Alpens, Barcelona, 08507, Spain
Up to 8 in group
May 2 - 4, 2025
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 two night retreat in a beautiful guest house in an isolated valley of 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.
We will do various activities with the intention of bringing you home to the ease of being embodied. These will include yoga, sound massages, vocalisations and drumming. All meals will be prepared together in order to foster group cohesion.
These activities will also help to prepare you for the mushroom ceremony that will take place on the second day. The ceremony will be held in a carefully prepared space, and you will be accompanied on your psychedelic journey by experienced guides who will keep the ceremony unfolding organically with the help of traditional instruments and song.
There will be an integration circle the next day and a follow up video-call a week or so later to support you in your continuing integration.
May-Day festivals has traditionally been celebrated across Europe as a way of marking the arrival of summer. Its origins can be traced back to ancient Rome, as well as Celtic and Germanic cultures. It is a celebration of the return of light, warmth and life in all of its abundance.