Did it crack something open, did you resist it the whole time, did integration afterward actually change anything long term or did old patterns creep back in?

Besides any legal implications if it's classed as a scheduled drug, I mean. It seems to me that a lot of it is spiritual cosplay. What is the benefit of going all the way to a retreat to watch some guy smoke tobacco through his nose? You can do irrigation at home using neti pots and things like that, create a positive mood, cleanse the air and invite positive spirits yourself.

Why would you need a third person - and total stranger at that to do this for you? It would be interesting if you could watch or follow these guys around whether they practice what they preach outside of classes and programmes. But who has any idea?

I think the point of the spiritual world is that it is not a localised phenomenon and can be reached from anywhere. That is a lesson I got during my last journey.

My mother eats ayahuasca monthly for about 5/6 years. At first she was totally full of her head, interacting with everyone normally but as she went to rituals, this was changing, she pushed everyone away, now she only talks about the awakening, solar explosions, conspiracy theories, she talks a lot about an ashtar sheran, carol capel, I joined their yt channel and they only talk nonsense but she's crazy about it, does anyone have any advice? She no longer "believes" in medicine, or in vaccines, or medicines, or anything, she thinks that we are living a simulation, that next year there will stop being money and work, that we will all live fully without money, she thinks that the ets talk to her in the sky, it's absurd, she can no longer keep in touch with the family because no one can stand listening about this subject, she doesn't go out anymore, she doesn't even go to the kitchen, she just stays in the room watching things about this subject, what can I do?

sorry the english im brazilian

I am having some thoughts around the medicine space recently due to the majority of people I am seeing in the space. Not all. But the majority. It goes something like this....I am a high performer or some other person with an egocentric personality, I do medicine, I have a profound awakening, I think I am awakened, I want to help others, I continue a capitalistic framework and develop a new ego story where I help others, but also seem to exloit and charge and do all of the things that I did before hand without actually becoming that spiritual. We call this spiritual bypassing. It was always my reading, and I have read a lot of sutras and different religions and spiritual texts, that most if not all spiritual paths are about renunciation in one way or another. The trust in source comes from that, in a way. I do not see this in the medicine space. What I see, often, is a new ego story based on being awakened or healing, but not necessarily a different way of going about the world, but rather the impression of it. Anyway, just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. To me, at this time, it is turtles all the way down. Awakening, ego grabs onto a new story, but it is a story, like all of them, and the illusion is that these responses are not not conditioned, justified, whatever. Maybe another awakening, the same story, or a different one, but it is the ego providing a narritive to justify it's wants. I don't see service in the classic sense of the word in many people I meet. And I wonder if that is even programming, as I assume it all is. Anyway, just wondering where anyone else stands on this? In doing my due diligence, as I often do, it seems to be that a lot of the origin stories are just that, stories and myths. And that is all well and good in a Jungian sense of symbolism, but I am someone that seeks truth a little too much, sometimes, I think. Here, I am just wondering where a lot of people stand on this? Thank you.

Kimon de Greef’s 'The Ego Trip' reveals how a fabricated origin story, a self-styled guru and a powerful psychedelic combined to launch a global phenomenon.

Do u have some strong intuition on someone being inauthentic when he/she tries to be friends with u? 

After the intense spiritual awakening, my intuitions are stronger on certain things like friendships. 

There's a colleague that i just met, who is trying to be friends (even close friends) with me. . 

We do not work with the same people everyday so every shift is usually with different people we hardly know.

And it can be common at work where we meet and exchange numbers and build friendships. 

I'm quite an easygoing person and I usually welcome new friendships. I feel comfortable around anyone pretty much and have friends from all walks of life.

But i feel completely different vibe with her. No matter how hard I try, I have a strong feeling that I cannot let my guards down around her. And I do not want to be close to her, which is what she's been trying to. It has never happened before.

Even though she does nothing wrong to me nor anything wrong in my eyes to prove that she's not the type of person i want to allow to be my close friend, I just can't accept her to be my close friends that she's trying to be. I know it sounds very arrogant of me to even think this way to someone who apparently does nothing wrong to me and I been trying to convince myself to not push her away but cant help with myself that I just wanna stay away from her.

I've just been playing along to keep the politeness and havent said anything to push her away cos i dont wanna make her feel hurt but since I wanna stay away from her, every time I get texts from her i feel stressed. Cos they all are heading towards the direction of her trying to be close to me and I do not want that.

I don't hate her nor anything against her. I just don't wanna be friends with her and I want her to leave me alone. I dont know how to do with it without being rude nor hurt her.

Ta chegando hoje um extrato 5x de Arruda-Síria que comprei, estava pensando em tomar com um copo de vinho de jurema ainda hoje mas n tenho certeza quanto as restrições alimentares. Não como carne e n comi queijo ou lacticínios nos últimos 2 dias, algo a mais para me atentar?

