take the money!

Colorado collected 2.5 billion in taxes on cannabis and cannabis products in the first two quarters of 2023, almost the same as in all of 2022. Old neighborhoods are restored, grants flowing. Illegal cultivation and distribution have halved  since Canada legalized cannabis in 2018. Here, too, the economic factor is considerable. In California, Oregon and multiple other American states, cannabis is freely available if you are 18 or older. Thailand has recently decriminalized marijuana, and in Luxembourg, possession and use of cannabis were eased in 2001. On the same list are South Africa, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Mexico, Georgia, Honduras.

And what do we do? We stick our big toe in the water with pilot trials in all major Swiss cities and throw money around like there’s no tomorrow. Apparently, it’s not good enough anymore to discreetly relax with cannabis in the comfort of our own home. They want us to get high in social clubs. Gifted by a person in the program, I tried both the marijuana and the hashish from an official Zurich dispensary. Nothing to write home about. And what if I don’t want to socialize but go to the movies or the theater? Visit someone? Write, read, draw, paint, practice music or yoga. Play a sport? Does using marijuana mean hanging out like a vegetable, barely able to vocalize? Should privacy completely disappear from our lives? I see it as my basic right to live my life away from the public eye. I have nothing against openness and publicity, but my life is still mine, and I decide when I want to be with others.

Swiss health authorities would do well to do an about-face on drug policy and declare all cannabis products legal, provided they adhere to certain standards, see the regulation of CBD as an example. Cannabis cultivation wants to be effected by professionals, improving quality.  At the same time, it must remain possible for smaller producers to generate an income. There must be a market for specialties, where the big players support smaller colleagues, for example by providing laboratory time and space, so that family businesses can also meet official standards. Letting everybody grow their own plants is also a great idea, if you allow no more than four bio plants per household, or we’ll eventually be overgrown.

Our authorities, once again, are trying to regulate life with a yardstick. But the men and women who sign up for the cannabis pilot programs are only the tail on the elephant in the room. The elephant is us countless others who use cannabis – occasionally – as a stimulant, as a substitute for alcohol or to relax after work, before sex, or to listen to music. We don’t engage in pilot projects and are not interested in consuming mediocre goods in “social clubs”.

Wouldn’t it be better for our government to put guard rails in place, i.e. to define the standards and issue the permits for growing THC-containing cannabis, and to let the market regulate itself, rather than to helicopter over every plant and every consumer? The reality is that there is a large market for cannabis and cannabis products in Switzerland. Deal with it!

Falling for fall,
Yours,
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!

sing to me, autumn

house of psychedelics

The House of Psychedelics at this year’s World Economic Forum was for profit, but I have a different idea. I see Houses of Psychedelics springing up in all major cities and towns to meet the need for safe access to the psychedelic experience. First, we need to extend the use of psychedelic therapy to all interested psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists. As the example of Australia has recently shown, where therapeutic use of substances is now possible for all medical practitioners, authorized use means training. This training would be one of the services offered in psychedelic houses. Allow me to take you to one of these new facilities for a virtual visit.

We arrive at an inconspicuous house on a tree-lined street. No need to ring the bell or make an appointment – the door Is open from 9 am. Once inside, we are confronted by a large desk, where information about substances is laid out. The man behind the counter asks us what we came for. We are introduced to Annie who will show us around. Our mentor explains that the ground floor is dedicated to learning. She quickly opens and shuts the doors to two small and one larger room, all used for training and/or counselling. The library is to be found in what used to be the living and dining rooms of the house, turned into a cozy lounge lined with books, comfortable couches, and large plants. You can’t take any books home with you, Annie explains, but you can come here and sit and read anytime we’re open. Though empty early in the morning, the library is in brisk use, she assures us. In the back we find a small kitchen with free tea and water as well as vending machines for coffee and snacks.

The second floor is reserved for sessions of various kinds. This is where professionals and lay people accompany clients on psychedelics and where integration circles meet. For a reasonable fee, these rooms can also be reserved for private sessions with or without guidance. On the top floor, a lovingly decorated, remodelled attic is used for ceremonies and accommodates groups of up to twelve people. The thought alone that someone is on the premises, in case help is needed, has a reassuring effect, Annie explains. The services provided by the House of Psychedelic are open to anyone over the age of eighteen.

