If you’re navigating the complexities of Ayahuasca healing and you find yourself moving too fast on your path — pushing, improving, “doing the work,” yet still feeling that quiet internal pressure — this episode goes right to the heart of why.
Because that pressure isn’t random.
It’s the signature of a part of you that’s been left behind.

In this episode, we explore the core mistake almost everyone makes in deep healing: outrunning the very part of themselves that holds the truth, the timing, and the healing they seek. Through the story of a master diamond thief who searched everywhere for a diamond that was never lost — only hidden where he’d never think to look — we examine how most of us do the same in our spiritual and ayahuasca journeys.

What if the diamond you’re searching for was never missing… just placed in the one part of you you’ve been avoiding?
The slowest-moving part.
The tender part.

We go into the three phases of the Ayahuasca journey — Healing, Integration, and Transformation — and why they move in spirals, not straight lines. In this episode, we focus on the healing phase, the cocoon where you stop outrunning yourself and meet the parts of you that carry your real identity, your timing, your inner child, and the emotional truth that never disappears.

You’ll learn:

• Why most people run their healing at the same speed as their trauma, and why nothing lands when you’re ahead of your body
• The difference between fast energy (sympathetic activation) and slow energy (parasympathetic connection)
• How overwhelm drops you into dorsal freeze, and why this matters for your integration
• Why your slowest-moving parts are not the wound — they’re the doorway to your wholeness
• How Ayahuasca slows you down on purpose, so you can meet what you’ve been refusing to feel
• Why the “diamond” of your journey is hidden inside the part of you that refuses to move until you’re ready

We explore the four pillars of the healing phase — Surrender, Listen, Open, Warrior — and how SLOW becomes not just an acronym, but a nervous-system truth. Fast is fear. Fast is survival. Slow is where your soul lives. Slow is where the real medicine works.

This is an episode for anyone who has felt:

• “I’m behind in my own life.”
• “I’m ahead of myself, out of sync with my body.”
• “I’m doing everything right… so why am I still not landing?”
• “I’m exhausted from chasing clarity, purpose, or healing.”

If you’ve been searching for your wholeness, your purpose, your voice, your gifts — there is a real chance you left them behind with the part of you that moves the slowest.
And just like the diamond buyer who hid the gem in the thief’s own pocket, close to his own heart…
you may have been searching everywhere except the one place that holds everything you’re trying to find.

This episode invites you into the pace where real ayahuasca integration finally occurs.
The pace where healing becomes embodied.
The pace where transformation emerges naturally.
The pace where the diamond reveals itself.

Slow down — the treasure is closer than you think.

CONNECT WITH DAVID:

If you feel called to go deeper, I offer three journeys:

1. The Integration Circle
A six-month container for people walking the Ayahuasca path — real healing, real mirrors, real integration.

2. The Celebration Circle
Six months of learning to inhabit your life instead of chasing it.
Celebration isn’t the reward, it’s the rehearsal. It changes everything.

3. Sacred Impact
A six-month journey for transformational leaders who need their service, gifts, and vision brought into form, structure, and integrity.

Learn more or book a consult at davidvox.com.

Follow & connect:
🌿 Ayahuasca Integration Resources: ayahuascaintegration.org
📸 Instagram: @davidvox
📘 Facebook: Ayahuasca Integration Alliance
📺 YouTube: @Ayahuasca-Integration

Ayahuasca healing can transform your life in unexpected ways. In this episode, we explore the profound journey beyond trauma—that moment when healing shifts from repair to remembering the innate gifts you've always carried. With over a decade and more than a hundred ayahuasca ceremonies behind me, I share how this medicine revealed the hidden strengths and abilities within me, gifts I never knew existed.

Whether you're seeking deep ayahuasca healing, authentic integration guidance, or insight into what unfolds when you commit to the medicine long-term, this episode offers a heartfelt narrative and practical wisdom. Discover how ayahuasca can help you release trauma, recognize patterns, and embrace your true self through an ongoing integration journey.

