Sacred Sanctuary & Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church: The Intersection of Transpersonal Psychology & Law

In this paper I focus on how transpersonal psychology and law affected individual and collective post-ceremony integration at Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church and inform the current integration approach and engagement with the DEA by Sacred Sanctuary (a new ayahuasca church that emerged from the bankruptcy of Soul Quest in 2024). I look specifically at how Soul Quests’ syncretic approach to ayahuasca integration was made sense of by church members and was situated in the philosophy and ethics of a secular psychedelic integration training program called Being True to You. Being True to you is an integration program which employs a transpersonal psychotherapeutic approach to psychedelic health and healing. I argue that Sacred Sanctuary, who is currently seeking religious exemption from the DEA to use ayahuasca for religious purposes, draws from Soul Quest’s oeuvre as well as nuances their approach based on Soul Quest’s bankruptcy and denial for religious exemption.