Ayahuasca in Brazil: When Religion Meets Science

This presentation examines the processes of healing in the Church of Santo Daime in Brazil, where religious practice, indigenous knowledge, and biomedical science converge around the psychoactive brew called ayahuasca. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted across multiple Santo Daime communities, I investigate how ritual, forms of embodiment, music, vestment, space, community, and lore shape the experience and the perceived healing outcomes of ayahuasca ceremonies. My presentation will argue that the healing processes in the Church Santo Daime, although centered around the consumption of the brew ayahuasca, cannot be achieved solely through the chemical properties of the psychoactive brew. Instead, healing is the result of communal experience and support, sustained bodily discipline, and a collective understanding of ayahuasca as sacred.