Tune in if you're preparing for your first ceremony, navigating post-ceremony integration, or supporting others in their transformational process. This episode is a vital resource for anyone dedicated to embracing the full depth of ayahuasca's healing potential.

Connect & Learn More
For ayahuasca integration resources, visit 🌿 ayahuascaintegration.org — the home of the Ayahuasca Integration Alliance and the Ayahuasca Integration Podcast.
For my personal work and all current programs, go to 💫 davidvox.com

Follow and connect:
📺 YouTube: @Ayahuasca-Integration
📘 Facebook: Ayahuasca Integration Alliance
📸 Instagram: @davidvox

The Three Journeys You Can Join:

1. The Integration Circle
A monthly circle for people walking this path with ayahuasca.
Your first circle is free. Come, feel the field, and stay if it resonates.

2. The Celebration Circle
A 6-month journey of remembering your gifts, reconnecting to what is whole, and rebuilding your inner alignment through daily celebration and sacred practice.

3. Sacred Impact
A deeper leadership journey for those called to serve.
This is where you develop the inner architecture, the energetic foundations, and the outward expression of your true work in the world.

You can explore all journeys and apply at davidvox.com

What actually happens when people start treating ChatGPT like a guide in their Ayahuasca integration?
This episode goes straight into the rising trend of using AI for plant medicine integration, trauma healing, spiritual awakening, and inner work — and the real risks it creates for your path.

More and more people are turning to AI to interpret ceremonies, analyze relationships, decode spiritual openings, and give them answers about their shadows. For many, ChatGPT has become a “digital shaman” — always available, always responsive, always ready with a polished line.

And that’s precisely why it’s dangerous.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why AI feels like a guide for people who’ve never sat with Ayahuasca
• The difference between a living intelligence and a linguistic engine
• How ChatGPT mirrors your language but cannot feel your consciousness
• How AI stabilizes illusions, strengthens ego, and feeds bias
• Why real Ayahuasca integration is somatic, relational, ancestral, and communal
• Why AI cannot co-regulate your nervous system or hold emotional truth
• The illusion of progress AI creates — without any embodiment
• How AI derails intuition and replaces real human connection with artificial feedback

I also share the story of my own year-long experiment with AI during a deep integration period — how it pulled me into loops of analysis, disconnected me from my intuition, and eventually showed me exactly why this work can never be outsourced.

Ayahuasca is alive.
AI is engineered.
One expands your soul.
The other rearranges your sentences.

If you’re walking a plant medicine path, doing shadow work, navigating spiritual awakening, or holding space for others, this episode gives you a grounded map of where AI fits — and where it becomes a real risk for your healing.

Connect & Learn More

I’m David — a professional coach for transformative leaders, shaped by years of work with Ayahuasca into the field of deep integration.
For inquiries about 1-1 work, visit davidvox.com.

To explore more on Ayahuasca integration, visit 🌿 ayahuascaintegration.org — home of the Ayahuasca Integration Alliance and the Ayahuasca Integration Podcast.

Follow and connect:
📺 YouTube: @Ayahuasca-Integration
📘 Facebook: Ayahuasca Integration Alliance
📸 Instagram: @davidvox

Twice a year, we host a 6-month Sacred Integration Facilitator Training, guided by a medicine carrier, a psychologist, and myself.
Created for those walking this path deeply — facilitators, space-holders, and practitioners who want to master Ayahuasca integration with depth, safety, and respect for tradition.

Learn more and apply at ayahuascaintegration.org or davidvox.com

What can happen when you walk with Ayahuasca for ten years?

In this Ayahuasca Integration Podcast series, I look back on a decade of ceremonies, healing, and integration — sharing the most powerful gifts and hardest challenges this sacred medicine has brought into my life.

I speak about the early years of fear and resistance, the nights of deep purging and release, and the moment joy finally returned to my body after years of trauma. This is not a story about escape or visions; it’s about integration — the long, grounded process of turning mystical experiences into real change, peace, and creativity in daily life.

Whether you’re preparing for your first Ayahuasca retreat, in the middle of an integration process, or simply curious about what long-term work with the plant can open inside a human being, this episode offers a raw and honest reflection.

