Ayahuasca Use and Religious Conversion in Santo Daime and União do Vegetal

Record summary

Santo Daime and União do Vegetal are Brazilian ayahuasca religions whose ceremonies, doctrine and legal history have been examined in post-2010 anthropology, psychology and public-health research. They provide a specific comparison case for visionary experience, healing claims, communal interpretation and long-term changes in identity. The traditions preserve distinctive ritual controls rather than representing undifferentiated psychedelic use. Researchers must separate participants’ religious claims from pharmacological findings and attend to translation, church authority, legal context and indigenous-source debates.