A new longitudinal study of attendees at ayahuasca retreats has found that higher levels of resilience at the outset are associated with somewhat more intense challenging experiences during ceremonies, and with a stronger link between these difficult experiences and a subsequent search for meaning in life one month later. The research was conducted at two Soltara Healing Center retreat locations, in Costa Rica and Peru.
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew traditionally used by Indigenous communities in the Amazon for religious, spiritual and therapeutic purposes. Its immediate effects can include mystical experiences and psychological insights, but also adverse physical symptoms such as nausea and vomiting and emotional reactions such as fear, paranoia, or distressing hallucinations. These adverse experiences are referred to as challenges or challenging experiences.
People vary considerably in how they interpret these challenges. Some describe them as harmful “bad trips,” while others view them as meaningful parts of healing or spiritual transformation. Individual factors such as age, prior psychedelic experience, motivation, mindset and psychological state can influence both the immediate experience and its longer-term effects, and the social and environmental settings of use can also shape its impact.
In this context, resilience—the capacity to adapt positively and recover when confronted with stress—might be particularly important. More resilient individuals could be better able to engage constructively with difficult emotions and experiences during ayahuasca use, potentially shaping whether challenging psychedelic effects contribute to positive psychospiritual outcomes.
Study author Yitong Xin and colleagues examined whether the acute effects of ayahuasca, particularly its challenging effects, depend on a person’s resilience. They looked at resilience measured at the start of an ayahuasca retreat and its relation to acute challenging experiences reported at the retreat’s end, as well as whether resilience moderated the link between these experiences and psychospiritual outcomes reported one month later.
Data were collected between August 2022 and August 2023 at Soltara Healing Center retreat locations in Costa Rica and Peru. A representative of the Soltara Healing Center assisted with participant recruitment. Of 291 retreat guests who met the study criteria, 267 enrolled and completed a survey at the retreat’s start. Of these, 247 completed the survey at the retreat’s end, and 233 completed it one month after the retreat. Participants averaged 41 years in age, and 56% were women. Most identified as White (83%), lived in North America (87%), and had a college education (95%).
Participants reported their demographics and completed assessments of resilience (the Resilience Scale for Adults), challenging ayahuasca experiences (the Challenging Experience Questionnaire, the Ayahuasca Experience Inventory-Discomfort Subscale, and the Ayahuasca Purging Experience), meaning in life (the Meaning in Life Questionnaire) and personality (the Big Five Inventory-10). They also reported prior psychedelic use and completed a questionnaire assessing the effects of the setting on their ayahuasca experience.
Results showed that 79% of participants had past experience with psychedelics, while 22% had used ayahuasca before. More than half reported at least moderately intense challenging experiences such as crying, body shaking or trembling, emotional or physical suffering, grief and heart palpitations. Fewer than 5% reported feeling that other people were plotting against them. Nearly three-quarters reported at least moderate exhaustion after taking ayahuasca.
Individuals with higher neuroticism tended to report somewhat stronger acute challenging experiences, and more resilient individuals also tended to report somewhat more intense acute challenging experiences.
Moreover, resilience measured at the retreat’s outset moderated the link between challenging ayahuasca experiences and searching for meaning in life. Specifically, the more resilient a person was, the stronger the association between having an intense challenging experience and searching for meaning one month after the retreat. The same pattern held for uncomfortable ayahuasca-related experiences. However, resilience did not moderate the links between these experiences and the presence of meaning in life—the sense that one’s life already feels meaningful.
“Findings from this study contribute to our understanding of ayahuasca effects and resilience, highlighting ayahuasca’s therapeutic potential from a resilience standpoint. Evidence from this study could be used by mental health providers in support of preparation or integration therapy practices for individuals who seek out help following their ayahuasca retreat experience or those who are interested in attending retreats,” the study authors concluded.
The study adds to scientific knowledge of ayahuasca experiences, though its design does not allow definitive causal inferences. It also notes that participants were predominantly White, college-educated, North American and relatively affluent, and all attended retreats run by a single provider, limiting generalisability to other populations or settings.
The paper, “Baseline Resilience as a Predictor of Ayahuasca Acute Effects and Moderator of the Relationship between Acute Effects and Psychospiritual Outcomes,” was authored by Yitong Xin, Alan K. Davis, Susan Yoon, and Mo Yee Lee.
