Santo Daime Revealed

Gideon of the LakotasSANTO DAIME REVEALED Drugs, Lies and Fraud Introduction to the English Version You don’t need to be an ancient Mayan prophet to know that the world we know is about to end. What used to be an exclusively religious subject is now widely observed by modern science. Planet earth is undergoing a massive change. Scientists agree that the earth will survive, but what about humans? Aged old clichéd questions such as “Who am I?” and “What am I doing here?” have become more relevant for us than ever before. Which way to turn to? Science or spirituality? In shamanism one does not need to choose one over the other. They walk hand in hand. Shamanism does not exclude a particular field of knowledge, but incorporates everything. Shamanism is integration. God and science are not separate entities. Is God about to strike down and punish the wicked? I certainly thought so while growing up in a strict protestant household. Or are humans simply experiencing the basic laws of cause and effect? The effects of their own choices? In ancient times whenever a tribesperson fell sick or was experiencing existential issues they would seek the help and advice of the tribe’s Shaman, their spiritual leader. And the shaman, using a variety of tools and knowledge would isolate the problem and offer a solution, an alternative, and balance would be restored. His tools would include prayers, drumming and the use of a variety of power plants. Humans are presently experiencing a massive collective unbalance, especially here in the Western world. By leaning too heavily on the intellect and on basic survival we’ve forgotten our roots. We’ve forgotten who we truly are. There are many solutions for this, many spiritual paths or tools in order to restore balance. You could meditate for fifty years in a Tibetan monastery and achieve enlightenment. But who’s got fifty years to spare nowadays? In a few short hours Ayahuasca can help you obtain the same results. The Master Power Plant Ayahuasca offers the fastest route to health and balance. Mid 2009 I hit rock bottom. I had tried everything, church, spiritual charlatans, atheism, money, sex, drugs and alcohol. Every where I went I did not find anything to truly fill the emptiness and loneliness I felt inside. I only found excitement of the senses and empty promises of a brighter tomorrow. Never a brighter right Now. The stories I read about Jesus, the Divine Mother, and the spiritual world all moved me greatly and seemed very nice in theory. But I longed for a real contact, a real experience. July 4th, 2009, the American Independence day, was the day my soul literally cried out for independence. I don’t believe in coincidences anymore. After communing the sacred drink known as Santo Daime or Ayahuasca, the theory became a reality. I had finally had a real conscious experience with the Divine. Never before had I felt so much happiness, love and fulfillment. I was finally home. Shaman Gideon of the Lakotas together with his army of Free Souls and the divine approval of the Great Spirit has once again brought us the sacred science of the forest. The fast track to finding out who we are, and why we are here. My wish is that everyone who reads these pages may do so with an open mind, there’s no time for pride anymore. Open up your hearts and let the wine of souls quench your existential thirst. As Gideon always says, it is bitter to the tongue but sweet to the soul. Love and enlightenment to all, Timothy Faccioli February 10th, 2010 Summary Preface __________________________________________________________________ Presentation ______________________________________________________________ In this chapter, the dramatic testimony of a mother whose family lived the nightmare of Cefluris. Céu do Mapiá. I The Beginning of Truth _____________________________________________________ In this chapter, you will gain knowledge which will lead you to success, self fulfillment and complete happiness. The Trip to Acre ___________________________________________________________ In this chapter, recent interviews with master Irineu’s son, Mr. Paulo Serra and Mr. Juarez, a contemporary of the master. 01 01 15 II 31 III Drugs and Shamanism _______________________________________________________ 48 In this chapter, living testimonies of a medical doctor and a police officer, who lived the many facets of santo daime Cefluris. Power Plants x Drug Plants ___________________________________________________ 66 Truths You Must Know _______________________________________________________ 71 Interview with Mrs. Adália de Castro who knew mestre Irineu personally for more than 30 years and three other contemporaries from Acre. Ayahuasca Situation in Brazil _________________________________________________ 79 4 more testimonies which impartially support the facts. Dissemination and Allure of Drug Use with Daime through the Internet ______________ 91 E-mails from integrants of the false santo daime, where they confirm and encourage drug use. Allure via Internet. Altered States of Consciousness _______________________________________________ 112 Marijuana seen from a Scientific Point of View __________________________________ 115 The most recent scientific evidence on marijuana, with tomographical photographs of user brains after a few months of use. There is no guessing here. How to Make Ayahuasca or Daime – FEITIO ______________________________________ 129 IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI The True Accounting of Daime/Ayahuasca Rituals ________________________________ 131 See for yourself the 300% profit in Cefluris rituals at 30 reais. Commerce in the name of God! Who is Ready to be a Padrinho or Madrinha _____________________________________ 133 How did the Passing of Madrinha Genecilda Occur _______________________________ 137 Know how Cefluris members and disciples of padrinho Sebastião Mota really act. Gideon of the Lakotas and the Beginning of Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição ________ 143 The living testimony of shaman Gideon, when he visited céu de maria, céu da lua cheia and other Cefluris churches. Appendix __________________________________________________________________ 166 Numerous new stories of Colony 5000, which tell of the brutality that goes on there. XII XIII XIV Preface Nowadays it could be said that we live in the age of the Information Society. Power no longer exists apart from information. We can no longer passively live accepting any discourse. It is necessary to investigate research and analyze the facts in order to choose the best path to follow. This book is another instrument in favor of information on a topic that remains obscure for most people: SANTO DAIME, its true principles and the distortions it suffered for the last few decades. Following the fast rhythm of the information society, this book is not a conventional work. The chapters are intertwined with testimonies of people that lived through the FALSE SANTO DAIME, interviews with personalities that represent the living history of SANTO DAIME and with documents that substantiate the information presented. The format that has been chosen focuses on creating a dynamic book where text and facts arise simultaneously for the reader’s reflection. This book is another expression of cyberspace language, already offering hyperlink options to the reader, with additional information at any moment. Good reading! Presentation This book aims to openly and clearly denounce, with no half words, the drugs and trade within the false “churches” that misuse the name SANTO DAIME. Since 1971 they have given a completely distorted, rotten and even opposite image of what is the true SANTO DAIME. Through old and recent testimonies, including my own, books and news stories, as well as other documents, on these false churches that call themselves followers of SANTO DAIME, but who are not in reality, the reader will clearly see the great distortion that the FALSE SANTO DAIME has been causing, starting with the harm caused to so many adults, youth and adolescents that through ingenuity went in search of light, but ended up a few months later totally addicted to drugs, having their lives destroyed spiritually and physically. The testimonies presented in this book were well registered in notary offices in Brazil and are available to any authority under the law. And all the interviews of this work were also recorded. The name of this false line of SANTO DAIME, where drugs are used together with daime is Cefluris (Acronym for Centro Eclético Fluente da Luz Universal - Universal Flowing Light Eclectic Center) and was founded by Sebastião Mota de Melo after the passing of the illuminated Master Raimundo Irineu Serra. Equivocally but intentionally, it has been circulated that Sebastião Mota de Melo is the successor of Master Irineu, a statement which is openly discredited by all who knew him. A fact that I confirmed on a trip I took in March, 2007, which is documented in this book. In this trip, I had the opportunity to 1 personally speak with master Irineu`s widow, madrinha (Portuguese for godmother) Peregrina Gomes Serra, who is an upstanding and lucid woman and welcomed me with a lot of love, care and steadfastness. Madrinha Peregrina told me clearly, “Sebastião wanted the seat of the master. He always desired to be the successor of master Irineu, but when he couldn’t get what he wanted he went away and did all this filth which is there for all to see. The master didn’t leave a successor. When I go, whoever wants to talk to me can take daime and talk to me directly in the astral plane.” She also affirmed, “Here at the Alto Santo there are no drugs, and there has never been. The master never smoked this Santa Maria, he took people away from drugs and addictions, and he didn’t drug or get anyone addicted.” At this point in the conversation, Paulo de Assunção Serra, adopted son of master Irineu, who was also present at the meeting, spoke outraged, “Father was always against drugs and always preached charity. This thing of marijuana as santa maria was Sebastião's doing and followed by Cefluris until today. How could they use the name of