One of Oregon’s approved and licensed psilocybin facilitator training programs has paused classes amid bankruptcy, leaving students hoping to get licensed, some of whom paid $10,000, in limbo.
Synthesis Institute, a Dutch company with U.S. subsidiaries, has offered programs to train psychedelic facilitators since 2018.
A spokesperson for Synthesis said Monday that they didn’t immediately have the exact number of students enrolled in programs, but participants estimate that 200 or more students are affected by the shutdown, both in Oregon and elsewhere. An email sent by the company to program participants Monday night went to 292 recipients.
Psilocybin facilitator training is required for people who want to be licensed psilocybin facilitators as part of Oregon’s voter-approved therapeutic psychedelic mushroom program. That program officially began in January, though training programs have been up and running since fall of 2022.
In November, Synthesis, one of 21 programs active in the state, began offering its “Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training” for Oregon students hoping to become facilitators in the state’s legal, therapeutic psilocybin program. That program was set to take 13 months and cost a minimum of $9,997 for those who paid in full upfront.
According to a statement sent via that spokesperson, Canada-based company Retreat Guru, a company that builds websites, does booking and processes payments for psychedelic and wellness retreat centers worldwide, is attempting to take the reins at Synthesis.
“Retreat Guru is in the process of acquiring the Psychedelic Practitioner Training Program from Synthesis Digital,” the statement said, “and has assumed operation of the program effective Saturday, March 4. Retreat Guru will have a more detailed announcement in the coming days as we prioritize formalizing our relationship with the program facilitators and communicating with current students. Current programs are on hold for one week and expected to resume next week.”
Students are unsure whether the payment processing firm will be able to deliver the training they expected and what a certificate from Retreat Guru would be worth.
At the beginning of a recorded Zoom call with Retreat Guru leadership and Synthesis students on Saturday that was shared with The Oregonian/OregonLive, Retreat Guru CEO and co-founder, Cameron Wenaus asked participants to share a few words in the chat about how they were feeling.
“Furious, hopeful, frustrated, big breath and optimistic, worried, in limbo, frustrated, misled,” Wenaus read. “Inspired concern, discouraged, very discouraged, hopeful, confused.”
Then his brother, CTO and co-founder Deryk Wenaus took up the reading.
“Trapped, tired, defrauded. concerned, flabbergasted, defrauded, skeptical, curious, bewildered, relieved, slightly scammed,” the elder Wenaus read.
The first sign of trouble came on Feb. 16, when Synthesis abruptly canceled an online conference just a day before it was due to begin.
Until recently, Rachel Aidan was the CEO of Synthesis Institute. Aidan lives in Oregon and is engaged to Tom Eckert. Eckert is one of the architects of Oregon’s legal psilocybin program and the director of another psilocybin facilitator program, InnerTrek.
Synthesis was also in the process of developing a psilocybin service center in Jackson County called Buckhorn Springs.
According to the Jackson County Assessor’s Office, Oregon Retreat Centers LLC, a company associated with Synthesis, purchased Buckhorn Springs for $3.6 million in June 2021. Though Jackson County voted to opt-in to psilocybin services in the county, county commissioners passed time, place and manner rules that say psilocybin businesses can only operate in “general commercial areas” of unincorporated Jackson County.
Synthesis said it was unable to say whether that project would continue, but according to another psilocybin business owner in the county, Mike Arnold, owner of Silo Wellness, the rules essentially mean that there will be no rural retreat centers in Jackson County.
In an email sent to students on Feb. 24, Aiden wrote: “Synthesis is currently in the process of changing its organizational and ownership structure.”
She told students she would have more information on Feb. 27.
“In the meantime,” Aiden wrote, “I want to assure you that as an active participant in the Psychedelic Practitioner Core Training your program will NOT be affected by the organizational shifts and the Program team is making it a priority to ensure minimal disruption to you and the program.”
On Feb. 27, Synthesis executive Martijn Schirp sent an email to students that read: “Our leadership team worked through the weekend in an effort to finalize aspects of the transition that would enable us to share the company’s ‘go forward’ strategy with confidence. While much progress was made, we have also been met with some unexpected variables that are going to take additional time to sort through.”
Schirp, previously listed as “co-founder and visionary officer,” signed that email as “Founder & CEO.”
Then, on March 1, students received an email from “The Synthesis Institute Support Team” that said, “As of this morning we do not have sufficient clarity on how the impending changes will impact our ability to continue supporting this program and as such, we need to pause the Psychedelic Practitioner (Core) Training.”
At that point, communication from Synthesis leadership stopped but they began to hear from Retreat Guru, including during the over-an-hour-long video call on Saturday.
In that call, Cameron Wenaus went into more depth about what had happened.