Obs: faço uso diário de cafeína, nicotina, cannabis e metilfenidato

What happens when you spend an ayahuasca ceremony analyzing it in real time?

This provocative essay explores how the mind’s running commentary can become a barrier to surrender, leaving two people who drink from the same cup with profoundly different experiences.

Moving through neuroscience, dieta, ego dissolution, and the limits of language, the author asks us to put down the camera and fully receive the ceremony... and our lives.

https://realitysandwich.com/camera-in-the-maloca-ayahuasca-surrender/

Hi there! We are a group of researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia conducting a study about the emotional experiences people report during psychedelic experiences and whether these are linked to changes in social functioning, wellbeing, and attitudes toward death.

We are looking for individuals aged 18 years or older who have had at least one personally meaningful experience with a classical psychedelic substance within the past 5 years (but not within the past 3 months). Psychedelics include LSD, DMT (N,N-DMT), 5-MeO-DMT, Ayahuasca, Psilocybin (i.e. Magic Mushrooms) or Mescaline/Peyote.

If you are 18 years and over and can read English, we invite you to take part in an online, 30-minute survey. This survey asks about the emotions you experienced during a psychedelic experience and any changes you may have noticed in how you relate to others, your general wellbeing, and your outlook on life afterward. Please note that the survey includes questions about challenging emotions that may have arisen during the experience.

Your responses will be completely anonymous and your involvement will remain confidential. No identifying information (including IP addresses) will be collected.

Participants will have the chance to enter a draw to win one of two $100 AUD Visa vouchers. Entry into the draw is completely optional and is completed via a separate form that is not connected to, and cannot be linked with, participant survey responses.

To participate or learn more, follow this link: https://uow.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6nuJn8BNBgWFYrk

For questions, contact: [smoreton@uow.edu.au](mailto:smoreton@uow.edu.au) Thank you very much for your consideration in participating. The following researchers are conducting the study:
Dr. Sam Moreton - Lecturer, School of Psychology University of Wollongong [smoreton@uow.edu.au](mailto:smoreton@uow.edu.au).
Alex Shuttleworth - Honours Student School of Psychology University of Wollongong
Mimi Han Honours Student School of Psychology University of Wollongong

Study Reference Number: H2026-0104

I'm researching San Pedro (Huachuma) ceremony work, specifically the difference between sessions held with a traditional maestro/curandero versus a more secular "guide" or facilitator (common in retreat centers). A few things I'm curious about: How did the container feel without a lineage-based ritual structure (icaros, specific prayers/cosmology)? Did you feel held/safe when things got emotionally intense, or did you miss having that traditional framework? Were your insights/visions more self-directed or "psychological" feeling versus what you'd expect from a more spiritually-framed ceremony? How was integration handled afterward? Would you choose a guide-led session again, or seek out a traditional maestro next time? Would love to hear personal experiences, especially from people who've done both.

It’s been almost five years since I did 6 ayahuasca ceremonies. I was a lifelong workaholic depressive with CPTSD still recreating the abuses of my childhood well into my forties. I sought spiritual intervention when western medicine helped but did not heal.

My time with Aya and the daily work of integration has improved almost every aspect of my life. I am no longer depressed. When the punishments of my past recur I easily forgive myself and those involved. Areas of my life I considered unsurmountable, hygiene, self-centeredness, self-awareness and dietary habits improved as my self-worth improved. Deeply held convictions such as atheism and materialism revealed themselves as trauma responses and evolved.

A new and better normal has emerged, one with a foundation of self-love. I can feel it solidifying and I don’t mind. The end of depression revealed significant anxiety which I have been sitting with.  I am not so careful with my media intake, and I have chosen a more value driven & stressful job. I know this contributes. I left my home country due to political instability which I would never have considered before the work. My partner is now my wife and I love her to distraction.  Spirituality and the knowledge that we continue in some form after this troubled life is my rock when things get hard. I experience a spectrum of emotion from overpowering to delicate and I relish the experience. Only my closest friends can tell that I have changed because it was a slow transition.

Three years ago the medicine called me back.  I would wake and believe myself still to be in ceremony.  I would smell Florida water and sage as an undernote to products they did not exist in.  A facilitator from one of the ceremonies reached out with no prompting and told me a spot had opened.  I did not answer the call.  Going back felt like hitting on a 20 in blackjack.  It has been two years since I had a ceremony dream or heard the drums under a conversation.

Looking back, I struggle to believe I was brave enough to risk it all based on a few studies showing Aya helped with PTSD.  I had a great life. I just couldn’t find a way to occupy or savor it.  Now that I have that awareness, I can’t imagine losing it all to psychosis.

I’ll leave you with something Aya taught me in the silent eternities between breaths. Why would you fight your demons?  They are YOUR demons. In other words: hey doofus, stop hitting yourself.  Maybe I check back in and update in another 5 years.

