Ayahuasca and Sumak Kawsay: Challenges to

the Implementation of the Principle of “Buen

Vivir,” Religious Freedom, and Cultural
Heritage Protection
carlos teodoro j. h.
irigaray
Federal University of Mato Grosso,
teodoro.irigaray@gmail.com

pierre girard
Federal University of Mato Grosso,
pierregirard1301@gmail.com

m a
ır a i r i g a r a y
University of Florida,
mirigaray@ufl.edu

carolina joana da s ilva

State University of Mato Grosso,
ecopanta@terra.com.br

abstract

The current environmental crisis can be approached, through many

perspectives, as a civilizational crisis. Alternatives of human transcendence are
identified in the Inca civilization to compensate for the malaise that
characterizes the actual crisis. There is a multicultural dimension to the
manifestations of Hoasca (or Ayahuasca) occurring in Amazonian countries.
As employed by the Beneficent Spiritist Center Uni~ao do Vegetal (UDV) in a

Anthropology of Consciousness, Vol. 27, Issue 2, pp. 204–225, ISSN 1053-4202, © 2016 by the
American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved.
DOI: 10.1111/anoc.12057

204
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 205

religious context, it can contribute to the reconstruction of buen vivir (or in

Quechua, sumak kawsay, meaning complete wellness), which served as the
principle of the civilizations that preceded the colonization of the Americas by
Europeans. Today, the State openly confronts the manifestation of the
constitutional principles of buen vivir, religious freedom, and the protection of
this cultural heritage. Here, the implications of the civilizational crisis and
ways of overcoming it are approached from the standpoint of deep ecology, but
the implications also reflect the doctrinal vision of the UDV to which the
authors are affiliated.
k e y w o r d s : Ayahuasca, buen vivir, crisis of civilization, religious freedom, Uni~ao
do Vegetal

&

introduction: aspects of the crisis of civilization and

the state of the socio-environmental uneasiness
A hundred years ago, the Titanic, considered the safest ship of its time, sank
in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. James Cameron1 took advantage of
the release of the film Titanic to evoke a metaphor in which he compared
contemporary civilization to the Titanic: “We are headed in the direction of
an iceberg, confident that our boat will not sink.” Commenting on this meta-
phor, Dave Gardner2 signals that part of the parable of the Titanic is arro-
gance and the sensation that we are too great to fail. In the case of the
Titanic, there was a heavy machine in movement that did not permit a
change of course to avoid the disaster. In reality, we cannot stop or even radi-
cally change our course, given the complex dynamic of the socio-economic
system. Stating his grievance, Gardner points out the lack of will to change:
our culture is not interested in a course correction because we are distracted
and don’t see the iceberg ahead, reproducing a paradigm that defines pro-
gress as growth and growth as progress. Edgar Morin and Anne Kern
(1995:78–79) highlight the existence of a universal crisis in the future, which
undermines faith in scientific progress. To him, science reveals its ambiva-
lence because on one side it brings benefits to humanity, but on the other it
brings with it the possibility of annihilation. He observes that the best of
native cultures disappear in favor of the worst of Western civilization, and in
the wake of this disappearance, we are left with the malaise of civilization.
The sociologist Ulrich Beck (1998) offers an answer to environmental
degradation and to environmental policy through social theory. This answer
is centered in the modernity of the origins and the consequences of environ-
mental degradation. Similar to the parable of the Titanic, Beck sees moder-
nity as a runaway truck, without a way to brake or steer, placing us powerless
206 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

under the permanent threat of catastrophe. The warning of Michel Serres

(1991:20) is in the same sense:

What is at risk is the Earth in its totality, and the humans along with it.

Global history enters into nature, global nature enters into history: and
this goes unheard in philosophy.

Is the sequence of hot and dry days that Europe just experienced related
to our actions or to variables deemed natural? Will the flood be a result
of the spring or of an aggression? Undoubtedly, we do not know—or
rather, all our knowledge based on models difficult to interpret,
contribute to this indecision.

Will we abstain in this doubt? Would it be imprudent because we

embark on an irresistible adventure of economy, science, and technology?
We can even lament it with talent and depth, but this is how it is, and it
depends less on us than on our historical heritage.

What heritage brought us to embark on this adventure? How can we over-

come this state of socio-economic malaise?
One relevant finding is that what modernity does, it does with a projection
of dominion, control, and subjugation of everything that exists. Beginning
with this premise, Nancy Unger (1991:54) signals that this change of paradigm
can be perceived in the form that certain thinkers highlight the dominion of
nature as an attribute of modern man:

The Cartesian affirmation that man must become master and lord over
nature, just like Bacon’s idea that nature must be forced to yield its
secrets like a woman, becomes hegemonic in the development of the West
(acquiring its own forms, independently from the context of the works in
which they are told).

