ii AN INVESTIGATION OF PERSONAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND PSYCHOACTIVE PLANT USE ...

263 Pages·2007·1.55 MB·English

AN INVESTIGATION OF PERSONAL TRANSFORMATIONS AND
PSYCHOACTIVE PLANT USE IN SYNCRETIC RITUAL CEREMONIES IN A
BRAZILIAN CHURCH
by
Michael Cougar

Copyright
©
Michael Cougar
2005
All Rights Reserved
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Abstract
An Investigation of Personal Transformations and Psychoactive Plant Use in
Syncretic Ritual Ceremonies in a Brazilian Church
by
Michael Cougar
Fifty-two North American and European participants in syncretic Brazilian church
religious ceremonies were assessed for indications of personality and clinical disorders,
and tendencies towards chemical dependency and addiction. Research participants
attended at least 6 syncretic ceremonies and consumed a psychoactive tea, Daime, which
is made from 2 Amazon Basin rainforest plants, the rainha and jagube. The research
sample completed the Clinical Analysis Questionnaire (CAQ), a standardized assessment
designed to reveal tendencies toward clinical and personality disorders and chemical
dependence. Subgroups of the research sample (based upon age, gender, length of time
associated with the Santo Daime Church, number of Festivals attended, average number
of ceremonies per Festival, and preexisting diagnoses for clinical disorders) also were
assessed. The norm population scores initially were compared to the research sample
scores, and then compared to sample subgroup scores for each subgroup. Statistical
analyses of the assessment scales scores were performed using t tests and ANOVA.
Statistical analyses generally revealed no tendencies toward psychopathology or chemical
dependence within the research sample. This study reveals the benefits of ethological
analyses of psychoactive substance use.

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Dedication
This project is dedicated to the past and present indigenous peoples of the world
whose intuitive knowledge made exploration of the benefits of plant medicines possible.
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Preface
While on an extended vacation several years ago, traveling on a tributary of
Brazil’s Purus River, the motorized canoe in which I was riding was hit by a speed boat.
Immediately after hitting the canoe the speed boat lifted out of the water, climbed the
canoe’s side rail and was literally in my face. Looking for an escape I ducked and lost
consciousness. Upon regaining consciousness I was kneeling, turned around 180 degrees,
with my hands on the bench on which I had just been sitting. The speed boat continued to
climb using the canoe and my back as a launching ramp. As it ascended in a steep climb,
I quickly realized the boat would crush me if I did not act immediately.
An inner feminine voice urged, “You can live if you want, but you have to make a
decision now.” In the same instant I heard the boat propeller whirring in thin air, coming
my way. Shifting weight and arching my back, while turning hips and shoulder in aikido-
like fashion, I looked over my right shoulder. There, 8 inches from my right elbow was
the propeller, still spinning, but not red with my blood. The speed boat was laying on its
side, half on the canoe and half on the rocky shore. The propeller had barely missed my
back and spine, at heart level by no more than one fourth of an inch. In addition to the 9
inch gash on my head, I was missing a Texas watermelon-sized patch of skin and muscle
tissue from my back. The skin had been literally ripped off my back by the bottom
surface of the speed boat. My body went into shock: I became light-headed, disoriented,
and lost the sense of having a physical body. For the next 34 days I recuperated in the
isolated rainforest village of Ceu do Mapia.
While recovering, I participated in syncretic religious ceremonies with more than
1000 people, during which a psychoactive tea, known as “Santo Daime,” or “Daime,”
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was consumed. Daime is made from two plants indigenous to the Amazon Basin, the
woody pulp of a vine and the leaves of a shrub. During the ceremonies, a familiar
feminine voice, the same one I had heard on the river, spoke to me several times. The
voice was inside me, clear and sweet, but firm and insistent. She instructed me to write
my dissertation about her sacrament: about Daime.
The effects of the sacrament, experienced during the ceremonies, were astounding
to my Western intellect. Intense visions, healings and teachings, came to me in a
profoundly altered state of consciousness. I directly experienced the Divine Intelligence
which imbues Santo Daime, working through my mind and physical body. Despite my
consciousness being profoundly altered, I maintained focus, awareness, and my sense of
selfhood: the observing “I” persisted. Throughout the ceremonies and my stay in the
village, the other ceremonial participants were always well-behaved and treated each
other with kindness and respect.
In discussing my overall experience with acquaintances, numerous other people
reported experiencing similar psychic occurrences during the ceremonies. None of the
participants I observed appeared to have been injured physically, emotionally, or
intellectually in spite of having consumed large portions of the sacrament, in ceremonies
lasting 12 to 15 or more hours. A recurring theme for many of the participants was that a
Divine Intelligence communicated to them, which healed them from deep physical and
emotional wounds, instructed them in worldly and spiritual matters, and assisted their
spiritual growth. I was intrigued that a controlled substance, considered by Western
culture to be without benefit, was instead revealed by personal experience and
observation to have substantial benefits to body and psyche. Considering my instruction
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to formally research the sacrament and my personal experiences, I wondered how it
might be possible to objectively demonstrate the beneficial properties of Daime.
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Acknowledgments
My Father and Mother must certainly be acknowledged, for without them and
their loving kindness and compassion, I would not exist. Countless are the people who
have contributed to this project in one way or another, many of whom will remain
unknown even to myself. For those kind and gentle folks, I express my gratitude and
appreciation. I am grateful to all the Divine Beings whom I have encountered in one way
or another on my Life’s path. They have given me Love, showered me with their Purity,
exhorted me to Courage, and taught me Compassion for all living beings. To my
Teachers, great and small, thank you for all your hard work, focus, and direction. I also
express my appreciation to the communities of which I am a part, who have encouraged
me throughout the process of this project. Their collective voice urged me to continue on
with this project, despite the many doubts I encountered along the way. I also express my
appreciation and gratitude to the members of my Dissertation Committee, who supported
me in my process, and who also encouraged me not to give up during a long and difficult
process, but to persist. Last, but not least, I am grateful to the people who participated in
this research. For obvious reasons they shall remain unnamed. Without them and their
collective courage to trust, speak up, and participate with their time and energy, research
important to all people on the planet could not have been conducted.

