Ceremony Basics
New to ceremonies? Read below and discover the beauty of a mushroom ceremony.
Understanding the Ceremony
Ceremony 101: What is a Psilocybin Ceremony
A psilocybin ceremony is a sacred, intentional experience where participants engage with mushrooms as a sacrament to support healing, spiritual connection, and personal transformation. Unlike recreational use, these ceremonies are structured, guided, and held in a safe, supportive container to create a profound and meaningful journey.
Each ceremony is guided by Navigators, experienced facilitators trained in trauma-informed, neurodiverse-aware, and queer-affirming support. Their role is to create a safe, intentional container where participants can explore their journey with confidence, care, and reverence. Through intention-setting, ritual, and guided support, the ceremony facilitates deep reflection, emotional release, and spiritual connection.
To participate, individuals first complete a Pathfinder Call, where we assess safety, harm reduction, and personal readiness. Following this, a Navigator Call helps participants clarify their path and set intentions. This process ensures alignment with the experience and typically takes 2–4 weeks from the initial Pathfinder Call to ceremony.
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Understanding the Ceremony
PRISMA offers One-on-One, Group (Mxns, Womxn's, and All-Community), and Private/Group Ceremonies, ensuring an inclusive space for all who seek healing, exploration, and growth. All are welcome, regardless of background, experience, or identity.
Our ceremonies honor ancient traditions while embracing modern understanding, providing a supportive environment for deep personal work.
Our practice is protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) of 1993, affirming the right to explore expanded states of consciousness as an expression of spiritual sovereignty and cognitive liberty, rooted in sacred traditions.
Why is ceremony important?
A ceremony provides structure, support, and sacredness, allowing the psilocybin experience to unfold in a meaningful way. The ritual aspect of a ceremony offers protection, guidance, and a clear pathway for exploration, ensuring that the experience is both safe and intentional.
Many cultures have used sacred mushrooms in ceremonial contexts for thousands of years, recognizing their ability to open the mind and spirit to profound insights. Through this practice, participants can enter a space of deep connection—whether with themselves, others, nature, or a greater cosmic presence.
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How is a psilocybin ceremony structured?
Every mushroom ceremony at PRISMA follows a structured process to ensure safety, guidance, and integration. While each experience is unique, the general structure includes:
- Preparation – Participants engage in intention-setting, mindfulness practices, and pre-ceremony discussions to prepare their minds and bodies for the journey.
- Sacred Space – The ceremony space is carefully prepared to provide comfort, peace, and a safe environment for exploration.
- Ingestion – Participants take psilocybin mushrooms with mindful intention, supported by rituals that deepen the experience.
- The Journey – The effects of psilocybin unfold over several hours, with Navigators present to hold space, provide guidance, and assist as needed.
- Closing the Ceremony – Gentle grounding techniques help participants transition from their journey back into the present moment.
- Integration – After the ceremony, participants are guided through reflection, discussion, and support to make sense of their experience and apply insights to daily life.
This structure ensures that participants feel fully supported before, during, and after their journey, helping them integrate the wisdom and healing they receive.
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Who leads the ceremony?
PRISMA ceremonies are facilitated by Navigators, who are trained in ceremonial plant medicine(s) as well as creating a safe, trauma-informed, and affirming environment. Navigators provide emotional, energetic, and practical support, ensuring that each participant has what they need to move through their journey with confidence.
Our Navigators are skilled in guiding intersectional human identities, informed about the needs of neurodiverse and queer participants, understanding the unique ways people experience altered states of consciousness. Their role is not to control the experience but to hold space, allowing participants to navigate their own journeys while offering gentle support when needed.
Our Navigators guide us in the structure, support, and sacrament of ceremony.
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Preparation & Setting
How do I prepare for a psilocybin ceremony?
Preparation is an essential part of a mushroom ceremony, as it helps set the foundation for a meaningful experience. Participants are encouraged to engage in practices that align their minds, bodies, and spirits with the journey ahead.
Preparation includes setting an intention, which is a clear focus or question that guides the experience. This could be related to healing, self-discovery, or seeking clarity on life’s path. This work is started on your Navigator Call and then finalized on your Intentions Call.
Other preparation steps involve reducing external distractions, eating nourishing foods, getting rest, and practicing mindfulness techniques such as meditation or breathwork. By preparing your mind, body, soul, and heart, you prepare your fullest, centered self for ceremony.
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What should I bring to a ceremony?
Participants are encouraged to wear comfortable white clothing, a small sacred object that embodies their path, a journal for post-ceremony reflection, and an open mind. These items help create a sense of familiarity and grounding, allowing for a smoother transition into and out of the experience. You are also encourage to bring filtered water in a reusable water bottle.
