Sound of light is a medicine circle in Florestral community

Reviews (8)

4.4 out of 5
Overall 4.4
  • Lima
    Lima
    October 13, 2022 at 10:24 am

    Sound of Light is a magical little haven of wonder and love where colours and energies can shine just a little brighter. It has been a blessing to have been able to spend some time there as the Florestral community continues to fill my heart with gratitude and connection.
    They have jummy organic, mostly vegan food, a lushious rainforest and incredible river, beautiful temple spaces but mostly a dedicated and loving group of people that will make you feel right at home while just as well giving you the space for your own healing journey. If you have the chance, go! It will change your life for the better.

  • freshfish_r
    freshfish_r
    September 29, 2022 at 12:31 am

    Spirit is very present here. The connection is alive. The medicine comes from the land, is prepared here, with love, care, and gratitude at every step. The small container creates intimacy and a sense of safety, to allow the unfolding to occur. The ceremony facilitators are very professional, and attentive to detail. The hosting centre staff are very accommodating and passionate for the way of life and for what they do. I was blessed with the privilege of being able to participate in ceremonies, for my own experience, exploration, and healing, and also as a volunteer, to be entrusted in the capacity as a helper. Both were powerful experiences in my path towards healing, and in my journey toward stepping into my purpose. The music is incredible, and the invitation to co-create in the energy of the circle was much of the power in my own experience. The love here is real, and it was difficult to decide to leave such a magical place. I look forward to a future reunion.

  • Pleiadian
    Pleiadian
    July 13, 2022 at 9:47 am

    Florestral is a magical place, a beautiful location abundance in nature, kissed by Father Sun and carried by Mother Earth. I spent three months here on a volunteer program that has changed and transformed my life definitely. A beautiful place for healing on multiple levels, a deeper discovery of love and coming home to yourself. It is an open hearted community based on friendship and service to Mother Nature. Whether you come as a volunteer or as a guest, you will be welcomed into the family with love. A very safe place if you feel the call to work with plant medicines. I’ll be back for sure!

  • Buckley
    Buckley
    June 14, 2022 at 9:07 am

    First time in Florestral and I felt like I was part of the family already! The 2 ceremonies were absolutely amazing and held with love and great care. The food was absolutely delightful. That space is so beautiful and the nature around is well incorporated and contribute to all the magic of the place. The crew is also really kind ànd loving, I felt supported and had a great time with the volunteers too! I feel I could have stayed much longer!

  • Richhand
    Richhand
    June 10, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    Exceptional. I spent a couple of weeks at the retreat and then spent many more. Amazing people. I’ve been involved with Ayahuasca for a few years and this retrest is my favourite. I’m returning in a few months!

  • miliozapata
    miliozapata
    June 5, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    My time in Florestral has been a true blessing! I felt at home and in a safe place as soon as I arrived and interacted with the place and members. The medicine is grown there on the land and the tradition and values of ceremonies are very well established. My ceremonies there were extremely profound, the music played by Vismay and Nicole are a major help in navigating the flow of the ceremonies.

    The land is magical, with access to a river and waterfall, beautiful fruit trees and plants all around, and magical animal that make their appearance from time to time.

    The food is mostly vegan, with some vegetarian dishes, and so yummy!

    Overall, I feel like I made the right choice doing my first ceremony there, it’s a very organic and comforting environment to be in, I appreciate all of you for your work and for your care and love while I was there.

    Aho

    IMG_5481

  • PrismaticLove
    PrismaticLove
    February 24, 2022 at 9:23 am

    Soul Brother Dane who is a facilitator had sexual interactions with me while on his Expansion 2022 retreat at Sound of Light/Florestral. His company is called Luminous Collective and he holds retreats and works with Sound of Light/ Florestral.
    His behavior was predatorial, manipulative, careless and harmful.
    I was promised guidance and a safe and sacred space to work with plant medicine but instead my trust and safety was violated and he got sexual with me only a few days after ceremonies. The medicine was still flowing through me strongly I was extremely vulnerable, i went to Florestral to heal, not to be traumatized by a guide/shaman.

    A few days prior he pulled me aside while on Peyote as i was struggling with the effects of it to talk specifically about my sexual traumas in private. I told him everything cause i thought I was in good hands and he went ahead and crossed major boundaries with me as a facilitator a few days later in his private room without any care or concern for how it would affect me or my process. I was vulnerable, receptive and trusting his guidance.

