Find your purpose, heal & discover answers in a serene Rainforest Retreat
From $1450 – $$2850 per person depending on type of lodging
(20% down payment to reserve; rest due week before check in)
Jun 24 2023 – Jul 1 2023
Samasati’s 9 day / 8-night Ayahuasca Retreat offers a life transforming journey of self-discovery and healing. You will be in a space where you can let your guard down, be yourself and be accepted and loved for who you are. You do not have to feel like you have to be someone else to feel validated here.
While intentions can vary from person to person, the general goals are to:
- gain a clearer understanding of yourself & find your purpose
- find answers to any problems you may be facing
- foster deeper and more meaningful relationships
- heal from trauma
- generally empower you on your life journey.
Everything is done safely in a harmonizing environment and in direct contact with nature. A connection that has been diluted, and in some cases severed, by the modern lifestyle and technology. You will be in the care of experienced & empathetic guides who have performed several hundred ceremonies for thousands of people around the world. Your safety and well-being is our utmost priority.
What’s included
Set in a A rustic retreat in the Rainforest with modern amenities (pool, electricity, hot showers & restrooms)
7 nights’ Accommodations
Three vegan/vegetarian meals each day
Drinking water, coffee, hot chocolate and tea
Ayahuasca Preparation Guide
2 Guided Ayahuasca Ceremonies (includes guided intention setting)
Post Ceremony Integration – This is as important as the ceremony itself to ensure maximum benefit
Guided Light Yoga Classes
Guided Breathwork & Meditation Sessions
1 Day trip to Beach with Picnic
Your choice of either a Mala Making Workshop or a 90-min Massage
What Is Ayahuasca
A hallucinogenic brew made from the leaves of an Amazonian shrub. It has been widely known and used as an entheogen (revered plants used as spiritual sacraments) in sacred religious and shamanic practices by approximately 100 indigenous communities in the Amazon, spreading across Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, and Colombia.
While it was traditionally used for spiritual purposes, it has become more popular for gaining insights and healing from your past. Modern science is also uncovering several health benefits that are leading to its increased popularity in the world of healing.
Why Ayahuasca
Feeling lost and unfulfilled is stressful and disruptive. It touches every aspect of your life including your career, relationships, and daily activities. The good news is the solutions lie within and you just need a way to uncover them. Often your truth is hidden because of:
- past trauma
- living a life that society or your family expects rather than what is right for you
- distractions of a modern and noisy world
Connect with us to see if an Ayahuasca journey could be for you. Many participants report that the clarity and vision gained in one or 2 sessions replaces years of therapy and self-discovery. It can be a lightning rod of liberation and illumination of self, as it puts you in the mode to listen to your inner guide.
Furthermore, our setting in the Rainforest naturally enhances your connection with yourself and puts you in the mode for reflection and healing.
Why Us?
For over 26 years, we have hosted transformational retreats for those who seek purpose, are looking to heal, find answers or simply disconnect and destress.
We only work with highly experienced and well-trained guides who hail from a long lineage of the shaman, who will help prepare you and ensure a safe and effective experience. We also have a medical center with fully qualified doctors close by.
The effect of the serene and secluded Rainforest on healing cannot be overstated. Modern science has proven nature to be a powerful healer that quiets your mind and enhances your sense of wellbeing and opens your heart.
This environment is ideal for healing because it provides a tranquil sanctuary for self-reflection, meditation, and mindfulness while preparing and after the ceremony.
Your safety is our top priority. You will undergo a strict screening process that will determine if you are the right candidate for this ceremony. The intensity of the journey is not for everyone, and it takes an experienced guide to determine who can safely go through the ceremony.
THIS is WHAT Ceremonies Look Like At Samasati
This journey to self-awareness through plant medicines is guided by caring and experienced masters of ceremony. Each day of this experience has been specially curated with guidance and activities that provide support and nourishment for the journey of your lifetime.
This plant medicine retreat will feature an Ayahuasca ceremony with additional ceremonial offerings of Wayra, Rape’ and Peyote. Daily practices and meditations along with herbal baths and sweat lodge gatherings will help you prepare and integrate this intense experience of plant medicine ceremonies.
We organize ceremonies in a spacious, covered wooden structure surrounded by luxuriant flora.
During the ceremony, guests have their own mattresses, placed in a circular space, with their own pillows, blanket, and buckets in case the need to purge arises during the ceremony.
