Allergies are nearly as prevalent in the people who attend our ayahuasca retreats as depression and anxiety, although most cases are not very serious. Our immune systems should naturally be able to defend against natural elements of our environment, but again, when compromised by toxicity, trauma, stress, and diet, there are obstacles in the way of health being achieved. We have had very good results treating allergies, but lifestyle changes are necessary as well.
The El Sol Retreats center is in the heart of a national reserve, far from the artificial brightness of city lights. At night, when the sky is clear, the moon and stars come out to dazzle us. Nothing helps to put things into perspective after an ayahuasca ceremony like looking up into the twinkling gaze of the Milky Way. Our center has a star gazing deck, which also works for sun bathing, playing music, or just hanging out.
For anyone interested in experiencing an essential part of daily life for the Mishana community, we can organize a boat and a guide to take you on a sunrise fishing trip. These short excursions out onto the river are typically done towards the end of the retreats, when the treatments are nearing completion. There are hundreds of species of fish in the Nanay river and with some luck, you could catch a canary bass or maybe a piranha.
If this is your first time embarking on a sacred Ayahuasca journey, this short quiz will help you assess your level of mental, emotional, and spiritual readiness for this powerful and sensitive work. An Ayahuasca Retreat is not to be taken lightly, the work needs to be done before, during, and after the retreat.For those of you looking for a highly professionally-run retreat with a small group size (no more than 11) and a high level of attention to safety, service, and real sustained growth, Behold Retreats is a great choice. Behold does not facilitate Ayahuasca in the USA, but offers close-by legal options in breathtaking Costa Rica. We strongly urge you to consider embarking on your journey in a safe and legal country. This process is your own self-healing journey, nothing else should interfere such as legality issues.
All food allergies are a sign that something is not right. People don’t ‘just have’ an allergy to a normal food. Celiac disease is complicated by the current modification and distortion of gluten in the food industry, most especially in the mass production of bread (at least it’s called bread), but there is more going on within the immune system as well, which is compromised in various ways. While we have only had a handful of cases on our ayahuasca retreats, we have had great success with the treatment of all of them.
Church members can enjoy a sacred smoke cleanse ceremony around a fire pit, join group integration circles, and participate in a sound meditation to get more out of their ayahuasca journey.
El Sol Retreats involves ayahuasca consumption (Daime tea) as part of their religious rituals. Sometimes difficult to find, you can try to find locations around the country by searching for Santo Daime USA. Another Ayahuasca church known as the Peaceful Mountain Way is a Native American Church that specializes in an Ayahuasca ritual as a spiritual sacrament.
Another Ayahuasca church known as the Peaceful Mountain Way is a Native American Church that specializes in an ayahuasca ritual as a spiritual sacrament.
Our retreats blend elements of ancient shamanic rituals with contemporary healing modalities like psychotherapy, mindfulness, art therapy etc. They aim to provide a holistic self-growth experience integrating the ayahuasca journey with various complementary practices. This holistic approach can enhance integration and therapeutic value.Selecting the ideal ayahuasca retreat for your needs requires careful contemplation of several factors:
Prices for ayahuasca retreats in the USA range widely based on length, location, amenities and services included. Typical costs range from:
Ayahuasca is an Amazonian plant medicine that has been used in a sacred context by indigenous and mestizo healers in Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil for hundreds, and possibly thousands, of years. Made from the mixture of 2 (or more) plants found in the Amazon jungle – the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi), and the chacruna leaf (Psychotria viridis), which contains the powerful psychoactive dimethyletryptamine (DMT), it is a brew capable of inducing altered states of consciousness. The word ayahuasca is based in the Quechua language and translates to “vine of the soul” or “vine of the spirits”. It goes by many different names according to region, such as oni, caapi, natema, yajé, yagé, nepe, shuri, kamalampi, kaji and others throughout the Amazon Basin1.
Traditionally, ayahuasca has been used in a variety of contexts: as a therapeutic tool to diagnose and treat illness; as a means of shamanic communication; and for the communal purposes of hunting magic, warfare, and collective ritual2. While the true origins of ayahuasca have been lost to history, with no written records prior to the 16th century Amazon invasion of Spanish conquistadors, archaeological evidence suggests its use stretches back at least two millennia. Its practice and spread since appears to be as complex and diverse as the people who use it, embodying and blending various cultural frameworks, spiritual belief systems, economic and political landscapes, and social hierarchies. Today, it is the foundation for the traditional medicine systems of over 75 different tribes in the Amazon, and has spread to various regions across the globe, offering healing for many illnesses and dis-ease where modern medicine has failed.