How would these facilities be funded? Membership is a good way, and educational courses help finance our colorful house. It also has sponsors, and the city recognizes with financial support that it is providing a valuable service, preventing harm by allowing its patrons to experience transcendence in a secure environment.

That’s how I would do it. Perhaps you also have ideas about the legalization of psychedelics that you would like to share with us?  In French-speaking Switzerland, the Eleusis Society and GREA (Groupement Romand d’étude des addictions) are gathering opinions and developing a concept on how to decriminalize psychedelics that will be presented to the Health Department of the Swiss Government. Your opinion and ideas matter!

I just returned from Elefsina/Eleusis where I visited the Symposium «How to Change your Mind to Change the World”, organized by the World Human Forum. It was a lovely event with great speakers. Among others, I met Brian Muraresku, author of The Immortality Key, a book I recommend you read asap. Unfortunately I spent half of my time there in bed with bronchitis, and I’m still not well. Please accept my apologies for the delay of this newsletter. I didn’t have the energy to get it done sooner.

Yours,
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!

covering stan getz

on offer

Starting in September, Iris Andres will hold a monthly Psychedelic Integration Circle in our gaialounge, alternating between German and English. Some people already know Iris from the Psychedelic Salon. She is a holistic integrative breath therapist, trauma therapist & facilitator for holotropic breathing.

We are delighted to welcome Iris and her group every second Thursday of the month, and wish her much success. In our psychedelic integration circles, participants will find a safe space to share their journey with others and find inspiration on how to post-process their experiences.

The first group will meet on September 14 from 18 – 21 h, this month in German. The number of participants is limited to a maximum of 15 people. Doors open at 17 h. Please register in advance (see under events below).

If you wish, you can visit us in the gaialounge beforehand. We’ll be happy to have welcome you.

I have the pleasure of attending several conferences this fall and hopefully making many new contacts, whether in Elefsina/Eleusis later this month where the theme is “Mysteries of Transition: How to Change Your Mind to Change the World”, in Berkeley at the annual conference of the Women’s Visionary Council, or at the 3rd ALPS conference in Geneva – both in October. I will be happy to report on my experiences here again. In Berkeley I will also speak myself on the subject of Susi Ramstein, Albert Hofmann’s lab assistant, the first woman and the youngest person to try LSD. More about her on another occasion.

Wishing you a good start into a promising fall!
Yours
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!

life is the only way

consuming society

Years ago, I saw a concert by Bob Dylan, playing at the Nippon Budokan, an indoor arena, in Chiyoda, Tokyo. Originally built for the 1964 summer Olympics and for martial arts contests, it is one of the best performance halls in the world, where scores of famous musicians have played. When the Dylan concert was over, and the audience had left, there wasn’t a crumb of thrash left behind on the huge grounds. You could have eaten off the floor.

In downtown Denver, where I recently visited the Psychedelic Science Conference, the picture was similar, a few scraps here and there, but not the amounts of waste I encounter in my neighborhood every day. Nor did I see a single police patrol car, whereas they are ubiquitous here. It doesn’t stop people from leaving their trash behind wherever they go. Certain cultures don’t view trash as such, waste is just dirt to them, like all other dirt. Some people are frustrated and feel bitter about their circumstances. They leave their mark on the streets out of spite. I get it. Hot spots such as the boardwalk of Lake Zurich are a wasteland every summer morning. The problem is not only one that meets the eye: trash or parts of it end up in animal stomachs, in our water, and in fields and forest. Trash infests nature, including our own nature.

When I think of the money our cities spend on cleaning up behind people who are either too stupid or too lazy to walk a few meters to the next trash can or take home what they would leave behind, my hair stands on end. I wish our authorities were less casual about it. The good things we could with this money, if only we invested a little in teaching people that it is not okay to behave like they don’t know any better. Education, caregiving, the arts, nature, better jobs for the people who now clean up after us – the list seems endless. I am not the only one to complain, it’s just that nothing happens. I also understand that police people feel they have better things to do after three years of extensive training than to play trash patrol.

