What is an ayahuasca church? How we differ from a retreat
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6 min read
An ayahuasca church is a religious community that holds ayahuasca as its sacrament and drinks it in ceremony as one part of church life. The difference from a retreat center is that you join it: there is membership, a weekly service, and people who know you before ceremony and are still there after.
Two Birds Church is one. We’re a small church in Anna, Texas, and we’ve held ayahuasca ceremonies since 2010. Here is what being a church means in practice for us, using our own rules.
A retreat and a church
Many people who drink ayahuasca do it at a retreat: a stay of a few days or a week that you book and pay for, often far from home, and then you leave. Ceremony spaces differ, and another one may suit you better than we would.
We describe ourselves as a church, not a retreat center. You become a member first. Ceremony is one part of church life, and the community is there the Sunday after. In the words of our preparation course, we don’t send you off with a worksheet and a wave.
Membership comes first
You become a member of Two Birds Church by completing the Welcome course. It’s free, and it covers what we believe, how we gather, how our ceremonies work, how we keep the sacrament and who leads the church. When you finish it, you’re a member.
Membership doesn’t require ceremony. Some members never sit in ceremony, some of them for medical reasons, and they belong here as much as anyone.
Sunday Service is the center of the week
We meet every Sunday from 3 to 6pm. People arrive and drink cacao, then we sit in a circle and share on a prompt for the week. The guidelines are short: speak only for yourself, no advice, no responding to others, no fixing. The last hour is meditation, a sound journey, breathwork or gentle movement. Sunday Service is free and open to everyone.
Sunday is tied to ceremony on purpose. It’s where we meet people before they ever sit with us, and where members come back afterwards to keep doing the work. Ceremony brings things up. Owning them week after week, in front of people who know you, is what integration looks like here. On the last Sunday of each month we stay after service for a sober potluck.
No charge for the sacrament
We do not charge for our sacrament. A ceremony weekend has a minimum donation that covers its costs and keeps the church running, and you don’t pay anything until we’ve reviewed your forms. Members also earn Rose Quartz credits by taking part in church life, such as coming to services and volunteering, and those credits can take up to the whole donation off a ceremony.
The sacrament is locked, recorded and never leaves
We keep strict control of the sacrament, so the church can account for every drop.
- Church leaders brew the ayahuasca on site. Every batch is measured and documented, and labeled with the date, the amount and who prepared it.
- It’s kept locked in a temperature-controlled place that only authorized church leaders can open. Storage logs track how much is left.
- Each ceremony is recorded: who received the sacrament, how much and when.
- It is only ever received in ceremony at the church. Anything left over goes back into locked storage and into the log.
Members agree never to take the sacrament home, never to share or sell it, and never to bring an outside substance to ceremony. Breaking that agreement ends membership. Ayahuasca is our only sacrament, and we don’t serve anything else.
A sober church
We come sober to every service and gathering, and our leaders are sober in daily life. In ceremony the only substance is the sacrament. Everyone in the room drinks it, James and Christina included. Before a ceremony, members stop alcohol and recreational drugs for two weeks.
A board and written rules for leaders
A three-person board leads the church: James Elrod (President), Christina Titus (Secretary) and Clayton Berger (Treasurer). James and Christina lead ceremonies and services together. Clayton looks after the church’s money and makes sure decisions are made openly. Leading as a partnership with a board keeps the church from centering on one personality.
The standards for leaders are written down. No one with a conviction for drug trafficking or manufacturing, violence, theft or fraud may handle, prepare or serve the sacrament, or facilitate. Facilitators don’t claim to heal anyone. Their job is to keep the room safe so each member can do their own work.
Preparation and screening
Before anyone sits in ceremony with us, they:
- are 18 or older and a member
- complete the Sacred Ceremony Preparation Course, which covers the diet, what to bring, safety, the sacrament rules and integration
- fill out the Ceremony Readiness Form, which asks about medications and supplements, heart problems and blood pressure, mental health history (including any family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder) and what’s going on in their life right now
- meet with us, on Zoom or in person at a Sunday Service
When a medication or health condition needs a clinical look, we send the form to our medical consultant, a board-certified psychiatric pharmacist who specializes in psychedelic safety. Antidepressants matter most here, because ayahuasca can interact dangerously with them. We never advise anyone to stop or change a medication; that is between them and their prescriber.
Some things rule a person out: a contraindicated medication without safe clearance, uncontrolled blood pressure, a serious heart condition, pregnancy, an active mental health crisis, or dishonesty on the form.
There is no medical staff on site. Our safety work happens before ceremony, through screening and a blood pressure check on the day, and during it through small groups and close attention.
In the ceremony room
Ceremonies are small, six people at most, held in complete darkness with each person on their own mat. The first cup is a light dose, and a second is offered only to people who’ve shown they can sit with the first. First-timers start with a two-night weekend. Phones are collected for the night, nobody leaves the room except to go to the bathroom with a facilitator, and the weekend ends with a closing circle before anyone goes home.
By invitation only
Finishing the courses and forms doesn’t guarantee a place. James and Christina may decline anyone. There is no fixed wait between ceremonies, and if someone keeps coming back without reflecting, the facilitators may ask them to pause and come to Sundays for a while first.
Our Welcome course puts it this way: “If all of this feels like too much, this might not be your space. If it makes you feel safer, you’re probably our people.”
More from us on ayahuasca: what ayahuasca is, what happens at a ceremony, and how to prepare for ayahuasca.
To see what a church like this is like, come to Sunday Service, Sundays 3 to 6pm in Anna, or start with the Welcome course; our ceremonies are by invitation only.