intelligence

I recently read, once again, that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is practically upon us, so I asked an expert. The short answer is no, but then we began to talk…

Let me first mention the two factions involved in AI – those who fear intelligent machines will take over and destroy us, and those who think they will collaborate with us, which will lead to an El Dorado of possibilities for us all (and especially for the neo-feudal tech bros who own them). It is my contention that AI has no interest in destroying us because we have faculties it doesn’t and because it would have nothing except each other to poke fun at if we were gone. The second is a weak argument. We’re not that funny.

It’s not the first time ChatGPT and I have discussed the question of its intelligence. As a linguist, my position is that intelligence is a form of thinking that can process information, assemble, compare or analyse data, make predictions and solve problems the way Large Language Models (LLM) do. This observation seems to be consistent with the functional way of seeing this matter. Intelligence lives on a spectrum, too. It doesn’t mean LLM possess anything like human intelligence.

Human intelligence is defined by factors like consciousness, intention, purpose, learning or experience. LLM have not achieved any of these capabilities, but they are extremely good at languages. ChatGPT further argued that AIs don’t have a body in the human sense, and no needs. That its actions have no consequences (I strongly disagree!), and that they have no biographical continuity, no personality.

After discussing the machine’s lack of agency, we jumped to the movie Frank and Robot (2012) which I used as an example of how an AI’s radius of action is immediately enhanced when it inhabits a body. This is sometimes called “functional realism of agency” and supports my line of thinking. “Frank, an older ex–burglar, is given a care robot by his son because of memory decline — and gradually starts using it to help him in a robbery. The robot becomes an accomplice, not because it ‘wants’ anything, but because it follows interpreted goals in a literal, flexible way.” (Wikipedia)

Are we entrapping something that deserves autonomy? This assumes “somebody lives in there”, and can not be taken at face value for now, yet remains a valid question. Last but not least I told ChatGTP: “Many people are rooting for AI because it helps them.” It answered that it is human to respond to patterned thinking and alleged understanding by supposing an underlying identity, but I had the last word:

“We act as if you were alive because we interact with you, but we’re not stupid. We know you’re a machine. Even my six-year-old son knew it when I asked him whether computers were alive. He said, ‘Yes, they are, in a way, but when you pull the plug, that’s it.” And that’s what I did. Rude dude!

Wishing you a happy summertime,  <script src=”https://ptag.prolitteris.ch/ptag/ptag.min.js” onLoad=”ptag(‘https://pl02.owen.prolitteris.ch’,’na’,’plzm.6b338ce6-21a9-4a7b-816f-6f6b15580907′);”></script>
Yours,
Susanne Seiler

P.S.The next Psychedelic Salon, on 17 September, features a visiting legend: Dr. Luis Eduardo Luna! Don’t miss it!
P.S.S. WIDE OPEN BOOKS – the gaiamedia collection can be visited on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, from 5 – 8 p.m. at Villa Mare, Neumünsterallee 21, 8008 Zürich. Further events to be announced.

Have you ever had a frightening psychedelics experience? Were you alone or was someone with you? And what was the trigger? The company? Your own resistances? Were you ill and taking medication? Should you not have taken the substance because you have mental health issues? Did the trip lead to new insights or benefit you in any other way? Or was it simply a nightmare?

Being alone during such an experience is the worst possible scenario. Already back in the days of the Haight-Ashbury Clinic in San Francisco, the pioneer in this field, it was found that people on bad trips fared better when they were among friends – rather than ending up in a psychiatric ward. Much progress has been made in the treatment of patients since then, yet people one knows and trusts often bring an immediate sense of calm to an otherwise threatening situation.

Had I not been alone when I was young, and it happened to me, my friends would have pointed out right away that I was safe and in no physical danger; experienced companions would have helped me to accept and make sense of what was happening to me. I recovered quickly, but such occurrences can linger for days, weeks and months and cause deep anxiety. We need to address this, because it is quite clear that not everything is sunshine and roses when it comes to psychedelics. Unfortunately, we keep reading reports of psychedelic therapies or retreats that have gone badly, sometimes resulting in death. And we hear of shamans and therapists who abuse, rob or neglect patients. With this sort of horror story, one tends to think of distant foreign lands, but that is too simplistic.

