5-MeO-DMT RETREATS
RELEASE THE PARKING BRAKE ON YOUR LIFE
How will I feel different after my retreat?
That’s the big question, isn’t it? Who cares about having an ecstatic mystical experience if afterwards you feel just the same as before? I make it a point never to promise any particular outcomes because I can never predict exactly how 5-MeO-DMT will impact you, but what I can do is share common themes that I hear from clients in the weeks, months, and years afterwards:
“I feel lighter.”
“I feel more connected to my body and to my loved ones.”
“I have less tension in my body.”
“I feel more equanimity in stressful situations.”
“I feel less afraid of death.”
“I’m sleeping better than before.”
“I feel more at peace with uncertainty and letting go of control.”
“My trauma from the past doesn’t hold me back anymore.”
“I feel a new sense of spiritual connection to the universe.”
“I feel like I reincarnated back into myself, and now I feel like a new person.”
If you want to read longer, more detailed reports from my clients, I’d encourage you to check out my Testimonials page. In general, the best way I can describe 5-MeO-DMT is that it offers a deep-tissue massage of your nervous system to release traumas, offering a more relaxed, expansive, and connected experience of life. I call this releasing the parking brake on your life.
Why should I work with you?
Unlike many psychedelic guides, I’m a Harvard-educated, fully licensed psychotherapist (LCSW) with a strongly trauma-informed approach. I studied with the original creators of the stepwise 5-MeO-DMT vaping approach (more about this below), and I work in close collaboration with my medical consultant Dr. Ben Malcolm, who is widely renowned as one of the world’s foremost experts on psychedelic safety. 5-MeO-DMT is an extremely powerful molecule, and if it’s not dosed carefully, it can shock and overwhelm your nervous system, so it’s important to work with a professional who knows the territory well.
Many popular 5-MeO-DMT group retreats offer only 1–3 limited sessions of working with the medicine. Your total amount of medicine time can be as little as 2 hours, or in some cases even 1 hour. (I know because I used to work for a major bufo retreat company). And if there is dosing titration at all, there are rarely more than three dosing tiers, so the dosing curve is quite steep, which means a greater risk of psychological shock. Plus, they often heat the medicine with a torch for smoking it. These high temperatures burn the medicine, producing tar, carbon monoxide, and other byproducts that irritate the lungs and can create inflammatory stress on the body. Some retreat companies use bufo (toad venom), which is not only ecologically harmful for the toads but also makes for very imprecise dosing; not to mention it contains cardiac glycosides that increase stress on the heart!
I use ultra-pure, synthetic 5-MeO-DMT (bioidentical to what’s found in the toads, with none of the glycosides) and low-voltage vape pens to keep the temperature at a safe, lung-friendly level. This approach minimizes inflammation, is gentle on the heart, and creates a more comfortable overall experience. Finally, in my full-day retreats, you can have as much as 5 hours of medicine time, which I find to be optimal for a slow, trauma-focused approach. We dose at your own pace in multiple tiers with small increments. I’ve summarized these differences below:
Popular Group Retreats
Some use bufo: ecological harmful for toads, imprecise dosing, cardiac stress
High-temperature smoking: harsher on the lungs and body overall
Steep dosing curve: less trauma informed
Often only smoking available
2 hours or less of individualized medicine time
Often $4500 to $7500 price tag
My Full Day Individual Retreats
Toad-friendly and heart-friendly 99.99% pure synthetic 5-MeO-DMT
Low-temperature, lung-friendly vaporization
Finely titrated, trauma-informed dosing approach
Multiple routes of administration available (more about this below)
5 hours of individualized medicine time available
Packages starting at $2400
MEET THE MOLECULE
Because it’s commonly known by its chemical name, 5-MeO-DMT may sound like some new designer drug, but in fact it’s a naturally occurring molecule in the same family of tryptamine psychedelics as ayahuasca and psilocybin mushrooms, and has been used in the form of snuffs by Indigenous South American peoples for thousands of years. By way of comparison, ayahuasca’s main active ingredient is N,N-DMT (usually called “DMT”), and psilocybin’s chemical name is 4-PO-DMT. 5-MeO-DMT has been found in many different plants, a couple of mushroom species, the secretions of the Sonoran desert toad, and even within the human body.
