Retreat Info
About the Retreat:A three-step psychedelic retreat program, set in the backdrop of the Netherlands' forest, offering a natural way to refresh your mind and reconnect with your body. Under the care of our our expert guides, you’ll discover how to transform old habits and patterns into more beneficial thoughts and behaviour, creating more calm, clarity and creativity in your life.
Description of Services:In this psychedelic retreat, you'll be guided by our community of experts from intake to integration. We offer a comprehensive learning program consisting of meditation and breathwork practices leading up to a profound psychedelic experience with safe and legal truffles containing natural psilocybin. In your journey inward, we will assist you with the proper guidance, meditative practices, and immersive live music to help you reach your deepest state.
Your preparation starts with our psychedelic Masterclass in the Spinoza app. This is followed by a two-hour online preparation workshop where you meet your guides and curated group of other participants who will join you on your journey. You’ll learn how psychedelics work on a physiological level as we explore a number of meditation and breathwork practices, creating a stronger mind-body connection. With this, you will attain the proper knowledge and practical skills to confidently start your journey.
The pinnacle of the program is a beautiful psychedelic ceremony with immersive live music in our cozy yurt. This takes place during a one-day and one-night retreat in the midst of a lush forest. Based on your preferences and intention, you’ll receive a moderate to high dose of truffles containing natural psilocybin, allowing you to access deeper levels of consciousness. We mark the end of the ceremony with a five course organic meal, sourced from our garden, where we share our experiences and learn from each near a fireplace.
We take care of every detail, so you can comfortably turn your attention inward.
What follows the ceremony is an integration workshop, where as a group, we explore and reflect on the insights and challenges we may have encountered during our psychedelic journey together. In this workshop you will receive expert guidance and loving support to process your insights and evaluate their meaning. With this, you'll gain access to our Spinoza app, providing you daily practices, meditation, and breath-work tools to integrate your learnings into your daily life.
Practitioners:Janneke :
Janneke has been teaching meditation, breathwork and yoga for over a decade, while exploring the fields of plant medicine. She has been guiding personal growth processes, assisting people to find more clarity in the various challenges of life. In each ceremony she brings a peaceful and powerful presence, using her soulful voice and music. Janneke aims to reconnect people to their most authentic selves.Maarten :
Maarten has been teaching meditation and assisting people to make the journey inward for nearly fifteen years. As the founder of Spinoza, the organisation forms the pinnacle of a personal journey with plant medicine which started in 1999. With silence, music, plants and fungi he guides people toward their own natural wisdom. Maarten’s mission is to discover and utilise the enormous health potential of natural medicine and nature therapy. Apart from his work, Maarten is a proud father to Philip, Alexander and Victoria, and a dedicated husband to Anna.Aleksandra :
Aleksandra has both a psychological academic background and a BBA degree. She brings a unique perspective, humour and professionalism to each ceremony. As a psychedelic guide and transformation coach, she helps people navigate altered states of consciousness comfortably and supports people back to personal alignment and harmony. Aleksandra has solid experience guiding people before, during and after psychedelic experiences.Marijn
For Marijn, working with psychedelics has been an integral part of his path in life. As both an ACT-coach at the University of Wageningen and trained mediator, he brings a depth of educational knowledge and compassionate wisdom to his guidance in ceremony. Marijn feels called to support others in reconnecting to the simplicity of being and the pure beauty of nature. He brings insight and alignment where needed, sharing his music and mantras with a beautiful voice and gentle guitar strum. At home, Marijn is a loving parent of two boys and a little girl, together with his wife Veerle.Merel
As a holistic guide and plant medicine practitioner, Merel’s work is dedicated toward fostering inner joy and self-connection. With her work she ultimately wants to contribute to a way of living that enriches all life on Earth, supporting biodiversity and ecosystem health. Merel also teaches yoga classes and programs in nonviolent communication.Hidde
After a severe accident, Hidde’s journey with psychedelics started through his own research and personal experience with the benefits of plant medicine and microdosing. This healing experience was the starting point of a new journey, leading him to work in several reputable institutions in the field of holistic care and psychedelic therapy. He believes that psychedelics can play an essential role in establishing a more holistic view on healthcare in Western society.Georg
Georg’s approach is rooted in transpersonal psychology, holding certificates in personal coaching and music therapy. He is currently completing a Master’s in Psychology, specialising in the psychedelic experience. As a multi-instrumentalist, his approach to guidance in ceremony includes an integration of music and meditation. Following his passion for music, he has performed around the world from the deserts of Burning Man to the fields of Glastonbury.Team/Medical Staff:We have both an in-house therapist and doctor available on a case by case basis.