Retreat Guru is in trouble, he told participants in the meeting. His company processed payments for Synthesis trainings, meaning students paid Retreat Guru and Retreat Guru distributed the funds to Synthesis. So that means any refunds requested from students unhappy with the situation are coming to Retreat Guru, not Synthesis.
“So what happens is if everyone were to hit chargeback, the funds would come out of our account,” Cameron Wenaus said, “not Synthesis.”
Retreat Guru has no choice, Wenaus said, but to try to take over the program or attempt to pay out all those refunds themselves.
According to rules from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission, which licenses psilocybin facilitator training programs, if a licensed program closes, it is required to notify the commission 30 days before the closure.
“We don’t have specific information for students at this time regarding Synthesis because we have not received a formal closure notice,” said Endi Hartigan, a spokesperson for HECC.
In general, she said, the school is required to offer a free comparable alternative program for the students, a “teach-out” option. If that’s available and a student opts out of it, they can receive a pro-rated refund for the classes they missed, she added. If a teach-out is not available, the school must offer a full refund.
After the closing school notifies HECC of its plan, Hartigan said, within 60 days HECC is then required to notify students of a tuition protection payment plan, a state fund to refund students’ prepaid tuition if their school closes.
“The TPF is used as a last resort,” she added.
As far as whether a new owner would be able to take over the school and maintain its credentials, Hartigan said that if the school “has a new majority ownership, the school would have to go through a new application process, but there is a possibility of a temporary license in the interim.”
In an email sent from a personal email address belonging to Aiden on Monday evening, and signed by Synthesis’ Aiden, Schirp and co-founder Myles Katz, the three finally addressed the rapid downfall of their company.
“We are deeply sorry for the stress, anger and confusion that this has caused, and regret the impact that this has had on the entire community, to each of you individually, and your work,” they wrote, “particularly given the financial and emotional investment each student makes to complete the Synthesis training and certification.”
They then gave a list of reasons why Synthesis Digital, the branch of the business that operated the training program, shuttered.
The first item in their bullet-pointed list read: “Synthesis Digital reached the end of its financial runway in early 2023 as a result of unplanned financial circumstances that included Synthesis Retreats in the Netherlands.”
According to the email, on Feb. 27 “the Netherlands retreat operations filed for bankruptcy.”
On March 1, they said, an acquisition offer that had been in the works was rescinded and, on March 2 the company announced they would close operations.
“On the same day,” the email continued, “Retreat Guru contacted us to begin exploratory conversations to ensure the Synthesis certification continues.”
“We are assisting Retreat Guru in every way possible,” the email said, “and we truly believe that the program you are enrolled in is safe under the secure leadership of Retreat Guru’s co-founders, brothers Cameron and Deryk Wenaus, who are deeply committed to the psychedelic movement.”
On the Zoom call, the Wenaus brothers didn’t express sympathy for Synthesis’ financial status, reiterating they had no choice but to take over the training, and this wasn’t their area of expertise. As far as what happened to Synthesis, Cameron Wenaus said, “It was a deeply mismanaged situation, and that’s all we know. That’s it.”
When students asked how Retreat Guru had allowed this to happen, Deryk Wenaus said that the company generally holds 25% of the payments they take from a company back, in case anything goes wrong.
It is the company’s policy to disperse the rest of the funds after the program starts, he said. For Synthesis, that meant giving them the money when the 13-month program began, not keeping it back in case of a flood of refund requests.
“What we didn’t account for,” Deryk Wenaus said, “was how Synthesis was running. They were running these very expensive programs, and they were year-long programs, and that slipped under our radar of how exposed we were for this specific situation.”
That money, nearly $2 million, is gone. But, if all goes according to the hastily established plan, the pause in students’ training might be minimal.
“It’s our hope that we are going to deliver this program exactly as described,” Deryk Wenaus said. “That’s our plan. Deliver the program exactly what you paid for exactly what you signed it up for exactly to the contract. That’s the plan. We are so dedicated to seeing that happen.”
For the hundreds of students enrolled in the programs, both in Oregon and outside, the future is unclear. Some on the call seemed willing to continue their work with Retreat Guru.
Others, not so much.
Claire Johnson, a 28-year-old trainee from Portland who is hoping to start a career in Oregon’s burgeoning psilocybin industry, said she doesn’t trust Synthesis or Retreat Guru and wants a refund as she moves to a different training program.
“I want to see accountability and justice,” Johnson told The Oregonian/OregonLive, “because to me this is such an important, and also delicate emerging industry,” she said. “And it’s genuinely upsetting to me that this kind of corruption or unethical action could paint such a stain on some really valuable education that the faculty put together on their behalf.”
And, Johnson added, “I also want refunds for people who want refunds.”
— Lizzy Acker
503-221-8052; lacker@oregonian.com; @lizzzyacker
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