Are You Ready for an Ayahuasca Retreat? A Three-Color Self-Check

People often ask how they will know when they are ready. Most answers are about feeling: you will know, it will call you, the timing will be right. That is not a safety standard. Some people who feel completely ready are carrying a contraindication, and some who feel nervous are fine to go. What follows is a more reliable check, in two parts: the medical one, which can say no, and the personal one, which can say not yet.

Part 1: the medical self-check

Place yourself in one of three colors. This is a way to organize a conversation with your doctor, not a diagnosis.

Red: not now

You meet at least one absolute exclusion:

• A serotonergic antidepressant, an MAOI or lithium that you cannot or should not safely stop. This combination is the one that has actually hurt peopleMAPS 1995Systematic review 2020
• A personal or first-degree family history of psychosis, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Psychotic episodes among users appear comparable to the general population, but ayahuasca can be a trigger in someone with an underlying vulnerability, which is why the research recommends screeningRuffell 2023
• Pregnancy or breastfeeding.
• Significant cardiovascular disease.
• Active suicidal thoughts.

Red is not a judgment about you. It means this is not the right time, and there are real things to do instead: treat and stabilize the condition, work with a therapist, and revisit it later if your situation changes. If you are having thoughts of harming yourself, please contact your local emergency number or a crisis line now rather than reading further.

Yellow: it depends

You take a medication that needs reviewing, have a controlled chronic condition (diabetes, epilepsy, a kidney or liver condition), or have a trauma you are already working through in therapy. Or you simply have a doubt. Neither you nor a website decides this. You take your full history to your doctor, and your therapist if you have one, and come back with their answer. Many yellows turn green after a planned washout or a simple sign-off. Others turn red. Both are the process working.

Green: go ahead, after the review

You meet no exclusion, take no incompatible medication, and your doctor has looked at your history. Even green goes through the doctor. Nobody skips that step, and a center that does not ask you about your health at all has failed the first test of the vetting questions.

Part 2: the questions a doctor will not ask

These are judgment calls, not clinical rules. They come from what specialists describe about preparation and integrationICEERS and from what centers tend to look forICEERS 2019 Answer them honestly.

• Can you say why now in one sentence? If the answer is escape, a crisis or a deadline you have set yourself, slow down.
• Are you in the middle of something acute? Fresh grief, a breakup, a collapse at work. Ayahuasca amplifies what is already there. It is not an emergency exit.
• Does someone know exactly where you will be? A trusted person who has the center's details is part of the protocol.
• Do you have support lined up for afterwards? A friend, a therapist, an integration circle. The ceremony shows something and the weeks after decide what happens to it.
• Can you take the time? A few weeks of preparation, and room afterwards without big obligations.
• Can you live with a no? If a doctor or a serious center tells you not yet, will you listen?

What to do with your result

Red: pause, look after the underlying condition, and know the door stays open if things change. Yellow: book the doctor's appointment this week. Green: you are ready to start preparing, beginning with the medical review. In every case the first step is the same, and it is a conversation with a doctor, not a decision made alone at a screen.