A conversation with entrepreneur Daniel Häni on the Karma for Everyone [Karma für alle] initiative, past lives, reverse cultus, and the potential in public initiatives for raising awareness. Häni, co-founder and co-managing director of the coffeehouse/event space Unternehmen Mitte in Basel, and Enno Schmidt launched the initiative for a universal basic income in Switzerland in 2006. Enno Schmidt asks the questions.
Daniel, what kind of person are you?
A person of the middle.
I see you more as a doer, with ideas and a desire to provoke.
Provocation is only a means, not my real being.
How would you describe your being?
I’m an entrepreneur—at the same time, my real being is also sensitive to the arts and politics. I live in the space of these three fields of society and in what connects them.
What are you personally focused on these days in terms of your being?
The new understanding of the human being. What it means to be human is now being redefined. The soul is at stake. A cultural struggle between transhumanism, retreating into privacy, self-empowerment, and expanded spirituality. In my view, the redefinition of humanity must be one of self-definition. With artificial intelligence, we are challenging ourselves to do just that. I think it’s exciting to be alive now. Today’s Mysteries are Mysteries of the will.
Joseph Beuys says, “It all comes down to the character of warmth in thinking. That is the new quality of will.” And: “The Mysteries take place in the train station, not in the Goetheanum.” Does that have anything to do with what you mean?
Yes. Beuys was a master at coming up with such formulations. He used them to express the questions and sentiments of an entire generation: Get out of the back rooms. Show yourself. The public sphere. Processes of warmth. Humanity has crossed the threshold. What does that mean today?
It means that everyone is entering into spiritual realities in their lives, not just the chosen few in the temple.
Before the eyes of all, through all, and for all!
You came up with the phrase: “Karma for Everyone.” What does that mean?
I believe we probably don’t just live once, and that things that happen to us are not arbitrary. It is time to make the topics of reincarnation and destiny more discussable.
Do you see what happens to you as predestined?
Not deterministically. It comes down to what I make out of what happens and what I encounter. As a free human being, I can behave in one way or another, or not at all, or in a completely new way. Destiny is my opportunity.
And how you behave in these situations has consequences and creates preconditions for your future?
Absolutely! Otherwise, it would be difficult to build something and give meaning to life. This is possible because actions have consequences. Imagine doing something, and nothing happens. Responsibility would be impossible.
What do you consider to be the most consequential thing you’ve done in life?
Exoterically, the public initiative for a universal basic income. We reached millions of people with this narrative and campaign. This also involved Unternehmen Mitte, which formed the basis for the public initiative and my other enterprises. Looking further, it’s my collaboration in the Youth Circle.
You mean the Esoteric Youth Circle [Jugendkreis]. What does it mean to you?
A modern nuclear power plant. A community of meditants that serves the spirit of the times. With a three-part meditation that unfolds over the night and day, we build a “vehicle” for the spirit of the times. For me, it is groundbreaking in that we don’t meditate for ourselves, but rather make the force we generate available for potentizing.
How did you get involved with this?
It was 1995, when I was searching for an esoteric anchor for my life. I was very attracted to the organizational form: people join this powerhouse entirely of their own accord, by speaking out loud a pledge in the presence of other participants, who merely bear witness. In doing so, the assessment of each person is entrusted to spiritual beings. This is remarkable and socially practical because it eliminates assessing each other and makes the whole thing dynamic. The resolution to do this goes beyond the current life.
A resolution beyond the present life—how do you understand that?
As an expanded horizon of life. I take it as self-evident that I have been reborn and will be again.
Have you had experiences that have shown you an existence beyond your current life?
My mother died when I was five years old. I experienced her death as a transformation rather than something final. But I found the adults in the Protestant village in the Bern-Mittelland, where I grew up, quite difficult to deal with. Everyone was staring down into the grave and didn’t notice my mother’s presence. They pitied me. I found the adults rather strange. I always felt accompanied by my mother, even into adulthood. She gave me strength and enabled me to become independent at an early age.
Do you have memories of your own past lives?
Yes, but that’s a sensitive subject.
