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

P.S. We can only staff our lounge and library at Hochstrasse by appointment. Please contact the editorial team if you’d like to come and visit.

a consequential fungus

The story of ergot, the parasitic fungus growing on grains such as wheat, barley and rye, reaches far back in time, as an upcoming book by Frank Petersen, Director of the Department of Natural Product Research at Novartis Pharma meticulously documents. The Mystery in the Rye. Ergot and LSD – A Cultural Historical Quest follows the history of the alkaloid Claviceps purpurea and documents how ergot was known in Mesopotamia, Persia, and as far a China and Japan, and not only in Egypt or Greece, where it was ritually used as a component of psychoactive brews.

Novartis has recently revived Sandoz, the mother company of the ergot alkaloids, as an independent firm for the production of generics.

In the Hellenic world, ergot was interwoven with the myth of Demeter and her daughter, the mysterious Persephone. As its German name, Mutterkorn, suggests, ergot was and is used in childbirth. Its healing qualities pertain to our blood, either contracting or expanding its flow. During the Middle Ages ergot lived through an inglorious period by causing poisoning in those who ate rye bread infested with the fungus, and its properties as a contractive agent at birth had to be reaffirmed. It has saved and continues to save countless lives. Ergot alkaloids have found their rank among the essential medicines. The ancients knew why they dedicated ergot to the goddess of fertility and childbirth.

In 1943,  Albert Hofmann not only discovered LSD as the 25th derivate of ergot, prepared by Sandoz under the name Delysid, until it became illegal in 1963. He also created the precursors to a number of further valuable drugs based on Claviceps purpurea.

Dr. Petersen describes how modern chemistry started with ergot, eventually turning its alkaloids into many useful medicines. Ergometrine or ergobasine, used in obstetrics around the world, is the most beneficial ergot alkaloid. LSD continues to have the greatest mental and social impact.

I wish you all an enlightening New Year!

Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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

Could the possession of small amounts of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin, LSD and DMT be legalized in the same way the possession of cannabis and hashish were decriminalized in Switzerland?

“Anyone who prepares only a small amount of a narcotic for their own consumption […] is not liable to prosecution.10 grams of a narcotic drug of the cannabis effect type shall be regarded as a small quantity.” (Art. 19b)

This momentous sentence amended the Narcotics Act in 2017. Last year, it was also decided that the police may no longer confiscate such quantities. But let’s start from the beginning.

When a pothead was caught with small amounts of cannabis (0.5 grams) and hashish (0.1 grams) in Basel some years ago, proceedings were initiated. The case was dropped, but he was fined 300 francs for procedural cost. He refused to accept the verdict and took it to the Federal Supreme Court, leading to the surprising decision. Since then, municipal pilot projects have set things in motion for full legalization.

To many people, the fact that you are allowed to possess but not consume weed or hash is not obvious, because why else would you have it? But from a legal point of view, it makes sense, because an act can only be punishable if it is carried out
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Psychologist Stephan Fundinger, journalist Claude Weiss and information technician Michael Good now want to use the case of cannabis as a precedent to implement the same regulation for small amounts of psychedelics. Because MDMA does not fall into this category, it is excluded for the time being.

They are on the lookout for people who have been picked up by the police for possession of such small amounts: as they were leaving a party, at the Zürich Street Parade or purely by chance. Stephan Fundinger and Claude Weill are old acquaintances. They have been guests at The Psychedelic Salon, both in Basel and in Zürich. You can get in touch with them through us. Of course, your details will be treated confidentially. However, it should have occurred relatively recently. We would be delighted if we could help this interesting approach achieve a breakthrough. It seems a good way to move psychedelics out of the criminal corner for people who use them other than therapeutically.

Please tell your friends about it. We need people who want to pursue the matter with enthusiasm.

Wishing you all the best for the holiday season and a hopefully better New Year,

Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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