As we grow and develop as a premiere destination for wellness-oriented psychedelic experiences in the western world, we are perpetually delighted to come across news and features coverage about the psilocybin retreat industry in various media publications. “Magic mushrooms,” once just the pursuit of long-haired alternative lifestylers (i.e. “hippies”) in the 1960s and early 70s, is all the rage these days for more well-heeled world travelers and bon vivants who are seeking authentic spiritual and deeper psychological experiences within themselves. Psilocybin therapy is also being discovered to offer tremendous advantages for the human brain that is dealing with depression and myriad other mental conditions, and scientists and clinicians are watching these developments closely. Since for many decades this research was considered illegal, the discoveries are proving to be promising and remarkable.

We found this article recently from Amuse, billed as the “premium travel and experiences platform” from Vice magazine. Although the coverage is a bit on the playful side – “Trip of a Lifetime” – how journalists love their puns! – and also really colorful – “a closer look at the hallucinogenic healing craze taking the travel world by storm” – we found the core of the reporting to be respectful and also appreciative of the Big Picture vision that Evolution Retreats and other psilocybin retreat centers are working to bring – like Prometheus brought fire to cold and darkened humans – to wellness and awareness-hungry self-actualizers.

As the article conveys it:

“These 21st century retreats signal a cross between a luxurious spa and a professional therapy centre, where psychedelic mushrooms serve as tuning fork for a higher state of being. Places where a mind-altering ‘trip’ happens on a wellness holiday rather than at a sketchy warehouse party. . . Most people assume that science and spirituality don’t play well together. Yet research has started to catch up with what Shaman healers have been advocating for years. Much of it represents a revival of research done in the 1960s, when psilocybin was viewed as a mental health breakthrough. Before 1965, there were 1,000 published studies and six international conferences dedicated to the drugs. . . Issues around legality and morality then killed off studies, but now, institutions like Johns Hopkins and Imperial College London are picking up where previous research left off, finding psilocybin to be effective at treating cancer-related depression, treatment-resistant depression, and smoking cessation.

Scientists aren’t exactly sure how psilocybin works, but one analogy offered is that of an unbaked vase. ‘Psilocybin brings your mind into an acute plastic state, like a ceramic before it goes in the kiln – in that state, your brain is malleable,’ reveals Matthew W. Johnson, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science from Johns Hopkins University. ‘As such, you can be prompted to reflect and change in a much more direct manner than you would normally be impelled to.’”

We like how Dr. Johnson thinks, and our experiences as well as the experiences of our guests who embark on our psilocybin ceremonies support his findings. We’re so glad that the world is catching up to what the ancients knew all along! Come and join us, won’t you? Begin by completing our application form to get the process started.

If you have further questions before you apply, you can contact us here to have a conversation.

To read the full Amuse article and reporting on magic mushroom retreats, please follow this link!

Day One of Your Psychedelic Retreat Week at Evolution Retreats – Welcome & Relax

At Evolution Retreats in beautiful and sunny Jamaica, your life plus our expertise plus the remarkable, transformative power of our psilocybin mushroom therapy equals your evolution – a new awareness and understanding of the world and yourself that can be truly evolutionary.

Each day of the week with us during your psychedelic retreat is something truly special and memorable. The natural surroundings, the balmy tropical climate, the outstanding environs and hospitality of Tensing Pen will set your mind at ease and relax your body so that you’re able to experience and participate fully in our psilocybin ceremonies which form the heart and core of our spiritual retreats.

Here’s what you can expect on Day One of your psychedelic retreat with us.

Evolution Retreats often welcomes guests from all around the globe. Considering the different flights and ground transfer logistics, our visitors arrive throughout the day so the on-site activities initiate officially at 7PM – giving all our guests time to arrive and unwind.

On this day, after your international flights, weary travelers are welcomed to rest and refresh themselves in the loving embrace of Tensing Pen Resort. The first day of the retreat offers visitors two separate preparation sessions to get ready for the week ahead.

If you arrive in the morning, we encourage you to unwind and settle into your new environment. Tensing Pen is one of the top-rated eco-resorts in the Caribbean region, and you are most welcome to explore the amenities, take a swim in the pool or ocean, and enjoy the delicious cuisine. We also recommend revisiting your workbook, as your psilocybin journeys are going to start the next day!

