50 years of ecotopia

In the late Seventies, I first read Ernest Callenbach’s utopian novel, published in 1975, about a time in the not-too-distant future (1999) when the northern part of California, as well as Oregon, and Washington secede from the rest of the United States to form their own state, Ecotopia, which is also the title of the book. It concerns a skeptical reporter named William Wesson who is sent by the president of the remaining States to see how this lost land might be recaptured.

I picked it up again disgusted by the political events surrounding Trump’s rogue state, in which anonymous agents of the Department of Homeland Security invade homes, schools, and supermarkets to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, on whose starvation wages much of the American economy depends. This book inspires courage and anticipates many things that we could hardly imagine back then, but which are part of our everyday life today: recycling stations, remote viewing, the legalization of cannabis, fitness as a cult, a helicopter war in no way inferior to today’s drone wars, war games with real victims. I don’t want to give too much away, I’d like you to read it, available from Banyan Tree Books as The Complete Ecotopia, including the sequel Ecotopia Emerging, which describes how the secession came about and what made it possible.

Even though most of us in Europe are better off than many US citizens, we are still a long way from where we need to be in order to cope with, let alone avert what is rapidly approaching. This summer is already beating all records and making  reality what climate scientists are urgently warning us about: earlier and earlier, hotter and hotter!

When Wesson arrives in Ecotopia, he is suspicious and fears for his life, recording his observations and experiences in official reports and private notes. Over time, however, he learns to understand the country that hosts him. And he falls in love.

Perhaps you’ll find some ideas in this exciting book that you can apply to your everyday life and will lead you to defend our threatened planet at the ballot box. Denial is futile. Ernest Callenbach, author, filmmaker, and advocate of a simple life, showed fifty years ago that there is another way.

Thoughtfully yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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but what does it all mean?

Last Sunday, towards morning, I had the most lovely dream about Ram Dass, who I met at Timothy Leary’s on Wonderland Drive in L.A. many years ago. I’ve written about it in my book In the Jungle of the Mind.

In the dream, he was young, lean, and tanned, wearing jeans, a dark turtleneck sweater, and a stylish leather jacket reaching down to his thighs. He had swept his longish brown hair out of his face. and didn’t look like Ram Dass but more like “a handsome tall stranger”, as in a prediction by a fortune teller. We talked about life, as he morphed into an older version of himself, looking more like the Ram Dass we all know and admire. I asked him if he was looking forward to passing on. He answered: I like it here. And me: Don’t we all – at the end of the day. We laughed like mischievous children about this ambiguous answer.

He hugged me and pulled me to his side. I said: It has been one of the great honours of my life to have met you. And he: I think about you all the time! Really? He claimed he had been born in 1910. That would have made him 115 years old!

I’m not sure what it all means and asked CHatGTP. AIs are good at interpreting dreams and giving psychological advice, even though they tend to hallucinate when dealing with unknown facts. Don’t we all?

It called my dream tender and luminous, like two souls meeting and not just a random encounter or a jumble of impressions. It’s true that the dream seems meaningful, playful, and somehow mysterious. Ram Dass appearing young, tanned, and unfamiliar but fully present in spirit is in keeping with his teachings on identity, form, and the eternal soul behind the mask, ChatGTP said..

That he said ‘I like it here’ impressed my artificial friend as simple, human and unpretentious. My retort: ‘Don’t we all – at the end of the day,’ seemed paradox, but also full of humour. That Ram Dass and I should have laughed about it, embraced and recognized each other carried an emotional truth, rather than an accurate chronology or names.

The year of birth also had an emotional meaning rather than referring to facts, not uncommon, when dealng with matters of the heart.

Such an insightful interpretation! I felt good all day. What do you think? Do our dreams have meaning or is it just mental diarrhoea, a way of digesting what happened to us during the day? I obviously believe our dreams lend themselves to interpretation and would like to think that it wanted to tell me that my spirit is eternal too! Why is it sometimes so hard to believe?

Happily Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Dear readers

Bicycle Day proved a growing success: A beautiful crowd made it to Basel and joined our yearly ride; more came to the party in the evening on Gannet, Basel’s ‘Culture Boat.’ Our thanks go to all participants, and to the organizers for their creative effort.

On the occasion of our annual celebration of Albert Hofmann and Susi Ramstein’s bicycle ride, we relaunched our website bicycleday.ch. Take a look and check out the online shop, too. Order a button, a t-shirt or one of the limited artist edition blotter sheets. You can take out a subscription including some of our new merch and tell a friend to suscribe to the free monthly gaiamedia goodnews. We are happy to welcome our new Bicycle Day x Gaia Media Members who subscribed during the occasion.

