Retreat Info
About the Retreat:Psychedelic facilitators Sagan Bolliger and Helena Zhu offer both small group retreats and individual or couple sessions with 5-MeO-DMT in Vancouver and on an adjacent island in the Pacific Northwest in Canada, where 5-MeO-DMT is legal. 5-MeO-DMT, fondly known as the God molecule, is a powerful psychedelic medicine that brings us into contact with our core essential self.
Our three-day, two-night Self Contact Retreat brings together fellow journeyers and seekers on the path to themselves. In a cedar house nestled between the ocean and the forest, we will host three small-group earth medicine ceremonies: a sharing of heartwarming cacao, a light smoked 5-MeO-DMT experience, and an insufflated (intranasal) and deep smoked 5-MeO-DMT experience. You will be supported by us, our helpers, our cook, who will prepare healthy and nourishing homemade meals, and our Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) for add-on integration massage. We will share circles for preparation and integration and rejuvenate our bodies and spirit through our cedar barrel sauna and hot tub under the cedar trees and cold plunges in the ocean.
Description of Services:We believe creating a safe and loving container is the best foundation for the natural unfolding of our inner healing intelligence. We and our helpers create a loving, non-judgmental, and supportive container for whatever needs to arise and be processed in your journey. The smoked form of the medicine gives a short but deep dive, bringing you deep and back within half an hour, whereas the insufflated form is a slower, longer form of the medicine that gives us more time for the inner work. Within the two 5-MeO-DMT medicine circles, we offer therapeutic and supportive physical touch, physical care, live and curated sound, scents, and verbal guidance as needed to help you deepen your experience.
We provide comfortable private or semi-private sleeping arrangements to give you personal space and make wood fire in our indoor fireplaces to create a place for reflection and gathering. In preparation for the medicine, we will gather in circle to share intentions and drop into guided meditation and movement. After each medicine circle, we carve out time for silent reflection and personal integration and hold a group integration circle to give space for processing with others.
In this journey to ourselves, we are invited to be with all the parts of ourselves that we have exiled, feeling the emotions that we have not given ourselves permission to feel. Joy, fear, ecstasy, heartache, anger–all emotions are welcome, often passing as quickly as they arise as the medicine moves through us. We encounter ourselves in a space beyond our stories and identities and tap into the deep well of who we already are. In doing so we answer the question, who am I? Not as a concept, but as a deep knowing. We come back as a more integrated person with the courage to be ourselves with an open heart.
Here are some testimonials some of our former clients have graciously allowed us to share with other considering embarking on this journey with us:
“The most profound experience of my life. It has released a deeply rooted inner conflict that I have struggled with since my childhood and has begun to relieve me from a deep 5 year depression and has completely resolved my lifelong struggle with severe anxiety. I could not have asked for a more caring and supportive couple who looked after me so carefully which allowed me to fully relax and dive into my experience. My journey has changed me so profoundly and I am so eternally grateful I found Sagan and Helena. I would highly recommend … absolutely profound.”
- Tom, Ontario, 49
“Journeying with Sagan and Helena was easily one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life. It was profoundly life-changing to a degree that language fails to describe. I feel alive. My soul has bloomed inside my body. This awakened me to level of existence I previously thought impossible, and I felt welcomed into that life by these two loving humans. I would happily place my heart in their hands again when the journey calls me back.”
- Josh Magro, Psychotherapist
“Working with Sagan and Helena helped me to let go of some deeply unhealthy narratives and self-limiting beliefs. The medicine surfaced profound insights that have given me a different way to see my relationships, career and outlook. Each day, new positive behaviors emerge and I attribute them to my journey and integration work. An unexpected, and welcomed benefit of the medicine was that it opened up my body to release a lot of deeply stored pain. I feel wonderful. Thank you both for facilitating this transformation.”
- NF, California
Read more testimonials from our former clients here.
Practitioners:Since his youth, Sagan has been drawn to existential questions of life and death and to the path of introspection. He pursued a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Philosophy and a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence at the University of Toronto. After studying the mind objectively for a number of years, he felt called to return his focus to the inner realm of being wherein rests the soul. Helena comes from an academic background in social sciences with Bachelor and Master of Arts from the University of British Columbia and work experiences in journalism, policy, and international development, all of which helps her understand humans in their contexts across time and space.
We are passionate about being in service in helping fellow human beings as they take the journey back to their hearts. We have facilitated transformative 5-MeO-DMT private and group experiences full-time since 2021, a work we approach from a place of presence, compassion, acceptance, and love. We appreciate our earth medicine for its ability to dive straight to the heart and into the body and honour the vulnerability and the power of working with this medicine in a community context.
We received training from Toad School for 5-MeO-DMT facilitation, Phoenix Academy Psychedelic Therapy training, and Vancouver Crisis Centre for crisis intervention and suicide prevention. Sagan is also a Community Leader within The Flying Sage psychedelic community and Helena co-hosts Vancouver Women in Psychedelics Meetups.
Team/Medical Staff:In addition to the on-site support mentioned above, Helena and Sagan work closely with a pharmacist to evaluate potential interactions between prescription medication and 5-MeO-DMT to ensure that your experience on the medicine is safe and effective. We also provide referrals to complementary practitioners and services on a need basis.