We explore:– Ayahuasca integration after ceremony and how it evolves over time– The importance of trauma-informed facilitation and safe ceremony spaces– How sound, song, and traditional healing tools help release emotion– The return of joy and the awakening of the inner child after deep healing– What “living in integration” looks like years after the retreat is over

Ten years, more than a hundred ceremonies, and one ongoing conversation with a teacher older than time.

If you’re walking the path of Ayahuasca, plant medicine, or spiritual integration, may this story remind you that healing doesn’t end when the ceremony closes — it begins there.

Connect & Learn More

To explore more on Ayahuasca integration, visit🌿 ayahuascaintegration.org — the home of the Ayahuasca Integration Alliance and the Ayahuasca Integration Podcast.

You can also find more about my personal work and upcoming programs at💫 davidvox.com

Follow and connect:📺 YouTube: @Ayahuasca-Integration📘 Facebook: Ayahuasca Integration Alliance📸 Instagram: @davidvox

Twice a year, we host a 6-month Sacred Integration Facilitator Training, guided by a medicine carrier, a psychologist, and myself.This program is created for facilitators and space-holders who want to master the art of Ayahuasca integration and bring this work forward with safety, depth, and respect for tradition.

Learn more and apply at ayahuascaintegration.org or davidvox.com.

Do you feel like you don’t fit in your own life anymore?

That’s the moment this episode lives in.

The ache between lives.

Where your consciousness expands but your world hasn’t caught up.

We’ll talk about what happens when awakening stops being poetic and starts burning through what isn’t true.

About the strange beauty of falling apart, the danger of spiritual quick fixes, and what it actually takes to grow into the next version of yourself.If everything feels too small right now — stay with this one.

You’re closer than you think.

Who am I?

I’m David Vox, a professional coach turned integration teacher, with over a decade on the ayahuasca path and years of guiding others through the real, lived process of transformation.If you’re somewhere between shells right now — expanding fast and needing grounded guidance — I host a six-month Sacred Integration Facilitator Training, a deep-dive for those walking the path of service, healing, and embodiment.

You can learn more or join upcoming circles at ayahuaschaintegration.com or davidvox.com.

Enjoy your week, fellow hermit.

Keep walking that sandbank — bare, brave, becoming.

If your ancestors were sitting in a cinema right now, watching the movie of your life, what would they be screaming toward the screen? What would they be celebrating, trying to share with you? What would they be praying for?

This episode is an invitation to explore these questions deeply. Through a guided ancestral meditation, you will connect with all your ancestors—those of your lineage, the ancestors of the land you inhabit, and the ancestors of affinity, including the teachers, guides, and plant allies you have chosen along your path.

We begin by preparing a sacred space. You are invited to create a small altar to honor your ancestors, bringing intention and reverence into the practice. You’ll write down a question for your ancestors—perhaps about healing your lineage, fully expressing your gifts and service in the world, or learning how to honor and celebrate yourself completely.

The meditation will guide you through a deep dialogue with your ancestors. You will witness the energy, love, and wisdom they bring, and you will feel their guidance and presence. This is a time to integrate their support into your life, to reflect, to celebrate, and to honor both your lineage and your own journey.

Set aside a full hour for this practice. Pause this episode until you are ready to give yourself the space and attention it requires. This is a sacred opportunity to go deep, to feel your connection across generations, and to express yourself fully.

Through this meditation, you’ll engage with the essence of the Day of the Dead, a sacred time to honor and celebrate those who came before us. By connecting with your ancestors, you strengthen the flow of love, wisdom, and life that passes through generations—and reclaim your own power, gifts, and ability to celebrate yourself and your journey.

Trigger warning: This podcast mentions trauma.

So who am I, really — the person behind the Ayahuasca Integration Podcast? And what first called me onto this path with Ayahuasca more than ten years ago? In this first episode, I take you with me into my very first ceremony. It was not a clean or polished story of bliss. It was a raw encounter with myself: rage that erupted from a place I didn’t even know existed, grief that returned in waves so deep it felt like drowning, and the first time in my life I allowed myself to be witnessed without masks.

