Ceremonia bills itself as a nonprofit church using entheogenic (aka psychedelic plant-based) therapies to accelerate psychological and spiritual healing. Programs are configured around themes like healing and awakening, with psilocybin and ayahuasca being the centerpieces to those efforts.

I attended the 6-day Awakening program and wondered how they’d fill the days. Turns out, that wasn’t a problem.

The facilitators (and their assistants) were wonderful, supportive, and warm, and for the time I was there (more on that in a moment) they put us through a variety of programs designed to break down our egoic safeguards, get in touch with body rhythms, and so on.

The ‘ceremonies’ were scheduled for days 2, 3, and 5. Unfortunately for yours truly, I got sick – really sick – from the tea and experienced hours of hell (tremendous migraine and vomiting). At the suggestion of one the facilitators, I asked the illness what it was asking of me and, quite clearly, saw that I needed to leave.

So full candor, I’m only reviewing the first 2 days.

The Good

The non-psychedelic programs were for the most part terrific, even reducing me (and others) to tears on a couple of occasion. Others were a bit goofy, but that’s to be expected in these types of programs (I’ve done my fair share).

Facilitators, as noted, were terrific, as were their aids (‘space holders’). The food is fantastic, healthy, and plentiful. The main building is beautiful (basically, a suburban home in a region with lots of horses) and appointed with furnishings you’d expect to find in a healing center. Was also delighted to discover the facilitators were accomplished musicians.

The Not-So-Good

As noted, this is a suburban home with beds squeezed into most available spaces. Definitely not luxury, but to be fair, if you’re looking for that kind of thing this kind of program probably isn’t for you. As an older guy, I opted to pay an extra $500 for the private Airstream in the parking lot, reasoning I wouldn’t bother people having to pee multiple times a night. Alas, its bathroom wasn’t functional. Worse, on night 2 the heater failed to work, meaning that not only was I sick as a dog I froze all night. (The neighboring RV had no heat at all!)

Strangely, while the communications for onboarding and post-ceremonial ‘integration’ practices were decent, I never received a missive asking about my experience. I probably would have asked for the $500 back so maybe that explains it? :-)

Summary

I’ve done other programs including a 10-day, 5-ceremony program in the Amazon which was not nearly as useful unless you’re basically just looking for the psychedelics to do all the heavy lifting. Where Ceremonia excels is in creating the sense of community and easing you into the ceremonies. Where I think it falls short is creating a framework within which all of their programmatics might fit.

(And if it’s cold out, do NOT rent the RVS.)