This process of the desecration of the world, with the negation of any con-
cept of transcendence, marks a progressive separation between the sacred
and the scientific, which these thinkers considered a necessary condition for
the rise of capitalism. Unger writes:

In the case of the budding capitalism, there is a necessity to realize what

Weber called the “disenchantment of the world.” So that a forest can be
seen with the view of he who sees this forest as raw material for his
factory of cellulose, it is really necessary that this forest be totally stripped
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 207

of enchantments; it is necessary that this forest be reduced to its

productive aspects. [1991:55]

Leonardo Boff observes that a truly fantastic industrial machine was assem-
bled for this purpose, investigating, torturing, and perforating the earth so
that it would deliver all of its secrets. “A systematic assault was organized
upon its riches in the soil, in the subsoil, in the air, in the seas and in the
outer atmosphere. The war was taken to all fronts” (1999:104).
For Nancy Unger, as a synthesis of this process, the rationalizing ego
becomes the deciding criterion, a true “tyrannizing” of reality “or, as it were,
to become every time more self-centered and arrogant, modern man comes
to understand his humanity in the explicit purpose of his capacity to domi-
nate and manipulate the world and other men” (1991:55).
These authors agree that there is no way to ignore this relationship
between the domination of nature and the domination of man by man. In
the same vein, His Holiness the Dalai Lama identifies pride and exaltation
as the engine of destruction, to the extent that they promote human self-ido-
latry and the transgression of social and environmental limits.
This situation is characteristic of a civilizational crisis marked by socio-
environmental injustice that distances us from buen vivir, with severe
affects on the mass of human environmental refugees as well as non-
human refugees, providing evidence that our civilization has lost its sense
of limits.
In this approach, the expression buen vivir (or sumak kawsay in Quechua)
can be translated as complete wellness and corresponds to a principle of the
Inca Empire, under which the state, including government and people,
should promote conditions for everyone to live well.
In Latin America, this crisis has environmental consequences that affect
not only traditional populations but that also contributes significantly to the
aggravation of the global ecological crisis. One example is the large volume
of carbon emitted through illegal deforestation and the associated impacts,
facilitated by the leniency of the state. On the other side of this process,
the loss of moral, spiritual, aesthetic, and interpersonal values constructed
over thousands of years by native populations has impoverished us
culturally.
We can find an example of this phenomenon by examining the history of
the Inca Empire in the Andes, which formed a kingdom of great geographic
extension, with populous cities and advanced social organization.
When the Spanish arrived in the city of Cusco, the capital of the Inca
Empire was larger than Paris and London. In European cities, the sewage
ran in open air, whereas there was already a sanitary sewage system in Cusco.
In addition, the Incas left behind a system of agricultural management,
208 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

sustained by cultivating with terraces, irrigation, and high genetic diversity.

In 1767, Quesnay (Apud: Cordeiro 1995) published an analysis that illustrated
the advances in the economic organization of the Inca Empire. He observed
that although abundant in silver and gold, these minerals only served as jew-
elry. The Incas did not have coins or external commerce but nevertheless
formed a prosperous kingdom, where there did not exist paupers, unemploy-
ment, thieves, or homelessness. Quesnay points out:

The natural law dictated the laws of the State, regulating the rights and
duties of the sovereign and subjects. In Peru, only the productions
necessary to subsistence of men were recognized as true riches (. . .) The
Constitution of an Empire with so wise and deep targets, formed the
order of a government more prosperous and more equitable. [cited in
Cordeiro 1995:79; free translation of the authors]

It was in this empire that buen vivir, or in the language of the Incas, sumak
kawsay, came to be considered a structural principle of the state—the wise
and deep objectives that Quesnay identified. All of this existed in a context
and reality very distant from the state of socio-environmental malaise of the
present day, where the cycle of predatory exploitation of nature and people
seems impossible to break.
The fact is that breaking the cycle of these schemes of domination and
submission requires a deep examination of the elements of this crisis. It
requires us to reevaluate the posture with which the human being inserts
himself in reality. It also requires an ethical revision of our relationship with
other living beings, including nonhuman beings.
In the following section, the relationship between Hoasca and sumak kaw-
say is addressed by discussing how in a commoditized world, dominated by
utilitarian logic, the concretization of buen vivir is an arduous battle but
finds a powerful tool and ally in Hoasca. The third section demonstrates how
sumak kawsay is in its essence, a concept that transcends South American
societies and is a way out of the global civilization crisis that faces humanity.
The fourth section narrates the fight of the Beneficent Spiritist Center Uni~ao
do Vegetal (UDV) to legalize the use of ayahuasca in Brazil and abroad
within a religious context. Even as ayahuasca is a South American heritage
that offers the possibility to realize buen vivir through a profound knowledge
of the meaning of life, state intolerance as well as prejudice and disinforma-
tion still needs to be overcome. The fifth and closing section insists on how
ayahuasca and buen vivir foster deep changes in human behavior leading to
a new ethic of respect for living beings and nature essential to surmount the
present crisis.
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 209

&

the relationship between hoasca and buen vivir

The expressions in the title of this work, “ayahuasca” and “sumak kawsay,”
are written in the Quechua language and can be translated as “vine of the
soul,” and “buen vivir” or “complete wellness.” Within the doctrine of the
UDV, part of their history is linked to the Inca tradition.
Ayahuasca, known in the UDV as Hoasca or Vegetal, is a tea prepared with
a decoction of two Amazonian plants, Mariri (Banisteriopsis caapi) and Cha-
crona (Psychotria viridis), used in shamanic rituals and religious ceremonies
for the effect of mental concentration, following Andean tradition. In this
article, these names will be employed interchangeably, with greater use of
the name hoasca or vegetal as is used within the UDV.
Hoasca tea is a combination of two plants, and its effect has the power to
strengthen the connection between human beings and nature, or Pacha-
mama (Mother Earth) as the Incas named it, the origin of all beings.
In Ecuador’s 2008 constitution, the political rights of nature are recognized
for the first time. Its preamble reads in part: “We women and men, the sover-
eign people of Ecuador. . .Celebrating nature, the Pacha Mama (Mother
Earth), of which we are a part and which is vital to our existence. . . Hereby
decide to build a new form of public coexistence, in diversity and in har-
mony with nature, to achieve the good way of living, the sumak kawsay”
(Republic of Ecuador 2008).
The Bolivian Constitution also invokes Pachamama to reinforce a state
that is grounded in political, economic, legal, cultural, and linguistic plural-
ism, within the country’s integrative process, and having as moral and ethical
principles: do not be weak, do not be a liar nor a thief, buen vivir, harmo-
nious life, good life, land without evil, and noble path or life (Article 8).
From the perspective of the UDV, in the millennial culture of the Latin
American peoples, the idea of buen vivir (sumak kawsay) has always been
present and relates to the wholesomeness of life in harmony with the uni-
verse and the human being.
According to Eugenio Raul Zaffaroni (2012):

