Gaia, Inc.

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Gaia, Inc.
Company typePublic
Nasdaq: GAIA (Class A)
Russell 2000 Component
IndustryVideo production
Founded1988; 36 years ago (1988)
Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
FounderJirka Rysavy
Headquarters
Louisville, Colorado
,
United States
Websitewww.gaia.com

Gaia, Inc., formerly Gaiam, is a global digital pseudoscience and yoga video streaming service and online community delivering curated media to 515,000 subscribers in over 185 countries.[1] Its brands include Gaiam TV which changed its name to Gaia in 2016.[2] The site contains video and written articles on yoga, psychedelics and pseudoscience.[3][4] Hosted media topics focus on fringe theories, conspiracy theories, and alternative medicine.[5]

History

Gaiam was founded in Boulder, Colorado in 1988 by Jirka Rysavy.[6] His vision was to serve the "conscious consumer", a group subsequently named the "Cultural Creatives" by sociologist Paul Ray in 1996: educated consumers who make purchasing decisions based on their values.[7] The company states that its name was the result of fusing "Gaia", a mother earth deity, with the phrase "I am", for the "interconnectivity of all things".[8]

In 2001, it merged with the Californian company Real Goods Solar.[9] In 2005, Gaiam acquired the media assets of GoodTimes Entertainment and Jetlag Productions.[10] In 2003, the company bought a 50.1% share in its UK distributor Leisure Systems International (LSI).[11] In 2007, Gaiam acquired both Lime.com[12] and Zaadz.com[13] for a greater community presence. In 2011, the company launchrf Gaiam TV, a streaming service for videos on yoga, meditation and pseudoscience.[14] renamed to Gaia in 2015.[15] In 2012, Gaiam acquired a DVD distributor from Universal Music Group Distribution, a subsidiary of Vivendi, merging it with its home entertainment division to form Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment.[16][17] In 2019, USA Today ranked Gaia, Inc as the world's fastest growing retailer.[18]

In June 2019, Gaia started live streaming events from a new event center at its Louisville campus.[19][20][21] Events are live streamed in 185 countries with simultaneous translation,[22] and feature speakers such as Gregg Braden, Caroline Myss, Bruce Lipton, and Graham Hancock.[23]

Meditation intention experiment

From September 30 to October 5, 2017, Lynne McTaggart hosted an American Peace Intention Experiment, broadcast on Gaia TV.[24] The experiment involved large numbers of people participating in group meditation specifically directed at decreasing violent crime in Fairground, an area around the Natural Bridge Avenue in Northern St. Louis, Missouri, which was rated the most dangerous street in America.[25][26] For six months after the experiment. Dr. Jessica Utts, a University of California professor of statistics, analyzed four sets of crime data in St. Louis from September 2014 to March 2018 to determine what affect the Experiment had on crime.[26] From October 2017 to March 2018, property crime increased in Fairground, but violent crime decreased.[27] McTaggart reported that she did not know if the decrease in crime was caused by the Experiment or not, but that she continued to have hope.[26]

Controversy

A show hosted by George Noory, covers several pseudoscientific topics such as psychic vampires, Hollow Earth theory, and mummified aliens.[28][29][30][31]This content has been criticized as misleading or falsified.[28][32] Further criticism by a former content producer, Patty Greer, ended with a lawsuit and a public apology to Gaia by Greer.[33][34][35][36]

