Many people spend years searching for answers.

They try therapy, self-help books, meditation, career success, relationships, or financial achievement. Yet despite these efforts, they often feel disconnected from themselves and unsure why.

In a conversation on the Harder Than Life podcast, Sam Believ, founder of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat and host of the Ayahuasca Podcast, shared his journey from engineer to retreat owner, explaining how ayahuasca helped him overcome depression, discover purpose, and create a life centered around healing others.

From Engineer to Ayahuasca Retreat Founder

Before ayahuasca became part of his life, Sam worked as an engineer in the offshore oil and gas industry.

From the outside, things looked successful. He had a respected career, financial stability, and many of the things society encourages people to pursue.

Yet internally, something was missing.

He describes feeling directionless and increasingly disconnected from any deeper sense of meaning.

At first, ayahuasca entered his life through curiosity. Friends repeatedly spoke about their experiences and personal transformations. Eventually, the topic appeared so frequently that he began feeling what many people describe as a “calling.”

Although skeptical and nervous, he decided to attend his first ceremony.

That experience would ultimately change the direction of his life.

What Is Ayahuasca?

For those unfamiliar with the medicine, ayahuasca is a traditional Amazonian plant brew that has been used by indigenous communities for thousands of years.

The brew combines the Ayahuasca vine with a DMT-containing plant, creating a ceremonial medicine traditionally consumed under the guidance of an experienced shaman.

According to Sam, ayahuasca is best understood as a tool.

It is not a magical cure for every problem, nor is it something that automatically transforms a person’s life.

Instead, it provides access to deeper levels of self-awareness, allowing individuals to explore emotions, memories, patterns, and beliefs that may be affecting them unconsciously.

Why People Feel Called to Ayahuasca

One of the most common themes Sam observes is that people rarely stumble into ayahuasca randomly.

Instead, many experience a gradual sense of curiosity or repeated exposure to the topic.

A friend mentions it.

Then another.

A podcast appears.

A documentary shows up.

The conversation keeps returning.

Eventually, many people begin wondering whether there is something they need to explore.

For Sam, that curiosity eventually became impossible to ignore.

What began as an experiment later became one of the most important decisions of his life.

Healing Depression Through Purpose

When Sam returned to ayahuasca after experiencing depression, his intention shifted.

This time, he wasn’t looking for adventure or curiosity.

He was searching for answers.

Rather than simply providing temporary relief, he says the medicine helped him identify the deeper cause of his depression: a lack of purpose.

He realized that despite professional success, he had not found meaningful direction.

Ayahuasca did not magically remove all his problems.

Instead, it helped him recognize the path he wanted to follow.

That path eventually led to founding LaWayra, building a healing community, and dedicating his life to helping others navigate similar challenges.

The Connect, Heal, Grow Philosophy

At LaWayra, Sam’s philosophy is summarized in three simple words:

Connect. Heal. Grow.

The process begins with connection.

People reconnect with themselves, their emotions, their intentions, and often a deeper sense of meaning.

From that connection comes healing.

Participants frequently work through emotional wounds, trauma, anxiety, depression, addiction, or unresolved life challenges.

Growth follows naturally.

As individuals gain clarity and release old patterns, they often discover new possibilities for how they want to live.

For Sam, this progression reflects the natural journey many people experience through plant medicine work.

Addiction as a Symptom

A significant portion of the conversation focused on addiction and recovery.

Sam views addiction similarly to many trauma-informed therapists.

Rather than seeing addiction as the primary problem, he sees it as a coping mechanism.

People often turn to substances or behaviors because they are attempting to manage emotional pain.

If that pain remains unresolved, simply removing the addiction may not address the underlying issue.

Ayahuasca can help by bringing those deeper emotional wounds into awareness.

Once individuals understand and process the source of their suffering, addictive behaviors often begin losing their grip.

In some cases, participants report reducing or eliminating habits such as excessive drinking, substance use, or other compulsive behaviors after addressing deeper emotional causes.

Why People Fear the Experience

One of the biggest obstacles preventing people from exploring ayahuasca is fear.

Many worry about confronting painful memories, trauma, or uncomfortable truths.

Sam understands this concern.

However, he argues that avoiding these experiences often creates greater suffering over time.

When emotional wounds remain buried, they continue influencing thoughts, behaviors, relationships, and overall wellbeing.

Healing requires bringing those experiences into awareness.

While that process may feel uncomfortable temporarily, it often creates the opportunity for lasting change.

The goal is not to suffer.

The goal is to understand, process, and release what has been carried for years.

