For many people, ayahuasca first appears as an unfamiliar word attached to mystery, fear, or curiosity. Some hear about it through podcasts, others through social media, and many initially place it in the same category as recreational psychedelics without understanding how different the actual experience can be. For Sam Believ, founder of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat in Colombia, that misunderstanding is something he has spent years helping people move beyond. His own path into plant medicine did not begin from spirituality, but from a much more human place: exhaustion, emotional heaviness, and the feeling of having lost direction.
From Offshore Work to Inner Crisis
Before Colombia, before retreats, and before ayahuasca became central to his life, Sam worked in offshore oil and gas after years spent on ships.
From the outside, it was a conventional adult path — stable work, structure, income.
Internally, however, it never felt aligned.
After roughly a decade in that world, he stepped away and began traveling. Colombia became one of those destinations that unexpectedly turned into something much bigger. What began as travel eventually became home, especially after meeting his future wife and moving into the countryside during the pandemic.
It was there that the deeper transformation began.
Curiosity First, Healing Later
Sam often explains that ayahuasca entered his life through a combination of curiosity and desperation.
At first, curiosity dominated. It felt like something unusual worth exploring.
Only later did he realize he had actually been searching for help.
Depression had become part of daily life. There was no clear direction, no deep sense of purpose, and mentally he knew something was not functioning well.
Ayahuasca did not instantly solve life, but it created the first real interruption in that downward emotional pattern.
For the first time, he experienced relief that felt deeper than temporary distraction.
Why Ayahuasca Is Different from Temporary Escape
One of the strongest distinctions Sam makes is between ayahuasca and ordinary forms of numbing.
Alcohol can temporarily remove pain. So can cannabis, compulsive habits, even certain medications.
But temporary relief often leaves the original cause untouched.
The next day, the same emotional structure remains.
Ayahuasca works differently because while it may reduce emotional heaviness during the process, it also tends to reveal something beneath it.
Not just comfort — information.
That information may arrive as imagery, memories, body sensations, realizations, or unexpected emotional clarity.
The difference is that the person leaves not only feeling lighter, but often understanding more clearly why the pain existed in the first place.
A Medicine That Reveals Instead of Covers
This is why Sam consistently refers to ayahuasca as medicine rather than simply a psychedelic substance.
For thousands of years, indigenous communities used it in healing contexts long before modern governments labeled it a drug.
He acknowledges that language around psychedelics remains politically loaded, but from direct experience, the difference becomes obvious.
The ceremony is not built around escape.
It is built around confrontation, insight, and internal work.
And unlike casual substances, the process itself is often physically demanding rather than pleasurable.
Why Purging Matters So Much
For many first-time participants, the biggest fear is physical purging.
People worry about vomiting, discomfort, or losing control.
Yet once inside ceremony, many discover that purging becomes one of the most meaningful moments of relief.
In traditional understanding, purging is not simply a side effect — it is part of the healing.
People often describe emotional release arriving simultaneously with physical release.
A difficult memory may rise, followed by vomiting, followed by immediate lightness.
The body seems to participate directly in the emotional process.
This is why experienced participants often stop fearing purging and begin understanding it as progress.
Why Every Retreat Needs Structure
A major point Sam emphasizes is that ayahuasca should never be approached casually.
The medicine itself can be safe, but only when preparation, facilitation, and setting are taken seriously.
At LaWayra, retreats are designed as full one-week containers rather than isolated ceremonies.
Participants arrive in Medellín, are transported to the retreat center, and spend the first day settling in, building trust, and learning what to expect.
The early hours are intentionally slow because trust itself affects the experience.
Without psychological safety, deeper surrender becomes harder.
How the Week Unfolds
The retreat then moves through multiple ceremony nights.
Each ceremony begins with breathing work and meditation before the medicine is served.
Three rounds of ayahuasca may be available during the night, though not everyone needs the same amount.
Ceremonies often continue until after midnight, followed by sleep and then sharing circles the next morning.
Three night ceremonies are followed by a rest day, bodywork, reflection, and then a final daytime ceremony.
That final day ceremony is intentionally different.
Instead of darkness and inward focus, participants experience medicine in daylight, surrounded by landscape and nature.
It often becomes one of the most emotionally open parts of the retreat.
Why Sharing Circles Are Essential
The sharing circles — often called word circles — are one of the most important parts of the week.
This is where private experiences become understandable.
A person describes what they saw, felt, feared, or realized.
Others recognize pieces of themselves in those stories.
Often two or three people in a group are carrying nearly identical emotional patterns without knowing it until they speak.
This mirroring creates a second layer of healing beyond the medicine itself.
Participants often leave saying they learned as much from listening as from their own ceremony.
Music as a Guide Through Difficult States
Another defining element is music.
For many participants, the live music during ceremony becomes inseparable from the experience itself.
The shaman is not simply performing songs.
He is guiding the emotional direction of the room.
During difficult moments — ego loss, fear, confusion, emotional intensity — the music becomes orientation.
Even when someone forgets who they are for a period, the music often remains the thread that reminds them they are held inside something structured and safe.
For many people, hearing that music later can reactivate ceremony memories months afterward.
Why Clarity Often Appears After Healing Begins
Ayahuasca is not only sought for healing pain.
Many people arrive because they feel lost rather than deeply wounded.
No direction. No real goal. No strong internal signal.
Sam openly connects this to his own life.
After his first ceremonies, he noticed something subtle but powerful: for the first time, he began believing that larger goals might actually be possible.
What followed over the next years — family, retreat building, land, growth — all began with that shift in self-belief.
Not because ayahuasca gave a perfect plan, but because it removed enough internal heaviness for action to begin.
Choosing the Right Retreat Matters
Perhaps the strongest practical advice he gives is simple:
never choose casually.
The quality of facilitation matters enormously.
The right retreat must have real indigenous connection, experienced ceremony leadership, strong preparation guidance, integration support, and a trustworthy environment.
Because when done correctly, ayahuasca can be one of the most meaningful experiences a person ever has.
When done poorly, the same medicine can become chaotic or unsafe.
A Tool, Not a Shortcut
What emerges most clearly through Sam’s perspective is that ayahuasca is not magic in the simplistic sense.
It is not an instant answer.
It is a catalyst.
It can interrupt pain, reveal patterns, restore perspective, and make change feel possible.
But the life built afterward still depends on what the person chooses to do next.
And that, perhaps, is why so many people return — not because one ceremony solves everything, but because one ceremony often shows that something deeper is possible.
Listen to the whole podcast episode here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXu82BuObsU
Sam Believ is the founder and CEO of LaWayra Ayahuasca Retreat, the best-rated Ayahuasca retreat in South America, with over 520 five-star Google reviews and an overall rating of 5 stars. After his life was transformed by Ayahuasca, he dedicated himself to spreading awareness about this ancestral medicine to help address the mental health crisis. Sam is committed to making Ayahuasca retreats affordable, accessible, and authentic, with a focus on care, integration, and the involvement of indigenous shamans. He is also the host of the Ayahuasca Podcast.