the mother of Jesus with a damned weed?” (for those who do not know the vocabulary of the false SANTO DAIME well, marijuana is called Saint Mary, Portuguese santa maria) I remembered at this point that madrinha Peregrina had already spoken about pot and Sebastião Mota de Melo many years back in other books: “Padrinho Sebastião and his followers are all potheads.” (Extracted from the book SANTO DAIME - Fanatismo e Lavagem Cerebral [Fanaticism and Brain Wash], by Alicia Castilla, capo Sebastião Mata de Meio – pg. 118) What a terrible thing Sebastião Mota de Melo and Cefluris did with SANTO DAIME and the form by which they stained the name of master Irineu. Here in the south and south-east states, up until the founding of Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição - Heaven of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the great majority of people thought that master Irineu also drugged himself as did Sebastião and his followers. To use the name of master Irineu and also associate it with the use of drugs within SANTO DAIME was the vile strategy used by Sebastião and also the greatest of betrayals. Take a look at other quotes from people that knew padrinho Sebastião after he left Alto Santo and founded Cefluris: “If master Irineu invented daime, padrinho (Sebastião) invented santa maria.” (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor – pg. 109) “(he had his) own santa maria plantation.” (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor – pg. 132) “It was far more viable to live in the colony, where daime and santa maria had guaranteed presence.” 2 (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor – pg. 161) “According to what mestre Irineu’s widow manifested in the program aired by rede Manchete tv station, as well as a version given by many other daimistas, what motivated the parting of Mota was the inclusion of marijuana in the rituals, as a sacred plant, under the name santa maria and the cocaine paste, named mescla.” (Extracted from the book SANTO DAIME - Fanatismo e Lavagem Cerebral [Fanaticism and Brain Wash], by Alicia Castilla, capo Sebastião Mota de Melo – pg 120) “I received from Valfredo the santa maria quota destined to be used for the good development of our work.” (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor – pg. 177) “During a session of astral cleansing, padrinho (Sebastião) would say: daime inside the temple and santa maria out here.” (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor – pg. 185 to 186) “On festive days we were encouraged to smoke santa maria very discreetly to avoid being spotted by spies from Rio de Janeiro.” (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor – pg. 109) Therefore, I warn you reader, that there is a SANTO DAIME from the Light received by master Irineu directly from Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. But there also is a FALSE SANTO DAIME involved with drugs and charges or dues, named Cefluris, which spread throughout Brazil and was founded by padrinho Sebastião. Padrinho Sebastião, whose style reminds me of the integrants of the hippie movement of the 70s, deviously used the name Raimundo Irineu Serra as a marketing strategy in the acronym Cefluris to benefit himself of the great prestige that has always been associated with the name of the master. “Who authorized Sebastião Mota de Melo to place the name of the master in Cefluris?” an indignant Paulo Serra told me. I, Gideon of the Lakotas, have always said the following: Master Irineu founded “DAIME” and Sebastião Mota de Mello founded “TIRAI-ME” (daime could be translated as give me whereas tirai-me, with similar sound, take away from me.) Know that the serious spiritual works (rituals) of SANTO DAIME edify the spirit and guide you to the LIGHT, invigorate your health and LOVE. But the combination of daime with drugs such as marijuana (santa maria) only edifies your EGO, destroying your health and lowering you spiritual frequency. Have 3 you ever someone who has been addicted to drugs for over 2 years or more prospering in life or maintaining a strong health? Daime stimulates growth of the virtues of the spirit. Drugs stimulate the growth of the ego. Egocentrism is easily observed within Cefluris. When I visited the Cefluris churches I heard many times and from many people that padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo was the reincarnation of John the Baptist, his son Alfredo Gregório was the reincarnation of King Solomon, and Alex Polari, another influential integrant of Cefluris, was the reincarnation of King David and most recently that Glauco and Bia from the Céu de Maria no Pico do Jaraguá, in São Paulo, are the reincarnations of Joseph and Mary, stepfather and mother of Jesus. I confirm through observation and experience, that whenever the sanctity of daime is maculated by drugs or commerce it will result in illusions of the ego and escape from reality. Some people live in great misery, have no wisdom or culture even, living a completely unbalanced life, drugging themselves three or four times a day and still deny