The standards worth insisting on

Minimum safety standards

The baseline conditions worth insisting on before you drink. None of them is optional, and a facilitator who resists them is telling you something important.

1. Proper medical screening, before you make any plans

   Whether ayahuasca is safe for you depends on your health and on what else you take, so it needs proper screening first. It can interact dangerously with certain substances and conditions, especially SSRIs, MAOIs, stimulants, heart problems, high blood pressure, a personal or family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder, or pregnancy or breastfeeding.

   Be open about any medications and any physical or mental health conditions, and never stop or taper prescribed medication on your own: that conversation belongs with the professional who prescribed it. Any responsible retreat centre will include a thorough medical assessment. If you are unsure, consult a healthcare provider who understands both ayahuasca and your medical background.

2. A trustworthy facilitator or centre

   Drink only with a trustworthy facilitator or retreat centre, ideally through direct personal referrals rather than online reviews alone. A reliable facilitator or centre offers clear pre-ceremony guidance, conducts a thorough medical assessment, and is transparent about the brew’s ingredients and origins. Choosing facilitators with authentic experience and a genuine connection to their tradition protects both you and the integrity of that tradition. Know the legal position of ayahuasca in the country where you plan to drink: it differs from country to country, and a reputable facilitator or centre will be open about it. For the Netherlands and Canada, see The Legal Paradox of Ayahuasca.

3. Transparency about the brew

   A trustworthy facilitator is transparent about exactly what is in the brew. Be especially cautious about added plants such as toé (Brugmansia, a relative of datura): it is toxic, and can leave a person confused and unable to look after themselves for hours or longer. Transparency is what lets you make an informed choice.

4. No pressure: the choice is always yours

   A reliable facilitator or centre will offer clear guidance but will not try to convince or advise you to drink, and will avoid promises of healing, visions, or particular results. If someone is pushing you towards it, treat that as a warning sign rather than reassurance.

5. A safe ceremonial container

   Any responsible retreat centre includes a personal interview beforehand and an explanation of the “flight instructions”: the practical and psychological guidelines that help you navigate the ceremony. Respect the safety agreements; they exist to protect everyone involved and to create a safe and sacred space. If you need support during ceremony, ask for it. That is exactly what the facilitators and the ceremonial container are there for.

Minimum (after)care standards

Aftercare starts before you leave the venue. These are the minimum a careful facilitator or centre provides once the ceremony is over, and what to watch for in yourself afterwards. What you can do in the weeks that follow, the practices that help integration, is on the Integration page.

1. A check-out before you leave

   Before anyone goes home, a careful facilitator checks how each participant is doing, in a short conversation or a closing circle, and makes sure you are steady enough to travel. You should be able to rest on site until the next day, and you should not drive until you have rested properly.

2. What to expect at home

   Before you leave, a careful facilitator also tells you what the days after can bring (tiredness, vivid dreams, emotions that come and go) and what to do if something does not settle. A sharing or integration circle, the morning after or in the weeks that follow, is part of good practice, and so is a way to reach them afterwards and a referral to someone qualified when you need more than they can offer.

3. Know the difficult reactions, and the unhelpful patterns

   Many people integrate without major difficulty, but some encounter emotional turbulence, re-experiencing of ceremony content, or post-ecstatic “blues” once the afterglow fades. These usually ease with time and support. Watch too for spiritual bypassing (using spiritual language to avoid sitting with difficult emotions) and ego inflation (feeling specially chosen, or over-relying on a facilitator or teacher). A good facilitator empowers your autonomy, not your dependence on them.

4. Know when to seek professional support

   Reach out to a mental health professional experienced in psychedelic integration if you experience: a persistent inability to work or care for yourself for more than a few days; difficulty distinguishing ceremony experiences from everyday reality that persists beyond the first few days; anxiety, depression, or dissociation that worsens rather than improves over weeks; or a sense that you need more support than community and self-practice can offer. This is not failure, it is discernment. Facilitators are not therapists, and knowing the boundary matters.

   Most of what follows a ceremony, difficult days included, settles with rest, time and good company. Now and then something belongs with a doctor rather than an integration therapist. Physical symptoms that are severe or do not pass are for your GP; tell them what you drank and what medication you take. If you go several nights without sleep and your thoughts keep racing, or you think about harming yourself, contact your GP or your local crisis line the same day.

Warning signs: when to slow down, and when to walk away

The standards above describe what good practice looks like. It is just as useful to know what poor practice looks like.

Most facilitators and centres work with care. A few do not, and the signs below help to tell the difference. Four of them are enough on their own: if you meet one, it is reasonable to step back, whatever has already been arranged or paid. The others count in combination: each is a reason to ask more questions.

