VISION
Online Portion of the Program
700 hours
The online portion of our training involves 3 immersions related to the three pathways that students choose. The online immersions will be divided into two components: teaching classes and experiential workshops.
The teaching classes will be led by educators with vast experience in different fields of knowledge around psychedelic research, transpersonal psychology and integrative psychotherapy, grief and death work, psychosis, systems theory, sexuality and eroticism, and cross-cultural indigenous perspectives. The online learning process will involve 700 work hours, and students are expected to dedicate around 7 hours a week to their study. Within each module, there will be a 90-120 minute theoretical lecture each week with the teachers, plus complimentary readings, homework assignments, meetings with the tutors, and interaction with peers on the online learning platform.
The online workshops will be guided by skilful facilitators who will dynamically support students into an experiential and embodied process of self-discovery, which compliments the theoretical learning component of the training program. Students will be required to actively participate in an interactive learning environment, where they can develop their awareness, access their creativity, and engage hands-on to learn new tools, as well as to deepen their practice through direct experience. Students will be required to take 1 workshop consisting of 9 classes per immersion related to their pathway, and they will also have the option of taking an additional workshop per immersion which inspires their learning.
Residential Portion of the Program
Retreats and Pilgrimages - 700 hours
Students will attend two 10-day intensives each year for a total of six intensives throughout the three-year program.
The intensive-retreats are dedicated to experiential therapies where students will have the opportunity to do personal healing work and develop self-knowledge, while at the same time learning firsthand from expert teachers while they work with non-ordinary states of consciousness, psychedelics, bodywork, gestalt, family constellations, and meditation.
The intensive-pilgrimages are powerful journeys to indigenous territories where students can begin to build relationships with authentic mystical communities and elders while learning from their shamanic traditions and power plants. We are usually received as locals as we have been developing relationships with these communities for many years. Many have gifted us tribal land inside their reservations where we have built small community houses which accommodate our students during their pilgrimage.
Through years of conversation with the political leaders and spiritual elders of these communities, the pilgrimages in these territories are carefully designed to give voice to what these traditions want to show to the world. Therefore, it is essential that we arrive to their lands and learn from their ways with the utmost respect, sensitivity and care.
Psychedelic
Medicine
Indigenous
Wisdom
Liminality
Death
Web of Life
Sexuality
& Eroticism
MYSTERY
Integrative
Psychotherapy
Introduction to the Program
Online Introduction to Ecstatic Mysticism
This 3-month introduction to the program begins August 2024
01
Comparative Mysticism & Transpersonal Psychology
02
Enneagram & Characterology
03
Introduction to the 7 Pathways/Specialities
04
Encuadre
workshop options
1 - Transcendental Music Therapy
2 - Psychedelic Stewardship
3 - Embodied Liberation: Breaking Patterns, Embracing Authenticity
Residential Introductory Retreat
There will be 2 groups attending this retreat in December 2024 and January 2025
Noesis
Guasca - Colombia
Our first transpersonal retreat incorporates enneagram and self-knowledge, gestalt, spontaneous movement, breathwork, core shamanism, and experiential dynamics around the inner healer, the triune brain, and love. There will be opportunities to have first-hand experience with psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and group work.
At the end of the introductory portion of the program, the AWE team will further assess and discern whether the 3-year training program is suitable for each participant. Students who seem to possess compatibility for the program will receive an invitation to the full training.
Online Body of the Program
Main Pathways
choose three core specializations from the following seven learning pathways
Psychedelic Medicine
Indigenous Wisdom
& Modern Entheogenic Practices
01
Screening and Preparation
02
Ethics
03
Crisis & Care
04
Healing with Psychedelics 1 (LSD)
05
Healing with Psychedelics 2 (MDMA)
06
Healing with Psychedelics 3 (KETAMINE)
workshop
Case Studies and Supervision
01
Entheogenic Shamanism(s)
02
Ethnopharmacognosy
03
Intercultural Perspectives on Indigenous Wisdom
04
Healing with Entheogens 1 (Ayahuasca)
05
Healing with Entheogens 2 (Mushrooms)
06
Healing with Entheogens 3 (Iboga)
workshop
Shamanism: An Ancestral Path
Death
Web of Life
Deep Ecology and Systemic Theory
01
Western Existential Philosophies and Death
02
Eastern Philosophies and Death
03
Working with Grief & Loss
04
Death and Psychedelics
05
End-of-life Transition Care
06
Shamanism, Death & Ancestors
workshop
The Death Lodge: Ritually Embracing Your Own Death
01
Systems Thinking and Deep Ecology
02
Indigenous Views on Systemic Wisdom
03
Cosmology and Planetary Evolution
04
Society and Human Evolution
05
Practical Activism
06
The Work That Reconnects
workshop
Seeds of Change
Liminality
Madness and Mysticism
Integrative Psychotherapy
01
The Science of Psychosis and Psychopathology
02
Cultural Perspectives in Mental Health
03
Transpersonal Perspectives: Spiritual Emergence and Renewal Process
04
Systemic Perspectives: A Process-oriented View of Extreme States
05
Practical Approaches for Working with Spiritual Crises
06
Crazywisdom - Buddhist Philosophy
workshop
Hearing Voices
01
Understanding the Flow and Interruption to Awareness
02
Suppressive, Expressive, and Integrative techniques
03
Un-walking Trauma
04
Integrative Techniques
05
Basics of Systemic Therapy
06
Dreamwork
workshop
Therapeutic Process
Sexuality & Eroticism
01
Consent and Power in Sexuality
02
Sexuality and Culture
03
Healing, Sex & Eros
04
Mysticism & Sex |
05
Kink & Taboos
06
Mysticism & Sex ||
workshop
Group Process around Sex & Eros
In this retreat, the field of sexuality and eroticism will be studied and explored through an integrative, multidisciplinary, and experiential approach.