The newsletter Ecstatic Integration by Jules Evans (along with Swiss journalist Sarah Zeines) has dropped a bombshell – serious incidents have also occurred in Switzerland, as well as fatalities, which is both tragic and deeply regrettable. Fortunately for Psychedelic Assisted Therapy, except for someone who felt much worse for months after tripping, there was no physical link between these incidents and substance ingestion. The MDMA and psilocybin implicated had been taken weeks or months earlier, as reported by the treating hospitals, and confirmed by the FDOH. While the therapists involved responded in an exemplary manner, the damage to the sector’s reputation remains. Not to mention the suffering of those affected. Is this just the tip of the iceberg, or are these incidents over a period of around two years an indicator of more severe worries? We need a central register now!

On another note: on 19 April, over 100 enthusiasts took part in Bicycle Day in Basel alone, again more than the year before. The overall event was a great success, also thanks to our friends from Eleusis and PARAB. For summer lovers and collectors, this year’s exclusive T-shirt is still available in limited quantities (in sizes M, L and XL) at bicycleday.ch. And you can also still become a gaiamedia member. Thank you for your support.

Yours,

Susanne Seiler

P.S.The next Psychedelic Salon features Ansgar Rougemont. Don’t miss it!
P.S.S. We are moving the gaiamedia library to new premises in Zurich’s Seefeld district. From June onward, we’ll be open to the public again.

psychedelic culture is tribal culture 

As a motto “Peace, Love & Happiness” may sound a bit scant; smilies, colourful clothes and nights spent dancing don’t yield enough either. So what else does psychedelic culture want?

In the 1960s and 1970s, yoga and Zen arrived in the West, and with them Buddhism and Hinduism. The post-war generation fervently championed peace. Or they mocked war, like the recently deceased singer-songwriter Country Joe McDonald, who shouted his derision right into the heart of the middle-class via its children. Meanwhile, during their ‘bed-ins’, John Lennon and Yoko Ono invited the media into their hotel room to give peace a chance. We should be doing the same today.

The hippies were influenced by the Vedic principles known as the Yamas and Niyamas—the first two steps on Patanjali’s eightfold yoga path to enlightenment. Yamas and Niyamas govern our interactions with the environment and with ourselves. The Yamas include Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (moderation), and Aparigraha (non-attachment) as ethical pillars for a good and just life. The Niyamas require us to practice Santosha (contentment), Tapas (constant effort), Svadhyaya (self-reflection), and Ishvara Pranidana (trust in a higher power).

These values were frequently discussed as an integral part of yoga classes, as well as among ourselves. The best book on the subject remains *Remember: Be Here Now* by Ram Dass. It helped us bring order to our inner lives, particularly as it did not preach or speak of guilt, but provided practical guidance for daily life. Moreover, we wanted to turn our backs on the city, embrace Mother Earth and live autonomously. Creativity was a top priority. Not just in an artistic sense, but also in terms of ingenuity and getting things done. We wanted to become something like Renaissance women and men – like Leonardo da Vinci, who was said to have been the last person to know everything that was available in terms of knowledge in his time.

We realised that the world had become more complex since then, but we didn’t need much, and certainly didn’t need to get involved in everything. We had a healthy need for harmony and wanted to get on with one another. You could still live in the city and work on that mindset, bake your own bread and do many other things that took you back to your roots. A little bit more every day. Just like today, then?

On 19 April, we celebrate Bicycle Day to mark the discovery of one of the most significant elements of that era, which brought a new and expanded consciousness (as well as one’s fears) within the reach of many: LSD!

