Why This Space Exists

Imagine yourself as a navigator — a sailor of the soul exploring the boundless landscapes of consciousness.

What we offer is orientation, context, and evidence-informed guidance. Like sailors before the invention of instruments, who charted their journeys by the stars, we help you recognize the inner constellations that guide growth and healing.

This is not a course of lectures, but a space of living contact. Facilitators walk beside you as companions and witnesses of your unfolding journey.

Learning, letting go, and receiving are evolving processes — they move through us as experience, reflection, and connection within a conscious and caring community.

You are invited to join us in navigating your inner worlds with awareness, courage, and care, choosing your own path and pace as you explore what resonates most for you — anchoring the insights and experiences you gather where they serve you best.

We are practitioners and researchers devoted to empowering psychonauts, seekers, and consciousness explorers to navigate expanded states of with clarity and integrity.

We create a safe, anchored, and informed space by:
• Integrating experiential wisdom with insights from transpersonal psychology, neuroscience, and depth psychotherapy to illuminate the transformative potential of expanded states — when approached with thorough preparation, conscious self-care, and skillful integration.
• Providing practical frameworks to help you build a reliable support system for your exploration and healing.
• Facilitating preparation and integration practices rooted in evidence-informed approaches, peer support, and embodied learning.

We call these expanded states holotropic, inspired by our most important teacher, psychiatrist Dr. Stanislav Grof, a pioneer in the scientific and experiential research of non-ordinary states. Holotropic means moving toward wholeness, and this is the compass that guides our work.

We do not claim to have it all figured out — consciousness exploration is an ongoing process. What we bring is decades of combined experience in deep inner exploration, and the capacity to hold space safely, professionally, and with compassion.

This is for you if...

This space is for you if you seek to explore expanded states of consciousness with responsibility, grounded presence, and an open heart.

We provide insights on how to choose the right set and setting for your psychedelic or other expanding experiences, drawing on over six decades of research across transpersonal psychology, consciousness studies, and integrative care.

We explore effective, evidence-informed methods of preparation and integration, helping you translate extraordinary experiences into lasting inner growth and embodied resilience. We emphasize that no experience is inherently “bad” — even what might feel like a challenging or “bad trip” can become an opportunity for insight and growth when approached with proper awareness and support.

The Journey

To ensure a comprehensive and embodied learning process, we weave together education, personal exploration, and community practice. We study essential concepts such as set and setting, transpersonal dynamics, archetypal patterns, and psychospiritual emergence, combined with experiential practices like art, somatic inquiry, myth work, meditation, visualization, and other integrative modalities.

Listening and sharing from the heart are at the core of our practice, co-creating a space of trust and mutual respect that supports authentic transformation.

We work with intimate groups of up to 14 participants to maintain depth, confidentiality, and close connection. Sessions are held live online once per week for twelve consecutive weeks, each lasting 120 minutes.

Every fourth week is an integration week — a dedicated opportunity for peer reflection, practice, and embodied learning. Sailors of the Soul is your space to navigate the inner oceans of consciousness alongside fellow explorers — with skill, capacity, and intention.

Not a Certification, A Transformation.

You won’t leave this course with a certificate. You’ll leave with something far more valuable...

• Grounded understanding and embodied practices that empower your future explorations in expanded states, making them safe, transformative, and nourishing.
• A deepened sense of agency and self-empowerment arising from being truly seen, heard, and supported in a conscious community.
• A network of like-minded explorers committed to personal growth, authenticity, and the responsible evolution of consciousness.

You’ll leave not with a map, but with the compass within — ready to navigate the oceans of your own becoming.

About Us

We met almost a decade ago… and to be honest, it wasn’t love at first sight. Quite the opposite: there was no magic between us. But life, with its strange sense of humor, kept bringing us together again and again in seminars, projects, and trainings. We found ourselves leading groups, teaching, and holding space for deep processes… and little by little we realized something: the commitment, dedication, and impeccability each of us had for this work were rare to find in others.

We discovered that we share the same intense way of living life: we don’t do things halfway. When it comes to going through a process, we go all in—with courage and open hearts. What unites us is the bravery to face emotions head-on, to consciously step into discomfort, and to recognize in every synchronicity a sign that everything in life has meaning.

Our friendship was forged in deep conversations (sometimes in ordinary states, sometimes in not-so-ordinary ones;)) and in the radical loyalty of being there for each other—even if it meant moving mountains. Over the years, we discovered that we were more than colleagues: we were companions on the same mystical and spiritual path — which now is full of magic moments. 

Today, with joy and gratitude, we want to share with you the pearls we have gathered along the way: what has supported us the most in our own journeys, what we have learned from extraordinary mentors, and what we have put into practice through our own introspection and awakening of consciousness.

Simona Rakusa

 I had my first conscious breathwork experience in a holotropic breathwork workshop back in 2010 — and it was love at first breath. It awakened a deep curiosity about the vast landscapes within us, and it has guided my path ever since.

Working with expanded states of consciousness became my passion and inspired me to co-create Sailors of the Soul, a 12-week guided journey for those called to explore these realms with awareness and care. Together, we move through preparation, navigation, and integration, learning to sail the inner seas with confidence, embodiment, and heart.

I am a Grof® Holotropic Breathwork facilitator, psychedelic-assisted therapist, and integrative psychotherapist, currently working with Grof Legacy Training USA and previously collaborating with the MIND Foundationin Berlin. Before this, I spent nearly 15 years in journalism and business, which taught me clarity, resilience, and presence under pressure.

All of these experiences shape the way I hold space — grounded, compassionate, and deeply respectful of the human psyche. If you’re ready to explore your inner world and sail its waters with wisdom and integrity, I’d be honored to journey alongside you.

Lili Vásquez Mock

Originally from Colombia, is a psychologist and lifelong seeker of wisdom and transformation through diverse healing modalities across continents. For over 24 years, she has explored approaches to access non-ordinary states of consciousness, immersing herself in spiritual traditions such as Buddhism, Sufism, and the study of the Aramaic Jesus — paths that deepen her understanding of consciousness and inner awakening. Her journey led her to study directly with Dr. Stanislav Grof, following him personally around the world for around ten years and assisting in some of his final workshops in Europe. She earned her certification in Grof Transpersonal Training for Holotropic Breathwork® facilitator (2009) and in Grof® Breathwork through the Grof Legacy Training (2024).

Rooted in her Colombian heritage, Lili has cultivated a deep connection with indigenous healing traditions and sacred plant rituals. Under Dr. Ralph Metzner’s supervision for some time, she worked with shamans from diverse lineages, supporting retreats and integration for participants navigating trauma and addiction. She also initiated a Medical Cannabis project in Colombia, now a GMP-certified facility, and currently teaches safe, classical psychedelic therapy via Breathwork at the Augmented Psychotherapy Training program in Germany.

At her private praxis in Berlin, Lili supports individuals through healing and self-discovery, offering both personalized sessions and workshops. A devoted mother of two, she lives in deep reverence for the Divine, Mother Earth, nature, animals, and the interconnectedness of all life. Today, she invites others to answer the call to their own awakening through Sailors of the Soul, a program she co-created to journey into the depths of the psyche and the soul.