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.

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Chapter List 

00:00 From Oil Rig Engineer to Ayahuasca Retreat Leader

08:22 Ibogaine, Tradition, and Why Ceremony Still Matters

17:34 Ceremony Walkthrough: What to Expect

28:57 What a Shaman Actually Sees

34:49 Understanding Mental Health: A Dual Perspective

42:59 The Spiritual Awakening Through Ayahuasca

50:42 AI, Purpose, and the Future of Community

58:04 Where to Find Sam