This is the beginning of my path, the place where Ayahuasca and integration collided for me. Integration wasn’t something I read about in a book or picked up as a clever concept. It came in the sweat lodge, in the circle, in the dark night where strangers shared their most hidden secrets. It came in the trembling of my own voice when I spoke truths I had never dared to share. That’s when I understood what it meant to integrate — to not just survive a ceremony, but to bring what surfaced into the light of community and allow it to change me.

Ayahuasca Integration is at the heart of this podcast because it has been at the heart of my own healing. When I first drank the medicine, the ceremony opened the shadow I had carried for decades — rage I didn’t know was inside me, grief I had buried since childhood, and the silent voice of an inner child who believed he was unworthy of love. Integration began the moment I allowed that child to be seen, and the moment I let others breathe with me in that space instead of hiding it away.

For me, Ayahuasca integration is not about visions or mystical imagery. It is about what happens after the cup is empty. It is about the sweat lodge, where we sit in total darkness and discover that every person has a story that can break your heart open. It is about the integration circle, where shame dissolves as people listen instead of judge. It is about the collective breath of strangers who suddenly become part of your healing body.

Healing does not happen in isolation. Integration is not something we can do alone. It is conducted together — in sweat lodges, in circles, in songs, in the shared silence after someone has spoken a truth they thought they would never share. That is why I am here, and why this podcast exists: to honor the power of integration, to tell the stories of what it really looks like, and to keep weaving this path with all of you.

In this episode, you will hear:

• How my first Ayahuasca ceremony surfaced rage, trauma, and grief.

• The scream that changed my energy field and gave me back my space.

• Why the sweat lodge became the most powerful moment of integration.

• How sharing secrets in community dissolves shame and creates repair.

• The shift that made me see love in the eyes of others where I once saw only anger.

Ayahuasca is often called the “grandmother” or the “vine of the soul,” but without integration its gifts can fade or even fracture. Integration means bringing what is revealed into daily life — embodying it, living it, sharing it. This story shows how integration works when it is real: through rage, through tears, through being witnessed, and through weaving the experience back into life with others.

For anyone curious about what Ayahuasca integration really feels like, this episode offers a raw and honest perspective: the dark sweat lodge, the circle, the secrets finally spoken, and the transformation that follows when we conduct the work together.

📖 Full transcript available here:
https://ayahuascaintegration.org/2025/10/03/ayahuasca-integration-first-ceremony-sweat-lodge/

🌐 Learn more about Ayahuasca Integration:
https://ayahuascaintegration.org

👥 Need an Integration Coach?
https://davidvox.com

If this story resonates, subscribe to the podcast, share it with others walking the path, and join the ongoing work of integration — the practice of turning ceremony into lasting change.

What really happens after ayahuasca? In this landmark episode of the Ayahuasca Integration Podcast, we go inside the largest global study on ayahuasca integration ever conducted — “Life After Ayahuasca: A Qualitative Analysis of the Psychedelic Integration Experiences of 1,630 Ayahuasca Drinkers” (2023). Across five continents, participants shared their real stories of life after the ceremony: the struggles, the breakthroughs, and the slow, layered work of turning visions into lived change.

We unpack:

• The most common challenges people face after ayahuasca, including disconnection from friends, family, and culture.
• The shift in values and priorities that follows the medicine — and why it can feel like “reverse culture shock.”
• Key practices and support systems that actually work: community, meditation, somatic practice, nature immersion, and ongoing integration circles.
• Why integration is not a checklist but a psychosocial–spiritual process of weaving insight into everyday life.
• How retreat centers and facilitators can close the “post-ceremony support gap” revealed by the study.
• Evidence of long-term transformation: personal growth, deeper compassion, improved mental health, and reconnection with nature.

This episode moves beyond hype to focus on the real work after the visions fade — the part of the journey most people never see. Whether you’re a first-time seeker, an experienced facilitator, or running a retreat center, the data in this episode can help you build more effective, ethical, and human-scaled integration support.