Indigenous and mestizo ayahuasca traditions met religious Afro-Brazilian religious elements and European esoteric traditions through several waves of migrations into the Amazon from the Brazilian northeast. Some immigrants -- including Raimundo Irineu Serra (1892-1971) and Daniel Pereira de Matos (1904-1958) in Rio Branco, Acre, and José Gabriel da Costa (1922-1971) in Porto Velho, Rondonia -- created syncretic religious organizations that used ayahuasca as their central sacrament. A fourth religious leader, Sebastiâo Mota (1920-1990), a follower of Serra, created after Serra's death a new separate religious branch. The Centro Eclético de Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu Serra (Raimundo Irineu Serra Eclectic Center of Fluid Universal Light, CEFLURIS), created in 1972, first operated in urban areas of many Brazilian states, and later expanded into other European countries, the Americas, and Japan. The original organization, known as Alto Santo, divided into several small nuclei and remains an Amazonian phenomenon. The religious organization created by de Matos, known as Barquinha, is now going through its own division process and remains in the Amazon. The Uniâo do Vegetal created in 1961 by da Costa, is experiencing the greatest growth. It is found in nearly every major Brazilian city, has members in all levels of society, and is spreading to other countries. Followers of Serra, de Matos, and Mota call the sacred ayahuasca brew Santo Daime, while followers of José Gabriel da Costa call it vegetal. The use of ayahuasca by these religious groups served as a great binding force, especially in the aftermath of Amazonian economic ruin caused by the shift of the center of rubber production to Southeast Asia in the beginning of the 20th century. For the last six years I have acted as a neo-ayahuasquero, and can therefore speak of my own work as an example of contemporary non-indigenous practices. I studied indigenous ayahuasca shamanism, was trained by mestizo and indigenous practitioners, and did extensive fieldwork as a participant-observer among the three main Brazilian religious organizations that use ayahuasca as a sacrament. The decision to start administering ayahuasca to others was not a sudden one. Not until 25 years after my first ayahuasca experience did I start doing rituals of my own, initially more due to external demand from others than by own initiative. In retrospect, however, I can see this development was logical, because from the beginning I had both academic and personal interest in the particular states of consciousness elicited by the ayahuasca. I have been actively collaborating in scientific studies leading toward a clarification of the ayahuasca phenomenon. I insist on not being called a shaman -- preferring the term "facilitator" -- for several reasons. First, I do not act within a shamanic cosmology and body of metaphors. I also do not teach any doctrine or specific body of ideas. Participants in my seminars come from many different cultures and parts of the world, and during the seminar each navigates his or her own internal world when they experiment with the ayahuasca brew. Secondly, I encourage people to face their fears and use the energy that often manifests itself in the ayahuasca experience by themselves, avoiding too great a reliance on others. My job is to create a secure and supportive environment for intense internal exploration. I must also acknowledge, however, that I am doing shamanic work when I construct, with music (through rattling by means of a few icaros I learned from shamans, or through recordings), a comfortable environment for people to enter ASC produced by ayahuasca. I especially use shamanic practices when I treat participants by blowing, humming, or sucking out foreign energies. The combination of all my interests, scientific and of a more personal nature, led me to the creation of Wasiwaska Research Center for the Study of Psychointegrator Plants, Visionary Art, and Consciousness, in Florianópolis, southern Brazil. I periodically organize seminars for scientists, therapists, writers, artists, other professionals, and students. The seminars include a combination of ayahuasca sessions; holotropic breath work (rapid and rhythmic deep breathing that induces ASC); literary, musical, or artistic expression workshops; lectures by recognized specialists; and excursions. Wasiwaska is a base for serious exploration and scientific research that reflects my work, and that of other contemporary ayahuasqueros, which is based on indigenous techniques that have changed through time as they have been passed from indigenous groups that used ayahuasca traditionally to indigenous groups that have adopted it in recent times, to mestizo practitioners and non-Amazonians.