Details
Founder(s) / CEO: Maarten van Huijstee, Aito de la RuaGroup Size: 10-12Price Range: 1198 EurosOur Process
Overview of Experience:A three-step psychedelic retreat program offering a natural way to refresh your mind and reconnect with your body. Under the safety of our expert guides, you'll discover how to transform old habits and patterns into more beneficial thoughts and behaviour, creating more calm, clarity and creativity in your life.
Intake Process:We start every application with an intake call - where we can get an understanding of what you hope to achieve through a psychedelic retreat program, and whether our services are right for you.
Psychedelic Substances Offered: Psilocybin (Psychedelic Truffles)How does this Center source medicine?:We grow our organic truffles in a nearby local farm - east of the Netherlands
Practice reciprocity with local communities?: YesPhotos
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Reviews
1 Review on “Spinoza”
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Retreat Info
Details
Our Process
Photos
Video
Reviews
1 Review on “Spinoza”
Leave a Review
Traveled from southern Germany to attend and it was well worth it. A wonderful experience that I highly recommend. The atmosphere (or the “vibe”) is really pleasant and positive and all the people – both from Spinoza and the other guests – were great. The tone was always just right.
I was a little unsure, going into it, about the idea of live music, since a lot of more clinical places (like Johns Hopkins) use headphones, but it was fantastic. The music and the lyrics (mostly in English, with some Dutch and, if I recall correctly, other languages) were perfectly suited and really helped a lot. A couple people said afterwards “I kept getting lines in the singing that were exactly what I needed to hear.” (I later bought our guide’s album, which I treasure, and I’m sure the other guides have excellent music too.)
Having had prior experience with psychedelics, I took a larger dose than the rest, and enjoyed it enormously. (Had had a fair amount of LSD and mushrooms in the past, but that had ended nearly two decades ago, and I wanted a safe and positive place to trip again – and got more out of it in my late forties than I had in my teens and twenties.) Really saw clearly inside my own mind, and figured a number of things out about myself. (It was, as Horace might say, «dulce et utile».) Some people, even with smaller doses, had rather emotional trips and faced some challenging problems, but by the end everyone was so happy for having gone through what they did. Many people shed something unhelpful, and everybody gained something valuable.
The dinner after the ceremony was more than just a break to our fast, but itself a warm experience of community. Though there was nothing explicitly religious about it, it had something of the character of a “love feast,” though perhaps gentler. We all sat around one big table, feeling a bit tired yet renewed. I didn’t think beforehand that the dinner was going to be significant, but it turned out to be the perfect complement to the psilocybin experience preceding it. And the food was delicious.
It was really lovely after the meal and some informal post-dinner talk to go back to the beautiful yurt and spend the night there, and I think everyone slept really well. In the morning everyone was cheery and grateful and open-hearted, and I really enjoyed listening to other people describe (as well as one can) their experiences.
There are some other companies that offer longer retreats, and if you can afford that, you might prefer that. But for a 24-hour retreat at a reasonable price, Spinoza was perfect, and I’m very glad I picked them. There’s also preparation beforehand, through Zoom meetings and a rather good app, and follow-up afterwards. A psilocybin retreat is not for everybody, but it *is* for a lot of people, including people who maybe wouldn’t have considered it in the past. I thought Spinoza was fabulous and am so glad they’re doing the good work they’re doing. I look back on the time with fondness and have recommended it wholeheartedly to friends.