How did this come about?
A long time ago, a friend researching karma put an envelope in my mailbox. There was information about who I was supposed to have been in my last life. I found this completely unacceptable and intrusive because I hadn’t asked him about it. I rejected his statements. Only after some time did I investigate his thesis and was astounded by the connections I could see and feel to my current life.
What kind of connections are these?
Above all, the continuity of impulses. But also certain idiosyncrasies of mine—for example, I sometimes have a certain severity in my being if I’m startled—where does this come from? It has its source, even though I’m a different person today with different capacities. It also helps me better understand why I react or have reacted emotionally to certain things. With this background, I was able to transform these emotions. Strong aversions turned into strong relationships.
Did it have any other effects on you?
It had an overall strengthening and grounding effect on my life goals. But I didn’t really have opportunities to discuss these connections. Later, I met someone who’d experienced a similar destiny. They had also been given the “name” of who they were in their last life. And these two people had been connected in their previous lives. When we noticed the parallels, we decided to talk about it openly together. This led to a deeper sense of connection with life and a shift to the possibility that we actually were these people in our previous lives.
Did you feel that this was a way to verify whether your assumptions about your previous earthly lives were correct?
No, we lacked the possibility for this. We did do Steiner’s karma exercises together. That provided a foundation, but there was also a worry that we’d only be reinforcing each other’s assumptions. Then I took the opportunity to have a karma therapist guide me back into this previous life and into earlier ones. It astounded me, as she created a safe space and imaginatively guided me into these past lives while I was in a state of day-waking consciousness.
Did that give you certainty as to whether it was fabricated or could, in fact, be true?
It made the story more plausible. I was experiencing it from the inside. At the same time, though, it also made me more relaxed and open to the possibility that it might not be true. Or that it might not be entirely true. What I have already learned from it for my current life remains valid, regardless of whether the story is true or not. The truly fruitful and liberating thing is to be able to take this perspective. It increases one’s readiness to accept life.
So it’s not about defining who someone was, but rather playing with perspectives? Is it just a game then?
Playful, yes; unserious, no. In my experience, when it comes to the experiences themselves, it is essentially not about who someone was, but rather what it provides for understanding our present and future life. I want to encourage others to approach these questions with courage and caution. I have yet to meet anyone who is incapable of doing so, but I have met many who won’t dare to consider it or tense up when trying. My argument is: we talk about so many things we know nothing about for certain. Why not learn to talk about previous lives and, at least, take them into consideration?
“Karma for everyone” is not just a phrase, but the title of a project. What’s it about?
We’re currently preparing a pilot project with Witten/Herdecke University that uses surveys to investigate the effects of a shift in perspective from “only one life” to “repeated lives.” How does the perspective of living only once or multiple times influence your sense of responsibility, your feeling toward life, your work, and how you deal with crises?
What kind of results are you hoping for from the study?
That many people participate and practice changing their perspective! There is no proof that there aren’t repeated lives on Earth. I find it fruitful to consider the possibility. The results will not be the only important thing. But they may perhaps be groundbreaking. As with a referendum, the process of raising awareness is more important than the result of the vote.
You seem to enjoy process—what is transitional, not final.
I experience finality as alien to life. I like the permanently provisional. I seek proportion. In good Swiss tradition, I like to answer with “depending on” and “both/and.”
By “both/and,” do you mean at least not doing anything wrong?
I experience finality as alien to life. I like the permanently provisional. I seek proportion. In good Swiss tradition, I like to answer with “depending on” and “both/and.”
Depending on the situation. It can also be a mistake not to do something wrong…
In the realm of the undefined, where are you?
Not defining things keeps me awake and capable of action. Definition can be useful to get started. But then it’s better to let it go again.
How do you find inspiration?
Socratically, through others; alone, I’m nothing. Ideas come to me when I ask someone something or when I’m asked something. Being alone or ignored is the worst punishment for me. At Public Secrets, we have developed a conversation format based entirely on questions as an organ of perception. For me, it’s a joy.