THE EXPERIENCE
The experience of 5-MeO-DMT, as with any psychedelic medicine, varies greatly from person to person, and also depends upon the dose and route of administration. I offer the medicine in stepwise vaporized and self-administered rectal formats, which I’ll explain in detail below.
Stepwise Vaping
Because some practitioners and psychonauts focus on high-dose, ego-death experiences, 5-MeO-DMT has accrued a reputation as the psychedelic nuclear option, but that reputation pigeon-holes a medicine that can be very subtle and versatile when vaporized at lower doses.
In the way that I work, I offer a trauma-informed, finely titrated approach commonly known as stepwise where we begin with a very mild 10% concentration of the medicine and work our way up at your own pace in 10% increments. In general, the vaping experience is very brief as far as psychedelics go, lasting anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes depending on the dose, and the peak phase of the experience can be as short as 1 to 15 minutes.
For most people, the 10% and possibly 20% doses offer a relatively gentle experience optimal for easing into psychedelic territory. You may experience a sense of unity, openness, euphoria, and the expanding of time & space. These low doses are ideal for first-time psychedelic users who want a small, brief taste of a psychedelic experience without committing to the multiple hours of a mushroom or ayahuasca journey.
After the dose wears off, we have a brief check-in conversation, and you have the opportunity to decide whether you want to repeat the same dose, go deeper, or possibly take a pause to ground yourself with a walk outside, a bathroom break, or some stretching. This ability to take breaks and choose where you want to go next is very empowering, especially for those who have experienced trauma and have fear associated with psychedelic work. 5-MeO-DMT is the ideal medicine for working on letting go of control, because during the peak of the experience you surrender, but ironically, between doses you retain a high degree of control over navigating next steps. For many clients, this is the most appealing aspect of the medicine.
Moderate doses at 20% and 30% are optimal for addressing psychological issues such as depression, anxiety, and trauma at a pre-verbal, somatic level. As the medicine starts to work, you may start to notice the places in your body that are contracted with pain and fear, and feel them starting to release and open up. In this way, these doses can feel like a much-needed deep tissue massage for your nervous system: relaxing, cathartic, and possibly painful in a hurts-so-good kind of way.
Some clients get your needs met with low to moderate doses, but many will proceed to higher doses starting at around 40%. The deep tissue massage of your mind and body proceeds, but at a deeper level, potentially stirring up more emotional and somatic material to process. The genre of your experience may also begin to shift from somatic to more cosmic, ethereal, and existential territory.
At a certain point the high doses can feel very challenging, like you are circling a black hole sucking you into oblivion. On your first 5-MeO-DMT retreat, you may decide to stop at this point so you can spend some weeks or months integrating what the medicine has shown you. If you feel ready to go deeper, either during that first retreat or a subsequent retreat, you can try dosing a little higher (perhaps 50%) which is often sufficient for the black hole to envelope you completely. At first, it may feel as if you are dying and will be lost to the void forever; however, as you completely relax and let go, the medicine can sweep you into an ecstatic unity experience that some people describe as a kind of spiritual orgasm: the full release, an ecstatic and mystical dissolution of ego boundaries into what feels like a transcendent field of infinite cosmic energy.
I try not to overemphasize the full release because it’s possible to get so bedazzled by it that you’ll want to return to 5-MeO-DMT again and again for the cosmic bliss out. That’s no problem if the intention is recreational use, but as a far as spiritual growth is concerned, this pattern can lead to spiritual bypassing and interfere with integration. That said, I do think the experience is valuable to have at least a few times to practice letting go completely of who or what you think you are. Crossing this threshold seems to produce a noticeable global decrease in the fear of death and uncertainty for many people.
Benefits of Stepwise Vaping
Gentle, titrated, trauma-informed approach
Brief duration, usually less than 30 minutes per dose
Somatic trauma release, especially of pre-verbal energetic material
Potential for transformative ego death and rebirth
Self-Administered Rectal
For your dignity and privacy, I like to note up front that this route of administration is self-administered. You deliver the dose yourself in private. The procedure is as follows: I will provide you with a plastic syringe containing a 5-MeO-DMT solution, lube, gloves, and wipes, and then leave the room. Using a gloved hand, you will lube the syringe and insert it about an inch into your rectum and depress the plunger, clean up with wipes as needed, get redressed, and then call me back into the room.