Sumak kawsay is a Quechua expression that means buen vivir or pleno

viver, its content is nothing other than ethics—not individual ethics—
ethics that should rule State action, personal relationships, and
especially relationships with nature. It is not the traditional wellbeing
reduced or limited to human beings, but it is the wellbeing of every
sentient being (today this expression would be called biodiversity),
including human beings, who require complementarity and balance, that
are not achieved individually.
210 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

Xavier Alb
o (2009) points out that buen vivir is not to be confused with liv-
ing better. Among the Aymara people, to live better implies a comparison;
that is, an individual or a people live better than others and at the cost of
others. In reality, buen vivir requires the capacity to coexist and to support
each other. That is, the ones who live well are the ones who coexist well,
because they are welcomed by all and know how to welcome all and collab-
orate. This is something that cannot happen individually, but only in groups.
This difference is substantial and invites us to rethink our plans and devel-
opment propositions, according to a new paradigm that focuses on recogniz-
ing buen vivir as constitutional rule.
Zaffaroni (2012) recognizes that more than 500 years of colonialism, neocolo-
nialism, genocide, and domination were unable to erase the Andean people’s
culture and the ideal of the harmonious coexistence of sumak kawsay. Today,
removed from oppressing walls—this ideal returns to the surface with a message
to the world and its people, which are at risk of collapse and extinction.
From this perspective, Caroline Barbosa Contente Nogueira and Fernando
Antonio de Carvalho Dantas (2012:34) point out:

This notion of buen vivir can be a philosophy of changing paradigms in

modern society, which brought the disconnection between nature and
humans, to search for objective reasons far from human subjectivity;
individuality to the detriment of collectivism; and private property
substituting collective property. In this way, buen vivir criticizes
capitalism and modern society, showing the illusory systems that States
are built upon today.

Among the principles to achieve sumak kawsay are balance, harmony, cre-
ativity, and the wisdom of how to live. These principles must be observed in
personal relations and relations with nature, because buen vivir requires com-
plementarity. We need each other. More than that, we need the eye contact
of our brothers so we can truly see ourselves. In other words, in the eyes of
our brothers we can project and see our reflections and our deficiencies. In
the work of self-discovery, hoasca is a tool that offers the expansion of con-
sciousness and, in reducing the ego into its insignificance, reconnects
humans with the meaning of humanity.
The Letter of Principles of the New Enchantment Association for the
Preservation of Nature,3 the ecological branch of the UDV, highlights the
gravity of the ecological crisis, especially another side of the crisis that sepa-
rates humans from sumak kawsay, the distance between man and nature:

Beyond this immediate plan, there is a graver threat: that humans forget
the true meaning of humanity. Humans have been served, nourished by
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 211

Nature in the plenitude of its mineral, plant, and animal kingdom.. . .A

distorted understanding of this generosity, the fruit of arrogance and
presumption, brought modern man to see Nature as subordinate and to
perceive his humanity and capacity as the direct reason to dominate Her
and other men. [Available in: http://novoencanto.org.br/carta-
principios.php]

The ethno-pharmacologist Dennis McKenna, in analyzing the scientific

experiences with ayahuasca, observes:

If there is a message that psychoactives, principally Hoasca, bring, it is that

we need to wake up, you know? Wake up to what we are doing with the
planet, wake up to this notion that we are separate from nature, that we
own it and can exploit it, that we can contaminate it, pollute it, we need to
look more through the indigenous perspective, that we are caretakers of
nature, we are part of it and we need to hear the messages that it brings us,
they are all around us, we just need to look. [McKenna 2012]

The New Enchantment “Letter of Principles” states that the experience with
hoasca teaches fundamentally that the only dominion that helps the human
being to develop is the dominion over his own destructive and self-destructive
impulses within his own human nature.
In this way, the human being is also opened to a new experience of re-
enchantment with the world and a non-mercantilist relationship with nature
that permits him to overcome his mental, psychic, effective, and human
underdevelopment.
Boff (2002:91) points out that the same logic that exploits classes and subju-
gates nations is that which pillages ecosystems and justifies the pillage of pla-
net Earth:

The Earth—as well as its impoverished sons and daughters—needs

liberation. All live oppressed under a paradigm of civilization that has
exiled us from our own community, that relates itself with violence
against nature and that makes us lose reverence for the sacredness and
majesty of the universe.

It is necessary to construct a new ethic that allows us to redeem the sense of

cordiality and respect for the Earth and for its inhabitants. The ritualistic use
of hoasca provides support for the development of human psychic, spiritual,
ethical, cultural, and social capacities.
In the overcoming of this tyranny, hoasca is a vehicle that can provide
renewal of the significance of freedom and awaken it with a clearer
212 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

conscience, because only through the harmonization of the human being

with the cosmic forces, with the forces of nature, and with his peers, will the
realization of buen vivir be possible.

