O presente trabalho propõe uma análise do uso religioso da ayahuasca como um problema público. Partindo de uma interlocução com um conjunto de discussões teóricas e metodológicas presentes no debate sobre secularismo e no pragmatismo francês, a pesquisa volta-se para as análises dos processos de regulamentação da ayahuasca para o uso religioso e do reconhecimento dos grupos ayahuasqueiros enquanto religiões em dois contextos distintos: o Brasil e o caso dos estados do Oregon e Novo México nos Estados Unidos. Mais especificamente o foco reside na investigação dos modos pelos quais uma série de atores disputam e se articularam em torno da definição de categorias e argumentos, bem como do estabelecimento de normatividades concernentes às práticas associadas ao uso da bebida no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos, procurando apreender a emergência do uso religioso da ayahuasca enquanto um problema público nos países em questão. / This work proposes an analysis of the religious use of ayahuasca as a public problem. Based on a dialogue with a set of theoretical and methodological issues concerning the debates on secularism and the approach presented by French pragmatism, the research turns to the analysis of the regulation processes of ayahuasca for religious use and the recognition of ayahuasca groups as religions in two distinct settings: Brazil and the cases of the states of Oregon and New Mexico in the United States. More specifically, the focus is to investigate the ways in which a series of actors contend and articulate around the definition of categories and arguments, as well as the establishment of norms concerning the practices associated to the use of the drink in Brazil and in the United States. The goal is to ascertain the emergence of the religious use of ayahuasca as a public problem in the countries in question.

Since its inception, the Internet has served as a powerful medium for the dissemination of religious information and the creation of religious communities. Cyberspace now represents an important global paradigm shift in the way religion is conducted. This research provides a sociological account of the affordances the Internet contributes to religious life by examining the ways in which it has influenced the conduct or practices associated with Buddhism. In particular, it assesses the extent to which the rituals constitutive of the Buddhist practice of meditation have been achieved by the Cybersangha, the term Buddhists use for the online Buddhist community. The thesis argues that the Internet is not well suited to the facilitation of particular types of religious understanding and that there are clear limitations to its ability to provide the shared ritualistic experience necessitated by meditation. This is due to the fact that current technology can enable ritual only to a limited degree, and to the ways in which the textual nature of the Internet poses problems for religious experience of an intuitive, non-mediated nature. For these reasons, despite the fact that many websites advertise ‘online meditation’ and despite the strong attempts of some communities to use the Internet as a meditational medium, online meditation cannot be fully facilitated by the Internet. Since a key method by which a Buddhist attains understanding of reality is the use of the body in a meditative act, the inability to provide for embodiment means that the Internet can never offer an experiential equivalent to that of an offline environment. The lack of this experiential aspect means that it cannot in turn provide for holistic, religious communion. As such, there needs to be a further philosophical and practical appraisal of the capabilities of the Internet in general, and as a medium by which a religious experience can be engendered.

Since its inception, the Internet has served as a powerful medium for the dissemination of religious information and the creation of religious communities. Cyberspace now represents an important global paradigm shift in the way religion is conducted. This research provides a sociological account of the affordances the Internet contributes to religious life by examining the ways in which it has influenced the conduct or practices associated with Buddhism. In particular, it assesses the extent to which the rituals constitutive of the Buddhist practice of meditation have been achieved by the Cybersangha, the term Buddhists use for the online Buddhist community. The thesis argues that the Internet is not well suited to the facilitation of particular types of religious understanding and that there are clear limitations to its ability to provide the shared ritualistic experience necessitated by meditation. This is due to the fact that current technology can enable ritual only to a limited degree, and to the ways in which the textual nature of the Internet poses problems for religious experience of an intuitive, non-mediated nature. For these reasons, despite the fact that many websites advertise ‘online meditation’ and despite the strong attempts of some communities to use the Internet as a meditational medium, online meditation cannot be fully facilitated by the Internet. Since a key method by which a Buddhist attains understanding of reality is the use of the body in a meditative act, the inability to provide for embodiment means that the Internet can never offer an experiential equivalent to that of an offline environment. The lack of this experiential aspect means that it cannot in turn provide for holistic, religious communion. As such, there needs to be a further philosophical and practical appraisal of the capabilities of the Internet in general, and as a medium by which a religious experience can be engendered.