Going on an ayahuasca retreat in Europe...will I be able to get travel insurance for the actual retreat?

[Sundiamondtree]

I'm about to book to go on a weekend ayahuasca retreat in Europe, run by a very reputable centre who has places in Netherlands and in Spain. In the Netherlands, these retreats/ceremonies recently lost their legal status, but they are tolerated. And the retreats are open, and upfront online about country location.

I would like to get travel insurance, in the event I am forced to cancel for illness etc - but will I be able to get it for the retreat cost? And if so, where and how to go about it?

This OP.
You can call/email insurers who insure risky activities like scuba diving etc. Maybe high-risk travel insurance?

https://againstthecompass.com/en/high-risk-travel-insurance/

Nah, just bored with people thinking that adding a bit of exoticism and a whole shedload of cultural appropriation to getting off their nut makes it slightly less stupid than paying a bloke who sends his little brother's school mate to deliver baggies in the next estate along.

I'm sorry things that don't involve you get to you so much that you feel the need to have an opinion, but please stop posting. You're really tedious and you're adding nothing.

No info here on my part, just envy. Have a belter OP, I'd love to do this!

What cultural appropriation?! Was it cultural appropriation to share antibiotics with the rest of the world? Ayahuasca is a medicine and ritual being shared by indigenous people for a reason. They see the problems in the rest of the world and awful state in is in because of greed and selfishness causing man made climate change and they decided to do something about it. A big risk given the history of violent colonialism against them. It was that or face perishing with the rest of humanity. But it’s not “cultural appropriation” at all and stating that demonstrates your ignorance of this.

Have you ever taken Ayahuasca? If not how can you say it’s like getting high when you have zero experience or authority to make these statements. Your fear of something so far outside your own experience is really leaping off the page!

Can you please come back and tell us all about it? :)

Don't be so ridiculous.

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/this-is-actually-happening/id497227384?i=1000627534655

Interesting experience

I hope you get what you seek from your experience and are not harmed by it. I am sure you have done your own research on how some people end up with PTSD or with health issues not to mention the risk of sexual assault.

just a small byline from a fellow seeker on insights into spirituality for the last 20+ years - there are no short cuts, no easy fix. no ceremonies, no substance will replace the long hard slog of selflessness, sacrifice and search for one's inner truth. and anyone who is a true guide on this path will never ever ever take money in return for guidance.

The people I know who've done it didn't get "off their nut", they spend a weekend vomiting their guts out, some shitting themselves too (literally). They almost all thought it was worth it.

To each his own.

Personally, being that ill, aka vulnerable, with strangers, some of whom are in positions of power would be immensely triggering for me so wouldn't possibly heal anything. It'd probably incite a crisis before I even got there! 😂

I hope it's more enjoyable for you OP than it was for my friends!

@therealcookiemonster it cured my CPTSD when years of therapy failed. It’s vital to go with good, reputable people (true in many cases).

I agree there are no shortcuts. But Ayahuasca is not a shortcut. It’s not just the profound experience of the ceremony itself but the healing which continues for months and years after. I wish everyone posting here could experience it. It really is life changing. I have no problem paying a shaman for healing in the same way I would pay a doctor - it’s a very skilful role and it should be rewarded. I value their service and therefore why wouldn’t I pay?

@PostOpOp the last time I took Ayahuasca I was breastfeeding and it was a very gentle positive experience. Nothing like you have described.

Middleclass cultural appropriation and cosplay being challenged (initially purely due to the actual practicalities of it not being a good insurable risk) does seem to bring out the defensiveness in people, doesn't it?

Are you going to do the facepaint thing as well? Beads and feathers in your hair? Bit of drumming and pretending to find a spirit guide?

It's ridiculous. And culturally offensive.

Typical effects include visual hallucinations, euphoria, paranoia, and vomiting.

I had no idea what is was so I looked it up, this was the first result. Sounds exactly like what DH tells me about his experience with LSD many moons ago. But he enjoyed it too for a while so who knows 🤷🏼‍♀️

Less ridiculous than the fact that you are seemingly so unaware of documented potential complications and consequences, while pissing around about insurance.

the last time I took Ayahuasca I was breastfeeding and it was a very gentle positive experience.

Sweet merciful Jesus. That poor baby.

Given the issues I had trying to get a loved one back home to the UK from Europe following a huge heart attack (no prior medical history) , with a highly recommended and reputable insurance company, I would be doubtful of how supportive any insurance company would be.

be careful op and anyone else- don’t expect the insurance to pick up the tab.

@Sundiamondtree So let me guess,

You: Hi I would like to take out holiday insurance as I'm going on a weekend retreat to take mind altering unregulated drugs that a recent survey looking at ayahuasca dangers found 70% experience physical and 55% mental health adverse effects.

Insurance company : Hahahaha, err yep sure we will no problem we will pay for all your medical treatment. after all were in it to loose money.

Seriously....😂

Came on here after reading that other thread about the poor baby who died with cocaine found in his system and half the posters are advocating sterilising the mum, only to discover the concept of ayahuasca breastfeeding

You won’t be insured if something happens due to the ritual I don’t think OP but you’d be covered for other stuff

You'll be regretting it when you're purging and puking. You'll wish you booked for a week in Benidorm instead!

There's no guarantee everyone will find it a pleasant experience

Gross isn't it

Like if people going on these retreats deserve more respect than Daily Mail readers. LOL

I knew the breastfeeding whilst taking Ayahuasca would get the judgmental Daily Mail frothers raging. The same people who would happily have a few glasses of wine whilst breastfeeding, knowing that alcohol is a toxin. Ayahuasca is increasingly recognised as and being investigated as a treatment for post partum depression. That is not the case for cocaine. But let’s not let that get in the way of judging and criticising another woman.

Indigenous mothers have been taking Ayahuasca in pregnancy and whilst breastfeeding for centuries with zero negative effects. It’s a well established cultural practice but apparently it’s only gross and akin to child abuse if whitewestern women do it.

I wouldn't have a glass of wine and breastfeed either

Tell me you have never been to an Ayahuasca retreat without telling me……!

Ayahuasca is ritually used by tribes in the Amazon, so South America. Spirit guides are a belief of Native American people, so North America, you are confusing groups and continents. Not to mention being as offensive as possible. I wonder who these tribes consider more culturally offensive - the person who shows up to an Ayahuasca ceremony with great reverence and respect for their scared plant medicine, or the person who ridicules it and attacks it with no knowledge or experience of it whatsoever.