good to support

gaiamedia is a non-profit foundation founded in Basel on 23 July 1993 with the purpose of communicating information that contributes to a holistic understanding of nature and human existence.

please support our website and our other services by becoming a sponsor of the non-profit gaia media foundation or to make a donation. thank you very much.

goodnewsletter

Please send me your free monthly newsletter

good to go

@ gaiamedia lounge
The Psychedelic Salon Basel

Kasia Kopanska, PhD.: Embodied Expansion – Psychedelics & Bodywork
How to prepare the body to release trauma during psychedelic experiences. What physical reactions to expect; how to integrate and hold expanded consciousness in the body tissues; how people in the past have used various ways of working with body to enter into altered states of consciousness; how and why the body has been forgotten in the process of consciousness expansion; how this differs in men and women
Basel gaiamedia lounge | Hochstrasse 70 | Thursday, 14 March | 6-9 pm / CHF 15/10

@ Cabaret Voltaire
The Psychedelic Salon Zürich
Postponed to 21 March!
Claude Weill: A Return Ticket to Elysium – Psychedelics in the Second Half of Life
Claude is the author of Elysium hin und zurück (A return ticket to Elysium). The nine people portrayed in the book are all in the second half of life, bring with them a wide variety of life backgrounds, work in different professions or are already retired. For them, the regular or occasional use of mind-altering substances represents an access to extraordinary experiences of spiritual-mystical dimensions. This is the topic of tonight’s Salon.
Zürich Cabaret Voltaire Spiegelgasse 1 | Thursday, 21 March | 6-9 pm | CHF 15/10

Related
Preparation Protocol for psychedelic experiences
with Valentina Manini
In this workshop, the different components of a Psychedelic Preparation Protocol are explored.
Online | Thursday, 7 March 2024 | 8.30 pm CET

Ayahuasca Healing, Science and Indigenous Knowledge
Organized by the Chacruna Institute
Online Course  | 1 April – 8 July 2024

The Science of Consciousness
30th Annual Conference of the Center of Consciousness Studies of the Uni Arizona
Tucson, AZ | Loews Ventana Canyon Resort | 22 – 27 April 2024

Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics
New York City | Academy of Medicine | 8-11 May 2024

good to see

Mind, Body, Health & Politics
Dr. David Smith on Drug Addiction, Decriminalization, and the Side Effects of Psychedelic Medicines. The Founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic Speaks on the Dangers and Healing Powers of Psychedelics

Treasure
In 2018, a lone metal detectorist made what’s widely considered to be one of the most significant archeological discoveries of the 21st century. The animated film by Samantha Moore explores the question of who it belonged to and what it may have meant.

good to hear

PJ Wassermann
Remember to Forget
PJ’s music has an ecstasy feel to it this time, reminding me somewhat of Ray Lynch’s Deep Breakfast. For those of you who don’t know PJ yet – he’s a Swiss pioneer of psychedelic electronic music. Active for more than forty years. PJ hails from Basel but spends most of the year in Ibiza. He does not only compose electronic music but also sings and plays the guitar, pursuing a series of musical projects, such as Ibango Tribe in Ibiza and Space Bike back home, both fully improvised.
Hyper Music

Maggie Rogers
Don’t Forget Me
“My friend Sally’s getting married and to me that sounds so scary. I’m still trying to clean up my side of the street. Can’t imagine what would happen cause I’m still acting out of habit. Hoping dirty words just don’t escape my teeth. Oh and every time I try just a little. Promise that I’ll meet in the middle. I always find my way back to my feet. So close the door and change the channel. Give me something I can handle. A good lover or someone that’s nice to me. Take my money, wreck my Sundays. Love me til your next somebody. Oh but promise me that when it’s time to leave, Don’t forget me.”
Capitol

Mei Semones
Inaka
Mei Semones’ sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. “Blending everything that I like together and trying to make something new – that’s what feels most natural to me,” says the 23-year-old Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. “It’s what feels most true to who I am as an artist.” Originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan, Semones began playing music at a young age, starting out on piano at age four before moving to electric guitar at age eleven. After playing jazz guitar in high school, she went on to study guitar performance with a jazz focus at Berklee College of Music.
Bayonet Records

Madi Diaz
KFM
Covering mostly music and books. Focus on alternative/indie and women in music, literature and the arts. feminist. Vegan. mostly alternative, a bit bohemian. Masters in journalism from Boston University. BA from Simmons College. After high school, Diaz was accepted to Berklee College of Music. At Berklee, she began working with Kyle Ryan, the Nebraska-raised guitarist who would be her songwriting collaborator for her early career. The two began their collaboration when a fellow student, a producer looking for a project, offered Diaz the chance to record an album in Hawaii. Shortly after, Diaz dropped out of the program at Berklee.
Anti-Records

Daymé Arocena
A fuego lente (featuring Vicente Garcia)
“Since the release of her 2015 debut album Nueva Era, Cuban singer Daymé Arocena has established herself as one of her country’s most expressive voices. Encompassing everything from nimble jazz scatting to luscious orchestrations and breathy phrases that soar over bata drums and Santería folk rhythms, Arocena’s four albums have explored the joyous range of Afro Cuban music.” (Ammar Kahlia, The Guardian) She grew up Havana, with a family immersed in rumba folklore. She entered the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory at age 10.
Brownswood Recordings

goodnews editorial

safe tripping

In the sixties and seventies, young and inexperienced people – like myself – embarked on LSD and other trips without knowing how to make them safe. We’d heard of set and setting but the terms trip sitting, and safe tripping were coined much later. We often relied on people we barely knew to help us navigate journeys they were clueless about themselves. Fortunately, we often were part of smaller or larger gatherings of the like-minded, affording us a certain measure of emotional and physical safety. Being young and unburdened overwhelmingly made for positive experiences. If young adults were also most often in trouble, it is because consumers of psychedelic substances were mostly under 25. Older subjects may have been better prepared, but had they taken psychedelics in comparable numbers, more problematic use would have arisen among them too.