5.30PM-7PM Dinner Time

7PM-8PM Common Preparation Session

8PM-9PM Unit Preparation Session

We came across this interesting article recently in Salon online – a good deal of the reporting is conjecture, and the writer seems to be taking some pretty big liberties with some of the origins of beloved Christmas traditions such as wrapped presents and even pine trees, but the ideas of Santa Claus as a shaman and reindeers as magic mushroom consumers “flying high” during the holidays are interesting takes on these traditional holidays tropes we’ve all grown up with our entire lives.

Quoting from the article:

It almost sounds sacrilegious to mix psychedelics and winter festivities, but there’s actually a fair amount of historical evidence that suggests modern Christmas was borne out of trippy traditions. From flying reindeer to presents and ornaments to the bearded man with the North Pole address, a ton of iconography overlaps with indigenous psychedelic shamanism in Siberia and northern Europe …. Some historians argue that Santa Claus is actually a “magic” mushroom shaman, as indicated by his red and white outfit. It resembles the psychedelic fly agaric mushroom, a fungus as bright red as Rudolph’s schnoz sprinkled with white flecks like snow. Drawing on this and other evidence, quite a few scholars subscribe to theories that numerous Christmas traditions spawned from pagan psychedelic rituals, even if it’s not a mainstream belief.

Since psilocybin ceremonies are a primary aspect of our psychedelic retreats we hold monthly in beautiful (non-snowy) Jamaica here at Tensing Pen, we thought we’d share this Salon article with you as our way of “making merry” this holiday season, where ever you happen to be located currently as this present year starts to come to its end.

Please read the entire article here. Want more information on our transformational, Jamaican psychedelic retreats as powered by psilocybin? Please check-out our informative FAQs page, then visit our application page to initiate an expansive vacation and the experience of your lifetime!

Happy Holidays from Evolution Retreats!

In the May 2021 issue of the Journal of Biological Psychiatry, a study revealed that a single dose of magic mushrooms has rapid and persistent anti-suicidal properties in patients with cancer.

What is it about magic mushrooms and its mystical experience that gives people with cancer hope and peace of mind and decreases the dread they feel?

How is it that after only a single dose, such profound effects can be observed?

Dr. Lauren McDonald, the co-founder of Essence Medicine, wrote about her experience of transcendence with hallucinogenic magic mushrooms:

“…I lose track of time. And then, there is nothing. Or something? No patterns. No physical body. No ‘me.’ Instead, there is only energy. People from my past are present but not in human form; instead, they exist as beautiful colored swirling energies. Somehow, they share the insight that dying is not final, simply the end of our physical form. I am finally at peace, surrounded by love. In the distance, I hear the quiet sound of mournful crying. I sense a presence by my side – a facilitator has come to comfort me – and I realize that I am crying. I am supported and safe as my tears start to flow. Years of pain released at last.”

Diagnosis – The Word You Never Want to Hear

You see, Dr. McDonald was diagnosed with life-threatening cancer in February 2014. She was feeling without hope, ever-searching for answers or a new type of intervention or clinical trial that might bring hope and healing. Though Dr. McDonald never considered using psychotherapy compounds or psychedelics such as LSD, ketamine, or ayahuasca, her trauma left her feeling alone and overwhelmed. As a doctor of psychiatry, she understood the role of medicine on the receptors within the brain, their effects on serotonin levels, and other areas of neuroscience. But all of her studies did not prepare her for the “overwhelming hopelessness and dissociation that could accompany a life-threatening illness.”

Inspired by the studies, and a must-watch TED talk by Professor Roland Griffiths (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine), in October 2019 she traveled to a retreat in The Netherlands in the hopes that a psilocybin experience might help her process the trauma of both her stage IV cancer and the harrowing car accident she had been involved in.

Healing and Hope

Because of the hope she found during her psilocybin experience; she is now an advocate for the therapeutic use of psychedelics. “Both my perception of psilocybin and my life as a whole has been forever changed by my experience at the retreat in The Netherlands.”

She continues: “Reflecting on my own psychedelic journey, I am aware how much I wish that every terminally ill patient could be offered a similar experience. I often think about my uncle who died from motor neurone disease and of how this medicine could potentially have alleviated some of his distress in his final months. I also think about the suffering of other cancer patients; those I’ve known, those who have died, and those that are still in my life.”

