Category: goodnews editorial

Review 2019 • Outlook 2020

Last year, two projects were in the focus of the foundation: a psychedelic counselling center and the creation of a Gaia Lounge.
On November 1, 2019, “Psychedelics Counselling” a project of the Gaia Media Foundation in cooperation with the Swiss Medical Society for Psycholytic Therapy (SAEPT), began operations. It is intended to offer help with questions or problems related to the use of psychedelics and is financed for the time being by an earmarked donation of the Eulenpark Foundation to the Gaia Media Foundation. David York Münster is responsible for the telephone triage. Further information can be found at www.gaiamedia.org.
The project of a publicly accessible lounge similar to the former Gaia Bazaar is already well advanced. It is to become a meeting center where drinks and small meals are served. Furthermore, ethnobotanical products and media on the topics of the Gaia Media Foundation will be sold there and seminars, workshops and lectures will be held. If possible, the media library of the Gaia Media Foundation will also find a new home there. We have found a passionate ethnobotanist in David York Münster, who, with his ethnobotanika Ltd., will oversee the project together with the foundation. It is planned that the Gaia Lounge will open its doors in April 2020. Currently we are looking for a suitable location.
After the success of the one-day symposium 75 Years of LSD: Where is the journey heading? on April 19, 2018, at the Hofmatt Hotel near Basel, we are holding another one-day conference on April 18, 2020, entitled The Psychedelic Renaissance, at the same location. It is again being organised by the Gaia Media Foundation together with Nachtschatten Verlag and SAEPT. All information can be found on the website www.bicycleday.ch.
Since August 2017 Susanne G. Seiler has been the editor of the monthly newsletter gaiamedia goodnews, which is sent out in a German and an English version and has met with positive response. She is also in the process of cataloguing our media library.
Our YouTube channel gaiamedia with over a hundred of its own videos and dozens of others currently has 6,680 subscribers.
My thanks go to the two foundation board members Dr. Pierre Joset and Kerim Seiler. I would also like to thank Susanne G. Seiler for the content of the newsletters, Therese Hartmann for taking care of the formatting and dispatch of the goodnews and for her organisational support of the foundation, as well as David York Münster for the maintenance of the website gaiamedia.org and for his technical know-how.
Last but not least, on behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the Foundation’s patrons and all other people who support the Foundation.
For our future activities we depend more than ever on you. We therefore ask you to become a patron or to renew your subscription. Contributions will remain unchanged in 2020. Information on patronage can be found here 
Donations are also more than welcome. Thank you very much!

With my best wishes and warm regards

Lucius Werthmüller
Chairman of the Board of the Gaia Media Foundation

The last of the most famous trio in psychedelic history is no more: in 2019, we did not only lose Ralph Metzner but now also Ram Dass. The latter died in his home on Maui, on Sunday 22 December. We met in the early Eighties, at Timothy Leary’s house on Wonderland Drive, in LA, when the famous guru happened to be considering if he would not rather be Richard Alpert again. On the way to a party at longevity specialist Roy Walford’s in Venice, Tim and Richard, who was driving us, had a heated argument. “Life is a vale of tears,” intoned the author of Be Here Now, the hippie Hindu bible of 1971, with two million copies sold worldwide. “We must do everything in our power to alleviate the suffering of the world!” “That’s the most awful thing I’ve ever heard you say, Dick!” Tim shot back from the co-driver’s seat, a half-full glass of Pimm’s in his right hand. “Life is a glorious adventure, a heady ride we should enjoy to the fullest!” And to Barbara (his wife), Dieter (Hagenbach, his publisher) and me (Susanne), sharing the back seat: “So why are you so quiet back there?” “We’re listening and learning,” I answered, somewhat ironically, when Barbara and Dieter didn’t speak up. At the party, it was plain to see why it was not so easy for Richard to stop being Ram Dass – so many people adored him, wanted to be near him and sought his advice, and though he knew I wasn’t necessarily one of them, he also enveloped me in one of his famous bear hugs upon leaving the next day. Thanks for the love, thanks for the light and thanks for your great compassion, Baba!
Dear friends and readers – here we would like to offer our best wishes for a positive and benevolent 2020.

