Ayahuasca Retreat in Las Vegas: What to Expect

If you're weighing whether to attend an ayahuasca retreat in Las Vegas, here's the shape of it: at 963 Tribe Church, you'll join a multi-day religious ceremony built around the plant sacrament ayahuasca, led by facilitators trained in the Shipibo lineage of Pucallpa, Peru. Weeks of diet and lifestyle preparation come first. Then a night of ceremony with music, silence, and guidance. Then days of working the experience into your actual life afterward. It's a spiritual practice, not a medical treatment, and it asks something of you at every stage, before you ever sit down in the room.

What Is Ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is a plant brew made from the Ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and the leaves of the Chacruna plant (Psychotria viridis), and Amazonian communities have used it for generations in healing and spiritual practice. At 963 Tribe Church, it's treated as a holy sacrament, a gift from Pachamama, the Earth Mother, and used only within ceremony, never outside it.

The church describes the sacrament as working through contrast: a single night can move someone through both bliss and difficulty, and it can surface things a person hasn't consciously dealt with yet. There's nothing passive or predictable about it, which is exactly why preparation and facilitator guidance carry so much weight.

What Happens During a Ceremony?

Ceremonies at 963 Tribe Church take place in Las Vegas and follow the teachings of the Shipibo lineage of the Peruvian Amazon. Shipibo master healers, known as curanderos, have passed these traditions down for generations, and the icaros, sacred healing songs, sung throughout the night, are a direct thread back to that lineage.

Here's roughly how a night unfolds:

• Arrival. You show up on time and settle in, leaving the noise of your regular schedule at the door.
• Setting an intention. Before things begin, you sit with what you want to release or understand better, without pinning down exactly how that should happen.
• The ceremony itself. Facilitators guide the room through icaros, quiet stretches, and reflection. No two people describe the same night; some talk about emotional release, some about vivid insight, some just about getting through a hard stretch.
• Support the whole way. Guardians and facilitators stay present throughout. If you need to step out, someone walks with you to a calm space rather than leaving you to handle it alone.
• Afterward. You can rest overnight in the ceremony space or head home once you feel steady enough to arrange safe transportation.

The sacrament doesn't do the work for you; it holds the space while you do it yourself.

Preparing for Your Retreat

Preparation at 963 Tribe Church starts two weeks out and runs through ceremony day itself:

Medication timing is at least as important as diet, and it's worth being direct about it: SSRIs and MAOIs need to be discontinued at least four weeks before ceremony, hypertension medications at least two weeks before, and that discontinuation should happen under a doctor's supervision, never on your own. Mixing ayahuasca with certain antidepressants can cause a genuinely dangerous reaction, and that's the whole reason 963 Tribe Church asks for medical disclosure and clearance before anyone attends.

This table is a summary. The church walks registered participants through the full list directly, and that's the version to follow.

What to Bring

Once you're cleared to attend, pack for comfort and grounding rather than convenience:

1. Loose, comfortable clothing you can move and breathe in
2. A sleeping mat or yoga mat, a sleeping bag, and a pillow
3. A refillable water bottle
4. A journal and pen for whatever comes up
5. A personal comfort item, like a blanket or a crystal
6. Basic hygiene items
7. Any medications, with the facilitator notified beforehand

If you play an instrument and feel moved to bring it into ceremony, facilitators will find you a moment.

Ceremony Etiquette

Sitting in ceremony at 963 Tribe Church comes with a few ground rules, and they exist to keep the room safe for everyone in it, not just to check a box:

• Disclose any medical, pharmaceutical, or mental health conditions before the ceremony, not partway through it.
• Don't take other substances or plants during ceremony without permission.
• Don't touch other participants or interrupt someone else's process.
• Don't share your own or anyone else's contact information without permission.
• Get permission ahead of time if you think you'll need to leave early or arrive late.
• Keep silence and stillness during the ceremony unless a facilitator invites otherwise.
• Leave phones and other devices outside the room.
• Follow the dietary guidelines both before and after, not just the "before" half.

None of this is about control for its own sake. A ceremony room full of people in an altered, vulnerable state depends on everyone holding the same container, and that's what these rules protect.

Plans change, too, and 963 Tribe Church has a policy for that. If you register and then can't attend, let the church know as soon as you can, donations toward a ceremony are treated as voluntary support for the church's work rather than payment for a service, so they aren't refundable, but the church will work with you on other ways to stay involved, like joining an integration circle or community event instead.

Is Ayahuasca Legal in Las Vegas?

963 Tribe Church operates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit religious institution under the 508(c)(1)(A) provision, and the church states that its ceremonial use of ayahuasca is protected as sincere religious practice under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Records of ceremony attendance and sacrament use are kept, and the sacrament is restricted strictly to ceremonial settings.

The legal landscape around plant sacraments is still shifting, though, and the church is upfront about that. Participants sign liability waivers acknowledging that attendance is voluntary and at their own risk, and that individual legal protection isn't guaranteed just because the church operates within this framework. If the legal side matters to your decision, read 963 Tribe's own materials on it directly rather than taking a summary like this one at face value.

