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Atmosphere and feature ratings above are based on information submitted by Rythmia in October 2026.

Rythmia Life Advancement Center: An In-Depth Review for Sessions in Guanacaste, Costa Rica

If you are considering ayahuasca in Costa Rica, Rythmia is one of the best-known and most heavily marketed options you will find. Founded by Gerard “Gerry” Powell and operating for about a decade inside the gated Hacienda Pinilla resort community near Tamarindo, it packages four ayahuasca ceremonies into an all-inclusive, seven-night resort stay with yoga, breathwork, spa treatments and an on-site medical clinic, starting at $4,900 per person in a shared room. Its reputation splits sharply depending on where you look. Tripadvisor shows a near-perfect rating from about 3,000 reviews, and Rythmia markets itself as “the only medically licensed facility in the world authorized to serve plant medicine.” Independent sources tell a more complicated story: Costa Rica’s Health Ministry spent 2024 and 2025 trying to cancel Rythmia’s ayahuasca authorization, Reddit discussion skews heavily negative, much of the glowing coverage online is sponsored or affiliate-driven, and journalists and former guests have published serious allegations, several of them unverified. This review aggregates all of it so you can weigh it yourself.

🎯 At a Glance

• Locations: Hacienda Pinilla, a gated resort community on the Guanacaste coast near Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Rythmia’s FAQ puts it about one hour from Liberia International Airport (LIR) and says airport transfers are included.
• Approach: A structured resort program built around four ayahuasca ceremonies in seven nights, held in a ceremonial space called the Maloca and led by what Rythmia calls “a team of highly trained shamans.” Rythmia does not publish their names. The week also includes six yoga classes, three breathwork classes, two meditation classes, a massage, two colon cleanses, and classes designed by Michael Beckwith and taught by Gerard Powell, according to the Rythmia Way page. Groups are large: writer Jules Evans put it at roughly 100 guests per retreat in 2024.
• Suitable For: First-timers who want resort comfort, a medical team on site, and a tightly scheduled week. Less suited to people looking for a small, quiet, indigenous-led ceremony circle, and anyone with a psychiatric history should read the screening section below carefully.
• Costs: From $4,900 per person for seven nights in a shared room, according to Rythmia’s cost FAQ; private rooms and executive suites are priced on request. The same page lists a $250 cash “Herbal Support Therapy” fee paid on arrival, says reservations are non-refundable (cancellations become credit toward a future stay), and says deposits not converted to a booking within a year are forfeited. The main FAQ cites a $500 deposit with the balance due within 14 days. Rythmia’s own pages also disagree on ceremony payments: the cost FAQ says ceremonies are included, while the pricing page says ceremony payments go to “a third party, unrelated to Rythmia.” Get the full total and terms in writing.
• Overall Assessment: A polished, well-resourced operation with an enormous base of positive reviews, offset by a contested license, a heavy reliance on self-reported outcomes and incentivized promotion, documented and acknowledged use of guest isolation, and a long list of serious allegations, verified and unverified. Directory evaluation: B-.

💬 What Guests Are Saying

Here is how Rythmia rates across review platforms (checked October and November 2026):

The positive picture. On Tripadvisor, guests consistently praise the staff, the farm-to-table food, the grounds, the medical team, and how organized the week feels, and many describe the ceremonies as life-changing. A minority are sharply negative, including several reviews described in the Incident Report below.

Reddit. Discussion on Reddit is far more critical. In an r/Ayahuasca thread asking for the “general consensus”, negative replies outnumbered positive ones by roughly two to one: critics described a “cattle call” atmosphere, ceremonies of around 100 people, pressure to drink more medicine, and upselling of stem cell treatments and real estate, while repeat guests praised the staff, food and teaching. A May 2024 first-timer’s report was personally positive but critical of the leadership and group size, and drew mostly cautionary replies, including the sexual assault allegations noted below. Our earlier review also cited a 2021 r/Ayahuasca post criticizing Rythmia’s commercialized approach.

