GUANACASTE PROVINCE, COSTA RICA - SEPTEMBER 11: Shamans bless former U.S. Navy pilot Brett Odom, 56 from Falls Church, Virginia at sunrise following an all-night Yage Ayahuasca ceremony at the Rythmia Life Advancement Center on September 11, 2026 in Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica. The former F/A-18 Hornet aviator and Top Gun graduate served multiple deployments to Iraq, suffered neck and back injuries due to high-G flights and was diagnosed with PTSD before his first Ayahuasca experience in 2023. Post-military he has been a chief financial officer and consultant and has a leadership role in The Coming Home Project, (CHP) a veteran-founded and run non-profit. CHP organized and in most cases funded 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 as well as other chronic psychological issues. 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. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)