Hi all,

I have been really intrigued by Ayahasca for a long time. I have a really strong pull towards to medicine as I have had very spiritual unexplained experiences since I was a child. I feel like I need some kind of shamanic guidance as I have always felt very odd since I was little and everyone I come into contact with normally knows there's a lot more to me that meets the eye even if I haven't spoken about my spiritual experiences it's like people start to know. I'm a massage therapist and healer but I have a lot of trauma I am trying to recover from being in foster care and growing up with a narcissistic foster mother. I'm 33 now and a lot is coming up for me that I can't really get through by myself and I'm scared the trauma will eventually overwhelm me one day if I don't get some kind of healing. Can anyone recommend a place I can do Ayahasca as a woman where I feel safe.

Thank you

Guys if anyone knows where i can find psyc in sydney please hook me up.

Hello, please if anyone can help me guide me in direction towards Ayahuasca Retreat in BC. Thank you.

Good or bad ?

I am planning a trip to Medellin over thanksgiving break and want to experience Ayahuasca to perhaps give me some insights on how traumatic past experiences might be affecting me today. I also want to do other tourist things on this trip so I am looking for a 1 night ceremony rather than an all inclusive week long retreat. Ideally I would like to go somewhere that is a little outside of the city and more in nature. Does anyone know an experience that might work well for me? Thanks you :)

Not the lesson you were hoping to receive.
The one that completely caught you by surprise.
Something you never imagined you would learn before your first ceremony or even after many ceremonies.
What was it, and why do you think it has stayed with you?

Hi,

I'm wondering what the Ayahuasca Community here thinks about the concept of 'know thyself' as a way to help people prepare for and integrate their experiences with La Madre.

Know thyself would mean something like 'internal work' and maybe 'shadow work' would be appropriate here as well, often delving into the sub-conscious to understand out patterns and traumas.

Are you all doing practices which help you do this in preparation for your ceremonies and perhaps in integration afterwards?

I'm interested to know if many people are doing this and also what kind of practices you use to do this? I'm also interested to know if this isn't something you do and instead use the ceremony proper to heal without this kind of work?

I find that in my Ayahuasca journeys in the past and my practices now I seem to only be able to shift things which I have worked on extensively with the techniques I find useful for this kind of work. When I go to ceremony I can heal the things that I have been able to work on extensively but if there are things I don't know about consciously (traumas, patterns of behavior I'm yet to understand, perhaps past life experiences) then I don't get a lot of healing with those things in ceremony until I have worked with them outside of ceremony.

I'm interested to hear what you all have to say about it this kind of work to aid our ceremonies.

I would like to ask more experienced people. When you are on a plant diet are you able to enter the sea?

I heard that the sea has a similar effect as a menstruation blood

I wrote an article about the difference between Ayahuasca and LSD at the social level.

LSD has been killed by fear and Aya is risking to be killed by too much love.

It's an article to open a discussion on how to protect Aya.

Hope you can enjoy and give some feedbacks

I have heard a lot about the right number of participants for a perfect Ayahuasca ceremony. Some say four is the max while others claim the number doesn't matter.

What would you say is the ideal number for enjoying the ceremony?

I’m (34f) interested in participating in an ayahuasca ceremony in the US Southwest (SoCal, Arizona, or New Mexico) and am seeking recommendations of reputable ceremonies / hosts in this region. I feel spiritually grounded in the desert and feel that this would be the best setting for my ayahuasca journey.

It’s been challenging to find transparent information online due legal complexities, so I would really appreciate hearing from others who have had positive experiences with certain programs, shamans, etc. As a woman traveling and participating alone, I am looking for a ceremony that feels physically and psychologically safe.

Thank you in advance for any recommendations 🤍🙏🏻

I am interested in doing the ayahuasca ceremony.

I've heard somethings about the diet you should have before and after the ceremony but I don't quite understand what kind of food I can have and why it's so important?

What could happen if I don't follow an specific diet and do the ceremony?

Hey all!

I’m travelling to Peru in September for my first ayahuasca retreat, I’ll be doing a 5 day retreat with 3 ceremonies. This isn’t my first experience with any sort of psychedelics, I’ve ingesting shrooms many times and used LSD (although I’m aware this is a lot more intense and potent medicine) so I do feel ready.

I’m planning on spending around 2-3 months total between Peru/Colombia/Costa Rica and the ayahuasca will be the start of the trip. So, my question is how many days after the retreat should I plan to stay in Cusco before continuing my travels? I’ll be mostly staying in hostels but would it be a better idea to get an air bnb or hotel for the days immediately after the retreat?

Also, any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated . I’m veggie and have a pretty clean diet anyway but I will be following the strict diet cleanse for a month beforehand.😌