Ayahuasca has become one of the most talked-about plant medicines in the world, yet many people remain unsure about what an ayahuasca retreat is actually like. Stories range from profound healing and personal transformation to challenging emotional experiences and encounters that seem impossible to explain.

In a conversation on the Meta Mystics podcast, ayahuasca retreat founder Sam Believ shared his perspective after facilitating thousands of participants at his retreat center in Colombia. His insights provide a realistic look at what people can expect when approaching this powerful medicine.

Healing Comes First

One of the biggest misconceptions about ayahuasca is that it is primarily about visions, mystical experiences, or spiritual exploration.

According to Sam, healing should always come first.

While ayahuasca can produce extraordinary experiences, the primary goal is often much simpler: helping people address depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, emotional pain, and unhealthy patterns that have been affecting their lives for years.

Many participants arrive seeking answers to specific problems, only to discover that the medicine focuses on something entirely different. In Sam’s experience, ayahuasca tends to reveal what a person needs rather than what they initially want.

This is why intentions are encouraged, but expectations are discouraged.

Every Experience Is Different

Unlike many other psychedelics, ayahuasca rarely produces the same experience twice.

One ceremony may be highly emotional, bringing buried memories and feelings to the surface. Another may be intensely physical, involving purging and bodily release. A different ceremony might involve vivid visions, spiritual insights, or a deep sense of connection.

Some participants report profound visual journeys, while others experience very little visually but still leave feeling transformed.

This unpredictability is part of what makes ayahuasca unique. There is no guaranteed script or sequence of events.

For this reason, experienced facilitators encourage participants to surrender to the process rather than trying to control it.

The Importance of Set and Setting

A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the importance of preparation and environment.

Sam believes many of the frightening stories associated with ayahuasca come from poor facilitation rather than the medicine itself.

A well-run retreat focuses heavily on creating a safe container. Participants spend time settling into the environment, meeting the group, learning about the process, and understanding how to navigate difficult moments before drinking the medicine.

The ceremony itself is supported by experienced facilitators, traditional music, and an experienced shaman who guides the process.

This sense of safety allows participants to let go more fully and engage with whatever arises.

Without proper support, even experienced psychedelic users can become overwhelmed.

Understanding Difficult Experiences

Many people worry about having a “bad trip.”

Sam prefers a different perspective.

A difficult experience is not necessarily a bad one.

Some of the most challenging ceremonies can also be the most healing. Confronting painful memories, fears, grief, or unresolved trauma may feel uncomfortable in the moment, but often leads to significant breakthroughs afterward.

The key difference lies in how a person responds.

Resisting the experience tends to increase suffering, while accepting and moving through it often transforms the challenge into something productive.

In this way, ayahuasca can resemble an intense form of emotional training, helping participants develop resilience and self-awareness.

Physical and Emotional Healing

While ayahuasca is often associated with mental health, Sam has also witnessed many participants report improvements in physical conditions.

People have arrived seeking help for depression and later noticed improvements in digestive issues, autoimmune symptoms, allergies, chronic pain, or other long-standing health concerns.

At the same time, he cautions against viewing ayahuasca as a miracle cure.

Rather than instantly fixing every problem, the medicine often opens a door. Real healing still requires effort, integration, and lifestyle changes after returning home.

The ceremony may begin the process, but the work continues afterward.

The Power of Community

An often-overlooked aspect of ayahuasca retreats is the group experience.

Participants arrive as strangers but frequently leave feeling deeply connected.

Through sharing circles, ceremonies, emotional vulnerability, and mutual support, people develop bonds that can feel surprisingly meaningful after only a few days together.

Many participants openly discuss personal experiences they may have never shared with friends, family members, or even therapists.

This sense of community can be healing in its own right.

In a world where loneliness and isolation are increasingly common, simply being seen and understood by others can have a profound impact.

Integration Is Where Real Change Happens

Perhaps the most important lesson is that the retreat is only the beginning.

Many people describe ayahuasca as feeling like years of therapy compressed into a short period of time. While this can create powerful breakthroughs, those insights must be integrated into daily life.

Returning home and immediately falling back into old habits often reduces the long-term benefits.

Instead, practices such as therapy, journaling, meditation, exercise, and conscious lifestyle changes help turn temporary insights into lasting transformation.

Ayahuasca may reveal what needs attention, but participants still need to do the work.

A Journey of Self-Discovery

For those considering an ayahuasca retreat, the experience can be difficult to fully understand beforehand.

It can be emotional, physical, spiritual, beautiful, uncomfortable, and deeply meaningful—all within the same ceremony.

What remains consistent is its potential to help people reconnect with themselves.

As Sam explains, the medicine rarely gives people exactly what they expect. Instead, it tends to provide what they need most at that moment in their journey.

And for many, that becomes the beginning of profound personal change.

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Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4x4CUCAntsdsw9nYyEkxoK

For many people, ayahuasca enters their lives through curiosity. For Sam Believ, founder of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat in Colombia and host of the Ayahuasca Podcast, it arrived during a period of deep uncertainty. At the time, he was an engineer with no spiritual background, no interest in religion, and a highly skeptical mindset. Yet a series of experiences with ayahuasca would gradually transform not only his understanding of healing, but also the entire direction of his life.

Today, LaWayra has grown into one of the most highly reviewed ayahuasca retreats in South America, employing dozens of staff members and welcoming guests from around the world. Looking back, Sam says he never actually planned any of it.

