All On Board For 5-MeO-DMT: This Retreat Hosts Expertly Guided Experiences For Women, BIPOC

The following is Part I of our Tandava coverage. For Part II, click here.

Psychedelics are often being used as medicines to help cope with a variety of situations and conditions that life throws our way. Considering the substances are still illegal in most countries, including the U.S., retreat centers have been established in places where practitioners can legally accompany participants throughout their psychedelic journeys.

One of them is Tandava, which translated from sanskrit means “the cleansing fire that burns it all in order to make way for the new,” co-founder Joël Brierre tells Benzinga. 

Located in Tepoztlan, Mexico, the center has been built around one singular psychedelic: 5-MeO-DMT. The retreat’s co-founders strongly believe that the so-called “God molecule” can help people on their deep-healing journey.

With that goal in mind and in connection with real world needs, Tandava has recently launched a schedule that includes a BIPOC-only and a women-only retreats for the second half of the year. 

See Also: Burning Man CEO Learned 'So Much' About Psychedelics In BRC - 'We're Here For The Love'

BIPOC Participants And Practitioners

The “Returning to Wholeness” retreat is coming up this August. Butterfly Pham, one of its facilitators and a certified meditation and compassion teacher, views the five-day period as an opportunity to help participants start to plant seeds on these practices through a guided experience.

“My approach toward doing psychedelic medicine work is that it’s not just about the substance but really about the entire container and framework that’s being held,” Butterfly says. “And I think, especially when working with BIPOC communities, in understanding the sensitive issues that can come up around ancestry, identity and trauma, compassion is so important.”

The surrounding process for someone willing to take 5-MeO-DMT involves an intake part with questions on mental and physical health, family history, ongoing medications and current issues in their lives, “exploring a mutual fit” even before people arrive.

While setting an intention can help the experience, Butterfly also encourages people to let go of expectation.

“So, intention provides us with the direction, but it’s not something to necessarily get attached to and hold on to, because this whole experience is an invitation to really open up and invite in what comes up," Butterfly adds.

Regarding The Retreat’s Specificity: It is “incredibly rare” to be able to find an offering where all the facilitators are very experienced, skilled and, at the same time, able to bring an additional layer of support and affinity as part of the BIPOC community themselves, Butterfly explains.

“We are living the experience that is very similar to yours, and are here to be with you, to explore the complexity and the non-duality of what it is to be in a body and an identity that sometimes feels like it’s not welcomed in the world. And at the same time, to understand that ultimately, we are so much more than that, labels and names. And how to accept all of that,” says Butterfly. “That’s the work of really learning to accept and love ourselves.”

And, also, the importance of integrating this learning into everyday life. 

“Particularly talking about the BIPOC community, there’s a cultural awareness and sensitivity to how some cultures really do not welcome — or there’s judgment or embarrassment — around therapy,” he says. “So it’s important to start thinking about other types of integration as well, whether that’s movement, breath work, music, drawing.”

Lastly, it’s important to acknowledge that BIPOC community-identity related issues and questions might bring up larger issues around the world and society, making integration here somewhat different.

Therefore, it's important to also work around issues such as ancestry and immigration, Butterfly says. Part 2 coming up soon!

Photo courtesy of Tandava.