&

sumak kawsay—solution to the global environmental

crisis?
In the book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Jared Dia-
mond (2007) studies formerly powerful and prosperous societies of the past
that ended in collapse. He identifies the reasons that caused these civiliza-
tions to disappear and draws lessons that are of importance to the modern
world. Diamond identifies various factors for these collapses and attempts
to answer a crucial question that rises from the current environmental cri-
sis: Why do societies make disastrous decisions that bring them to col-
lapse?
Diamond arrives at the conclusion that most often, societies of the past
detected the eminent danger of crisis but were not able to resolve it because
of what Diamond calls “rational behavior.” In other words, some individuals
made the correct evaluation that they could not act for their own benefit
against the harmful behavior of other people. Generally what prevail are the
actions of small groups, motivated by the desire to obtain large profits. These
groups know that they can get away with their bad behavior, especially if laws
do not exist to prevent them from doing so or if these laws are not imple-
mented effectively. Or, as has happened many times, this same group legis-
lates on its own behalf, modifying laws to attend to its own interests; for
them, it is not enough to have dominion over the economic system, they
want to alter, convert, and simplify the countryside and nature in service of
their own economic and political interests, and in essence a project of domi-
nation.
“Rational behavior,” the way Diamond describes it, is only a sophisticated
name for egoism. An acute form of this egoism is when the elite that make
the decisions enter into conflict with the rest of society. The luxury afforded
by power is the greatest force that affects political insensitivity. As Tacitus
says, “Lust of absolute power is more burning than all the passions.”4 Egoism
and the lust for power have brought and are still bringing advanced societies
to collapse.
Diamond points out that the core of the solution to the current global cri-
sis of civilization is not through technology but through profound changes in
behavior, as much by the governed as by the elite. Individuals and nations
alike need to recognize that it is in their common interest to use nature with
wisdom and prudence. This only happens if they can fulfill a series of
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 213

conditions. They need to form a homogenous society; to learn and trust one
another and to communicate amongst one another; to wish to share a com-
mon future and pass on resources to their heirs; and to be capable to orga-
nize and govern themselves. While experiencing the effects of hoasca in
UDV, these conditions present themselves as obvious. On the other side, the
elite need to have ethics in their governing of the state and the political
courage to take necessary measures to resolve this crisis before it becomes
catastrophic. Courage is necessary because such leaders risk exposing them-
selves to criticism and ridicule for acting before the necessity of these mea-
sures becomes evident to everyone.
Of note is the similarity between the UDV’s notion of sumak kawsay and
the set of conditions articulated by Diamond. Experience with hoasca can
give human beings more clarity to confront the crisis of civilization that is
happening.
For centuries in South America, sumak kawsay has been buried by colo-
nialism, neocolonialism, and the domination of capitalism. Through the
resurgence of the ideal of sumak kawsay, together with the rebirth and expan-
sion of the use of hoasca, will we be capable of contributing to the reinstitu-
tion of more equilibrated societies?
It is interesting to note that the population of North and South America
together (approximately 950 million people) is less than the population of
India (approximately 1.2 billion people). At the start of the adventure of colo-
nization, the Europeans decimated the original inhabitants of the Americas.
The repopulation of these lands is new, but nevertheless, in a territory greater
than India, the warning signs of the exhaustion of nature are present, as
much in the North as in the South. What were the conditions that allowed
India to have a greater population than that of South America? How will this
continent support, as has India for thousands of years, such an extensive pop-
ulation without entering into collapse?
Brij Gopal, an Indian researcher specializing in humid regions, furnishes
some elements of the solution. He says that in India and in other parts of
Southeast Asia, people depend on humid regions for a great variety of food—
both plant and animal. Furthermore, the plants of humid regions of India were
the only food consumed during religious days because people believed and
still believe that agriculture harms other living beings (Gopal, 2012, pers.
comm., 9 November). Various animals from humid regions were and still are
revered as gods or their associates. Bhagya, Ramakrishna, and Sridhar (2013)
and Shish Anthwal et al. (2010) describe the use of plants and animals of the
forest, from the southeast of India through the Himalayas, in the ritual festivals
of Hinduism and other religious sects. This dependence on humid regions
and forests for sacred plants and food was, to a great extent, responsible for the
conservation of nature on the subcontinent over the course of millennia.
214 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

The example of India suggests that complete wellness, sumak kawsay, is of

universal nature, known and practiced in diverse forms, adapted to the local
cultures across the whole world.
Some countries, following Bhutan’s example, are already quantifying well-
being in the form of a happiness index that could be considered a measure
of social development. The 2013 Report on World Happiness, created by a
multidisciplinary group and published by the United Nations, describes how
measurements of wellbeing can be used efficiently to evaluate each nation’s
progress. According to Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of Columbia Univer-
sity’s Earth Institute and Special Advisor to the United Nation’s General
Secretary:

More and more world leaders. . .are talking about the importance of well-
being as a guide for their nations and the world.. . .This report offers rich
evidence that the systematic measurement and analysis of happiness can
teach us much about ways to improve the world’s well-being and
sustainable development. [Helliwell et al. 2013:5]

A South American particularity is the use of the hoasca tea that offers an
additional contribution to attaining sumak kawsay.