that are addicted and swear with their feet together that they are the reincarnation of pharoes, Cleopatra, Joana D’Arc, Mary Magdalene, biblical prophets, the apostles and so on. Take a look at a passage on this theme: “The arguments of Padrinho Sebastião were ingrained in the reality of the Daime trips, ingrained in a new power and a new force that I had just come in contact with. It was filled with a strong invisible reality that had been revealed to me in those circumstances. It wasn’t as simple as hearing a protestant pastor preaching and then calmly discarding it, without weighing on my conscience. It was the congruence of destiny that had placed me in that situation, which I took part in with complete freedom of choice. Therefore, I was truly condemned to live in that community. I thought: ‘If the sentence is laid down, may I at least be happy fulfilling it.” One day returning from work, Raquel, Xavier’s sister, came along talking to us: “Do you know that Padrinho is gathering the elect for salvation? He’s St. John the Baptist, and will gather all the apostles again. St. Peter has arrived already. A surprised Dácio asked: “Who is St. Peter?” Rachel responded: 4 “It’s Xavier, my brother. The day he arrived here with Raul and Cristiano, Padrinho received the hymn foretelling the arrival of St. Peter. Now you will have to discover who you were in other incarnations. Nobody comes here for no reason. This is a holy city of God’s elect. Padrinho Sebastião is John the Baptist and came to gather the apostles. After she went, we thought it hilarious. “What a crazy girl. Maybe we’re apostles too.” We joked. Apostles or not, we were dominated by the structure of the context. The guilt and fear conditioned us to accept the idea of a severe penalty; on the other hand, there was a small hope of being forgiven. Now, we lived in a world that only a short time prior we imagined to be extinct. This same old world, presented itself to me as being the real reason. Then it gave birth to my desperation and unbalance, meanwhile the community life represented the vanguard.” (Extracted from the book O Consagrado Defensor pgs. 57 and 58) Of course reincarnation exists, and I remember my last incarnation. I was a Native in the Lakota Tribe, where I was initiated in shamanism. I was no celebrity and yet I saw my tribe almost totally annihilated by the white race and their greed. There were moments of happiness as well as pain. I had nothing different or special, better or worse, greater or smaller, than anyone else. That’s all! But these reincarnations of biblical celebrities at Cefluris didn’t add up, they were pure illusion. Imagine St. John the Baptist, King David and King Solomon smoking pot, doing cocaine and drugging men, women and teenagers! Can you conceive the idea that St. Mary (Santa Maria), mother of Jesus, smoked pot and let her holy name be used in association with a drug? This whole story is only the result of the drugs that Cefluris has been disseminating using the name of the sacred SANTO DAIME. I ask you: Where is the sanctity of giving drugs to parents and children? Would you give your child marijuana (santa maria) or cocaine (santa clara)? Within the Cefluris FALSE SANTO DAIME I also heard several times that padrinho Sebastião had died of overdose. I can’t say if it is true or not. But I wouldn’t doubt it, since he died in Rio de Janeiro at Céu Rainha do Mar, where they use a lot of drugs and was founded by his disciple Marco Imperial, who goes online encouraging people to use drugs such as marijuana (santa maria), as well as forwarding emails with marijuana tea recipes, marijuana cakes, how to smoke pot with the rosary, among other things (see chapter 7 with e-mails). On several occasions I witnessed within Cefluris churches the use of drugs and also in the daime feitios – the process of making daime. This is truly horrible, since all this negative energy from these harmful drugs is absorbed and remains in the daime that was made. When a person takes this daime, also receives the negative load of these drugs. 5 In daime jargon, those that use santa maria (which is the same marijuana that dealers sell on street corners) are called marianos. I call these marianos to the light of reason. I propose a “test of truth.” And this includes Sebastião Mota de Melo’s son, Alfredo Gregório, Alex Polari and all other padrinhos and madrinhas affiliated to Cefluris: A person who participates in an all night ritual with daime can take a blood test in the morning and no harmful substances or alteration will show up on the results. I myself have done this test and know many others who have also done it. And this happens in reality because daime is not a drug! Now, marianos, do the same with this santa maria. Take your marijuana, planted or bought, as you choose, consecrate on high as santa maria, smoke it all night in your ritual as you have been doing for some time, but the next day take an exam. You will find that the THC contained in the marijuana will still be present in your bodies! With THC in your bodies, what happens to all this story