The Importance of Integration

Throughout the conversation, Sam repeatedly emphasized that the ceremony itself is only one part of the process.

The real transformation happens afterward.

Integration involves applying insights from the experience to everyday life.

This may include:

• Changing unhealthy habits
• Improving relationships
• Setting healthier boundaries
• Developing new routines
• Continuing therapy or coaching
• Following through on important realizations

Without integration, powerful experiences can fade into distant memories.

With integration, they can become catalysts for long-term personal growth.

Building a Healing Community

Beyond individual retreats, Sam’s vision extends much further.

He hopes to create a lasting community where people can continue supporting one another long after their ceremonies have ended.

Many participants form deep friendships during retreats.

Shared vulnerability, personal breakthroughs, and mutual support often create connections that continue well beyond the retreat experience.

For Sam, healing is not only about individual transformation.

It is also about creating environments where people can learn, grow, and support one another.

A Different Vision for Colombia

Another important part of Sam’s mission involves changing perceptions of Colombia.

For decades, international media often associated the country primarily with drug cartels and violence.

Sam hopes ayahuasca can help tell a different story.

Colombia possesses rich indigenous traditions, extraordinary biodiversity, and centuries of plant medicine knowledge.

As interest in ayahuasca grows worldwide, he believes Colombia has the opportunity to become known not for cocaine, but for healing.

Finding Your True Self

Perhaps the most powerful message from the conversation is that personal transformation rarely comes from acquiring more things.

Many people spend years chasing success, status, money, or external validation.

Yet fulfillment often remains elusive.

According to Sam, lasting change begins when people reconnect with themselves.

By facing what has been avoided, healing what has been wounded, and following a more authentic path, individuals can begin building lives that feel meaningful rather than merely successful.

For him, ayahuasca became the catalyst for that journey.

The medicine did not provide all the answers.

It simply helped him find the courage to start asking the right questions.

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Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2tVaVmWMWEncLl1HAc0gQh

Success does not always lead to happiness.

Many people spend years pursuing financial security, professional achievement, and material comfort, only to discover that something important is still missing. For Sam Believ, founder of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat in Colombia and host of the Ayahuasca Podcast, that realization became the starting point of a journey that would completely transform his life.

In a conversation on the Entrepreneurs in Recovery podcast, Sam shared how ayahuasca helped him overcome depression, discover a sense of purpose, and understand addiction in a completely different way.

When Success Isn’t Enough

Before entering the world of plant medicine, Sam worked as an engineer in the offshore oil and gas industry.

By conventional standards, he was successful.

The job paid extremely well. He had financial stability and many of the things people are taught to pursue. Yet despite those achievements, he felt deeply unhappy.

Looking back, he describes himself as rich but miserable.

The disconnect between external success and internal fulfillment became impossible to ignore.

Eventually, a series of life changes led him to Colombia, where he encountered ayahuasca for the first time.

At that point, he was neither spiritual nor religious. In fact, he approached everything with the mindset of an engineer—logical, analytical, and skeptical.

Yet something about the medicine spoke to him.

The Role of Synchronicity

One theme that appears repeatedly throughout Sam’s story is synchronicity.

Rather than carefully planning every step of his future, he found himself following a series of unexpected opportunities and meaningful coincidences.

Moving to Colombia.

Meeting his wife.

Discovering ayahuasca.

Opening a retreat center.

Each step seemed to emerge naturally from the previous one.

Over time, he began paying closer attention to these moments and viewing them as guidance rather than random events.

Instead of forcing life in a particular direction, he learned to recognize when life seemed to be inviting him somewhere new.

Ayahuasca and Depression

Sam credits ayahuasca with helping him overcome a long period of depression.

Importantly, he does not describe the process as magical or instantaneous.

The medicine did not simply erase his problems.

Instead, it gave him clarity.

It lifted the emotional fog enough for him to start taking meaningful action. It helped him identify the deeper issues contributing to his unhappiness and encouraged him to move toward a more authentic path.

According to Sam, this is how healing often works.

Ayahuasca opens a door, but people still have to walk through it.

The medicine provides insight, direction, and awareness, but real transformation comes from acting on those insights afterward.

Understanding Addiction Differently

As the conversation shifted toward addiction recovery, Sam offered a perspective that closely aligns with modern trauma-informed approaches.

Rather than viewing addiction as the primary problem, he sees it as a solution to an underlying problem.

Substances and compulsive behaviors often serve as coping mechanisms.

They help people manage emotional pain, trauma, stress, loneliness, or unresolved experiences that feel overwhelming.

