The rising demand for ayahuasca has led to hundreds of psychedelic churches in the U.S., which advocates say are protected from prosecution by a 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
A pitcher of ayahuasca, right, sits on an altar covered by a bundle of leaves called a “wayra” used in a spiritual ceremony hosted by Hummingbird Church in Hildale, Utah, on Oct. 15, 2022. The tea tasted bitter and earthy, but Lorenzo Gonzales drank it anyway. On that frigid night in remote Utah, he was hoping for a life-changing experience, which is how he found himself inside a tent with two dozen others waiting for the psychedelic brew known as ayahuasca to kick in.
His journey to this small town along the Arizona-Utah border is part of a growing global trend of people turning to ayahuasca in search of spiritual enlightenment and an experience they say brings them closer to God than traditional religious services. Many hope the psychedelic tea will heal physical and mental afflictions after conventional medications and therapy failed. Their problems include eating disorders, depression, substance use disorders and PTSD.
"Our knowledge is kind of limited," said Anthony Back, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. "There is not as much information about safety as the regular other medical treatments that you might get if you went to a regular doctor in the United States." The brew contains an Amazon rainforest shrub with the active ingredient N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, and a vine containing harmala alkaloids that prevent the drug from breaking down in the body.
"Every process is an individual one and completely different for every one of us," he said. "We are going to turn off our minds and open our hearts. If you feel like you are dying, die. This is going to allow you to be reborn."They had driven from California, hoping for relief for Gonzales.
The 35-year-old woman has struggled to adapt to life after the FLDS, which controlled almost everything from what she ate to what she wore. Since leaving, she has tried anti-depressants, therapy and other psychedelics like mushrooms to deal with depression and a range of physical ailments, including hearing and vision problems she blames on the abuse she suffered.
The roots of ayahuasca go back hundreds of years to use by Indigenous groups in the Amazon. In the past century, churches sprouted up in South America where ayahuasca is legal. Some Brazilian churches are a mix of Christian, African and Indigenous influences. Courtney Close, Hummingbird's founder who credits ayahuasca with helping her overcome cocaine addiction and post-partum depression, believes the designation as a church helps show that participants are "doing this for religious reasons." But when it comes to defining it as a religion, Close stresses much depends on individual participants' experience.
Close said Davila offered the man ayahuasca then said to wrap him in a blanket on his side so he wouldn't choke on his vomit. She hoped the psychedelic would provide him with a transformative, death-like experience while remaining physically safe.
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