No Surprises – Insights!

We think it is especially important for you see and hear why people come to our retreats, what they experience and how it affects their behavior, relationship, understanding and life in general.

We ask our participants about their personal reasons for attending, their expectations and their experience at the retreat itself. And we think it is very useful for you that we share our continuously expanding insights with you here. We also shot a video with some of our participants descriptions, click here.

It was an experience like no other. I am deeply grateful to the wonderfully caring team, and the Synthesis management for making this possible.
FRANCK

Who is coming to Synthesis?

Let us give you a rough idea about our applicants so far.

Gender

Gender+percentages

Age

The age of our participants ranges from 18 to 80, with an average age of 45.

First-timers and experienced psychonauts

Have+You+Used+Psychedelics+Before_
Over the last few days since our ceremony I’ve had some of the best conversations I’ve had with colleagues and friends in years. The ceremony and where it took me, it helped me get focus on how I think about my life and profession. (...) So to me this was a life changing, before and after thing.
AXEL

Location

When grouped by country of residence, Synthesis Retreat applicants come from:  - The United States of America - 48.1%;  - The United Kingdom - 14%;  - France - 3.9%;  - Germany - 3.1%;  - Sweden - 3.1%;  - Australia - 3.1%;  - Ireland - 2.3%;  - Netherlands - 2.3%;  - Kuwait - 2.3%;  - Switzerland - 2.3%;  - Other countries - 15.5%.

Why are people coming to our retreats?

When asked what their main reasons for attending the retreat is, applicants responded:  - 16.4% are looking to generate more meaning in their life;  - 17.8% are hoping for a Mystical, Spiritual, Religious or Transcendental experience;  - 13.1% want to work on increasing their confidence and/or self-confidence;  - 12.1% wish to delve deeper into themselves, their thoughts and their motivations;  - 4.2% are looking to nurture their creative side;  - Finally, 26.6% had other, personal reasons.

So, how was it?

We are just as curious as you are about the experiences of our participants. Since it is our core mission to create the best guided psychedelic experience, we value our participants’ feedback.

Basic responses

To get a basic measure of satisfaction with the overall retreat experience, we asked our participants after the retreat, “How would you rate your Synthesis experience?”. Average answer: 9.7/10

How would you rate your experience, from 1 to 10?
I feel that I made one of the best decisions of my life by deciding to attend the Synthesis retreat. My life has improved on numerous fronts and I have adopted new practices (e.g., daily meditation and free-flow writing) to sustain my new outlook on life.
JAN

To get a better measure of satisfaction, we also asked participants if they'd consider coming again:

92.9% of applicants would consider attending another Synthesis Retreat.

With such a positive reponse, we asked participants about their reasons...

It was an overwhelmingly positive and profound experience for me.
I want to bring my wife and friends.

We did the same for the negative response:

Not right now. Maybe in another 10 years rather than 6 months. I worry that a second journey would be too likely to result in a disappointment compared to the first one. […]

Thank you again for organising such an amazing event and making it so rewarding for me and the other participants.

You guys made this possible... by your energy and compassion, by your intelligence, experience and humour... and by how you brought the group together skillfully and created an environment that helped everyone open up to one another.

It was quite special to feel so connected with a group of people in just a couple of short days. Everyone in the group really appreciated the opportunity to talk about psychedelics and bio-hacking with kindred spirits who share this unique and special interest.
RAPHAEL, 43, FROM SWITZERLAND
I feel that I made one of the best decisions of my life by deciding to attend the Synthesis retreat. My life has improved on numerous fronts and I have adopted new practices (e.g., daily meditation and free-flow writing) to sustain my new outlook on life.

I have learned that my ego, itself, is not a bad thing and that I need to have the same compassion for it that I have for other people. I have also learned to live in the present moment and embrace life as it comes to me.

In addition to gaining profound clarity on the self-betterment intentions I brought with me to the retreat, the bonds and relationships that I built with everyone else there were some of the strongest I have ever felt – an unexpected dividend of this experience.
JON, 27, FROM USA