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Organized by The Psychedelic Salon
Mushroom Hunt in the Jura
Due to great demand, we are scheduling a 2nd weekend from 11-13 October. We will be staying in Le Locle and foraging around Tramelan and Vue des Alpes. We still have room for 3 participants.

@ Cabaret Voltaire
The Psychedelic Salon Zürich
Susanne G. Seiler: The Secret History of LSD and the First Woman to Try It. From antiquity till today,, ergot has been a substance mainly associated with women.
Zürich | Cabaret Voltaire | Spiegelgasse 1 | Thursday, 12 September 2024 | 6–9 pm  | CHF 15/10

@ gaiamedia lounge
Martin Häfliger, Biologist ETH, Medicinal Mushrooms and Their Effects. Mushrooms can help us with many modern afflictions, from stress to a strenghtened immune response.
Basel | gaiamedia lounge | Hochstr. 70 | Thursday, 19 September 2024 | 6–9 pm | CHF 15/10

Related
Psychonauts of Zürich Happy Hour
Zürich | El Lokal | Gessnerallee 11 | Monday, 9 September 2024 | 6-10 pm

Psychedelic Studies Intensive
Summer/Fall Cohort
With Zach Leary
Online | till 17 October 2024

good to hear

Meshell Ndegeocello
Love – from her new album No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin
Meshell Ndegeocello, born Michelle Lynn Johnson on August 29, 1968, is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and bassist. She “happens to be much more than merely a good musician. She’s been playing professionally since the early 1990s and, at 55, is about to release her 14th album, a collection of songs that excites her. The past — the repertoire, the old stuff, the hits — can start to feel like ‘karaoke of myself,’ she said, even if that’s never what it’s been like for us folks in the audience.” (Wesley Morris, here in The New York Times)
UMG Recordings

Hannah Kendall
Verdala
Known for her attentive arrangements and immersive world-building, British composer Hannah Kendall’s music looks beyond the boundaries of composition. Her work bridges gaps between different musical cultures, both honouring and questioning the contemporary tradition while telling new stories through it. Contrasting fine detail with limitless abandon, she has become renowned both as a composer and a storyteller, confronting our collective history with narratively-driven pieces centred on bold mission statements.
Ricordi

The Cucaracha’s Band
Akira
The Cucarach’ss Band hails from  Ontiñena, in he Spanish province Huesca, in Aragon, known for the foklore association “Raíces de Ontiñena”. Three of its members decided to give a “baturro” touch to the most popular songs. In September of 2008 they launched their band adventure with a parade through Ontiñena, attracting the attention of their countrymen. After the incorporation of two new members, “The Cucaracha’s Band”, has improved a lot, as their rehearsals and their many performances show.
Babylon Music

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Wild Gold
The Australian rock band around Nick Cave is releasing a new album on 30 August. Cave hopes the album has the “effect on listeners” that it had on him. He describes it as a “complicated record” but simultaneously “deeply and joyously infectious”. As their records reflect the band’s “emotional state”, Cave shared the impression that they are “happy” this time around. Cage, who lost two sons within seven years seems to have recuperated after this dark period in his life.
PIAS

Johnny Irion
Sleeping Soldiers of Love
This is the first single off of Johnny Irion’s upcoming album, Sleeping Soldiers of Love, out on August 9th. The album was mixed by Patrick Sansone and features an all-star cast of players including Jeff Bridges, Mike Mills of REM, and many others. Johnny Irion has solidified his reputation as one of the most spirited artists in the folk-rock genre. His career is steeped in authentic American punk & roots music, a heritage he embraced wholeheartedly.
Blackwing Music

goodnews editorial

tell me the truth!

When I ask my six-year-old granddaughter to tell me the truth, it isn’t always clear if her answer is fiction or fact. Unfortunately, this kind of ambiguity has become widespread. But I’m not here to talk about fake news. I want to tackle a more mysterious and existential question: Is there such a thing as THE TRUTH? Many people like to think so.

The classical view holds that truth is what corresponds to reality. That would be a perfect answer if there weren’t so many disagreements about what “reality” actually is and what we’re comparing our ideas against. Another perspective considers coherence: something is true if it fits within a context — like saying, “This house is well-built.” If the design is top-notch, the materials are of high quality, and the builders did their job well, then it stands to reason that the result should be a solid building.

The pragmatic view of truth argues that if something works, then the ideas behind it are likely true. Aeronautics provide a good example of this. Then we step onto a slippery slope — the idea that truth is relative to social and cultural contexts. Are Western women hussies because they bare their heads, and more, in public? Is chocolate ice cream the best because it’s my favourite? Many suggest there is no objective truth, that all “facts” are coloured by our viewpoints. The sun kept on revolving around the Earth.

As for THE TRUTH, I’d argue it doesn’t exist, or that we all hold a tiny shard of it. Yet many — including psychonauts — believe in an underlying reality that can be known objectively. It’s true that many report similar experiences when it comes to encounters in the otherworld, or hyperspace. Most of us have experienced things that are not so easy to explain within the context of ordinary reality. The real problem begins when different groups start claiming ownership of the one and only – beatific – truth.