    It gets worse:

    I shared the truth after I returned back home with Nicole who is one of the owners at Florestal. I wanted to give her a chance to address this instead of going public right away and I figured it’s the right thing to do to let her know what went on behind closed doors so she knows who she is working and associating with.
    Immediately she projected her own idea of what happened onto me without even knowing anything about the situation. Holding on to dear life of her perception of Soul Brother Dane.

    She was extremely manipulative without an ounce of compassion telling me I must have enjoyed it.
    Trying to change my perception of what happened, and telling me that ayahuasca amplifies things and I must have perceived it to be predatory. Completely ignoring the fact that one of her facilitators just got sexual with a guest.
    Speaking with her triggered my PTSD and chronic stomach pains so our our communication continued in writing. Then she had the nerve to use the word victim mentality on me saying that I’m in a victim mindset. Classic gaslighting! A women speaking up about sexual misconduct/violation is the opposite of victimhood.

    I am disgusted, furious and disappointed by how Florestal decided to handle this situation. Telling me I’m making allegations instead of taking the right and appropriate action of removing this unsafe person from the medicine space immediately and taking other appropriate actions (I was open to her suggestions on it.)

    Especially being a woman herself i was shocked to see her reaction and disturbed by how relentlessly she was defending her business and trying to distort my perception on what i know with 100% certainty happened while I was in this sensitive and difficult place. Incredibly self serving and psychologically abusive.

    I closed off communication with her specifically cause it was toxic and harmful.
    To this day I haven’t heard from the other facilitators that i informed or someone else from Florestal. Which puts future guests at a major risk.

    I’m shedding light on this because somebody has to. Centers that take on this great responsibility of guiding people through a healing plant medicine experience need to have better policies in place, bring awareness to this topic (sexual boundaries/misconduct/violations etc.) and if something like this does happen it is their responsibility to take the right actions necessary. Which Florestal hasn’t done!
    Make up your own mind if this is the right place for you, just know that if something goes wrong you’ll be made wrong.

    I hope Florestal replaces their leaders with people that have integrity and have a genuine desire for people’s healing, well being and safety. If not the public should be aware of it so they can make an informed decision if they want to go to Florestal or not. Human lives, minds and hearts are on the line. I also hope that the plant medicine community takes a strong stands on this and pressures centers to do the right thing. Whether it’s physical, sexual, emotional or psychological abuse it has to stop!

    Update, it is now March 12th 2022.
    The owner of Florestral reached out to me a few days ago after seeing my review. For authenticities sake I’m sharing it with you as well as my reply. Here it is:

    My name is Vismay and I am the founder & chief of Florestral.
    I was busy with some projects and got updated about this sad and upsetting issue very recently. I am sorry that I did not hear about it earlier.
    I take this matter very seriously and am very very upset with Dane’s behavior.
    I have suspended him from any further facilitation in Florestral.
    In the 10 years that we are in Florestral and 16 years of work with helpers and facilitators, this is the first time that this kind of thing happens. The ‘Expansion’ retreat is until now the only one that we do not facilitate directly and in whole. For our helpers and facilitators the guidelines exist and so this never happened until now.
    I am taking further steps to make sure that all crew, staff and even volunteers that stay here for long periods, knows the boundaries very well and are aware of the consequences. We will take more steps to ensure that facilitators that rent our space as the Expansion did, are well monitored.
    I would like to ask you to please remove your review in the ayaadvisor site as it does harm us and is sad that after all the good work we do here, people will get this impression. I do thank you for bringing it to our attention. Please excuse Nicole, I should have been the one to handle this. I am also happy to invite you to participate without cost in one of the retreats that we are holding here so can get a feel of our integrity.
    Thank you for your attention, I will be happy to hear back from you and am here to assist.
    Blessings
    Vismay

    Here is my reply:

    Hello Vismay,

    I wish I would have gotten a message like this sooner, it would have saved me a lot of distress and upset after an already traumatizing experience that I’m still working through and probably will for a while. And it also wouldn’t have gotten me to the point where I was left with no other choice but to go public about my experience with Nicole in addition to Dane.

    Im relieved to hear about the actions you have taken and will be taking regarding this matter. I take you by your word and i hope that that is the truth.

    In the interest of full transparency I’m not going to erase the review because it has happened and it has been my experience. But what I will do is to update it when I have time with your response.

