I just watched this last night. Big picture positives - I liked that it showed how ayahuasca can be used to reevaluate one's life, the guy clearly identified some problems in his life and was humbled which he needed at the time. I also like that he made it clear that his "reforms" were pretty much failing after the retreat experience, and people thought he was crazy, and the ego came back, and he ended up maybe not that much different from when he began. Sadly, I think this is pretty much routine for many people who try psychedelics. There is usually a post-trip period where they feel great and want to tell everyone about it, and then its pretty quickly back to baseline. Creating long lasting beneficial change requires a lot of work and desire, not just psychedelics.
As for the particular ayahuasca retreat in the vid... I see many problems there. First of all, the whole idea of giving people 3 doses of ayahuasca over a 5 day period seems stupid to me. It varies from person to person, but many will need weeks or months to integrate even one ceremony, ayahuasca can be quite hard on the body and mind. Giving people so many back to back doses is irresponsible in my option unless you really know the person is able to handle it and benefit from it. Making up silly unscientific stories about how it supposedly works is little more than lame mind tricks to force your views on other people to influence their experience: Denis talking about how the first trip is light and beautiful, second is dark and powerful, third one sews you back together so you are ready to go home? Give me a break! Don't tell people this nonsense, your experience will be whatever your mind decides it should be, influenced by your preparation, personal history, intentions, set, setting, and overall mental state. It is wrong to "pre-program" ceremony participants with your ideas of what their experience should be. As an aside, I laughed to see that they store the "sacred medicine" in a 2 litter plastic coke bottle that still has the coke label on it, "come on man!"
Sure some people can handle being dosed 3 times in 5 days, this guy seemed OK with that, but I seriously doubt this is a good approach in general. They only do this to make people think they are getting "bang for their buck". Speaking of which, I'm all for free markets, if they can change thousands of dollars for this, good for them, but people should also know that you don't have to be rich to go to an ayahuasca retreat. I know of
a center in Costa Rica that does "one off" ceremonies for just $100 and its a pretty special place, where they grow and brew the medicine right there on the premises, and they do it with great passion - often live streaming the process (they sing, play music, and pray as it is being prepared).
My recommendation to people that want to do ayahuasca in a jungle would be to look for some reviews of a few places, find one you are comfortable with, forget about their ridiculous "package deals" and just tell them you want one ceremony only, then spend at least a day or two on nature hikes or exploring the wilderness just before your ceremony. Set an intention (or 2 -5 intentions for the ambitious) well before you leave home, and mediate on it at least nightly as you fall asleep.
