Santo Daime ☨ #

Introduction #

N,N-Dimethyltryptamine	Harmine and similar

Ayahuasca is a psychoactive brew used by various indigenous groups (including pregnant women¹) in the Amazon. Incorporating ayahuasca as a sacrament, Santo Daime is a syncretic religion founded in Brazil in the 1930s. While traditional use of ayahuasca often emphasizes individual exploration, Santo Daime emphasizes group synchrony and communitas.² I’ve attended Santo Daime works since Dec 2021. There are a number of areas that I think could be improved.

Group Experience #

Before suggesting improvements, I want to underline what is revolutionary about Santo Daime: the group experience.

The force of the Daime draws one’s attention to the present and opens up more opportunity for choice. When group behavior is the reference point, your conscious choice to harmonize with the group can help relieve varieties of self-centeredness including feeling entitled, lack of connection, and internal conflict. In contrast, entitlement and arrogance are a risk when intention is limited to individual exploration.³ The group experience is a hugely significant innovation. If your experience of psychedelics is only individual exploration then you have not had a chance to appreciate their full transformative potential.

Dieta / Diet #

Santo Daime adheres to the common dietary recommendations for ayahuasca. While these guidelines can vary, they typically include:

• Avoid: Salt, sugar and sweeteners, spicy foods, red meat, pork, aged cheeses, fermented foods
• Reduce: Dairy products; oils and fats; processed foods
• Focus on: Plain, simple foods; fruits and vegetables; whole grains; small amounts of fish or chicken (if desired)

This diet is usually suggested to begin 1-2 weeks before the ceremony. What I find confusing is the lack of specificity in both recommendations and justification.

I think there are at least two things going on here. On one hand, recommendations largely align with a whole food plant-based diet. It’s a good idea to eat healthy food. On the other hand, tyramine should be avoided due to potentially dangerous interactions.⁴ However, the issue is not limited to tyramine. Vegans need to know that the pharmacodynamics of Daime are vividly affected by insoluable fiber. Fruits high in insoluable fiber include pineapple, banana, and avocado. Instead of experiencing a pleasantly strong subjective effect for about two hours, insoluable fiber buffers the force of the Daime. Consequently, participants may feel little (mostly sober) for much of the time, followed by an unpleasantly strong, brief burst of Daime after 1-2 hours. To mitigate this effect, it’s only necessary to minimize insoluable fiber intake about 8-12 hours prior to the ceremony.

Lyrics #

Lyrics facilitate precise synchronization among the group, not just physically and physiologically but in the imaginal space. Since we have to recite something to achieve this degree of synchronization, we might as well recite something religious (i.e., unobjectionable). As far as I can tell, the preponderance of Christian and African religious material reflects nothing more than a historical accident.⁵ It would be nice if the hymns included more diversity in religious heritage.

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• Luz da Rainha Publications

Harmony 🎜 #

Sung harmonies weaves two or more vocal lines together to create a richer, fuller sound than could be achieved with a single voice. Here’s a breakdown of what goes into singing harmonies:

Basics:

• Multiple notes: Instead of just one pitch, at least two different notes are sung simultaneously. These notes might be close together (like thirds or sixths) or further apart (like octaves or fifths).
• Pleasing sound: The combination of notes should sound good together, not jarring or dissonant. This depends on the musical context and style.
• Complementing the melody: Harmony parts typically interweave with the main melody, providing support, adding counterpoint, or even mirroring the melody’s emotional journey.

Types of harmonies:

• Simple two-part harmonies: Often involve singing a third or sixth above or below the melody.
• More complex harmonies: Can involve multiple singers and use various intervals and melodic patterns, building intricate layers of sound. Think barbershop quartets, gospel choirs, or jazz vocal groups.
• Passing tones and suspensions: These are temporary notes that add brief moments of tension or surprise before resolving back to a consonant harmony.

Benefits of singing harmonies:

• Enhances the emotional impact of the music: Adds depth, dimension, and expressiveness to the song.
• Creates a fuller, richer sound: Makes the music feel more complete and polished.
• Showcases vocal skill and musicianship: Demonstrates a singer’s understanding of music and ability to blend their voice with others.