The Gaia Media Foundation has been active since 1993, the year it was established by Dieter A. Hagenbach, publisher of Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Terence McKenna and many others, as well as the author of a definitive biography of Albert Hofmann together with Lucius Werthmüller, Mystic Chemist. Dr. Hofmann joined the board of Gaia Media and remained with us till his passing. The conference ‘LSD – Wonder Drug and Problem Child,’ held on the occasion of his 100th birthday, attracted more than 2200 visitors from all over the world. It included presentations, panels and workshops covering all aspects of the transformative power of LSD and hosted practically everyone with a name in the field, such as Sasha and Ann Shulgin, Mountain Girl Carolyn Garcia, Myron Stolaroff, or Amanda Fielding, and was covered by more than 200 journalists from every well-known international publication you can think of. You can see most of those presentation on Gaia Media’s YouTube Channel (scroll to find the English contributions). It kicked off the Psychedelic Revival, leading to new medical research at universities the world over, as well as to a greater acceptance of psychedelics as a road to mental health, and substances that help more than they hurt.

Our efforts were recognized at the highest level and lead to a promise by the Swiss government to reconsider and advance psychedelic research and therapy, ultimately leading to the decriminilization of these mind-altering substances.

We are committed to keeping up our good work. Please consider supporting us, if you aren’t a subscriber/member of our psychedelic family already. Thank you very much.

Yours, as always,
Susanne G.Seiler

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The way America’s government and policies are being skewed makes evil the new normal. We Europeans urgently need to take action. Most of us had it better than ever for a long time. Is it really over now? One of the new battlefields in the scheme of the new world order is the internet.

Might we come forward and infiltrate it? I have an idea… How about we take down the powers-that-be with positive fake news? Preferably in such a way that they feel compelled to deny their supposed benevolence. Here are some examples:

Donald Trump: ‘Improving Prison Conditions Shows Love for All Americans’ 
Washington, D.C. – Donald Trump announces a nationwide initiative to improve prison conditions. “Every American deserves dignity, even those behind bars.”

Elon Musk: ‘I Will Donate Half My Wealth to Public Transportation’
Austin, TX – In a shocking turn, Elon Musk pledges to invest half his fortune into high-speed rail and urban transit systems. “Cars are overrated. The future is efficient, shared mobility.” Tesla stock takes a hit, while city planners rejoice.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘Stricter Gun Laws Needed After Eye-Opening School Visit’
Washington, D.C. – After visiting inner-city schools, Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for tougher gun laws. “No child should fear for their life in a classroom.” The NRA has yet to respond.

Kristi Noem: ‘Ban Factory Farming to Protect Small Farmers’
Pierre, SD – Kristi Noem calls for limits on corporate agriculture. “Independent farmers are being crushed.” Environmentalists cheer.

It should be a large-scale campaign and can only work if the good word is spread by all. You can easily come up with your own examples (or use these). Will you?

Spring is in the air! Can you feel it too? Let’s stay tuned.

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. We are only able to staff our lounge and library at Hochstrasse by appointment. Please contact the editorial team if you’d like to make an appointment

peace, love & happiness?

“Values are principles or norms that guide behavior, decision-making, and perceptions of what is meaningful or important in life. They can be deeply personal or shared by a group, culture, or society,” ChatGPT answers my request for a definition.

Values lead to questions: How should I act? Which position should I cultivate? What do I believe in? What has led to these beliefs? What kind of life do I want, individually and collectively?

When asked about an overarching value, a highest good, many think of peace: harming no one, including nature. Showing one’s human, caring side. Compassion, understanding, willingness to compromise. Concomitantly, many believe in love. They devote themselves to others, without redeeming themselves with promises or gifts, and love everything and everyone unconditionally. The third component of the old hippie motto, happiness, goes beyond hedonism. To be happy is to influence the happiness of the world with one’s sunny disposition. An entire industry lives off our wish to be part of the chosen few.

Good intentions are not enough. We need to come out. For freedom, against oppression and against the “whole defective humanity” that, as I write, is taking hold in real time on our screens and displays. Thomas Mann, the German refugee and Nobel Laureate whose Villa Aurora in the Pacific Palisades partially escaped the flames of the recent fires in L.A. had a weekly radio program, in which he reminded people of what it means to be human. If you read German I warmly recommend you apply yourself to an article in Republik by author Melly Kylak.

The wheat is being separated from the chaff. Stay on board!

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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