Magic Mushroom retreats
Feel the call of Psilocybin and follow it to Barcelona, where Avalon offers magic mushroom ceremonies in a unique, safe and comfortable setting that will allow you to make the most of the amazing benefits of this wonderful fungus.
Their own kingdom
Mushrooms are not plants or animals either, they are somewhere in between. Fungi have their own kingdom. We can find over 1,5 million species -six times more than plants- and of all those species of fungi about 20.000 produce mushrooms. Of all Mushrooms there are more than 180 species that contain tryptamine alkaloids such as psilocybin and psilocin.
Ancestral origins
Psychoactive mushrooms are found from Alaska to southern Chile, Australia and New Zealand, Hawaii, Europe, Siberia, Japan and Southeast Asia and have been used by different shamanic cultures around the world since ancient times for their intoxicating effects.
Indigenous groups have revered the visions induced by mushrooms, and have used them in their magico-religious rituals to communicate with the spiritual world, the spirits of the deceased and to obtain knowledge and healing. Mexico is the country where the greatest variety of psychoactive mushrooms can be found. Its use dates back to among the Mazatecs, Mixitecas and Zapotecs. In Nahuatl, the lenguage of the Aztecs, the name for psilocybin mushrooms is Teonanácatl, wich has been tranlated to “flesh of the gods”.
What are the benefits of magic mushrooms?
The benefits of magic mushrooms for our body and soul have been sorely studied since 1938. At that time in Huautla de Jiménez (Oaxaca, Mexico) Remo and Schultes obtained and identified three different psychoactive mushrooms, as well as Armgard Weitlaner and Jean Basett Johnson were witnesses and recorded a sacred ceremony.
Thanks to our ancestors that have dedicated themselves to investigate this magical gift from nature, we are now in the possession of scientifical knowledge about magic mushrooms and how they can be consumed to so many other different purposes other than recreation.
A study conducted by the University of South Florida, published in 2013, studied the effects of magic mushrooms on fear-conditioned mice. It concluded that the ingredient in magic mushrooms, psilocybin, enabled the mice to overcome fear and promoted the growth and regeneration of new neurons in their brains.
That is because memory, learning, and the ability to relearn that a once threatening stimulus is no longer a danger is dependent on the brain’s ability to alter its connections and magic mushrooms allow your brain to do just that.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a psychiatric disorder that is occurring especially in patients suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and other psychiatric illnesses.
The use of magic mushrooms to improve mental health has been increasingly studied by scientists from renowned universities around the world.
A study published by Eddie Jacobs, PHD in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, claims that psilocybin can reset dysfunctional mental patterns in OCD patients and induce them to have normal mental patterns.
“Psychedelics like psilocybin can rigidly interrupt the repeated patterns of OCD thinking and behavior that OCD sufferers want to escape but struggle to achieve,” says Jacobs in an interview.
Other studies show that psilocybin produces an increase in positive mood, and positive bias in the perception of stimuli, related to a possible decrease in the activity of the amygdala, the brain structure responsible for the processing of potentially threatening emotions.
In a 2011 study, researchers found that late-stage cancer patients would have their anxiety relieved and dramatically reduced after treatment with psilocybin mushrooms.
Studies have shown that using psilocybin mushrooms for depression are an effective treatment, as well as treating post-traumatic stress disorder.
Small clinical trials that have shown that one or two doses of psilocybin, given in a therapeutic setting, can make dramatic and lasting changes in people suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, which typically do not respond to traditional antidepressants.
There was a famous study done at Johns Hopkins University that left researchers stunned.
Of the 36 subjects, one-third said their experience was the most spiritual experience of their lives.
“Psilocybin is an incredible tool for unlocking the mysteries of human consciousness. Central to this mystical experience is a strong sense of interconnectedness with all things, a growing sense of self-confidence, clarity and communal responsibility, altruism and social justice.
Understanding the nature of these effects and their consequences may well be the key to the survival of the human species.” – Dr. Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University.
Upcoming Magic Mushroom retreats
Take a look at Avalon’s upcoming magic mushroom ceremonies in Barcelona and book your spot now.
Max. 12
Mushrooms
Barcelona
250€
Max. 12
Mushrooms
Barcelona
180€
Max. 18
Mushrooms
Ibiza
360€
Max. 18
Mushrooms
Ibiza
tbc
Max. 12
Mushrooms
Barcelona
180€
Max. 12
Mushrooms
Barcelona
180€
What to expect from an Avalon Magic Mushroom Retreat?
There are two main things you can expect from our one-day magic mushrooms retreat in Barcelona: first an inner journey and second an organic transformation.
