Ayahuasca Advice

[Chumbimba]

As I am planning my year, I would like to do an Ayahuasca retreat or a Psychedelic Retreat. I am not sure if I should wait a couple years due to the fact that I am only going to be 23 when I do it.

My intention is to:

1. Heal deep emotional traumas from my past

2. Reconcile some issues that I have with money

3. Get a direction on my life purpose

4. Heal my sexual repression/Deep issues with women (terrible relationship with my mother and sisters)

Also if you know of any ayahuasca retreats in the US or Peru please send links or give names of locations. The money will not be an issue by the time I plan to do this.

The last time I took a Psychedelic was April 17, 2017 

Thank you for your opinions!

 

[PlayOnWords]

@Chumbimba I think there's Ayahuasca retreat centres in Canada and Mexico. If you're in the US then that's probably the most convenient place. I've never done ayahuasca but sounds like you have good intentions. Maybe do a 'lesser' trip or two before jumping into ayahuasca though, considering your last one was quite a while ago. Possibly AL-LAD or LSD. 

[Forestluv]

@Chumbimba 23 is old enough. It's not so much about chronological age, it's more about maturity level and one's energetic orientation. 

I did an Ayahuasca retreat in Peru a couple years ago that was very transformative. I did a lot of research to find an Aya retreat that was a good fit for me. I lived in Peru for two months and there are a wide range of Aya ceremonies. There is very little regulation. I have experience with the Aya retreat I did. As well, I met many people that did other retreats or knew about various ceremonies. Some ceremonies can range from very shady low-quality. There were literally cardboard signs posted up in towns with scribblings of "Aya ceremony each Tues. Meet here." - low quality with poorly trained leaders. . . There are also high quality retreats. The one I chose was very integrative. The leaders had years of experience with meditation, yoga, psychology, energetics, Aya etc. The community was at a very high conscious level. . . . Ime, the community energetics is as important as the personal energetics - the two influence each other. As well, there are times in an Aya retreat in which one must let go and surrender. For some, this is easy - it's like going on a fun trip. For others, it can be challenging and being in a community that you trust and resonate with is important. The community I was in was so loving and supportive, that I was able to let go without fear that I would be harmed. . . I also know of another retreat with very positive reviews. This was much deeper into the jungle and, imo, focuses a lot more on deep mysticism - which is a great fit for some. 

To learn more, I would recommend coming up with a list of possible retreats and then contacting people that actually did them. Quite often the retreat website has testimonials or one can do a search for "Aya retreat 'xyz' reviews'. Quite often there is contact information. I found it very helpful to contact people that already did the retreat. For some people I contacted, the retreat was years ago. Everyone I contacted was very open and happy to talk about their experience. This gave me a sense of whether a particular retreat would be a good fit for me. Once my list was down to three candidates, I contacted the leaders and introduced myself, my experience and why I feel drawn to their retreat. The way the leaders respond also reveals connection and resonance. 

In terms of intentions: the intentions you list above were very common for the people within my retreat. Before each ceremony, the leader would give us a spiritual talk and prepare us. Each person then stated an intention for the ceremony. I would say 60% of the people were oriented toward resolving some issue: healing of past traumas, uncertainty about their career, wanting insights of life purpose, whether to stay within a marriage etc. Many got deep insights in the area of their intention, others got deep insights in another areas outside the intention, a few didn't get much. For example, one woman kept vomiting and falling asleep and was disappointed. Another turned into a reptile and was disappointed. Another person had the big insight of how much their high school chemistry teacher cared about them - and was disappointed. A few people told me they were hoping to go into childhood issues or resolve other issues and just didn't get there. . . There majority of people had life tranforming experiences, yet keep in mind that these high quality retreats can be expensive and take effort to get to. For me, I had to take three airline connections, with an overnight layover, and a two hour shuttle. 

You might want to see whether you resonate with psychedelics by trying them out on your own. Take a low/medium dose and see if you resonate. If there is a calling. After I did a few trips, I felt a resonance that I was ready to go deeper and a calling to do an Aya retreat in a community setting. It is a huge investment of resources to travel to remote areas of Peru. Some of the people were already in South America and the retreat was one activity. For example, they would also be traveling to Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca. For them, the retreat was just part of their travels. Others came specially for the retreat and it was the only reason they were in Peru.

I also looked for Aya retreats in the US and I did not find any that I resonated with. My impression is that Aya ceremonies are highly restrictive due to legal laws and stigmas. I did not find any retreates that were structually well-developed with high level leaders and a high-conscious community. To me, Peru seems more advanced. I did see a couple US options in which a teacher from Peru was leading Aya ceremonies in the US. Yet the infrastructure wasn't there, imo. . . There are also a lot of "underground" retreats popping up. For example, a small community of friends doing an Aya ceremony at someone's cabin in the woods. I know people that have had high quality transformative experiences, yet it is also a very informal setting. The US is at the very early stages of Aya retreat development. Only two US cities in California have decriminalized Aya. . . . So I think you could find a high quality group in the US, yet it won't have the structure of a formal retreat, like in Peru. . . Personally, I found this very helpful - in particular, integration. In a formal high quality Aya retreat setting, there will be a lot of time devoted to integration (more time than the actual trip). This involves journaling, deep contemplation and deep conversations with other practitioners and leaders. Some appearances can seem insane and batshit crazy. I found it important to have people with experience to help me integrate. 

This may be a personal resonance, yet the quality of music had a huge influence on my experience. I did not even consider that music would have such a profound impact. The energetics were guided by the music. The retreat I went on had amazing musicians. Men and women that devoted their lives to deeply exploring the spirituality and expression of music. I would put them on the same level as Carnegie Hall caliber musicians. The music was indescribable. It was beautifully ethereal at times, yet also mysterious at other times. It can have an enormous influence on the essence of the trip. On my second ceremony, the music had a "shift" point that went from a flowing stream feel to entering a darker part of the forest. After the ceremony, many people talked about this one shift point and how their trip changed. . . I can't imagine the retreat without the music. As well, my retreat didn't have any tribal type drumming music - that would have had a very different energy.

I would also make it a priority to do a retreat with at least 3 ceremonies in a 7-10 day period. Every Aya ceremony and trip has a uniqueness to it. My three ceremony trips were completely different. And you just don't know which one may be the "big one", For me, my second ceremony was 10X deeper than the first or third. I'm still integrating components of that ceremony two years later. If you have at least three ceremonies, there is a good chance one of the ceremonies will be extremely insightful relative to your intentions. As well, I would avoid ceremonies on consecutive days. Aya can be very strenous on the mind and body. My physical body needed two days to recover after the first ceremony and my mind needed 2-3 days to recover from the second ceremony. As well, have time between ceremonies to integrate is really important. I would say three ceremonies over 7-10 is the minimum to ensure a high chance of transformative insights being revealed and integrating them.