Dear Visitor,

We appreciate your visit to our site! We believe a discourse on the subject ‘Privacy Policy’ is not only ‘good etiquette’ but allows us to define how we see our presence on the Internet and how we approach the two distinct modes of our interaction with you.

1.0 Abstract Interaction

We have built and maintain our website with the concept in mind that the Internet in it’s current developmental stage is the closest approximation of an electronic, virtual representation of the ‘akashic records’ of Theosophy or ‘the collective unconscious’ of Jung. In other words, we let our flag fly in the ever-changing currents of the Internet and see it first and foremost as an exercise in interacting with an abstract consciousness, beyond linearity.

1.1 Abstract Interaction Endangered by Human Ingenuity

On the other hand, we – just as any other website owner - get statistical data via our web host that indicate a certain number of persons (among them: you!) have visited us and have looked at so-and-so many pages for such-and-such amounts of time. These statistical data carry with them an imminent danger of interfering with the abstract function of cyberspace, since they support falling back into a linear, binary model of ‘we here – you there’ when in fact we do not even know for sure that ‘you there’ are truly visiting ‘us here’ or rather: our in-cyberspace representation of what we are. The entry ‘visitor’ in our statistics may have been caused by numerous factors such as an electronic robot or spider, a simple error or indeed your visit.  

1.2 Abstract Interaction Endangered by Human Ingenuity, Cont’d

Territorial instinct-driven organizations tend to desire to undo the abstractness of cyberspace by collecting as much data as possible about the numbers and behavior of their potential customers or supporters and it is, therefore, no wonder that many devices for websites have been invented to track the visitor or even intrude upon his privacy. We do not participate in any such attempt at collecting personal data and our website itself does therefore not send any so-called cookies or any other device.

2.0 Dual Purpose of Website to serve Abstract as well as Concrete Interaction

Our website has a dual purpose, though, in that it enables you, the visitor, to step out of your anonymity and initiate a direct interaction with us; for this purpose, we provide email addresses, mailing address and phone number as well as an installed secure shopping cart, which is managed by PayPal. This secure cart sends a ‘session cookie’ and once you proceed with placing an order, PayPal has to collect certain data about you in order to verify that you are indeed the one you claim to be – for a full disclosure of their Privacy Policy, please refer to their website, www.paypal.com.  

2.1 Concrete Interaction Initiated by Visitor

Once you choose to initiate a direct interaction with us, either via email or via the secure shopping cart, your interaction with us transits from being abstract to being concrete and in the course of this direct interaction we may acquire such specific personal information as your email address, name, shipping and mailing address or any other personal information that you voluntarily disclose. We do not share, sell to, forward to or trade such information with anyone unless ordered by a legitimate court of law to do so.

3. Warning against Potential Danger from ‘Spoof Emails’

We disclose several of our email addresses on our website, and some other websites who link to us feature one or more of our email addresses, too. These email addresses are thus in the public domain and may get ‘harvested’ by so-called ‘spam bots’ or other third parties for malicious purposes without our knowledge, which is outside of our sphere of influence. Should you receive any unsolicited, suspicious email that seems to originate with us (‘spoof email’, posing as something it is not), we strongly suggest that you do not open the email but rather delete it. We never send any unsolicited email with an attachment and warn you specifically against opening the attachment of such an email.

AlchemiaNova Privacy Policy, current version revised and updated Sep. 2004