There are bathrooms just outside the structure, and our facilitators are on call to help guests if they need any assistance.
Your Guides
Karen Gordon – Trained in Peruvian tradition with over 21 years of experience
A soul-filled scientist, inspired educator, holistic therapist, wilderness rites of passage guide and medicine woman, my roots dive deep into an ever-evolving understanding of how history, heart, energy and mystery work in concert within the habitat of the human form. My attention is drawn to the subtle spaces where mind, body, spirit and stories intersect upon the unique landscape of our lives.
With a 30-year career as a field biologist, restoration ecologist, environmental educator and healing arts professional, my work has flowed from the fjords of the North Atlantic, across the reefs of the Caribbean Sea, through the Peruvian Amazon and up to Costa Rica’s cloud-forested mountaintops.
As a restoration specialist, I am in service to the moments in our lives which call for soul nourishment, crafting retreats and rites of passage experiences in deep nature for those who seek meaning, quietude, replenishment and renewal so that they are able to blossom forward on their path.
For close to 10 years I was the owner of Monteverde’s highest-rated integrative healing arts studio, where I was honored to serve a steady stream of clients and students in the heart of our little mountain town. I am now based out of my 40-acre Samanea Nature Sanctuary and Farm, in a hamlet at the base of the world-renowned Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve. If I’m not here, you can find me in the the Peruvian Amazon working and studying with this planet’s master healing plants or serving, supporting or facilitating healing retreats throughout Costa Rica.
It’s all connected.
My authentic connection to the Earth, its systems and elements infuse my professional practice: the essence of who I am and how I work is woven into a unique, balanced blend of science, soul and spirit. It is a joy to share these gifts with my national community as well as clients, students and retreat participants from around the world.
In addition to my master’s degree in Educational Leadership and post-graduate diploma in Spiritual Direction, I trained at School of Lost Borders as a nature therapist and wilderness rites of passage guide.
I have trained as a birth doula with MamaSol Costa Rica and also provide transition / compassionate end-of-life care to my mountaintop community when called.
Stephanie McKenzie
I sought refuge from a very early age in the quiet moments within a child pose held in a dark closet. I found freedom in losing my way in the forest. I’ve felt the vastness of diversity while floating upon the warm sea. I gained clarity from moments of silence that stretched for days and then years. I understand the shifting nature of the human mind because it was a matter of life and death to the youngest version of me. I’ve learned that nourishing and caring for my body, mind, and soul is an obligation I accepted at birth.
I have formally immersed myself in the study and practice of Sankhya philosophy, Yoga, Ayurveda, Curanderismo, Mindfulness, Herbalism, Nurat Boran, Classical and Ecstatic Dance, and Vipassana Meditation. I have led countless students through the practices I know to be helpful. I have guided numerous ceremonies honoring moments in lives that are all too fleeting. I’ve told a few of my stories to expose my vulnerability. I have held many of them back to protect the nativity of the listener. I’ve danced with my darkest shadows and made them my friends. Embracing my pain has been an iron rod in my life. I’ve made my weaknesses my strengths. Only to be brought humbly to my knees a washed with the sudden awareness that I am the cause of someone else’s suffering
I am experienced at curating and facilitating life-changing experiences. I utilize ancient healing practices and modern science to bring truth to the surface of consciousness. Then with loving kindness and unconditional acceptance, I deny you the opportunity to return to your shadows. Then I’ll remind you how to play. I’ll remind you how to talk to the trees. I’ll remind you how to listen. I will listen to you. I will see you. I will understand your perspective.
Then I will slip back into the jungle and return to my personal path towards healing. The karmic unfolding of a body suspended for a lifetime in the degenerative pool of stress hormones is full of physical suffering. A mind developed in deceit and uncertainty will begin to deteriorate. A soul deprived of love and attention will wither. A lifestyle dedicated to learning to love yourself can rejuvenate a mind, body, and soul. A discipline of self-care and conscious awareness will lead you to the shores of tranquil ease.
I am a lightning rod for chaos. When you cross my path, you are in the midst of a personal transition. I know this with unabashed certainty. In the times of my own chaos, I have trained myself to extinguish my own voice to allow for the supreme self to be heard within the hum. I have inked into my skin a daily reminder of the message received when I truly paused. When I truly listened. I am a lightning rod for chaos. When you cross my path, you are in the midst of a personal transition. We have been brought together to learn from each other. I will remind you how to listen. You will remind me how to hear.
