Psilocybin & psychedelic work
What a psilocybin session at Compassion Retreats holds, what it costs and what Mexican law says. One party at a time, screening before anything is confirmed.
Resources & Articles
Long-form writing on practice, on psychedelics and on the questions people bring us. Start from a topic, or read through everything below.
Topics of interest
Five places to begin. Each one carries its own reading list and the retreats where the work happens.
Tantra & intimacy
What classical Tantra work at Compassion Retreats involves and where its boundaries sit. Private retreats for one person or one couple outside Tulum.
Rest, burnout & the nervous system
What a private rest retreat at Compassion Retreats holds and what it costs. Three to five days, one party at a time, from US$1,999.
Yoga, sound & meditation
A private yoga, sound and meditation retreat outside Tulum for one person or a couple. Three to five days from US$1,999 at Compassion Retreats.
Retreating in Mexico
Where retreats in Mexico happen, what a private one costs and how to choose safely. Compassion Retreats takes one booking at a time outside Tulum.
All Articles
How were psychoactive plants used in ancient Mexico?
In ancient Mesoamerica psychoactive plants such as peyote and teonanácatl were tools of medicine and religion. The Spanish Conquest drove the practice underground after 1521 and the ceremonies survived in hidden and Catholic forms.
Maria Sabina, Wasson, and how the world learned about the mushrooms
In June 1955 the banker R. Gordon Wasson took part in a mushroom velada in Huautla de Jiménez with María Sabina. His account in LIFE magazine in 1957 told the world about the mushrooms and set off the wave of visitors that damaged her village.
What does the science say about psilocybin?
Randomised double-blind studies at Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London report large and lasting drops in depression and anxiety after psilocybin sessions given with support. The trials are early and the samples are small.
Psychedelics in Mexico today: the legal picture and the tourist trade
Mexican federal law places psilocybin mushrooms and peyote under control and exempts traditional use inside indigenous ceremonies. For visitors and for the retreat trade the law leaves a grey area, and tourist demand is pressuring the Wixárika and their land.
What is transpersonal psychology?
Transpersonal psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the parts of human experience that go beyond the ordinary personality, from mystical states to psychedelic sessions. It formed at the end of the 1960s and its first journal appeared in 1969.
What does holding space actually mean?
Holding space means staying present with someone through difficult hours without fixing, steering or judging. At Compassion Retreats one facilitator stays within reach through the whole session day.
Private vs group psilocybin retreat: which is right for you?
A private psilocybin retreat holds one party at a time and a group retreat brings strangers into one room. Which one is right for you turns on cost and on how you want the session held.
How to choose a psilocybin retreat: twelve questions to ask a facilitator
Choosing a psilocybin retreat comes down to twelve questions and the answers you get back. Ask who stays in the room, how screening works and what happens after you go home.
Is psilocybin legal in Mexico? What the law actually says
Mexican federal law places psilocybin mushrooms under control, and Article 195 bis of the Federal Penal Code exempts traditional use inside indigenous ceremonies. For visitors and for the retreat trade the law leaves a grey area. This page is checked every quarter and carries the date it was last reviewed.
What a psilocybin session day looks like, hour by hour
A session day commonly runs six to eight hours and holds one shape across most careful operators: a slow arrival, the session itself in a quiet room, then food and an early bed. Compassion Retreats holds the day in your own villa, with one facilitator present from the first hour until you are settled at night.
What is Tantra, really?
Tantra is a family of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual traditions from India, aimed at liberation rather than pleasure. Its texts date from the 6th century CE onwards and classical Tantra is not about sex.
Is Tantra just about sex?
No. Classical Tantra aims at liberation and most of its practice is meditation and breathwork. The association with sex comes from neo-Tantra, a 20th-century Western movement.
How to choose a Tantra retreat
Ask what the programme teaches, who holds it and where its boundaries sit, in writing, before you pay. Classical Tantra is not about sex and a retreat that leads with sexual technique is selling something else.
Psilocybin as a couple: what to know before you sit together
Sitting together means two people taking psilocybin on the same day in the same room, with doses set for each person. Sharing a room does not mean sharing an experience.
Retreat or beach holiday: what a retreat in Mexico actually gives you
A beach holiday gives you distance from routine. A retreat gives you structure around rest, with fixed hours and a house of your own.
Where to go for a retreat in Mexico
Four regions hold most retreats in Mexico: the Riviera Maya, Oaxaca, the Pacific coast and the central highlands. Each has its own pace and its own way of getting there.
What kinds of retreats are there in Mexico?
Retreats in Mexico fall into a few recognisable kinds: yoga and meditation stays, body-based work, ceremonies such as the temazcal and plant medicine work. The kind you pick shapes the stay more than the region does.
How to plan a retreat in Mexico: costs, timing, paperwork
Planning a retreat in Mexico comes down to checking what the price covers and what you sign before you travel. Compassion Retreats quotes one price for the villa and all meals and takes a 30% deposit.
How to choose a retreat safely: what to ask before you book
A safe retreat answers specific questions in specific words before it asks for money. Ask who screens guests and who stays in the room when the hour gets hard.
How much a private retreat in Mexico costs, honestly
Three days for one person at Compassion Retreats costs US$1,999 and five days for a couple costs US$5,999. That figure covers the villa and the practices, and it does not cover flights or the optional psilocybin session.
Plant medicine retreats in Mexico: what they are and how to tell a good one
A plant medicine retreat is a stay built around psychoactive plants or fungi, with preparation before a session and integration after it. A well-run one screens every guest and promises nothing.
Perhaps, it's time for a change?
Read about the retreats and the guidance sessions, and how the two fit together.