You co-founded the Public Secrets Ensemble. You are interested in creating opportunities for encounters and exchange so that, as Beuys said, the secrets become productive?
Yes. I really like the productive aspect. I like making things accessible, and I like the closeness between the members of the ensemble, without anyone telling anyone else what to do. There is no program. Initiative comes first. I think that’s very contemporary. I think the Public Secrets Ensemble is a bit like a reverse cultus in nature.
What do you understand by “reverse cultus”?
We’re all familiar with the cultus of the church. There, you’re a recipient. Reverse cultus means that you also become the giver. You take initiative. You’re not only the vessel for the divine, but you actively approach it. You help bring it forth, transforming from a creature into a creator. In sociology, this is referred to as “top-down” and “bottom-up.” Politically, we know it as the federalist and direct democratic principle of subsidiarity. In my view, this is related to the reverse cultus. The universal basic income also follows this direction.
A cultus is an esoteric event. What is your experience of the esoteric nature of a reverse cultus?
Inwardly, cultus has to do with community. I experience the reverse cultus in the paradox of combining the highest volitional activity of one’s own free will with a higher and shared non-intentionality. Willing something strongly without forcing it. A “house for nothing,” as we call it at Public Secrets. When the reverse cultus succeeds in a team, I sense a “magical being of will.”
In a referendum, attitudes become apparent in the questions put to the vote, and these attitudes can thus change through interacting at the level of a public debate, and can renew the community. You’ve already developed a format that actively promotes public initiative.
Yes, I want to build a platform for public initiative with a team that is fully dedicated to perceiving the spirit of the times and formulating questions. What are the most relevant questions in society that can be formulated as public initiatives for a referendum?
What do you need to implement this?
Until now, everything has been done by volunteers. The next step is to work with a professional team to show how an incubator for societal development and agenda-setting can work effectively. I can imagine a media competition for the best political ideas—it could be called “The Political Voice of Switzerland.” A television format. The winners of the competition would receive everything they need to successfully launch a public initiative.
As a platform builder, your goal is to bring people together in a way that is ultimately unintentional, with no predetermined outcome, that can lead to things otherwise not possible. What is hidden becomes apparent, and the future becomes reality. Is this an impulse that runs through your incarnations, the impulse to bring vitality to things?
Yes. Liquefying the solid and enabling the unprecedented. That’s a good summation of the continuity. Vitality [Lebendigkeit] is a good keyword to mention a special example: I’m involved in the company Pneumatit. It’s about bringing life into concrete. We sell a biodynamic preparation that’s added to mixed concrete. People report that the concrete mixed with the Pneumatit preparation has a warmth, softness, and life-giving quality to it. Physically, the concrete remains the same. The preparation works on the etheric plane.
As etheric researcher Birgit Ebel says: the etheric is the new plane of reality. It’s about consciously dealing with the forces of life. Natural vitality is declining.
Yes, it’s actually declining dramatically. This can be seen and measured in soil fertility and the vitality and quantity of the microbiome. I want to help reverse this trend. How is it possible to increase soil fertility again? Pictorially speaking, how is it possible to plant the desert, as Sekem in Egypt is already showing us? What can we learn from this to promote vitality and fertility here, too? Should we, for example, protect the dignity of the microbiome by writing it into our constitution?
“Microbiome in the constitution”—is that the proposal for the next public initiative? You like public initiatives?
In my opinion, public initiatives are the most efficient and promising means of raising awareness. With relatively little effort, we can reach and engage millions of people. This goes much deeper and further than a lecture, a book, or a film. You reach people as co-creators and co-decision-makers. A referendum is an event, real and existential, with consequences. You’re on the plane of reality and enter the biggest stage for societal development.
Do you also have self-doubt?
Yes, when I say “no” to something. That’s when I start to have doubts. When destiny presents me with an opportunity, I’m aware of the obstacles that come when I say “no.” Isn’t destiny more intelligent than my preferences? I want to become someone who says “yes.” Amor fati [Love fate.]
Translation Joshua Kelberman
Title image Daniel Häni, Photo: Enno Schmidt
