Lucius Werthmüller

Lucius Werthmüller was born 1958 in Basel, Switzerland. He is a consciousness researcher and parapsychologist. Since 1991 he has been president of the Basel Psi Association with over 1,200 members, the largest organization in the field of the paranormal and the spiritual in Switzerland, and is editor of the Psi-Info, a magazine.  In 2000 he was awarded the “Swiss Foundation for Parapsychology” prize. For eight years Lucius was project manager of the “Basel Psi-Days,” a congress with the reputation as the most important public congress on “border areas” of science worldwide. Since 1992 he has run an antique bookshop specializing in parapsychology and spirituality.

Lucius is a founding board member of the Gaia Media Foundation. He was project manager of the international symposium “LSD – Problem Child and Wonder Drug” in January 2006 on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Albert Hofmann in Basel and of the “World Psychedelic Forum” held in 2008. Lucius met Albert Hofmann, who was a good friend of his parents, as a child and remaining close to him until the end of his life. Lucius has three adult sons and lives with his partner, Sabin, in Basel.

Dieter Hagenbach was born 1943 in Basel, Switzerland and studied architecture and the arts at the Academy of Fine Arts, Düsseldorf, Germany. In 1975 he founded Sphinx publishing house, with works by Joseph Campbell, H.R. Giger, George Gurdjieff, Jean Houston, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Terence McKenna, Alan Watts, Robert Anton Wilson, among others. From 1977–1986 he was editor of Sphinx magazine and the German language edition of the Brain/Mind Bulletin.

Dieter Hagenbach met Albert Hofmann in the mid-1970s and remained his friend until his death. In 1986 he published Albert Hofmann’s book Einsichten Ausblicke (Insight Outlook). From 1990–2005 Hagenbach acted as a literary agent. In 1993 he launched the Gaia Media Foundation. He was initiator and program manager of the international symposium “LSD – Problem Child and Wonder Drug” in Basel, 2006, on the occasion of Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday, and was in charge of the program for the 2008 “World Psychedelic Forum” in Basel. Since 2002 Dieter Hagenbach has been the editor of the Gaia Media Foundation website and the monthly electronic GoodNewsLetter.

Ram Dass first went to India in 1967. He was still Dr. Richard Alpert, an already eminent Harvard psychologist and psychedelic pioneer with Dr.Timothy Leary. He had continued his psychedelic research until that fateful Eastern trip in 1967, when he traveled to India. In India, he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharaj-ji, who gave Ram Dass his name, which means “servant of God.” Everything changed then – his intense dharmic life started, and he became a pivotal influence on a culture that has reverberated with the words “Be Here Now” ever since. Ram Dass’s spirit has been a guiding light for three generations, carrying along millions on the journey, helping free them from their bonds as he has worked his way through his own.

Since 1968, Ram Dass has pursued a panoramic array of spiritual methods and practices from potent ancient wisdom traditions, including bhakti or devotional yoga focused on the Hindu deity Hanuman; Buddhist meditation in the Theravadin, Mahayana Tibetan and Zen Buddhist schools, and Sufi and Jewish mystical studies. Perhaps most significantly, his practice of karma yoga or spiritual service has opened up millions of other souls to their deep, yet individuated spiritual practice and path. Ram Dass continues to uphold the bodhisatva ideal for others through his compassionate sharing of true knowledge and vision. His unique skill in getting people to cut through and feel divine love without dogma is still a positive influence on many, many people from all over the planet.

Ralph Metzner

Ralph passed away peacefully in sleep March 14, 2019. He will be greatly missed.

Ralph Metzner’s work stretches the boundaries of traditional psychology by incorporating shamanic methods that transform consciousness and expand our understanding of the human psyche. Ralph Metzner, PhD who has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and psychology from Oxford University and a PhD in clinical psychology from Harvard University, has been involved in the study of transformations of consciousness ever since, as a graduate student, he worked with Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) on the Harvard Psilocybin Projects. He co-wrote The Psychedelic Experience, and was editor of The Psychedelic Review. During the 1970s, Ralph spent 10 years in the intensive study and practice of Agni Yoga, a meditative system of working with light-fire life-energies.

He wrote Maps of Consciousness, one of the earliest attempts at a comparative cartography of consciousness; and Know Your Type, a comparative survey of personality typologies, ancient and modern. He was the Academic Dean for ten years, during the 1980s, at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he taught courses there on “Altered States of Consciousness” and “Developing Ecological Consciousness.” He is now Professor Emeritus. His books include The Well of Remembrance, The Unfolding Self, Green Psychology, and two edited collections on the science and the phenomenology of Ayahuasca and Teonanácatl.

He maintained a part-time psychotherapy practice, and conducted numerous workshops on consciousness transformation, both nationally and internationally.

Henry Field was born in 1902. He was an american anthropologist who studied in England, graduating from Oxford University in 1925. He worked as Assistant Curator of Physical Anthropology in the Field Museum of Natural History, and held the position of Curator from 1934-1941. Field participated in several of the Museum’s Near East expeditions. Throughout his career, Field participated in archaeological expeditions in Europe, Africa, Mongolia and Southwest Asia. He also led expeditions to Europe, the North Arabian Desert, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He was a member of the University of California African Expedition (1947-48), and the Peabody Museum-Harvard Expedition to the Near East and Pakistan. Henry Field received many honors and awards during his career as an Anthropologist. He was a research fellow in the physical anthropology department at Harvard from 1950-1969 and was also an honorary member of the Glasgow Archaeological Society. He also joined several foreign scientific societies and organizations in the Untied States and many other countries. Henry Field died in 1986 in Miami, Florida.