When we are young, Spiritual Integration – we often inherit the patterns, habits, and ways of life from our parents, relatives, or those who raised us. We are also heavily shaped by the events in our lives that happen to us at a young age. Ayahuasca can take us back to this time and revisit memories that reflect on how we perceived life, created our values, and shaped our beliefs. When negative events or emotions happened, our tendency as children was to turn away from that pain, avoid it and push it down into our subconscious. This created great energetic impacts that we carried into our adult life, manifesting in a multitude of ways and practices, including how we handle stress, our predisposition to addiction, depression and anxiety, and the way we connect with ourselves and others. In this work, we are invited to engage with our inner child, and rescue those parts which still carry pain through reflecting upon, integrating, and then releasing the associated negative emotions and their energetic hold on us. By healing the inner child, we heal all that which follows, and can return to a place of authenticity, presence, and peace.
The alchemy of transformation comes from engaging directly with our shadow selves and our emotional pain and discomfort. It is not a process that one can simply “think through” – it is one of the heart, and can only be truly dealt with through the direct experience of the emotions and traumas we’ve been avoiding. When we fully integrate our shadow self, transforming the energy from it and rather using it for life-affirming purposes, we can enter into a state of love and gratitude that can only come from walking through the fire and coming out on the other side. By bringing the subconscious blockages to light, amplifying the patterns and processes that no longer serve us, and helping us face it, ayahuasca allows us the ability to transform that darkness into the keys to our liberation.
With Behold Retreats, you're supported down to the last detail from travel arrangements, to high-end accommodations, and will have the opportunity to receive 7 weeks of personal coaching for optimized preparation and integration. We have a team of therapists and coaches that can help you go deep and get the most from your ayahuasca experience from pre to post retreat.
Along the Ucayali River in the town of Pucallpa in the eastern bounds of Peru’s Amazon Rainforest, Indigenous Mexican healer and facilitator Daniela Riojas leads ayahuasca ceremonies in partnership with the Onanya of the region. After first participating in an ayahuasca ceremony in 2015, Riojas, an artist and musician by trade, began her extensive studies of the plant and its medicine during apprenticeships with master healers that included participating in multi-day dietas. The ceremonies she facilitates include holding space through icaros, prayers that embody the healing power of the region’s plants and animals. Each experience is held during the night in a ceremonial maloca to help facilitate each participant’s journey inward.
This place is just amazing. Everyone here has been so great and so supportive. It’s just a beautiful place to be, surrounded by nature, so much green, so many animals everywhere, not big animals, little ones. And just having the river nearby, that was pretty glorious, and there’s this mud you can put all over yourself and let it draw all the toxins out and it just feels so great. And the food was great, lots of good food. Everything was just awesome. It was a really good experience and I highly recommend it to anyone thinking of coming down here. Just do it. It’s definitely worth it. Life changing. Thank you Ayahuasca Foundation.
The cleansing process involved in treatment coupled with the dietary restrictions during ayahuasca retreats make for a successful weight loss plan. It is very common to lose weight during a program, nearly guaranteed, but especially excess weight. We recently had someone lose 37lbs in three weeks (2lbs per day). Because the digestive system is rebalanced in the healing and the emotional issues at the core of the condition are addressed, weight usually continues to drop and stay off.
Sacred Therapy retreats host their ceremonies in their own modern way, rather than recreating South American or Native American style ceremonies. To join their ceremonies you must be a member of Cosmic Valley Native Americas church, which you can apply to join on their website.Their North American medicine people are trained with US ayahuasca churches and offer a holistic and yogic approach to their ayahuasca ceremonies. They provide full integration before and after your ceremony and care deeply about each retreat participant's experience and growth.
Their retreat is two nights and includes two Ayahuasca Ceremonies and is a great way for first-timers to get acquainted with the spirit of Mother Ayahuasca with experienced shamans. The work with the Elders and the plant medicine is intensive and remote, located in a private, tranquil, rustic camp near Castle Rock. Ayahuasca Ceremony participants can expect their sessions to be held in a private lodge, with shared accommodation.
El Sol Retreats , the premier center in the region, features luxury accommodations, comfortable private rooms with full electricity and en suite bathrooms, hot and cold water, personal fans, a river-view balcony and hammock deck, as well as massage room, yoga/meditation studio, consultation and activities rooms. Programs are either 10 days, 18 days, or 4 weeks long and feature 5, 9, or 11 ayahuasca ceremonies, respectively. Ayahuasca retreats are facilitated by bi-lingual apprentices who contribute their own healing insights and complimentary treatments like massage, yoga, meditation, breathwork, and counseling. Retreats take a maximum of twelve participants.