In this sense, addiction becomes a survival strategy.

The goal is not to shame the behavior but to understand what purpose it is serving.

Once the underlying pain is addressed, the addiction frequently begins losing its power.

Ayahuasca as a Tool for Recovery

Over the years, Sam has witnessed many participants experience significant changes in their relationship with addictive behaviors.

Some arrive specifically seeking help for alcohol dependency, cannabis use, or other addictions.

Others come for entirely different reasons and later discover that their desire to drink, smoke, or engage in other compulsive behaviors has dramatically decreased.

Interestingly, these changes are often unexpected.

Participants do not necessarily arrive intending to quit.

Instead, they address deeper emotional issues, and the addiction naturally becomes less necessary.

This aligns with the idea that addiction is often a symptom rather than the root cause.

The Importance of Shadow Work

One concept Sam frequently discusses is shadow work.

In simple terms, the shadow consists of aspects of ourselves that we have rejected, suppressed, ignored, or hidden.

These can include painful memories, fears, insecurities, unresolved trauma, or personality traits we struggle to accept.

Ayahuasca has a remarkable ability to bring these hidden aspects into awareness.

This is not always comfortable.

Many ceremonies involve confronting difficult emotions, painful memories, or uncomfortable truths.

However, Sam believes these experiences are often where the deepest healing occurs.

When people stop avoiding their shadow and begin engaging with it consciously, genuine transformation becomes possible.

Why Integration Matters

A recurring theme throughout the conversation was the importance of integration.

Many people focus intensely on the ceremony itself while overlooking what happens afterward.

For Sam, integration is where the real work begins.

Insights gained during ceremony must be translated into action.

That may involve changing habits, improving relationships, pursuing therapy, developing healthier routines, or making major life decisions.

Without integration, even profound experiences can gradually fade.

With integration, however, those experiences can create lasting change.

To support this process, LaWayra provides integration journals, sharing circles, and ongoing guidance designed to help participants apply what they learn.

The Challenge of Running a Retreat

From the outside, owning an ayahuasca retreat may sound like a dream job.

The reality is far more complex.

Sam describes it as simultaneously running a hotel, a restaurant, and a mental health center.

Every retreat involves managing logistics, supporting participants, coordinating staff, working with traditional shamans, and holding space for people experiencing intense emotional processes.

Some participants arrive in crisis.

Others arrive carrying profound trauma.

The responsibility can be enormous.

Yet despite the challenges, Sam continues because of the fulfillment it provides.

Helping people heal offers a sense of purpose that financial success alone never could.

What Wealth Cannot Buy

One of the most striking observations from Sam’s years of retreat work is how many wealthy people arrive feeling deeply unfulfilled.

Many have achieved everything they once believed would make them happy.

They have money, status, successful careers, and material comfort.

Yet something still feels missing.

For some, ayahuasca helps reveal what that missing piece is.

Often, it is connection.

Connection to themselves.

Connection to others.

Connection to meaning and purpose.

Connection to something larger than individual achievement.

A Vision for the Future

Today, Sam’s mission extends beyond his retreat center.

He hopes to help more people understand ayahuasca and reduce the stigma surrounding plant medicine.

He also wants to help reshape the world’s perception of Colombia, highlighting its rich healing traditions rather than the stereotypes that have defined it for decades.

Perhaps most ambitiously, he dreams of creating an International Ayahuasca Day—a global celebration of healing, connection, and human unity.

Whether or not that vision becomes reality, the motivation behind it remains clear.

For Sam, the ultimate lesson of ayahuasca is simple.

Healing becomes possible when people stop running from themselves, face their pain honestly, and begin reconnecting with what truly matters.

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Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6iNLCmilvsPmW5TOmp4VuV

For decades, Colombia has struggled with an international reputation shaped largely by one word: cocaine.

Despite its extraordinary biodiversity, indigenous traditions, and rich cultural heritage, many people still associate the country primarily with cartels, crime, and Pablo Escobar. Yet a growing movement is attempting to tell a different story—one centered on healing, spirituality, and one of the world’s most respected traditional plant medicines.

In a conversation on the Colombia Calling podcast, Sam Believ, founder of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat, and filmmaker Sam Lipman-Stern discussed a new documentary project that aims to explore the history of ayahuasca in Colombia, document a personal healing journey, and challenge the stereotypes that continue to define the country in the eyes of many outsiders.

A Different Side of Colombia

For many international visitors, Colombia is still viewed through the lens of popular television shows, crime documentaries, and decades of media coverage focused on violence.

