Intention-setting

BY DR. MERIS WILLIAMS

A practice to empower and individualize your ayahuasca experience

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I was initially quite frightened to drink ayahuasca. But I was also on a mission: to figure out who the heck I was. So, my very first ceremony intention was “Please show me my true self.” I admit, I was secretly anticipating rainbows, unicorns, and my True Self tripping through the cosmos feeling one with everything. That was not remotely what ended up happening – not even close. But that intention became an enduring theme in a years-long journey of self-discovery and ancestral healing.

Since then, intention-setting has been a cornerstone of my retreat preparation. Each intention has been answered, but rarely in the way I had anticipated and sometimes not immediately. Part of ayahuasca’s ingenuity is the creativity and novelty with which it addresses stuck parts, blocks, fears, and deep-down longings. Tracking my intentions over time has revealed a fascinating map of my ayahuasca odyssey.

Below, I share some whats and whys of intention-setting, drawn from the work of my colleagues, from research including ours with Western ayahuasca ceremony leaders, and my personal experiences. These are only suggestions – your transformance strivings[1] (aka inner healing intelligence) may offer up additional or alternative tools that align with your needs.

Bobinsana plant photography by Ted Dudas

Photography by Ted Dudas

Clarifying your purpose for drinking ayahuasca

Our research with Western ayahuasca ceremony leaders highlighted intention-setting as one of the more important aspects of ceremony preparation.

They described it as a deliberate process of exploring hopes and goals to clarify the purpose of attending a ceremony. Having a clear intention was considered helpful for psychological grounding and anchoring ceremony experiences. One leader commented:

Intentionality is a huge part of preparation into an ayahuasca experience, to really know why you are being called to it and what you want to get out of it. Even though ayahuasca can communicate in mysterious ways… I think the process of going into that space in oneself is really important and a big part of the preparation. (Leader 2)

Other recent research suggests that intentions form part of the “set” (mindset) we bring into ceremonies that, along with “setting” (environment), shapes our psychedelic experiences. Clarifying intentions may prime our minds to more quickly come into contact with what we seek from the ceremony.

Three ways to think about ceremony intentions

There are various ways to conceptualize ceremony intentions. Analogies I’ve come across include intention as an anchor, a sail, or a prayer.

Intention as an anchor

A dear colleague of mine likens the intention to an anchor that empowers us and individualizes our medicine experience, especially when we take the perspective that medicine work catalyzes our inner healing intelligence. During the ceremony, an intention can offer a foothold in the moment and organize the meaning we make of our journey as it unfolds. Intentions can extend beyond the ceremony, helping to guide our choices and weave ceremony insights into daily life.

Intention as a sail

The ayahuasca practitioner who led my first ceremonies preferred to think of an intention as a sail on a boat. If you don’t have your sail up, the wind (ayahuasca) can take you anywhere. By putting up your sail, you’re more likely to be taken in the general direction of your intent, even as you zig-zag along.

Intention as a prayer

A third option is the idea of an intention as a prayer, which can take many forms including words, feelings, or images.

Whether anchor, sail, or prayer resonates best with you (or all, or none!), it’s important that your intention really fits for you. To figure that out, it can be helpful to use a framework, especially if we’re new to ayahuasca.

Crafting intentions

An ayahuasca practitioner I know has stated that the person-ayahuasca relationship is collaborative rather than passive, and therefore something in which we can actively participate. Crafting intentions can be a part of developing and deepening this relationship.

A few questions to consider:

  • What are my hopes for this ceremony/retreat?
  • What in my life needs clarity, shifting, more attention, healing, letting go of?
  • What do I want to learn? (e.g., about myself, my relationships, purpose, emotions, coping mechanisms, physical body, identity – the list is endless)
  • What do I long for?
  • Are my goals for the ceremony mine, or are they influenced by others’ wishes, expectations, or demands?

One of my colleagues is a wizard at developing practical tools for supporting experiences with ayahuasca and other psychedelics. She’s developed a simple framework (adapted slightly here) that can enhance clarity, taking the form of a request with the following sentence stems:

  • Help me
  • Show me
  • Teach me
  • Heal me/my/the

paired with

  • a difficult emotion (fear, anger, guilt, sadness, shame, joy), or
  • an essential quality (peace, love, compassion, connection) that we might have become disconnected from through challenging life experiences, or
  • any aspect of our life calling for our attention.

As examples:

  • Show me – my fear; my life without shame; how to receive love
  • Teach me – about love; about my anxiety; how to reconnect with my family
  • Help me – experience joy; open my heart; express anger safely; let go of my ex
  • Heal – my heartbreak; the pain in my joints; my relationship with alcohol

Over years of drinking ayahuasca, I have found this formula to be the gift that keeps on giving. Refining intentions into something this succinct has helped me remember them more easily mid-ceremony, ground me, and remind me why I’ve chosen once again to drink ayahuasca, particularly when I’m feeling overwhelmed and wishing I had not drunk ayahuasca that night.