Anxiety is a condition we treat very often and always with positive results. The tradition’s combination of treatment methods is ideal for treating both depression and anxiety, as well as a number of other conditions. Our ayahuasca retreats have a 100% success rate for improvement with treatment of anxiety, but again, it is up to each person to follow through on making and maintaining lifestyle changes after the retreat.
Ayahuasca Retreats at the El Sol Retreats help people realize the power to make profound changes in our lives and achieve health and happiness. The rainforest is ancient and wise, beyond human comprehension, and it contains the answers to questions that we sometimes struggle to ascertain by ourselves.
Our retreats blend elements of ancient shamanic rituals with contemporary healing modalities like psychotherapy, mindfulness, art therapy etc. They aim to provide a holistic self-growth experience integrating the ayahuasca journey with various complementary practices. This holistic approach can enhance integration and therapeutic value.Selecting the ideal ayahuasca retreat for your needs requires careful contemplation of several factors:
Other popular retreat options include Ayahuasca or Psilocybin Retreats in Mexico with options of the God Molecule 5-MeO-DMT (Bufo) also available in all of their locations. All of Behold's retreats are only held in legal and safe locations, you may access to full list of retreats and plant medicine modalities here as well as dive deeper into their safety survey here.
Retreats are two nights, hosted in Washington and California, and they provide accommodation with comfortable bedding and vegan meals. The founder has been leading ceremonies for five years and has trained with multiple shamans and yogic teachers in the USA, Mexico, Thailand, and Lebanon, as well as two years learning from the Lakota Tradition.
In the verdant hills outside of Cali, in Colombia’s southwestern bounds, the Colombian healer Taita Edwin leads healing ayahuasca ceremonies at his family’s private farm. During Edwin’s spiritual ceremonies, the medicine, or ayahuasca, is treated as a sacrament, a link to the spiritual realm, with a focus on creating a safe space and allowing people to surrender to their processes with deep compassion, love, and care. Besides an opening and closing prayer, there is no strict structure to the ceremonies. However, each does include two or more sharing circles so that everyone can express themselves, find clarity, and find common ground in the shared experience. More information can be found by reaching out directly via email.
El Sol Retreats center was founded by medicine man Chris Young, who left the medical industry after seeing the negative consequences of the pharmaceutical industry, and Verena Young, an integration coach who is finishing her PhD, and is certified in Spiritual Counseling and Addiction Recovery and Psycho-Spiritual Integration Coaching.Accommodation ranges from sleeping in the ceremonial space or camping if you want to stay connected with Mother Earth, to higher-end options in private cabins or lodges. They even have a family cabin for larger groups.
It’s important to respect the use of the plant, and Indigenous people who have used it for centuries, as the cultural harbingers of its healing qualities.
All are welcome to our public gatherings. Most people with sincere spiritual intent are eligible for our sacrament retreats. If you aren’t sure if you can participate in our retreats, look at our Medical Guidelines pages on our website. Nearly 100% are medically eligible for our Magic Mushroom retreats. Certain medications and medical conditions are not compatible with Ayahuasca.
The spiritual investment varies depending on the location, maximum number of participants, and sacraments being offered. Our Ayahuasca and Mushroom retreats can range between $1000 – $2000 and our Bufo Alvarius (5meo-dmt) retreats range between $400 – $1000. To know the exact cost, please sign up for our email list where prices are announced for each retreat.
Yes! You can find more information about our private ceremonies on our retreat page.
A. With proper preparation, integration, and understanding how our Sacraments work, you will see there’s no such thing as a bad trip. Difficult and challenging experiences can be a part of the deep psychedelic journey. We all have skeletons in our psycho-spiritual closets, whether it’s fear, insecurities, our shadow, or repressed memories. Our approach isn’t to try to avoid a challenging experience, but rather to lean into them, since this is where the real productive work occurs. Can you face your demons with curiosity and love? Can you stand at your edge of your comfort zone with strength and courage? Everybody loves experiencing bliss, but by going through challenges we can develop the tools to live a more integrated and empowered life in the real world We’ve got your back, just breathe.
Our approach does not require you to convert or have faith of any kind. Faith can be an impediment to understanding. Our approach is to facilitate direct mystical experiences so that people can come to their own conclusions.
We don’t give medical advice. As evidenced by high quality research, our spiritual sacraments in the right setting can be very powerful healing tools. This is because much spiritual dis-ease manifests also as physical dis-ease. When spiritual dis-ease is discovered and addressed, many transformations happen downstream.
. A shaman is generally considered a healer or an initiate of a lineage. We are not healers or following any one particular lineage. Our philosophy is that the only healer is you, through proper integration of what you learned in your journey. We also do not follow any one particular lineage or tradition in choosing how we lead ceremony. Our ceremonies are guided by icaros, music, and prayers
Currently we’re serving a maximum of 20 people per ceremony.