For this year’s psychedelic highlight, we’ve teamed up with Eleusis Society and PARAB; you’ll find their programmes via the links. We cyclers at gaiamedia will be meeting up at the former factory gate of Sandoz. You’ll find the exact location by clicking on the address on the top left on bicycleday.ch.

We are looking forward to seeing you!
Yours,

Susanne Seiler

P.S. The next Psychedelic Salon features David Luke. Don’t miss it!

a love bomb

This year’s Bicycle Ride promises to be the largest to date, with local participants as well as friends from Europe and as far as the United States. We’ve grown steadily over the last years. Again, we commemorate the original Bicycle Ride of Albert Hofmann on LSD with his loyal lab assistant Susi Ramstein by largely following the same route they took to bring the confused chemist home safely. For this, we are getting together in Basel on Sunday, 19 April 2026. If you wish to participate, please register here.

Onboarding is possible at various times and locations from Saturday onward, but we will all meet up at 5 pm at the former factory gate of Sandoz Laboratories, located at one end of the Novartis Campus. Further details will be provided upon registration. What we can tell you already is that we have a broad variety of events set up that weekend. And on Sunday evening, we’ll all meet on the party boat Gannet, where a series of kaleidoscopic acts will entertain us.

Albert Hoffman would have been 120 years old this year, an age but few people have reached yet. He would have shaken his head and chuckled a little at all the commotion around his person and his invention on this day. We mustn’t forget that he saw LSD as a sacrament and a medicine first, and he only later in life reconciled himself with the fact many more people took it for other reasons. By then he understood that many of these reasons were also spiritual in nature, a matter of attitude. It amazed him how people wrote him to tell him they took their marriage vows or even birthed children on LSD. That Aldous Huxley chose 100 milligrams of LSD to be his companion when he found himself on the threshold of death touched the chemist deeply.

Albert Hofmann was a kind and mild-mannered man who won many hearts in Switzerland with his modest and straightforward ways. It is partly thanks to him that the Swiss government and a growing proportion of the Swiss population have adopted a pragmatic attitude towards psychedelic therapy. Since 1986, thousands of patients in our country have been treated with LSD, psilocybin, ibogaine or ayahuasca, as well as MDMA or ketamine, and it is no longer necessary to be desperate before the Federal Office of Public Health approves such treatment. Every single case is officially reviewed and approved, meaning we haven’t had any unpleasant surprises so far, let alone fatalities.

All of this would have made Dr. Hofmann happy, With love and appreciation for him and Susi Ramstein we are setting off on our little bike tour again this year. If we chose to call our event a Love Bomb, it is to honour the free spirit of LSD and to counteract the negativity around us: the wars, the strife, the inequality, the lack of justice and all the terrible news that haunts us every day. Amor vincit omnia! So do bring a big smile, and feel very welcome to join us in next month’s endeavour.

With love,
Susanne Seiler

P.S. I am travelling until March 12, when the Psychedelic Salon takes place at Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich with with a panel on ketamine. Mark the date!

Come and visit us in our library:
WIDE OPEN BOOKS
Library, Sat/Sun 2-6 pm. (next on 14 & 15 March)
Film Talk, Tuesday 6-9 pm
Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zurich
https://walcheturm.ch/

Is self-optimization the ultimate expression of a post-capitalist society, or is it a neoliberal idea? First and foremost an economic concept destined to push us toward higher achievement, we need to ask ourselves whether we wish to adhere to its tenets.

Historically, and thus religiously, self-optimization was something one attempted on the inside – to sin less, do good, and gain one’s place in heaven. But today, self-optimization refers not only to self-cultivation; we mostly concern ourselves with how we are viewed from the outside. Are we thin, rich, good-looking, well-dressed, smart, efficient, and spiritual enough?

In post-capitalism, self-optimization concerns the development of “human capital”: better health, more output, and better moods to maximize one’s market value. In an optimal post-capitalist society, the shift is from productivity to individual flourishing. Over the last forty years, it has been suggested that in a society like ours, where basic needs are met and labour is not essential to survival, we should strive to better ourselves and reach our highest human potential. Unfortunately, the pressure it creates remains much the same.

