Ayahuasca Retreat Reviews — Helping You Stay Safe with 5,000+ Independent Reviews
Spirit Plant Journeys is a safe, experienced and transformative Ayahuasca Retreat nestled in the Peruvian Andes, created to help you open your heart, look within, and awaken to a new way. We offer intimate retreats with small groups in which we closely guide you through your journey within. We provide a healing space for you to acknowledge your truth; to feel, express, allow and transform.
Ayahuasca is a powerful tool that can help us uplift ourselves, heal our wounds, and let go of anything that no longer serves us. In working with plant consciousness, we become open and sensitive to everything that we are in relationship with, and in this, gain awareness, perspective, and wisdom.
Our highly-trained, experienced facilitators will closely guide you as you immerse yourself in this process. We believe that true healing is a beautiful process of opening up and awakening, and we feel strongly that this process can and should happen in a nurturing, loving way. As facilitators between cultures, and bridges between worlds, we provide a safe, open space in which we honor and respect every human being’s process in a gentle and kind way.
Every element of our retreat is designed to sustain real transformation. With a down to earth, heart-centered approach and kindred family spirit, we provide the opportunity for a life-changing healing experience. Our programs are held in the Sacred Valley, a safe haven from the noise of the city and the dangers of the jungle, and we limit our group size to a maximum of 12 people, allowing our Facilitators and Maestros to give you close, personalized guidance during your time with us. We are blessed to be working with a team of powerful Shipibo Maestros, the oldest lineage of Ayahuaqueros in South America, and we bring in both men and women maestros on retreat to strike a crucial balance between the energies of the Divine Masculine and Feminine.
Our experienced and trained facilitators serve as a cultural bridge on your journey, providing a link between cultures and plant medicine realms. They walk alongside you on this journey, guiding and empowering you with the tools to truly engage with your healing process. We specialize in providing support through pre-retreat intention sessions, sharing circles and self-inquiry on site, and post-integration sessions.
The healing process truly begins to take root when our guests go home, and as such, we believe strongly in checking in and providing support after the retreat. These are the keys to real transformation, to embody your healing experience in your daily life, enabling you to bring lasting change and growth into your life. After your last ceremony ends, the ceremony of life truly begins.
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gsteeves
October 9, 2016 at 10:21 pmSeptember 2016 Retreat.
If you feel you have done everything in your life, have everything you have ever truly needed, no real wants and you are still searching for something, may I please recommend Spirit Plant Journeys.
I have not even been through the second Ayahuasca ceremony as of this writing and if I was to leave now the price would have been worth it for this retreat. The accommodations alone in the Sacred Valley are worth the price. The area of the accommodations is totally surrounded by huge and gorgeous mountains. Breathtaking! The afternoons are breezy and the air is fresh and clean. The hosts Neils and Sarah are awesome by themselves but the interactions between them are sometimes priceless. The kitchen staff and housekeeping staff Julian and Yony (pronounced Jenny) are perfect. The food preparation amazing, the Shamans are the best of the best. And for me, I believe Ayahuasca is going to save my life. I felt my body going downhill fast and now I am on the verge of a total health reset. BTW I am going on 63 and this is my first experience with anything like this. In between time includes massage from a true sweetheart of a person (Paulette), hikes through the Pisac and (Ollantay Tambo) ruins, visits to local markets and best of all, the making of lifelong friends.
The San Pedro ceremony was awesome as Bernhard has a way of seeing into your heart and providing comforting suggestions when he takes the time to see everyone individually several times during the ceremony. I am a huge fan of AVATAR and the San Pedro experience took me directly into the beauty of Pandora. Just Amazing beauty and a total sense of living a natural life with total respect for nature. San Pedro, to me, was the perfect lead in to the Ayahuasca ceremonies.
The Ayahuasca ceremony was to date the most spectacular experience I have had and as of this writing, I have three more to go. I strongly suggest anyone coming to this retreat to please take the preparatory recommendations by Neils to heart to get the most out of the process. The Shaman Gume is absolutely the real thing. His ceremonial singing and ritual (Icaro’s) is so impressive it is hard to believe one can have that much energy and virtually nonstop. The ceremony is followed up with music and singing by Gume, Neils, Sarah and guests. Indescribably beautiful.
September 6, 2016
As of this writing I have been through two ceremonies’. The second was a step up more powerful than the first. I feel healthier than I have in years. Ayahuasca has automatically taught me to chew my food completely before swallowing and slow down my eating pace significantly. I feel like I have lost 10-12 lbs and 4 inches off my waist. Ayahuasca has purged my system of a vast amount of my undigested food in my gut. It is amazing what has come out of me. On the spiritual side, I have fulfilled a major goal of this trip by actually meeting with my mom and dad and especially my niece that had passed the same week I had left for this trip. I got a lot more than I had bargained for here as many family members, friends and pets showed up too. It was all incredible. I know there is a lot more cleaning up to do of my body and spiritual experiences ahead of me and I am looking forward to that as I experience ceremony 3 tonight.
If you have read this far, I have been through all four ceremonies and it is by far the most incredible experience of my life outside of watching the birth of my two awesome sons, one of which I was lucky enough to have been able to bring with me. Number 2 son definitely must join me in the near future. I am so impressed that I am planning to do what I can in my life to make a new start in the Sacred Valley within the next two years…. God willing and I am sure God is willing and going to assist me all the way. I just have to be part of this.
