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What if your healing journey that took you years could have taken months and the tool to get there is growing in the Colombian jungle?

In this episode of Being Human, Richard Atherton is joined by Sam Believ, marine engineer and founder of Lawayra, an ayahuasca healing retreat in the Colombian countryside. Born in the Soviet Union and raised in post-independence Latvia, Sam grew up in a household shaped by intergenerational trauma: alcoholic, abusive father, an emotionally unavailable mother, and a culture where emotions were a sign of weakness. He channelled everything into his engineering career, built the life he was supposed to want, and found himself empty.

After quitting his job and travelling South America, Sam discovered ayahuasca in Colombia. Initially it was out of curiosity, he then rediscovered it in a crisis. When the lockdowns forced him to stop for the first time in his life, everything he had suppressed caught up with him. A ceremony gave him both his healing and his purpose. He never left.

Today Sam has guided close to 3,000 people through ceremonies at LaWayra, where the mission is simple: connect, heal, grow.

We discuss:

Surviving Soviet childhood trauma and escaping intergenerational pain
Why achieving the "right" life left him completely empty
What actually happens inside an ayahuasca ceremony
Therapy vs ayahuasca
Addressing abuse by shamans

Links:
LaWayra Retreats
Sam's Website