Medical and dietary guidelines

At the time of booking, you must agree to confidentially report any known medical problems and/or medication use.

Ayahuasca has been discovered to be incompatible with a number of pharmaceuticals and treatments. Before taking plant medicine, it's imperative to cease using the following medications and give your body enough time to rid itself of them. If you have any questions, please contact your doctor. You should never abruptly cease taking any prescribed medications, including antidepressants, without first speaking to your physician.

If you take the following medications or have any of the following medical conditions, working with Ayahuasca is not safe for you:

Ayahuasca is known to have hazardous adverse effects when combined with any drug that contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Before using ayahuasca, it is imperative that you cease taking these medications under your doctor's guidance and give your body plenty of time to eliminate them from your system.

Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and other medications that have an impact on the serotonin system. Combining these medications with ayahuasca can induce serotonin syndrome with potentially fatal results. Prior to applying for a retreat, we ask that visitors stop using SSRIs under their doctor's guidance to give their system enough time to clear. When discontinuing some of these medications, it is important to give the negative effects plenty of time to pass. Without first consulting your doctor, never stop taking any medications suddenly. Please be aware that St. John's Wort (hypericum perforatum), a herbal antidepressant, should not be consumed within 2 weeks of working with ayahuasca.

Decongestants, antihistamines, sedatives, tranquilizers, some hypertensive medications, sympathomimetic amines (including pseudoephedrine and ephedrine), carbamazipine, methylphemidate (Ritalin), macromerine, phenelanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, asarone/calamus, some asthma inhalers, and diet pills are among the other medications that must be discontinued.

Ayahuasca can be harmful to people with a history of psychological issues even if it hasn't been proven to cause psychosis or other mental abnormalities. If you have a history of mental health issues, do let us know.

We are unable to provide you with plant medicine, if you have a heart condition or have chronic high blood pressure. In this case we might consider other options, like Hypnotherapy and energy healing.

Hepatic guests/volunteers must first speak with us and give us further details about their health conditions. Ayahuasca use is prohibited for those who have Tuberculosis.

Family history of (Severe) mental illnesses:

If your family has a history of psychosis, we would first need to make sure that you:

1.     do not directly have a history of serious mania, psychosis, or depersonalization concerns

2.     have never taken any medicine for these illnesses in the past

3.     are not taking any mental medications at this time

If none of these three criteria apply to you, we might be able to arrange for a retreat for you. However, if there is a history of severe mental illness in your family, please let us know so we can decide on a alternative method, that is appropriate for you personally. These methods might me: hypnosis (Rapid Transformational Therapy), energy healing, coaching.

Dietary precautions:

We must stress that following dietary restrictions are a crucial component of the healing process. For own safety, please follow these guidelines, avaid foods that are rich in tyramine. 

Street drugs (such as cocaine, ecstasy, heroin, etc.), sexual activity, and pork are the three most important prohibitions before and after a session. We are not responsible for the outcomes if a visitor chooses not to follow this important guidance after leaving the Retreat (which can be severe psychological and energetic damage).

We reserve the right to deny admittance to a retreat if we have reason to believe that street drugs have been used or if it is obvious that alcohol has been used soon before arriving at the Retreat.

Your guidelines to a healthy diet:

The best way to approach this diet is with fresh, wholesome meals like potatoes, fruits, vegetables, and grains like bread, rice, cereals, and wheat. If you are not a vegetarian, it is advisable to keep your meat consumption to a minimum and stick to white meats, like chicken, turkey and fish.

Use moderate amounts of spices and cut back on your intake of salt and sugar.

2 weeks prior to retreat:

• Stop the usage of drugs and supplements. When in doubt, please contact us.

• Begin reducing refined sugars, salt, caffeine, alcohol and other stimulants.

• Limit meat, fermented and processed foods.

• Stop eating pork.

3 days prior to retreat:

• Stop the usage of certain prescribed medication (consult your medical professional first)

• No alcohol and no drugs

• No red meat, heavy fats and processed foods

• No pork

• No dried or fermented sausage/meats (e.g. salami, pepperoni, corned beef and liver)

• No fermented cheeses or foods (canned foods, sauerkraut, soy, tempeh, kimchee)

• No old cheeses (young cheese, ricotta, mozzarella, cottage cheese & cream cheese is ok)

• No overripe bananas or avocado’s

• Limit figs and raisins

• Limit dairy products

• No dried or salted fish

• Limit nuts and seeds (peanuts!)

• No large amount of chocolate

• No protein extracts or supplements (they often contain yeast extract, e.g. Marmite/Tartex)

• Limit artificial sweeteners

• As little as possible salt, spices, sugar and caffeine (coffee, some tea, energy drink, chocolate)

• Avoid certain herbal drinks/teas, like Ginseng & St John's wort

• No nose sprays

• No sexual interactions

• Drink plenty of water

Keep up the diet for at least 3 days after the ceremony.

Even while it is not required, it can be highly beneficial to start a body/mind practice, such as yoga or meditation, if you don't currently have one. This kind of exercise teaches you how to direct your energy and connect with your breath, which may be quite beneficial during the ayahuasca experience.

