For thousands of years, ayahuasca has found use in Amazonian traditions for healing, spiritual exploration, and deep personal transformation. In 2012, a foundational study drawing from 2,267 ceremonies further hinted at the psychoactive beverage’s promise in treating depression, anxiety, trauma, and PTSD. Through qualitative assessments, participants reported reduced alcohol intake, healthier dieting, improved moods, and greater self-acceptance.
Today in 2025, ayahuasca’s presence has broadened into modern wellness and therapeutic spaces, with California emerging as a hub for those seeking guided experiences. However, even with city-wide decriminalization in Oakland and Santa Cruz, the psychedelic legal landscape remains complex. Through an overview of California’s legal policies and an examination of reputable retreats, this guide presents an informed approach to ayahuasca retreats in the Golden State.
Essential Legal Considerations When Choosing a Retreat in California
Even with local decriminalization efforts, federal law still applies, meaning risks persist. Here are key factors to consider when selecting a retreat with the highest level of legal protection:
- Religious Affiliation: Retreats operating under recognized religious exemptions offer greater legal security.
- Location: Cities like Oakland and Santa Cruz provide more lenient environments due to local decriminalization.
- Indigenous or Tribal Lands: While not traditionally associated with ayahuasca, Native American land operates under tribal sovereignty, offering some protection.
- Church Structure: Many retreats structure themselves as religious organizations to seek RFRA protections, but DEA approvals remain rare, with no new exemptions granted in over a decade.
While ayahuasca retreats continue to thrive in California, participants should carefully assess their risk tolerance and the legal standing of any ceremony they attend. As such, the next section explores seven trusted retreats in California, detailing their approaches, pricing, and what to expect in 2025.
Top 5 Ayahuasca Retreats in California for 2025
When selecting an ayahuasca retreat in California, several factors deserve careful consideration beyond just legal status. The experience, traditions, setting, and support systems vary significantly between providers. Here’s our comprehensive breakdown of the most reputable ayahuasca retreat options for California residents in 2025:
1. Best Personalized Healing Experiences: Sacred Valley Spiritual Retreats
 and outdoor natural settings on 2 acres.
The church welcomes people from all walks of life. Many participants are military veterans, corporate executives, and people seeking healing from past traumas. As such, the church emphasizes community support, offering integration calls and fostering connections among participants from all backgrounds.
3. Authentic Colombian Traditions in Northern California: Origen Sagrada
 and Chaliponga (Diplopterys cabrerana), a DMT-containing plant. According to New Life Rising, this simple approach differs from the complexity and additives of comparable mixtures. Each plant plays a specific role: B. caapi contains MAOIs (harmine, harmaline, and tetrahydroharmine) that activate DMT orally. The facilitators source ingredients responsibly to ensure pure and potent medicine for deep healing.
Ceremonial Structure and Support
The ceremonies happen in darkness, allowing participants to journey inward in small groups of twelve people. Experienced ayahuasqueros Matthew and Jeanae, trained in Peruvian Mestizo traditions, guide each session. Notably, they maintain a 1:3 facilitator-to-participant ratio to provide closely-attentive services throughout.
Ceremonies start at 6 PM and last about four hours. Participants gather around a fire afterward to reflect quietly and process their experiences together.
California Location Advantages
For California residents, New Life Rising is located a short flight away in Costa Rica. Given the indeterminate complexity of ayahuasca’s legal status in their state, this retreat provides a legal opportunity for guests to “step away from their daily lives and fully engage in the healing power of the medicine.” Furthermore, New Life Rising notes that a change of scenery may help in the healing process by stripping away the distractions of ‘daily life.’
5. Accessible, Donation-Based Plant Medicine Ceremonies: Two Birds Church
, with all facilitators certified in CPR and First Aid. Participants stay on their mats in a sacred space for six-hour ceremonies, ensuring deep, uninterrupted reflection.
Community and Integration Support
Two Birds fosters an inclusive, non-denominational environment where participants feel secure. Their digital integration course, Sunday meditations, and cacao ceremonies support long-term healing. Ceremony groups also stay connected through dedicated chat spaces for ongoing support.
Ayahuasca Retreat Price Comparison: Investment Options for Your Healing Journey
 or complementary plant medicines that improve your experience.
The value matters more than the price. Expert facilitators, proper medical screening, and complete integration support often justify higher costs. These elements ensure your healing experience stays safe and works well.
California’s Evolving Psychedelic Legal Landscape: What You Need to Know in 2025
Much of ayahuasca’s scrutiny is due to its psychoactive compound, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. This classification makes its use, possession, and distribution illegal in most circumstances. However, key legal developments in California have created gray areas where certain ceremonies operate with reduced legal risk.
City-Level Decriminalization: Oakland, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco
Following psilocybin decriminalization in Denver, Colorado in 2019, Oakland became the first U.S. city to decriminalize the possession and use of entheogenic plants, including ayahuasca. Following Oakland’s lead, Santa Cruz passed a similar measure in early 2020, and later, San Francisco joined the movement in 2022. While these measures fell short of total legalization, they deprioritized law enforcement efforts against personal use and cultivation, creating a local environment where ceremonies could operate with less risk of prosecution.
California’s Legislative Journey: SB 58, SB 1012, and Current Status
Years later, Senate Bill 58 (SB 58) followed in 2023 as a state-wide push to expand decriminalization beyond individual Californian cities. A streamlined version of Senator Scott Wiener’s Senate Bill 519, SB 58 aimed to decriminalize the possession and use of several natural psychedelics, including ayahuasca, psilocybin, and mescaline (excluding peyote). It passed both houses of the state legislature, suggesting growing bipartisan support for psychedelic decriminalization.
However, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill in October 2023. While he supported further research and therapeutic implementation of psychedelics, he cited insufficient psychedelic framework and safeguards for California’s public health.
The next year, Scott Wiener proposed a framework focused on regulated services in SB 1012, but it was turned down due to budgetary constraints. While the future of psychedelic reform in California remains unclear for now, legislative success will likely involve a more structural approach, potentially including licensing requirements similar to those in Oregon.
2025 Update: SB 751 and the Veterans and First Responders Research Program
Legislative efforts continue to shape California’s stance on psychedelics today, particularly in therapeutic settings. SB 751, introduced earlier this year, proposes a ‘Veterans and First Responders Research Pilot Program.’ This initiative, running until January 1, 2031, would authorize the California Health and Human Services Agency to oversee research into psilocybin services for targeted populations in up to five counties. In partnership with the University of California system, the program would focus on protocol design, training facilitators, and gathering data from mental health clinics, veterans facilities, and hospice programs.
While SB 751 does not legalize psilocybin use outside research settings, it represents a step toward broader acceptance of psychedelic therapy. In the meantime, many veterans seeking plant-based healing turn to retreats in Oregon, where regulations are more accommodating.
Religious Freedom Protections: Legal Pathways for Ceremonial Ayahuasca Use
Religious use of ayahuasca has legal precedent in the U.S. under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The landmark Supreme Court case Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal (2006) ruled that certain religious groups could legally import and consume ayahuasca for sacramental purposes. A similar decision in Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey reinforced these protections for the Santo Daime tradition. However, these exemptions are limited to recognized religious organizations, and obtaining DEA approval remains a formidable hurdle.