This procedure may seem undesirably complicated or uncomfortable as compared to the straightforward simplicity of vaping, but there are many compelling reasons to consider rectal. The experience feels radically different, has a gentler come up (about 5 minutes), lasts longer (30-60 minutes), can be more deeply healing at a somatic level, and is excellent for here-and-now integration. Whereas vaping often has a kind of flashy, vaporous, ethereal quality to it, in that you may feel like you are suddenly turning into a white fractal cloud in a different dimension, rectal feels very deeply embodied. At the appropriate dose, you can feel like a warm, healing energy is slowly permeating through every fiber of your body, helping you to feel safe and at home in your own skin right where you are. For many of us, our most primal fear can live in the internal anal sphincter muscle, which may be chronically clenched, leading to pelvic floor problems that may impact urological, gastrointestinal, and sexual functioning. Rectal 5-MeO-DMT treats these issues right at the source.
Benefits of Rectal Dosing
Trauma-informed titration also available
Longer duration (30-60 minutes), if you’re seeking more time to marinade in the medicine
Specific targeting of pelvic floor (root chakra) and gastrointestinal symptoms that might be linked with fear and trauma
More access to your memory and psychological material (as compared with vaping) for more verbally expressible aha moments and practical takeaways
Psilocybin Mushrooms (4-PO-DMT) vs. 5-MeO-DMT
Many people seeking out their first psychedelic experience assume psilocybin mushrooms will be best, and that anything with “DMT” in the name is more advanced. But as I’ve explained above, psilocybin is actually another form of DMT, and most of the time, I actually recommend 5-MeO-DMT over psilocybin (4-PO-DMT) for first timers. Here’s why:
5-MeO-DMT causes minimal nausea for most people whereas psilocybin mushrooms can be extremely nauseating.
5-MeO-DMT is more trauma informed because it’s easier to titrate the dose and length of the experience, so there’s less risk of overwhelming the nervous system.
5-MeO-DMT is usually very fast-acting (5 to 30 minutes), so you can retain your sense of agency between administrations and consciously choose your dose and approximately how deep you want to go. Psilocybin is usually a long experience lasting 4-6 hours, and once you get on the roller coaster, you can’t get off until its over.
Because it’s so fast, 5-MeO-DMT tends to more precisely target what you’re wanting to work on at a level suitable for your nervous system, whereas psilocybin journeys can sometimes meander through overwhelming, strange, and unfruitful territory.
5-MeO-DMT is endogenous since it has been found in human blood and cerebrospinal fluid whereas psilocybin is exogenous. This means when you take 5-MeO-DMT, you’re taking a bio-identical molecule, and this is often reflected in the experience because it feels like the medicine is opening up a channel that is already within you. The exogenous quality of psilocybin can be complex because for some people it can feel like receiving teachings from a wise plant spirit, but for others it’s like being at the mercy of an invasive entity.
At higher doses, 5-MeO-DMT is much more powerful than psilocybin and significantly more likely to induce complete ego death (full release) experiences, if that’s something you’re seeking.
PRICING
The initial 50-minute consultation is $100. After that, each 50-minute integration session is $200. There’s a 50% extra charge for couples. Full-day individual meditation retreats (most popular) are $2000 each. I require a minimum of 4–6 integration sessions, so that adds on $800–$1200 to the total price. I am an out-of-network provider for all insurance plans in the state of Oregon.
The pricing for different retreat formats is summarized below.
Full-Day Individual Retreat (most popular): $2000
Half-Day Individual Retreat: $1000
Full-Day Couples Retreat: $3000
4–6 Required Integration Sessions: $800–$1200 (50% extra for couples)
Family, Group, & Multi-Day Retreat Options Available Upon Request
Including my travel and administrative fees, the total cost for my services for a full-day retreat usually runs $3200–$3600.
I offer a 25% discount on all services for BIPOC, LGBTQ, and low-income clients, as well as clients with disabilities. This brings the total down to $2400–$2700. To help repay the enormous debt owed to Indigenous peoples for centuries of brilliant innovation in plant medicine healing, I make an annual donation of 1% of my adjusted gross income to the Indigenous Reciprocity Initiative of the Americas.
READY TO CONNECT?
Click the button below to request your 50-min Consultation so we can start exploring the possibilities of your 5-MeO-DMT retreat.