Plant medicines have absolute and relative contraindications. The screening process is the first place where the work begins. The honesty of your answers here is what keeps the work safe — for you, for your cohort, and for the lineage we work in.
These are conditions and medications for which the work is not safe and for which we will, kindly and without exception, decline.
The substances used at Life Retreat — DMT (in ayahuasca), mescaline (in San Pedro), and psilocybin — interact with several classes of medication and several psychiatric conditions in ways that are dangerous and, in some cases, life-threatening. The list below is not negotiable.
These conditions and medications are not automatic disqualifications, but require additional review with our physician network.
Screening is not a hurdle to clear. It is the first conversation, and the conversation begins by listening.
Five steps: contact, health, intention, logistics, review. Read by a person, in your language, within 72 hours. We respond either way — including to the applications we cannot accept.
Day 0The first conversation, in your native language. We ask about your medical history, current medications, mental health history, intention, and previous experience with plant medicine. We answer your questions.
Days 7—14For SSRI tapering, cardiac conditions, seizure history, diabetes, or other relative contraindications — clearance from a physician familiar with our protocols. We work with networks in Romania, USA, Israel, Germany, and the UK.
Days 14—2830% deposit holds your place. Refundable until 60 days before retreat. Pre-arrival materials sent — including the two-week dieta protocol and the field guide.
Days 28—42We turn down approximately one in three applicants. Most, kindly. The "no" is part of the work — and we say it for the same reason the medicine itself sometimes says it. Some people are not ready, some times are not the right time, some bodies are not the right vessel. None of those are personal failures. Many of the people we have turned down have come back, two or three years later, and the answer has been yes.
Honesty here is not optional. Undisclosed medications are the single largest preventable cause of harm in plant medicine work.
If you are uncertain about a medication or supplement, list it in your application. Our physicians will review it. We have never said no to disclosure — only to non-disclosure.
Everything we do during the ten days, on the safety side. Some of it visible. Most of it not.
Medical staff on premises. A nurse practitioner is on staff for every retreat, in residence at the maloca. Blood pressure, heart rate, and blood oxygen are monitored before each ceremony for every participant.
Emergency protocols. A 4WD vehicle is on site for the duration of every retreat. the regional hospital is 40 minutes by road. Air-evacuation arrangements with a Quito hospital are pre-arranged for severe cases (we have used this protocol three times in eight years; outcomes were good in all three).
Facilitator-to-guest ratio. One facilitator for every six guests during ceremony; one for every ten outside ceremony. All facilitators are S2S-certified, in addition to the lineage training of the curanderas.
Substance preparation. Ayahuasca is prepared on-site, in the lineage of Olinda Pérez Mori, by a curandera who has worked with our retreat for seven years. San Pedro is sourced from a single Andean curandero. Psilocybin mushrooms are cultivated on-site under sterile conditions — we do not use foraged or unverified material.
Daily check-in. Every guest has a one-to-one check-in with a senior facilitator on every non-ceremony morning. The cohort is small enough that no one is unseen.
Diet and hydration. All meals are prepared in the dieta tradition (no salt, no sugar, no oils, no fermented food, no spicy food). Water is filtered and abundant.
What we do not do. We do not lock doors. We do not restrain. We do not medicate participants out of difficult experiences except in the rare case of physical safety. The medicine and the room do the work.
The work is not over when the medicine leaves. Most of what is dangerous, in this kind of work, happens not during the ceremony — but in the weeks after.
The post-retreat container is itself a safety protocol. Many of the documented adverse events in plant medicine work happen in the 2—8 weeks after a retreat, when participants are unsupported, isolated, or attempting to integrate alone. The S2S 12-month container directly addresses this risk.
Week 1 home check-in. A senior facilitator calls you within 5 days of return. We listen. We answer practical questions. We check the basics: are you sleeping, eating, returning to your relationships, returning to work.
Monthly group calls (12 months). One 90-minute call per month, in your native language, with the cohort you sat with. The calls are not optional — they are part of the container.
One-to-one integration (6 months). Six sessions with a certified S2S integration practitioner. These are clinical conversations, not coaching.
Emergency line. A WhatsApp number, monitored by a senior facilitator, that you can use any time in the first 12 months for support. Used by approximately 8% of participants in the first 60 days, less thereafter.
Re-medication conversations. If you tapered SSRIs for the retreat, the question of whether and when to re-medicate is held with you and your prescribing physician. We do not advocate against medication. We work with what is true for you now.
The truth, plainly told, since 2018.
Across 9,000+ ceremonies and 800+ guests per year for eight years, here is our safety record:
Zero deaths. Zero ceremony-related fatalities. Zero hospital admissions for substance-related cardiovascular events.
Three air evacuations for non-substance-related medical events (one acute appendicitis, one severe asthmatic episode, one allergic reaction to a non-ceremonial food). All three with good outcomes.
Approximately 12 cases per year of difficult psychological emergence requiring extended one-to-one support during retreat — not crises, but periods of intensive holding. All resolved within the retreat container.
Two cases in eight years of post-retreat psychiatric hospitalization (both with prior undisclosed psychiatric history). Both fully recovered. Both have shifted our screening protocols.
Approximately 1 in 30 guests chooses to pause or skip a ceremony during the ten days. This is honored without question.
We publish this not as marketing but because hidden data is bad for the field. The integrity of plant medicine work depends on transparency about what does and does not happen.
Most of what we just described — the contraindications, the medication review, the medical clearances — happens in the application and the intake call. Begin there.
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