Gaia Media Foundation

Established in Basel in 1993, the Gaia Media Foundation is a non-profit organization, which conveys a holistic and up to date understanding of the potential of the human consciousness. It advocates the firm belief that the ability and desire to achieve transcendence is inherent in man, and that expanded states of consciousness shed light upon the knowledge of the laws of life, of nature, of the universe, and of Gaia. It equally respects the knowledge and the experiences of ancient cultures, of modern science, and of spiritual traditions without committing itself to a particular view or direction. An awareness corresponding to universal laws not only guarantees man the surviving, but also allows a symbiotic and hedonistic existence on Gaia, our home planet.
The foundation promotes, circulates, and networks - via gaiamedianews (website and newsletter) - ancient and modern knowledge about Gaia and about the expansion and evolution of our consciousness. Under the title "The Spirit of Basel" it stages lectures, symposiums, exhibitions, etc. on all aspects and phenomena of the human consciousness.

The Gaia Theory
Nowadays when speaking of our planet earth, many are familiar with the term «Geo», as in Geology or Geography. Geo is a modern derivation of the name of the ancient Greeks' earth goddess «Gaia».
William Golding (1911-1993), the Nobel Prize winning author of «Lord of the Flies», reintroduced the ancient term «Gaia» into modern usage through his literature. Golding had first become acquainted with Gaia through his neighbor in the small English village of Devonshire - physician, cybernetician and climatologist James Lovelock.
In 1970, Lovelock, along with biologist Lynn Margulis, developed the so-called «Gaia Theory». This hypothesis suggests that Earth is a self-regulating system in which conditions suitable for life are maintained by processes involving reciprocal feedback between both living things and the non-living part of the planet. Our planet is more complex and more capable of survival than assumed till now.

The Brief History of Gaia
The Earth - Gaia - is about 4,6 billion years old. For an easier understanding, let’s cut this time-span down to 46 years. The early years of Gaia's existence are clouded in the mists of history. It wasn't until the age of 42 that the earth started to bloom. After about 44 years, dinosaurs inhabited the planet. Some eight months ago the first mammals evolved, and during this last week the first hominids entered the scene. Modern man has existed for only about four hours; some sixty minutes ago he took up agriculture, and a minute ago the industrial revolution began. During these very last sixty seconds man has managed to turn Gaia into a garbage dump, to exterminate thousands of plant and animal species, to kill an uncountable number of his own kind, to loot the planet's resources, to pollute soil, air and water and to leave radiating waste for future generations.
Within the next few seconds, all of us will decide whether we are going to make life on Gaia impossible, or develop a consciousness that allows us a future existence with Gaia.
Lovelock and Margulis named their theory for the earth goddess «Gaia», because Earth and its atmosphere have the ability to regulate and sustain the necessary conditions for life. It would be wrong, however, to interpret these findings to mean that if we continue to go on as we have so far, that Gaia - Spaceship Earth - would live on though, without its human passengers.

The Gaia Media Foundation
In recent years, «Gaia» has become a synonym for a new way of looking at our planetary eco-system, the evolution of the world, and of ourselves who live in it. Our foundation is named Gaia Media because we intend to promote, spread and network the knowledge about Gaia, especially the knowledge about our consciousness, its altered states, and its development in the context of our evolution on a non-profit level and by means of a variety of media. We do not want to «change the world» or to «save the earth». We simply wish to contribute to a symbiosis between the wonders of creation and the potential of human consciousness.
The situation of mankind and our home planet as outlined before is a challenge of a complexity unknown to date, within an ever faster-changing framework of conditions and developments; especially a challenge to our mind and common sense, and ultimately to our consciousness. What we offer, and for which we see a strongly increasing demand, is information about all aspects of human consciousness; for a better understanding of the laws of life, nature, the universe, of Gaia and ourselves.

Gaia Media Foundation is entirely committed to the culture of consciousness. We are convinced that an altered and/or expanded consciousness not only makes possible the survival of mankind on Gaia, but also our integrative, symbiotic and last but not least, hedonistic existence within the variety of creation that surrounds us.

The Spirit of Basel
The town of Basel has a legendary humanistic tradition - be it the mind of Erasmus, the activities of Paracelcus or the discoveries of Albert Hofmann. In this historic setting, we organize lectures, seminars, and symposiums, around the aims and topics of the foundation.

We are grateful to those who have already been our guests: Ralph Abraham, Guenter Amendt, Wolfgang Bauer, Markus Berger, Mathias Broeckers, Govert Derix, Marlene Dobkin de Rios, Luisa Francia, Martin Frischknecht, Jochen Gartz, Steven Harrison, Kay Hoffman, Albert Hofmann, Michael Hutchison, Gerd König, John C. Lilly, Ralph Metzner, Claudia Mueller Ebeling, Jeremy Narby, Nana Nauwald, Patrizia Ochsner, Christian Raetsch, Fabio Ramirez, Manuel Schoch, Ann & Sasha Shulgin, Wolf Dieter Storl, Renato Strassmann, Maggie Tapert, Roberto Venosa.

The Gaia Media News
Back in September 2001 we mailed our first printed Newsletter, the last one, #14 last December 2005, and from now on our Newsletter comes electronically only, but more often.
In connection with the Symposium "LSD – Problem Child and Wonder Drug", many new addresses have accumulated from all over the world. To serve them all with a printed newsletter, and of course in both German and in English would be far beyond our financial possibilities. On the other side, many readers have expressed the wish for an electronic newsletter. Here you can "Subscribe" to our monthly Newsletter:news@gaiamedia.org.

The Board of Directors

Dieter A. Hagenbach
Founder and former director of Sphinx Bookshop and Sphinx Publishing, Basel, former Literary Agent, Founder and President

Dr. Albert Hofmann
Chemist, discoverer of LSD

Michael Gasser
Bio-chemist, former director of Gaia Bazar and Gaia Lounge

Lucius Werthmüller
President of the Basel Psi-Association, Project Manager of the Basel Psi-Days, Co-Founder