We've been getting loads of questions lately about HOW to sit with psychedelics and plant medicines. On this episode of The Psychedelic Integration Podcast, we're unpacking all the different ways you can meet sacred medicines and why we LOVE plant medicine retreats. Plant medicine retreats, particularly with ayahuasca and San Pedro, are our preferred and recommended way to go deep into yourself and explore the things that are holding you back from having the life you truly want and deserve. An ayahuasca retreat with sacred medicines can make the difference between just having a visual, psychedelic experience, and actually getting a vision for your life. Today we're going to explain how and why plant medicine retreats work.
Our personal and professional recommendation for an affordable, powerful healing plant medicine retreat experience is Hayulima Spiritual Sanctuary. This is the home of our medicine family in Ecuador that we continue to work with and learn from. They are our friends and teachers, and we would not be doing this work without their inspiration, support, and love. Our gratitude to them is great, and we are excited about the beautiful spiritual home they are building together in Mindo.
In this episode, John and Sinclair share about...
- The different containers for having a psychedelic experience and why we prefer working with elders in a ceremony with sacred plant medicines in a retreat setting
- The path to working with medicines on your own is difficult and often long
- Why plant medicine retreats are so healing and powerful
- The two categories of entheogenic or psychedelic compounds: Synthetic Compounds (LSD, Ketamine, 2CB, MDMA, Mescaline, Psilocybin, DMT, etc.) and Earth Medicines (San Pedro, Ayahuasca, Iboga, Peyote, Psychoactive Mushrooms, Bufo, Yopo)
- Why we prefer to work with Earth Medicines, and the difference between taking a synthetic compound and a plant, fungus, or Earth medicine
- Start where you are - what's accessible, what's available, what's affordable, what's close is often how many paths begin. Doing the work you need to do with what you have is valid and okay!
- The benefits of sitting in a circle with elders who carry an unbroken tradition from our ancestors
- It's not just about our own human healing, but our relationship with the Earth, the water, our environment and sitting with shamans allows you to receive this living wisdom
- Receiving the wisdom of thousands of voices and thousands of years in addition to having the spirit of the plants with you is the most powerful experience
- Being reminded by teachers who live close to the land and walk the spirit dimension has been key to finding a vision for our lives
- Medicine is everywhere: the music, the songs, the land, the animals, the spirits, the people in your retreat, the fire, the people holding space for you and caring for you, the sweat lodge, the teepee, the maloka are medicine... Retreating from everyday life is medicine.
- Going out of your comfort zone so you can break the cycle of the heavy vibration that pervades our culture
- Why coming to plant medicines is a calling - YOU are being called
- Going into a place with a different worldview enhances your ability to change your way of thinking and receive the medicine
- Why Latin America feels so alive and vibrant and wild, and how our hearts respond to that
- Healing is taking responsibility for yourself, but you have to be ready and willing to do the work
AND MORE!