With her courage and intention to share this medicine, she did an excellent service to all cancer patients and dying people worldwide. In her powerful autobiographical article, she also emphasized the effectiveness of magic mushrooms:

“…Most psychologists believe that our mind creates barriers to prevent access to memories of traumatizing events and experiences in an effort to protect us from the pain. Yet these barriers can prevent us from processing our past traumas, leaving us with unexplainable and often untreatable depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Moreover, it can take years of talk therapy or advanced meditation to access and address these memories, a feat that psychedelics can often achieve in a matter of hours.”

These enlightening properties and the effects of psilocybin are the focal points of the Evolution Retreats program. We recognize the tremendous value of the psychedelic experience; hence we have constructed an ultimate care package around it, which is especially useful for people struggling with depression, anxiety, and other psychological, physical, and mental health ailments.

Growing Support for Therapeutic Psilocybin

We admire and respect the experience of Dr. McDonald and the validity of the work to which she has dedicated her life. Her effort of sharing and endorsing these life-altering experiences is not unique: a sizeable non-profit organization – EndWell – is dedicated to the belief that all people should experience the end of life in a way that matches their values and goals.

Unfortunately, although there is growing support for psilocybin as a therapeutic aid, many suffering from cancer and other ailments cannot access its benefits. In fact, Canadian citizens with cancer sued their government in a landmark case to get access to psilocybin administration. Regrettably, terminal patients in places like the UK are still unable to legally receive this treatment either, despite initial evidence strongly supporting the use of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for treating end-of-life anxiety and depression. We are, thankfully, witnessing the beginnings of a change in this mindset on a global scale.

However, the amount of effort required from an individual to get a legal psilocybin session is still overwhelming. Those in need of healing the most often can’t even bring themselves to jump through the numerous legal hoops to have a single dose of psilocybin, let alone a psychedelic session.

Evolution Retreats – A New Way towards Therapeutic Hope

With Evolution Retreats, it’s different. We are situated in the beautiful setting of Tensing Pen Resort in Negril, Jamaica. Here we have the perfect climate AS WELL AS benevolent legislation. Our expert team, including experienced medical and therapeutic professionals, combines with the natural beauty of Jamaica. This allows us to help a wide range of people – from youths on their search to finding themselves to people at the end of their life journey looking for the true meaning of life through the mystery of death.

If you are committed to improving yourself and your well-being, why not go all-in? Discover the wonder of psilocybin mushrooms, and your hidden self, all within the nurturing natural embrace of Jamaica – supported by Evolution Retreats.

If you would like more information on a psilocybin retreat experience, please contact us here to have a conversation.

Have you heard the saying about how you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? At Evolution Retreats, we believe that euphemism is obsolete!

A New Age, A New Era for Therapeutic Psilocybin

As we mature, our ability to learn and adjust to the ever-evolving nature of reality decreases. It’s common knowledge that natural human neuroplasticity slows to a crawl after around 25 years of age, with little differences depending on the individual’s lifestyle. It appears that we are evolutionarily hard-wired to know and completely comprehend our environment before we are 30.

The modern world is rapidly changing in a whirlwind of information. One hundred years ago, human beings were able to learn the information and skills required of them before they were 30 – and it would last them for a lifetime. Sons took up their fathers’ ways, and the world kept spinning. Now it seems like we are waking up to a different reality every few years. Professions rapidly change, some of them vanish. Scientific advancements take place at a breathtaking speed, social norms and traditions mutate, and the Internet acts as a global hive mind that is an embodiment of the constant flow and sum of the changes.

How can we keep up with such fast-paced change? Should we?

Is there a way to reignite neurological growth in adults?

Psychedelic Medicine – Trials on Psilocybin

Psilocybin is known for its neurogenerative qualities and profound effects on mental health and psychological support. There is no shortage of psilocybin research or data backing the practice of psychedelic therapy and the efficacy of its usage for many depressive symptoms. Outlined in the clinical trial presented here, this study indicates that a single dose of psilocybin leads to long-lasting increases in spine density and spine head width in the medial frontal cortex of the brain.

