What is Psilocybin
Used for generations by Indigenous communities across the Americas, Africa, and parts of Europe for ceremony, reflection, and healing.
Psilocybin is one of the most ancient and widely studied plant medicines. Known for thousands of years across Mesoamerican, African, and European traditions, it has been used ceremonially to open doorways into self-understanding, emotional clarity, and spiritual connection in a more gentle way than Ayahuasca or 5-MeO-DMT would.
Mindset, Environment & Integration
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in over 200 species of mushrooms. When ingested, Psilocybin is converted in the body to psilocybin, which interacts with serotonin receptors in the brain. The experience typically lasts four to six hours and is often described as a gentle but deeply revealing inward journey, characterized by heightened emotion, vivid imagery, and a softening of the fixed patterns and beliefs that normally shape how we see ourselves and the world.
Guests seeking Psilocybin are often individuals looking for deeper self-understanding, emotional processing, and a shift in perspective. Experiences vary widely from person to person, however what consistently shapes the experience is the context in which it takes place, including preparation, environment, and guidance.
The principles of set and setting are essential. “Set” refers to your mindset, intentions, and readiness. “Setting” includes the physical environment and the support structure around you. When these elements are approached thoughtfully, they help create a container that supports safety, reflection, and lasting integration.
Benefits of Psilocybin
Potential benefits associated with Psilocybin experiences.
Psilocybin ceremonies can open space for profound insight and emotional release. Many of our guests describe a renewed sense of clarity, softened inner narratives, and a deeper connection to their purpose, their relationships, and their understanding of themselves and the world around them. Every journey is unique, and the benefit typically arises as it is needed.
- Increased emotional awareness and inner clarity
- Processing of unresolved experiences or long-held patterns
- Insight into recurring cycles and self-imposed limitations
- A renewed sense of purpose and meaning
- Deepened connection to self, nature, or spirituality
- Greater compassion toward oneself and others
- Release of limiting beliefs and self-imposed ceilings
- Heightened intuition and expanded perspective
- Increased creativity and the ability to drop into flow state
- Support for reflection, intention-setting, and aligned life changes
- Support for processing trauma, anxiety, and emotional triggers
Our Retreats
Why a Psilocybin Retreat Setting Matters?
Protected Space for Inner Work
A comfortable and safe environment is the most important factor in being able to feel at ease enough to let go and allow healing. As a Psilocybin ceremony can last four to six hours, your physical setting is just as important as your mental setting.
Experienced Facilitation and Professional Support
Behold maintains one of the highest staff-to-guest ratios in the industry, allowing your ceremony experience to be as personalized as possible with vetted facilitators and experienced healers.
Small-Group Intimacy with Individualized Attention
With this being one of the gentler yet deepest of our medicines, we believe that the group around you is equally important for your experience. Because we carefully select each group member, you will come out of this experience with strangers who soon become like family and access to our international Alumni community.
A Pause from Daily Distractions and External Pressures
Distance from routine responsibilities creates the psychological and emotional space needed for deeper insight. A break from technology, which we highly encourage, allows you to sit with your ceremony learnings and let them land within their own time.
Structured Preparation and Thoughtful Integration
Support before and after ceremony helps translate insights into grounded, sustainable change. This is the part most retreat providers overlook, and the part that makes the difference between a powerful experience and a lasting transformation.
Our Approach
Guided by experience, informed by safety, and supported through every stage of the journey.
Safety-First by Design
Every Psilocybin retreat guest completes a comprehensive medical and psychological screening before acceptance. We review each application personally to ensure the experience will truly serve you. Certain medications, medical conditions, and psychological factors are carefully evaluated because your safety shapes every decision we make.
Small, Intentionally Curated Groups
Our Psilocybin retreats are held with small groups of carefully vetted guests. The intimate size is intentional. It allows every person to receive genuine 1:1 attention and creates the kind of trusting container that this medicine asks for.
Experienced Facilitation
Ceremonies are led by facilitators with deep experience across traditional ceremonial practice, trauma-informed support, and modern therapeutic approaches. Our teams blend the wisdom of ancestral traditions with the safety standards of contemporary care.
Integration Beyond Ceremony
Post-retreat support and lifelong access to the Behold Alumni community ensure that the insights from your retreat continue to unfold long after you return home. Integration is not an afterthought. It is built into the fabric of every retreat.
Who Psilocybin Retreats Are For
Healing, clarity, and self-discovery.
