hemp as insulating construction material, as sweets or lollipops, hemp seeds, hemp tea or hemp cookies. Hemp was on everyone’s lips, but the corresponding elections were negative seeing the proponents wanted to achieve too much at once, and the range of hemp products narrowed again. The time of cannabis as a stimulant had obviously not yet come. In the fall, we will find out whether this will change in Germany. In Austria, there is also a coalition of the willing regarding the legalisation of cannabis; CBD-containing cannabis is just as popular as in Switzerland and Germany, but whether Austria will follow Germany’s example remains to be seen. For older consumers it doesn’t make that much of a difference.
I wish you happy holidays – with or without cannabis.

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler


Our Lady of Outer Space

Reach down for the sun, reach down
for the stars, reach deeper for the secret
places of the body of her the stars adorn.
You are lost and found in her embrace.
There is nowhere else for you to fall and
no escaping from her love for she is
black and pulsating source,
her million nipples
nurse all life,
her jeweled ardent body
twines around you always
and there is no place
to go but
home
to
her

Arlen Riley Wilson

november 2021 – goodnews editorial

Legalize it! 

Switzerland intends to legalize the non-medical use of cannabis. For a pilot trial, certain pharmacies and CBD-shops will be allowed to sell it, in various strengths, to a select Swiss-wide cohort. The aim is to gain experience over a three to five-year period, “…that a regulated market be created for the cultivation, production, trade and consumption of cannabis”. One third of the adult Swiss population have tried cannabis at least once. A majority wants to see it regulated like alcohol. Luxemburg allows its citizens to grow up to four marijuana plants per household. Seeds are freely available for purchase and are taxed. Activists in countries like Spain (Catalonia) or Italy have experimented with growers’ clubs, another reasonable extension for the liberation of a plant growing naturally all over the world. In Canada, buyers need proof of age for legal purchase. The Canadian government estimates that legalization has led to a reduction of the illegal cannabis market by two thirds. A similar model is envisaged for Switzerland. So far, there are no provisions for letting users grows their own. Overall, market regulation is welcome, also for reasons of quality control. The Swiss Farmers’ Association has made sure only Swiss bio hemp is used in the upcoming pilot trial. All legal cannabis is to be grown outdoor, a pipe dream. How long it will take to achieve normalization for psychedelics is everybody’s guess. Big pharma is trying to make a decisive grab here. If they succeed, only licensed therapists will be able to administer genetically altered and patented psilocybin, for instance, within an equally patented set and setting, allowing for ‘replicability’. What could go wrong? Mexico wants to regulate traditional plant use. Individuals and groups pursuing spiritual interests will be controlled, do-it-yourself revelations actively repressed. Compared with a city like Seattle, where all psychedelics are legal, we have a long way to go.

Concerned, and with warm autumn greetings,
Susanne G. Seiler


Eye Spin Out

It was another arty choke
That smoky asphyxiation
Your oxygen deprivation
One of my most favourite sensations
Give the bong’s cone a poke
I’m in need of fresh inspiration
Take me on a mood elevation
At times – a cause of desperation
The ritual can leave me broke
A huge problem across our nation
The government’s sadistic taxation
We must put an end to this situation
The time has come for another toke
Protest the man and this aberration
Change the dial on the radio station
We want to grow our own, no agitation

Leaf van Amsterdam

october 2021 – goodnews editorial

Language barriers

We Swiss are very fond of our dialects. We believe that they are ours to keep. We police them. To prevent anyone from learning them (though a few courses exist), we scrupulously make sure that our most vulnerable immigrants are not provided with enough lessons to educate them beyond a very basic linguistic level. More language classes are needed for the shy vendor of Surprise (a mag sold by the homeless) outside our local supermarket, who has no colloquial practice with natives like me. He was trying to tell me that my bike rack was not up. Very thoughtful. My friend Brigitte, who immigrated to Switzerland over forty years ago and has long since held a Swiss passport, complains that to this day she is always picked on because of her language. Her Swiss German is not Swiss German enough, her German not German enough. And where in Germany is she from? Quite impertinent, of course ‘without meaning any harm’. Even without an office or law to keep Swiss German dialects clean, Germans and Austrians must follow an embarrassing protocol if they want to make themselves at home with us. Swiss German is taboo! Please only understand, don’t speak our language, you wouldn’t be able to anyway, hardly anyone who didn’t grow up here can. There is a grace period, for reasons of civility, for German-speaking foreigners who do not live right on the border. The fact that Swiss work colleagues repeatedly fall back into their dialects with their countryfolk instead of using the German language is part of it. But we don’t want to impose ‘proper German’ on our former neighbours beyond what is necessary. What are they thinking? Brigitte asked me, in disgust. That their German is that good? Our fellow citizens from the north and the east have long opened to our dialects. They understand us well. So why strain the German language any longer? While they regale us with their own language, we speak ours, giving them a better chance to integrate and interact with us. And, as a bonus, we may be a little humbler. Or should we all speak English? Learning languages is worthwhile. Unless you live in Switzerland, where everyone automatically seems to think they know everything better than you do.
Too bad, that.

Linguistically yours,
Susanne G. Seiler


Eternity

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.

William Blake

september 2021 – goodnews editorial

White privilege

Coming into Switzerland, only two foreigners were checked in the entire compartment of my delayed intercity train. They were sitting on the other side of the isle, right next to me, two Lebanese living in Germany, on their way to Lucerne. Since both men spoke some German, the two hulky Swiss border policemen relented. The Lebanese were worried about missing their connecting train, and I couldn’t convince them they were allowed to take the next one instead. “Switzerland is very strict,” said the man sitting closest to me, “we better buy a new ticket.” Fortunately, the Swiss conductor came on board and was able to help. Shocked at how sure I was of my rights, whereas the two foreigners preferred to cower right away, I got off. Once again, I was shamefully aware that I need not fear the authorities, the police, or anyone else, that I belong as a matter of course and can make myself heard any time. I don’t need to tread softly, to walk on my inner tippytoes, to pull myself together as soon as I enter the public sphere. The scruples of my friends who live here as secondos (2nd generation migrants) are unknown to me. As a natural born citizen, I’m not indebted to my country, and I do not feel pressured into doing more than my share. I don’t have to keep a low profile. Most immigrants prefer not to sign petitions or other neighborhood initiatives, showing how urgently we need to give them an official voice at the communal level. At my grandchildren’s school parties, which take place in Zurich’s multicultural 4th District, where forty-five percent of the population are immigrants, we eat delicious dishes that parents from thirty nations have cooked for us. Separate yet together, we sit by ethnicity, in a friendly and neighborly way, at long tables. We Swiss know that we can knock on our neighbors’ doors at any time if we need something, a cup of flour, an egg, to make a phone call. Unfortunately, for “the others”, it is not so easy. I am much looking forward to the next party, to be held soon, after a long break. I will talk with strangers and with my neighbors again for sure, no matter where they come from. They have a harder life than we do.

With urban greetings to the country,
Susanne G. Seiler


Resolution

There’s the thing I shouldn’t do
and yet, and now I have
the rest of the day to
make up for, not
undo, that can’t be done
but next time,
think more calmly,
breathe, say here’s a new
morning, morning,
morning,

(though why would that
work, it isn’t even
hidden, hear it in there,
more, more,
more?
)

Lia Purpura

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