So why don’t we do it (more) in Santo Daime?

Prayers #

Some people seem to enjoy using prayer to communicate with a higher power, petition for help, or express gratitude. Perhaps I have been traumatized by placebo sacrament religions (and cults) where these activities feel fake.⁶ Another possible purpose for the prayers is to teach about the inner world. However, IFS conveys the same information with greater precision and finesse.

For example, consider Padrinho Alfredo’s Saint Michael Work. This work of spiritual cleansing and healing contains beautiful hymns, but some of the prayers are not great. 🚔🚨

Offense: Utter lack of or insufficient compassion. 💔 These prayers condemn and exile evil instead of encouraging to understand the motivations of surprising behavior. Evil is not to be condemned but interrogated.⁷

Evidence:

Pages	Prayer	Hall of Shame 💩
49-52	Allan Kardec’s Prayer for the Beginning of the Meeting	“Keep away wicked spirits”
53-54	Allan Kardec’s Prayer for the Mediums	“If I am tempted in any way to abuse, in any form, the gift bestowed on me by Your grace, or if I become proud of it, I ask that You take it back” (punitive self-flagellation)
59-60	Allan Kardec’s Prayer to Remove Wrong-Doing Spirits	“clean your soul of its impurities in order to avoid bad spirits”
61-62	Prayer	“I repel you with all the strength in my soul”

Punishment: Are you paying attention? 🤣 Evil should not be exiled or punished but interrogated. 👮🏼‍♂️

Demand: Rescind these prayers and apologize. 🚫

I met Padrinho Alfredo face-to-face in Portland on 2024 Apr 07. Having met him, I am confident that he can receive this message as constructive criticism.

Rosary 📿 #

Abolish the rosary. In general, minimize prayer repetition ➿.

Similarly, the mass could benefit from judicious pruning ✂️.

To try to even understand 🤔 why people continue to recite the rosary, I asked ChatGPT to steelman the argument for group recitation (for a skeptic). Here’s the list from ChatGPT and my comments:

• Personal Growth

  • Time for Personal Reflection: Yes, it’s a time for the mind to wander. People can become so habituated to the prayer that they can recite it on automatic and think about something else entirely. Not great.⁸

  • Teaches Discipline Through Repetition: I suppose the rosary could help cultivate patience and discipline, unless your mind is wandering the whole time.

  • Form of Mindfulness: The repetitive prayers can serve as an anchor, much like a mantra, helping participants maintain a sense of presence. Does the rosary really provide any unique benefit in this capacity beyond what the Daime already offers?

  • Growth Through Discomfort: An unfamiliar or unappealing activity can challenge personal comfort zones and encourage growth. However, the rosary is such an insipid challenge compared to drinking Daime.

• Group Dynamic

  • Shared Sacrifice: Participating in a group activity that does not align with one’s preferences shows solidarity and respect for others’ values. However, the Santo Daime already has a heavy emphasis on conformity. I think we can do conformity without the grima of the rosary.

• Compare to Hymns

  • Reflection on Core Life Themes: Sure, but so do the hymns. Not clear what benefit the rosary offers beyond what the hymns offer.

  • Spiritual and Emotional Workout: The act of participating, even when it feels monotonous, cultivates inner strength and perseverance. Granted, but it is not clear what benefit the rosary offers beyond what the hymns offer.

  • Sense of Solidarity Strengthens Community Through Shared Effort: Not clear what benefit the rosary offers beyond what the hymns offer.

• Obsolete

  • Tradition as a Link to Culture and History: Maybe the rosary was important historically to lend credibility to the Santo Daime and protect its use of Daime from condemnation by the Christian church.⁵ Given that the Brazilian government formally recognised the Santo Daime as a religion in 1986, I think we are well beyond the point where the rosary is justified for this reason.

  • Accessible to All, Regardless of Background: Granted, but we already require everybody to learn Portuguese. Accessibility does not seem to be a high priority for the Santo Daime.

