Stepping into Alignment:
8-Day Ayahuasca Retreat

Come not to consume ayahuasca,
but to be a guest of a living tradition.

Traditional Ayahuasca Healing
- More than a Psychedelic Experience

The roots of ayahuasca healing can only be found here, in the Amazon rainforest - the birthplace of this sacred medicine and the traditions that have carried it for countless generations.

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 ayahuasca healing lives.

The Safest Ayahuasca Retreat in Peru

Ayahuasca is a powerful medicine that Amazonian traditions have known how to serve safely for centuries. What follows is not a list of features. It is the work of honoring tradition and building a container strong enough to hold what the tradition asks of us – and of you.

  • Medical Screening

    Every applicant goes through comprehensive medical and psychological screening. We review your full health history, medications, and mental health background. Not everyone can drink ayahuasca - it's important we care for your well-being.

    Integrating Ayahuasca

  • Emergency Protocols

    Running ayahuasca retreats in the Amazon since 2007 has taught us what to prepare for. Our safety record speaks to the standard of care we insist on. This is serious work and you are held with deep care at every point in the process.

    Respecting Shipibo Traditions

  • Experienced Facilitation

    Our facilitators walk this path themselves - many for decades - and are an essential bridge between the Shipibo healers and guests. With unwavering serviceTemple facilitators are widely regarded as the best in the ayahuasca scene.

    The Temple of The Way of Light_Sacred Space

  • Ceremony Container

    Every ceremony takes place in our maloka, open to the sounds of the rainforest. Four Onanyabo sing ikaros throughout - the heart of Shipibo healing. Supported by three facilitators. Each guest, each ceremony, healed, held and guided, the way the tradition asks.

  • Preparation Support

    We provide detailed guidance to every guest before they travel - diet, intentions, practices, what to expect. Each group meets online together with a Temple facilitator two weeks beforehand, and individual preparation sessions are available. Arriving prepared is part of arriving well.

  • Integration Support

    An in-depth 3-month integration program is included for every guest, and an online global community of Temple alumni. What happens after the retreat matters as much as what happens during it. The healing is a catalyst; the responsibility for tending it now passes to you.

A Spititual Hospital
Not a Resort

The Temple sits on over 200 hectares of protected rainforest, deep in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. This is not a resort or a wellness center, but a living, breathing spiritual hospital, lovingly stewarded for nearly two decades.

A maloka cradled by medicinal plants, trees, ayahuasca vines, and native flowers. 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.

Not Just Guides. Master Healers.

All healers at the Temple have undergone decades of extended master plant dietas, the heart of Shipibo shamanic apprenticeship. The full healing team carries over 200 years of combined experience.

Four Shipibo Onanyabo - two female and two male - run every ceremony. They provide traditional healing treatments during the day, with support from a herbalist.

One healer for every six guests to ensure each guest receives deep work. Tradition limits healers to eight patients per night.

This is not performance. This is healing.

Four Ayahuasca Ceremonies
One Deep Healing

The 8-day carries its own complete, coherent arc - a diagnostic opening, two deep healing ceremonies, and a closing Arkana to seal and protect the work. Each stage is deliberate. Nothing is truncated.

Voices from the Temple

8-Day vs 12-Day: A Side-by-Side Comparison

8-Day Retreat — Stepping into Alignment 12-Day Retreat — Living in Alignment
For those with limited time availability - same medicine & support For first-timers & returning guests - more time for a deeper immersion
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 fasting and integration day 3 traditional fasting and integration days
Arkana on Day 6 (Ceremony 4) Arkana closing ceremony
Medicinal plant walk Permaculture walk, medicinal plant walk, Shipibo market & village visit
1 integration workshop 2 integration workshops
7-night stay at the Temple 11-night stay at the Temple
$2,960 USD $4,440 USD

Beyond the Retreat

A Year Later, the Healing Holds

From 2015 to 2019, the Temple hosted a landmark research project in collaboration with ICEERS and the Beckley Foundation

97% of participants reported persistent benefits immediately after retreat

93.5% still reporting benefits at one year

91.7% reported lasting improvements in mental health, spiritual wellbeing, and personal growth at one year

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 Research

Three Months of Integration. A Lifetime of Community

A Full 3-Month Structured Integration Program

A structured path for carrying what you received in the Amazon back into your daily life, your relationships, and to support who you are in the world.

21 Hours of Expert Teachings & Guided Meditations

Recorded video teachings, somatic practices, masterclasses, and integration sessions led by our most experienced facilitators – available to draw on whenever you need them.

Weekly Actionable Assignments

Weekly practices and reflective exercises to keep you grounded, focused, and committed to your intentions.

Lifetime Access to Monthly Online Sharing Circles

A facilitated space to gather with other Temple guests walking the same path – to share what is emerging, to ask the questions that arise long after the retreat ends.

