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New Retreat Dates & Location From Beckley Retreats
Following the success of its first psychedelic retreat in Europe last August, leading holistic wellbeing company, Beckley Retreats, has announced dates for its next Netherlands retreat. The six-day immersion from 14-19 May, will operate out of a new location, the De Hoorneboeg retreat centre, 25 miles from Amsterdam.
Carefully chosen for its quiet, lush environment in nature, De Hoorneboeg has a strong history of providing a dedicated space to learn and reflect through human connection, contemplation and meditation. Beautifully renovated, it provides the perfect environment for the depth and personal care provided during the Beckley Retreat experience.
Prepare, Immerse, Integrate for meaningful change
Based on decades of insights from the legendary Beckley Foundation, the retreats combine world-class contemplative practices with the science-backed benefits of truffles (containing psilocybin).
The eleven week programme includes an updated and enhanced pre- and post-retreat integration based on the latest habit and wellbeing scientific research, resulting in the most robust and comprehensive psychedelic retreat available. Ahead of the retreat, participants join a 4-week virtual preparation program through group workshops, 1:1 facilitator calls, journaling and exercises, plus an introduction to key wellbeing practices.
These are put into practice on the six day retreat in Holland, where participants enjoy a digital detox for ceremonies using truffles (containing psilocybin), meditation, mindful movement, therapeutic group integration and breathwork. Back home, they’re supported in turning the benefits from their retreat experience into long-term wellbeing practices through weekly group calls, meditation and breathwork modules. Increased focus is placed on this period, where there is optimum potential for long lasting change.
As well as the retreats in Holland, where using psilocybin truffles is legal, Beckley Retreats runs a successful programme in Jamaica. Hosted in a safe and legal setting, their retreats provide participants with the guided consumption of hallucinogenic fungi for therapeutic purposes.
New era for mainstream psychedelics
2023 is a significant year for psychedelics as the Beckley Foundation celebrates its 25th year. Its founder Amanda Feilding, has been dubbed the “Queen of Psychedelics” (The Economist) and “Queen of Consciousness” (The Telegraph). It is also the 80th Anniversary of LSD.*
Beckley Retreats was co-founded by Feilding and Neil Markey, and represents the new era of mainstream psychedelic and plant medicines adoption for well-being purposes. As a former captain in the US Army Rangers, Markey was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was followed by a stressful career in corporate consultancy. He suffered from severe depression and PTSD and attributes the potential of mindfulness practices and psychedelics to saving his life. He now wants to bring psychedelic benefits to a much wider audience.
“Our mission is to set the standard for comprehensive and science-backed programmes that are safe, lawful, and accessible to those in need,” explains Markey, whose vision is to build a mission-orientation business based on regenerative capitalism principles. “The philosophy of Beckley Retreats reflects Amanda’s vision to bring the proven benefits of psychedelic therapy to a wider, mainstream audience in safe and legal settings,” he adds.
The Beckley Retreats business model is one around distributed equity, which supports Amanda’s wider vision of egalitarianism and equal access. This includes a scholarship programme with one free place on each retreat to make the programme more accessible. They also donate to improve veterans' access to psychedelic therapies, support community projects in Jamaica and train local practitioners in the skills needed to guide.
The five-night retreat in Holland costs from USD6000 per person with a maximum of 20 participants. Price includes locally sourced vegetarian meals. Full programme details are here or visit www.beckleyretreats.com for more information.
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NEED TO KNOW
About Beckley Retreats
Beckley Retreats is a leading holistic wellbeing company, based on decades of research from the renowned Beckley Foundation, and under the guidance of its founder Amanda Feilding. The retreats combine world-class contemplative practices with the science-backed benefits of psilocybin to offer a comprehensive approach for people looking to make meaningful change in their lives.
Held in a comfortable, luxurious setting, the retreats centre around ceremonies that feature truffles containing psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and include breathwork, meditation and mindful movement sessions, plus six weeks of “supported integration techniques” (therapeutic after-care) informed by psychotherapy and neuroscience.
About The Beckley Foundation
The Beckley Foundation is a charitable organisation set up by Amanda Feilding in 1998 to initiate and carry out pioneering research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, and to create a scientific base for global drug policy reform. In 2011, Feilding wrote a Public Letter calling for a new approach to the war on drugs, signed by 9 Presidents including President Jimmy Carter; 13 Nobel Prize winners, such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and notables such as Yoko Ono and Prof. Chomsky. Amanda has dedicated her career to destigmatising the use of psychedelics and has recently been dubbed the “Queen of the Psychedelic Renaissance”. Through her leadership of the Beckley Foundation’s Science Programme, Feilding has collaborated with leading scientists and institutions around the world for 25 years to design and direct a wide range of scientific research projects (including ground-breaking clinical trials) investigating the effects of psychoactive substances on brain function, subjective experience, and clinical symptoms, with a focus on cannabis, the psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, DMT, 5-MEO-DMT) and MDMA.
N.B – The Beckley Foundation does not receive funding from Beckley Retreats. The Beckley Foundation relies on philanthropic funding to support leading scientific psychedelic research.
Discovery of the psychedelic effects of LSD
April 19th is the 80th anniversary of Albert Hofmann's accidental discovery of the psychedelic effects of LSD. On this day in 1943, now known as ‘Bicycle Day’, the Swiss chemist was the first human to deliberately ingest what he thought was a minuscule amount of LSD and discovered its potential to alter consciousness. After he discovered LSD and its potent effect on humans, he wanted nothing more than to see this drug studied and understood. Like Feilding, Hofmann recognised that taking LSD was a serious endeavour that required preparation, guidance and the utmost respect for the power of the mind. Amanda Feilding has continued the legacy that Hoffman started.