  • Fosters Calm and Focus: Granted, but the whole setting of the work is designed to create a meditative atmosphere. To do something mildly irritating like rosary recitation seems more antagonistic to calm than supportive.

Smudging 🚬 #

Smudging is a ceremonial practice used in various Indigenous cultures (primarily North American) for spiritual cleansing and purification. The purpose is to cleanse people, places, or objects of negative energy, promote healing, and create sacred space. This is traditionally accomplished by burning dried herbs or smudge sticks (i.e., incense). The smoke is fanned with feathers or hands with specific intentions and prayers.

Unfortunately burning incense has been found to generate about four times the particulate matter as burning cigarettes. Worse, the incomplete combustion results in carbon monoxide, nitric oxides, sulfur dioxide, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile organic compounds like benzene and formaldehyde. Feeling purified? Really? Just say “no” to smudging. 🧯 🚭

Posture & Gesture 🪽 #

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Ginger 🫚 #

Some ayahuasca traditions regard purging as necessary and even powerful part of the healing process. Some even add emetic agents to the brew!⁹

• Physical Cleansing: Many traditions view purging as a crucial element of physical cleansing, eliminating negative energies, toxins, and blockages from the body, allowing for deeper spiritual and emotional healing.
• Psychological Release: Purging is often seen as a form of emotional catharsis, releasing pent-up emotions, traumas, and negativity, leading to deeper self-awareness and personal growth.
• Spiritual Transformation: In some traditions, purging is considered a symbolic death and rebirth experience, purging the “old self” to make way for spiritual transformation and renewal.

While Santo Daime acknowledges the potential cleansing and cathartic effects of purging, it’s not considered a central focus of the experience. If some traditions use an emetic, why not offer an optional antiemetic in Santo Daime? Why not make ginger capsules¹⁰ available? Or pharmauasca?¹¹ Or ondansetron (if not pregnant¹²)?

Cannabis #

There is some precedent for the use of cannabis in the Santo Daime tradition.¹³ If desired, I suggest ingesting 20mg of Δ8-THC about two hours before the work commences. This low dose may help ease the experience during the first serving of Daime. As a bonus, cannabis is also an antiemetic.

On the other hand, cannabis interferes with the profound impartiality of Daime. Perhaps cannabis is best regarded like training wheels for Daime novices. Daime is best when not combined with other psychoactive substances.

Baptism 🌊 #

I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11)

And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:7-8)

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Luke 3:16-17)

Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” (John 1:32-34)

Daime facilitates presence of the Holy Spirit. Despite this, some congregations continue to perform water baptisms. I think baptism is generally a fine idea, to recognize those who publically vow to live in accord with the spirit of Christ. However, placebo sacrament baptism seems like a confused practice. We have Daime. Daime is sufficient to consummate baptism.

On the other hand: What’s wrong with a confused practice? Daime is a trickster. If people want water baptism, why not?

Dose Adequately ⏻ #

When exploring altered states, a fitting analogy comes to mind, shared by fellow psychonauts.¹⁴ Imagine an airplane on the runway, poised for takeoff. As it soars, it rapidly gains altitude, banks sharply to change course, and encounters turbulence. Heavy rain pounds against the plane, lightning flashes, and winds shift unpredictably. But then, it breaks through the cloud ceiling. Suddenly, the airspeed increases smoothly, and sunlight illuminates the calm.

We can map this journey onto our mental states:

The transitional phase can be uncomfortable. However, there’s a simple remedy: adequate dosing.

I have attended some works where it seems like the leader is aiming for the transitional state. Why? Is the idea for some congregants struggle with meditation? What’s the point of that? Congregants can meditate as much as they want at home without daime.

When I attend a work, I expect to transcend the turmoil and reach the serene heights, at least for one serving. So, I urge leaders: don’t be stingy.

Sleep 😴 #

Some report that Daime interferes with sleep. Neither Kava nor CBN (cannabinol) are strong enough. The only thing that I’ve found that can consistently override the residual wakefulness of Daime is muscimol.

Status #

Guess what this gesture means.

Notes #