The whole movement towards Ayahuasca retreats has really taken off and become extremely popular for quite a while now. I highly and strongly recommend Spirit Plant Journeys for their highest levels of integrity and value in every possible respect. And please, do not take Ayahuasca without a Shaman and proper guidance. One MUST take this highly spiritual experience 1000% seriously and with an open mind and heart. See you soon SPJ, I will return in March 2017.
Much Love and Thanks to you all!
Gary Steeves
Lunenburg, Massachusetts
avatar382
September 10, 2016 at 12:00 pmI am so grateful for my experience with Spirit Plant Journeys. I had felt a strong, very strong calling to commune with Ayahuasca. I planned my trip in just a couple of months, and it felt a little like jumping off a cliff. I had no experience with Ayahuasca, didn’t know anyone in Peru, and had never met a Shaman before.
So, this process was a leap of faith for me, but I felt completely at ease and comfortable within an hour of meeting Niels, Sarah, and my retreat group. I can’t explain it other than things just felt right.
Neils and Sarah are compassionate and love their work. They were so friendly, I felt my heart open to them in love and trust immediately. I really appreciated their knowledge of the process, and the effort they put in allowing us all space for our work with Ayahuasca, balanced with getting us out and about and seeing breathtaking sites. I loved all of our side excursions, they added much to my experience.
The accommodations and food were all top-notch. Initially, this wasn’t a concern of mine — but during my Ayahuasca process, I came to really, really appreciate it! Aya was very taxing on my body and the love, care and comfort I received were SO important to me in the midst of that challenge.
The San Pedro experience was very gentle with me, and it was a lovely way to start the ceremony. I felt like I connected deeply with Bernhard, both during the San Pedro and later, when I was feeling flattened by the Ayahuasca. It was a very challenging time and Bernhard was there with me and gave me love, support and guidance.
I experienced Gume, the Ayahuasca shaman as a powerful father figure. He made it clear that we were there to do our own work, and he did so much to create the space to allow that to happen. I appreciated his care, intensity, and clear, no-nonsense manner. He was such a beautiful instrument and channel. His singing the Icaros has stayed with me since the retreat.
Myra, the massage therapist and Machu Picchu tour guide was so sweet and loving. I was in such a delicate state… and her healing touch and encouragement made such a difference for me.
I did the Machu Picchu tour, and it was great. I almost didn’t go because I was still feeling the effects from my Ayahuasca process, but Neils and Myra encouraged me. It wasn’t easy, but that fit given the process I was going through.
I let a lot go during those 11 days. I have been working so hard spiritually, seeking and looking and trying to find God and healing and I left with such a powerful sense of having it deep inside all the time. On Aya, I experienced myself as a mountain, as earth and rock… and Aya came to me as water, flowing into my cracks and letting me know that all was going to be ok.
Being back home, I’ve experienced such acceptance of myself and others, and a noticeable release of stress and existential tension. Aya has given me a beautiful exhale.
Ryan Gentleman
August 18, 2016 at 5:00 pmHello world!
I basically never ever write reviews, but it just wouldn’t be fair to deny the possibility of more people having the amazing experience I had through lack of a review, after all , it was the testimonial page that helped me take the leap of faith and fly across to the other side of the world on my own to have my own experience. So unbelievably glad I did. Didn’t have any trouble with the locals , basically everyone is friendly in the neighboring areas. The location at the sacred valley is a beautiful spot. Was wonderful to wake up there every morning , and have a good cup of tea and a chin wag with my fellow adventurers. It didn’t take long at all for our bond to grow incredibly strong, and a huge part of that development process is the way that our hosts “held” us. Neils and Sarah are wonderful people and the best hosts in the world, its amazing that they can put on such an incredibly great retreat for people from all walks of life , and allow them to come together and have an amazing experience. Which is exactly what we had. Food is fantastic, walked away from the retreat a stone heavier than I entered (which for me is a good thing, and it really was a whole stone! don’t underestimate the power of diet) How to possibly summarise those weeks… Take a leap of faith , everyone had their own individual reasons for attending, I certainly had mine. If you know its something you want/need/feel the urge to do, and you want to experience it at an awesome place , with amazing hosts, then I can’t recommend Spirit Plant Journeys with Neils and Sarah enough.
Peace and Love
Ryan Gentleman
sas
August 10, 2016 at 2:44 amThank you Spirit Plant Journeys, Gume, Neils, Carl, Bernhardt and the amazing community of souls who were my retreat mates in May of this year. This is an experience I wish every person on planet earth could have. I am grateful for the opportunity to heal, learn, soul-search and stretch self imposed limits and boundaries accumulated over many, many decades. I hope there will be an opportunity to return; I hope anyone reading this review will take a leap of faith and go.
The venue is beautiful and comfortable, the food excellent, and the shaman and facilitators knowledgeable, helpful and extremely kind. The many hikes and walks provided a physical counterpoint to the exercise my mind did during the ceremonies. It’s a synergistic mind-body experience.
Our group was small and we bonded quickly and tightly – the kind of non-judgemental, loving family that everyone should have. Thank you again my friends.
I would like to return, but if that is not possible, I highly recommend the experience and Spirit Plant Journeys to all – please go in my place – you won’t regret the decision.
damndissonance
August 9, 2016 at 2:58 amThe 10 days at SpiritPlant Journeys (SPJ) made for an indelible experience, not “only” the medicines, but the bond that was forged amongst people who had been total strangers before that. SPJ took very good care, both psychically and physically.
Gumercindo was an inspiration and a comfort. The setting, too, is utterly beautiful. The sightseeing and the hiking it entailed were great.
Five stars to everyone at SPJ who bring a tremendous experience.