&

from amazon’s seringal to the united states supreme

court: the fight for the recognition of religious
liberty
The use of hoasca as a religious sacrament has not always been legal. The
institutional fight for the right to use the vegetal was marked by intolerance,
prejudice, and state intervention aiming to restrict a genuinely Brazilian reli-
gious practice. Religious leaders who worked with hoasca were imprisoned,
and law enforcement put pressure on religious groups in Rio Branco, Porto
Velho, Manaus, and in the Amazon. In March 1985, through the Ordinance
of the National Division of Sanitary Vigilance of Medications of the Health
Ministry, the vine Banisteripsis caapi (Mariri) was listed among proscribed
substances, demonstrating a lack of knowledge and good sense by the Brazil-
ian government regarding this subject. Lack of knowledge, because the vine
was alleged to contain dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a substance that is found
in the Chacrona leaf, not the vine; also the government has not acted rea-
sonably because once B. caapi was included in the list of governmentally
proscribed substances, the consumption of hoasca became criminalized,
without any study or dialogue with the various religious groups that used it
as a sacrament, in clear violation of the Brazilian right to religious freedom.
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 215

The UDV’s Role in the Legalization of the Use of Hoasca

It is difficult to describe the history of hoasca without focusing on the UDV’s
trajectory, as an institution that faced, and still faces, prejudice, and misinfor-
mation regarding the use of hoasca, and that must work to ensure the right
to its ritualistic use in Brazil and in other countries.
According to the teachings of UDV, hoasca arrived in the Brazilian Ama-
zon with the disintegration of the Inca Empire. Its initial utilization in Brazil
was strictly indigenous, spreading to the people of the forest, especially after
the so-called rubber soldiers arrived in the area. With this arrival, some lead-
ership formed in the distribution of vegetal, including shamans and “cabo-
clos”5 (rubber tappers) initiated with knowledge about the use of this
mysterious tea.
Gentil and Neves link the historic context in which the UDV emerges:

The UDV is a religion that was born within a rubber tree grove, in the
frontier with Bolivia in 1961. Its history is linked to Brazil’s history, tied
to the history of the rubber cycle, with the northern agricultural
expansion and with the urban expansion seen in the country after this
period. Although the UDV has grown in urban areas, it maintains its
roots planted in the Amazon forest and in the caboclo culture.
[Bernardino-Costa 2011:65]

A rubber soldier born in Coracß~ao de Maria, in the backwoods of Bahia,

named Jose Gabriel da Costa (Mestre Gabriel), arrived in the Amazon in
1944, where, in the capacity of a rubber tapper, he came into contact with
the hoasca. After moving with his family to Porto Velho, he created the
Beneficent Spiritist Center Uni~ ao do Vegetal, institutionalizing the UDV and
creating the basis for its expansion.
The unique characteristics of the UDV include its caboclo origin, the
selection of its leaders through elections to terms that last three years, and
non-remunerated leaders who stay in their hierarchical positions while main-
taining exemplary familial and professional behavior. Furthermore, UDV’s
religious ceremonies, called sessions, where hoasca is ritually drunk, are
intended for the study of spirituality, providing human beings with the divine
dimension of Nature and offering an opportunity for spiritual reconnection
with the Sacred (Fabiano and Mestre 2009:24).
Surprisingly in Brazil, hoasca arrived in the urban centers during the
height of the military dictatorship, in a regime characterized by the infringe-
ment of individual liberties, including religious freedom. Lucia Gentil and
Henrique Gentil (2002:567) observe some traces within this context that mark
the UDV’s expansion:
216 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

Despite urbanization, the UDV seeks to preserve its caboclo origin.

Thus, it provides urban dwellers, among other things, with greater
proximity to nature, with the Amazon culture, with the forest and the
need for its preservation—a condition to preserving the Mariri and the
Chacrona and the tea itself. In a society that lives within a profoundly
significant crisis, it characterizes itself as an opportunity to experience,
with all of its symbolic meaning, a structured religious ritual that
emphasizes the connection between man and the spiritual, providing the
disciple with a vehicle that will make him feel the reality of this
connection.

This is the way that the Communion of the Vegetal has been implemented
since its origin by the UDV. Though structured within a hierarchical and
participatory form and in an institutional format, it maintains its principal
objective to work towards the spiritual evolution of the human being.
This work also includes an action in defense of the right to a healthy envi-
ronment for the benefit of present and future generations, made by Asso-
ciacß~
ao Novo Encanto (New Enchantment Association), a civil nonprofit
organization considered of public interest by the Brazilian government.
The New Enchantment has three conservation areas in the Amazon rain-
forest, the largest with about 7,500 acres and additional areas in other regions
of Brazil (in the Atlantic Forest and Savannah biomes). In this area, in addi-
tion to maintaining a genetic bank, the Novo Encanto Association develops
environmental education and agroforestry cultivation and ecologic tourism.
Also, this association promotes support to indigenous groups actions, espe-
cially in the Xingu National Park with activity aimed at improving the quality
of life of native populations.
Other actions of citizenship in defense of water resources and more sus-
tainable cities are taking place in several cities in Brazil through Novo
Encanto, in technical cooperation with the UDV.

