CRI-MILITARY-VETERANS-TAKE-PART-IN-PSYCHEDELIC-ASSISTED-HEALING

GUANACASTE PROVINCE, COSTA RICA - SEPTEMBER 11: A shaman blesses former fire department captain Kelly Lucas, 49, from Carlsbad, CA following an all-night Yage Ayahuasca ceremony at the Rythmia Life Advancement Center on September 11, 2026 in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. The Coming Home Project, a veteran-founded and run non-profit, organized some 50 vets and several first responders for a one week psychedelic-assisted program at Rythmia designed to help heal combat traumas such as PTSD anxiety, depression, hyper-vigilance and substance abuse disorders. The majority attending were former U.S. Special Forces, most of whom had completed multiple combat deployments to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rythmia, licensed by Costa Rica's Ministry of Health, is the only such legal Ayahuasca plant medicine treatment center in the world. During the weeklong program, it administers four consecutive nights of ayahuasca "journeys" designed to guide attendees in a supervised setting with a team of guides. Daily workshops explore breakthroughs and insights experienced during the evening Ayahuasca sessions to help attendees carry improvements into their everyday lives long after their week at Rythmia. Recent clinical research suggests that psychedelic medicines, administered with intention in a supervised setting, can help the brain reprocess traumatic memory and open a window of neuroplasticity to facilitate lasting positive change. U.S. veterans groups have been some of the most vocal advocates for legal access to psychedelic treatments as they try to move on from the traumas of war. John Moore/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)