I haven't had the privilege of being part of a original, indigenous, ayahuasca ritual... but I did once attend the Santo Daime church in Petropolis, Brasil... about 5 years ago. The medicine itself, was, wonderful... incredible - I felt cleansed, clear, illuminated - but would have liked to have experienced something more raw, more earthy. The ritual that they've concocted to go along with the taking of the medicine - a typically Brazilian Christian/Native mashup fusion - which consisted of singing cute, sugar sweet acoustic guitar driven hymns that were written by Mestre Irineu, around an altar centered on the Cross of Caravacca - I found that a bit distracting. It's great that at least there is a legal outlet for people who are interested in taking ayahuasca though. Maybe mine is just a superficial impression, from one night, with one particular branch of the church. I'd like to take ayahuasca again, one day - within a more grounded context. www.newritual.com

I agree , I find the church to be dissociated from earth and reality....

I did a lot of my self-designed rituals and retreats out in the woods. I didn’t have to travel to a different continent, or sing christian songs in portuguese. It was awesome, and very grounding. Some of it was devastating, but it was all good learning and purifying.

I felt blessed to have received all that...but of course if you, dear reader, want to play it safe, you're better off with the church!

It cost me about €15 to make one very strong dose of proper ayahuasca (no syrian rue crap!)... People pay many times that amount for lesser brews and some supposed ju-ju from the maestros (groan). . .

Ayahuasca is much much more than the Santo Daime, or a (cultish) religious sacrament.

I am very much a hardcore pagan, (I understood the trap of christianity and religion in general when i was about 16) and so the idea of ritual with a christian cross on the altar is abhorrent to me...

In my opinionion, the spread of the Santo Daime in Europe -and elsewhere- represents a failure of the imagination in the psychedelic scene here, and a regressive step. Here we have the ultimate communal ritual catalyst , and the best people can do is look for priests and gurus, - sorry , maestros- and play it safe with Jesus and Mary.

It is pretty much an upper middle class thing, and yet another game of exclusivity . All good boys and girls want to be good, and accepting Jesus into your life gives you that aura of respectability and gives your cult at least a chance of being accepted by society.

This is the new psychedelic conservatism, and I 'd say a further flight away from the core essence of the psychedelic experience, as T. McKenna described the New Age.

Someone i met recently described the UK ayahuasca scene as a psychedelic hospital, and I agree... I probably need healing, as they like to say.

Churches generally represent prisons for the human psyche to shelter in, and do not belong to any positive future but a sad, painful and devolved past. In MY opinion , of course. :)

Now, after years of studying and experimenting and reading and watching and listening to people go on and on about ayahuasca and healing, I am shocked at just how uninterested I am in any of this...

The healing effect is not necessarily permanent, and the brew has to be taken again and again. The anti-depressant effect seems to last for a few weeks after a good brew. Even more shockingly, ayahuasca does not save the world and produce better people , but often exaggerates and inflates the arrogance and ego of spoilt know-it-all westerners who believe they are at the cutting edge of the evolution of consciousness -and often suffer from messiah syndrome, terminally. 

Guillermo Arevalo said in a conference that ayahuasca can lead one to great delusions.

It is much more comfortable to stay within the delusion than to have it shattered...

I wish a nice and slow gradual melting of illusions for all...

Santo Daime is primarily based in a christian ( some might say catholic) ethos as might be expected from a county like Brazil. What is interesting about the rituals and the hymns is that they embrace all spiritual paths. However, one must be prepared to meet the Divine Beings one sings about in the hymns - it is my belief they are 'sung' into existence in the highly suggestible state of intoxication. So, if you sing about Jesus - you will have visions about Jesus. Those who have issues with christianity, and there are many, will struggle with this until they learn to integrate the visions with their own understandings. The Daime is challenging in that aspect and one must learn to be flexible and open to get the most from the rituals.Beyond the forms, there is a definite experience of Presence, which makes the Daime works very special, sacred and holy. It is accurate to say that the works are a form of treatment for psychic illness and one does get the feeling sometimes of being in a sort of divine hospital. Many disturbed people are drawn to the daime for this reason. However, the Daime is not a panacea and this medicine is not suitable for everyone, nor does it claim to be. At its best, Daime rituals are a celestial gathering for the healing and benefit of all.

I personally don't need to struggle to integrate chrisitianity, I totally reject it... I’m very much with John Lash on the issue...

But i think delector's explanation is pretty much spot-on, thanks for the cool-headed and non-judgmental response!

http://www.tranceparents.org/

First, solid film and thanks for linking it to this increasingly fascinating site (it's become my first stopping place on the 'Net over the past few months!). Just a short comment on the part of the film where they talked about young people using medicines like ayahuasca as a drug and not having the proper consciousness to access its more profound messages. I really feel split about this.

 On the one hand, I totally understand it. Recently, I was on YouTube and found some videos of some teens taking salvia divornium and the vulgarity of the way they were using it made me feel physically ill.

 But then I thought about it more and realized that I was probably once like that and have not always treated these substances with the respect and humility they deserve.

And so when I thought about this idea that people are misusing these chemicals, I thought it's also something of a value judgment. This is because it's difficult to know what the proper path is or even if there is a "proper path." I often think we end up finding our way by taking the "wrong" road and sometimes those journeys are the most valuable of all.

Anyway, thanks again for giving me some more fascinating food for thought. I'll be eating my reality sandwich regularly from here on out.

 

 "To go out of your mind at least once a day is tremendously important because by going out of your mind you come to your senses." - Alan Watts

The ayahuasca scene is full of judgmental , holier-than-thou people who will tell you -between the lines- that if you use these plants but don't follow their brand of sacred shamanism, you are a hooligan, a desecrator, looking for trouble , could lose your soul , and so on.

It's the same story really, if you search for the truth without any compromises, you will be shunned by almost everyone...

Then again, most people , young or old, won't really get what ayahuasca or salvia or any of these plants have to offer - these are shamanic tools, and people with shamanic calling are always very few , in any human culture.

Many years ago my 15-year old sister caught me with a bag of magic mushrooms. She had heard about them and was interested. I advised her to stay away from psychedelics until she was old enough to move out of our parents' home and start her own life, and she took that advice because it was not prohibitive or threatening. There was nothing there to rebel against.

On the whole the plants (except Datura) are safer than the synthetics and smoking Salvia is a thrill whose novelty soon wears off (usually with a freak-out)