Sheri Eckert Foundation · Psychedelic Research Incubator
Real-world research, built for public benefit.
In 2020, Oregon voters created the world's first state-regulated psychedelic healthcare program. People now receive legal, supervised psilocybin care every week in Oregon and Colorado, and soon in New Mexico. That creates something research has never had: a legal, real-world setting to study what this care actually does, what it costs, and who it reaches.
Because these medicines are naturally occurring or off-patent, commercial sponsors won't fund those studies. So the Sheri Eckert Foundation funds, builds, and deploys them directly, with university and community partners, and we publish everything we learn.
Research is how a state-regulated model earns the trust to spread:
Rigorous studies inside legal programs show safety, outcomes & cost.
Credible results build confidence among the public and policymakers.
More states adopt the model as the evidence and trust grow.
Public funding and insurance follow, making care affordable at scale.
Named for Sheri Eckert, who helped create that first program. We carry her work forward.
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Our flagship study · ORCHID
The evidence that unlocks state-regulated psychedelic healthcare.
ORCHID links real psilocybin care to real medical claims to show whether it lowers health-system costs. Created, organized, and funded by SEF with UC Berkeley and UCSF, Phase 1 ($458K) is raising now.
Thinking about participating in a study? See what's enrolling now and how to raise your hand.
July 17–19, 2026 · Fernlove Retreat Center, Gaston, Oregon
We funded the retreat. They chose to help study it.
A legal group psilocybin retreat for about a dozen previously incarcerated people, paid for in full by the Inward Dive Fund, with an observational study most of them opted into. Believed to be the first of its kind with this group. Results are pending.
01 / Organizing it
Getting a dozen people to the door
Most people who could benefit most from legal psilocybin care cannot get near it. The cost is high, it is rarely covered, and a record closes doors that were already narrow.
So the Inward Dive Fund paid for the whole thing: the service center, the facilitators, the lodging and the meals, for a group of previously incarcerated people over three days in the Oregon forest.
02 / The weekend
Three days at Fernlove
- ThursdayTeam preparationFacilitators, researchers and the venue team set up the spaces and walked the flow.
- FridayArrival and orientationParticipants arrived, settled in, and met the people who would be with them all weekend.
- Friday and SaturdayTwo journey daysThe group was split across two administration days at a state-licensed service center.
- SundayIntegration and closingMorning integration, closing activities, then a group shuttle back to Portland.
03 / The choice
The research was optional. Most people said yes.
Nobody had to take part. Opting out changed nothing about who could attend or what they received.
The study is observational only. The researchers did not provide psilocybin, did not administer it, and did not change the retreat. The retreat came first and the research was built to fit around it.
Most participants opted in anyway, which is the reason there is anything to learn from at all.
04 / The study
What it actually measured
- BeforeBaselineQuestionnaires on stress, anxiety, mood, connection and relationship to nature, a short social perception activity, and noninvasive Muse EEG headband and Polar H10 heart recordings.
- DuringThe sessionParticipation in their allocated journey day, unchanged by the study.
- AfterFollow upInterviews, surveys, the social perception exercise again, and a second biometric reading on Sunday.
Nothing invasive: no needles, no blood draws, nothing placed inside the body.
05 / The researchers
Who ran it
Conducted by researchers affiliated with the Center for Collective Healing and Yale University.
Artist, neuroscientist and psychiatrist studying how social information is computed in the brain, and how music, mindfulness and psychedelics may change social connectedness and stress.
06 / What we heard
Positive overall, and a list of things to fix
Feedback from participants to the research team was positive overall. That is as far as we can go right now: the study results are still pending, and we are not going to get ahead of them.
We also came away with a clear list of things to do better, from how we screen and prepare people to how the schedule holds the day after.
The second retreat is being planned now. Dates to be announced.
07 / What you can do
Two ways in
One for people who want a seat in 2027, one for people who can help pay for it.
Get invited to applyTakes under a minute
Help fund the second retreat Talk it through with Nate and HenryScroll sideways, drag, or use the arrow keys
Grants are open
Take 30 seconds to complete our interest form to receive a grant from us.
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