MEA + Beckley Retreats
The Deeper Work
A Five-Night Psilocybin Retreat in Jamaica
Join MEA and Beckley for a guided experience across the threshold, grounded in 25+ years of psychedelic research and an uncompromising standard of support.
By application only. Every guest completes a one-to-one suitability conversation before joining.
You've done the work. This is what's on the other side of it.
You're someone who takes your own growth seriously. You've put in years of it – in therapy, in reading, in rooms like MEA's, and you've become good at understanding yourself.
You ask better questions than you used to, and you notice the patterns you tend to fall into while they're happening, and are able to pull yourself out of them (mostly).
What brought you here is the sense that there's a layer underneath - the one you can’t reach by thinking. You've felt the edge of it before, in a conversation that went somewhere unexpected, on a long walk, in a moment you couldn't quite explain afterward. Now it's time to cross that threshold on purpose.
For the questions you can't think your way through.
Most people come to this kind of workshop carrying something specific: a decision they've been circling for a year without landing; a role or a relationship or a story about themselves they've outgrown but haven't put down; a question that's too big to think their way through, because the answers lie beyond conscious thought.
What helps is a different vantage point – the chance to step back far enough from your own life to see it whole, and to notice what you already knew but couldn't quite reach.
This is the work psilocybin has been used for across cultures for thousands of years. In ceremony, with care, it quiets the mental noise long enough for a different kind of seeing. Drawing on 25+ years of research through the Beckley Foundation, Beckley Retreats has learned how to make this experience safe and meaningful, and every session is guided by experienced facilitators.
MEA senior faculty Lori Schwanbeck is there throughout, bringing the community and the MEA practices that turn a powerful experience into lasting change.
How the experience unfolds
The retreat is five nights, but the experience runs much longer. It begins about a month before you fly to Jamaica and continues for weeks after you're back home. Beckley Retreats calls the three phases: Prepare, Immerse, and Integrate, and the support poured into the first and last is much of why the middle lands the way it does.
Prepare: the month before
You begin from home, at your own pace. It opens with a one-to-one preparation session with a Beckley facilitator, then two group video calls where your cohort comes together, along with guided practices and resources that ease the nerves and answer the questions most people arrive with. This is also where MEA's work begins. You'll name what you're bringing, set an intention, and begin to know the people you'll go through this with. By the time you land, you've already begun to bond with your group, and you know what the days ahead hold.
Immerse: five nights at Good Hope
You arrive at Good Hope, a pair of centuries-old stone villas on Jamaica's north coast, restored with care and set against open mountain views, with a private beach and two pools below. The first evening opens with a circle, the MEA ritual you know, where each person says what brought them.
The days settle into a rhythm. Early movement and a walk before breakfast. Awe and nature walks that pull you out of your own head, circles where the group checks in, long unhurried stretches of rest, and meals made from what the island grows, eaten together.
Across the five nights there are two guided psilocybin ceremonies, led by Beckley's facilitators with live music, and never more than a few guests to each guide. What happens in those hours is yours. What surrounds them is built so you can let go in safety, with somewhere soft to land when you return: an integration circle the same evening, and time with your facilitator the next day.
Throughout, Lori weaves in the MEA practices that help you deepen your insights and your sense of connection to the others going through it with you, and to the world around you.
Something happens in a group that goes through this together. People arrive as strangers and leave as something far closer. Beckley's facilitators see it on every retreat, and the research on shared experience backs it up – going through something this big alongside others bonds you in a way ordinary life rarely does.
Integrate: the weeks after
Much of the change happens once you're home. The weeks right after a psilocybin experience are when the brain is most open to forming new patterns, and Beckley builds the final phase around that window. Back at home, at your own pace, your cohort reconvenes over four group sessions, with guided practices and tools to help what you found take root in your daily life. Lori stays in these conversations, keeping the MEA frame and language present, and when the formal integration ends, your group folds into the wider community of people who've done this work.
Holding an experience like this safely takes people who've spent years learning how.
The people who helped write the science
Beckley Retreats grew out of the Beckley Foundation, the research institute Amanda Feilding founded in 1998. For the next quarter century, she used it to fund and publish the science that brought psychedelics back into serious study. That work is what the retreats are built on. Beckley draws on ongoing collaboration with leading researchers at Harvard and Yale.heir Head of Research, Dr. AZA Allsop, has doctoral training from Harvard and MIT alongside a faculty position at Yale. In addition, their Research Advisor, Dr. Karestan Koenen of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, further strengthens the scientific rigor behind the approach.
