We know many of you have been waiting for an update from us and we’re grateful for your patience. All of you with whom we are connected in some way or who have been anticipating coming to experience a retreat with us have been very present in our hearts and minds since we shut down in March.

It’s been difficult for us to navigate the various challenges that have arisen since the pandemic hit this year. From weighing local/global health and economic concerns, impacts to our staff and the communities and organizations we support, border closings and travel restrictions, to the logistical and financial considerations of canceling retreats and suspending operations, as well as simply staying up to date with reliable information, nothing has seemed certain over the last 6 months! We’re sure many of you can relate and are experiencing challenges of your own.

If you’ve been in touch, we shared with you that we expected international flights to Peru to resume by September and that the Peruvian government was implementing a 4-step plan to restart various social and economic activities. While the government has recently lifted restrictions on national air travel, they haven’t yet announced any plans to open borders to international travelers. Instead, we are hearing that borders may not open to tourists until the beginning of 2021.

Considering the time and funds needed to make the necessary preparations to resume operations in October, as well as understanding that you need to make concrete plans to come to the Temple, we feel a decision must now be made regarding retreats in 2020 regardless of the limited information available and many remaining unknowns.

We have therefore decided to cancel all programs this year and intend to re-open the Temple in March, 2021.

A New Paradigm of Health and Planet Care

Since the shutdowns began, our healers have been focused on dieting master plants, recharging, and preparing for the re-opening of the Temple. We are awed and inspired by their dedication to their work – they have recognized the fundamental invitation this pandemic is bringing the world, a call for us to awaken! They have expressed a clear intention – to take their healing to a deeper level than ever before.

The unexpected suspension of operations from mid-March has also offered us the space to reflect on our work over the past 13 years. Although it has been a very challenging time, we also recognize the opportunity we have been gifted during this long pause/reset; to reimagine, refine, and rebirth the Temple into a new paradigm where deep healing is needed now more than ever before.

We are now preparing for the Temple to step up our work in the face of this crisis. We are looking at how we can increase our impact in the world and our ability to be of service to the communities, staff, and organizations with whom we work.

To achieve this, we will reduce the number of retreats we run each year, take our core 12-day healing program to a deeper level, and hold specialized programs; for war veterans, western medical practitioners with burnout, and leadership programs for visionaries, entrepreneurs, and innovators who have a significant impact in the world (details to follow later in the year).

The Temple stands at the threshold of a new era in healthcare; one whose highest intention must be spiritual awakening, that recognizes the full spectrum and holistic quality of human health, addresses the energetic, subconscious, and psychic levels of being, clears ancestral imprints that no longer serve us, and truly reaches the roots of trauma and imbalance.

We are living in a highly traumatized global society, yet the ancient traditions of the Amazon offer us hope and possibility. The resolution of trauma, individually and collectively, is the most significant force behind psychological, social, and spiritual evolution.

“Our wounds are the doorway to rediscovering our true nature” – Paul Levy

How we handle trauma, as individuals, communities, and societies, greatly influences the quality of our lives and will ultimately affect how we survive or thrive as a species.

Hearing the call for awakening, we feel that the single most important action that we can all take now is to focus our intention and attention on awakening; bringing light to our shadows, becoming conscious of our unconsciousness, cleaning and clearing dense energies, rising beyond our individual and collective fears, and bringing our bodies, minds, and souls into full alignment.

Living in Alignment: Ayahuasca Healing Retreat

Instead of offering a wide variety of program styles, beginning next year, we will be offering a newly designed, 12-day retreat as our primary program: the Living in Alignment: Ayahuasca Healing Retreat. We have expanded upon our most effective and longest-standing program, the 12-Day Retreat, further refining its design and structure and adding powerful elements to elevate our healing work and yours.

This retreat is truly the culmination of all of our work facilitating healing and integration with ayahuasca with over 10,000 guests over the past 13 years, and we are thrilled to share it with you.

The program offers an even deeper dive into traditional Shipibo plant-spirit healing, complemented with Yoga classes and ontological inquiry (the study of the nature of being) to ensure effective and long-lasting integration. We share unique distinctions and practices that empower you to take full responsibility for and agency over your life.

When your thoughts, speech, and actions are aligned with and inspired by your highest calling, your soul’s mission, you live in alignment.

While the Shipibo healing traditions are the foundation and core of our work, integrating the psycho-spiritual breakthroughs and insights, both during and after healing requires personal mastery. By complementing plant-spirit shamanism with ontological inquiry, an alchemical marriage emerges that enables you to fully own and integrate your healing and realize the critical importance of integrity in all aspects of your life.

Living In Alignment retreats will consist of six ceremonies with four Shipibo healers and two experienced facilitators, floral baths, a steam bath, healing massages, vomitivos, individual consultations, group processing and integration sessions, and individually prescribed plant remedies. Guests will also carry out regular periods of honoring the ancient practice of ayuno – a process of fasting ayahuasca and the ikaros after each ceremony, which enables deeper healing and stronger protections.