Amanita Immersion: Equinox Retreat

Make it stand out.

INVITATION

Join us for a weekend of celebration and ceremony in the redwoods of NorCal with heroic doses of amanita tea, smoking amanita, drumming, dancing and one-on-one shamanic healing.

Our weekend begins on Friday with an amanita tea social, amanita blend smoking, and story-questions.

Saturday, after breakfast, we begin with somatic movement and heart connection in a Dolphin Heart Alchemy session led by Veenaa Saynana. After lunch, we gather for a gestalt circle, blending forms of somatic therapy, partner and group practices, and states of awareness. The amanita tea will be noticeable and facilitate our capacity to witness our own shadows. We also explore boundary work and the signal value of emotions. This work prepares us for ceremony by opening up the feeling and thinking layers of our subtle bodies before working in the spiritual realms.

In the evening we begin our heroic dose ceremony which flows through the night.

Sunday morning, after breakfast, we explore creative arts integration through movement, drawing and writing and sharing with reflection. People often feel deeply seen. We close the weekend with a gratitude circle, naming the gifts of Amanita that we can bring back to our communities.

Base Ticket includes all meals (plant based) and late night snacks, camping, ceremony and tuition.

If you wish for a private room, other than the communal space given for ceremony, please explore the other booking options.

If you are currently taking benzodiazepine for anxiety or sleep or antipsychotics, please contact us for further information before purchasing tickets.

More About Amanita

Amanita is unique among the entheogens you may have experienced. Rather than the feeling of expanding and dissolving into the divine that you may enjoy with other medicines, amanita is, instead, a personal connection with the healing compassion of the universe meeting you where you are.

Participants in ceremony can expect to experience hypnotic trance, dream-like understanding, a radical sense of being at home in your own skin, improved boundaries, and relief from pain and anxiety. Emotional scars may heal, allowing long-inaccessible personal growth to occur. There is often dancing, stretching, shaking or rolling around, and this is not always a calm experience. Deep in the night, many participants experience dream walking, time loops and regressions. Many times, people remember their work in the morning the way you might remember a dream.Amanita does not affect the serotonin receptors. Amanita is a combination of a glutamate agonist (awakening and sharpening attention) and a gaba agonist (analgesic, hypnotic, dissociative). The primary compounds free us from chronic nerve pain (sometimes permanently) and reverse the effects of stress in the nervous system, radically de-triggering us. The most common experience is to feel “fine“ or “normal“ even when this is not generally how we are experiencing life.

More About The Facilitators

David Samas is a San Francisco native shaman with a full-spectrum healing and teaching practice focusing on collective wellbeing and experiential spiritual empowerment.

David trained as a shaman with Michael Harner and as a mediation teacher with Jack Kornfield. In his practice he integrates Gestalt, coaching, and Reiki. From 2002-2011 he taught metaphysics and advanced shamanic healing at the Mystery School of San Francisco where he became headmaster.

David has been working with plant medicine for over 20 years both personally and professionally. He studied microdosing with James Fadiman and was a moderator of the mushroom voice community with Amanita Dreamer.

https://beareaglemedicine.com

“David’s Shamanism was transformative for me. I have experienced David to be a very humble and intelligent shaman. He has a calm demeanor and his voice is akin to a rope leading me into the underworld. I found knowledge that was confirming and profound and may just lead to a new tattoo!” –Amanita Dreamer

Wulf Trachta is an artist, Reiki Master, animal communicator and shaman. Skilled in distance healing, animal communication, and end of life transitions, her practice is deeply rooted in loving compassion. Wulf offers support after acute injury, providing emotional and energetic healing, and transmits vitality toward recovery. While this work may provide immediate relief, it is also a seed that grows to fruition over time yielding emotional, spiritual, and physical healing.

Veenaa Saynana

Veenaa Saynana is a shamanic priestess, medicine woman, author, speaker and sound healer. She is the founder of Dolphin Heart Alchemy, channeling the healing energy of dolphins to raise consciousness through innovative somatic technologies and shamanic practices to transform pain and depression to health and joy.

She is the author of The Magdalene Letters- Flame of Ascension. Veenaa is the co-founder of Thanktuary Retreat in Gualala, CA. She is an experienced psychedelic integration coach, holding space for profound embodied transformation. She leads with intuition and empathy, bringing a heart centered approach to healing and transformation.

Amanita Ceremony

Amanita Ceremony

Doing Gestalt Ceremony with Amanita Muscaria enables one to feel more in touch with their emotions and shadows.

Gestalt Circle

Dolphin Heart Alchemy Dance

Amanita Hero's Dose Ceremony on Sat evening

Integration Activities

Ample time to rest and recharge

What You’ll Experience

What You Will Feel

A deep feeling of being held in community

A clear sense of boundaries-knowing where you begin and end, and where another begins and ends.

Deep sense of calm and a nervous system reset

Let Yourself Be Held

This is more than a retreat—it’s a remembering.
A sacred pause where love, movement, and nature weave their magic.
Come as you are, and leave more fully yourself.