Retreats: what is offered, promised and charged

Read this first. This page is education, not instructions to use. Metanoia does not supply any substance. In the United States, most of the substances discussed here are Schedule I under federal law (21 CFR 1308.11). State programs such as Oregon's and Colorado's operate under state law only, and federal law still applies. Legal status differs between countries, and none of this is legal advice. Nothing here is medical advice, and nothing here gives or recommends a dose. People who host, supply or take part in sessions involving controlled substances can face criminal liability under federal and state law. This page does not advise on that. "Healthy adults" means people with no diagnosed psychiatric or major medical condition, the population Metanoia studies. This page reports what published sources say about work done outside supervised programs, and it takes no position on the legality of any setting, practice or person.

Not an emergency resource. Metanoia is not an emergency service. In a medical or mental health emergency in the United States the number is 911, and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text. Elsewhere, local emergency numbers apply. Nothing on this card is a reason to delay or avoid care. This card describes what sources report. It is not a screening tool, it does not say who should take part in a session or in what setting, and it is not medical guidance.

The short answer

What do psychedelic retreats offer, what do they say about themselves, and what do they list as prices?

One study counted what 298 English-language retreat organizations advertised online from July to December 2023. Listed prices for a single retreat ran from 20 to 150,000 US dollars, and average listed prices rose with length, from 668 dollars for one day to 7,179 for more than two weeks. These are advertised prices from one sample, not amounts paid and not a benchmark for what a retreat costs or should cost. As far as a documented search found, no study has tested what retreats promise against evidence.

What was found?

Reported findings, not recommendations. Each finding applies only to the group named, and the data are from 2023.

What retreats advertise and list as prices

Researchers identified 298 organizations marketing retreats to English speakers, with 648 retreat experiences at 440 physical locations. By how they described themselves online, 250 presented as wellness, 51 as religious and 15 as medical, and the categories overlap. Ayahuasca was offered by 220 organizations. Wellness organizations described their offerings as growth, transformation and healing. Source 1, level 1
513 of the 648 experiences listed a cost. The researchers worked from minimum and maximum amounts shown online, converted to US dollars. Average listed prices were 668 dollars for one day (58 retreat experiences of that length), 2,665 for seven days (85) and 7,179 beyond two weeks (50). One outlier of more than two weeks, listed at up to 500,000 dollars, was left out of the range. These are listings, not what people paid, what was included, or a sign of quality or safety. Source 1, level 1

What organizations said in interviews

In 2023 interviews with 49 of the 298, a convenience sample reporting on itself, all offered some integration support, and 32 had a licensed or emergency-trained person on site at least sometimes. 29 said facilitators themselves use a substance in ceremonies. Source 2, level 1

Funding and declared interests

The two studies come from the same research group and the same list of 298 organizations, so they are not independent. Both were funded by the Ortus Foundation, which each paper says had no role in the design, analysis or decision to publish. As the papers declare, an author of both has served as a paid consultant to Lykos Therapeutics and reports in-kind or nonfinancial support from another organization named in the disclosures, and a co-author of the second paper reports owning a business named there. This card draws no conclusion from these declarations. Sources 1 and 2, level 1

Fieldwork

One anthropologist, after 20 months in Peru from 2015 to 2019, writes that perhaps the majority of ayahuasca visitors go to retreat centers, most owned by North Americans, Europeans or people from Lima, citing another work and giving no count. Owners she quoted held different views on whether ayahuasca heals depression, from denial to a strongly positive view. These are owners' statements, not evidence. Source 3, level 4

What is not known?

“Not located” means that the searches Metanoia ran on 7 November 2026 did not return it. They covered PubMed and Europe PMC with preprints, the US Federal Trade Commission site search and legal library (terms psychedelic, psychedelic retreat, ayahuasca, psilocybin) and the UK Advertising Standards Authority rulings (terms ayahuasca, psychedelic). Google Scholar, the US Food and Drug Administration, other regulators and other languages were not searched.

Any study that checked retreat health claims against evidence.
Any action on those claims by the regulators searched. The one UK ruling returned for “psychedelic” concerned an unrelated advertisement.
What attendees pay in total. Both retreat studies say they did not measure participant outcomes or harms. Studies of attendees' outcomes exist and were not read for this card.

What this card does not say

It does not rank or endorse any retreat, say that a price signals quality or safety, or advise anyone to attend or avoid one. It is not a standard of care or legal advice, and the legal status of locations is not covered. Metanoia does not run retreats.
Related cards: ayahuasca and San Pedro ceremonies, screening before a session, combining substances and getting into the field, which reports the prices of Oregon's regulated sessions.
It does not rate how risky, safe or worthwhile any retreat is. This is not an emergency resource. In the United States, 911 and the 988 line are available.

Send a correction

If this card reports something wrongly, tell us. Write to main@metanoia-ca.org and keep the card name in the subject line. Accounts of what happened in a session belong in the field reports channel, not in email. Please leave out names and anything that identifies a person or a place. We read every message.

Where does this come from?

Grade key: 1 = peer-reviewed publication or official document, 4 = traditional or ethnographic source. A grade names the type of source, and the design and limits are given in the text. “Read in full” means Metanoia read every sentence on the date given, and any part not read is named.

Review due by 5 February 2027.

Neitzke-Spruill L, Beit CS, Robinson JO, Singh N, Kambala S, Ramesh R, McGuire AL. A landscape analysis of psychedelic retreat organizations advertising online. PLoS One 2025, 20(5):e0321648. DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0321648 PMID 40315211. Grade 1. Descriptive study of public online information, funded by the Ortus Foundation, with the authors' disclosures in the paper. Read in full 7 November 2026 (figures as images and the search-term supplement not seen), and the price, funding and disclosure passages read again on the same date.
McGuire AL, Neitzke-Spruill L, Robinson JO, Beit CS, Singh N, Mathai DS, Averill LA. Reported safety practices of publicly advertised psychedelic retreats. JAMA Netw Open 2026, 9(1):e2552505. DOI 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.52505 PMID 41499117. Grade 1. Qualitative interviews with 49 organizations, convenience sample, self-reported. Read in full 7 November 2026 (supplements not read). The integration, staffing, facilitator and disclosure passages were read again on the same date.
Marcus O. ‘Everybody’s creating it along the way’: ethical tensions among globalized ayahuasca shamanisms and therapeutic integration practices. Interdiscip Sci Rev 2023, 48(4):712-731. DOI 10.1080/03080188.2022.2075201 PMID 38164518. Grade 4. Ethnography, Peru, 2015 to 2019. Read in full 7 November 2026 in the author manuscript (reference list not read). The quoted passages were read again on the same date.