The same Shipibo Onanyabo. The same medicine. The same Temple.
Coming to an ayahuasca retreat in the Amazon, the birthplace and source of the medicine, being supported by the energies, elements, forces, and spirits of the jungle, and guided by the indigenous wisdom keepers of these powerful ethnomedical traditions, is the most effective and deepest way to work with ayahuasca.
“The Temple is a precise, safe, and integral container that allows our medicine to be received with the respect and seriousness it requires. From the openness of Matthew and the Temple to receive what is authentic, we have been able to give truly and to recover the freedom to follow the guidance of our plants.
The Temple is our most solid and most profound alliance, built on everything we have lived and overcome together. It is also family to us. This kind of relationship is very precious, very special. And it is medicine – for the relationship between the indigenous and the westerner, between our two worlds.”
— José López Sánchez, Shipibo Onanyabo, Founder – Shipibo Rao Dieta Center
We donate 100% of surplus revenue to indigenous initiatives. We are quite sure we are the only ayahuasca centre that does so.
| 8-Day Retreat — Stepping into Alignment | 12-Day Retreat — Living in Alignment |
|---|---|
| 4 ayahuasca ceremonies | 6 ayahuasca ceremonies |
| Complete 8-day healing arc | Full 12-day healing arc |
| 6 days of traditional healing treatments | Full program of traditional healing treatments |
| 1 traditional ayuno and integration day | 3 traditional ayuno and integration days |
| Arkana on Day 6 (Ceremony 4) | Arkana closing ceremony |
| Medicinal plant walk | Permaculture walk, medicinal plant walk, Shipibo market & village visit |
| Final group share & integration talk (Day 7) | Final group share & integration talk |
| 7-night stay at the Temple | 11-night stay at the Temple |
| $2,960 USD | $4,440 USD |
Twenty-four private tambos are spread across three hectares of Temple grounds – traditional jungle bungalows hand-crafted from local wood, screened with mosquito netting, and open to the sounds and rhythms of the forest. Each tambo is a private sanctuary: a bed, a hammock, a desk, a chair, a sink, a shower, and a flushing toilet. Simple, rustic, and genuinely comfortable – everything you need and nothing you don’t.
At night, the tambos are lit by gas lamps. No electricity. No wifi. Just the forest, alive around you in the dark – crickets, frogs, nightbirds. A rare and genuine opportunity to unplug, to slow down, and to remember what it feels like to be part of the natural world.
Don’t come looking for a holiday. Do come looking for deep healing.
The hundreds of plants and trees that grow on Temple grounds work together as a biological symphony: the medicine, the healers, and the living intelligence of the forest are inseparable. The relationship with these plants – and the guidance they offer – is the key to genuine, deep, and lasting healing. Extract one element from this ecosystem, and the symphony falls silent. The full benefits of this work can only be experienced at the source.
The plant remedies, vapor baths, plant baths, and flower baths are each medicine in their own right – prepared from species native to this ecosystem, tended by healers who have spent lifetimes in relationship with them. The ikaros, the sacred healing songs of the Onanyabo, are the energetic surgeries at the center of it all – received through decades of apprenticeship, transmitted through ceremony, working at the roots of trauma in ways that no clinical or foreign setting can replicate.
This is where the healing lives.
In ceremonies two and three, guests receive the deep treatment that has characterized Shipibo healing for centuries – the way healing has always been carried out within Shipibo communities. Each guest receives one long, sustained ikaro: unhurried, unabbreviated, and unmistakably traditional.
In the deepest traditional practice, only the healer drinks ayahuasca. The patient receives the healing through the ikaros alone. This is a meaningful distinction, rarely understood outside of Shipibo tradition – and one we hold with care and respect. It points to a deeper truth about this work: the ikaros are the source of healing.
Ayahuasca opens the door. The healers do the work.
The plant spirits engaged through these treatments are called into the ceremonial space by the Onanyabo and worked with through the ikaros – their healing directed, deepened, and anchored through each ceremony. Daytime and nighttime are one continuous process.
This integrated approach – plant medicines, healing baths, energetic massages, and ceremony working in concert – is the hallmark of traditional Amazonian healing, and one of the most significant distinctions between what the Temple offers and the modern ayahuasca retreat model, where ceremony alone is offered, and the deeper ecosystem of plant-spirit medicine is absent entirely.
Far from a formality, it is the culminating act of the healers’ care – the moment your healing is sealed, and seeds are sown that will grow over time, quietly guiding and inspiring your life long after you leave the Temple. 8-day guests receive their Arkana on Day 6, in the fourth and final ceremony.