What works for safe tripping holds true for life in general. Why do some people stumble upon charlatans and hypocrites time and again, whereas others easily find the right doctors, friends, teachers, or sources? Is it because some are so traumatized as to be completely out of touch with their feelings? “If it feels good, do it!” says an old hippie adage. The contrary is also true: “If it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it!” And it helps to keep your eyes peeled for your surroundings, and to observe. For psychedelic journeys, therapy or healing circles ask: are the potential sitters, teachers or therapists well-prepared? Are they warm and generous or aloof and expensive and/or insufficiently equipped? Do they have a sense of humor and a ready smile? Or are they the kind that don’t let you in on their feelings, ranging from stoic to stern? Are you intimidated?

What was the first thought that came to mind when you entered the room/came to this new situation? What were you first impressions? Don’t let your eagerness to attend or partake in new experiences cloud your judgment. Do not decide you’re going no matter what! Being informed helps you know what to expect, and to make better choices. Like Terence McKenna said, taking psychedelic trips starts on the internet.

Alternatively, you might want to expand your consciousness by being in nature. Spring is almost here!

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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

good to read

Amitav Ghosh
Smoke and Ashes. Opium’s Hidden Histories

Smoke and Ashes is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large.  Most surprising at all, however, was the discovery that the author’s own identity and family history was swept up in the story.
John Murray Publishing

Adam Schatz
The Rebel’s Clinic. The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

In the era of Black Lives Matter, Frantz Fanon’s shadow looms larger than ever. He was the intellectual activist of the postcolonial era, and his writings about race, revolution, and the psychology of power continue to shape radical movements across the world. In The Rebel’s Clinic, Shatz offers a dramatic reconstruction of Fanon’s extraordinary life-and a guide to the books that underlie today’s most vital efforts to challenge white supremacy and racial capitalism.
Farrar Srauss and Giroux

Johann Eglöff
The Darkness Manifesto. On Light Pollution, Night Ecology, and the Ancient Rhythms That Sustain Life

As a devoted friend of the night, Eklöf reveals the startling domino effect of diminishing darkness: insects, dumbfounded by streetlamps, failing to reproduce; birds blinded and bewildered by artificial lights; and bats starving as they wait in vain for insects that only come out in the dark. For humans, light-induced sleep disturbances impact our hormones and weight, and can contribute to mental health problems like chronic stress and depression. The light bulb —long the symbol of progress and development— needs to be turned off.
Scribner Books

Brad Gooch
Radiant. The Life and Line of Keith Haring

Part of an iconic cultural crowd that included Andy Warhol, Madonna, and Basquiat, Haring broke down the barriers between high art and popular culture, creating work that was accessible for all and using it as a means to provoke and inspire radical social change. Haring died of AIDS in 1990. To this day, his influence on our culture remains incontrovertible, and his glamorous, tragically short life has a unique aura of mystery and power.
Harper Collins

Percival Everett
James
When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond. Brimming with the electrifying humor and lacerating wit, James retells the story of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer from Jim’s perspective.
Random House

good to know

Psilocybin
psychoactive | Trial Bulletin | 31 January
First treatment at the French University of Nimes

Shamanism
psychoactive | Maps Bulletin | 2 February
A psychedelic journey into the arctic night

Solar
eco | pv-magazine | 2 February
2023 best year worldwide for irradiance

Abused
psychoactive | Mother Jones | 3 February
Sexual misconduct in the addiction treatment industry

Sobriety
psychoactive |  New York Times | 4 February
Changing patterns of substance use

Stigma
science | The Conversation | 5 February
Late diagnosis of alcohol addiction is often deadly

Pets & others
psychoactive |  New York Times | 6 February
Curing animals with cannabis

Changes
eco | Vox | 7 February
More leaves and greener oceans

Psilocybin
psychoactive | Imperial College London | 7 February
Study confirms better sex thanks to shrooms

2000 years ago and earlier
psychoactive | Live Science | 8 February
Romans used a hollowed-out animal bone to store henbane seeds

Europe
culture | Nadja | 9 February
Union reaches agreement to eradicate violence against women

Ancient hunting structure
culture |  Live Science | 13 February
11,000-year-old wall discovered in the Baltic Sea off Germany

Bummers
psychoactive | The Conversation | 14 February
Short circuiting a negative experience is not advisable

LSD
psychoactive | New Scientist | 15 February
Microdosing increases the complexity of your brain signals

Psychedelics
psychoactive | CNN | 19 February
Injured athletes embark on healing journeys

Neuorscience
culture | Imperial College | 21 February
New psychedelic treatments for brain disorders

Determinism
psychoactive | The Psychedelic Blog | 23 February
Free will and psychedelics considered by Andrew Weise

Dolphins
psychoactive | the Chrnicle | 27 February
Margret Mead & Gregory Bateson tripped wth cetaceans

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.

partner

Scroll to top