About the Spirit Vine Center

Spirit Vine, aka TheVine Center is “The Ayahuasca House”, founded in 2004 to host spiritual retreats where people from all over the world can come and meet others interested in reconnecting with the higher self and spiritual development, working with a variety of meditations, regressions, art, yoga, talks about ayahuasca and ceremonies.

6-9The centre is located in the richly diverse Mata-Atlantic forest on the east coast of Brazil in the state of Bahia. This region was chosen due to the natural beauty of the landscape, astonishing beaches, good accessibility, spirited local culture and the abundance of natural foods. An ideal setting for a safe and profound experience.

TheVine Center is established as a trans-denominational interfaith space that is open to people of the world, who are seeking to reconnect with source/universal intelligence. The founders of TheVine Center have developed programs that do not teach doctrine, yet support participants in self-realization of their own unique spiritual journey reconnecting with their own power or “god within”, a common goal of many ancient traditions and religions. The root word of religion is usually traced back to the latin word religare meaning “to bind back” (“re” = back and “ligare” = to bind).

Ayahuasca Retreat Facilities

The center includes facilities that are purpose built for Ayahuasca retreats and include a beautiful ceremony room or maloca within the jungle, and extensive landscaped gardens that enchant the senses and invoke the imagination. Nature is ever present and the spaces are comfortable and safe with modern amenities designed for beauty, function and comfort.

The nature of our not-for-profit center is spiritual, philosophical, mystical, educational, and cultural. All income from the retreats goes toward the upkeep and maintenance of the grounds and facilities, creating employment for locals and forest conservation projects including the planting of thousands of native trees on the land.

Within the TheVine Center are hundreds of fruit trees, coconuts, organic gardens with fresh vegetables and our own ayahuasca vines and Chacruna plants. We believe in healthy organic diets and where possible food during the retreats is sourced mostly directly from our gardens.

pictures16test.spiritvineretreats.com & TheVine Center were previously known as Ayahuasca-Healing and inspired by Silvia Polivoy. Silvia received her license in clinical psychology in 1983 and had a private practice in Buenos Aires, Argentina for twenty years until she began to feel the need to make a transition from studying and healing the mind to exploring the worlds of Spirit.

Silvia ventured away from the busy city streets to the more tranquil life in the jungle, eventually moving to Brazil where in 2004 she co-founded TheVine Center with Zoe Seven. Having facilitated her first ayahuasca retreat in 1996 in the Peruvian Amazon, Silvia has extensive experience, also hosting artists, teachers, authors, researchers and other experts such as Zoe7, Pablo Amaringo, Alex Grey, Robert Venosa, Martina Hoffman, David Icke, Jonathan Ott, Rick Doblin and many others.

The core program of TheVine Center are the spiritual retreats carefully designed over many years to support and enhance the spiritual experience of ayahuasca ceremony. The focus is on the participant and their unique relationship to ayahuasca and their own spiritual journey, while they are lovingly and skillfully supported in a safe and beautiful environment.

You are welcome to join us, please feel free to contact us for more information or to apply for a retreat.

Upcoming Retreats

  • Jul  1 — Jul 11
  • Aug  8 — Aug 16
  • Sep  1 — Sep 9
  • Oct  3 — Oct 11
  • Nov  15 — Nov 25

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Spirit Vine COVID-19 Update

Last Updated: 5th May 2023

We have established guidelines to ensure that we provide the maximum amount of safety to all participants who attend the retreats.

We will update this section when new information is available.

Content listed here is subject to change.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Recommendations for COVID-19

The current guidelines from the Brazilian government state that anyone who wants to enter Brazil must present either a valid Covid test or a Covid vaccine certificate. You do not need to take any other vaccines to enter Brazil. These guidelines may change in the future.

Prior to leaving Brazil, depending on the requirements of your destination country, you may be required to present an RT-PCR or Antigen test, or vaccine certificate. If you need a PCR test we recommend you to budget the required time of 6 hours to take the test and get the results at Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport. Antigen test can be taken in the town of Itacare near our center before you go to the airport or at the airport in Sao Paulo.

Please note that Itacare and Ilheus do not have RT-PCR testing centers.

Spirit Vine Guidelines for COVID-19

We don’t require covid tests or any type of vaccination certificates to participate in the retreats. If you opt to take the Covid vaccine, we require that vaccination must be done at least 2 months prior to drinking ayahuasca. This is for the safety of participants to make sure the vaccine doesn’t have any reaction with the ingestion of ayahuasca.