Last Updated on August 16, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
We have seen that there are meditation retreat centers built at places where only rich people can a afford to build houses. But how are they financed, and how can they be successful on the long-term?
In Switzerland, there is an ongoing clinical study about the effect of Psylocibin. The MIND Foundation is a European non-profit science and education organization that promotes psychedelic research and therapy. Vanja Palmers is a spokesman of the MIND foundation, but also teacher at the Felsentor Retreat Center and the Zendo Meditation Center on the River in Lucerne.
Psylocibin is a psychotropic drug, and if these studies are successful, Psylocibin will be sold by pharmaceutical companies. So again, we are asking, who is funding these projects, the retreat centers and the Psylocibin studies, and what are the goals behind it?
For instance is the goal of all of this, to find out what is better, Psylocibin or practicing meditation? Or are the centers where million heir Vanja Palmers teaches mainly funded by Palmers?
If we look at the centers of the Swiss Buddhist Union:
we can see that only view are in the «league» of Lhagsam Tibetan Meditation, The Felsentor Retreat Center:
and the Zendo Meditation Center on the River in Lucerne. These centers where build at exensive locations. But other meditation retreat centers have budget gaps which are getting bigger every day and cannot be made good by their organisation alone, as for instance Ganden Chökhor in Churwalden Switzerland:
It is difficult to find meditation retreat centers in Switzerland which are alive and florishing. Can such centers be successful in Switzerland, where rents for houses are high? We have such centers for instance in South of France, Plum Village, Lerab Ling or Amrit Nam Sarovar (ANS). But where are these centers in Switzerland? Yes, there are such centers, if we look at the list of centers above. But we know little about those, and we hear also little of those.