The seedy retreat where a ‘shaman’ charges £800 to get high on hallucinogenic drug ayahuasca which Prince Harry said cleansed his troubled mind

• In a farm building near Stockport, hundreds flocked to try hallucinogenic drug 
• There are claims ayahuasca can help alleviate addition, depression and anxiety
• Mail on Sunday investigation found Class A drug being used in ‘shaman’ retreat 
• There are similar illicit retreats being held in London, North Wales and Brighton

With its crumbling walls, concrete floor and grubby mattresses, blankets and pillows, the old stone outhouse looks more like a seedy squat than a wellness retreat.

Ominously, several buckets and a toilet roll are placed on the floor. And for the next three days, a group of 20 people – each paying £800 for the privilege – will vomit, wail and hallucinate here for up to 15 hours at a time after indulging in the latest craze for the South American psychedelic drug ayahuasca.

In this nondescript farm building on the outskirts of the historic mill village of Compstall, near Stockport, hundreds of people have already flocked to try the drug, tempted by claims that it can help to alleviate addiction, depression and anxiety.

Prince Harry told last week how taking it had helped him to cope with the death of his mother.

Ayahuasca is illegal in the UK because it contains the powerful Class A hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine, or DMT.

Yet an undercover investigation by The Mail on Sunday has found that it is being provided at this retreat, run by self-styled ‘shaman’ Chris Hargreaves and his yoga teacher girlfriend, Rebecca Stewart.

An undercover investigation has found that ayahuascais being provided at this retreat, run by self-styled ‘shaman’ Chris Hargreaves and his yoga teacher girlfriend, Rebecca Stewart (pictured) 

It is not the only one. We have evidence of similar illicit retreats in London, North Wales and Brighton.

Some, such as the one being run by Hargreaves and Stewart, are so brazen that they operate as limited companies.

The couple’s records show they have assets of more than £80,000, and they are clearly in demand. When I tried to book a place in their Sacred Nature retreat at the start of this year, I was told that the next available one was not until late February.

That’s how I found myself in the Compstall outhouse last month among a group of mostly middle-class professionals – including a mother with a baby who was still being breastfed.

With me were a management consultant and a tennis coach, a couple from Scotland who had taken a ferry and driven eight hours to get there, and a young woman who had made the five-and-a-half-hour journey north from Bournemouth by car.

The mother of the four-month-old baby also had her eight-year-old with her, and was accompanied by her 22-year-old son who, she excitedly told everyone, would be taking ayahuasca with her for the first time.

In contrast, almost everyone else had drank the hallucinogen before – one man revealed that he attended the retreat every month.

Hargreaves, 40, revealed he had ‘administered’ ayahuasca to 10,000 people in the UK and the Amazon region

All claimed that when under the influence of ayahuasca they had seen ‘Mother Ayahuasca’, also known as ‘Aya’, the female spirit associated with the hallucinogen.

This spirit, they claimed, could heal past trauma. Most also admitted they sought help for a mental health condition. Several said they wanted to treat addiction to alcohol or drugs. All were seemingly oblivious to the potential risks to mental health among vulnerable people.

Yet Hargreaves and Stewart, who run their own website and a private Facebook group with 1,200 members, sought to reassure attendees of the drug’s safety by describing it as a ‘medicine’.

Hargreaves, 40, revealed he had ‘administered’ ayahuasca to 10,000 people in the UK and the Amazon region, adding: ‘I don’t class it as a psychedelic, I class it as a medicine.

‘It gives you answers and healing from yourself.’

Stewart, 30, was busy preparing the ‘ceremony room’ with her two helpers. ‘It might not look like much,’ she said, as she set up heaters and speakers in the dingy outhouse, ‘but after two cups of ayahuasca…’

Our introduction to the drug had come with instructions. Anyone on antidepressants or who had a history of psychotic episodes were advised not to take it, while in the run-up to the retreat it was recommended that we follow a strict diet to ensure our bodies were ‘clean’ for the experience – this meant avoiding alcohol, red meat, sugar and excessively spicy or salty foods.

Hargreaves and Stewart, who run their own website and a private Facebook group with 1,200 members, described the drug as a ‘medicine’ during the retreat 

What is ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca, also known as caapi, yaje or yage, is a hallucinogenic drink made from tropical plants found in the Amazon. 

The brew is made from the leaves of the Psychotria Viridis shrub along with the stalks of the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine, though other plants and ingredients can be added.

The drink has been used for spiritual and religious purposes by Amazonian tribes and is still used for rituals in some places in South America today. 

Psychotria Viridis contains DMT, which is a psychedelic substance. 

There are several potential benefits to the drug, including improving brain health and psychological wellbeing.

Unpleasant side effects include vomiting, diarrhoea, paranoia and panic and while the effects are usually temporary, they can be very distressing.   

The substance remains illegal in many countries including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. 

