our anniversary & psychedelic science 

Most of you already know – we are celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the gaiamedia foundation on Sunday, July 23, with an open house party that will last into the early evening. We hope many of you will make time for it, and that we will be able to meet you personally, especially those of you we haven’t met yet.

You probably also know that gaiamedia was founded by Dieter A. Hagenbach, who made himself a present of the foundation for his fiftieth birthday, although his birthday was July 24th. He would have turned eighty this year. 23 is a special number that has fascinated writers such as William Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, or Arthur Koestler. It is a prime number, and it is said to occur disproportionately often, which gives it a mysterious aura. For Wilson and Burroughs, it was ominous, and there is also a movie about it with Jim Carey, The Number 23. In the Bible, under Numbers 23:23, one finds the phrase: “What has God done!” If you think of 23, it comes up more often, at least that’s the theory. It’s true that phenomena show up more often when you pay attention to them: when I was driving a new car, I suddenly saw my make everywhere.

As Robert Anton Wilson cunningly asked: Are you more likely to find a quarter if you look for it or if you leave it to chance? See you on the 23rd? That surely won’t be a coincidence!

Last Monday I returned from Denver, Colorado, where I attended the MAPS-sponsored Psychedelic Science Conference, which ended on June 23, clearly by no accident. It was a superlative event, with over 300 speakers and endless presentations, plenaries, panels, workshops, work groups, exhibitors, and parties. I made new contacts and revived old ones, with the Women’s Visionary Council, with the publishers Inner Traditions and Synergetic Press, and with the Psychedelic Literacy Fund. I also ran into old friends and Swiss friends and was introduced to Rick Doblin, who with his organization MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) has done more to further the therapeutic use of psychedelics than anyone, and especially for MDMA. I had met Rick years earlier at Esalen when Terence McKenna spoke and it was Sacha Shulgin’s birthday, but he didn’t remember the occasion, and I don’t blame him. He is a charming and good-natured man. I didn’t want to keep him and left him to his other fans.

The event itself was overwhelming. There were thousands of people on site, especially on Wednesday, 21 June, when the doors of the Denver Conference Center opened to the public for the first time. The day before, I had been at a Zendo Project workshop. These are the people who take care of spiritual emergencies at big festivals, and there’s a flood  of open-air events in Switzerland, including some very large ones. It’s good to have a place to go, or people who find you when things get out of hand. This could protect confused people from worse, whether young, or already older.

We are looking forward to 23/7/23, and to seeing you!

   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!

yet another poem about denver