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.
Compassion Retreats holds psilocybin sessions in a private house in the jungle outside Tulum, one party at a time, from US$1,999 for three days for one person. The session is optional and paid separately. One facilitator stays present from the first hour until you are settled at night. Psilocybin sits in a legal grey area in Mexico, and Compassion Retreats screens every guest before confirming a booking.
The facts
| Three days | US$1,999 one person, US$2,999 couple sharing one villa |
|---|---|
| Four days | US$2,999 one person, US$4,499 couple sharing one villa |
| Five days | US$3,999 one person, US$5,999 couple sharing one villa |
| One-day experience | US$450 per person, US$750 per couple |
| Group size | One party at a time. A single person or a couple, and up to four arriving together by agreement |
| Durations | Three to five days |
| Airports | TQO about 30 minutes away, Cancun International about 1 hour 40 away. Transfers included from either |
| Screening | A call before anything is confirmed and a confidential intake per person. A preparation call before travel |
| Integration | Two calls after you go home, by video, inside the first month |
| Psilocybin session | Optional and paid separately. Quoted on the call and never inside a platform booking |
| Session day | One facilitator present from the first hour until you are settled at night. Commonly six to eight hours |
| Contraindications | Acute psychiatric crisis and a personal or family history of psychosis |
| Touch | All touch is non-sexual, inside boundaries you set first |
| Legal position | Psilocybin sits in a legal grey area in Mexico |
Is psilocybin legal in Mexico?
Psilocybin mushrooms and peyote sit under Mexican federal control, and traditional use inside indigenous ceremonies is exempt. For visitors and for the retreat trade the law leaves a grey area, and the traveller carries the exposure.
Compassion Retreats says this on the call rather than in small print. The protection in the law was written for indigenous practice and not for visitors, and the mushrooms are controlled everywhere else in the chain. Read the law before you travel and ask the house how it works inside that grey area. Psilocybin is never the promise here, and the days are complete without it.
What happens on a session day?
A session day commonly runs six to eight hours. Doses are set per person and one facilitator is present from the first hour until you are settled at night. Two people who come together sit in one room on the same day, on two doses rather than one.
The day is quiet and it is long. You lie down in your own villa and the room stays warm and steady, and when the hours soften there is food and an early bed. Compassion Retreats holds the session in your room rather than in a hall with other people sitting. Nothing on the day asks you to perform for anyone.
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. Compassion Retreats promises no outcome from a session.
Those studies report what happened inside their conditions, with careful screening and support around every session. Compassion Retreats screens every guest before confirming a booking for the same reason. We can tell you what the trials reported and what a day holds here. What it does for you is not ours to promise.
Who should not sit with psilocybin?
Acute psychiatric crisis and a personal or family history of psychosis rule the session out at Compassion Retreats. The screening call is where this is worked out, and no money moves before it.
Compassion Retreats runs a call before anything is confirmed and then a confidential intake per person covering medical and psychological background. A facilitator who will not name exclusions has not sat with the people who should not sit. If the work is not right for you now, we say so.
Articles on this topic
- 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.
Where this work happens
What to do next
Write to us and we will set up the call. Nothing is confirmed and no deposit moves before it.