From the heart,
Susanne G. Seiler 

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Salt

as if God spilt salt
on his midnight tablecloth

as if Gibran’s Ugly
had flung Beauty’s cloak
across the waters –
its soft light muted
in repentance

as if star by blue star
remembered the loss of each mother
and lit her face for a thousand years

as if matariki*
leapt off calendar pages
turning in my veins
down through my fingers
bending to pluck
a purple orchid.

Selina Tulsitala Marsh

*Maori Harvest Festival

Facts and opinions
The earth is round, the idea that it should be flat marginal. It will not prevail any more than the notion that the sun circles around the earth. Now, nobody is too insignificant to have a point of view. Such is the essence of democracy, in which, as Albert Hofmann once aptly remarked, everyone has the right to his or her opinion, no matter how unqualified. Nobody realized the prophetic character of this bon mot at the time but nowadays all kinds of groupings entertain absurd ideas that they are selling us as the truth. In addition to arbitrary convictions they also perpetrate dangerous beliefs, which is why the public expression of extremist opinions is punished in Switzerland: anyone who calls for hatred and/or racism is not allowed a voice. Virtual hatred is harder to contain, and the rough and tabloid-like tone in the social media difficult to endure. I’m basically interested in all voices. But political propaganda and discussions that stir people up against each other and lead to the most confusing insinuations, attacks and insults? No, thanks. We live in a consensual reality, a network of perception we all weave together – let us not get caught up in its virtual loops but rather be active ourselves!

With conviction,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Autobiography

this is the story of my life
each word totally untruthful fact
each memory unhappening exactly
almost not at all the way i said it did
it’s all un in here
permanently
writ on sand
faint tracings
of a fully empty life
in clear, invisible detail
hidden in plain sight

to lie or not to lie
is not the question
even the lies that i might tell
are true

j. morley

Psychedelic substances such as LSD, psilocybin or ayahuasca have been witnessing a renaissance for some years now. Their therapeutic benefits, the risks of recreational use or so-called microdosing are widely and impartially discussed in the press. Michael Pollan’s book How to change your mind, about his experiences with psychoactive substances, is a bestseller in the USA and Europe. Some people spend years dealing with difficult and unresolved aspects of their psychedelic experiences and feel the need to discuss their experiences with an expert. Therefore, the Gaia Media Foundation in cooperation with the Swiss Medical Association for Psycholytic Therapy (SÄPT) will offer counselling and support in connection with experiences caused by psychedelics as of November 1, 2019. The counselling is ideologically and methodically «neutral». The Gaia Media Foundation also offers advice on (criminal) legal issues in connection with the use of these illegal substances. This ranges from short telephone calls, e.g. questions regarding the effects and side effects of substances, to two to three consultations. If this time frame is not sufficient, the counsellors will provide further assistance. The free telephone consultation is limited to 20 minutes. After that the counsellors are recommended to come for a personal consultation. For questions concerning cannabis, opiates, cocaine or amphetamines, contact existing counselling centres. The name of the counsellor as well as the content of the counselling will be treated confidentially.

Your Gaia Media Foundation

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The passion

Is still flourishing in the branches
Yellow funny and daring red
The sun warms even in the days
Where the fog
Stubbornly in the morning
From a distance
A woodpecker knocks
Impermanence
Is the enemy of beauty

Kristian Goldmund Aumann

Do we forget the bad more easily than the good? Or does it depend on whether we generally believe the glass to be half full or half empty? And if we prefer to forget the bad, is that what nature wants from us, or is it a trick and are we just pretending? Or, much worse, have we reached a point where we fear the future and glorify the past? Like certain politicians who protect the status quo at all costs and live backwards, always with one foot in an embellished yesterday? They are a good example of how we forget the bad in the good old days because “then” we were young or younger and thought the world belonged to us. But now that it has been ours for so long, we need to focus on what needs to be done to pass it on in as good a condition as possible. Not like then, like now. Ironically, in this, we must also largely ignore the bad in order to concentrate on the good.

Much light to you during the dark season!

Susanne G. Seiler

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This Is Just To Say

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

William Carlos William

Mind over Matter

What matters more? How we think or how we grew up? What we want or what we have? And are we able to attract or manifest love, wealth and health by the strength of our character alone? Is there a tested method to resonate with the universe that will grant us our wishes? And what of the bad things that happen to us? Are they also our responsibility? I believe that I am the creatrix of my own reality in terms of perception. That it is up to me how I see the world, in a black cloud or as an eternal sunset (or somewhere in between) but when it comes to «reception», there is a lot of input too, and everybody else is just as busy as I am safeguarding and maintaining their creation. There is s logic to my life, and my actions have consequences but there are also many factors beyond my influence, let alone control. As to getting what I want – it happens more often than not but not always at the snap of a finger. Reality takes time. Matter matters!