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Table of Contents

Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii
Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv
Preface..................................................................................................................................v
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................ viii
List of Tables .xv
Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................1
Research Questions Presented ................................................................................1
Hypotheses.1
Intended Audience .2
Significance of the Research ...................................................................................2
Gaps in Previous Research ......................................................................................4
Transformation and Altered States Are Transpersonal Topics ...............................5
Research Method .6
Definitions ...........................................................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Literature Review .............................................................................................9
Primary and Secondary Sources of Review.............................................................9
Psychoactive Plant Compounds ............................................................................10
Cultural Milieu .....................................................................................................11
Unique Aspects of Psychoactive Research ...........................................................13
Therapeutic and Human Potential Aspects of Psychoactive Research .................15
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Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-LSD ........................................................................17
Psilocybin Mushroms .19
Peyote Cactus ........................................................................................................20
Ayahuasca .2
Constituents and Psychoactive Effects of Ayahuasca ..............................25
Historical Indigenous Uses .27
Santo Daime .29
Historical Perspective of Brazilian Syncretic Churches ............................30
1993 Brazilian Ayahuasca Research .........................................................31
Neurotransmitter Response to Ayahuasca .................................................34
Chapter 3: Method ............................................................................................................37
Introduction.37
Study Design.37
Initial Blended Research Design ...............................................................37
Initial Research Proposal Parameters.........................................................38
Time Limitations Involved in Design Modifications.................................39
Summary of the Revised Research Design................................................39
Treatment .40
Description of Festivals and Santo Daime Church ...................................40
Sample Design Criteria ..............................................................................40
Research Population.42
Creation of Subgroups .43
Sample Subgroups .4
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Solicitation of Participants.45
Selection of Participants by Random Sampling.........................................45
Instrument ..............................................................................................................46
Data Collection Procedures....................................................................................50
Selection of Participants .50
Data Analysis .............................................................................................54
Limitations and Delimitations of the Research......................................................59
Delimitations..............................................................................................59
Limitations .59
Summary .60
Chapter 4: Results ..............................................................................................................61
Introduction.61
Study Participants .61
Age Demographics.61
Relationship Demographics .61
Educational Demographics .62
Employment Demographics.......................................................................62
Ocupational Demographics.62
Clinical Analysis Questionnaire Assessment Results............................................65
Trait Scale Scoring.65
Tendencies Toward Adictive Behaviors.94
Second-Order Scores .98
Analysis of Sample Subgroups ................................................................105
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