Our facilitators – all with many years, some decades of personal experience with ayahuasca – play a vital role in meeting guests on the human, emotional, and psychological levels. They translate between Spanish and English. They hold and guide the integration of difficult emotions during the daytime, when shadow material surfaces. Crucially, they have walked this path themselves, and they walk it alongside you.
This is a complete and deeply rooted healing program – one built on nearly two decades of experience and an unwavering commitment to the Shipibo healing tradition.
The distinction matters: where much of the modern ayahuasca world has come to prioritize the psychedelic experience, the Temple’s work is rooted in traditional Shipibo energetic healing – the clearing of heavy energies, the treatment of the soul, and the restoration of alignment. That intention, and the mastery of the healers who carry it, does not diminish with a shorter program.
The ikaros do not stop working when the ceremonies end. The healing that begins at the Temple continues to unfold over the months that follow – in dreams, in shifts of perception, in the quiet dissolving of old patterns.
The healing process continues; the responsibility for tending it now passes to you.
You become your own Temple of the Way of Light.
The findings:
One of the most significant findings across all three studies was a new relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions – the capacity to observe them without being overwhelmed by them. This remained strong at twelve months – and is one of the deepest changes traditional Shipibo healing can bring.
Read the full research at: Ayahuasca Research Study with ICEERS & the Beckley Foundation
You are collected from your hotel in Iquitos at 9am and travel by road and boat to the Temple, arriving in the late morning. After settling into your tambo, the first plant baths of the retreat begin – your introduction to the medicine of the forest. The afternoon is for orientation, meeting the team, and resting before what lies ahead.
The day opens with vapor baths, then breakfast, followed by a group meeting with the healers – an introduction to the Onanyabo and a chance to ask questions before the work begins. Group consultations with the facilitators take place in the afternoon, plant baths and flower baths in the early evening, and Yin Yoga to prepare your body and mind. At 8pm, the first ceremony begins. The healers sing to the whole circle – a diagnostic ceremony, where they see your pain, your grief, your wounds, scanning and singing throughout the biography of your life, and start their healing process with you.
After vapor baths and breakfast, individual physical consultations with the healers begin – the first time the Onanyabo will work with each guest one-to-one in the daytime. The afternoon continues with further consultations with the facilitators in a group setting, plant baths, and Yin Yoga before the second ceremony at 8pm. In this ceremony, the healers begin the deeper work – singing to you individually with long, sustained ikaros – the heart of Shipibo healing.
The morning is held in silence until 10am – a traditional practice of integration and rest after two ceremonies. Vapor baths open the day quietly. In the afternoon, a group meeting introduces the plant remedies and the ayuno – the traditional dietary and energetic restrictions that deepen the healing work. Plant remedies are administered for the first time: individually prescribed by the healers, each one chosen for what the physical consultation and diagnostic ceremony revealed. This is a day without ceremony: yet the healing continues whilst you rest, a necessary pause for you in the arc.
Energetic healing massages for those prescribed and plant remedies open the morning – hands-on treatment that works directly with the body, moving and clearing stuck energies. The afternoon is for rest and reflection. Plant baths and flower baths follow in the early evening, Yin Yoga before dark, and at 8pm, the third ceremony begins. The healers continue their individual work, reaching into the tap roots of the difficulties you have brought with you to the Amazon.
The morning is held in silence and ayuno until noon. A second round of energetic massages takes place if prescribed, plant remedies are administered, and for 8-day guests, the afternoon includes an explanation of the Arkana – what it is, what it means, and how to receive it. Flower baths in the early evening, Yin Yoga before dark. At 8pm, the fourth and final ceremony begins. The healers sing an Arkana to each 8-day guest: sealing the healing work, weaving protective ikaros, aligning the treatments received and sowing seeds that will grow long after you leave the forest.
A gentler day. The morning brings the Shipibo market – an opportunity to meet artisans from the local community and take something of the forest home with you. For 8-day guests, the final group share and integration talk takes place mid-morning: a chance to begin the work of understanding what has happened, and what to carry forward. In the evening, a final dinner together.
After breakfast, 8-day guests make their way back to Iquitos. The retreat is complete. The work of integration – and of living what you have received – now begins.
A portion of the income from our ayahuasca retreats funds projects on environmental justice, regenerative agriculture, and intercultural education run by our Peruvian sister NGO, the Chaikuni Institute (established 2012), collaborating with indigenous people and communities in the Amazon.
Upon Application: $300 USD deposit by credit card. Refunded in full if the application cannot be approved.
Upon Application Approval: the $300 deposit becomes non-refundable. The remaining 50% must be paid within 24 hours to confirm your booking.
6 weeks Prior to Retreat Start: Your final balance is due.