What is the ceremony space like?
The ceremony space is intentionally designed to be calm, welcoming, and energetically balanced. Soft lighting, natural elements, and comfortable seating or mats help create an environment where participants feel safe and held.
Music, sound healing, and activities like meditation/ mindfulness, visualization or gentle yoga poses occur before we go inward (placing of eyemask and laying down), creating an atmosphere that supports the journey while maintaining a deep sense of sacredness.
Do I need to fast or follow a specific diet?
While fasting is not required, many participants find that eating light, plant-based meals the week before the ceremony helps create a clearer connection with the medicine.
We ask that you do not eat 2 hrs before the ceremony. It is also recommended to avoid alcohol, caffeine, and heavy foods in the days leading up to the ceremony to allow the body to be in an optimal state for the experience, decreasing inflammation and having your body at an optimal state, open for the medicine.
We go over all these things on your Navigator Call. This is the next step once you've been cleared for ceremony. We'll share all the vital information you need to know, and give you some guidance with your intention setting as well.
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During the Ceremony
What happens during a psilocybin ceremony?
Each ceremony is unique, but the journey generally unfolds in waves of emotional, visual, and spiritual experiences. Participants may enter deep introspection, connect with memories, or experience heightened sensory awareness. This occurs after the first hour with the sacrament and onward. You'll slowly reintegrate afterwards.
What is the role of music, sound, and ritual?
Music plays a central role in a mushroom ceremony, helping to guide the flow of emotions and visions. Traditional songs, drumming, chimes, and other sound healing practices may be used to enhance the experience. Instruments may be played at times as well. The majority of the ceremony is guided from a structured playlist coordinating with the intentions of our ceremony.
Ritual elements, such as breathwork, guided meditation, and energy clearing, help create a sacred container that protects, grounds, and supports the experience.
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What if I feel overwhelmed or scared?
Throughout the journey, Navigators provide support as needed, offering gentle reassurance, guidance, and grounding techniques if a participant requires assistance. The ceremony space remains quiet, reflective, and intentional, allowing each person to move through their experience naturally.
It is normal to experience moments of intensity during a psilocybin journey. The mind may bring up deep emotions, past memories, or existential questions that feel overwhelming. These are, in fact, important for us to engage and process, as we want to move all parts of ourselves into the present.
In these moments, Navigators are present to provide reassurance and grounding techniques. Simple practices, such as focusing on the breath, shifting body position, or receiving gentle verbal support, can help ease difficult moments. By processing these moments of difficulty or emotion, and engaging them with curiosity and compassion, we can extend healing, growth, connection, and exploration to every part of ourselves.
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Can I talk, move, or interact with others during the ceremony?
Each ceremony is designed to be an internal journey, so participants are encouraged to stay present with their own experience rather than interacting with others. There is space for you to journal, process, and engage your experience with self, but you are encouraged to stay and feel these experiences first and foremost.
However, if a participant needs support, they are always welcome to communicate with a Navigator for guidance. We encourage you to take this time to focus your energy on yourself, and receive, as the Navigators are there to support others in their journey.
During the last section of the ceremony there is time to process and enjoy one another's energy, share your awarenesses, "noticings," and experiences, and connect before and after we close the circle.
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Integration and Aftercare
What happens after the ceremony?
After the mushroom ceremony, participants are encouraged to rest, reflect, and process their experience in a quiet, supportive space. The closing circle offers an opportunity to share insights, emotions, and realizations in a safe environment. Afterwards, we have fellowship, eating simple foods such as fruit, nuts, berries, and popcorn, that are light on the stomach and tantalize the senses.
Can I do multiple ceremonies?
Many participants choose to engage in multiple psilocybin ceremonies as part of their personal growth and healing process. The practice of additional ceremonies allows particpants to move from states of healing to connection and further into growth and exploration.
However, each journey is unique, and integration of your spiritual discoveries are key before deciding to embark on another experience. Your Navigator will work with you one-on-one and provide options that are just right for you.
How do I make sense of my experience?
Integration is the process of understanding and applying the insights gained during the journey. This may involve journaling, talking with a mentor, engaging in creative expression, or practicing mindfulness techniques.
Participants can even move forward into Explorer Program, if they're interested in doing more journeys in a structure environment with long term support and intentional mentorship.
Each journey includes Two (2) Integration Circle sessions afterward to process their experience. Your membership is now active with PRISMA, and you can decide what support you desire together with your Navigator, moving towards a monthly donation for basic support or additional structure with the Explorer Program.
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