From Depression to Direction

Before ayahuasca became part of his life, Sam was struggling with depression and a lack of purpose.

Like many people, he had achieved goals that society encourages: a successful career, financial stability, and professional recognition. Yet despite these accomplishments, something felt fundamentally wrong.

When he first encountered ayahuasca, he was not searching for a business opportunity or a spiritual mission. He was searching for relief.

Over the course of several ceremonies, something unexpected happened. Instead of simply helping him feel better, the medicine began pointing him toward a completely different path.

One particular experience in the Colombian jungle stood out. During a powerful ceremony, he felt as if ayahuasca was showing him a new direction for his life and making it clear that working with the medicine would become part of his future.

At the time, the idea seemed almost impossible.

Building a Retreat Through Synchronicity

Rather than carefully planning a retreat center, Sam describes the creation of LaWayra as a series of fortunate coincidences and unexpected opportunities.

At first, he was simply renting rooms on a small rural property where he lived.

Then someone approached him wanting to host ayahuasca ceremonies there.

That opportunity led to others. New teachers appeared, new connections formed, and gradually a small gathering evolved into a full retreat operation.

Today, what began with a handful of participants has grown into a large organization with ceremony teams, maintenance crews, construction projects, marketing staff, and dozens of people working together toward a shared vision.

Despite the growth, Sam still sees the process as something that unfolded naturally rather than something he consciously engineered.

Why Accessibility Matters

One of the central ideas behind LaWayra is accessibility.

Sam believes ayahuasca should not be reserved only for wealthy spiritual seekers.

In many parts of the world, ayahuasca retreats have become expensive luxury experiences that are out of reach for average people.

His goal has always been different.

He wants ordinary people — teachers, construction workers, office employees, parents, and retirees — to feel that ayahuasca is something available to them if they genuinely need healing.

This philosophy influences everything from pricing to retreat structure.

The objective is not exclusivity but inclusion.

Healing Without Becoming Someone Else

Another barrier Sam frequently encounters is the perception that ayahuasca belongs only to a specific spiritual culture.

Many people worry that they need to completely change who they are before participating.

They imagine adopting unfamiliar beliefs, dressing differently, or embracing lifestyles that feel uncomfortable.

Sam strongly disagrees with that idea.

His own background is proof that a person can remain practical, skeptical, and grounded while still benefiting from plant medicine.

The goal is not to become someone else.

The goal is to heal.

According to him, ayahuasca does not require a new identity. It simply creates an opportunity to reconnect with parts of yourself that may have been buried or forgotten.

Understanding the Purge

One of the biggest fears newcomers have is the possibility of purging.

Stories about vomiting often discourage people from exploring ayahuasca in the first place.

Yet Sam believes this fear comes largely from misunderstanding.

In traditional Colombian practice, purging is considered an essential part of the healing process rather than an unpleasant side effect.

Many participants discover that after releasing physically, they also experience emotional relief.

The process often feels cleansing rather than uncomfortable.

In fact, experienced participants frequently reach a point where they actively welcome the purge because they associate it with release and healing.

The Importance of Preparation

Preparation remains an important part of any ayahuasca experience.

Sam believes some modern recommendations have become unnecessarily restrictive, creating fear instead of helping people.

At the same time, he stresses that certain guidelines matter greatly.

Avoiding alcohol, recreational substances, and certain medications — particularly antidepressants — is critical for safety.

A clean diet, reduced stimulation, and intentional preparation help create a stronger connection with the medicine.

The goal is not perfection but readiness.

Why Every Experience Is Different

One of the reasons ayahuasca remains difficult to describe is that no two experiences are exactly alike.

Some people see vivid visions.

Others receive emotional insights without visual effects.

Some experience physical healing, while others focus entirely on psychological or spiritual themes.

Even the same person can have completely different experiences from one ceremony to the next.

According to Sam, expecting a specific outcome is often the quickest path to disappointment.

Instead, participants are encouraged to arrive with an intention while remaining open to wherever the medicine chooses to guide them.

Healing Beyond Expectations

Over the years, Sam has witnessed countless stories of transformation.

People struggling with depression, anxiety, addiction, trauma, eating disorders, autoimmune conditions, and chronic emotional pain have reported profound improvements after working with the medicine.

Not every story follows the same pattern.

Sometimes participants receive obvious insights. Other times, change happens gradually after they return home.

What consistently surprises him is how often people leave with benefits they were not actively seeking.

Someone may arrive hoping for clarity about a relationship and discover relief from depression.

Another may come seeking emotional healing and unexpectedly lose interest in alcohol or other unhealthy habits.

Preserving Tradition

Although ayahuasca is becoming more popular globally, Sam believes it is important not to separate the medicine from its traditional roots.

He often compares tradition to the roots of a tree.

Without roots, the tree cannot survive.

For him, working with experienced indigenous shamans, respecting ceremonial practices, and maintaining traditional preparation methods are all essential parts of responsible ayahuasca work.

Modern accessibility should not come at the expense of authenticity.

Looking Toward the Future

When asked about his long-term vision, Sam often returns to a simple idea: healing.

He believes society is facing growing levels of depression, anxiety, loneliness, and disconnection.

Ayahuasca is not a miracle cure, but he sees it as one powerful tool among many that can help people reconnect with themselves and each other.

For someone who never expected to enter the world of plant medicine, the journey has been surprising.

Yet perhaps that is part of the lesson itself.

Sometimes the path that changes your life is the one you never intended to follow.

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Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/27Pccq34EQZ36Z6Aq8f3Ti