Bien plus qu’un simple fait de société, la prise de substances modificatrices de conscience est à comprendre sur le temps long comme intrinsèquement liée à l’histoire de l’humanité. Par une méthode comparative, entre pratiques hédonistes dans la société française et pratiques néo-chamaniques en Haute Amazonie péruvienne et équatorienne, nous pouvons doubler notre approche sur le réel, et sur ce phénomène en particulier afin de l’objectiver le plus justement possible. À travers une posture compréhensive ce travail vient interpréter les sens latents que les pratiques de drogues véhiculent aujourd’hui. Trois concepts chers à la sociologie sont ainsi mis en exergue : la santé, le sacré et la déviance. Dès lors, la prise de substances modificatrices de conscience doit être comprise comme un prisme qui entraîne notre regard pour révéler le fonctionnement sociétal et un possible réenchantement du monde. La compréhension de ce phénomène social nous amène à mieux cerner l’ensemble sociétal dans lequel il s’insère, ce qui en retour nous permet de mieux comprendre le phénomène étudié dans une sorte de spirale ascendante qui, en soi, ne peut pas connaître de véritable limite. Dépassant le statut de concepts opératoires, la santé, le sacré et la déviance se révèlent comme étant les formes élémentaires de la prise de substances modificatrices de conscience. / Much more than a simple social reality, the intake of consciousness-altering substances must be understood on the long term as intrinsically linked to humanity's history. Using a comparative method, between hedonist practices in French society and neo-shamanic practices in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian High Amazon, we can double our approach of reality, and of this phenomenon in particular, in order to objectify it as accurately as possible. Through a comprehensive posture, this study interprets the latent meanings that drug-related practices convey today. In this way, three concepts which are dear to sociology are put forward: health, the sacred and deviance. Thereon, the intake of consciousness-altering substances must be understood as a prism that engages the way we look by revealing the societal workings and a possible re-enchantment of the world. The understanding of this social phenomenon leads us to better apprehend the societal whole to which it belongs, which in turn enables us to better understand the phenomenon at study in a sort of ascending spiral which, in itself, cannot know a true limit. Overcoming the status of operating concepts, health, the sacred and deviance are revealed as elementary forms of the intake of consciousness-altering substances.

Esse estudo tem como principal objetivo a análise de rituais afro-brasileiros que utilizam a bebida sacramental denominada daime e concepções relativas à doutrina religiosa do santo daime, uma religião ayahuasqueira brasileira. O diálogo entre dois sistemas religiosos, santo daime e umbanda, manifesta-se de forma pronunciada através de rituais específicos denominados giras com daime, que serão privilegiados nesta pesquisa. A partir de uma abordagem do espaço e das práticas rituais, da musicalidade, do panteão e do transe religioso pretende-se evidenciar as concepções do grupo religioso e demonstrar como essa ontologia opera a partir de um princípio transformacional. Busca-se neste trabalho compreender onde e como tais transformações ocorrem e, dessa forma, compreender como a prática ritual pode iluminar a concepção do ser característica dos grupos que realizam esses rituais. / This research aims to analyse afro Brazilian rituals that engage the sacramental beverage called daime and conceptions from the religious doctrine of santo daime, a Brazilian ayahuasca religion. The dialogue between two religious systems, santo daime and Umbanda, appears intensely throughout specific rites knowns as giras with daime, that are the main subject of this research. From an approach of spatiality and ritual practices, musicality, pantheon and religious trance, the religious groups notions are highlighted unravelling how this ontology acts through a transformative principle. This account describes where and how those transformations happens and, therefore, how the ritual practice can enlighten the particular notion of being among these groups that carry on those rituals.

Kateřina Petružálková: The Ayahuasca Subculture in Prague Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague, Department of Cultural Studies, MA Thesis, 95 pages, 2013 The aim of the thesis is to describe the phenomenon of ayahuasca, the sacred amazonian psychotropic beverage. The structure of the thesis is divided into the theoretical and practical part. In the theoretical part the thesis deals with the attributes of ayahuasca, shamanism in the Upper Amazon, globalization of ayahuasca and ayahuasca syncretic churches. It is also described a variety of ritualized usage of ayahuasca and the current position in the Czech Republic. The practical part consists of a qualitative research among the members of ayahuasca subculture in Prague and self reflection of ayahuasca experience. Keywords: ayahuasca, shamanism, Upper Amazon, ritual

