Doing Ayahuasca Just Before A Vipassana Retreat

[Vercingetorix]

In two weeks I'm going to a Vipassana retreat, and I also was just offered to try ayahuasca for the first time possibly next week.

No idea what i'm gonna experience with aya (never tried any psychedelic), but I would guess it will change my vipassana experience, do you think I would generally benefit more from the retreat after a psychedelic experience? or on the other hand it might be too much in a short time for the mind to handle?

[Esoteric]

57 minutes ago, Vercingetorix said:

In two weeks I'm going to a Vipassana retreat, and I also was just offered to try ayahuasca for the first time possibly next week.

No idea what i'm gonna experience with aya (never tried any psychedelic), but I would guess it will change my vipassana experience, do you think I would generally benefit more from the retreat after a psychedelic experience? or on the other hand it might be too much in a short time for the mind to handle?

You could definitely benefit from it. It all depends on you and what your priorities are. I hope you are doing ayahuasca at a good environment with people that knows the brew, especially since it is your first time doing a psychedelic. I would advice against doing ayahuasca if it's just gonna be a bunch of buddies doing a brew together in a living room or something. For that it'd be more wise with a medium dose of mushrooms. But anyway, go with the flow, try and learn as much as possible and accept whatever comes up and you can learn a thing or two that could for sure boost your progress at a retreat. My two cents.

[jse]

I've done mushrooms after a 10-day Vipassana retreat, and it was amazingly beneficial.

My thought on this: Go for it.

[Toby]

I personally wouldn't do it and just do the retreat. I remember someone at a retreat who did I guess Ayahausca weeks or month before and then was overwhelmed by what she experienced and what unfolded. The teacher - afair - told her to feel what's good for her but  skip the meditation sessions because it would be too strong. She should instead maybe go into the woods and find a tree that could help her (and ask the tree before) or do some Yoga/TaiChi that would ground her. It wasnt a vipassana retreat though (only 6-7 meditation sessions a day). But I would just do the retreat and really take that in. I would rather do the psychedelics afterwards, not before.

Edited December 26, 2016 by Toby

[Soulbass]

10 hours ago, jse said:

I've done mushrooms after a 10-day Vipassana retreat, and it was amazingly beneficial.

My thought on this: Go for it.

I never did psychedelics, but I think after the meditation retreat would be a good idea, because the mind would be cleared of all sorts of neurotic modern life behaviors.

@Vercingetorix plz, keep us informed of your track

Edited December 26, 2016 by Soulbass

[Vercingetorix]

@Esoteric it's with someone who does it for spiritual grows purposes only.

@Toby interesting story, what does it mean to find a tree that will help? I 'm a bit worried to be overwhelmed as well, on the other hand if all kind of crap or existential crisis comes it might be easier to handle it in a retreat than in daily life.
Worst case scenario I will postpone  the retreat.

@Soulbass  it will depend on the experience, but I think it might also flood up a lot of unconscious stuff and makes me extra neurotic, but in that case vipassana is also great tool to purge stuff.
Will keep you informed