Rapture
TBA
Optional Workshops
workshop
Therapeutic Process
workshop
Compassionate Action
workshop
Mindfulness
workshop
Sound, Voice & Music
workshop
Soul-Centred Dreamwork
workshop
Family Constellations and Therapy
Closure of Ecstatic Mysticism
01
Social Practice & Supervision
Dissertation with Ubiquity University (optional)
02
Residential Body of the Program
Specialized Retreats and Pilgrimages
Choose five in-person intensives in relation to your learning pathways
Sia Theci
Sucumbios - Ecuador
The Cofan people are an ancestral indigenous tribe native to the Sucumbíos and Putumayo amazon regions of northeast Ecuador and southern Colombia. They are experts in the knowledge of yage (ayahuasca). This pilgrimage takes part within their reservation in the jungle where we are able to have access to the oldest and most knowledgeable shamans of their tribe. It is not a private-western-influenced retreat center, we are welcomed by the whole community inside their villages and houses.
Darkness
Tepoztlán - Mexico
The illuminating power of darkness has been an initiation process used in the world's major mystical cultures. Both in the East within Taoism, Tibetan Bon and Dzogchen Buddhism and the Hindu Kaya Kalpa, as well as in the West in the Mayan, Kogui, and Diné traditions. During darkness the pineal gland is activated producing high levels of melatonin, pinoline, DMT, and 5-MeO-DMT.
This intensive is a death-rebirth recapitulation of 9 days in the womb and in darkness; with support of power plants, tryptophan-rich vibrational foods, psychotherapy, and non-meditation.
The Mirror
Colombia
This retreat explores links between psychedelic medicine, meditation practices, and oriental philosophies; particularly Taoism, Advaita Vedanta, and Dzogchen. Most of the retreat is in silent meditation, including the psychedelic sessions.
Iboga Initiation
Ngounie - Gabon
The Bwiti community in Mimongo is a mixture of Pygmaea, Massango, and Mitsogo shamans. They will offer us three initiation ceremonies: Initiation into Mabandji (possession trance), Missoku (consultation and healing), and Dissoumba (Bwiti). Students will be able to initiate in one of the three paths that they choose, and learn from the other two as supportive participants and observers. The village is two days into the jungle from Libreville the capital city (where the airport is) and each initiation will last many days, for this reason, this intensive has a duration of 20 days.
Wirikuta
San Luis Potosí - México
Wirikuta is the main pilgrimage site for the Wixaritari-Huichol people. Each year, hundreds of Huichol pilgrims journey to Wirikuta in search of the sacred peyote. Students will quest for vision in this sacred territory and perform mitote ceremonies with Wixaritari-Huichol elders. The Wixáritari identify the peyote with the deer and undertake an annual hunt with arrow and bow to obtain the Híkuri (Peyote). In Wixárica cosmogenesis it is in this place where the sun was born, Wirikuta is the center of the world, the place of the ancestor gods, the place where the sacred life of the tribe originates.
Samaúma
Huni Kuin - Brazil
This is a pilgrimage to a Huni Kuin Village in Acre, Brazil. To the knowledge that was kept by the grandparents, wrapped in the samaúma, the sacred tree.
Ecstasy
Colombia
This retreat is focused on the serpent power and the Goddess. It will be explored through archetypal shamanism focused on the Serpent Goddess, ecstatic African wisdom and possession trance states, tantra and kundalini practices, feminism, and therapeutic work around the reptilian brain, the instinct, wildness, and taboo.
Birth∞Death
Colombia
This retreat is a deep exploration around birth, death, resurrection, and rebirth. It also includes family and systemic constellation work for the wounded healer and the spirit. In addition to personal work, there will be space for therapeutic tools and models to be practiced. Students will begin to support supervised psychedelic sessions between each other.
Burn
Black Rock city - USA
Open to those who have never been there before, this pilgrimage is to burning man, the experience and the community. It starts and finishes in San Francisco, CA.
Uni
Yawanawa - Brazil
Pilgrimage to a Yawanawa village in Acre, Brazil.
zoom into the curriculum below:
Graduation and Certification
Upon completion of the three-year program, students will receive a certificate for 1400 hours in Ecstatic Mysticism and for students who choose Psychedelic Medicine, Indigenous Wisdom, and Integrative Psychotherapy as their three learning pathways, they will also receive a specialization in Psychedelic Medicine Healing.
In our alliance with Ubiquity University students who follow the Psychedelic Medicine, Indigenous Wisdom and Integrative Psychotherapy pathways are able to move on to complete a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Integrative Psychedelic Therapy or a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Psychedelic Studies. Those following other pathways may also be able to obtain an MA or PhD in Ecstatic Mysticism or a Doctorate of Ministry.
REQUIREMENTS FOR GRADUATION AND CERTIFICATION
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Students must attend all of their required and chosen retreats and pilgrimages, with a commitment to participating in the experiential practices within these intensives.
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Students must attend at least 7 out of the 9 workshop classes live, and complete their closing project after each workshop.
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Students must present their Journey Log to their small group after each retreat.
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Students must complete all of their academic homework assignments via the online learning platform.
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Students must complete a minimum of 8 inner-work sessions within each 9-month immersion.
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If students do not attend the teaching classes live, they will need to ensure that they watch the recordings.
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Students must be up to date in their payment schedule and administrative tasks.