União do Vegetal

And then the Catholic overlay, you know, that also brought in a common set of elements from this, you know, Spanish influence.

Right, and you see the ultimate expression of that in the syncretic churches, like the Santo Daime and the UDV.

They're very much infused with tradition, with Christian iconography, and they borrow very heavily from that.

And they're not so much therapeutic.

I mean, they're psychotherapeutic, those traditions, but they're... as I understand it, they're not really addressing physical problems, although they do claim to have special preparations that can be used for those.

So it's kind of an interesting place, situation with those churches, because they are definitely a combination of Christian and indigenous iconography.

And of course, they At least in the UDV, they deny the indigenous origins of ayahuasca.

You know, as you know, they claim that it came from King Solomon.

And other people say, I want to practice with ayahuasca.

We have the Santo Daime, we have the UDV, the Church of Eagle and Condor, multiple expressions that they want to use ayahuasca as a way for them to practice.

And then we have others that say, I want to pray with mushrooms from time to time.

Amazing.

That it's a part of the spiritual process to ask these questions and to figure out what your answers are.

You know what really bothers me and I feel like I'm getting to a place where I'm feeling more at peace? I also grew up in the UDV church, they teach people to question.

And the person who created the church, he said, you know, don't take my word for truth.

Investigate, question it to understand that I am right.

Brazil.

So I found the Santo Daime down there in Manaus and I found the União do Vegetal in Manaus.

And I started working with both those organizations.

Wasn't a huge fan of Santo Daime, but liked how the União do Vegetal was doing it.

It started sussing out, like, how do I build a retreat center there and kind of work with them? But it turned out that I thought I had a five-year visa, but it was actually a three-month visa.

So they, yeah, I didn't realize that until I was in Brazil.

And then for the mental part, I have heard, for example, I've seen Gabor Mate talking about ayahuasca and psychedelics in general, but ayahuasca specifically.

And I have a person that I know that is close, that he lives in Brazil, and he goes to an Ayahuasca church called União do Vegetal.

And I know people around him noticed some improvements because he was also very isolated, you know, not very communicative.

And then once he started going, he kind of improved in that area.