The reality, however, is far more complex.

Colombia is home to some of the oldest surviving ayahuasca traditions in the world. Indigenous communities have worked with the medicine for generations, preserving knowledge that stretches back centuries and, according to some estimates, potentially much longer.

Yet many people who travel for ayahuasca never realize this.

Instead, they often associate ayahuasca with Peru, Costa Rica, or even retreat centers in North America and Europe.

One of the documentary’s goals is to highlight Colombia’s unique place within the history of plant medicine and show audiences a side of the country that remains largely unknown.

The Journey Begins with Healing

Sam Believ’s own story began long before LaWayra existed.

Years ago, he found himself struggling emotionally and searching for answers. Although he had built a successful career, something felt missing. His first experiences with ayahuasca helped him overcome depression and eventually led him toward a completely different path.

That path resulted in the creation of an ayahuasca retreat center, a podcast dedicated to plant medicine, and now a feature documentary exploring the cultural and healing dimensions of ayahuasca in Colombia.

For Sam, the project feels like a natural continuation of a journey that began with his own search for healing.

A Filmmaker’s Personal Transformation

What makes this documentary particularly unique is that it is not simply about ayahuasca.

It is also about filmmaker Sam Lipman-Stern’s personal journey.

Before becoming involved in the project, Lipman-Stern had spent years dealing with anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. He had been prescribed antidepressants and remained on them for years.

As preparations for the documentary began, he made the difficult decision to work with medical professionals to discontinue the medication and prepare for his first ayahuasca retreat.

The documentary follows this process from beginning to end.

Rather than presenting ayahuasca as an abstract concept, viewers will experience the story through the eyes of someone approaching the medicine for the first time, carrying many of the same questions, fears, and doubts that most newcomers experience.

Exploring Indigenous Traditions

One of the central themes of the project is authenticity.

The filmmakers recently traveled through Colombia, visiting regions including Putumayo and San Agustín while meeting indigenous leaders, traditional healers, and communities connected to the medicine.

These experiences revealed the depth of Colombia’s spiritual traditions.

The documentary explores not only the ceremonies themselves but also the process of cultivating the plants, preparing the medicine, and preserving cultural knowledge across generations.

For many viewers, this may be their first introduction to the indigenous traditions that continue to keep these practices alive today.

More Than a Psychedelic Story

While psychedelics often receive attention because of their unusual effects, the filmmakers emphasize that the documentary is ultimately about healing.

Mental health challenges are becoming increasingly common around the world.

Many people feel disconnected, overwhelmed, anxious, or trapped in patterns that seem impossible to break.

Ayahuasca has attracted growing attention because some participants report significant improvements in depression, trauma, addiction, and overall wellbeing.

The documentary seeks to examine these possibilities while remaining grounded in real human experiences rather than sensationalism.

Instead of focusing on dramatic psychedelic visuals, the story centers on transformation, vulnerability, and recovery.

Rebranding Colombia

Perhaps the most ambitious goal of the project is helping change how Colombia is perceived internationally.

According to Sam Believ, Colombia deserves to be known for more than its difficult history.

The country possesses extraordinary natural beauty, deep spiritual traditions, welcoming communities, and a rich cultural identity that extends far beyond the stories most foreigners hear.

By highlighting indigenous wisdom, healing traditions, and positive personal transformations, the filmmakers hope to contribute to a broader and more balanced understanding of Colombia.

It is not about denying the country’s past.

It is about showing audiences that there is much more to the story.

Why This Story Matters Now

Interest in ayahuasca continues to grow worldwide.

At the same time, mental health concerns, burnout, loneliness, and depression remain widespread.

Many people are actively searching for approaches that help them reconnect with themselves and find greater meaning in their lives.

This documentary arrives at a moment when those conversations are becoming increasingly important.

Whether viewers are interested in plant medicine, indigenous cultures, mental health, or Colombia itself, the film promises to offer a rare perspective into a world that remains unfamiliar to many people.

Looking Ahead

The documentary is still in development, but its mission is already clear.

By combining personal transformation, cultural exploration, and a deeper look at Colombia’s indigenous heritage, the project aims to tell a story that goes far beyond ayahuasca itself.

It is a story about healing.

It is a story about identity.

And perhaps most importantly, it is a story about challenging old narratives and creating space for new ones.

For Sam Believ, that journey started with a single ayahuasca ceremony years ago.

Now, through film, he hopes to share that journey with the world.

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Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4sj3YUlZAH1qlmWxqu9Lrl