In simple terms, psilocybin is a psychedelic compound that allows the brain to rearrange its neural networks. What are those networks? It’s a human being – personality, experience, skills, memory, and so on. A single dose of psilocybin starts rapid and persistent growth of new connections in the brain, and it allows the brain to unlearn the traits no longer of use, as well as acquire new ones efficiently.

But it’s not only about the therapeutic effects of psilocybin. In the process of learning, dendritic spines formation and dendritic spines elimination are two equally important phenomena. This means that psilocybin only functions as a catalyst to the Evolution Retreats program, a compound that makes change possible. But the change starts long before drug administration, long before the actual effects of psilocybin.

Psilocybin Therapy Sessions – The Use of Psilocybin

In our program, we combine the natural neurotrophic qualities of psilocybin with therapeutic techniques, which allow our clients to realign with their in a benevolent manner. We offer “personality editing” in its most modern and powerful form. Is there a lingering memory that keeps you up at night? Do you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder? With psilocybin-assisted therapy, you get the chance to cut the emotional ties to those painful past associations. Struggling with motivation to learn new skills and information? You get the chance to dismantle your inner obstacles in the way of your goals. The potential for change is only limited by your own imagination.

Upgrade yourself – the Evolution Retreats program offers you the ability to fine-tune your mind and realign yourself with your current state of affairs on your own terms.

Pretty exciting, right? Let’s get started on the path to You 2.0. Please begin our process by completing our application form.

Do you have questions first? We will answer them! Please contact us here to have a conversation.

Evolution Retreats is not only working to be the destination in Jamaica for legal, guided psilocybin experiences and post-trip processing in a luxury resort setting – we’re also here to provide education, the latest research on mycotherapy (psilocybin mushrooms and more), and to be advocates for the powerful world of psychedelics and the possibilities for transformation therein.

We were delighted to recently come across reporting on the CNN website covering the largest study of its kind on the use and efficacy of psilocybin for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression – a malady that currently afflicts an estimated 100 million individuals globally. These people, from all walks of life, are not affected positively by anti-depressants and suffer with debilitating symptoms and even suicidal ideation. Researchers are hoping to find new treatment options to help this population, and psilocybin is looking promising as one such resource.

As the article explains:

“A single dose of a synthetic version of the mind-altering component of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, improved depression in people with a treatment-resistant form of the disease, a new study found.

The randomized, double-blind clinical trial, which authors called ‘the largest of its kind,’ compared results of a 25-milligram dose to a 10-milligram and 1-milligram dose of a synthetic psilocybin, COMP360, that was administered in the presence of trained therapists.

Results of the study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, found ‘an immediate, fast, rapid-acting, sustained response to 25 milligrams (of COMP360),’ said study coauthor Dr. Guy Goodwin, a professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

‘This drug can be extracted from magic mushrooms, but that is not the way our compound is generated. It’s synthesized in a purely chemical process to produce a crystalline form,’ said Goodwin, who is the chief medical officer of COMPASS Pathways, the company that manufactures COMP360 and conducted the study.

Experts in the field found the study findings promising.”

We find it promising as well!

We do wish to point out that Evolution Retreats doesn’t support the idea that psilocybin needs to be “synthesized” and sold in a pharmaceutical package. We don’t support corporate attempts to “reinvent” psilocybin. The molecule is perfect as-is, it doesn’t need editing. The “betterment” of a naturally occurring compound, honed and polished by evolutionary processes over tens of thousands of years, is a laughable jest – yet another corporate attempt to restrict the free market. The only reason corporations are trying to “reinvent” psychedelics is because they want to have exclusive rights to the compounds and to their therapeutic results, thus creating an abundant and completely isolated market for themselves to control. (GMOs, anyone?) Luckily for us, and for you, markets do not work this way.

Even with the caveats that this study was conducted using a synthetic version of psilocybin as opposed to the natural version that we cultivate for our psychedelic retreats, and that the study was conducted by the company that is manufacturing the synthetic psilocybin – it is still very exciting and offers future hope for individuals with serious depression issues. Bravo, keep it coming! At least Big Pharma paid for the encouraging study!

Please read the full CNN article and watch their video by following this link.
Interested in learning more about Evolution Retreats and our use of “magic mushrooms” for personal transformation? You can lean about our approach and how we work with all our guests, meet our guides and facilitators, or get started with the application process by completing our form. Thanks for reading!