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:
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.
Welcome to the Ayahuasca Integration Podcast. You're part of the rare 0.4% of humanity who has worked with grandmother ayahuasca - but did you know integration begins MONTHS before ceremony?
In this inaugural episode, integration coach David Vox (10 years, 100+ ceremonies) reveals why 53% of participants struggle post-ceremony and how the medicine starts working the moment you say yes to this sacred path.
You'll discover:
Based on the largest ayahuasca study ever conducted (10,000+ participants), this episode addresses the integration crisis in Western culture and offers hope for those feeling isolated after ceremony.
Perfect for anyone preparing for or integrating ayahuasca experiences, coaches supporting others, and the ayahuasca family seeking community and guidance.
Host: David Vox - Professional transformational coach, integration specialist, and founder of Ayahuasca Integration Alliance.
Resources: ayahuascaintegration.org
For educational purposes. Work with qualified professionals and follow local laws.