To have to pry on people never feels good, but the auxiliary sheriffs who distribute fines for over-parked cars and other minor traffic infractions – surely, they wouldn’t mind? They can’t go out there on their own though. Appealing to reason is not always well-received: it isn’t as easy to pin a fine on a rambunctious individual as it is to identify a license plate number. Should I just look away? Move to a gated community? Live in the country? Sigh.

Our jubilee on 23 July drew a nice little crowd. Many thanks to those of you who attended. We are steadily increasing our membership by keeping you informed and entertained, to connect you, and by steadily working on the registration of our archives and media library. Membership costs the equivalent of five bucks a month. We are grateful for and depend on your support. Think about it!

   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!

wind swirls

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

education reconsidered              

Our education system is no longer up to date. In a society like ours, where knowledge is globally available, we require a new pedagogy that caters to individual needs. Instead of merely presenting curricula, teachers might empower our children and grandchildren to explore, analyze, and cultivate their own ideas and plans collaboratively with their peers.

Claudio Naranjo, the trailblazing Chilean American psychiatrist, spiritual teacher, and psychedelic therapist, made significant contributions to psychiatric research by introducing harmaline, an active ingredient of ayahuasca, and the Central African Tabernanthe iboga in the Sixties. In later years, he shifted his focus towards the education of children and adolescents, authoring a thought-provoking book titled Changing Education to Change the World: A New Vision of Schooling, which should be read by anyone who encounters the education system and hopes for alternatives.

Naranjo’s educational approach recognizes that action, thought, feeling, and consciousness are essential aspects of our being. Bill Gates recently suggested that robots can teach children how to read and write more effectively than human educators, due to the artificial teacher’s capacity to intelligently respond to the unique needs of each student in a measured and engaging manner. Given our limited attention span during childhood, robot teachers could be utilized in short, targeted sessions whenever a child is receptive to learning. Older children become valuable motivators due to their own reading skills. Within a mixed-age setting, children have the autonomy to choose their learning companions and collaboratively work in groups to explore specific subjects or engage in creative projects.

A small team of teachers provides guidance and supervision, while parents may participate both at home and in the learning centers. This approach promotes collaboration and growth.

   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!

a red, red, rose

hectic                 

The turn of the millennium of our time corresponds approximately to the end of the 13th cycle or bakun of the Maya calendar, on 21 December 2012. Since then, time seems to be accelerating, and we are stuffing more and more content into every day.

We owe this speedy development to our competition, the semiconductors. These tiny chips have forced their effectivity on us. That’s why we are not only chronically-electronically charged, but under constant pressure to make more of a life that used to be more leisurely. Living in the here and now means arming ourselves with crash helmets and rain jackets and throwing ourselves onto our ecologically certified bikes, to take off in search of a time already lost one hundred and ten years ago. That’s how old Marcel Proust’s monumental work is this year.

What saves us is nature, and I am very optimistic in that respect. We can spend time outdoors again and decompress if we are not constantly on our cell phones or PCs. Let’s leave them at home and do without incessant availability. The word smacks of sacrifices made with religious devotion on the inexorable altar of success. Priorities set; regimes enforced. More time is less, and what for

A good time was had by all on Bicycle Day. We would like to make this memorable event an annual celebration from now on so it may grow and prosper. First, it is a beautiful route and second, there was a little sensation. A few of us were invited to the house where Albert Hofmann lived when he made his famous first intentional LSD trip. He must have felt so miserable that he headed for the next best seating so he could at least die lying down. The couch he threw himself on stood right next to the entrance. At some point we will see the house and the living room and meet the current owners: Swiss television accompanied us, sending two cameramen and a female director. More about their documentary in due course.

Wishing you a wonderful spring!
Yours,
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!

uptown minneapolis, minnesota

bicycle day 2023   

Eighty years ago, on April 19th, Albert Hofmann and his lab assistant Susi Ramstein – the first woman to take LSD – rode their bicycles from the Sandoz headquarters in Basel’s Wettstein district to Bottmingen, the suburb where the chemist lived with his family. Hofmann had intentionally taken LSD for the first time about an hour earlier.