Happy fall, y’all!
Susanne G. Seiler

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sapphire’s lyre styles

sapphire’s lyre styles
plucked eyebrows
bow lips and legs
whose lives are lonely too

my last nerve’s lucid music
sure chewed up the juicy fruit
you must don’t like my peaches
there’s some left on the tree

you’ve had my thrills
a reefer a tub of gin
don’t mess with me
I’m evil I’m in your sin

clipped bird eclipsed moon
soon no memory of you
no drive or desire survives
you flutter invisible still

Harryette Mullen

Cui bono?
Since the financial crisis of 2008, we easily speak of billions, where millions were still plenty the day before. And in the industrialised nations, the super-rich sprung up like mushrooms. These countries are the great beneficiaries of globalisation. But by and large we have made progress worldwide. The Chinese state has achieved increased prosperity for large sections of the population through market economy, since the breakthrough of information technology a new middle class arose in many emerging economies, as well as numerous new jobs having been created in the agricultural sector. A large percentage of citizens around the world are no longer as poor as they once were, and we know people from all over the world now, whereas not too long ago our circle of acquaintances used to be smaller and more homogenous. Our world has become more colourful. There seems to be no reasons why we cannot collectively tackle the ecological problems of the global economy has accentuated. The present issue of the goodnews introduces some of these approaches. In the meantime, let’s all go for a swim!

Summerly yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Electric City

It’s strange type of energy
Highly ranged mentality
Common truth of this reality
Your new idol is in high intensity
You ask me why
am I this way
‘cause it’s in the flavour of my voice
That’s why,
that’s why,
that’s why…
You ask me why
much troubles in this world
‘cause it’s in the flavor of your mind
That’s why,
that’s why,
that’s why…
It’s conscious type of energy
Deeply structured sensitivity
Gently touching intelligence
The Gods message is in electricity

Sainkho Namtchylak

I recently heard Jeremy Narby talk about Psychedelic Plant Teachers; it was an excellent presentation. Thus I came to rethink my own connection to nature. Unfortunately, my relationship with the natural world is more theoretical than practical. Apart from my visits to the parks, the lake and the rivers that flow through the city I live in, and the sky above me, “real” nature is something I experience only exceptionally. That’s how it is for most city dwellers. Therefore I am not surprised that the more we lose contact with nature, including our inner nature, the more we worship her as our Mother. Our love of nature has taken on a quasi religious form, comparable to the love of distant gods or goddesses, which we can admire all the better because they remain alien to us. Will this love be enough to save the natural world as we know it and to save ourselves?

Naturally yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

P.S. You will find many current goodnews on our Facebook page, and our YouTube Channel is always worth a visit too

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All nature has a feeling

All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal: and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There’s nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal it its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.

John Clare

During the last weeks and months I have been working with Lucius Werthmüller, President of the Gaia Media Foundation, on the development of our ideas for the Gaia Media Library. The first thing I did last autumn was pre-sort the material, sixty-seven boxes full of books without the Sphinx archive! My apartment is full of books that will have to go back to where they came from and will be available in our Gaia Lounge in the future. We want to catalogue them and make this catalogue available online so that everyone who is interested can enjoy it, become a member and view our books, albeit not online, because this requires the consent of every single author. The main topics are psychedelics, shamanism, consciousness, ecology. Of course, the Sphinx archive will also be catalogued. We also have many books on «related topics,» which we also want to include over time. Our friend PJ Wassermann has provided us with the software he developed, called Museum Pro, which is an excellent tool for collectors. A number of titles have already been entered. With a little luck, the first results will be available in autumn.

Your bookworm
Susanne G. Seiler

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Wing Shows on Stairway Zodiac Carousel

Cyclones
of ecstatic dust

and ashes whirl
crusaders
from hallucinatory citadels
of shattered glass
into evacuate craters

A flock of dreams
browse on Necropolis

From the shores
of oval oceans
in the oxidized Orient

Onyx-eyed Odalisques
and ornithologists
observe the flight
of Eros obsolete

And «Immortality»
mildews
in the museums of the moon

Mina Loy