Ayahuasca Religious Movements

Ayahuasca, or yagé, is an entheogenic (psychoactive substance used in a religious context) brew ritually used by at least 70 tribes in the greater Amazon rainforest since prehistoric times. The word ayahuasca in Quechua means “vine of the soul,” connoting its spiritual usage. It is made by boiling a jungle vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) with various admixture plants in a unique synergistic combination that renders it strongly psychoactive. Since the 20th century, ritual use of the brew has spread from indigenous groups to mestizo healers and to organized syncretic churches (those formed from the combination of different beliefs) that have attracted members throughout the industrialized world.

Each of the native tribes has distinct traditions, but most use ayahuasca in small ceremonies at night accompanied by chanting and a rattle or drum. Along with mythological significance, it is believed that ayahuasca provides the possibility of a connection between the human world and that of the spirits, ancestors. Ayahuasca is also associated with the origins of language and humankind.

In frontier communities, mestizo healers called vegetalistas use yagé's purgative effects to treat parasites, and its visionary power is used by a trained vegetalista to determine the cause of disease and produce a spiritual cure for the patient. Since interest in psychedelics arose in the United States and Europe in the 1960s, there have been a growing number of vegetalistas who have toured in these countries offering yagé rituals.

In the 20th century, the brew spawned new religious movements in Brazil that have become global in scope. The Uniâo do Vegetal (UDV) Church and the Santo Daime Church have each established centers in many other countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Japan, and Australia. Santo Daime ceremonies are characterized by group singing of hymns, periods of silent concentration, and mediumship sessions when mediums channel the spirits of caboclos (“Brazilian Indians”) and other guides for the healing of other participants. The União do Vegetal is a more rationalized tradition; its meetings consist of silence or recorded music followed by sermons and discussion, with no mediumship. Both of these traditions represent a religious innovation that brought the ritual use of ayahuasca out of its indigenous context in the forest and combined it with elements of folk Catholicism, Afro-Brazilian religions, and a neoesoteric doctrine.

In addition to the organized churches, use of the brew has also spawned a number of smaller neo-ayahuasca religious groups that combine the entheogen with pagan, New Age, or text-based shamanic practices. The draw of the religious ayahuasca experience has also created a flourishing tourism industry, bringing foreigners to retreat centers in the Amazon. With the inevitable addition of more such groups, ayahuasca religion will likely continue to grow as a global phenomenon.