The Journey Within takes a mind-body-spirit, evidence-based approach to interconnected well-being. The bespoke experience starts with holistic preparation, culminates in a customized retreat with the power of organic plant compounds, and is supplemented with embodied healing modalities including meditation, somatic experiencing, nervous system regulation, mindful movement, breath work, neuroplastic pain rewiring methods, philosophical inquiry and more.
We build on recent breakthroughs in the benefits of psychedelics on mental and physical health science combined with our years of experience facilitating psychedelic healing at Europe’s leading legal psychedelic wellness center.
Each tailored retreat is built for you and for this particular time in your life.
Journey Within is grounded in the values of reverence for nature, interconnectedness, and sovereignty.
We look forward to learning more about you. Upon completion of this form, and the health form, we will reach out to discuss next steps.
With gratitude,
Lindsay and the Journey Within team
FAQs:
1. Do I need to have had prior experience with plant medicines?
Nope!
2. Do you have a screening process?
Yes - after you fill out this inquiry form there is an additional health-screener step before we can mutually determine fit.
3. Are the guides trained?
Our team has guided over 1,000 people in psychedelic retreats to date through this method. We are certified psychedelic facilitators through the Synthesis Institute, a global leader in the modern psychedelic movement.
Our approach is especially informed by Buddhism, formal training in psychology and trauma, meditation expertise, somatic experiencing, holotropic and transformational breathwork and nature connection. Lindsay has also facilitated in-person meditation and mindfulness contemplative retreats for over 350 people. However, the Journey Within team does not operate as a representative of Synthesis outside of the Netherlands retreat context nor as licensed therapists.
We are companions on your journey.
Today, if you Google the phrase “psychedelic healing” there is a consumer market with pre-packaged one-size-fits-all approaches ready to purchase. In contrast, we have co-created tailored experiences for hundreds of participants with desires and needs that range from mental health concerns to life transition, spiritual growth and more.
The guide assistants have various levels of experience with plant medicines and altered states of consciousness and are hand-selected for their competency, character and presence.
4. Do you have a code of ethics?
We seek to provide impeccable care and take ethics very seriously when interacting with altered states of consciousness. Undertaking an experience with plant medicines is a risk and we are happy to go over that risk in detail with you. We give special attention to harm reduction, safety, transparency, sexual boundaries, touch, professional boundaries and special considerations for non-ordinary states of consciousness. We center YOUR inner knowing above our own, and believe deeply in your own capacities and resources. A health screening is in place to ensure medical and psychological safety. However, it is still a risk to take plant medicines and we advise you to do your research and determine if this is the right fit for you, and if we are the right people to do it with. Additionally, we engage in practices of self-care, self-growth, and self-examination, aligning with our own inner healing intelligence. We give and receive feedback from mentors and colleagues, and participate in continuing education.
We have a thorough code of ethics that we are happy to share with you.
5. Where can I get more information on plant medicines?
To start, read How to Change your Mind by Michael Pollan, and watch the documentary Fantastic Fungi and the series How to Change Your Mind on Netflix.
Medical Research:
Studies at NYU found that a single dose relieved depression in cancer patients. Two doses relieved major depressive symptoms in another study at John Hopkins. And in a new study by the Beckley Foundation, they found clinical evidence for psilocybin to treat depression even in cases where other treatments have failed.
There is wonderful benefit outside of mental health paradigms, including boosting creativity, increasing one's connection to nature, and catalyzing mystical experiences.
These plants are very healing and we have seen them do extraordinary things in people's lives. That being said, they are no panacea! The real magic is in the ongoing integration after your journey.
6. Why psychedelics?
Psychedelics, or “mind-manifesting” substances, are in the midst of what scientists refer to as the second renaissance, showing promising mental and physical health benefits for the individual and for society at large. Coming into the cultural fore first in the 1960s and early 1970s, research into the benefits of LSD for mental health and addiction showed promising results at Harvard University and Spring Grove until the compounds were classified as a Schedule 1 Substance which halted research.
Today, with clinical trials underway for the benefits of MDMA for PTSD and psilocybin for anxiety, depression and addiction, science is once again revealing the enormous benefits of psychedelics. States like Oregon and Colorado have decriminalized psychedelics and are on track to create the legal structure for psychedelic-healing centers, taking the recent psychedelic findings out of the universities and into the public domain. Research shows these substances have a rigorous safety record that goes back decades, and with thorough preparation, and a well-established set and setting, wonderful and life-changing benefits can ensue.
The publication of the psilocybin and mystical experiences study by Dr. Roland Griffiths, John Hopkins University in 2006 in the journal of Psychopharmacology, helped kindle the flame of the modern revival of psychedelic research from the embers of a three decade long hiatus. The study acted as a green light to other research institutions elsewhere. A rigorous trial design overseen by a respected investigator at a prestigious institution, the study demonstrated that psychedelics such as psilocybin could be administered safely and with high standards of scientific rigor.
The results were compelling enough to warrant further research, and demonstrated that psychedelics could provide a reliable conduit to not just improved mental health, but also to mystical states, which likewise can improve mental health.
By doing so, this research suggests that these benefits could be more widely accessible.
Mystical experiences catalyzed by psilocybin have been linked to reductions in alcohol and tobacco addiction, existential anxiety, and treatment-resistant depression in clinical studies. They have also been associated with their capacity to promote human flourishing. In addition, they have been linked to enduring positive changes in attitudes, moods and behavior. Such experiences may also have the power to shift personality traits, with increases in openness and reductions in neuroticism linked to them, with potentially positive implications for health and cognition. These broad effects on well-being, cognition and behavior made accessible through the psychedelic mystical experience distinguish psychedelics from other substances.
7. Testimonials
“My ceremony with Lindsay was something really special. I’d had several prior experiences with psychedelics, but this felt different, more intentional, and deeply transcendent. being guided through the experience by someone like Lindsay who has such a naturally nurturing and peaceful energy was amazing. She created such a safe and intentional space and I would recommend anyone who has an opportunity to do a ceremony with her to give it a try." - 31 year old artist, Los Angeles
“The impeccability of each team member, the way they all held the same nurturing space for us, and the way they made each of us feel safety in the unknown was like a beautiful rhythm.” - Retreat participant, 2022
“The Retreat Team and Staff should be called ‘The Dream Team.' They truly created the most beautiful, supportive, ethical, compassionate, loving place for the most exquisite experience of my life.” - Retreat participant, 2022
“I had the pleasure to be guided by Lindsay into a first time high-dose psilocybin experience in May 2021. In short, it was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. In reading about psychedelic experiences ahead of time, I read many times about the importance of "set and setting." Not only did Lindsay help think through and prepare all of the typical set and setting details, she helped bring a third element into the experience that I would call spiritual intentionality. This started in advance of the session and continued through the many hours of the experience itself. My experience with the psilocybin was visually stunning, dramatic, personal and frankly more intense than I was expecting. One of the first things I wrote in my journal after was "I think I met God. She is powerful as fuck." Especially because of the intensity of the experience, I can see how the preparation and intentionality that Lindsay created was super helpful in designing an environment for the intensity to be channeled into profound & helpful impact and not in a different direction.
Lindsay brought such a sincere care and reverence for the plant medicine and the experience itself which was really lovely. Overall, I highly recommend going into a journey like this as an experience of surrender and connectedness. Doing it with an experienced guide like Lindsay is definitely the way to go. Journey well into the mystical mycelium universe fellow travelers!" 38 year old business leader, San Diego
🌼