Scientific Endorsement
In pursuit of institutional recognition of Hoasca, there was the need to study
its biochemical aspects and its effects on the physical and mental health of
its users. A renowned group of scientists became involved in a research pro-
ject entitled “The Human Pharmacology of Ayahuasca,” organized by
University of California professor Charles Grob, involving nine institutions
over three continents. The researchers conducted a series of neuropsychologi-
cal exams with a group of hoasca users after ingesting hoasca, and compared
them with a control group of people who had never drunk the vegetal.
The personality–structure analysis found that the hoasca users were more
resolute, reflective, loyal, with calm temperament, more orderly, persistent,
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 217

emotionally mature, carefree, optimistic, uninhibited, willing, joyful, deter-

mined, and self-confident when compared to the control group (Bernardino-
Costa 2011). Other research followed, including one study that addressed the
use of Hoasca among minors, an issue that authorities viewed with reserva-
tion. There was a question whether the use of hoasca by children and teen-
agers could bring any damage or risk in relation to their immaturity. In a
comparative analysis with a control group of similar age that had never used
the tea, the qualitative data showed that the teenagers who participated in
the ayahuasca religious ceremonies (usually with family members) seemed
healthier, more meditative, humanitarian, and connected to their families
and religious partners, slightly differing from the nonusers observed, proving
the harmlessness of the tea (Bernardino-Costa 2011). In the same study, a psy-
chiatric evaluation was performed on both groups and found that the UDV
youth had a significantly lower level of anxiety, body dysmorphic disorders,
and attention problems, suggesting the protective effect of their religious affil-
iation. There were also important differences in the recent use of alcohol:
the control group consumed more than double the amount consumed by
the hoasca users (Bernardino-Costa 2011).
These research results were important in gaining legal recognition of the
right to use hoasca religiously in Brazil and other countries and in overcom-
ing prejudice related to the tea, still considered by many to be a hallucino-
gen, whereas the studies show a “psychointegrative” effect. In effect, studies
indicate that the vegetal acts like a neurotransmitter, establishing connections
between neurons refining perception, and to the resemblance of a network,
the vegetal integrates the various centers of perception (Bernardino-Costa
2011).
These research results were fundamental to the successful judicial and
political victories that marked the history of Hoasca in Brazil and other coun-
tries. Since then there has been a growing interest in the scientific investiga-
tion of this tea, which proves to be a powerful tool in combatting the
dependence on drugs and alcohol that so worries governments and society.6
Scientist Jace C. Callaway, from the University of Kuopio (Finland)
addressed researchers’ growing interest in Hoasca:

Since 1995 there has been an explosion of interest in Hoasca, and much
has been learned from the scientific point of view, although science has
not been able to say much about the divine nature of this singular
experience, nor of its impact regarding individual or societal use.
[Bernardino-Costa 2011:76]

Hoasca’s greatest mystery will continue to be a scientific frontier for many

years. This ancient technology of the mind will continue to be a personal
218 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

experience that can only be reached when drinking the tea in an appropriate
context. It is due to this unique experience that a relatively small number of
people have continued to maintain this technology through the years.
About the usage of what he considers a technology (the combination of
two plants in the preparation of the tea), Callaway (Bernardino-Costa 2011, p.
80) emphasizes the importance of religious context in the use of the vegetal:

We know that Hoasca offers a reliable technology for reconnecting the

user with the divine in profound self-knowledge and this connection
brings a profound knowledge of the meaning of life, with the sole
purpose of amplifying the feeling of union. Such values are described in
almost all religious traditions. There is a deep and comfortable sensation
of infinity that arises from this experience and not merely a perception of
a beginning or end. Could this be an access to heaven? These beliefs
exist in all religions. Maybe the fundamental difference is that Hoasca
offers a palpable and active form to experience such a sacrament in its
communion, whereas the majority of other religions apparently do
not.. . .In short, Hoasca is a sacrament that does not require much from
faith, and the UDV offers a context for the efficient use of this
experience.

As highlighted, the scientific endorsement was decisive in the successive vic-

tories in the fight for the recognition of the right to use hoasca religiously, as
reported in the following section.

From Confrontation to Constitutional Recognition

After including it within the list of proscribed substances and criminalizing
hoasca consumption, the Federal Counsel of Narcotics (CONFEN), consid-
ering challenges from the UDV, created a study group to examine the matter
in medical, sociological, anthropological, and general health aspects. In 1986,
the group published Resolution no 006/86, deliberating the exclusion of
Banisteripsis caapi from the list of proscribed substances, basing its decision
on the constitutional right of religious freedom.
The provisional release of the use of hoasca does not allow the participa-
tion of children under 18 years of age in religious rituals with the use of tea,
but this rule was amended in 2004, when the National Anti-Drug Counsel
(CONAD), created to substitute CONFEN, approved a resolution in which
the Brazilian government recognized familial power, assigning parents the
right to decide whether or not their children would take communion of the
hoasca tea (CONAD Resolution no 05, November 4, 2004).7
During this time, the UDV was already established in the United States
and Spain; however, it was acknowledged that the right to religious freedom
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 219

