Santo Daime Ethnopsychiatry

What is it about?

Santo Daime is the oldest of the Brazil-based “ayahuasca religions” that combine entheogenic spirituality and healing. The rituals of Santo Daime are based in Amazonian shamanism and mestizo adaptations, which integrate Christianity, Afro-Brazilian religions, and European spiritisms into a new religion wherein ayahuasca is imbibed as a sacrament referred to as “Santo Daime.” Santo Daime devotees ("Daimistas") prepare ayahuasca from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the leaves of Psychotria viridis, which are boiled together to introduce the mind-altering molecule DMT into the bloodstream. Daimistas consider the music of their hymns to be the basis of shaping the entheogenic experiences that lead to healing within Daime rituals. These hymns are believed to have been “received” by founding church members as gifts from beings in the “astral” plane. The hymns’ spiritual content presents the history, morals and core values of Santo Daime doctrine. In addition to the pharmacological properties of ayahuasca to provoke an inner focus of consciousness, leading to new insights of self-awareness, the healing potentials of ayahuasca are also the result of the social dynamics encountered through participation in Daimista rituals.

Featured Image

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Providing overviews of Santo Daime’s diverse ceremonial components, this chapter highlights potentials for mainstream Western psychotherapists and spiritual care professionals to learn from Daimistas how to optimize entheogenic healing.

Perspectives