Beckley's research roots run deep. In a landmark collaboration with Imperial College London*, brain imaging showed that psilocybin temporarily changes how regions of the brain connect, producing patterns not seen at rest. This increased connectivity offers a unique mechanism for lasting cognitive and emotional change. That science is part of why Beckley builds so much care into the preparation and integration around the experience, where much of the lasting value takes hold.
Their work adds up to a track record few in a field this young can claim. More than 1,000 guests since 2020, and 88% of them call it one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives.
* Source: Petri et al., "Homological scaffolds of brain functional networks," Journal of the Royal Society Interface (2014)
What keeps you safe
This is legal, deliberate work. Jamaica is one of the few places in the world where psilocybin can be used lawfully, which is why Beckley holds its retreats there. And the care starts long before you arrive: every applicant's personal, medical, and psychiatric history is reviewed in a suitability screening, so everyone in the circle is a good fit.
On site, the support is constant. There's a trained facilitator for every three guests, each with years of experience in both the traditional and clinical sides of this work, and medical care is on call around the clock. Behind all of it sits a set of safety protocols that Beckley keeps current and shares across the entire team.
What it's meant to the people who've gone
Beckley has run this program for more than a thousand people, and the numbers afterward are unusual for the wellness world: a Net Promoter Score of 91 – a measure of how strongly people recommend it – among the highest in wellness globally; 98% who said they would recommend it to their own family and friends; 76% who report improved behaviors and personal practices in the months that follow.
Beckley's work has been featured in:
The people in the room
Lori Schwanbeck
MEA Senior Faculty
Lori is a trauma-informed psychotherapist and mindfulness teacher who has spent her career helping people build more connected, meaningful lives, drawing on emotional intelligence, positive psychology, mindfulness, and the natural world. As senior faculty at the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, the program born at Google, she has taught thousands of leaders around the world.
She has an MA in Transpersonal Psychology, trained as a meditation teacher under Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, and led a two-year national mindfulness initiative with the government of Bhutan and its Gross National Happiness program. She leads nature-based retreats at Esalen, Canyon Ranch, and MEA. At Good Hope, she's the one weaving MEA's practices and language through the whole arc, from your first preparation call to the integration after you're home.
The Beckley facilitation team
Kosu Boudreau
Lead Facilitator
A registered trauma psychotherapist in Ontario, Kosu spent eighteen years as a spiritual care therapist in hospitals, working with trauma, addiction, and palliative care, and trained in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in 2020. She is also a certified yoga teacher and an ordained Buddhist chaplain, known for a warm, grounded presence and quick humor.
Eber Rodriguez
Facilitator
A multi-instrumentalist trained in chanting and sound therapy, Eber came to this work through years of study with Indigenous teachers in Colombia and Peru and with traditional plant medicine. In ceremony, his music is part of what helps the room settle into calm.
Jason Worton
Facilitator
Jason is Jamaican, and the island's history and culture run through everything he does here. After more than a decade as a respected reggae musician, he moved into Jamaica's wellness world, leading yoga, soundbaths, and psilocybin ceremonies, and co-keeping the fire circles. His own seasons of illness, grief, and pressure are part of why he meets guests with so much warmth.
Mandi Bent
Facilitator
A holistic counsellor, certified meditation teacher, and Reiki master with a background in ceremony and the human-potential movement, Mandi brings a sense of intimacy and joy to the work.
Between them, Beckley's facilitators and Lori cover every part of the experience – the ceremony itself, and the meaning you make of it afterward.
Who this is for
This work asks a lot, and it isn't right for everyone – the suitability conversation is there to make sure it's right for you.
This experience is a good fit for you if…
If that sounds like you, the application and the suitability conversation are where it gets real. They're also how you know the others in your circle were chosen with the same care you'd want for yourself.
What's included
Your registration covers everything, from the first preparation call to the integration weeks after you fly home:
Flights to Jamaica aren't included, and a few extras are optional, like private coaching before or after the retreat, or an on-site massage.
The next step is a conversation.
The Deeper Work Retreat is a single cohort, this October, capped at eighteen guests. Five nights at Good Hope, wrapped in a month of preparation before and integration for the weeks after.
Beckley Retreats was a wonderful experience. It helped me to become more intentional and go very deep to explore my emotions, needs, and personal goals for the year and life to come. The environment was beautiful, the entire crew very knowledgeable, and overall extremely well-organized.