If you have any questions regarding the diet or any other topic, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Usage of Marihuana/weed: there is no contraindication per se. That being said, anecdotally we know that Ayahuasca does not "like" weed. If you are a regular smoker, you will find that there are going to be less or no visions coming up in your Ayahuasca journey. Additionally you might find that there is more purging involved. Therefore we recommend to stop smoking weed for 3 weeks prior to the retreat.

That being said we understand that many people are using marihuana for a better sleep or even for pain. If you find it impossible to discontinue for 3 weeks, then at least stick to the 3 days prior to the retreat, but be conscious about the fact that you will have a difficult journey. Ayahuasca will still work on you, but you will have a hard time.

Additional information and contraindications

Combining stimulants and MAOIs is extremely risky and may be lethal. When combined with MAOIs, the use of cocaine, amphetamines, or MDMA (ecstasy) can significantly raise blood pressure, increase the risk of cerebral hemorrhage and stroke, and make it easy to overdose on a relatively small amount of cocaine. (There has been a fatality associated with mixing cocaine and peganum harmala. The medical literature lists fatalities brought on by mixing amphetamines with prescription MAOIs.)

Serotonin syndrome can develop when an MAOI is used with other serotonin agonists or precursors. Fever (up to 40 °C / 104 °F or greater) and/or a strong and persistent headache (the same symptom as an MAOI tryptamine interaction) may be the primary serotonin symptom. Other signs of serotonin syndrome can be a fast heartbeat, sweating, trembling, dilated pupils, reflexes that are too quick or sensitive, hyperactive bowel movements, or elevated blood pressure. Severe serotonin syndrome can be fatal and can result in shock, agitated delirium, stiffness and high levels of muscle tension, renal failure, or convulsions.

Tricyclic antidepressants can have dangerous side effects, such as rapid fever, excessively high blood pressure, seizures, and even death, if taken within two weeks after taking MAOIs.

Fluoxetine (Prozac) within five weeks of taking MAOIs may cause high fever, rigidity, high blood pressure, mental changes, confusion, and hypomania.

Benzedrine, Benzphetamine, Desipramine, Desoxyn, Dexedrine, Dopamine, Ephedrine (contained in some asthma drugs), Epinephrine, Guanadrel, Guanethidine, Hydralazine, Isoproterenol, L-dopa, Metaraminol, Methyldopa, Mirtazamine, Norepinephrine Oxymetazoline, Phendimetrazine, Phentermine, Phenylephrine, Phenylpropanolamine, Pseudoephedrine, Ritalin, or Venlafaxine with MAOIs may cause a hypertensive crisis (severe spike in blood pressure).

Adderall with MAOIs can result in high body temperature, seizure, and in some cases, coma.

Using Bupropion within two weeks of taking MAOIs may cause serious side effects such as seizures.

Buspirone with MAOIs may cause high blood pressure and increased sedative effects.

Carbamazepine with MAOIs may result in fever and may increase seizures, especially in epileptics.

Clomipramine with MAOIs may cause high fever (hyperpyrexic crisis) and seizures.

CNS depressants with MAOIs may increase the depressant effects.

Desipramine with MAOIs may result in hypertensive crisis.

Dextromethorphan with MAOIs may cause excitement, high blood pressure, and fever, or brief episodes of psychosis.

Fenfluramine with MAOIs may result in fever (hyperpyrexic crisis).

Kava with MAOIs may result in hypotensive crisis (severe blood pressure drop).

Lithium with MAOIs may cause fever and serotonin syndrome.

Meperidine with pharmaceutical MAOIs has resulted in deaths from a single dose.

Metaproterenol or other beta-adrenergic bronchodilators with MAOIs may cause blood pressure elevation and rapid heartbeat.

Mirtazapine with MAOIs may result in hypertensive crisis.

Nefazodone may result in high fever.

Temaril with MAOIs may increase chance of side effects.

Terfenadine with MAOIs may cause an increase in MAOI blood levels.

Theophylline with MAOIs may cause rapid heartbeat and anxiety.

Trazodone with MAOIs may result in high fever.

Tryptophan or L-tryptophan with MAOIs may cause disorientation, confusion, amnesia, delirium agitation, memory impairment, hypomanic signs, or shivering.

Venlafaxine with MAOIs may result in hypertensive crisis.

Ziprasidone with MAOIs may cause serotonin syndrome.

Alcohol with MAOIs may cause side effects like angina (chest pain) or headaches. The headache may mask or be mistaken for hypertensive crisis caused by MAOI interaction. MAOIs can also increase the sedative effect of alcohol.

Opiates with MAOIs carries a risk of respiratory depression.

Diuretics with MAOIs may cause a greater drop in blood pressure than normal and increase in MAOI blood levels.

Anesthetics with MAOIs may potentiate the anesthetic effect.

Sleeping pills, tranquillizers (major or minor), or barbiturates with MAOIs may increase the sedative effect.