# Why I Traded My Melbourne Office for an Ayahuasca Retreat in Peru (And You're Probably Not Ready for This) **Related Articles:** [The Travel Tourism Peru Guide](https://thetraveltourism.com/why-peru-should-be-on-every-travelers-bucket-list/) | [Ableton Ventures Journey](https://abletonventures.com/journey-within-exploring-the-transformative-power-of-ayahuasca-ceremonies-in-peru/) | [How to Travel Peru Adventures](https://howtotravel.org/journey-within-the-transformative-power-of-ayahuasca-retreats-in-peru/) The fluorescent lights in my Collins Street office were giving me migraines again, and I'd just spent three hours explaining to a client why their "revolutionary" workplace wellness program was basically just expensive herbal tea and motivational posters. That's when Sarah from HR mentioned she'd just returned from some plant medicine retreat in the Amazon. Two weeks later, I was on a plane to Lima with nothing but a backpack and serious doubts about my life choices. Here's the thing nobody tells you about ayahuasca retreats: they're not the hippie tourist traps most Australians imagine them to be. After fifteen years of helping businesses "optimise human resources" (God, I hate that phrase), I thought I'd seen every type of transformational experience the corporate world could offer. Team building exercises in the Blue Mountains. Leadership retreats in Bali. Mindfulness workshops with consultants who charge $500 an hour to tell you to breathe. But this? This was different. ## The Iquitos Reality Check Most people fly into Lima and think they understand Peru. Wrong. The real magic happens when you take that terrifying puddle-jumper flight to Iquitos, deep in the Amazon basin. No roads lead there. Just river and jungle for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. When you're used to complaining about Melbourne's public transport, suddenly being completely cut off from civilisation puts things in perspective rather quickly. I ended up at a [retreat centre outside Iquitos](https://topvacationtravel.com/discovering-ayahuasca-retreats-in-iquitos-peru/) that had been recommended by three separate people who'd never met each other. Coincidence? Maybe. But after working with enough corporate synchronicity training programs, I've learned to pay attention when the universe keeps pointing in the same direction. The centre itself wasn't what I expected. No luxury amenities or spa treatments. Just simple wooden structures, mosquito nets, and the kind of authentic indigenous wisdom that you can't buy at Bunnings or download from LinkedIn Learning. ## What They Don't Tell You in the Brochures The ayahuasca experience itself defies every business framework I've ever learned. You can't KPI your way through a plant medicine ceremony. There's no project timeline for ego dissolution. And absolutely no customer service department to complain to when your deepest fears start manifesting as geometric patterns that speak Spanish. My first ceremony was three hours of what felt like the world's most intense performance review – except the review was being conducted by my own subconscious, and every mistake I'd made since Year 7 was suddenly on the agenda. Not pleasant. But necessary. By the third ceremony, something had shifted. All those years of helping other people "find their authentic workplace voice" suddenly made sense. I wasn't just facilitating workshops anymore; I was actually understanding what authentic meant. The thing is, about 68% of people who attend these retreats are burned-out professionals from developed countries. Business owners, lawyers, consultants, project managers. People who've achieved everything they thought they wanted and still feel empty. Sound familiar? ## The Business Case for Plant Medicine (Yes, Really) Look, I know how this sounds. A corporate consultant recommending hallucinogenic plant medicine isn't exactly standard LinkedIn content. But here's what I learned that transformed how I approach business coaching: Traditional workplace wellness programs treat symptoms, not causes. We throw money at meditation apps and ergonomic keyboards while ignoring the fundamental disconnection most professionals feel from their work. Ayahuasca doesn't just treat stress – it shows you why you're stressed in the first place. And it's not gentle about it. One night during ceremony, I had what can only be described as a boardroom meeting with every version of myself I'd ever been. The eager graduate. The ambitious middle manager. The cynical consultant who'd forgotten why he started helping people in the first place. They all had things to say, and none of them were particularly diplomatic. The [real transformation happens](https://hopetraveler.com/real-talk-everything-you-need-to-know-about-ayahuasca-retreat-travel/) when you realise that everything you've been chasing – the corner office, the company car, the respect of colleagues – are just elaborate distractions from doing work that actually matters. This isn't to say traditional success is meaningless. I still run my consultancy. I still help businesses improve their cultures and processes. But now I do it because I genuinely care about creating better workplaces, not because I'm trying to prove something to my father or impress people at networking events. ## The Integration Challenge Coming back to Melbourne after two weeks in the Amazon was harder than the ceremonies themselves. Try explaining to your clients that you need to restructure your entire business model because a plant told you to focus on purpose over profit. They'll either think you've lost it completely or ask for the contact details of your retreat centre. The truth is, most people aren't ready for this kind of radical honesty. We're comfortable with incremental change. A new productivity system here, a leadership workshop there. But ayahuasca doesn't do incremental. It's more like a complete system reboot, and not everyone's prepared for that level of transformation. I've now been back for eight months, and I can honestly say my approach to business has fundamentally changed. I turn down clients whose projects don't align with my values. I spend more time in nature and less time in boardrooms. And I've started incorporating elements of indigenous wisdom into my consulting framework – though I'm careful not to appropriate or oversimplify what I learned. ## Should You Go? Here's where I probably should give you a balanced pros-and-cons analysis with bullet points and action steps. But that's not how this works. If you're reading this and feeling that familiar pit of dissatisfaction in your stomach – the one that no amount of career success seems to fill – then maybe it's worth considering. But not because I'm recommending it. Because something inside you is already calling for change, and you're just looking for permission to listen. The [journey to inner transformation](https://usawire.com/ayahuasca-retreat-healing-in-the-peruvian-amazon-a-journey-to-inner-transformation/) isn't comfortable. It's not convenient. And it definitely doesn't fit into a neat professional development plan. But neither does real growth. I'm not suggesting everyone should quit their jobs and drink plant medicine in the jungle. But I am suggesting that maybe – just maybe – there are forms of wisdom that can't be found in Harvard Business Review or taught in MBA programs. Sometimes the best business advice comes from sources that have nothing to do with business at all. The retreat cost me about $3,000, plus flights and time off work. Compare that to what most executives spend on leadership development programs that ultimately change nothing, and it starts looking like a bargain. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Will I? Probably not. Once was enough to shift my entire worldview. Twice might completely ruin me for corporate life, and I've still got bills to pay. But that's a conversation for another day. Right now, I've got a client meeting in twenty minutes, and I need to explain why their new performance management system might benefit from incorporating some ancient Amazonian wisdom about human interconnectedness. Wish me luck.