Does Ayahuasca Actually Help?

People come to ceremony at 963 Tribe Church looking for a range of things, emotional release, a sense of spiritual connection, some distance from the noise of ordinary life. The church points to benefits participants have reported: deeper self-awareness, a renewed sense of purpose, a stronger pull toward nature and community.

Worth saying plainly: ayahuasca isn't a clinically approved treatment for depression, anxiety, PTSD, or anything else, and 963 Tribe Church doesn't present it as one. If you're currently being treated for a mental health condition, the right first move isn't booking a ceremony, it's talking to your doctor or therapist, both about your treatment plan and about the medication timing above. What people describe getting out of ceremony seems to depend heavily on how seriously they take preparation and integration, not just the night itself.

After the Ceremony: Integration

The process doesn't end when the ceremony does. 963 Tribe Church treats integration, folding whatever came up into your everyday life, as core to the practice, not an afterthought, and offers integration circles and one-on-one support in the weeks that follow. A few things the church asks participants to hold to:

• Skip salt, sugar, red meat, pork, alcohol, caffeine, and heavily processed food for three to seven days.
• Talk to your integration team or doctor before resuming any medication, and go easy on cannabis, which can pull visions back up before you're ready to sit with them.
• Hold off on sex, including masturbation, for seven to fourteen days, since the church teaches that your energy stays open and vulnerable during this stretch.
• Steer clear of crowds and heavy media, news, and violent or explicit content that can overload an already sensitive nervous system.
• Let big decisions wait. A breakup or a resignation can survive a few more weeks; give the insight time to settle first.

Who's Leading These Ceremonies?

Facilitators at 963 Tribe Church train within the Shipibo lineage, and the church puts safety, consent, and preparation at the center of every ceremony. Participants go through health pre-screening, and facilitators are trained to stay calm through the unexpected. The church says it has maintained a full safety record and intends to keep it that way as its Las Vegas community grows.

Ceremony nights aren't the whole picture, either. 963 Tribe Church runs a wider community calendar, potlucks, integration circles, and other sacraments like San Pedro for people who want to stay connected to the tribe without sitting in every ceremony.

Why "963 Tribe"?

The name comes from 963 Hz, one of the Solfeggio frequencies, sometimes called the "God frequency" for its ties to the crown chakra and a sense of divine connection. That idea runs through the church's whole identity, not just the name; music is woven into every ceremony through the icaros, and recordings of those songs are on major streaming platforms for anyone who wants to stay connected between retreats.

It shapes how the church thinks about belonging, too. You don't have to sit in ceremony to be part of 963 Tribe; the integration circles, wellness gatherings, and social events are open to anyone exploring their spiritual path.

Key Takeaways

• Ayahuasca at 963 Tribe Church is a ceremonial sacrament within a structured religious practice, not a recreational substance or a medical treatment.
• Preparation begins weeks ahead and covers diet, medication, and mindset. Medication timing, especially around SSRIs and MAOIs, is a real safety issue.
• Facilitators are trained in the Shipibo lineage and stay present throughout the ceremony.
• The church operates under 501(c)(3)/508(c)(1)(A) religious-freedom protections, though participants formally accept personal risk by attending.
• Integration in the days and weeks after the ceremony matters as much as the ceremony itself.
• Talk to your doctor before making any decisions about medication or attendance.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is ayahuasca? 
   A traditional Amazonian plant brew made from the Ayahuasca vine and Chacruna leaves, used ceremonially for healing and spiritual exploration. 963 Tribe Church treats it as a religious sacrament, not a recreational substance.
   
    
2. What happens to you when you take ayahuasca? 
   It varies a lot from person to person: intense emotional shifts, vivid insight, and stretches of real difficulty alongside moments of peace. 963 Tribe Church describes the experience as working through contrast rather than following one script.
   
    
3. Is ayahuasca legal in any US states? 
   It's complicated. Some religious organizations, 963 Tribe Church among them, hold ceremonies under 501(c)(3)/508(c)(1)(A) status and First Amendment/RFRA protections for sincere religious practice. That's a specific legal framework, not blanket legalization, and it doesn't guarantee individual legal protection.
   
    
4. Does ayahuasca actually help? 
   Participants describe benefits like emotional release, self-awareness, and renewed purpose. Those are personal, spiritual reports rather than clinical outcomes; ayahuasca isn't a substitute for medical or mental health care.
   
    
5. What can ayahuasca cure? 
   Nothing, medically speaking, it isn't an approved treatment for any condition. 963 Tribe Church frames it as a tool for spiritual growth and consistently tells participants to bring any medical or mental health condition to a physician, not to ceremony.

Curious about sitting in ceremony? Visit 963tribe.com for upcoming ceremonies, the church's statement of beliefs, or follow along on Instagram and YouTube.