Objetivo: la presente investigación pretende aportar evidencia preliminar sobre los niveles de auto-compasión en los participantes de ingesta ritual de Ayahuasca en Santiago de Chile. Método: el estudio posee un enfoque cuantitativo, de tipo exploratorio y transversal. En primer lugar de recabó información sobre variables socio-demográficas en una muestra de 19 participantes de la Iglesia del Santo Daime en Chile, luego se les aplicó la Escala de Auto-compasión de Neff, se realizaron análisis estadísticos para observar los niveles de auto-compasión según las variables socio-demográficas y se evalúo mediante pruebas U de Mann-Whitney y la prueba de Correlaciones de Spearman. Resultados: Estos indican un alto nivel de auto-compasión, constituido por un alto nivel de amabilidad con uno mismo, un medio- alto nivel de comprensión hacia uno mismo, un nivel medio-bajo de juicio crítico y un nivel bajo de aislamiento. Además se encontró independencia de los niveles de auto-compasión y las variables socio-demográficas recogidas. Conclusiones: al ser un estudio exploratorio transversal con un bajo número muestral, las implicancias son limitadas. A pesar de esto, este estudio aporta evidencia preliminar sobre los niveles de auto-compasión en los participantes de la Iglesia del Santo Daime en Chile y puede abrir líneas de investigación para la aplicación de la Escala de auto-compasión de Neff en individuos que cultiven prácticas espirituales con psicoactivos

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, 2018. / Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Distrito Federal (FAP-DF). / As opções farmacológicas para o tratamento do alcoolismo possuem limitações, e estudos em humanos têm mostrado ser a ayahuasca, uma bebida psicoativa ancestral de uso religioso/ritualístico com ação serotoninérgica, uma possível opção terapêutica. Os objetivos deste estudo foram avaliar o impacto da ayahuasca no consumo de álcool por ratos Wistar que consumiram álcool durante 8 semanas segundo o protocolo IA2BC (intermittent access to 2-botttle choice), avaliar a expressão da proteína cFos e substância Nissl em regiões cerebrais relevantes no processo de dependência e o comportamento dos animais nos testes de campo aberto e labirinto em cruz elevado. Na 8o semana do protocolo IA2BC, os ratos foram divididos em 5 grupos de 12 animais e tratados por 5 dias com H2O (controle), naltrexona, um antagonista opioide utilizado no tratamento da dependência, ou com ayahuasca (Aya) nas doses 0,5, 1 e 2 X a dose ritualística. Um grupo sadio (n=4) não exposto ao álcool foi sacrificado na 7º semana e os outros grupos 18 dias depois do tratamento. O tratamento com naltrexona ou ayahuasca não diminuíram o consumo de álcool com relação à linha de base (7º. Semana), mas o consumo foi menor no grupo naltrexona em relação ao grupo H2O. A exposição ao álcool aumentou a expressão da cFos em todas as áreas cerebrais, de maneira significante principalmente no cortex medial pré-frontal e núcleo accumbens. Com relação ao grupo controle H2O, a cFos foi signficativamente menor no cortex medial pré-frontal para o grupo Aya0,5. O tratamento com naltrexona aumentou signficativamente a expressão de cFos no núcleo accumbens e estriado em relação ao grupo controle. A exposição ao álcool aumentou a densidade de corpusculos de Nissl nas regiões neurais investigadas para os grupos H2O, naltrexona e Aya2, grupos que também apresentaram aumento do peso do cérebro em relação ao grupo sadio. O tratamento com a naltrexona ou ayahuasca não tiveram impacto significativo no comportamento dos ratos expostos ao álcool nos testes comportamentais. O potencial da ayahuasca no tratamento da dependência ao álcool deve ser melhor investigado utilizando outros protocolos de exposição e tratamento. Adicionalmente, o aumento da expressão da cFos no estriado e núcleo accumbens em animais tratados com naltrexona (significativo) e ayahuasca não era esperado, e demanda estudos futuros. / Pharmacological options to treat alcohol addiction are limited, and human studies have demonstrated that ayahuasca, an ancestral infusion with serotoninergic action used in religious ceremonies, has a potential use in the treatment. The objectives of this studies were to evaluate the effect of ayahuasca treatment on alcohol consumption of Wistar rats exposed to alcohol during 8 weeks according to the IA2BC protocol (intermittent access to 2-bottle choice), evaluate the cFos expression and Nissl substance in neural areas relevant to chemical addiction, and the animal behavior in the open field and elevated plus-maze tests. On the 8th week of the IA2BC protocol, the animals were divided in 5 groups of 12 animals and treated daily for 5 days with H2O, naltrexone, an opioid antagonist used to treat alcohol addiction, and ayahuasca (Aya) at the 0.5, 1 or 2x the religious doses. A naïve group (n=4) not exposed to alcohol was sacrificed at the end of the 7th week and the other groups 18 hours after the last treatment. Treatment with either naltrexone or ayahuasca did not decrease the alcohol consumption compared to the baseline (7th week), but the consumption in naltrexone treated rats was significantly lower compared to the H2O group. Exposure to alcohol increase cFos expression in all regions, an increase that was significant mainly in the medial orbital cortex and accumbens nu, core regions. cFos was significantly lower in the Aya0.5 group compared with the H2O group in the medial orbital cortex. There was a significant increase in the cFos in the accumbens nu core and striatum for the naltrexone group. The exposure to alcohol increased the number of Nissl substance in the H2O, naltrexone and Aya2 groups, which also showed an increased brain weight compared to the naïve group. Treatment with naltrexone or ayahuasca did not have significant impact on the behavior of the animals in both tests. The potential of ayahuasca treatment on alcohol addiction/consumption needs to be further investigated using other treatment protocols. In addition, the increase of cFos in the accumbens nu core and striatum in rats treated with naltrexone (significant) or ayahuasca was not expected and also requires further investigation.

