When Jesus Meets Ayahuasca: Sample Texts from Christ Returns From the Jungle

Marc Blainey

Through 14 months of fieldwork, between 2009 and 2011, I gathered ethnographic data concerning European expansions of Santo Daime (pronounced Sahn–toh Die–mee), a Brazil‑based religion whose devotees drink the mind–altering beverage ayahuasca, which they reverently christen with the label “Daime.”  This bitter, brown fluid—a technological innovation first discovered by, and thus, rightfully, the intellectual property of Indigenous communities in Amazonia—has a powerful capacity for modifying human consciousness because it contains N,N‑Dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Amid instrumental music to accompany the singing of scripture–like hymns, ayahuasca is ingested as a holy sacrament in Santo Daime rituals (dubbed “works” or trabalhos in Portuguese), much like the wine distributed at a Catholic mass... continue reading.