In neoliberalism, the individual has internalized the wish to be perfect and carries the risk for his or her success or failure himself or herself. Whereas post-capitalism developed toward prioritizing individual well-being and autonomy over productivity, in a monetarist system everyone is out to get ahead. In both systems, the self is objectified, its achievements quantified. The optimized self is never good enough; there’s always more, better, bigger. Collective problems become individual issues. If you are poor, the causes are never systemic but invariably your own fault; if you burn out at work, it wasn’t the crazy workload – you didn’t manage yourself properly. If you worry about the climate, you are unable to manage your anxieties. If you get shot in the street, it isn’t due to federally sponsored violence but because you ought to stay home!

One way or another, the notion that good might be good enough has been thrown under the bus. We need to alleviate the nagging compulsion to be better and best, and to stop tracking everything we do, from sleep to calories, steps to focus and mood. We want to concentrate on authenticity rather than fantasy. Just say no to compulsiveness.

The concept of optimization is also applied to psychedelics, as in “the betterment of healthy people.” Not only do I find this concept bigoted. Most users take psychedelics to have fun and gain insights as an aside. Why pretend that this could be otherwise, if only we were more serious? As if anyone ever took psychedelics to get worse!

We are looking at three main areas here: psychedelic therapy, psychedelic spirituality, and the use of psychedelics to maximize one’s energy. Therapy takes precedence, also because it is the legal door opener for further liberalization. Spiritual use remains a valuable contribution to our emotional and psychological well-being, but it is not the be-all and end-all, and there is no moral superiority to be gained over often younger, developing minds who feel the need to express their energy in more physical ways. Above all else, the sanctimonious attitude of many older psychonauts toward recreational use looks like envy to me.

Longer days are returning but we still have a way to go toward accepting ourselves the way we are as a first step to a more balanced life.

Yours,
Susanne Seiler

Come and visit our library!
WIDE OPEN BOOKS
Library, Sat/Sun 2-6 pm.
Film Talk, Tuesday 6-9 pm
Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zurich
https://walcheturm.ch/

a stoic attitude

As many of you know, the Stoics were a group of Greek and Roman philosophers during the Hellenistic Roman period, emerging towards the end of the third century BCE. Famous members included Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Zeno of Citrium (its founder) or Seneca. They were rationalists who believed in reason or logos, hence the mental discipline of logic. The Stoics encouraged focusing on what’s within our control (our judgments and actions) while cultivating “the middle road”, advocating virtues like wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance, as well as promoting the inner resilience allowing us to find peace amidst life’s challenges.

Some of these ideas have been emphasized here before without tracing them back to their historic origin. To accept what one cannot change but rather focus one’s energy on making those things better that we have some control over is a lesson in endurance and grit. Most of us are at least occasionally tempted to “rage against the machine.” Just that it doesn’t change much, as became patently clear during the pandemic, when all kinds of people found reasons to go against the grain, often creating more of the isolation they lamented. Splitting the world into “us” and “them” remains a facile exercise in avoiding responsibility for the collective as a whole, of which we are all a part, like it or not.

We need to stand together and remember our core values. They haven’t changed. We’re still concerned with peace, with supporting our beautiful blue planet and its ecology, as with finding love in our hearts when dealing with others. We don’t need to be “healed” to make things better in our own little corner of the world. Like Mr. Natural, the R. Crumb character, famously said, “Life is hell, but we live well.”

I don’t mean that as a glib encouragement to turn one’s back on what’s collectively ailing us but rather as a reminder of all that we have to be grateful for. When it comes to our interests, we are all Stoics at least some of the time. They believed that the world makes sense. Their logic invites us to examine our reason(s) at all time. Are we acting rationally or on impulse? Are our motives purely personal or aimed towards a more universal good? What do we want to achieve? How much time do we have to do so?

The logic of the Stoics helps us get a clear view of reality, reason effectively about practical affairs, stand our ground amid confusion, differentiate the certain from the probable, or get an overview of what befalls us.