This year’s Bicycle Day, we will retrace the approximately four-mile route he rode with young Susi’s help, as we do every year, reflecting on the many mental adventures Albert Hofmann underwent and on Susi Ramstein’s courage as the first psychedelic trip sitter.

Doors will open at 5 p.m. at the Gaia Lounge on Hochstrasse 70, providing a protected space from which we can depart and return in case of bad weather. Pre-registration is not required, refreshments and trippy music before and after the ride guaranteed.

This congenial event follows a weekend of superlatives. On Friday, April 14, at the Hotel Hofmatt in Münchenstein, the SÄPT (Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy) will host LSD80, a celebration of the most significant day in the psychonautic year, with presentations on LSD in research, therapy, and society, as well as an evening program. For the first time, there will also be a parallel program in French. As the German-language event is sold out, I will be attending the French program and look forward to meeting new people.

On Saturday, April 15, and Sunday, April 16, you’ll find me at the LSD80 – DOWN TO EARTH festival at the Ostquai of the Rhine harbor, where an impressive industrial environment and an explosion of art and communication on all levels awaits us. We will also pay tribute to the late anthropologist Christian Rätsch, who passed away unexpectedly last September. You’ll find the complete program here.

In honour of LSD’s 80th anniversary, we are giving away free memberships to the Gaia Media Foundation. Anyone who attends the LSD Festival and completes the on-site coupon will automatically become a member for one year, receive our newsletter, access our library, and the use our lounge for their own – related – events, as well as other perks. We want the Gaia Media Lounge to once again become a lively meeting place, and a hub for the consciousness movement.

I hope you have the time and inclination to join us.

Festively Yours
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!

the beauty way

paths to legalization 

Despite the medical and social damage caused by alcohol running into millions and billions every year, when I go to any supermarket and buy liquor, wine, and beer for hundreds of dollars, no one asks me if I am entitled to do so. Meanwhile the proposed model for cannabis consumption requires registration. Should I write “stoner” on my forehead and potentially be discriminated against by insurance companies, health insurers and employers?
And if cannabis would – finally –be decriminalized, how do we proceed with psychedelics and finally with all other substances? As already mentioned in the last editorial, this is medically not a problem, at least in Switzerland, where close to seventy therapists have official licenses to provide psychedelic care to their clientele. The author Claude Weill, who wrote a great book about the use of psychedelics late in life, says: “Adults who have the necessary basic knowledge and have had their first experience with psychedelics under guidance should be allowed to consume legally.” In the same article of the ‘Beobachter’ of March 30, 2020, addiction specialist Toni Berthel insists that we “don’t need lifestyle moralists.”
But how should this happen in concrete terms? What we certainly need is a network for spiritual emergencies, because even those who obtain a license to consume psychedelics cannot always cope with their experiences alone. Group work is called for, and we need a network of volunteer caregivers as well. We must find our own ways to counter the commercialism of the burgeoning psychedelics industry if we don’t want to be taken over and exploited. Where the substances are to come from must also be regulated. The medical model mentioned at the beginning shows a possible approach. How can private persons profit from it and thus flush money into the right coffers, namely into the university environment, where it is not about money, but about a different kind of gain, an increase in awareness?
And finally, what do we do with the countless cocaine addicts and other users of addictive substances? How are they to get what they need or want safely if they are not among the hard cases who benefit from our national heroin program? Should they be, like in the Rolling Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want,’ standing in line with Mr. Jimmy at a pharmacy to get their prescriptions filled? Addicts do not only need safe spaces to consume, but also affordable and safe housing. We must not make the mistake of leaving people out in the cold who are interested in substances, but not necessarily in consciousness expansion. The psychedelic ethos is humane, and inclusive. Everything else remains to be seen.
Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You’ll find us at the Gaia Lounge, Hochstrasse 70 in Basel (near Basel SBB main station, tram stop Peter Merian) every Thursday afternoon from 14 – 18 h. Welcome!

a thousand winters