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Santo Daime in Germany - a forbidden fruit from Brazil.


Web link: www.scopus.com/inward/re...

Pages: 49 - 94

Abstract

The article examines the consequences of a joint venture of the European New Age organization TNI with the Santo Daime, a Brazilian religion created in Amazonia in the 1930s. The aim of this unusual joint venture was to offer rituals on the European "market of religions", focused on the taking of plant hallucinogen Ayahuasca. Some problematic experiences of participants in Berlin and other German cities led to a controversial discussion in parts of the German media and investigations of the prosecutor's office. Against the background of a detailed description of the origin and development of the Santo Daime in Brazil, the circumstances of export of these rituals and the differences in the conception and impact of the rituals in Brazil on the one hand and in Germany on the other hand. An analysis of the set and setting of the Ayahuasca rituals experienced in Berlin shows that their problematic effects are not attributable to the hallucinogen Ayahuasca itself, but rather to the mediation of these hallucinogen rituals via a "market of religions" and the associated commercialization of Santo Daime and its rituals.