When I’ve needed to work on something really scary, I’ve experimented with softer phrasing. For example, “Teach me about my shame” felt like a terrifying intention to me, whereas “Show me my life without shame” seemed gentler. I am not actually sure if this change made a difference to how this particular ceremony unfolded, but it did help bolster my courage heading into it. I did eventually select “Teach me about my shame” as an intention, at least one year and several ceremonies later.

I’ve been cautioned by a teacher that it’s possible to become stuck in trying to craft the “perfect” 5-word intention. With more ayahuasca experience, my intentions have expanded into more flexible formats, including meaningful phrases (e.g., I love, I am loved, I am love) and something more like prayers. Yet, the formula above remains a go-to.

If it feels right, collaborating with trusted others can help refine our intentions, especially when we are new to ayahuasca. For example, after my first ceremony in which I was tumbled around relentlessly in ayahuasca’s ‘washing machine,’ a seasoned helper listened carefully to my experience and suggested the intentions, “Please show me who you are, show me your healing qualities, please be gentle with me.” Again, I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that those intentions contributed to a lighter touch from ayahuasca in the next ceremony.

Holding intentions lightly

In our research with ayahuasca ceremony leaders, they suggested that, yes, set your intention, but then let go of expectations or demands of the medicine. A common phrase in Western ayahuasca healing culture is that “ayahuasca is going to do what it’s going to do.” While this is a bit of a trope, I have found it to be largely true for me and it has often necessitated that I sit with a delicate tension between my efforts to choose my intentions carefully and then willingly set them aside.

Ayahuasca often works with our intentions in unexpected ways. Because it collaborates with our inner healing wisdom, often delving into material below our conscious awareness, its teachings may not at all resemble what our conscious mind has predicted. Ayahuasca can also take us into additional, unanticipated psychological waters, helping us to connect dots ordinarily unavailable to us.

Echoing this, the ayahuasca ceremony participants in a recent study overwhelmingly reported that their intentions had either been answered or had led into additional or deeper psychological territory – the impacts and outcomes of their experiences were much broader and more varied than their initial intentions. The authors suggested that a clear intention may enable us to bring focus to our concerns, but not to control or steer the ceremony experience.        

For myself, I’ve come to trust that ayahuasca, working in tandem with my transformance strivings, always offers an effective way to answer my intentions – directly or indirectly, subtly or plainly, quietly or ear-splittingly – and that it will take me wherever else I need to go. Again and again, the medicine has cut through to the core of what in my nervous system has sought relief, healing, discovery, witnessing, nourishment, and growth.

In summary

Intention-setting can be a beneficial practice for navigating ayahuasca experiences. Crafting clear, authentic intentions can help clarify our purpose for drinking ayahuasca and empower us before, during, and after ceremonies. When using simple requests such as “Teach me about my fear,” or experimenting with framing intentions as prayers, phrases, images, or feelings, we invite ayahuasca to collaborate with our inner healing wisdom. Creating intentions thoughtfully and then holding them lightly can help open up space for ayahuasca to offer us unexpected answers and new meanings that support our wellbeing.

References

  • Bathje, G. J., Fenton, J., Pillersdorf, D., & Hill, L. C. (2024). A qualitative study of intention and impact of ayahuasca use by westerners. The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 64(4), 653-691.
  • Callon, C., Williams, M., & Lafrance, A. (2021). “Meeting the medicine halfway”: Ayahuasca ceremony leaders’ perspectives on preparation and integration practices for participants. The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1177/00221678211043300
  • Fosha, D. (2000). The transforming power of affect: A model for accelerated change. Basic Books.
  • Fosha, D. (2021). How AEDP works. In D. Fosha (Ed.), Undoing aloneness and the transformation of suffering into flourishing (pp. 27–52). American Psychological Association.
  • Lafrance, A., (June 13, 2025). Psychedelic medicine and harm reduction support [online course]. https://dradelelafrance.com/psychedelicskill
  • Lafrance, A., (n.d.). Guide for preparation clinicians and coaches. Author.
  • Mithoefer, M. (2015, August 19). A manual for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Retrieved from: https://maps.org/research-archive/mdma/MDMA-Assisted-Psychotherapy-Treatment-Manual-Version7-19Aug15-FINAL.pdf
  • Nai, R. (2021, 2022). Ronin’s teachings [online course].

[1] The term transformance, coined by Diana Fosha, is a central theoretical assumption of the psychotherapy she developed known as Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP). Transformance is our innate drive towards healing, integration, and wholeness that is different from but equally important as the survival instinct (e.g., Fosha, 2000; 2021). It’s analogous to the concept of inner healing intelligence (the psyche’s innate capacity for healing) as described by Michael Mithoefer (2015, August 19), which may be a more familiar term in psychedelic spaces.