for hoasqueiros (those who practice the communion of hoasca) outside of

Brazil constituted a separate issue. A significant event in this process occurred
in the United States with the seizure of the hoasca tea. On May 21, 1999,
agents from the United States Customs Service and the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) confiscated a shipment of hoasca tea, serving a warrant
for search and seizure in the office of Jeffery Bronfman, then legal represen-
tative for the UDV in North America (Bernardino-Costa 2011:208).
Given the impossibility of a negotiated solution in the face of intransigence
on the part of the US Department of Justice, the UDV filed a lawsuit against
the government based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which had
been approved in 1990 to protect religions from government interference.
At the heart of the discussion was the restriction of fundamental rights, in
this case, the right of religious freedom. On this subject, Paulo Gustavo
Branco points out that fundamental rights are not absolute and may be sub-
ject to restrictions (Mendes, Coelho, and Branco 2000:120).
In systems similar to ours, it has become established that fundamental
rights can suffer limitations when they confront other constitutional values,
including other fundamental rights. In addition, internationally, human rights
declarations expressly admit limitations that “are necessary to protect public
safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of
others” (Article 18 of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of
1966).
This clash, as it regards the possibility of curtailing religious freedom in
the interest of public safety threatened by the “permission of religious use of
a psychoactive substance,” provoked a fierce legal dispute, in the action
known as the case of Gonzales v. UDV. However, in view of the research
already carried out and stated in the proceedings, the federal prosecutors
could not even demonstrate a reason to justify the interference by the govern-
ment to restrain a religious activity. As a result, the right to religious freedom
prevailed, with the decision of the District Court in favor of the UDV in
2002. The government filed a succession of unsuccessful appeals. They
appealed to the Supreme Court in 2005 and, on November 1 of that year,
the US Supreme Court, decided unanimously in favor of the Uni~ao do Vege-
tal.8 One of the lawyers that represented the UDV in court, John Boyd, high-
lights the importance of this decision:

Perhaps you cannot even imagine the importance of this decision for
religious freedom in the United States. It is not only for you, members of
the UDV in the United States or for the people present in this room, but
for all people of the United States. . .This decision involves maintaining
the principle that the government simply has to stay out of religious
decisions. It is a question that has nothing to do with the government.
220 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

The State has to stay away from the regulation of religious conduct,
unless they are prepared to prove there is an excellent reason to interfere,
which did not happen in this case. The executive power over religion and
human freedom is not an unlimited power. This decision is extremely
important because of this. [Bernardino-Costa 2011:216]

Jos
e Augusto de P
adua, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,

described the fight for religious freedom of the Uni~ao do Vegetal in the Uni-
ted States as “a true battle of David against Goliath, with the UDV claiming
victory in every confrontation, acting with remarkable competence, integrity
and certainty of their rights and with honesty of purpose”.9
Despite the significance of this legal decision, the recognition of the right to
ritualistic use of hoasca still comes up against religious intolerance, media
stereotypes, prejudice, disinformation, and the hysteria that surrounds the issue
of drugs in the world. Even in Brazil, each victory is obtained with much
effort, and other struggles appear due to hoasca being considered as a drug,
treated only within the sphere of the National Antidrug Council (CONAD).
However, even under CONAD, advances are undeniable and result from a
historic struggle, currently prevailing in the content of the CONAD Resolu-
tion no. 001, from January 25, 2010, which addressed the matter exhaustively,
with express recognition of the right to the religious use of ayahuasca:

Item 24: It is, therefore, ratified that the legitimacy of the religious use of
Ayahuasca as a rich and ancestral cultural manifestation that, exactly by
the significance of its historical, anthropological, and social value, is
worthy of State protection, pursuant to art. 2o, “caput”, of Law 11.343/06
and of art. 215, §1°, of CF.

For the hoasca societies, this recognition does not mean that the still-linger-
ing prejudice and disinformation has been overcome nor does it exhaust the
struggle involving other issues that are being confronted. For example, the
sustainable use of plants that these groups use for the preparation of a sacra-
ment is a challenge; beyond the issues that divide them, such as commercial
and irresponsible use of ayahuasca.
However, this approved resolution opened the path for the necessary insti-
tutional recognition of ayahuasca as an intangible heritage of the Latin-Amer-
ican people, considering it to be a rich manifestation of culture and ancestry,
and of historical, ecological, anthropological, and social value.
In this regard, the Ministry of Culture began the inventory work with a
view to nationwide recognition, which represents another step towards the
consolidation of this right, with respect to the cultural diversity and identity
of the people who compose the multinational Brazilian state.
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 221

These barriers (disturbances along the secular history of the use of hoasca),
summarized here, also lead us to the concept of resilience expanding its eco-
logical use to the sociocultural, in the ability to resist and overcome distur-
bances and to remain in the system. There is a long way to go until the use
of the vegetal is effectively recognized as a cultural heritage of the Latin
American people, and before the prejudice is overcome.

&

final considerations
The planetary crisis reaches the scale of a crisis of civilization.
The promise of progress and peace, espoused by modernity, has been
revealed as rhetoric. The technological advances did not remove us from
war. On the contrary, modern warfare involves every citizen and produces
untold destruction. On the other hand, the dangers of the recent industrial-
ization and the unprecedented pressure on natural resources confront the
modern man, with the potential for self-annihilation.
Philosophers, sociologists, lawyers, ecologists, and contemporary thinkers
investigate the roots of the current technocratic model and question the one-
dimensional and fragmented rationale that places man in conflict with nat-
ure.
This portrait of multiple crises, and the malaise of civilization that follows
it, demonstrates the necessity for a new paradigm that frees us from this age
of global risks.
In this approach, the analysis of this new paradigm is complemented with
the evaluation of the possible contributions that the Incan tradition, summa-
rized in the principle of buen vivir and in the use of ayahuasca, can offer
humanity at this moment of necessary change.
As noted, the relationship between ayahuasca and sumak kawsay is not
only historical, because they were present in the construction and splendor
of the Inca Empire, but both also have a spiritual dimension; that is, the
experience of transcendence provided by the ritualistic use of hoasca also
opens a door to buen vivir.
For its multicultural character and its historical and spiritual significance,
hoasca constitutes an intangible heritage of the Latin-American people, yet it
continues to expand beyond the limits of the Amazon, where it maintains its
roots.
In the history of hoasca, the recognition of the right to its use in Brazil
and abroad is directly linked to the actions of the Uni~ao do Vegetal. These
actions justify the analysis of scientific studies that supported the defense of
the religious use of hoasca in North America and in the European Union.
222 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

