Oregon Tries to Shut Down Mushroom Church’s School

Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission issued a cease-and-desist order against Myco-Method, one of the many programs in Oregon that train people to guide psychedelic mushroom trips. The order means Myco-Method must stop marketing its program and enrolling students until it gets a license or an exemption from licensure, HECC said.

Myco-Method program director Shasta Winn says HECC has no authority because the program isn’t a school.

“Myco-Method is only a written curriculum,” Winn said in an email. “It’s a training used by Saba Cooperative, our nonprofit interfaith religious cooperative, for teaching how to utilize psilocybin as a tool to access the source of nonhuman intelligence that heals and transforms.”

At press time, Myco-Method’s website still advertised its program, saying students who take it can be licensed by the state as facilitators because the curriculum has been approved by the Oregon Health Authority, a claim an OHA spokesman confirms.

But without HECC approval, students won’t be allowed to submit claims to the state for lost tuition if Myco-Method were to close, the commission said.