Truly yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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

good to read

Psychedelic Outlaws. The Movement Revolutionizing Modern Medicine

by Cathy Coleman (Ed.)

ncludes contributions from Charles S. Grob, Stan Grof, Stanley Krippner, Dennis McKenna, the late Christian Rätsch, Richard Strozzi-Heckler, Claudia Mueller-Ebeling, Dorothy Fadiman, Luis Eduardo Luna, and others. Renowned as a pioneering psychologist, psychedelic elder, alchemical explorer, and shamanic teacher, the late Ralph Metzner (1936–2019) contributed profoundly to consciousness research, transpersonal psychology, and contemporary psychedelic studies across his more than 50-year career.
Park Street Press

Your Extraordinary Mind. Psychedelics in the 21st Century and How to Use Them

by Zack Leary

Zack Leary has a unique perspective on psychedelics. He offers context on both the cultural history and present, while acknowledging and honoring the Indigenous roots of many of these traditions. In addition to instructions for intention, use, and integration, Leary addresses topics like healing trauma, psychological and spiritual experiences, questions of legalization, and how psychedelics relate to and can help people heal from addiction. Zack is Timothy Leary’s son.
Sounds True

Cobweb of Trips: A Literary History of Psychedelics

by Peter Dickins

Spinning a psychospiritual thread from literature and the history of medicine, this story brings to light how the question of psychedelics, and the trips people had, were animated by the era’s cultural transformations in Britain. From spiritual reimaginings and scientific novelty, to political agitation and the counterculture of the 1960s, Cobweb of Trips is a poetic thread emerging when the psychedelic experience alighted in modern history.
Psychedelic Press

The Mushroom Color Atlas. A Guie to Dyes and Pigments made from Fungi

by Julie Beeler

More closely related to humans than they are to plants, fungi are fascinating organisms—and they are a rich resource for color collectors! Blending scientific detail, botanical illustrations, and creative inspiration, artist and educator Julie Beeler invites you to peek into her workroom as she introduces different types of dye mushrooms—from boletes to polypores to tooth fungi—and walks you through her color-harvesting process.
Chronicle Books

The Book of Elsewhere

by Keanu Reeves / China Melville

There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.” And he wants to be able to die. In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting narrative, these two artists have created something unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones.
Del Rey

 

good to discover

good to know

Metaphysical
psychoactive | Reality Sandwich | 1 August
Psychedelics as a catalyst for awakening

Standards
psychoactive | San Francisco Chronicle | 1 August
Religious leaders lobby for better regulation and accreditation of psychedelics

Biology
science |  Aeon | 2 August
Plants and their complex behavior seen in the light of philosophy

Policy
psychoactive |  The Conversation | 2 August
Legal psilocybin furthers psychedelic comeback

Religious art
psychoactive | Atlas Obscura | 5 August
Psychedelic mushrooms in the garden of Eden

Policy II
psychoactive | Undark | 5 August
The influence of the FDA on the future of psychedelics

Fail
psychoactive | The New York Tines | 9 August
FDA rejects the legalization of MDMA for PTSD

JFK’s confidante
psychoactive | The Psychedelic Blog | 9 August
Mary Pinchot Meyer, Timothy Leary and the White House

Oceania
psychoactive |  Entheogenesis | 11 August
The forgotten history of psychedelic therapy in Australia

5 Questions for Alyssa Quart
psychoactive | The Micfodose | 12 August
Psychedelic inequity

Stoned Ape Theory
culture | Double Blind | 12 August
Terence McKenna may have been right about the evolutionary role of psilocybin

On the sly
psychoactive | Marijuana Moment | 14 August
In the US, drug researchers don’t like to reveal their own experiences

QED 
psychoactive | Journal of Clinical Oncology | 16 August
Oral cannabis extract significantly reduces nausea in chemically treated cancer patients

New Mexico
eco | High Country News | 19 August
Quest goes green hydrogen and long-duration energy storage

Sport injuries
psychoactive | Marijuana Moment | 19 August
Most athletes open to psilocybin treatment for concussions

Solution
culture | earth.com | 20 August
New technology removes microplastics form water

New findings
psychoactive | Shroomer | 21 August
Psilocybin’s role in modifying gene expression to reduce alcoholism

Australia
eco | The Guardian | 28 August
MDMA therapy before it was legal

good to meet

Plants of the Gods
Part 1 — Ayahuasca and Tobacco Shamanism: an Interview with Ethnobotanist Dr. Glenn Shepard

Transform Drug Policy Foundation
An independent, UK-based charity working nationally and internationally towards a just and effective system of legal regulation for all drugs.

DanceWize
Harm reduction and help for psychedelic, and/or spiritual emergencies at festivals and other peer meetings are a necessity wherever people get together in large numbers.

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