The revival of Synthesis Institute

How Retreat Guru found itself in the psychedelic training business

Cameron (left and Deryk Wenaus, founders of Retreat Guru and now owners of Synthesis Training

Amazingly, it’s been less than eight months since the Synthesis Institute, a leading psychedelic retreat and training company, became the first high-profile psychedelic corporate to go bust. I wrote about it back in March, analysing what happened, and how some poor management decisions and a toxic management culture led to the company running out of cash.  

The bankruptcy was a particular shock for the students enrolled in Synthesis’ psychedelic facilitator training programme. Over a hundred students had paid tens of thousands of dollars to become workers in the glorious psychedelic future, especially in Oregon, where psychedelics were legalized and Synthesis planned to open a ‘service centre’. Many of those students went deep into credit card debt to follow their dream.

Synthesis’ collapse even threatened to bring down Retreat Guru, a website that lists spiritual retreats and provides payment processing for many retreat centres. Instead, Retreat Guru bought Synthesis’ training programme and relaunched it. How did that happen, and how is it going? I spoke to Retreat Guru’s founders, some Synthesis students and former staff to find out, as well as reaching out to the founders of the original Synthesis.