Details
Founder(s) / CEO: Sagan Bolliger, Helena ZhuGroup Size: 4-6 participantsPrice Range: CAD $1800-$2400Our Process
Overview of Experience:During the lead-up to the retreat, we give our journeyers a series of journal prompts to reflect on different aspects of their human experience and how they will thrive in a community context. Sagan and Helena then both meet with each journeyer privately in-person or over Zoom to touch base on their journal reflections and clarify an intention. All participants and helpers then gather for a short pre-trip logistics meeting over Zoom, ask any questions, and coordinate any late-minute details.
The retreat runs Friday midday to Sunday late afternoon. Participants are welcome to arrive early on Friday to settle in and request private meetings with the facilitators. After dinner, we come together for an opening circle for introductions and intention setting with cacao. Saturday is devoted to deep medicine work with 5-MeO-DMT, where participants are guided through a series of progressively deeper journeys with the medicine, with time for reflection and sharing in between. Sunday is devoted to integration, and after a closing circle, participants are invited to stay on property for a flexible afternoon to receive massage (available as an add on), sauna, hot tub, dip in the ocean, walk, rest, or to engage in other forms of integration.
Following the retreat, we will touch base with each participant in an integration meeting over Zoom or in-person if they are in Vancouver.
Intake Process:We welcome you to review our retreat offering and website to learn more about us, our work, and our approach. We ask all those interested in our Self Contact Retreat or private or couple sessions to email us at [email protected] to book a free one-hour consultation on Zoom or in-person if local to Vancouver. We can discuss where you are at and what you are looking for out of the experience and whether our medicine and approach are a right fit for you.
Prior to coming in for the consultation, we ask you to fill out a short questionnaire that includes information on contraindications, safety checks, and medication evaluation.
Supplemental Modalities: In addition to the modalities mentioned above, we draw from Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic Therapy, and Person-Centered therapy perspectives, honouring your choices and viewing all human experiences with humility.Psychedelic Substances Offered: 5-MeO-DMTHow does this Center source medicine?:We source our medicine from a company that specializes in providing safe and high-quality medicines for psychedelic practitioners. They have strict manufacturing requirements and test all batches for purity. In addition to their process, we send all medicine that we receive from them for third-party testing and take our own medicine prior to serving it to others.
Practice reciprocity with local communities?: YesPhotos
Reviews
3 Reviews on “Earthlings Institute”
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Retreat Info
Details
Our Process
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Reviews
3 Reviews on “Earthlings Institute”
Leave a Review
This retreat was one of the most impactful experiences of my life. The space was beautiful and the food was amazing. Helena and Sagan had everything well organized from intention setting, preparation, swimming, hot tub, music, sauna, medicine sessions, reflection, meditation, integration. We were all very well supported and we became very close over the weekend. The whole support team was knowledgeable and experienced and adapted to what was needed in the moment. The retreat would have been worth it even without the medicine.
With the medicine, I worked through some difficult experiences and emotions and in the end I experienced the core of consciousness with everything else stripped away. It was a perfect place of stillness and pure bliss. It was like coming home to the place I started and where I will go back to in the end. I realized that that place is always available to all of us and it is what we are all seeking, even though we may not know it with our rational minds, or remember. I’m grateful that Sagan and Helena helped me find that place. Now that I recognize it, I am able to access it in my everyday life by just being in the moment with activities, or going inside with breathwork and meditation. I experienced the place that meditators and monks talk about getting to, that I’ve attempted to get to over the years, that part of me thought sounded kind of boring. It turns out it’s not boring – it’s perfect.
I was developing a fear of death in the second half of my life, which was impacting my ability to fully live life. I found myself worrying more than I wanted to. Since the retreat my fear of death seems to be gone. I see worry pop up here and there but it seems to just bounce off me now. If this is the kind of depth you are looking for (all the way) in your inner work, then this retreat is for you.
I recently attended the Self Contact Retreat this March 22, 2024. It was so profoundly transformative that language does fail to describe this life altering experience!! What was so extraordinary about the experience were the Guides Sagan & Helena. It was my first time with the ‘medicine’ and the space they created was filled with Trust for one another, I felt very safe & supported and deeply cared for. This allowed me to fall deeply & divinely into a place in my heart that fully awakened an unconditional love I had not meet before. Their guidance, patience & understanding for not only the ‘medicine’ yet of each individual participant who was there, is unlike any retreat I had attended. The weekend and friends I made will forever be indelibly etched in time. It is remarkable the Heart Space they live from. I feel so blessed to have found them for my initial journey. I would Wholeheartedly recommend them Heart & Soul if you are wanting to walk this sacred and extraordinary path.❤️.
I recently attended their 3 day Self Contact retreat in Vancouver. There was an initial consultation which allowed us to get to know each other followed by a preparatory session for me to ask questions, discuss intentions, etc. These were instrumental in my feeling comfortable and prepared for the retreat which was truly amazing. There were 5 of us participating and 4 facilitators who were incredibly kind and competent. We got to know each other Friday afternoon and evening. There was plenty of education, intention setting and safety discussions. Saturday was a sauna and cold-plunge prior to the meditation then handshake, hug and full-embrace doses we started at 10am. These lasted all day until our celebratory dinner together. I felt 15 pounds lighter Sunday from the trauma purging and enlightenment. 2 weeks later there was an integration Zoom session with Sagan and Helena. I made 8 friends that weekend and began the start of my Life 2.0. I can’t recommend this retreat enough.