In this approach, the recognition of the use of hoasca is considered a real-

ization of the constitutional principle of religious freedom, nationally and
internationally supported, and the realization of the principle of protection of
the Latin American people’s cultural heritage.
However, the history of hoasca continues being constructed, overcoming
enormous challenges, and its recognition as cultural heritage is only a step in
the effort to overcome the prejudice and intolerance that surrounds its reli-
gious use. In many countries, especially in Europe, the legitimization of reli-
gious institutions that use hoasca face state resistance, in open confrontation
with religious freedom and protection of cultural heritage. Other challenges
exist for the hoasca’s societies, including providing for a sustainable source of
the plants they use to prepare their sacrament.
Although the religious use of hoasca is still restricted to small groups of
people, one cannot ignore its potential effects in the realization of buen vivir,
insofar as it provides these groups a deep knowledge of oneself, a sense of
purpose, and a growth in the feeling of union, that are the basis of complete
wellness.
On the other hand, if hoasca can contribute to the realization of sumak
kawsay, it is also true that the experience in other countries (as illustrated by
Diamond and by Gopal, in the example of Hinduism and the conservation
of natural resources and biodiversity) demonstrates that the inclusion of the
values of sumak kawsay, such as humility and respect, in the use of science
and technology leads to important gains, while overcoming pride, blindness,
greed, domination, and lust for power. In effect, science is a powerful tool,
but without consciousness it can lead to destruction.
For that very reason, the realization of the principle of buen vivir, that it
could orient the actions of the public authorities and of the collective, opens
a new perspective for overcoming the crisis of civilization and the risk of
repeating the collapse of once thriving societies. As noted by Diamond, the
solution for this crisis requires profound changes in individual and collective
behaviors, with the overcoming of individualism and selfishness, and the con-
struction of a new ethic of respect for living beings and nature, possible in
the context of sumak kawsay.
In this process, ayahuasca can offer a robust contribution.

&

acknowledgements
We express our gratitude to Jos
e Gabriel da Costa, Master Gabriel, who
inspired the struggle for the official recognition of the right to ritually use
ayahuasca in Brazil and other countries where this message from the Ama-
zon forest is arriving. We are also grateful for the support of Clovis Cavalieri
ayahuasca and sumak kawsay 223

Rodrigues de Carvalho, General Representative Master of the UDV, and Jef-

frey Bronfman, Director of the Aurora Foundation, in the preparation of this
article and its presentation at the 10th Conference on Religion, Science and
Future. Our appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Jos
e Roberto Campos de
Souza, Director of the Scientific Medical Department of the UDV, who sup-
ported the survey of scientific studies involving Ayahuasca. The publication
of this article and its presentation at the 10th Conference on Religion,
Science and Future was possible thanks to the commitment of Christina M.
Callicott, to whom we are thankful. Special thanks to Sabela, Bekchior, Mar-
tin Brendecke, Daniel Gibbons, Robert Hance, Larrie Matthews-Couturier,
Maria Jackson, Jude Wall, and Diogo Barnetche who supported the text
translation. Finally, we want to thanks the reviewers and editorial team of
Anthropology of Consciousness whose comments improved the text.

&

notes
1 James Cameron is director of the movie Titanic and was quoted in Dave Gardner’s
article: “The Titanic Code”. Available at http://steadystate.org/titanic-code/
[Accessed 02.10.2016].
2 Dave Gardner is author of GrowthBusters documentary: Hooked on Growth,
nonprofit, produced in celebration of 40 years of the Relatory “The growth limits.”
His commentary is in the article: “The Titanic Code.” Available at http://steadys-
tate.org/titanic-code/ [Accessed 02.10.2016].
3 Available at http://novoencanto.org.br/carta-principios.php.
4 Corn
elio Tacitus (In latin: Publius Cornelius Tacitus) or simply Tacitus (55-120) was a
historian, Roman orator and politician. His statement is quoted by Diamond (2007).
5 Descendants of mixed European, African, and indigenous ancestors, who have
spent most their lives in forested regions -Rizek and Morsello, 2012 - http://
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-012-9506-3/fulltext.html#CR13).
6 Many articles have been published on the use of ayahuasca to treat alcohol and
drug addiction. To know more: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/
02791072.2013.873157; http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/ben/cdar/2013/
00000006/00000001/art00004 [Accessed 02.10.2016].
7 Available at https://www.diariodasleis.com.br/legislacao/federal/66172-dispoe-sobre-o-
uso-religioso-e-sobre-a-pesquisa-da-ayahuasca.html [Accessed 02.10.2016].
8 To know more: http://udvusa.org/supreme-court-case/ [Accessed 02.10.2016].
9 In A globalizacß~ao da espiritualidade cabocla. FGV EASP. Available in: http://
gvces.com.br/globalizacao-da-espiritualidade-cabocla?locale=pt-br [Accessed 02.
10.2016].
224 anthropology of consciousness 27.2

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