Good practice and ethics with ayahuasca

Federation

We are part of

AYNI is part of the Federación Red Micelio (FERM): we adopt its Code of Ethics and take part in a network focused on good practice, risk reduction and collective responsibility.

FERM promotes community self-regulation: shared criteria built between organisations, practitioners and communities, not external control. It also works to destigmatise these practices, opening up a more informed, responsible and prejudice-free public conversation about teacher plants and entheogens.

Read the FERM Code of Ethics redmicelio.org @redmicelio_ferm

Commitments

How this translates into practice at AYNI

These are the commitments we already apply. Each one is explained in detail in How we accompany.

Protocols based on AyaSafety (ICEERS)

Many of our care protocols — harm-reduction questionnaire, informed consent, emergency procedures — are based on AyaSafety, the ICEERS harm-reduction programme in which our guides have trained. More about AyaSafety

Informed consent

Written information in advance, voluntary participation and commitments made in writing.

Preparation and screening

Prior interview, harm-reduction questionnaire and exclusion criteria.

Risk reduction

Small groups, at least two guides, first aid and a rest area.

Integration

An integration circle afterwards and the possibility of follow-up.

Confidentiality

All information is confidential, including what is lived and shared in the group.

Limits and referral

Referral to mental health professionals when a situation requires it.

Abuse prevention

We prevent abuse of power, manipulation and dependency: a relationship of respect and trust, with no romantic, sexual or financial ties beyond membership fees.

Responsible communication

We inform without advertising: we do not openly offer sessions or promise results.

Reciprocity

Respect for and recognition of Indigenous peoples. Read more

Rights and duties

A two-way agreement

Rights of participants

To receive adequate and sufficient information, including about the training of those who guide and the exclusion criteria.
To have a prior interview and fill in a harm-reduction questionnaire.
To know the risks and the action plan for incidents.
To have their integrity, privacy and beliefs respected, without any dogma being imposed on them.
To be informed in advance of any physical contact and to be able to accept or decline it.
To have support from someone of their own gender and a safe rest area.
To have integration and follow-up.

Duties of participants

To give complete and truthful information in the prior interview and questionnaire.
To follow the preparation indicated for before and after.
To respect the rules, the guides and the other participants.
Not to interfere in other people's processes and to respect their privacy.
To remain in the space until the practice has ended and the effects have passed.

How a guide cares

Holds the space with presence, respect and humility, drawing on their own experience.
Knows the limits of their training.
Informs honestly, without promising results.
Puts their experience at the service of each person’s care, seeking no financial or emotional benefit from them.

Code of Ethics

Code of Ethics of the Red Micelio Federation

Author: Federación Red Micelio (FERM) · June 2023 version. AYNI adheres to this Code of Ethics. Unofficial English translation; the binding text is the Spanish original.

Read the full Code of Ethics · 31 points

For ease of presentation, the code is divided into three sections and an annex.

The first three refer to three dimensions in which freedom and responsibility are exercised. A final section is specifically devoted to relations with the Indigenous community.

The masculine form is used in the Spanish original for ease of reading. The Federación Red Micelio is made up of both men and women, and respect for equality is essential.

This code is open to review and renewal.

