5 Best Ayahuasca Retreats In Vancouver Island (2023)

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For deeper insights into what makes up a safe and quality plant medicine retreat, check out the results from our recent plant medicine retreats survey.
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1. If you’d like a holistic understanding of your opportunities to improve your quality of life, take this self-diagnostic.

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2. If this is your first time with Ayahuasca, this short quiz will help you assess your level of mental, emotional, and spiritual readiness for this powerful and sensitive work.

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3. If you’d like to understand more about the nature of psychedelic healing work, human potential, and who and what you really are, watch the video below.

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Like most things in life, there are a broad variety of Ayahuasca retreat options, and a number of factors that effect the safety, quality, and cost of an ayahuasca retreat:

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1. Safety First: Unfortunately, many small retreat centers are not in a position to make meaningful investments into screening and safety. Even if you're fine, someone else on retreat might not be, which can affect the overall experience. Our recommendation is to choose a retreat provider that does in-depth conversational, medical, and psychological screening to protect your safety and well-being.
2. Legality: Experienced practitioners who have dedicated their lives to plant medicine typically live in locations where the work is legal, so they don't have to live in a state of uncertainty about their work Our recommendation is to travel to legal locations where you can benefit from legitimate healers who operate above the radar, so you can truly relax on retreat.
3. Size of the group: It's common for retreats to have 20, 50, even 100 people in ceremony, which can be chaotic to say the least. In such large groups you are less likely to receive a sufficient level of attention from the facilitators. Our recommendation is to choose a retreat with an intimate group, in the range of 8-15 people.
4. Length of the retreat: Shorter retreats feel rushed, do not support the cultivation of meaningful relationships, and can limit what can be achieved in time available. We recommend you spend at least a week for an ayahuasca retreat to give your mind, body, heart, and soul the attention it deserves.
5. ‍‍Comfort: We recommend you choose a retreat where you are confident that you will be physically comfortable and have your own private bedroom to decompress and integrate, especially if this is your first time. Go for the full jungle mosquito immersion another time, your future self will thank you later.
6. Alignment: Select a retreat that feels aligned with your values and allows your own subjective experience to unfold naturally. There are many different worldviews out there and having a different worldview pushed on you through the retreat may not be in your highest healing interests. This is also particularly relevant for first-timers.
7. Holistic approach: Work with an organization that takes a holistic approach to working with plant medicine, and has options to support and guide your mental and emotional evolution alongside a retreat. If a provider implies that "medicine will solve all your problems", proceed with caution.
8. ‍Service: Select a retreat that you believe can meet your individual needs. Are you being treated as a human, or as participant #22 in their fourth retreat this month? Consider whether or not they've taken the time to get to know you and understand you, or it's more of a take it or leave it retreat center.
9. Booking process: Take the time to speak with the provider before finalizing your booking. If the provider does not have a screening process in place during the booking process anyone could be sitting next to you in ceremony. Some people are not in the right place to work with this powerful plant medicine, and it is the responsibility of the organizers to ensure that only people who can handle ayahuasca are accepted onto the retreat.
10. Expertise: Find an organization that emphasizes healing, and you believe has the breadth and depth of expertise to guide your transformation. Look for facilitators and healers who have a lightness of being and a sparkle in their eyes. Healing work is all about the transmutation of energy, so you are looking for people who have the energy you aspire to. If they aren't able to keep their energy right, that tells you quite a bit about either where they are at and their capabilities.
11. Reputation: At a minimum, Google the provider, you may be surprised by what you find. If there's not much information, that is also information. A reputable retreat center will have a professional online presence with testimonials from previous retreat attendees. This is essential for you to see that they are a legitimate organization who you can trust to contain this powerful experience.
12. Volunteers: Please support ethical plant medicine work by selecting an organization that pay their team. Unfortunately, it is common practice for retreat centers to cycle through young, eager, and worn out volunteers and/or not pay healers fairly. If the people supporting your retreat aren't living their best lives , they're not going to be able to lead you to yours. Don't be shy to ask this question directly when you speak to prospective centers.

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Want to know what a well-run retreat is like? We asked some of our past guests to do the impossible and summarize their retreat experience with us in 1 word.

Watch the video to get a sense of the magic that's possible:

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Ayahuasca is an increasingly popular plant medicine used for healing the body, mind, and spirit. This master plant is a psychotropic preparation obtained by two different sacred plants that originated in the Amazon basin in South America. The begging of the use of this powerful date back to pre-history and its use has always been connected to ceremony and healers.