A good fit if you’re:
- Seeking healing, emotional clarity, or a shift in perspective
- Drawn to a gentler, more gradual psychedelic experience
- Ready for thorough preparation, medical screening, and post-retreat integration
- Open to guidance, structure, and working within a supported container
- Looking for a week-long immersive experience with multiple ceremonies to peel back the layers in a gentle yet effective way
May not be a fit if you’re:
- Seeking a fun or recreational experience
- Unwilling to complete medical and psychological screening
- Looking for guaranteed outcomes or trying to force a specific result
The Behold Process
What to expect at an Psilocybin retreat?
Entering such a delicate retreat can feel both exciting and unfamiliar. Understanding the flow of the experience helps create clarity and ease before arrival.
Before the retreat begins, guests move through a guided preparation process that includes application review, medical screening, and personalized guidance. We provide recommendations to support physical readiness, mental clarity, and intention-setting so you arrive grounded and informed.
Our Psilocybin retreats are built around three ceremonies, each with its own character and purpose. The first invites you to meet the medicine gently through movement and nature, building familiarity and trust with what is to come. The second is the deep dive, a traditional ceremony held at night with live music where the full power of the medicine can be met in a space held strong enough for real surrender. The third shifts the experience into the senses, a more guided, therapeutic, and interactive daytime ceremony that opens doorways the previous two prepared you for. This arc is intentional. Anyone can take Psilocybin on their own, but being held and guided through a structured ceremonial journey in a safe environment is what allows the medicine to do its deepest work. It is also what makes this retreat distinct from our Ayahuasca offerings, bringing a more playful, joyful, and expansive energy alongside the depth.
Retreats are designed for small groups to foster connection while allowing for individual space. Guests are supported by a dedicated team who remain present and attentive during ceremonies and integration sessions.
Between ceremonies, time is given for rest, nature, journaling, and open-hearted conversation. This is your space to simply be. Try not to fill it in the way we often do in everyday life. The quiet is where the medicine continues to work.
Psilocybin Retreat Locations
Our retreat locations are intentionally selected to support safety, immersion, and meaningful inner work.
Costa Rica Psilocybin Retreat
A 5 night, all-inclusive psychedelic retreat with a small group (14 person max) of thoroughly-vetted guests.
View Retreat
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about Psilocybin retreats.
We only operate in areas where Psilocybin is not scheduled as an illegal substance. Our retreats are held in locations where ceremonial use operates within established legal frameworks. For this reason, we encourage prospective guests to explore retreat options outside of countries where Psilocybin remains prohibited.
Psilocybin ceremonies are typically held in the evening or during the day, lasting four to six hours. Throughout the experience, experienced facilitators hold the space with care, creating a calm and supportive environment. Music, traditional instruments, and gentle guidance may accompany the experience to support introspection and emotional release.
Preparation often includes dietary adjustments, reflection practices, and clear intention-setting. Guests also complete a thorough medical and psychological screening process prior to acceptance. Our team provides personalized guidance to help you arrive grounded and ready.
Psilocybin is not for everyone. Certain medical conditions, medications, and psychological factors may make participation unsafe. However, for the vast majority of people without pre-existing contraindications, it carries a favorable safety profile. We conduct detailed screening and prioritize wellbeing over attendance to ensure each guest is suited for the experience.
Costs vary depending on location, duration, accommodations, and level of support. High-quality retreats typically include small groups, professional facilitation, medical screening, integration support, and thoughtfully designed venues. We encourage prospective guests to review retreat details or speak with our team to understand what is included.
Both medicines offer deep, transformative work but through different doorways. Psilocybin tends to be gentler in onset and more introspective, with a unique three-ceremony arc that moves from nature and introduction through a deep traditional ceremony to a sensory, therapeutic exploration. Ayahuasca is often described as more intense, layered, and extended. Our Discovery Call can help you explore which medicine aligns with your intentions and readiness.
Education & Insights
Educational resources on Psilocybin, preparation, integration, and the retreat experience.
Why is everyone talking about the DMN (Default Mode Network)? Scientists believe that they have identified the DMN as the “seat” of the Ego in the brain. The DMN has become a popular topic in the world of psychedelics and healing in relation to substances such as Psilocybin and Ayahuasca. But what is the…
How does neurogenesis and neuroplasticity work? And how is this related to our well-being? Neurogenesis: the ability to create new neurons (brain cells) and connections between neurons. Neuroplasticity: the capacity of the brain to change and rewire itself in response to the stimulation of learning and experience. Our cognition (the way we think) is linked…
You may be familiar with the psychedelic mushroom commonly referred to recreationally as “shrooms,” or “magic mushrooms”. These hallucinogenic mushrooms, previously known as stropharia cubensis and now renamed as psilocybe cubensis, are famous for producing strong visual effects and a deeply introspective journey thanks to their psychedelic compound psilocybin. Psilocybin is the main alkaloid exhibiting…