Syftet med denna studie är att utforska fenomenet ayahuasca retreats och utövarnas upplevelser av detta. Vi vill undersöka vad den generella motivationen bakom sökandet efter ayahuasca är samt på vilket sätt arbetet med ayahuasca retreats skulle kunna tillämpas som en alternativ behandlingsmetod. Den metodologiska utgångspunkten är en hermeneutisk kvalitativ forskningsansats, där datainsamlingen har gjorts genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet har tolkats med hjälp av KASAM vilket är arbetets teoretiska utgångspunkt. Urvalet innefattar fyra utövare, vilka har intervjuats genom videochatt eftersom det geografiska avståndet gjorde det omöjligt att besöka verksamheterna under arbetets tidsram. Resultatet visar att utövarna anser att ayahuasca har terapeutiska egenskaper i form av att hjälpa personer som anses lida av ohälsa och obalans, genom vägledning och stöd i ett förändringsarbete. Betydelsen av ayahuasca retreats grundar sig i utövarnas egna upplevelser av att detta har givit dem meningsfullhet i livet, i form av egen vägledning och helande men även genom att hjälpa andra som söker sig till ritualen. Slutsatsen är att vår roll som socialpedagoger kan använda sin kunskap inom detta forskningsområde då arbetet med ayahuasca innefattar flera pedagogiska moment genom hela ritualens process.

Approximately 600 people from across Europe have officially joined Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion organized around the ingestion of a potent psychoactive beverage called ayahuasca. Santo Daime members (called fardados) regularly attend ceremonies where they imbibe ayahuasca while meditating, singing, and dancing for between 6 and 12 hours. Deeming ayahuasca a dangerous “hallucinogen,” most European governments have responded by arresting and prosecuting people who engage in Santo Daime rituals. Highlighting Belgium as a cultural bellwether of Europe, this dissertation pursues the following question: Residing within a social milieu that is dominated by secularism and mainstream Christianity, why are some Europeans adopting Santo Daime spiritual practices? The “secular” designates those aspects of social life that do not involve any recourse to supernatural entities. Through the latter half of the 20th century, most social scientists welcomed progressive secularization as an inevitable substitute for declining religions in Europe. Recently, a budding anthropology of secularism has emphasized how the institutionalization of materialist disenchantment tends to exclude alternative ideas about the nature of mind and reality. Conversions to transnational religions portend deeper shifts in how some Europeans are adapting to an increasingly interconnected world. The clarification of this process is important because scholars have yet to account for why some Westerners are making unorthodox religious choices in the age of secularization. During fieldwork, I asked informants why they had become fardados. The collective responses are summarized by one Belgian fardado who said: “Santo Daime is the key to a lot of solutions.” Fardados consider ayahuasca as a medicinal sacrament (or “entheogen”), which helps them to cure various maladies, such as depression, social anxiety, and alcohol/drug dependence. My informants’ understand their Daime practice as a form of mysticism, whereby the entheogenic ritual acts as a kind of introspective technology (what I term a “suiscope”). Empirical studies corroborate fardados’ claim that ayahuasca is benign and can be beneficial when employed in ritual contexts. One of the essential functions of anthropology is to render different cultural logics as mutually explicable. Accordingly, this dissertation endeavors to intercede in a misunderstanding between a secular hegemony and an unfamiliar religious subculture. / acase@tulane.edu