The inner journey
In this 1-day mushrooms retreat, you can count on Avalon to gently guide you through a self-discovery and healing journey. Our mission is to create a space of consciousness and the conditions to explore new ideas, while revisiting some old ones that no longer serve you. Being committed to self-growth is a revolutionary act and we invite you to join us and like-minded people in this beautiful love revolution, in this magic mushroom retreat in Europe.
Your journey includes a preparation video-call, a high-quality healthy meal, an integration workshop combining diverse and creative methods such as writing, arts and dancing and finally two sacred medicine ceremonies:
1) Rapé ceremony (dried tobacco powder) which will help you clear the mind and cleanse the body.
2) Therapeutic Magic Mushrooms ceremony with an experienced psychologist.
This journey concludes with an online integration follow-up circle.
Organic transformation
When booking a magic mushrooms retreat in Europe, you will hardly come back from there being the same person, you always come back better. You will have the opportunity to cultivate or acquire your spiritual awareness, re-evaluate your life, your values, your mission. You connect with your true essence and start to see life in a simpler, uncomplicated way, see problems with lightness and find solutions in a more practical way. Your quality of life becomes your priority, we begin to direct our attitudes and behaviors to find what really makes us happy.
Why try magic mushrooms in Barcelona?
Whether you have been on an ongoing battle with depression, addiction or anxiety and the conventional treatments haven’t been working on your favor, or simply because you feel stuck in your own life and you need to expand your brain in order to move forward with more clarity and motivation, engaging on a magic mushroom retreat in Barcelona might be just the answer.
Magic mushrooms have helped thousands of people around the world to find relief, freedom from unhealthy, limitative and toxic habits and finally reach a truthful and meaningful connection with themselves, leading to a happier and richer life.
Former participants in our Avalon magic mushrooms retreat in Barcelona testify they have improved their mental quality of life, have accessed higher levels of spirituality and felt a greater connection to people. Moreover,people usually leave our mushrooms retreat feeling an ecstasy of joy, a sense of gratitude to be alive and a unity between themselves, other people, nature and the world.
The therapeutic use of magic mushrooms
Psilocybin is a psychoactive substance present in mushrooms belonging to the genus Psilocybe, which has more than 100 species. Due to their psychoactive and hallucinogenic character, mushrooms are commonly called magic mushrooms. Psilocybin can have various effects on the body and mind. And, despite being an illegal substance in many countries, research has already pointed out, without a doubt, its possible life changing therapeutic effects.
Organic transformation
The oldest samples of the probable use of magic mushroom can be found in a mural in Tassili, in the Sahara desert, southeast of Algeria. In this mural, which dates from between 7.000 and 9.000 BCE, magic mushrooms as well as anthropomorphic figures carrying mushrooms are represented. Since then, various cultures and religious traditions on all continents of the planet have used psycholcibe mushrooms as a practice for religious communion, divination, and healing.
Gordon Wasson got in touch with Albert Hofmann, the inventor and discovered of LSD in 1938, who was very interested in psilocybin when he heard about it. Wasson collected some on a subsequent trip to Mexico shipped it off to Switzerland, where Hofmann analysed it, named the active chemical psilocin, and synthesised it in 1958.
In the early 1960s started the research and investigation into the possible uses of psychoactive substances like psilocybin in mental health.
In response to concerns about the explosion in the use of psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelics throughout the world in 1970s psilocybin and other hallucinogenic drugs suffered negative press and faced increasingly restrictive laws until finally the studies were interrupted.
Only years later did research resume on psilocybin. And in 2006, researchers concluded that the substance is generally safe and can have a positive impact on well-being.
In 2016, a study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology indicated that psilocybin therapy was associated with a significant reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression. In addition, the substance improved spiritual well-being, increased quality of life, and decreased feelings of hopelessness in people with cancer.
Another study also investigated the use of psilocybin, combined with psychological support, and found that the substance can be effective in treating depression, as it revives emotional responsiveness.
Follow-up research also showed lasting effects of the substance. In that study, more than 70% of participants described psilocybin therapy as one of the most personal and spiritually significant experiences of their lives.
People treated with the substance showed improvements in a number of factors, including the ability to experience pleasure, express emotions, greater reductions in anxiety and suicidal ideation, and also increased feelings of well-being.
How does it work?
When ingested and absorbed by the intestine, psilocybin is converted to psilocin. Psilocin acts on brain receptors, inducing psychedelic effects. It activates serotonin receptors primarily in the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain affects mood, cognition, and perception. Thus, psilocybin can distort the way some people who ingest it perceive objects and people. After an average of 20 to 30 minutes of ingestion, its effects begin to appear.
Which can include hallucinations, visual and auditory distortions, tactile perceptions such as tingling or heat, and synesthesia.
People who take psilocybin often describe an expansion of consciousness and a different perception of the self and the universe, such as a sense of unity and interconnectedness. All of these effects can be experienced over a period of four to eight hours – the time psilocybin is active in the body.