Healing Holds in Community

A worldwide community of Temple alumni and facilitators, held in a private space – somewhere to belong away from the noise of modern life.

Direct Access to Experienced Integration Specialists

For deeper support, our team of integration specialists – all senior Temple retreat facilitators – is available throughout, and beyond, the three-month integration program.
Visit integratingayahuasca.com

Eight Days
at the Temple

Schedule

Here is the schedule for a Stepping into Alignment 8-day Ayahuasca retreat. Four Ayahuasca ceremonies are complemented throughout the retreat with a wide variety of daily healing practices, yoga classes, as well as group meetings, and one-on-one sessions.

  • Day 1 - Arrival

    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.

  • Day 2 - First Ceremony

    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.

  • Day 3 - Going Deeper

    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.

  • Day 4 - Silence and Stillness

    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.

  • Day 5 - The Third Ceremony

    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.

  • Day 6 - The Arkana

    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.

  • Day 7 - Closing the Circle

    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.

  • Day 8 - Departure

    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.

What's Included
& Cost

The Healing

  • 4 ayahuasca ceremonies led by Shipibo Onanyabo
  • Arkana closing ceremony on Day 6 – protective ikaros
  • 4 Onanyabo on every retreat – 1 healer per maximum 6 guests
  • 1 dedicated vegetalista on every retreat, preparing all plant remedies, baths, and vapor baths
  • Individual consultations with healers and facilitators
  • Energetic healing massages (Days 5 and 6)
  • Plant remedies individually prescribed by the healers
  • Medicinal plant, flower, and vapor baths over 6 days
  • Special Pinon Colorado head bath
  • Pre-ceremony Yin Yoga sessions before each ceremony

The Practicalities

  • 2-3 experienced English-speaking facilitators
  • Group orientation, sharing circles, and integration sessions
  • Final share and integration talk on Day 7
  • 24 private tambos – individual eco-accommodation with private bathroom, hammock, and gas lamps
  • All meals – simple, nourishing, organic where possible
  • Laundry service throughout
  • All transportation to and from the Iquitos pickup point
  • Porter service for luggage
  • Translation: Shipibo / Spanish to English
  • Maximum 24 guests
  • Rigorous medical screening

Integration Program

  • 3-month Integration Program and Online Community – included at no extra cost
  • 21 hours of recorded teachings, guided meditations, and weekly assignments
  • Lifetime access to monthly sharing circles
  • Worldwide community of Temple guests and facilitators
  • Team of highly experienced integration specialists 

Cost of Stepping into Alignment Ayahuasca Retreat:

$2,960 USD

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.

Payment Terms

Upon Application: a $100 USD credit card or PayPal deposit is required to submit your application. If we cannot approve your application for any reason, your card will be refunded the $100 in full.

Upon Application Approval: if your application is approved, the $100 deposit is applied towards your retreat fee and the remainder of the 50% retreat deposit (or full amount for retreats starting within 6 weeks) is due within 24 hours to confirm your booking.

6 weeks Prior to Retreat Start: Your final balance is due.

What’s NOT Included

  • Airfare to Iquitos, Peru
  • Transportation to the group meeting point in Iquitos
  • Travel insurance
  • Accommodation in Iquitos before/after the retreat
  • Peruvian Visa costs (required for some nationalities)
  • Personal expenses (such as meals and drinks in Iquitos, etc.) before/after the retreat

Cancellation Policy

We understand that life can be unpredictable, so we’ve designed our cancellation policy to be as flexible and supportive as possible for our guests while preserving our ability to operate our retreats at the highest standard. Please keep in mind the following timeframes should you need to cancel your booking at some point before your retreat:

More than 4 weeks before your retreat starts: You can either transfer your full payment to any other available retreat date within the next 2 years, or request a refund minus a $300 administrative fee.

2 to 4 weeks before your retreat starts: You can transfer your payment to any other available retreat date within the next 2 years or request a refund, but in either case a $700 cancellation fee will be charged.

Within 2 weeks of your retreat start date: No payment transfers will be possible unless you can demonstrate extenuating circumstances that make attendance impossible. In such extenuating cases, we may, at our discretion, offer a credit for 50% of your amount paid, which you can apply toward a future retreat within 2 years. Refunds are not possible in this case.

Our goal is always to make this process as smooth and compassionate as possible. If you need to cancel or change your dates, please reach out as soon as possible; we’re here to work with you to find the best solution for your situation.

In the unlikely event that we are forced to cancel any retreats for any reason due to circumstances beyond our control (the only time this has happened in our 20 years of operation was in 2020 due to the pandemic and border closures in Peru), all registration payments will be transferred to personal credit to be used for a future retreat at a later date within 2 years of whenever we would be able to reopen and resume operations.

 

 

Book this Retreat

Still have questions?

Allen, our Guest Relations lead, offers free 15-minute discovery calls for those considering their first retreat.
Book a Discovery Call
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