Niños Santos @ Espacio Khungi

Niños Santos, the holy children, is a name long used in Mexico for the sacred mushrooms. We don't claim to work in any one indigenous lineage: our ceremonies are a collective prayer, held simply and with respect, and we believe the mushrooms are a medicine that belongs to everyone. We're glad to speak plainly about everything on your call with us.

The retreat is held by the Sacred Counsel team, with one-on-one psychotherapeutic support throughout. We work with a team of facilitators, depending on which medicine is being served.

Slow, on purpose. This retreat is about learning to slow down and to fully feel. Every day begins with meditation, followed by yoga or qigong, and breathwork is woven through the week. Day one is arrival. Day two holds the mushroom ceremony. On day three a smaller dose opens into a guided therapeutic process with our therapeutic team. Day four is for integration and the temazcal.

Alongside the group work, each guest has private time with our therapeutic team, a mental health counselor and a psychiatrist, before, during and after the retreat: to prepare your intention, to work with what arises in ceremony and in the guided process, and to plan how you'll carry it into daily life.

Yes, that's the heart of it. Our intention is to help you become the medicine woman or medicine man of your own life, so we teach how to build your own respectful relationship with this medicine: how microdosing can support daily life, how to create simple rituals of your own, and how to know when to pause. We'll talk through what's right for you, including any medications you take, before you go home.

Many of our guests are meeting this work for the first time, and this medicine is often a gentler first door than others. That's part of why our process begins with a conversation rather than a checkout page: it exists to answer this question honestly, in both directions. If we don't believe this retreat will serve you, we'll tell you so and help you find what will.

There's no strict dieta, but preparation still matters. In the weeks before the retreat we ask you to simplify: no alcohol or recreational substances, lighter and cleaner food, less caffeine, and a gentle step back from media, stress, and stimulation. On ceremony days, lunch is light and you come to ceremony with an empty stomach.

Most of the preparation is inner: clarifying your intention, a daily breathwork or meditation practice, and a conversation with us about what you hope to meet. The team walks with you through the weeks leading up to your arrival.

It depends on the medication, and this is the one place where complete honesty is a matter of safety, not preference. Lithium and tramadol carry a real seizure risk alongside this medicine and are firm contraindications. Antidepressants such as SSRIs can blunt the experience, and MAOIs can intensify it. Heart conditions and high blood pressure need a careful look, because the medicine briefly raises heart rate and blood pressure. Every guest completes a thorough medical intake reviewed by a medical doctor before being confirmed.

Please never adjust or stop a prescription on your own. If a change is appropriate, it happens slowly, with our guidance and your prescriber's. And if your medications or health mean this work isn't safe for you, we will lovingly decline — that answer is also care.

Every ceremony is different, and no honest facilitator promises a particular experience. Most journeys last four to six hours and move in waves — imagery, memories, deep emotion, insight, laughter, and physical sensation. Some passages are blissful; some are challenging, and a challenge met inside a safe container is very often where the healing lives. Ceremony is carried by music and song, and the team is present with you from beginning to end.

Dosing is consensual, always: how much, and whether to receive more — nothing is ever pushed on you.

Some people feel mild nausea, yawning, or a heaviness in the belly as the medicine comes on; it usually passes within the first hour. The space is prepared for it, the team tends to it discreetly, and plenty of guests feel nothing of the kind.

No. Everything at Khungi is an invitation. You may sit in ceremony without receiving the medicine, or step back from any part of the retreat that doesn't feel right in the moment. The container itself — the temazcal, cacao ceremony, breathwork, the land, the tribe — carries real medicine of its own.

A circle of thirteen at most. Every guest passes through the same doorway you do — a personal conversation and a doctor-reviewed medical intake — so you'll be sitting with people who were welcomed with the same care. Ages and backgrounds vary widely, most guests arrive on their own, and confidentiality is a shared agreement: what happens in ceremony belongs to the circle.

Our core team is Alexa, Jasdeep, Luke and Karen, with Chule and other bodyworkers and the house staff alongside. With a full circle of thirteen, that is roughly one team member for every two to three guests, and in ceremony the whole team is in the room with you.

Tell us everything, and we'll answer honestly. Certain histories — psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and some seizure and neurological conditions — are firm contraindications for this medicine, without exception. Many others simply need a real conversation: our team includes a psychiatrist and a mental health counselor, the intake is reviewed by a medical doctor, and the work is trauma-informed from screening through integration. If this path isn't right for you, we'll say so plainly and point you toward support that is.

Integration is where ceremony becomes a changed life, so it's built into the retreat rather than bolted on. Each ceremony is followed by a morning integration circle; after you leave there's a one-month group reunion call, free access to our online integration course, and an open door to the Sacred Counsel community. Guests who want to land more slowly can add the two-day integration homestay with Luke and Alexa at La Fuente.

Warm layers — highland nights are cool — comfortable clothes for ceremony, a journal, a water bottle, and whatever small objects belong on your altar. A full packing list comes with registration, and the cabins are en suite with king beds, so you can pack lighter than you think. The retreat is held in both English and Spanish.