Alpens, Spain
Up to 8 in group
August 26 - September 1, 2024
About this Retreat
I'm Oliver, from the UK and a teacher by profession. I work in an international university in Barcelona and teach English in the village where I live.
I embarked upon a process with psilocybin mushrooms in 2018. Approaching the age of 50, and feeling restless and adventurous, I took a high dose of mushrooms in a controlled setting with a therapist. Since then I have worked with altered states of consciousness to create a series of changes in my life. I moved to the countryside, got married, started gardening and generally started to value and prioritise relationships in a way that I had not done previously.
I explored practices such as meditation, drumming and chanting as a way of making me more centred in my body and in the present. I have travelled to Mexico to participate in ceremonies with curanderas and also to share knowledge with them. In addition, I started to accompany others who wished to experience a journey with psilocybin mushrooms in a controlled environment and also became active within the Psychedelic Society of Barcelona, helping to organise events and participating in discussions.
More recently I have been exploring a range of therapeutic techniques such as reiki and sound therapy both for personal development and also to accompany others, whether it be on a psychedelic journey or for more everyday therapeutic purposes.
I also take great pleasure in cultivating psilocybe mushrooms.
I’m Carla, a psychonaut convinced of the transformative power of working with expanded states of consciousness and its integration through a spiritual path.
Psychedelics and yoga are two tools that have brought me back home, helping to reconcile me with my body and to live from a more serene place.
I believe in the capacity of psychedelic substances to catalyse change at a collective level to such an extent that it is practically a duty to share what I have learned and I do it in various ways: organising events for psychonauts, holding the space in psychedelic journeys and running a yoga studio at the Catalan coast.
I have no pretensions about guiding you, but rather see my role as accompanying you. I believe that what is fundamental is that each person finds, or creates a container for the experience that does not collide with their cosmovision. Rather, it should adapt to each person's cultural heritage. One must understand what one carries in order to reconcile to it.
Details of this retreat
A six night retreat in a beautiful guest house in an isolated valley in the pre-Pyrenees. The retreat is designed to disconnect you from your screens and the hurly-burly of your day-to-day life and re-connect you to the felt presence of your body and its place in the natural environment as mediated by the five senses.
The retreat is a unique holiday experience that has been designed as a journey through the 5 senses, exploring 1 sense every day with experiences that range from massage to music, from scent creation to foraging, with plenty of time to relax by the swimming pool, walk in the woods and visit the local village.
We will do various activities with the intention of bringing you home to the ease of being embodied. These will include yoga every morning, sound massages, vocalisations, drumming and medicinal plant collection in the forest. We will prepare the meals collectively as a way of fostering the group dynamic.
These activities will also help to prepare you for the 2 optional psychedelic experiences, one with with San Pedro and the other with mushrooms that will take place in an outdoor and indoor setting respectively. You will be accompanied on a journey into the psychedelic experience and supported in your integration of the experience afterwards by experienced guides.
There will also be a preparatory Zoom session before the retreat starts and a session afterwards to continue supporting your integration.