Psychedelics and Buddhism: Why Peak Experiences Aren't Enough (with Martijn Schirp)

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Jan 4, 2026

In this insightful discussion, Martijn Schirp, an entrepreneur and contemplative practitioner, shares his transformative journey from professional poker player to co-founding a legal psilocybin retreat center. He reveals how ayahuasca uncovered intergenerational trauma and explores the intersection of Buddhism with intentional psychedelic practice. Martijn emphasizes the need for community and integration, arguing that peak experiences alone aren't sufficient. His new program, Upāyosis, aims to blend ancient wisdom and modern psychedelics for deeper personal growth.

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ANECDOTE

Intergenerational Trauma Revealed

Martijn traced family trauma during an ayahuasca experience back to his grandfather's harsh orphanage upbringing in WWII.
That revelation showed how intergenerational patterns shaped his behavior and motivated his spiritual path.

ANECDOTE

Rise And Fall Of Synthesis

Synthesis grew rapidly and became a leading legal psilocybin retreat center but faced severe stress from COVID and scaling challenges.
The collapse involved funding rounds, cultural schisms, and mounting technical and cultural debt that exhausted the team.

INSIGHT

Container Shapes Psychedelic Healing

"The container is the medicine" means set, setting, ritual and surrounding practices shape psychedelic outcomes.
Without a supportive post-experience context, psychedelic gains often fade when people return to unhealthy environments.

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Martijn Schirp and I have known each other for nearly a decade. He first reached out after reading a meditation article I posted on Reddit—a message that changed my life and eventually led to us co-founding HighExistence and running transformational retreats together in Costa Rica.

Since then, Martijn has lived several lifetimes: professional poker player who finished 102nd at the World Series of Poker, a crisis of meaning in Vegas that led him to a Buddhist monastery in Nepal, and then co-founding Synthesis—one of the first legal psilocybin retreat centers in the world, which partnered with Imperial College London and was called the "gold standard" of psychedelic retreats.

Then it collapsed. In 2023, Synthesis went bankrupt, leaving hundreds of students and employees in limbo. Martijn got physically ill from the stress and spent years recovering—volunteering on a farm in Portugal, working with the soil, reconnecting with his teachers.

Now he's back with something new: Upāyosis and "A Path Between Worlds"—a 12-month program that weaves Buddhist contemplative training with intentional psychedelic practice. It's the first time we've spoken in depth in years, and I was struck by how different he seems. As he told me: "I don't have to seek anymore. I think I've found it. Now it's more a question of deepening."

In this conversation, we discuss:

The intergenerational trauma he discovered through ayahuasca (tracing back to his grandfather in a German orphanage during WWII)
Why he believes "the container is the medicine"
What actually went wrong at Synthesis—and what he learned
The Buddhist answer to whether psychedelics violate the Fifth Precept
Why peak experiences aren't enough—and what "altered traits" require
Animism, ecodelics, and our ethical relationship to non-human beings
Why spiritual friendship is "the whole of the path"
What his new 12-month program actually involves

I'm joining this program myself—not just as an endorsement, but because I've seen how thoroughly Martijn creates things, and I want to deepen my own practice. If you're someone who's had meaningful psychedelic experiences but feels stuck, or you're a meditator curious about how these paths might converge, this conversation is for you.

Learn more: upayosis.com

Contact Martijn here.