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The first week after a ceremony: what to expect

BySafe Ceremonies

A lot of attention goes into preparing for a ceremony, and much less into the days that follow. Yet the first week is when you’re most tired, most open and most likely to make choices you’ll think about for a long time. A little planning makes it easier.

This guide walks through that week: getting home, looking after your body, handling the emotional swings, which decisions to put off, and the signs that mean you should reach out for help.

Plan the week before you go

The simplest things to arrange in advance:

  • A way home that doesn’t involve you driving straight after the last ceremony.
  • At least one quiet day between the retreat and going back to work or caring for others.
  • Easy food at home, so you don’t have to shop or cook much.
  • One or two people who know where you’ve been and will check on you.
  • The phone numbers you might need, saved in advance: the center’s follow-up contact, a peer support line, your doctor.
  • If you can, a session booked with a therapist or integration practitioner for later in the week.

The first night and day

Safety guidelines for psychedelic research, written by Johns Hopkins researchers, say participants should not drive after a session and should be released into the care of a friend or family member. They also give participants a way to reach a staff member that evening if they need support. Those are sensible standards for any ceremony: don’t drive until the effects have fully worn off and you’ve slept, and know who to call that night.

You may feel exhausted, wired, or both. Sleep can be patchy for a night or two. Rest even if you can’t sleep, keep the evening quiet, and eat something simple when you’re hungry. If you’ve vomited a lot, drink water steadily.

The same guidelines call for a follow-up meeting with the person who led the session, typically the next day, to check how you’re doing. If your center offers one, go. If it doesn’t, ask for a call.

Days two and three

Write it down

Details fade quickly. Before you start explaining the experience to anyone, write down what happened, what you felt, and what seemed important, in plain words. Keep the description separate from what you think it means. Our guide to integration has prompts for this.

Look after your body

Some people feel light and energised. Others are achy, headachy or have an upset stomach, especially after a purgative ceremony or several nights in a row. Regular meals, water, gentle movement and time outside are the basics to start with.

If the center gave you guidance on food or activities after the ceremony, follow it, and ask if anything isn’t clear. For ayahuasca in particular, many centers ask you to continue a diet for some days afterwards; our guide on the ayahuasca diet explains why.

Medicines

If you paused or changed a prescribed medicine to take part, talk to your prescriber about when and how to restart, rather than going by what the center told you. If you had an interaction or any physical symptoms that worried you, mention them too. Our guide on medications and health conditions covers the background.

Days four to seven

Expect emotional swings

It’s common to feel very good for a few days and then flat, or to swing between clarity and confusion. Old memories or feelings may surface. In a 2023 study of people with lasting difficulties after psychedelic use, many difficulties resolved in under a week, so a rough few days on their own aren’t a sign that something has gone badly wrong. If things are getting worse rather than better as the week goes on, take that seriously.

Go easy on yourself and others

You may feel unusually open, tender or sensitive. That can make conversations with family and friends more honest, and it can also make you take things harder than usual. Pick your conversations, and don’t feel you have to explain everything to everyone.

Ease back into work and screens

If you can, return to work gradually. Notice how much news, social media and noise you’re taking in, and cut back if it’s too much. Some people find it helps to keep a ceremony to themselves for the first week, and only share it once they’ve had a chance to understand it.

Decisions to put off

A ceremony can leave you with a powerful sense that you need to change something right now. Some of those insights hold up. Some don’t. During the first week, hold off on:

  • Ending or starting a relationship.
  • Quitting a job, selling property or making large purchases.
  • Confronting family members about the past.
  • Stopping or changing prescribed medicines.
  • Booking your next ceremony or signing up for a facilitator training.

A guide on sexual abuse in ayahuasca settings from the Chacruna Institute advises waiting until the effects of the ceremony have worn off and you’ve “come back down to earth” before making decisions about relationships, and it puts the responsibility on facilitators not to start relationships with participants. If a facilitator contacts you romantically during this week, treat it as a red flag.

Write the big ideas down instead, and come back to them in a few weeks.

A simple checklist for the week

  1. Keep regular hours for sleep, even if the sleep itself is uneven.
  2. Eat regular, simple meals and drink plenty.
  3. Take a walk outside every day.
  4. Spend ten minutes a day writing about what you notice.
  5. Have one conversation a day with someone who cares about you.
  6. Go easy on alcohol, cannabis and caffeine, and follow any guidance from the center.
  7. At the end of the week, ask yourself whether you feel better, the same or worse than on day two.

When to reach out

Contact a doctor, therapist or the center’s follow-up contact if, during the first week:

  • You can’t sleep for more than a night or two.
  • Anxiety or panic keeps coming back.
  • You feel detached from your body, or the world doesn’t feel real.
  • You keep seeing visual effects such as trails or halos after the ceremony should have worn off.
  • You feel hopeless, or much worse than before the ceremony.

Get urgent help, by calling your local emergency number or 988 in the US, if you have thoughts of harming yourself or someone else, hear voices or feel others are plotting against you, or have chest pain, a seizure or other serious physical symptoms. 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 want to talk things through. Our guide on difficult experiences covers what to do next.

After the first week

The first week is only the start. A 2022 analysis of psychedelic integration describes it as a process that can unfold over months or years, and notes that without some effort the lessons of an experience tend to fade. Once the week is over, decide on one or two practices you’ll keep, and on whether you’d like support from a therapist, a circle or a peer group. Our guide on finding integration support can help.

More guides

How a center handles the days after a ceremony says a lot about it. Reviews on Safe Ceremonies often mention whether anyone followed up. You can search the listings, including centers in ayahuasca and psilocybin and mushrooms, and services in integration and aftercare.

Sources

Photo: Bedroom Clean by Burst, CC0 1.0.

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