Most people think Ayahuasca is a drug. A trip. Something you do once to see some visuals and come back with a good story. Sam Believ has sat with over 3,000 people at Lawayra — the highest-rated ayahuasca retreat in South America — and he'll tell you that couldn't be further from the truth.Sam is a Latvian engineer who walked away from a six-figure offshore oil and gas career, landed in Colombia, and found himself more lost than ever. Ayahuasca didn't just help him heal — it gave him a purpose he didn't see coming. Now he runs the biggest retreat in the country, hosts the Ayahuasca Podcast, and has made it part of his mission to reframe Colombia from drugs to medicine.We get into what actually happens inside a ceremony — the weeks of preparation, the moment you drink, the purging, the music, the shaman's role — and why the West's obsession with isolating the active ingredient and stripping away the tradition might be the very thing that makes it less effective. Sam puts it simply: separating the medicine from its tradition is like separating a plant from its roots. Eventually it dies.We also get into the mental health piece — why a diagnosis isn't always the whole story, why making it part of your identity can actually keep you stuck, and what these medicines do that years of therapy alone often can't.If you've been curious about plant medicine — or skeptical of it — this one is worth your full attention.Connect with Traver:InstagramSubstackWebsiteReady to UNcivilize your life? Start hereMen, Join us in The UNcivilized Nation — a community of men doing the real workFind Sam Believ:WebsiteRetreatPodcastAyahuasca CourseChapter List 00:00 From Oil Rig Engineer to Ayahuasca Retreat Leader08:22 Ibogaine, Tradition, and Why Ceremony Still Matters17:34 Ceremony Walkthrough: What to Expect28:57 What a Shaman Actually Sees34:49 Understanding Mental Health: A Dual Perspective42:59 The Spiritual Awakening Through Ayahuasca50:42 AI, Purpose, and the Future of Community58:04 Where to Find Sam

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