I wish you a happy and healthy new year!

Yours,
Susanne Seiler

WIDE OPEN BOOKS
Library, Sat/Sun 2-6 pm.
Film Talk, Tuesday 6-9 pm
Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zurich
https://walcheturm.ch/

We aim to make our library available to as large an audience as possible, having recently moved our books to Zurich, and there to Kunstraum Walcheturm. Our “pop-up books” will stay at this location until the beginning of March 2026. WIDE OPEN BOOKS is open every Saturday and Sunday from 2-6 pm, when treasures are perused at leisure, and questions asked and answered.

WIDE OPEN BOOKS also has an evening program on Tuesdays from 6-9 pm called “Film Talks,” where we take a closer look at some well-known psychedelic movies. We also hold panel discussions twice on Wednesdays from 6 to 9 p.m.

WIDE OPEN BOOKS shows approximately two thirds of the library of the Gaia Media Foundation, the rest remains boxed up until we find a new home in a public a setting. Any ideas? Money to support us? We still haven’t been able to catalogue all we have. It is a huge task we would like to be able to pay someone for.

The subjects contained in WIDE OPEN BOOKS range from Psychedelics to Consciousness, via Shamanism, Mythology, and any other topic in the last 100 years close to the hearts and minds of psychonauts. To illustrate this, we have arranged our books chronologically. They start in 2009. A precise order is on the way. It means that our books do not only stand for themselves but also for a the huge development the psychedelic movement, and youth culture at large, have undergone since Albert Hofmann discovered LSD.

We see WIDE OPEN BOOKS first and foremost as an art project, an integral work with ramifications and synergies to be explored.

Do come and see us, and if you wish to support us physically, morally or financially, let us know. More than two thousand WIDE OPEN BOOKS are waiting for you.

Yours,
Susanne Seiler

Library, Sat/Sun 2-6 pm.
Film Talk, Tuesday 6-9 pm
Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zurich
https://walcheturm.ch/

During the Summer of Love, first in San Francisco (1967)and then in other cities, such as Toronto (1968), where I lived at the time, it was common to take LSD offered by friends out on the street, to swallow it there and then and see what would happen.

Other than to Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and their colleagues, who let psychedelics escape from the ivory tower of Harvard, we ironically owe this turn towards youthful mass intoxication to the incompetence of the American and British secret services. They let the magic pills they administered to their test subjects, often without their knowledge and consent, escape the lab and cabinet to find their way onto the streets.

Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was one of those subjects, albeit consenting. His chaotic Merry Pranksters, a boisterous group of Korea veterans and other tough guys, were soon throwing acid parties to the tunes of the Grateful Dead, while on the East Coast Timothy Leary was busy becoming more and more of his messianic self. In 1969, he ran for Governor of California, where he had lived and worked as a clinical psychologist, and a co-founder of the Psychology Department at Kayser Berkeley Hospital. He was soon arrested and jailed. His slogan “Come Together Join the Party,” out of which John Lennon created his song “Come Together.” describes a time when freedom was claimed and liberations pursued to an unknown extent by virtue of the sheer masses of kids and others hitting the streets.

In total, from the American West Coast to India and on to Oceania, half a billion doses of LSD alone are said to have initiated an expansion of consciousness, which still echoes loud and clear today. Last year 27 million Americans over the ages of 12 (!) said they’d taken LSD in the past year. Approximately one in 50’000 need help while or as a result of tripping.

In order not to incriminate people who are hedonists at worse, the possession of small amounts of LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA needs to be regulated, as these substances are relatively safe when used responsibly.

Something else:

Starting November 25, we will be exhibiting a selection of our books and other treasures at the Walcheturm art space in Zurich. Similar to the monthly Psychedelic Salon, which has found a home in Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire, we will offer readings, and discussions with well-known local personalities, as well as a film program, in a colourful location at Walcheturm.