Who is writing the reviews. Treat the positive coverage with care. A 2021 Tripadvisor review page states the business used Tripadvisor’s review-collection tools to “encourage and collect guest reviews.” Rythmia runs an affiliate program paying commissions, and most of the enthusiastic blog reviews we found disclose free stays, partnerships or affiliate links, including The Third Wave, whose author disclosed being offered a free week in exchange for a review. Several 2026 SPIN Magazine features praising Rythmia ran in the magazine’s “Partner” section with Rythmia-credited photos. A Trustpilot reviewer alleged in an October 2023 review, “They also offer free stuff to post positive reviews when you’re still high,” along with claims that local staff were paid $5 to $10 a day and that guests were told rooms were sold out while the center ran at about 60% capacity. On AyaAdvisors, a burst of five five-star reviews arrived within six days in October 2026 after a three-year gap. Independent, undisclosed reviews are rarer and more mixed: a 2025 first-person review on Medium described ceremonies of 70-plus people and stem cell sales pitches between ceremonies, and the Oh No, Ross and Carrie! podcast published a critical 13-part series on Rythmia in 2018. If you have attended, we encourage you to share your experience through our submission form.

🚩 Incident Report

We reviewed investigative journalism, Costa Rican press and government records, Tripadvisor, Trustpilot, AyaAdvisors, Reddit, blogs, podcasts, and Rythmia’s own statements. Rythmia disputes many of the allegations below. Each is attributed to its source, and unverified claims are labeled as such.

• Deaths: A June 2022 VICE investigation reported that a 37-year-old guest died by suicide in February 2018, weeks after a January 2018 stay, and that Powell told her family Rythmia had never before had a past guest die by suicide. He also wrote that she had rated her stay 4.8 out of 5 and said in her exit survey that she would return. A March 2024 Tripadvisor review titled “Someone died!” alleges that a guest who struggled during a July 2023 ceremony was restrained and died by suicide in his room hours later; no management response appears. Another Tripadvisor reviewer, describing a January 2024 stay, relayed a secondhand claim of multiple suicides, which Rythmia called false. A commenter in the May 2024 Reddit thread also claimed a death linked to the retreat. None of these post-2018 claims has been confirmed by news coverage or official records; they remain unverified.
• Restraint and Isolation: A Tripadvisor reviewer who attended in October 2022 alleged that a woman was tied up during a ceremony without warning and had bruises the next day. In an October 2023 reply to that review, Rythmia’s owner wrote that “the need to isolate a guest during a ceremony occurs extremely infrequently,” reserved for when the healing team “is unable to calm a guest,” without directly addressing the tying-up claim. A reviewer describing a January 2024 stay alleged being held down with yoga straps; Rythmia called that account false. VICE separately published a former guest’s account of being locked in the medical area against her will for a week, during which she said two male employees forced a syringe into her mouth; Powell first denied her account, then withdrew his comments, citing patient privacy.
• Guest Safety and Medical Care: VICE also reported that another guest left early and later had suicidal thoughts and a heart attack (Powell declined to comment, citing patient privacy), a guest biting his tongue, and guests trying to climb a barbed-wire fence; Powell said he knew of the tongue incident and had no record of the fence attempts, and the incidents were alleged to date from years earlier. Former staff described ceremonies of up to 80 people, and Powell told VICE some ceremonies have about 100 guests.
• Sexual Misconduct: In the May 2024 r/Ayahuasca thread, the original poster said they had heard of a sexual assault during their week at Rythmia, and a commenter alleged they were sexually assaulted during a ceremony by a man studying to be a shaman who had been brought in by a friend of one of the speakers, and criticized how staff handled it. Other commenters referred to a woman reporting sexual abuse at Rythmia around the same time. These claims are unverified, and we found no news coverage or official record of them. We found no published allegations naming Rythmia staff or shamans as perpetrators.
• Staff Treatment: According to VICE, a former facilitator filed a claim in Costa Rican labor court for $27,000 in unpaid wages, which Powell said was settled. Former staff also described pressure to deliver guest “miracles” and retaliation for raising concerns. The Trustpilot claim about $5 to $10 daily wages is unverified.
• Founder Conduct: VICE reported allegations of verbal and physical abuse by Powell toward a former partner. Powell called one incident a “left-handed slap,” which he described as lightly brushing her face, admitted breaking her phone, and denied other claims. In an email VICE quoted, a Vancouver police constable told her the information she provided did not indicate criminal threats.
• Legal Action Against Critics and Guests: Rythmia has sued several critics. VICE reported suits against a blogger, who settled and removed her post, and against a former facilitator, which was voluntarily dismissed. Rythmia also sued the hosts of Oh No, Ross and Carrie! in California and Costa Rica; on the Opening Arguments podcast, the hosts’ attorney said Rythmia dismissed the California case after an anti-SLAPP motion and agreed to pay $20,000 in fees, and that the Costa Rica case lapsed. A 2023 reviewer on AyaAdvisors claims “a class action lawsuit by past guests” was filed in California and dismissed because it needed to be filed in Costa Rica, and that Rythmia sued guests who spoke about their experiences; Rythmia replied that its legal stance aims “to protect our reputation from unfounded claims.” We found no court record confirming the class action, so it remains unverified.
• Theft: We found no reports of theft involving guests’ belongings.