Leon Mishkis
COO, NewtonX
Rooms & pricing
Every room has its own private ensuite bathroom and includes the full experience described above: the preparation, the five nights, both ceremonies, all meals, the integration program, and the community that continues after. The only difference is where you sleep.
Room
Per person
Shared triple, three twin beds
$5,500
Shared double, two twin beds
$6,750
Private single, one twin bed
$9,500
Premium room, one queen bed
$9,500
Deluxe room, one king bed
$12,500
How it works
It begins with an application. If it looks like a fit, you'll have a one-to-one suitability conversation with the Beckley team, and from there, when the timing is right, you'll register and begin your preparation. The whole process is built so that everyone who joins is someone for whom this is a sound, considered choice – including you.
MEA + Beckley Retreats
THE DEEPER WORK
A Five-Night Psilocybin Retreat in Jamaica
Join MEA and Beckley for a guided experience across the threshold, grounded in 25+ years of psychedelic research and an uncompromising standard of support.
By application only. Every guest completes a one-to-one suitability conversation before joining.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this legal?
Yes. Jamaica is one of the few countries where psilocybin can be cultivated and used legally, which is why Beckley holds these retreats there rather than in the US. Everything about the program runs within Jamaican law.
Is it safe? What happens if a ceremony gets difficult?
Beckley has guided more than a thousand people through this work, with safety built into every layer: a trained facilitator for every three guests, medical care on call around the clock, and a screening process before anyone is accepted. Parts of a ceremony can be hard for some people, but you’re never alone in them. A facilitator stays with you, and there’s an integration circle that same evening and time with your facilitator the next day to help you work through whatever came up.
Is this a clinical or medical treatment?
No. This is a wellness experience, not therapy or medical treatment, and it isn’t meant to diagnose or treat any condition. Most people arrive having already done therapy and other inner work, and they come to go further. If you’re seeking clinical care for a specific condition, the suitability conversation is a good place to talk that through honestly.
I've never done psychedelics. Is that a problem?
Not at all. Many guests are new to this, and the program is built with that in mind. The four weeks of preparation exist partly to answer your questions and ease the nerves, and the facilitators are well used to guiding first-timers. What matters more than prior experience is arriving ready and well-prepared, which is what the preparation is for.
What if this isn't a good fit for me?
Then it’s better to know before you go, and the suitability conversation is there to figure that out together, with no pressure either way. The work asks a lot, and it isn’t right for every person or every moment in a life. It tends not to suit someone in the middle of an acute crisis, or someone hoping it will do the work for them without the preparation and integration around it. If the timing isn’t right, the Beckley team will tell you honestly.
I take medication or have a health condition. Can I still come?
Possibly, and this is exactly what the screening is for. Before anyone is accepted, the Beckley team reviews your medical and psychiatric history individually, because some conditions and medications don’t combine well with psilocybin. They’ll talk it through with you and may encourage you to check with your own physician. The aim is making sure this is a good choice for you specifically.
What does the suitability conversation actually involve?
After you apply, someone on the Beckley team has a one-to-one conversation with you about where you are in your life, why you want to do this now, the support you have around you, and your health history. It’s confidential, and it goes both ways: as much your chance to ask questions as theirs to make sure the timing and the fit are right.
How is applying different from registering?
The application comes first. It’s a questionnaire about you and your reasons for coming, and it’s what opens the suitability conversation. Applying is how you start. Registering is how you commit, and nothing is locked in until you’ve talked with someone.
Do I have to do the preparation and integration, or just the retreat?
They’re part of the experience, and a big reason it works. Beckley designed the program as one arc: the preparation gets you ready for the five nights, and the integration helps what you find there take root once you’re home. You can scale your participation in the group sessions to fit your life, but the preparation and integration come with every place.
What's the difference between this and a regular Beckley retreat?
The ceremonies and the safety are all Beckley’s, the same standard they bring to every retreat. What’s different is who you do it with and how it’s framed. This cohort is drawn from the MEA community, and MEA senior faculty Lori Schwanbeck is there throughout, weaving in the MEA practices and language you may already know. You get Beckley’s depth with psilocybin and MEA’s way of making meaning around it.
What's included, and what isn't?
Your registration covers the full program: the preparation, five nights at Good Hope, both ceremonies, all meals, the integration program, the private airport shuttle, and ongoing membership in the community afterward. Flights to Jamaica aren’t included, and a couple of things are optional, like private coaching or an on-site massage. The room options and pricing are in the section just above.