Because of its amazonian origins, the societies of South America are more aware of the healing aspect of the preparation and its connection to ceremony, healing, and deep transformational nature. But this is not the case in many countries in the world. 

Most countries view this sacred plant medicine as harmful because of its psychotropic qualities. This becomes even more evident in cultures that are far away from South America as Asian countries. 

The distance from its birthplace and the lack of understanding of the plant makes it almost impossible to be part of a legal Ayahuasca ceremony in Asia. Therefore, if your goal is to connect to the plant and its profound healing properties the best you can do is to go to Central/South America and experience the ceremony in one of the many retreats available as the following. 

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1 Behold Retreats - Costa Rica, Mexico, Netherlands

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Behold Retreats sets the standard for safe, legal, and transformative plant medicine retreats in idyllic destinations. Retreats are kept to a small group size, and attendance is by invitation only.

Behold does not facilitate Ayahuasca in Asia, but does offer options in Costa Rica and Mexico. Other popular retreat options include Psilocybin in the Netherlands and with the powerful God Molecule 5-MeO-DMT in Mexico or Portugal.

Ready for deep healing and transformation?

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2 Origen Sagrada - Colombia, USA

The idea for Origen Sagrada came to Danielle, the founder of this fantastic community, in a vision. She saw the need to share the healing knowledge of ayahuasca plant medicine with others, and the EcoResort she created for the treatment center was also revealed in this experience.

For those interested in the healing modalities of South American shamanism and the profound spiritual awakening instilled by the ayahuasca ceremony, you would be right on track to look for Origen Sagrada's nearest available ayahuasca retreat. This organization focuses on the connection to nature and the shedding of negative psychic barriers. Healing the Earth through non-profit work is one of many things that demonstrate the solid positive direction of these healers and their work.

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3 Etnikas - Peru

Few spiritual retreats can claim the public recognition and certifiable results of Etnikas, an organization devoted to sharing the healing journey of ayahuasca with the rest of the world. With its foundation in the heart of the Sacred Valley and located only two hours' travel from Machu Picchu, this is about as incredible a location to visit for a spiritual retreat as you could hope to find.

Etnikas is currently the only ayahuasca retreat center that the ministry of health has recognized, and the number of glowing reviews from previous clients is awe-inspiring. This foundation seeks to combine the power of modern medical science and psychology with the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous Amazonian cultures into an integrated approach to the ancient ayahuasca journey. Participants will be looked after by certified doctors and led through each ceremony by experienced shamans and healers, making this one of the most reliable and trustworthy retreat centers you could find.

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4 Sinchi Runa - Portugal

If you've heard much about ayahuasca, it has probably intimidated you to some extent. This powerful plant medicine is often considered one of the most potent master plants and is even talked about with a sense of disbelief and apprehension. However, ayahuasca is ancient, and its preparation and use in a traditional shamanic ceremony have been passed between generations for millennia in certain cultures of the Amazon region of South America. Sinchi Runa comes from the Quechua word for "Warrior of Light," a term that demonstrates the reverence for which this spiritual path is held.

For participants of Sinchi Runa, diet and meditation are a significant part of any ayahuasca retreat. Maestro Sanango, who leads each group of people through this profound healing journey, has many years of experience working with countless people ready to awaken their deepest selves. One-on-one discussions with Sanango are available to all who attend these retreats and stays range in length from 9 to 23 days. This is an invaluable opportunity for anyone hoping for the whole experience of an ayahuasca retreat.

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5 Spirit Vine - Brazil

Based out of Brazil, the land around the Amazon rainforest where ayahuasca originates, this treatment organization offers a very traditional and holistic approach to a spiritual retreat. Yoga, art, and meditation all play a part in the experience of each client's stay. Like many master plants, ayahuasca can be described as hallucinogenic and, therefore, in danger of being categorized alongside party drugs by people without understanding or respect for its traditional description as a source of profound healing.

At Spirit Vine, participants are taken through the traditional shamanic ceremony after dark amidst the natural beauty of Brazil, where they can experience the full connection to nature and their deepest selves. This organization is non-profit and interfaith, allowing people of all religious and spiritual backgrounds to find profound healing in the ayahuasca journey at every retreat.

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