Founder
Ayahuasca has gained international recognition as a potent plant remedy from the Amazon that promotes healing, enlightenment, and spiritual development. Indigenous lineages like the Shipibo-Conibo people have long maintained and safeguarded this culture in Peru, especially in the Amazon region.
The number of retreats providing ayahuasca experiences has increased along with interest. While many are based on honesty and compassion, others put business, volume, or visibility ahead of respect and safety. The subject of how to pick a safe and moral ayahuasca retreat in Peru becomes crucial for anyone thinking about taking their first or even tenth retreat.
How do you choose a safe and ethical ayahuasca retreat in Peru?
This guide is written to help you make that decision with clarity, humility, and discernment.
Before looking at logistics, it’s important to understand one core truth:
Ayahuasca is not a commodity!
It is part of a living Indigenous tradition, passed down through generations.
In traditional Amazonian cultures, ayahuasca is not taken casually or recreationally. It is held within a ceremonial, cultural, and ethical framework that includes:
Any retreat that presents ayahuasca as a quick fix, a psychedelic thrill, or a guaranteed transformation is already moving away from its roots.
A safe and ethical ayahuasca retreat will be transparent about who holds the medicine.
Lineage brings accountability. Without it, there is no container holding the work together.
Ayahuasca is powerful. It interacts with the nervous system, emotional memory, and neurochemistry.
A responsible retreat will require thorough screening before accepting participants.
That is not spirituality — it is negligence.
Ethical retreats understand that sometimes the safest answer is not now.
Ayahuasca ceremonies require presence, attention, and care.
Large groups with minimal support increase the likelihood of panic, dissociation, or retraumatization.
Healing is not scalable without losing quality.
One of the most overlooked aspects of ayahuasca retreats is integration.
Ayahuasca does not “do the work for you.”
It opens doors — what you do afterward determines whether healing takes root.
Without integration, insights can become destabilizing rather than healing.
Ethical healing spaces are humble.
Red flags include:
Ayahuasca is unpredictable by nature. Anyone who guarantees outcomes is prioritizing marketing over truth.
Sacred spaces are not content studios.
A safe retreat has clear boundaries — emotional, physical, and energetic.
This includes:
Any retreat that blurs boundaries or encourages dependency should be avoided immediately.
Ethical retreats are open about:
Transparency is a sign of integrity.
If these questions are met with defensiveness or vagueness, that is a warning sign.
Peru’s Amazon is vast. Simply being “in the jungle” does not guarantee safety or ethics.
What matters more than location:
A retreat close to Iquitos or Pucallpa can be deeply ethical or deeply problematic. The difference lies in how the work is held.
Choosing an ayahuasca retreat is not about finding the most famous or most Instagrammable place.
It is about finding a space that:
Take your time. Ask questions. Listen to your body.
At AYA Healing Retreats, our retreats are guided by:
We believe ayahuasca is not about chasing peak experiences, but about cultivating long-term healing, humility, and embodiment.
Ayahuasca is not a shortcut.
It is a relationship! And one that asks for patience, respect, and responsibility.
The safest and most ethical retreat is the one that meets you where you are, without promises, without pressure, and without spectacle.
Choose wisely.
Your healing deserves care.