Rythmia says it completed a “comprehensive 2026 Safety and Medical Oversight Audit,” but its press release does not name the auditor or publish the findings. If you have first-hand information about an incident at Rythmia, you can report it here.

🔍 Critical Notes

The license is contested. Rythmia’s FAQ says it holds a General Medical License from Costa Rica’s Ministry of Health and is separately licensed by IAFA, the national drug and alcohol institute. Costa Rican reporting paints a different picture. According to La Nación (March 2025) and CRHoy (February 2025), Rythmia held a 2015 sanitary operating permit to treat addictions, which expired in 2020; a new permit in November 2020 classified it under “complementary therapies”; in April 2022 the Ministry warned it had no permission to treat addictions; and in July 2022 the Ministry temporarily allowed therapeutic ayahuasca use until a regulation was published. The Ministry opened a case against that authorization in May 2024, and in October 2024 the Health Minister asked the Attorney General’s office to annul it. In February 2025 the Attorney General’s office declined, citing serious procedural errors by the Ministry and noting that no rule regulated or banned ayahuasca when the authorization was granted. La Nación and the Attorney General’s office describe the underlying document as a sanitary operating permit, which the Attorney General’s office distinguishes from a medical license. According to CRHoy, Rythmia also told regulators it gave up its IAFA addiction-rehab license and stopped those services in 2018, which sits awkwardly with its current claim of IAFA licensing. Rythmia did not respond to La Nación. Meanwhile, the Ministry’s January 2025 health warning, which names no centers, calls ritual “healing” use of ayahuasca an unauthorized practice and advises the public not to take part. Jules Evans reported in 2024 that the Health Minister had threatened to close leading centers including Rythmia, and that Rythmia dropped mentions of ayahuasca from its website at the time; its website mentions ayahuasca again as of November 2026. ICEERS reported in September 2026 that Costa Rica “does not yet have specific regulations” for retreat centers. See also our overview of drug laws in Costa Rica.

The numbers are self-reported. Rythmia’s “miracle rate” is a measure it defines and reports itself, and the figures shift across its own materials, from 97.65% on its website to 97.84% in a June 2026 press release, while VICE reported earlier figures from 94.27% to 97.5%. The 2023 AyaAdvisors reviewer described the measure as a box guests tick, writing, “I ticked the box to say I got my miracle because I wanted to believe it would be true.” Its reported guest totals vary too, from over 15,000 to over 25,000 depending on the source.

Scale and sales. Roughly 100 guests per retreat, reported upselling of stem cell treatments, a commission-paying affiliate program, and the May 2026 launch of Rythmia Residences, a 150-home community offered first to past guests, all point to a business model that extends well beyond a single retreat week.

🆘 Screening & Mental Health Risks

Rythmia says every guest completes medical screening before and on arrival, in two stages (a written questionnaire, then an in-person evaluation by a physician), and that a clinical team of two staff physicians, ten registered nurses and two emergency response technicians is on site around the clock. It also says ayahuasca is “optional and subject to medical clearance.” What it does not publish is its list of exclusions or its protocol for guests who become severely distressed, beyond its own acknowledgment that it sometimes isolates guests it cannot calm. That gap matters. ICEERS notes that combining ayahuasca’s MAOI component with SSRIs or other serotonergic medications is contraindicated, and that ayahuasca is contraindicated for people with severe psychiatric disorders, particularly those prone to psychosis. Erowid’s ayahuasca vault likewise warns of extreme, possibly fatal reactions when the brew is combined with some prescription drugs, including SSRI antidepressants, and DanceSafe’s DMT guide, which covers ayahuasca’s active compound, notes that people with a personal or family history of mood or psychotic disorders may face a higher risk of psychological distress. Before booking, ask Rythmia for its written exclusion criteria, who makes the final medical call, when and how isolation, restraint or sedation is used and by whom, and how emergency transfers to a hospital work. Never stop or change a psychiatric medication to qualify for a retreat without your prescriber’s guidance.

