A young Polish woman died at a retreat hosted on Holos Global property in Costa Rica’s Diamante Valley, where Ian Michael Hebert leads the regenerative eco-community and transformational programs. She wandered unsupervised the day after an Iboga ceremony and was later found deceased in a nearby river. The event was organized by Awaken Your Soul under Anthony Esposito and Amber Antonelli, but the venue’s remote jungle layout and lack of any visible safety protocols left participants exposed to preventable risks. No documented emergency procedures, no boundary markers, no on-site medical response plan, and no staff oversight existed at the Holos Global site during the critical post-ceremony hours.
Holos Global emphasizes harmony with nature, eco-luxury immersion, and personal growth in Diamante Valley. Iboga, however, is unregulated in Costa Rica, lacking sanitary registration from the Ministry of Health and therapeutic licensing, so no legal framework requires venues to implement safety protocols for powerful plant-medicine events hosted on their land.
The Venue’s Wild Terrain Demanded Constant Oversight
Holos Global offers eco-luxury stays, regenerative living, and transformational retreats in a protected valley with waterfalls, rivers, and dense jungle. Ian Michael Hebert’s vision centers on harmony with nature and personal growth in an untouched landscape.
The setting is intentionally wild: steep riverbanks, swift currents, dense vegetation, and low visibility at night. While perfect for immersion, it requires clear safety infrastructure when guests consume substances that impair judgment and stability. No evidence from the account suggests Holos Global enforced or provided site-specific monitoring protocols during the vulnerable after-ceremony hours.
No Eyes on Participants in the Afterglow
The day following the Iboga ceremony, while the medicine’s lingering effects still impaired balance, awareness, and judgment, the woman left camp alone. Stephen had warned her explicitly and repeatedly: “If you go into the jungle, you’re gonna fucking die.” He bought her proper shoes for the terrain and insisted she wear them at all times. He extracted multiple promises that she would remain within group and camp boundaries.
No staff from the retreat or Holos Global were assigned to observe participants. No perimeter patrols existed. No check-in system tracked movement. Stephen was incapacitated on an IV drip treating a severe reaction while the facilitator remained under the medicine’s effects.
Silence for Hours Before Any Alert
The team did not notify Stephen until approximately 9 or 10 p.m., later stating they were reluctant to disturb him during his health crisis. She had already been missing for a significant part of the day. Nighttime searches recovered her body from the river, apparently after she lost footing on the bank or attempted to cross.
Stephen stressed that the total lack of monitoring in the Holos Global-hosted setting left her without support in terrain that demanded constant presence.
Stephen’s Account Highlights the Monitoring Failure
Stephen Ronald Bell attended the retreat with the woman and two others. In his January 2026 livestream he described the events. Recorded statements from that time detailed his own medical emergency from a high Iboga dose, the prolonged silence before he was told she was missing, the nighttime body recovery, and the subsequent negotiations.
Body Recovery Turned Into Prolonged Negotiation
Stephen recounted having to negotiate for body location details amid scattered local morgues. Anthony Esposito reportedly requested $400 related to prior massages and Reiki sessions and initially delayed sharing information. Retreat communications encouraged omitting Iboga from police conversations, suggesting the event be framed as yoga or minor psilocybin use.
Stephen paid to advance the process, personally covered high repatriation costs to Poland, retained a local lawyer, and informed the mother directly while still experiencing Iboga aftereffects.
Missing Protocols as the Fatal Gap
No venue safety plan. No marked boundaries. No emergency chain in a river-heavy wilderness. These absences at a Holos Global site enabled a preventable tragedy in an unregulated context.
Stephen also noted another woman from the same retreat died by suicide six months later, though this stands separately.
Natural Venues Must Build Real Safety Infrastructure
Sites hosting powerful plant-medicine retreats need fixed, venue-specific protocols: boundary mapping, staff patrols, medical standby, missing-person alerts, and clear coordination with organizers, especially in isolated terrain.
Anyone booking a retreat at a nature-focused venue like Holos Global should demand proof of documented safety protocols tailored to the land and the medicine. Without them, immersion becomes exposure.
This article is published on Phenomena
