Ayahuasca in Brazil: Spirit Vine

Visiting Brazil for an Ayahuasca Ceremony

Around the world Ayahuasca has become popular and most people have heard of this mystical plant and its benefits. Although for many, it is only vaguely known as a drug or a tool for vision quest. But the reality of the traditional ayahuasca ceremony is completely different from the imported version. Spirit Vine ayahuasca Traditional Medicine Retreat Center.

Ayahuasca refers to an ancient traditional ceremony practiced by various native communities in different South American countries for centuries or millennia ago. That is why we make a mistake when we compare it to something done at a party. The objective is not to “get high”, something that many people who do not understand this rich and important tradition denigrate by misusing this profoundly potent sacrament. A true ayahuasca experience is deeply spiritual, to know oneself and to have a contact with the spiritual world.

Today, there are places in Brazil and elsewhere in South America where the rich cultural tradition of ayahuasca making is combined with modern accommodations and services, always focused on the benefits of this substance. These places are called ayahuasca retreat centers.

What is ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is an ancestral concoction made from the combination of two plants sacred to the shamanic traditions of several groups of South American peoples.

From a scientific perspective, the two plants Chacruna and Caapi combine to allow the drinker of ayahuasca (which is prepared as a tea) to experience a powerful effect of expanded consciousness and connection with the metaphysical world.

This effect has been used in the traditional ayahuasca healing rituals that have characterized the societies of several South American countries since the earliest accounts. In many of these places, Caapi liana is often referred to as “the teacher”. This is due to the expansion of thoughts and consciousness that its ingestion can often produce.

What is an ayahuasca retreat?

Located in the natural beauty of Brazil’s Bahian coast is the SSpirit Vine Ayahuasca Center. Run by a licensed psychotherapist, the Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Center is a great example of how the best modern ayahuasca retreats focus on creating a safe and supportive environment for people to come, relax, prepare and experience all that an ayahuasca ceremony has to offer.

Typically, visitors stay for a week or more. No drugs or alcohol are allowed at this destination. Visitors are fed freshly prepared vegetarian and vegan diets specifically designed to get the most out of the ayahuasca experience.

Group sharing and learning sessions are an integral part of the experience. How ayahuasca begins to “teach” people about themselves and to experience new thoughts about the universe and their place in it, in this center you will have experienced guides who can help you integrate the content into your daily life is a great advantage.

You can even participate in yoga sessions and workshops (the retreat is transfaith) where you learn spiritual development tools applicable to your daily life. All this in the midst of beautiful gardens in the heart of the Atlantic rainforest.

Bahia is also a picture-postcard part of Brazil. It is full of beautiful white sandy beaches, basking in sunshine, filled with fascinating villages and sites, and home to vast expanses of lush Atlantic rainforest. It is also a hub of surfing and yoga culture. In short, it’s worth staying and exploring a bit.

The ayahuasca ceremony experience

After dark, with the birds and animals of the Amazon rainforest singing all around, the Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Center holds its ayahuasca ceremonies. They are led by the ayahuasquero, a kind of master of ceremonies, who is a renowned shaman who practices these ceremonies with the utmost respect and care.

Specially selected music is played and people from all over the world gather to participate in what for many is a sacred experience. Most modern ayahuasca retreats have special places where their ceremonies are held. Spirit Vine Ayahuasca is no exception:

They have a purpose-built ceremony hall located next to a picturesque natural lagoon where you can swim at your leisure. As a group, you drink the carefully prepared tea – the center grows its own plants and brews the tea with traditional techniques and without additives of any kind – and take a seat.

Music guides them and creates a kind of spiritual soundscape for them to explore. Many participants report experiencing a feeling of oneness with the natural world or a kind of heightened awareness of themselves and their own inner balance.

Retreat, reflect and learn

People from all over the world travel to places like the Spirit Vine Ayahuasca Retreat Center to experience ayahuasca. Some seek spiritual awakening or exploration. Others want to address past traumas or experience new things.

In a safe, comfortable, carefully planned and paradisiacal place like the Spirit Vine Ayahuasca, all of this is very easy to imagine.