Forbidden therapies: Santo Daime, ayahuasca, and the prohibition of entheogens in Western society.
Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion organized around a potent psychoactive beverage called ayahuasca, is now being practiced across Europe and North America. Deeming ayahuasca a dangerous "hallucinogen," most Western governments prosecute people who participate in Santo Daime. On the contrary, members of Santo Daime (called "daimistas") consider ayahuasca a medicinal sacrament (or "entheogen"). Empirical studies corroborate daimistas' claim that entheogens are benign and can be beneficial when employed in controlled contexts. Following from anthropology's goal of rendering different cultural logics as mutually explicable, this article intercedes in a misunderstanding between policies of prohibition and an emergent subculture of entheogenic therapy.
Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, University College, 5 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON, M5S 3H7, Canada, ethnometaphysics@gmail.com.
Marc G
MG
Blainey
D031581:Banisteriopsis; D001938:Brazil; D002562:Ceremonial Behavior; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004335:Drug and Narcotic Control; D006213:Hallucinogens; D006801:Humans; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012067:Religion; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012069:Religion and Psychology; D026443:Spiritual Therapies
D006213:Hallucinogens; D010936:Plant Extracts