5 Best Ayahuasca Retreats In Melbourne (Updated 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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‍Looking for a little more guidance for one of the most important decisions of your life? Watch this video.

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The profound healing opportunity of an ayahuasca ceremony is not currently legal in Australia, and for this reason, it would be very difficult to find any establishment whose qualifications you could actually trust.  Choosing the right setting and provider of an ayahuasca ceremony is crucial, as this is often referred to as the Mother Plant, and the most powerful of plant medicines.

Most well-established and serious ayahuasca retreat centers are located where it is legal, or decriminalized, such as Costa Rica, Portugal, and South American countries that border the Amazon rainforest.  Here is a list of 5 organizations that will be able to help you find what you are looking for.

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1 Behold Retreats - Costa Rica, Portugal, Mexico

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This is a good choice for anyone interested in a beautiful and professional ayahuasca retreat center.  Its treatment centers are located in splendid natural settings, and accommodations follow suit, such as beachfront villas in Costa Rica, or mountains and rainforest views available.  Behold Retreats prioritizes client safety and limits group size to make for a more personalized and intimate ayahuasca journey in each retreat.

If you feel like taking a trip to a scenic location for the experience of an ayahuasca retreat, then this is a great option for you.  Free consultation is available, so participants are able to find out exactly what they have to look forward to with the Mother Vine and plant medicine healing.

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 2 Soltara Healing Center - Costa Rica, Peru

This organization has a treatment center along the beaches of Costa Rica, as well as in Peru, with facilities devoted to the traditions of sacred ayahuasca journeys, and the healing experience it provides, this treatment center offers participants a chance to take part in real plant medicine ceremonies, led by a team of facilitators from the Shipibo people of the South American Amazon region.  Their philosophy combines Western psychology with the traditional shamanic ceremony of the Shipibo culture.  Retreat lengths range from 5 to 12 days, and have glowing testimonials from past participants.

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3 Origen Sagrada - Colombia, USA

Origen Sagrada is an ayahuasca retreat center founded in a beautiful spot in the forests of Colombia, with nature surrounding it, and healing is the primary focus of this retreat.  The idea for the EcoResort came to the founder, Danielle, in a vision, and she built it along a river, near the border of Colombia and Brazil.

A traditional shamanic ceremony is held by a native healer, and facilitators are all veterans of the ayahuasca journey.  Diet and connection to nature are two factors that lead participants to a spiritual awakening, through the plant medicine of the ayahuasca vine.

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4 Ayayni Shamanic Retreats - Ireland

The name Ayayni comes from the words ayahuasca and “ayni” which refers to the connection between nature and our deepest self, and the healing that comes from strengthening this.  The legality of ayahuasca in Ireland is currently in a “gray area”, allowing for this organization to host various retreats, and provide an ayahuasca ceremony under certain circumstances.  With a team of expert facilitators, participants are encouraged to look for the next available spiritual retreat online, and can even seek them out in Colombia, near the Amazon rainforest where ayahuasca traditions originated.

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5 Acsauhaya - Netherlands

This retreat center is located in the grasslands of Holland, in a Dutch farmhouse located on the border of a nature reserve, giving participants a beautiful scenario to enjoy nature during their ayahuasca journeys.  Retreats range from 3-5 days, and are led by native shamans of Peruvian Shipibo descent, with incredible experience in the age-old philosophies of plant medicine.

If you are looking for an authentic ayahuasca retreat, you would do well to inquire about the nearest retreat available, as groups are limited to under 15 participants, to retain the intimate nature of the ayahuasca journey.

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