Source: Britannica 

At 5pm we were ushered in and told to claim a mattress.

An ‘integration coach’ wandered around, stopping to give me their version of a health-and-safety lecture. When I shared my fears of how the drug might affect me negatively, she told me not to worry, saying: ‘It won’t make you crazy. She [Mother Ayahuasca] is not going to give you any more than you can handle, so don’t be scared.’

The coach said that after the retreat I could have one free telephone session with her to discuss the mental impact of the sessions – I would have to pay an undisclosed fee for any additional sessions.

Then Hargreaves and Stewart called for silence and began preparing the drug, which looks like muddy brown tea, in plastic cups set out on a bongo drum.

Another member of staff offered attendees Amazonian rapé, a finely ground tobacco, which he blew into their nostrils using a pipe, saying it would cleanse their bodies ahead of the ayahuasca ceremony.

In one hand, Hargreaves held some ayahuasca vine which he claimed he’d brought back from the Peruvian jungle. In the other was a stem of wachuma cactus, also known as San Pedro, which has hallucinogenic properties. But today we’d just be sampling ayahuasca.

‘You’ve probably heard people talk about Mother Ayahuasca. She’s a safe spirit that comes in with the medicine,’ Hargreaves told us. ‘Everyone that’s met her has fallen in love with her.

‘She likes to beat you down, she likes to humble you, but then she fills you up with everything that you’re meant to be.

‘She’s not interested if you are an alcoholic, she’s not interested in your depression or anxiety – she’ll cut straight to the reason why.

‘Your soul is going to get so much in the medicine.’

More prosaically, he then addressed the practical side effects – and why we needed the buckets. We could expect to vomit profusely. Or, as they put it, ‘purge’.

Prince Harry has admitted using psychedelics – magic mushrooms, psilocybin (the active component of magic mushrooms) and ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic from the leaves of a shrub – in an attempt to help him heal from ‘grief’

‘You’ve all got buckets,’ he said. ‘The purge from ayahuasca is really nice. You’re going to want to fill your buckets.

‘The other way of purging is the other direction, and the toilets are just outside.’

Stewart encouraged clients to increase their dose if they wanted to, saying: ‘Please don’t worry if you feel like you’re not getting anything. Sometimes you need more medicine.’

Then they handed round the plastic cups. Hidden by the gloom in the outhouse and the twilight outside, while the others swallowed and grimaced I surreptitiously tipped mine into my bucket.

‘I’m going to drink with you,’ said Hargreaves, sipping from his cup. ‘You’re in very safe hands. I’ll be in both realms with you.’

The couple turned off the lights, leaving only red lamps which cast a scarlet glow over the room.

Hargreaves began to beat rhythmically on the bongos, uttering a low, growling incantation which felt aggressive.

It also served an important purpose – masking the sounds of retching as, one by one, the group began to vomit as, incongruously, Louis Armstrong’s What A Wonderful World played in the background.

Stewart, sitting cross-legged on the floor, her arms held up in a meditation pose, began to let out a mournful, unearthly wail.

Ayahuasca, a drink native to South American countries, is made by boiling together vine stems along with leaves from a chacruna shrub and has hallucinogenic properties

READ MORE: What is ayahuasca? Class A psychoactive drug Prince Harry claims helped ‘clear the misery’ of losing his mother is a plant-based drink with powerful hallucinogenic properties 

The Duke of Sussex spoke to 60 Minutes interviewer Anderson Cooper about his experiences drinking ayahuasca and taking other psychoactive drugs

One man was on all fours on his mattress, retching into his bucket. Some people began to screech while others shook convulsively. Another person began to weep.

The retreat leaders made their rounds, like nurses on a ward, stopping next to someone who was quivering and rubbing the back of another who was bent double over their bucket.

After five tedious hours – which I spent stock-still on my mattress – guests drifted off, heading for their beds in the nearby log house or in yurts set up in a field, while some chose to spend the night in the ‘ceremony room’. One drove to a nearby hotel, despite having consumed the psychedelic.

Another guest joked about this later, telling me that the hallucinogens in ayahuasca ‘do not show up on breathalyser tests’.

The next morning, guests congregated in the living room of the log house, eager to discuss their ‘journeys’ of the previous night. One woman said: ‘Aya gave me a battering, but I needed it.’

Another recalled how a royal personage calling himself Henry had appeared to her in a hallucination in which she was told to be more like him as she battled through life.

Several attendees were disappointed that they had not experienced any hallucinations, but there was consolation in the fact that there were two more nights – and two more doses – ahead of them to try again. I’d certainly had enough.

Hargreaves and Stewart declined to comment on their ayahuasca retreats when The Mail on Sunday approached them. They have since removed their Facebook group and taken down details of the monthly retreats that were advertised on their website.

The Mail on Sunday has passed evidence of the retreats to Greater Manchester Police.

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