of consecrating marijuana? It falls apart doesn’t it? Because THC is scientifically proven to kill your neurons, deteriorate your memory and cause mental lethargy. In summary: It makes you dumb! The good thing about science is that there is no “guessing,” only undisputed proof. For science to affirm something the same experiment must be repeated several times and all results must be identical. If one is different, science will not confirm it. When science proves it, it’s proven! Read in this book the scientific chapter on cannabis sativa (marijuana or santa maria) and also see the computer scans that show user brains with holes and spots, after only one year of use. I know that SANTO DAIME churches will spread throughout the world, so let the truth be spread also. So only those that do not wish to see the truth won’t see it. Writing this book is a question of responsibility, of commitment. I have no pleasure in doing it. For four years I have been warning humanity about the false churches (Cefluris). Everything I stated, I have proven. I never lie! I have been threatened with death if I didn’t stop exposing the dark truths of Cefluris, but I’ve made it clear that here you’ll find a lion and not a lamb, who knows very well how to react, defend himself and attack if necessary. Here is found an old spirit and a warrior of the heart. Not even my death will stop the objectives of Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição from being reached. Today our numbers are already in the thousands. I’ve taught these to be strong, decisive, to live with honor and be capable of reaching the fulfillment of any goal. For a shaman honor is everything. In honor you will find unconditional love, compassion, humility, common sense, fidelity and the truth. To have honor and to honor the memory of brothers of the LIGHT is all that matters to me, it is all that matters to a real shaman. I teach that under GOD we are all brothers and sisters of a large celestial family. No distinction between the beautiful and the ugly. We are all loved by the same love. I do not follow the SANTO DAIME, so there is no convenience or any partiality here. I follow and teach the good red path, shamanism. So, cleansing the good name of 6 master Irineu is question of honor and to warn you is a question of duty. I can happily say: that I do not have disciples, I only have brothers! I have already passed clear instructions to be followed, reactions taken through honor, and all the financial resources necessary exist. I prefer to die standing than to live on my knees. From my part, with the printing and distribution of this book, I close the topic with Cefluris and drugs mixed with daime. Through this book, I expose clearly where truth and LIGHT are and where illusion and lies are. Now it is up to you to freely choose the path that you wish to follow. I intend to follow mine, teaching humanity the art of “living while walking in beauty.” Unless there are implications that prevent this Céu (Heaven) or the brothers who have helped me in this mission, I really will forget Cefluris and Sebastião Mota de Mello. If implications arise, this tribe will return to the battle with four times more intensity. The biggest present GOD gave you is the present moment, the here and now. Each attitude you take is an action that will result in reactions that never extinguish. What you do echoes in eternity! So that there are no doubts right at the start of the reading of this book, on the stand taken by master Raimundo Irineu Serra regarding drugs, I place a part of the statute made by his own hand, who is the true and original daimista, for the Centro de Iluminação Cristã Luz Universal - Universal Light Christian Illumination Center, in the state of Acre, chapter IX: 7 Moral and prophylaxis Article 19 – Capitulating for the moral and health of the fellowship, to all is forbidden, in the form of paragraph b, article 8 of the Constitution and decree-law 159, article 281 of the Penal Code and the like, the use or traffic of intoxicants, namely: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) morphine, heroin, cocaine, pot, marijuana, sugar cane brandy, lsd and others with deleterious effect incompatible with human dignity, which darkens the conscience and noble sentiments, leading its victims to perversion and fatality, in the avidness for fortuitous diversions and degradations. § singular – to dwell on the folly of libation and to trample on the purposes of the soul is to immerse the ego in the panacea of illusions and actions that abase moral integrity and jeopardize health and personality, taking its victims to the slavery of addiction and the distressing end expressed in 1Cor 6:10 and like texts, whose addicts will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Testimony of someone who lived through the False Santo Daime Testimony: C.T.B. Date of birth: 25/05/1961, Born and raised in Curitiba, state of Paraná 8 The beginning of the lure “I could give a long testimony, full of detail and names, but I feel in my heart that it is not necessary, there are brothers and