Enough on their own

1. Nobody asks about you

   No interest in your medications, your heart, your blood pressure, or your psychiatric history, your own and your family’s. The form matters less than the function: in some traditional settings the asking happens in conversation, sometimes through a translator, and that can be done well. What cannot be done well is a ceremony run by people who never found out. Somebody must know what you take and what you carry before you drink, and you must be able to tell that they do.

2. No plan for things going wrong

   Nobody remaining clear-headed enough to take responsibility for the room; no plan for a medical emergency; no idea how far help is. In many traditions the facilitators and helpers drink too, and that is not the warning sign. Nobody remaining able to care for the room is.

3. Secrecy about the brew

   Evasive answers about what is in it, where it comes from, or whether other plants are added. A brief answer through a translator is not evasion; refusal is. Some brews contain other plants, such as toé (Brugmansia, a relative of datura). Its effects are very different from ayahuasca’s: it is toxic, and can leave a person confused and unable to look after themselves for hours or longer, and may need urgent medical care. You are entitled to know what you are drinking.

4. Blurred boundaries

   Touch that was not agreed beforehand, romantic or sexual attention around a ceremony, or one-to-one “work” behind closed doors. People in ceremony are more open than usual and less able to hold a boundary, and careful facilitators keep a clear distance for that reason. It is reasonable to ask in advance who will be in the room and whether you will ever be alone with a facilitator. Consent, touch and boundaries, below, says what good practice looks like.

Signals that add up

1. Pressure, in any form

   You are persuaded, hurried, or made to feel that hesitation is a weakness to overcome. A trustworthy facilitator protects your freedom to say no, up to and including during the ceremony itself: to drinking, to another serving, to anything that was not agreed. The one exception is your physical safety. While the effects are strong, a careful facilitator will not let you drive or walk off alone, and will keep you on site until it is safe to go; good practice is to agree this with you beforehand.

2. Promises

   Guaranteed healing, guaranteed visions, results on a schedule. A trustworthy facilitator makes no claims about what will happen, describes the range of experiences honestly, the difficult ones included, and promises nothing.

3. Dependence by design

   “Only I can guide you.” Discouraging other support, whether other facilitators, therapy, or your own community; steering you towards ever more ceremonies at ever higher cost. A good facilitator empowers your agency, not your dependence on them.

4. Titles in place of references

   Grand self-designations offered where verifiable experience should be. A title or self-designation offers no guarantee of safety, authenticity, or ethical conduct. And references chosen by the organiser are the organiser’s references. The ones that tell you something are those you find yourself: someone in your own network, or a past participant the organiser did not pick.

5. Isolation by design

   You are discouraged from telling anyone where you are going; your passport or documents are held, or you have no way to reach anyone outside; leaving is framed as a spiritual failure. Remoteness itself is not a warning sign, and many careful centres are far from anywhere. It is a logistics question to settle in advance: how would I leave if I chose to, and what would that take?

6. The relationship ends when the ceremony does

   No contact afterwards, no interest in how you are integrating, nowhere to turn in the weeks that follow.

Consent, touch and boundaries

Ayahuasca makes people more open, and less able to judge a situation or hold a boundary while the effects last. That is why consent matters even more in ceremony than in daily life, and why it has to be settled before the ceremony, not during it.

1. Touch is agreed beforehand

   Some traditions use touch: to steady someone, to help them sit up or move, or as part of the ceremony itself. A careful facilitator tells you in advance what kind of touch may happen and asks whether you agree. You can say no to any of it, and you can change your mind. No ceremony or healing requires touching intimate areas, and none requires you to undress.

2. During the ceremony, a yes counts for less

   While the effects last, your judgement and your ability to say no are reduced, and that is just as true of a yes. Anything that was not agreed beforehand should not happen during the ceremony, whatever is said in the moment. Give yourself time, until the effects have worn off, before agreeing to anything new.

3. No romantic or sexual contact

   Romantic or sexual contact between participants and anyone on the team, whether facilitator, assistant or musician, has no place before, during or after a ceremony. That includes contact presented as ‘healing’, energy work or a special teaching. Sex with a member of the team does not heal past trauma, give you power or make you special, and whoever says it does is abusing their position.

4. Not alone behind closed doors

   Careful facilitators avoid being alone with a participant out of sight and hearing of others. For a one-to-one conversation or treatment, it is reasonable to ask for it to happen where others can see or hear, or to bring someone you trust.

5. If something happened

   It is not your fault, even if you froze or said nothing at the time. You do not need to be certain, or to have proof, before you talk to someone. Tell someone you trust, and write down what you remember while it is fresh: when, where and who. ICEERS offers up to five free online support sessions after a difficult experience with ayahuasca. For medical care, a report or legal advice, turn to the sexual violence or victim support services in the country where you live. If it happened at a retreat in Latin America, Chacruna’s Legal Resources Companion lists the laws and support organisations in several of the countries where retreats are held.