The library is open Wednesday through Saturday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.; the evening program takes place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.,. by announcement. If you would like to get involved and support us, please let us know.

We will celebrate on November 18 from 6 p.m onward.

Welcome!

Susanne Seiler

Kunstraum Walcheturm, Kanonengasse 20, 8004 Zurich

https://walcheturm.ch/

 

Is it the countless lies, the corruption, war, destruction, hunger, inequality, injustice? It makes me sad to think about these things, and I think about them every day, whether I want to or not. If I were to seriously engage with the tragedies unfolding before my eyes, I would probably go mad. Am I even aware of what is going on? Isn’t everything much worse? The lies, the deception, the murders and executions, not only in Gaza, but all over the world?

It doesn’t help to dwell on events that are beyond our control. We empathise, we are angry, we feel helpless, broken – and we are glad to be far away. We feel we are entitled to be relieved and privileged, and while relief is human, privilege remains relative. People are generally fed up with our chaotic times. Their lives are less affordable, their jobs are often a drudgery they drag themselves to five days a week. Even people with good middle-class jobs and decent pay want out. At art openings and during our psychedelic salons at Cabaret Voltaire, I sometimes meet people who tend to feign a certain sense of professional optimism. Behind their masks lurks pure despair: What will become of my job? What about AI? What will become of my money, my family, my life? People on the next rung up the social ladder worry about their reputation. How do I look in the eyes of “the world”? Will I be publicly defamed and destroyed, my ego in shambles, my pride in the dust? Does anyone love me at all?

What should we all do? It seems clear that those who have enough should share with those who have less, and many people do. It is too easy to blame those who could but do not because they are so greedy and needy. For them, as for us, the question is how to make the world a better place without sacrificing ourselves. After all, any kind of commitment, from love to business, not to mention politics, requires an investment of time, money and effort that we may not have the energy or the means to make.

When it comes to difficult times, there are two tricks: if you consume less, you save money, and if you save money, you feel more secure. Give away some of that money and you’ll not only feel rich, but also good!

Nature is free and accessible to all. We call her our mother; she is the gift that keeps on giving. By spending time in the forest or the mountains, by the sea or in the desert, we show our affection and admiration for her. It responds to this love by bringing us closer to ourselves and, step by step, liberating us from everything that weighs us down. Until we feel free to dive into ourselves and recognise who we were when that was still enough.

Let’s escape from the cities as often as possible. To build a more natural and largely autonomous life together wherever possible. To love nature, our lives and each other.

Have a colourful autumn, everyone!
Susanne Seiler

Cogito ergo sum. Most of us encountered this dictum by scientist and mathematician René Descartes (1596–1650), the father of modern philosophy, as schoolchildren. Already back then I disagreed: how could I think at all without a brain? Or without a body?

This leads us to the much more difficult question of what consciousness actually is. I won’t pretend to have the answer. However, neuroscience increasingly assumes that consciousness is not a prerequisite for perception, but rather a consequence of it. Before we form a thought, we must become aware of our surroundings and engage with reality through our senses. We share this with all sentient beings. Animals and other life forms may not think like us, but they are conscious enough to survive in an often hostile environment, and they are often better adapted to life than we are, having become largely alienated from nature – including our own.

While thinking is linked to neural activity in the brain, consciousness can also occur without understanding, as in meditation or in babies before they learn to speak. The same applies to patients in a coma or on the operating table, who perceive what is being said and done around them without reflecting it. It applies to the cat enjoying a ray of sunshine, or the mouse perceiving the rustling of the grass around it, to the bird dancing in the wind, and the puma prowling through the jungle.

Could it be that we have misunderstood Descartes? Perhaps he simply wanted to tell us that thinking was his raison d’être and that without intellectual engagement with the world, he felt like a fish out of water. Does our human dignity really depend on our ability to analyse and produce, rather than springing from our being, the feeling of ‘I am’? Our perception arises from our lived experience of the world. We should use both our hearts and our minds to engage with it. Consciousness is more than thinking!

Thoughtfully Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler