Since its founding in 2001, Ayahuasca International has held countless neo-shamanic gatherings all over the world. One of its venues was Ibiza, where these ayahuasca retreats are usually held in “Ibizan houses” located in privileged areas of the island with numerous rooms and large halls, “suitable for ayahuasca workshops and other psychotherapeutic techniques”, explains its founder, Alberto José Varela, on its website.
This type of retreat can last from one day to a full weekendthey also offer workshops on music therapy and other techniques, such as ho’oponopono, an ancient Hawaiian problem-solving method. The price for two days, including the consumption of psychoactive substances, is around 600 euros and places are limited.
Ayahuasca, accompaniment and music for “an inner journey”
Ayahuasca is one of the hallucinogens most potent hallucinogens in the world. It is a drink that is obtained through the mixture of two plants native to the jungles of South Americaa vine and a shrub of the coffee family, which taken separately are not hallucinogenic, but together they are. Ayahuasca International completes the retreats held on the island by “helping the participants to the deep psychotherapeutic integration of what happens through the expansion of consciousness that ayahuasca produces and thus better understand in depth what happens in their daily lives so that this experience is transcendent,” they explain.
The website where the meetings are announced explains that it is “a retreat where the basis of the main work is done with ayahuasca, as it is a solid and safe platform to start an inner journey”. They also talk about the benefits of combining music therapy and ayahuascawhich “offers the possibility of connecting with the potentiality and inner knowledge of oneself. To acquire one’s own direction and strength to move towards a life surrounded by love and abundance in all aspects”.
Attendees to the full retreats can access free of charge to the workshops offered but it is also possible to attend these events individually paying about 70 euros per workshop.
The retreats consist of a psycho-emotional preparation workshop where a space of understanding and non-judgment is opened where each person can express the reason for their attendance and the moment of their life in which they find themselves. In this workshop they analyze the blockages and expectations that the participants may bring with the objective of opening themselves to feel and with confidence to ayahuascaayahuasca[]”which does not invade our space, but enters as we allow it, as respectful and loving as it is”.
It is taken at night
As explained on the website, the the ayahuasca is taken at night with pure ayahuasca brought already cooked by the shamans of the Amazon (Putumayo, Colombia), and evocative music is played to allow us to “fall into the center of ourselves”.
The facilitators are in charge of taking care of the participants all night long, without guiding, “for it is time for everyone to find their inner master”they explain. The following morning there is an integration workshop conducted by a facilitator specialized in expanded states of consciousness where everyone will share their experience with the aim of transferring the teachings to everyday life.
On the second day there are usually other preparation exercises and “the intake that is given is greater, as the person is already more open after the first time the experience is more intense for those who have been the other days, since the energy of the retreat increases as people become more comfortable and let themselves go more through the confidence they acquire, this makes it possible to deepen more with ayahuasca and healing can be deeper.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.