Making Meaning from Experience:
Visionary Art, Creativity, and Integration
April 9 – 19, 2027
Wasiwaska Research Center · Florianópolis, Brazil
Join us for an eleven-day immersion into Visionary Art where a small group will gather for the creation and integration of visionary experience through daily workshops and evening lectures. The Wasiwaska Research Center lies in a quiet, beautiful corner of Santa Catarina Island, known as the Ilha da Magia – the Magic Island on the country’s southern coast.
This is the home of the Colombian-Finnish anthropologist Luis Eduardo Luna and his wife, the cultural manager Adriana Rosa, who recently celebrated 25 years of organizing interdisciplinary seminars at their center, always with small groups of no more than 14 participants, plus the invited speakers.
For this seminar, presenters and participants will open a creative space for the pursuit and integration of visionary experience through workshops that include intention-setting, creative exercises (drawing, writing) and circle-closure at the end. Evenings are dedicated to scholarly presentations and lively discussions led by Luis Eduardo Luna and the 3 speakers.
A home before anything else
The Wasiwaska Research Center is - first and foremost - the home of Luis and Adriana, with plenty of room, indoors and out, for conversation or quiet integration. The house sits on a hill, a few minutes’ walk from the ocean, within a large ethnobotanical garden of more than 400 plant species - from ornamental and aromatic to sacred and medicinal plants, plus plenty of fruit trees. The garden also has quiet places where you can sit in silence among the birds and trees. It naturally blends into the native vegetation, an ideal setting for forest bathing. Excursions into the surrounding rivers and forests, as well as the city of Florianópolis, are also planned.
Inside the center, there is a cozy fireplace, artwork throughout, and a specialized library of nearly 4,000 volumes. Participants will share all meals, which offer seasonal menus planned with care and organic vegetables whenever possible. Tropical fruit, coffee and a wide choice of teas are always at hand.
Practical Details
The all-inclusive fee of R$ 22,500 Brazilian reais (approximately $4200 US) covers the cost of the 11-day seminar and full-accommodation (flight not included). Wasiwaska provides airport transfers, comfortable rooms with private bathrooms, laundry, all meals and activities. Massages are available for an extra charge. To convert the fee into your currency: xe.com/currencyconverter.
Learn more about the retreat: https://www.wasiwaska.org/seminar/making-meaning-from-experience-visionary-art-creativity-and-integration/
Register: https://www.wasiwaska.org/apply-to-seminar/
The Presenters
This retreat brings together 3 presenters with the gift of helping others to pursue their own visionary experiences and give them creative form:
Laurence Caruana, visionary artist, author of Sacred Codes, and director of The Academy of Visionary Art. lcaruana.com and academyofvisionaryart.com
Larry Norris, artist, co-founder and executive director of Entheogenic Research, Integration, and Education (ERIE), and co-founder of Decriminalize Nature. erievision.org and decriminalizenature.org
Rebecca Wilkinson, artist, art therapist, licensed professional counselor, and founder of The Psychedelic Art Therapy Network. rebeccawilkinson.com and psychedelicarttherapynetwork.org