A wooden signpost at a fork in a hiking trail

Red flags at a ceremony center: when to walk away

BySafe Ceremonies

Feeling nervous before a ceremony is normal. Most of that nervousness is about the unknown, and it tells you nothing about the place. Some unease is different: it comes from something you saw or were told. This guide is about that second kind.

A red flag doesn’t always mean a center is dangerous. It means you need a straight answer before you go any further, and if you don’t get one, leaving is the sensible choice. A few flags are serious enough that no answer makes them acceptable.

Flags that are enough on their own

Any one of these is reason to walk away, whatever else the place gets right:

  • A facilitator makes sexual advances, or suggests that sex or nudity is part of the healing.
  • You’re told to stop a prescribed medicine without involving the person who prescribed it.
  • You’re kept from leaving, or your phone, passport or car keys are held so that you can’t.
  • Someone is in obvious medical trouble and staff refuse to call for help.
  • You’re given a substance you didn’t agree to, or only told afterwards what you took.
  • Staff are so drunk or high that nobody could respond to an emergency.

Before you book

Most red flags show up early, in the website, the emails and the booking process. Watch for these:

  • There’s no health screening, or there’s a form that nobody seems to read.
  • The center promises results: a cure for depression, addiction, trauma or a physical illness, or a “guaranteed breakthrough.”
  • It won’t tell you who will lead your ceremony, or the names change every time you ask.
  • It can’t describe what happens in a medical emergency.
  • You feel pushed to pay: deadlines that keep moving, discounts for paying before screening, or a deposit you lose even if the screening rules you out.
  • It suggests you keep the trip from your family or your doctor.
  • It offers several strong substances over a few days with no separate screening for each.
  • Bad reviews disappear, reviewers are threatened, or every review reads as if one person wrote it.

Promises of cures deserve a closer look. The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health runs a whole section on spotting health misinformation, from anecdotes presented as evidence to “miracle cure” claims. A center can describe what past participants have said about their experience. When it tells you what a ceremony will do for your health, it is making a claim it can’t back up.

Combining substances matters because each one carries its own risks. Kambo, for example, can raise heart rate and swing blood pressure, and a 2025 review of the few deaths reported after kambo noted that pre-existing risk factors may make such events worse. Screening for one substance doesn’t cover the next.

When you arrive

  • There are more participants than you were told, or fewer staff.
  • Someone other than the person you were promised is leading.
  • You’re handed a new waiver with terms you weren’t shown before you paid.
  • The health questions are skipped or rushed because “the medicine will decide.”
  • Practices or substances appear on the schedule that weren’t described when you booked.
  • The site has hazards nobody mentions, such as open water or a busy road, and no one seems to have thought about them.
  • There’s no phone signal and no other way to call for help.

Arriving is a good moment to decide. You haven’t taken anything yet, and you can still leave with a clear head.

During the ceremony

  • A facilitator touches you without asking, touches your chest, buttocks or genitals, or asks you to undress.
  • You’re invited to a private “special healing,” often late at night or away from the group.
  • You’re pressed to take more than you agreed to, or mocked for saying no.
  • Someone in distress is left alone, or shut in a room by themselves.
  • Signs of a medical emergency are brushed off as “purging” or “part of the process.” These include fainting, a seizure, chest pain, trouble breathing, or someone who can’t be roused.

The Chacruna Institute’s guide on sexual abuse in ayahuasca settings notes that abuse often happens during private healing sessions, and that some healers tell people that sex with them is a form of healing or a route to spiritual power. It also notes that nudity is not normally part of ceremonial healing. Its advice is written for ayahuasca, but the patterns turn up in other kinds of ceremony too.

Being left alone matters as well. Safety guidelines from Johns Hopkins researchers call for at least two monitors so that a participant is never left on their own, because overwhelming fear can lead people to wander off in a dangerous state. In a large survey of people’s hardest experiences with psilocybin mushrooms, risky behavior was more likely when physical comfort and social support were missing.

After the ceremony

  • Nobody follows up, or support turns out to cost extra and you weren’t told.
  • Your difficulties are blamed on you: you “resisted,” your “ego” got in the way, you “weren’t ready.”
  • You’re pushed to book more ceremonies, sign up for a training or bring in friends.
  • You’re asked to keep what happened secret.
  • A facilitator starts pursuing you romantically or sexually.
  • You’re asked for loans, gifts or money beyond the agreed price.

Several of these overlap with the warning signs of high-control groups. A checklist published by the International Cultic Studies Association includes groups preoccupied with money and with recruiting, and leaders who use shame or guilt to keep members in line. Our guide on leadership, lineage and cult warning signs covers this in more depth.

On relationships, the Chacruna guide puts the responsibility on the facilitator to stay out of romantic or sexual relationships with participants, and advises letting the effects of a ceremony wear off fully before making any decision about one.

What isn’t a red flag

Some things feel uncomfortable and are signs of a careful center:

  • It turns you down, or asks you to wait, because of a medicine or a health condition.
  • It asks detailed questions about your mental health and your family’s.
  • It tells you plainly about the risks, including ones that make you nervous.
  • It has firm rules, such as no phones in the ceremony space, and explains each one along with what happens in an emergency.
  • It tells you it can’t help with something and suggests where you might go instead.

How to walk away safely

Make leaving easy before you go. Know how you’d get home or to a town without the center’s help. Keep your own phone, ID and some money. Tell someone outside the retreat where you’ll be, who’s running it, and when you’ll check in, and ask them to act if you don’t.

The simplest time to leave is before the ceremony starts. Once you’ve taken something, leaving on your own can be dangerous, and you should never drive. If you need to get out of the room, ask for a staff member to come with you to a quiet space, and call someone you trust. If you or someone else is in danger, call your local emergency number.

Afterwards, write down what happened while you remember it: dates, names, what was said, messages and receipts. If you think a crime was committed, you can report it to the police where it happened; how that works depends on the country. Fireside Project’s free psychedelic peer support line, 62-FIRESIDE (623-473-7433), takes calls and texts from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Pacific time every day if you need to talk it through. In the US, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text at 988.

Losing a deposit is painful. It is still a better outcome than staying somewhere you don’t trust.

More guides

Reviews from past participants are one of the best early warnings you can get. On Safe Ceremonies you can search the listings and read what people say about a center’s screening, staff and aftercare, in categories such as ayahuasca and bufo and 5-MeO-DMT. If you’ve seen a red flag yourself, a factual review of what happened can warn the next person.

Sources

Photo: Trail signpost by L.C.Nøttaasen, CC BY 2.0.

Safe Ceremonies
Author: Safe Ceremonies

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