Santo Daime
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Santo Daime is a syncretic spiritual practice, which was founded in the Brazilian Amazonian state of Acre in the 1930s and became a worldwide movement in the 1990s. Santo Daime rituals involve the consumption of Daime, the name founder Raimundo Irineu Serra, or Mestre Irineu gave to the drink known generically as Ayahuasca. Dai-me means "give me" in Portuguese, as in "daime força, daime amor" (give me strength, give me love), phrases found in several of the doctrine's hymns.
Santo Daime is syncretic in that it incorporates elements of several religious or spiritual traditions including Folk Catholicism, Kardecist Spiritism, and, to a lesser degree, South American Shamanism. The religion, called simply the Doctrine of Mestre Irineu by its most senior practitioners, has little basis in liturgical texts. Instead, its teachings are learned experientially through the singing of divinely inspired hymns, in which the Catholic pantheon of the Eternal Father, the Ever-Virgin Mary, and Christ the Redeemer figure most prominently, though African and South American deities are also present, and respect and love for one's "brothers" are constantly preached.
Ceremonies - known as "works" (trabalhos) to members - are several hours long and consist of prayers, several rounds of drinking the Daime Tea, the singing of many hymns (sometimes as many as 150 in one night) and periods of silent meditation, as well as spiritual healings, offered to those in need, by members ("Fardados") of the church, who are said to channel healing spirits from the astral or divine realms.
Following the death of Mestre Irineu in 1971, disputes over leadership led to several splits in the congregation. From a global perspective, the most significant of these occurred when Sebastiao Mota de Melo, commonly called Padrinho Sebastiao, left the original center with a large group of his followers, and formed a group known as CEFLURIS. Many of Padrinho Sebastiao's followers were Brazilians from the country's affluent south or citizens of other South American countries who were interested in Daime because of their experience with the middle-class counterculture. These class and culture differences were symbolized in the acceptance by CEFLURIS of the use of cannabis, which was baptized "Santa Maria" within the group and incorporated into rituals.
In the early 1980s Padrinho Sebastiao led his followers into the forest, where they sought to establish a New Jerusalem in an old rubber camp they named Ceu do Mapia. Control of CEFLURIS was increasingly shared with the southern intellectuals who joined the movement in the 1970s, and in the 1980s CEFLURIS established centers in southern Brazil. The group now boasts affiliates in North America, Europe, and Japan, as well as throughout Brazil. The leadership of the original center founded by Mestre Irineu rejects the use of cannabis and decries the expansionist agenda and reputed commercialization of Daime practiced by CEFLURIS.
Daime is becoming popular in the United States, but still faces legal hurdles and so remains occult. Brazilian hymns are sometimes sung in English in the states, and in Japanese in Japan, Dutch in the Netherlands, etc, and non-Portugeuse-speaking members often "receive" (from God or angels) hymns in their native language.
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[edit] Ayahuasca
- Main article: Ayahuasca
Santo Daime's entheogenic sacrament, ayahuasca, has been used for millenia in South American indigenous cultures. It is one of the traditional tools of the shaman in South America, and in many regions is to this day a common medicine used for finding and treating various ailments as well as for its vision-inducing effects, which are said to be profound and life-changing.
The tea has had many names including Santo Daime (or simply Daime), Hoasca, Ayahuasca, Yage, and Caapi. It is made from two or more plants, one a woody vine (Ayahuasca vine or Jagube; generally b. caapi), and the others known as admixtures. While various plants are used throughout South America, most of which have high concentrations of dimethyltryptamine, the preferred admixture in the case of Santo Daime is Psychotria viridis, known to church members as the "Queen of the Forest," after the figure who is said to have appeared to the churches founder in a vision, prompting him to start the religion. DMT occurs naturally in the human brain and is released in great quantities at the time of death, but it is normally digested in the stomach if consumed and an MAOI, (monoamine oxidase inhibitor), in this case harmine and harmaline, is needed to allow it to reach the brain in this way, thus the use of the vine. The Santo Daime Church uses only the Jagube vine and the Viridis leaf, not adding any other plants to the mixture. The tea is prepared ceremoniously over a week by members of the church who sing hymns while the men hammer the vine into powder and the women clean and sort the leaves.
[edit] Law
Due to their usage of ayahuasca as a sacrament and the spread of the religion, Santo Daime has found itself the center of Court battles and legal wrangling in various countries.
In Brazil, CONFEN (the Federal Drug Council) has consistently upheld the right of the Daime Church to practice its religion and healing practices using the Daime tea. A study was made of the Daime by the CONFEN in 1987 which included visits to the various churches and observation of the making of the Daime. It also included study of another group of Ayahuasca users, who call the drink Vegetal (Uniao do Vegetal). The work group which made the study included representatives not only of the CONFEN but also of several other government agencies. The conclusion of the study was that the Daime was a very positive influence in the community, encouraging social harmony and personal integration. The study noted that, rather than simply considering the pharmacological analysis of the plants, it was essential to consider the whole context of the use of the tea -- religious, social, and cultural.
In the Netherlands, Santo Daime won a court case in 2001 which allowed them to continue their ceremonial usage of ayahuasca. One factor in this decision was a fax from the Secretary of the International Narcotics Control Board to the Netherlands Ministry of Public Health, stating that [P]reparations (e.g.decoctions) made of these plants, including ayahuasca are not under international control and, therefore, not subject to any of the articles of the 1971 Convention. [1]
In France, Santo Daime won a court case allowing them to use the tea in early 2005; however, they were not allowed an exception for religious purposes, but rather for the simple reason that they did not perform chemical extractions to end up with pure DMT and harmala and the plants used were not scheduled. Four months after the court victory, the common ingredients of Ayahuasca as well as harmala were declared stupéfiants, or narcotic schedule I substances, making the tea and its ingredients illegal to use or possess. See [2] and [3] (French) for more information.
In the United States, court battles over ritual use of Ayahuasca have mostly been fought by the UDV, and practitioners of the Santo Daime doctrine are watching these events closely. So far, UDV has been able to continue practicing legally thanks to Supreme Court decisions that soundly rejected attempts by the government to prohibit it. see [4] for more information.
The most recent decision came in Italy in 2006; an eight month long investigation had led to the arrest of 24 Italian Santo Daime members in early 2005, but the May 2006 ruling found that no sufficient evidence had been presented to demonstrate that the church members had broken Italian law.