References

  1. ^ Gaia Press Release titled 'Gaia Reports Third Quarter 2018 Results' dated November 5, 2018.
  2. ^ Miller, Ben (11 May 2016). "Gaiam metamorphosis: Will sell its yoga brand and also change its name". Denver Business Journal. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Documentaries of Gaia.com". gaia.com. Archived from the original on 2019-01-13. Retrieved 2019-01-13.
  4. ^ Murphy, Duane Paul (2018-09-25). "The Gaia Deception: Digital New Age Nonsense". TheHumanist.com. Retrieved 2019-05-21.
  5. ^ "Topics of Gaia.com". Gaia. Archived from the original on 2019-01-10.
  6. ^ 'Gaiam Third Child of Entrepreneur Rysavy,' Boulder County Business Report, November 1, 1998, p. 1.
  7. ^ Ray, P. H. (2001). The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World. New York: Broadway
  8. ^ "Our Name". Gaiam. Retrieved 2 August 2019.
  9. ^ 'Gaiam, Real Goods to Merge,' Denver Post, October 17, 2000, p. C2.
  10. ^ Gaiam closes GoodTimes Entertainment Deal at $35M" Archived 2013-12-14 at the Wayback Machine. Denver Business Journal. 9-14-2005. Retrieved 12-20-2012.
  11. ^ Gaiam, Inc. (2003). 10-K Annual Report 2003. Retrieved December 20, 2012 from Gaiam Corporate Website Archived June 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
  12. ^ "Gaiam, Zaadz, LIME Media & Conscious Enlightenment Create Unified Source for LOHAS". Bloomberg. 6-6-2007.
  13. ^ Zaadz: Green Living Social Network Acquired" Archived 2013-01-26 at the Wayback Machine. Mashable. 6-6-2007. Retrieved 12-20-2012
  14. ^ Gaiam, Inc (2011). 10-K Annual Report 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2012 from Gaiam Corporate Website. Archived February 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "Gaiam TV Is Now Gaia." Retrieved 24 November , 2015, from Gaia corporate website. Archived 2015-11-25 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Gaiam Completes Acquisition of Vivendi Entertainment Creating Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment, the Nation’s Largest Independent Content Distributor - MarketWatch Archived 2012-05-05 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "Gaiam Acquires Vivendi Entertainment: Deal creates major indie distrib of nontheatrical content" Archived 2012-06-29 at the Wayback Machine. Variety Magazine. 4-3-2012. Retrieved 12-20-2012
  18. ^ "Among the world's 20 fastest growing retailers, Amazon just ranks at No. 4". USA Today. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
  19. ^ "Gaia to launch live streaming from Louisville campus". Boulder Daily Camera. 2019-04-27. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  20. ^ "Gaia to launch live streaming from Louisville campus". Boulder Daily Camera. 2019-04-27. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  21. ^ "Gaia Widens Loss In Q3 | SGB Media Online". sgbonline.com. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  22. ^ "Louisville's Gaia grows revenue, aims for 1M subscribers by 2019". Longmont Times-Call. 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
  23. ^ "Louisville's Gaia grows revenue, aims for 1M subscribers by 2019". Longmont Times-Call. 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  24. ^ "American Peace Intention Experiment". ggsc.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-10.
  25. ^ "Peace Intention Experiment". noosphere.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  26. ^ a b c "The results of the American Peace Intention Experiment - Lynne McTaggart". Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  27. ^ "SLMPD Crime Statistics". www.slmpd.org. Retrieved 2019-08-02.
  28. ^ a b "An ancient, mummified alien has been found, group claims". The Independent. 2017-06-26. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  29. ^ "'Alien' mummies likely to be distorted, stolen Nazca bodies". NewsComAu. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  30. ^ Heaney, Christopher. "The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  31. ^ "George Noory's Online TV Show Launches December 14th" Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine. All Access. 12-11-2012.
  32. ^ "FACT CHECK: Did Researchers Find a Mummified, Three-Fingered Alien in Nazca, Peru?". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2018-04-02.
  33. ^ Pampuro, Amanda (2018-08-21). "Gaia Hits Filmmaker Patty Greer With an Old-School Weapon: a Lawsuit". Westword. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  34. ^ "UFO filmmaker who called former client 'Luciferian' sued for defamation". BusinessDen. 2018-08-09. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  35. ^ Pampuro, Amanda (2018-12-31). "Slander Suit Against Filmmaker Patty Greer Dismissed, Then Refiled". Westword. Retrieved 2019-01-14.
  36. ^ "CropCircleFilms.com Offers Patty Greer's Award Winning Crop Circle UFO Films". Crop Circle Films. Retrieved 2019-08-19.

External links

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