The point of this article is to think what lessons can be learned from the situation and taken away by the psychedelic ecosystem, from the perspective of harm reduction.

Synthesis has had some high-profile problems in the last year, especially its $4 million retreat site in Oregon which turned out to be unusable for psilocybin retreats. But, through interviews with many people who worked at or for Synthesis, it’s clear there were deep-rooted problems from the start.

Martijn often talked in podcasts about the importance of “confronting the shadow.” But many employees say Synthesis had a big shadow side.

“There was a radical difference between what was showed externally and what went on inside,” says one veteran employee. Another employee says, “Anything that is happening today has deep roots. Right at the start there was already shadow and, I call it, a cancerous disease.”