Our Beliefs
Ceremonia is a 508(c)(1)(a) faith-based organization. Ayahuasca is our sacrament, approached with reverence, clinical honesty, and no promise of outcomes.
Ceremonia is organized under Section 508(c)(1)(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, which recognizes churches and church-associated organizations as tax-exempt faith communities. Our sacramental use of ayahuasca is a sincere religious practice, not a medical treatment, not a wellness modality, not a loophole. We have built and maintained this practice over years, with doctrinal coherence, ceremony structure, and community continuity that reflect genuine religious exercise.
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) provides federal protection for sincere religious exercise involving sacramental plant medicines when that exercise is structured, ongoing, and demonstrably not pretextual. We operate within this framework honestly, where state law does not provide a more direct authorization, and we do not make claims of protection that our practice does not actually earn.
On Consciousness
We approach altered states with reverence, not as a chemistry experiment. The interior of a human being is not a problem to be optimized, it is a terrain that deserves care, preparation, and honest guidance.
On Healing
It is the work of preparation, ceremony, and integration held together. The medicine may open a door; what happens on the threshold and after you walk through is shaped by the container around you.
On Medicine
We do not promise outcomes. Ayahuasca may facilitate profound insight, difficult confrontations, or quiet stillness, and we cannot predict which. Our role is to hold the space, not to manage what arrives.
On Set and Setting
The quality of your preparation, the presence of your facilitators, and the integrity of the space shape the ceremony as much as the sacrament itself. We invest deeply in each of these because we believe they are inseparable.
On Screening
We will not seat someone we don't believe is ready. This is not gatekeeping, it is care. A ceremony is not the right container for every person at every moment, and we take that responsibility seriously.
On Lineage
Inspiration, not appropriation. We credit the lineages that gave form to this work, and we do not claim a tradition as ours when it is not. Our facilitators bring their own authentic lineages into the room.
How we hold this→On Law
RFRA and NMHA provide real, and different, forms of authorization. Sacrament is not a loophole. We do not use religious framing as cover for recreational access, and we do not overstate the protections we rely on.
On Community
The integration circle is as important as the ceremony itself. The relationships formed in the days and weeks after a ceremony carry the insights forward, or let them dissolve. We take the full arc seriously.