🧪 Brew Substance

Rythmia serves ayahuasca, the brew made from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and chacruna leaves (Psychotria viridis). As Erowid explains, the vine’s harmala alkaloids are MAO inhibitors that make the DMT in the leaves orally active, which is also why medication interactions matter. Rythmia does not publish how its brew is prepared or sourced, how doses are set, or which shamans serve it, and Reddit commenters describe pressure to drink additional servings. The Rythmia Way page names ayahuasca as the only plant medicine in the program, though the cost FAQ also lists a separately charged “Herbal Support Therapy.” Ask directly about preparation, dosing per ceremony, whether you can decline or reduce a dose, and what the herbal support therapy involves.

📍 Location, Setting & Style

• Costa Rica: Rythmia sits inside Hacienda Pinilla, a gated resort community on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste, near Tamarindo and Langosta Beach. Guests stay in casitas ranging from shared double and triple rooms to private king rooms and executive suites, with a saltwater pool, spa, gym and an on-site restaurant serving organic, farm-to-table meals. Resort Luxe.
• Style: Highly structured and Western-facing. Ceremonies run alongside a full schedule of yoga, breathwork, meditation, cleanses, and personal-growth classes, with a pre-arrival prep module and post-retreat integration in Rythmia’s app. Expect a large, high-energy group rather than an intimate circle.

Practical guidance: Fly into Liberia International Airport (LIR); Rythmia’s FAQ says transfers are included and the drive is about an hour. Book through rythmia.com or by phone. For more options in the country, see our guide to ayahuasca retreats in Costa Rica.

Should You Book?

Rythmia can make sense if you want comfort, structure, and a visible medical presence, and you are comfortable with a large group and a polished, sales-driven environment. Thousands of guests report profound experiences, and that is real. But the full record is hard to ignore: a license the Health Ministry tried to revoke, Rythmia’s own acknowledgment that it isolates guests, a reported 2018 guest suicide and unverified claims of later deaths and a sexual assault, a founder who described an incident with a former partner as a “left-handed slap”, lawsuits against critics, outcome statistics it measures itself, and online praise that often comes with a free stay or a commission attached. If you are considering Rythmia, get the permit, the exclusion criteria, the isolation and emergency protocols, and the full non-refundable price in writing first, and read our piece on whether luxury retreats are actually safer.

The Team & Story

Rythmia was founded by Gerard “Gerry” Powell, who credits plant medicine with transforming his own life and remains the center’s public face, founder and CEO. Its roots predate the ayahuasca resort: the Tico Times reported in 2015 that Iboga House, an ibogaine clinic where police linked a tourist’s 2014 death to ibogaine, closed and later merged with Rythmia. Today the program blends ayahuasca ceremonies with classes by Powell and curriculum designed by Michael Beckwith. Rythmia says its clinic is staffed by licensed medical doctors and registered nurses, and that its ceremonies are led by “a team of highly trained shamans,” but it does not name them or publish their lineage. The organization now extends well beyond the retreat itself, with an app-based integration program, an affiliate program, and Rythmia Residences.

Prep & Integration Tips

Before you go: Use the preparation module in Rythmia’s RLife app, which the center says runs for four weeks with weekly live sessions. Disclose every medication and supplement during screening, follow the center’s dietary guidance, and talk with your own doctor or prescriber well before travel. Bring light, comfortable clothing for warm weather, a notebook, and an eye mask. After you return: Rythmia offers a 13-week integration curriculum in its app with weekly live calls, plus optional one-on-one coaching at extra cost. Give yourself time before returning to full work and family demands, and arrange support from a qualified therapist if difficult material comes up. Our guide on how to research ayahuasca incidents can help you check any center before you commit.

Pros & Cons

Book Your Ceremony

Bookings are handled directly through rythmia.com or by phone at +1 (844) 236-5674. The seven-night program starts at $4,900 per person in a shared room, with private rooms and suites priced on request, a $250 cash herbal support fee on arrival, and non-refundable reservations that convert to credit if you cancel. Before paying, confirm in writing the total cost including any ceremony payments, the credit and cancellation terms, a copy of the current operating permit, and the medical exclusion criteria. Best Retreats does not take bookings; learn more about our mission.

Last reviewed November 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Consult a qualified medical professional.