sisters already doing this in a much better way. I sincerely hope that my testimony is useful and beneficial for many people. I do this for The Master and for master Irineu, who is responsible for santo daime on Earth. It is a testimony of warning that I’m leaving behind for the good of all. I found out about daime about 10 years ago. Next to Nova Gokula, which is the rural community belonging to the Hare Krishna movement based in Pindamonhagaba on the country side of São Paulo. A daime center was opened in the neighboring farm. I became curious to find out more about this spiritual work with a power plant. So I went there to visit. This first contact was very good, very special for me, because there were many devotees that sang mantras, besides the hymnal of course, which fascinated me. Daime won me over right there at that moment. My God, this is spiritual! It was very magical for me. And so I started to attend regularly, took my sisters, my nieces, and everybody I knew to daime. And after a time we started attending other centers. We spent years traveling to attend rituals with daime. We were fascinated by it, and made many friends. And we even went as far as opening a center, and after that, a church in Curitiba. My family and I, my sisters, daughters and nieces were strongly united at this time, really forming a clan and everything was still very innocent. However, when the movement started to grow and become institutionalized it didn’t work the same way anymore. Cannabis When I joined santo daime I’d been using cannabis for a long time, since the time of alternative communities. I lived in Rio de Janeiro where I smoked at shows, concerts, the beach and theaters. It was totally normal, everybody did. We only had police persecution to worry about, of course I thought it absurd, why not liberate this plant already? I never considered it a drug, much less considered myself an addict, even smoking it everyday… After all, I was all “peace and love.” I only stopped smoking it after I joined the Hare Krishna movement. I learned that it was “intoxication,” and would be breaking a spiritual principle if I continued smoking, so I stopped for a long time, until I met “santa Maria” the “secret” of santo daime. So I started smoking pot again without guilt now and under the protection of the “saint.” I was all happy with my joint, but of course my family and professional lives were crap, but I had my “little joint” to console me, and it really did, I was under a veil of illusive comfort. Nothing would stop me from smoking my little saint, which gave me so much comfort. I used it religiously everyday, and 9 started growing it at home, since the only downside was the traffic and all the bad vibes associated with it. Even so, I bought it from dealers, because for my consumption I would need a large plantation, and a few pots at home wouldn’t cut it. The dealer would let me know when there was a more natural herb, not so pressed, and I would purify it by leaving it outside under the night dew, applying Reiki, dipping it in honey, you name it. Actually I only really did those rituals a few times, because what I really wanted was to light it up quickly; I was addicted to it, and used it everyday to be able to do anything. In the spiritual daime sessions my joints were ready in my pocket, and I would go outside to calmly smoke it; I couldn’t imagine a ritual without a joint! There are spiritual works with joints that are a part of the ritual, which used to be only for those “in uniform.” So I got my uniform. We used “santa Maria” with the spiritual objective of cure and expansion of consciousness. This was the idea, however with daily use… It became an addiction of course. I had many joint buddies. At the time I thought everything was all right. It was only later that I perceived and began to live through the dangers of addiction. What is really behind this veil of illusion? Céu do Mapiá I took a one-month holiday trip to visit the Céu do Mapiá, about seven years ago, together with my sisters. We had a good time and it was much better than any Disneyland. Already in the canoe on the way there, the bargeman offered us a joint; we smoked all the way there and everything was a lot of fun, a real adventure in the jungle, looking like an Indiana Jones movie times five. Arriving at Céu do Mapiá, this bargeman guided us to his parents house where we would lodge. And I timidly asked the man how I could by the “little saint.” He got all resentful and told me that in Mapiá no one bought or sold, and it was done through friends that wanted to share. From this day on, the father of the bargeman, an old gentleman and well liked, generously gave us 3 joints per day. And, specially, when there were spiritual rituals. During the ritual at Céu do Mapiá, barely at the start, madrinhas, all elderly ladies, would go out to smoke joints at the edge of the church. I thought it was incredible, I thought it was the greatest thing ever. And everyone smoked left, right and center during the ritual, people of all ages. On a certain occasion we went to visit madrinha