★ Towards guides

Guides of sessions with entheogens (plants, fungi and psychedelic substances) carry out their work with integrity and ethics. They will uphold the good practices arising from this code of ethics and the wellbeing of the people, plants and animals they relate to.
Guides establish and make explicit (in documents, protocols, meetings) measures to prevent abuse of power, money or sexual abuse towards participants and towards their team of collaborators.
A guide's work must not go beyond their own training. If the guide has no answer to a participant's concern or need, they must seek collaboration, and may compare cases and solutions with other federated guides.
Guides take part in the harm reduction and best practice groups and/or in mentoring offered by Red Micelio. Red Micelio may recognise and collaborate with other spaces with similar aims promoted by other organisations.
The guide of a session with entheogens must have the corresponding authorisation and supervision from those responsible for their line of work. This authorisation derives from having followed a particular training process (which may or may not be legally regulated; it may be formal, following a training programme, or informal, based on a master/disciple relationship). Training lasts a lifetime, since one never ceases to be an apprentice. Red Micelio offers a structure for guides who do not have this background.
The guide tells participants which line of work they practise and where they received their training. Once authorisation to work has been granted, the recognition of those who take part in their sessions must also be earned. That is why humility, an open and collaborative spirit and the desire to improve are characteristic of every competent guide.
Assistants, volunteers and hosts working under the auspices of a guide or organisation also subscribe to this code of ethics. The guide is responsible for making explicit that they have made the code of ethics known to all of them, by reading and explaining it.
The guide must have a written emergency protocol¹, known to all members of the team. Training in first aid is also recommended.
Financial contributions must be aimed at covering the costs arising from holding the sessions, the professionals and associated services, as well as helping Indigenous peoples, traditions and religious lines or scientific and social movements to maintain their structures.
Guides are entitled to fair remuneration according to the work and service provided, the duration and demands of ongoing training, and their own experience and competence.
The open sale of sessions, trafficking for profit, and the commercialisation of or speculation with entheogens are not permitted.
Guides are committed to upholding Human Rights, especially freedom of conscience and religious freedom, always ensuring that their actions do not harm the other guides belonging to the Federación Red Micelio.
Being responsible for a session with entheogens means not losing the dynamic or purpose of the work in the face of demands or unforeseen events raised by participants that disturb the harmony of the gathering.
Detailed knowledge of the origin, quality and composition of the entheogens being worked with is an essential requirement. Informing participants about this also adds assurance to the service.

★ Towards participants

Participants must be offered a prior interview to assess their physical, mental, spiritual and emotional health.
After a first contact, participants will be asked for authorisation to give them the health questionnaire, in which they undertake to provide truthful, complete and timely information.
Participants must be duly informed of the benefits and risks of taking part in an entheogenic experience.
Participants must receive the necessary information and appropriate support before, during and after the experience (preparation, supervision and integration).
Participants must be able to choose, by their own judgement, the guide best suited to their needs. To that end, they must not receive any kind of suggestion or pressure from the guide.
Participants have the right to have their personal information treated confidentially, in accordance with data protection law.
Guides must make it explicit to participants that they must not leave the designated space during the experience.
The prior interview must state clearly that no sexual interaction whatsoever is permitted between participants during the session or retreat.
Participants will have clear access to a mailbox (support@redmicelio.org) of the Federación Red Micelio where they can report, in confidence, practices that contradict the code of ethics.

★ Towards the collective

Federated organisations undertake to help the other organisations in the network and to defend all aspects related to the aims of the federation.
The information disseminated must be objective and truthful and must not be presented as a panacea, so as not to raise false hopes or spread unfounded ideas.
Nor do we consider any marketing technique appropriate; we value honesty and discretion. Websites setting out the purpose and mission of each organisation are acceptable. Ceremonies or work with entheogens are not openly advertised.
Guides will not exclude any participant on racist, homophobic or classist grounds.

★ Towards the Indigenous community

Members of the Federación Red Micelio are committed to dignity, sustainability, respect and reciprocity towards the natural environments and native peoples from which the great majority of entheogens come.
Members of the Federación Red Micelio offer themselves as social and intercultural mediators towards native communities and peoples.
Members of the Federación Red Micelio defend the right of original peoples to travel with their sacred plants and to hold their ceremonies.
Members of the Federación Red Micelio stand against biopiracy and cultural appropriation, combating the theft and illegal exploitation of biological resources and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous communities. We oppose the misuse and commercialisation of their cultural elements without their consent or recognition.

¹ A good starting point is the AyaSafe Emergency Protocol (ICEERS).

A shared framework of responsibility