    Aside from my experience with Dane I had a beautiful time while at Florestal and I have seen the work and heart you guys put into it. I will add that in my update on ayaadvisor. All of this has left me with a lot of distress, hurt, anger but mostly sadness.

    While I appreciate the offer to take part in another retreat that’s not something I feel comfortable doing.
    My intentions from the beginning were honoring the truth, accountability and safety for future guests and I’m happy that that is finally happening.

    Aho

    • Vismay
      Vismay
      March 30, 2022 at 4:31 am

      Firstly we would like to clarify that the care, health and wellbeing of our guests is of utmost priority. We take feedback from our guests seriously, not disregarding what they have experienced. Our intention has, and always will be to offer support with discernment, improve where needed and arrive to resolution. As soon as we were made aware of this participant’s accusations regarding the interaction with one of the facilitators, we began investigating into it. The accused facilitator is an external facilitator who came to the centre to host a retreat with his mother, as they have done for four previous years. We know him during this time and his integrity has always been spotless, hence it has was a big surprise receiving this feedback. To honor the complaint of the participant and give time for investigation and resolution to happen, we immediately suspended this facilitator from working at our center. At our center, all facilitators and crew are trained to keep clear boundaries and not follow attractions nor pursue becoming intimate with any guest. We understand the delicacy and vulnerability of anyone within a healing space. We even recommend participants not to put their attention onto pursuing involvement with another participant during a retreat if some form of attraction arises. Facilitators must hold integrity within the attention given to participants, as even holding a hand to offer support can be misinterpreted. For what it is worth, the facilitator has a different version of what happened between them. As a safety response to this, we are refreshing all of our team, volunteers, internal and external facilitators about appropriate conduct with participants and each other. We are also reviewing the wording in our agreements for external facilitators to ensure there be no ambiguity in what is appropriate and acceptable behavior. Any interaction that hints towards boundary crossing will be reported to the management, this is applicable to both facilitator and guest and one on one check ins will be handled according gender specific. The wellbeing of everyone who arrives at Florestral is essential and we continue to learn, evolve and ensure that this continues. We also wanted to acknowledge the dissatisfaction expressed towards our co-founder Nicole, and her handling of the communication between her and the participant. As mentioned, we take feedback like this seriously. Nicole has many years of experience in facilitation and working closely with participants with a range of needs and always attempts understanding the whole situation before making a decision, in the best interest and safety of anyone involved. We, the management of Florestral responded to this situation the best we can and will learn from it. We hope that the situation will arrive to a resolution between the two people involved.

  • Gordo
    Gordo
    June 7, 2018 at 12:37 pm

    This is a very good aya center and I had a very positive experience here. They follow the guidelines in the “ayahuasca manifesto” (google it), they grow the ingredients right there at the center, they take safety seriously and interview everyone for medical conditions and contraindicated medications, etc. and make sure you have the right motivations. The location is wonderful with the rushing stream in the background, and the rainforest sounds all around you. Costa Rica also has phenomenal tourist attractions, rain forests, volcanoes, some of the best white water rafting in the world, wonderful beaches, snorkeling, national parks, wildlife, etc. The Diamante falls is right near Sound of Light, makes a great day hike. All that said, psychedelics should not be a group activity in my opinion, so the whole concept is kind of ridiculous when you really think about it (people will be crying, making noises, puking, all around you which can be distracting, and while I enjoyed most of the music, it was certainly better than those annoying icaros they do in South America, some of the selections detracted from my experience – did they really need to blast pink floyd, seriously?). Ayahuasca makes you feel sick, which some people say is an important part of the ceremony (purging is cathartic and all that) but I don’t buy into that, and if you had a version made from purified extracts, you don’t get sick like that – of course no aya center will serve purified extracts as it wouldn’t be “authentic” (or legal in most countries). The preparation you do before the ceremony is essential to success, intent is extremely important, and you should have a positive attitude and be eagerly desiring the experience or you probably won’t like what happens. Its certainly not for everyone, but if you want to do it, do your research and prepare your mind well in advance. I don’t personally recommend extended “retreats” either, just go for one night, for the ceremony. Most people need months to integrate their experience, doing it 2, 3, or more times in one week or combined with other drugs, is a bad idea, let it settle in, the integration takes time, don’t combine other drugs with aya even on different nights. Pura vida.

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