Rita, wife of Sebastião (Sebastião Mota de Melo), and she asked: “Do you smoke? (joints)” And I answered: “Of course madrinha.” And we smoked together. I thought it was incredible that that elderly lady who looked like my late grandma was preparing a little joint for us. At the time, it was great, because all I wanted was to smoke joints with my grandmother, my father and mother. Of course, I could't. And in this quiet family, where I was staying I was astonished to see them get together everyday to smoke, mother, grandmother, son, grandson; I 10 thought it was a great union. And one day while we were still with that family, it was the birthday of one of the granddaughters of the owner of the house. They made a simple cake, the friends came, they sang happy birthday, ate the cake and the children, 7, 8 and 10 years old, only children, made a circle and started to pass the little joint. That impressed me, even shocked me a bit. And I commented with the children’s grandmother: “This is jail for sure where I come from.” And she answered: “my daughter, these children were already born under the light of santa Maria.” So I thought: “it really is holy.” Something that little children can use, that a grandmother gives to her grandson, can only come from good! There at Céu do Mapiá, in the forest, my sisters got their uniforms. I resisted because I’ve always been skeptical about institutions, especially after being a Hare Krishna for 20 years. But my love for santo daime was growing and I took my whole family with the conviction that we would receive much emotional, mental, physical and spiritual healing. I ended up getting my uniform sometime later only because of those special rituals where santa maria was smoked freely within the closed rituals. I wanted to graduate so I wouldn’t miss the “santa maria” rituals for nothing in this world. Many people in my family were taking daime, except for my mother, who manifested a certain amount of discomfort with our movement. But we loved it, and they were many years of joy, union, many friends, and many parties and of course, a lot of pot. I want to make it clear to the readers of this testimony that: this initial “fairy tale” that seems like paradise is exactly the illusion that marijuana puts us through, while the “dark” portal, that marijuana really is, starts to sink its nails until the person wakes up, sometimes too late, with no notion of how to get out. Pay attention, all the care is not enough with this portal. The Disillusionment or: Exit from the Illusion Everything was going well by leaps and bound, until the inauguration of the official church. It was one big party. Of course there were some little problems, of course. The big shaking, or better yet, the total fall, at least for me started on the day of the church inauguration. Everything was beautiful, 20 people got their uniforms, packed church, growing rapidly… But, within the inaugural spiritual session my eldest daughter, who had spent six months at Céu do Mapiá and didn’t want to come back, I had to beg her to return, started to manifest very strange behavior. She began to mock everything and everyone in the ritual, especially me. I could not understand what was happening, since she had always been a very polite spiritual girl. Her education with spiritual basis was first rate. So, for the first time in my life I had very clear clairvoyance and saw in the girl many odd beings, horrifying, sinister, and was there exclusively to mock and wreck havoc at the party. They were there to rob, kill and destroy. And they got what they wanted. They stole her soul and destroyed her life, but could not kill her because she had Krishna’s protection. My daughter was possessed by spirits of the lowest planes, and she got lost. So there the horror film began. The girl who was a princess of the Hare Krishna 11 movement, with 10 years of life exclusively dedicated to God, waking up every morning at 4 am to worship the Supreme Lord, was not the same any more. She was 17 at the time and this happened back in 2002. From then on, it was five years of battles with darkness. I can say that I sailed through the valley of shadows, and got to know the other side. Being the mother, and responsible for her, I went from paradise to hell, non-stop, in the blinking of an eye. I got in touch with another side that I had no knowledge of. Guilt and fear took me over. Only God could get me out of that situation, because the people of the santo daime of padrinho Sebastião became silent. They didn’t know what to do or say. I was alone. I had the horrible sensation of losing the girl as a balloon going up to space. I realized that the santa Maria paradise was in reality hell in disguise. The enemy had presented himself face to face. And showed what was behind all that seduction… Within this institution, I did not find support, resources, charity or cure. “The girl lost it.” They said. “This happens with some people… Who perhaps have some emotional, family problem or even hidden schizophrenia that comes out, or maybe she’s very psychic and ‘lost’ it.” In the