The psychedelic field has generated a vast body of work in terms of psychology, art, spirituality and understandings of the mind and consciousness. Having engaged with the field for the last ten years, I have been curious as to why issues of race, gender and class are not included in the analysis and theories that are generated from the field. My background in feminism, queer studies, anti-racism, critical theory and social justice, as well as my interest in consciousness and psychedelics, led me to conduct a literature review and analyze it with a critical framework. The literature showed an overwhelming gap in the field in regards to inclusion and analysis of issues pertaining to race, gender and class. This gap needs to be addressed and I look forward to conducting fieldwork in the future such as interviewing people about their experiences of race, class and gender and its intersection with psychedelics. I hope to contribute to the field in terms of creatively and productively including an analysis of race, class and gender to the psychedelics field.

The psychedelic field has generated a vast body of work in terms of psychology, art, spirituality and understandings of the mind and consciousness. Having engaged with the field for the last ten years, I have been curious as to why issues of race, gender and class are not included in the analysis and theories that are generated from the field. My background in feminism, queer studies, anti-racism, critical theory and social justice, as well as my interest in consciousness and psychedelics, led me to conduct a literature review and analyze it with a critical framework. The literature showed an overwhelming gap in the field in regards to inclusion and analysis of issues pertaining to race, gender and class. This gap needs to be addressed and I look forward to conducting fieldwork in the future such as interviewing people about their experiences of race, class and gender and its intersection with psychedelics. I hope to contribute to the field in terms of creatively and productively including an analysis of race, class and gender to the psychedelics field.

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Antrolopologia Social, Florianópolis, 2010 / Made available in DSpace on 2012-10-25T14:27:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 280828.pdf: 7992170 bytes, checksum: f8989a49322f56745c6a2da6d7d26f35 (MD5) / Este trabalho trata do processo de apropriação da ayahuasca, e de outras práticas relacionadas como o sweat lodge ou temazcal e a busca da visão, pelos Guarani da aldeia Yynn Morothi Wherá ou Mbiguaçu, localizada no município de Biguaçu, litoral sul de Santa Catarina. O principal objetivo desta etnografia é reconstituir a história da apropriação da ayahuasca pelos moradores desta aldeia, procurando compreender o uso dessa bebida em suas cerimônias, bem como no seu discurso sobre a cultura e a tradição guarani. Tomando como eixo esta história, o segundo objetivo central desta pesquisa é delinear a rede autodenominada "aliança das medicinas", formada ao longo dos últimos dez anos entre os moradores de Mbiguaçu, integrantes de um grupo espiritual internacional denominado Fogo Sagrado de Itzachilatlan, e membros da comunidade do Santo Daime Céu do Patriarca São José (Florianópolis, SC). Os diálogos e negociações entre estes diferentes grupos e atores vêm dando lugar a uma intensa circulação de pessoas, substâncias, imagens, idéias, rituais e estéticas, que procuro mapear ao longo deste trabalho. Entre os principais argumentos desenvolvidos aqui, destacam-se a ênfase nos fluxos e circulações; no caráter dialógico e emergente da cultura; e a proposta de olhar para o xamanismo como uma categoria dialógica. / This research focuses the process of appropriation of ayahuasca and other related practices, such as the sweat lodge or temazcal and the vision quest, by the Guarani Indians from Yynn Morothi Wherá village, also called Mbiguaçu, located at the southern coast of Santa Catarina State (Brazil). The main objective of this ethnography is to reconstitute the history of the appropriation of ayahuasca by this village's dwellers, trying to understand the use of this beverage in their ceremonies, as well as in their discourse about guarani culture and tradition. The second central objective of this research is to outline the network self-called "alliance of the medicines", formed during the last ten years among Mbiguaçu village's dwellers, members of an international spiritual group called Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan, and members of the Santo Daime community Céu do Patriarca São José (Florianópolis, SC). The dialogues and negotiations between these different groups and actors have given place to an intense circulation of people, substances, images, ideas, rituals and aesthetics that I intend to map in this work. Among the main arguments developed here, are the emphasis in flows and circulations; in the dialogic and emergent character of culture; and the proposal of looking at shamanism as a dialogic category.