end, there was lots of “guessing.” What really made me sad at the time was the people in my church asking me, politely of course, not to take my daughter to the rituals any more, because she really got in the way, yes, if fact she was terrifying! Her having rank (uniform) and being a pioneer in our church… I seriously started to question. How can people not be willing to understand, learn and help a fellow member, a sister in the chain, some one who is showing signs that something is not right. What is the intention of a group like this? Save humanity? What is the real interest? What is the purpose? If there is no cure or charity, and let’s not even speak of love, for a sister in the chain? I really didn’t get it. But, I understood that everything was really very superficial. There is no responsibility towards the human being, much less love. That firmness in love that is talked about so much in their hymns is only a sing-a-long, what about practicing it in real life? So I got disillusioned with this group and this santo daime from Sebastião that was so indifferent to my suffering. I understood that my problem was really serious. It’s God and me, brother. So, with all my Faith, I got up and fought for my cause. From then on, it has been five years of battles with psychiatry, psychotherapy and many other things. The girl got herself into serious confusion and deep depression. She no longer had any friends, ability to attend school, work, or do anything. Her life was at a halt. And mine too! She had lost her soul, almost culminating in having the girl admitted into a psychiatric hospital. She took black label medicine, and according to her psychiatrist she was doomed to take them for years to come. 12 Back to the Light It was then that God, in his infinite kindness, acting through beloved friends and special disciples of Master Irineu, to whom I will be eternally and unconditionally grateful, took me to center for yet another attempt at a cure. Arriving there, the spiritual leader of the place told me to have faith in the greatest healer of the universe: Master Jesus Christ. My spiritual sister, who had taken me there and I, took part in a wonderful ritual full of light where I definitely broke free form all the marijuana egregore – a kind of psychic and astral entity of a group or thing. I cured my addiction in a true miracle. It was beautiful. Then, he told me to take my daughter there to take part in a ritual with daime. I was unsure because it had been a long time since she had taken daime and, was taking controlled medicine, so I felt uneasy about what might happen. But the Shaman insisted for met o have faith and bring her to a ritual in the shamanic line with santo daime. It was from this moment on that my daughter took a quantum leap in her cure, stopped taking psychiatric medicine, never “lost it” again and her ways began to open up again. I am very grateful to all of these people, but of course that behind all of them is the Creator. My daughter’s life began to move, slowly, but for this to happen I had to part with all my old friends, those that still used “santa maria.” I had to completely break free from that institution. And at the center where my daughter found her first step to the cure I was welcomed with a lot of love, compassion and charity, they didn’t charge me a cent. It is Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição in Pariquera Açu – SP. The shaman leader there always says: “The Lord of this work is Master Jesus. I’m only his servant.” So, I am only retelling all of this because this is a serious cause, founded by master Irineu, with this sacred beverage, which is divine providence, but if used with drugs, lives will be lost. After my daughter’s healing, I thank God, my beloved Jesus Christ, master Irineu, these brothers from the light that helped me with so much love and care. God is incredible, I only realized the trap I was in when its evil touched my dear daughters, otherwise I would perhaps be in the illusion until today. From where I stand, my daughters were conceived, born and raised for God and I was seeing with my own eyes how they were losing their way. Imagine a situation like this for any mother. You, who are a mom or a dad, think about this! I noticed there was something really wrong. My oldest daughter having a psychotic outbreak and the youngest submerged in defiance with a person of this institution, 20 years her senior, and of dubious character. I admit that I’m not a model mom, I’ve made many mistakes, but I will not lose my good sense or my daughters to illusion, to the darkness. After much suffering, I understood the price of a serious mistake in the spiritual world. I understood the grievous mistake with master Irineu and his holy doctrine. I understood finally, that the true Santo Daime was being tarnished. Only today, thank God, I am free to know master Irineu. To know his work, and that it is not possible to use other plants that are not authorized by him, he says it himself in his statute. 13 Today I know that santa maria is drug and that there is nothing holy about it. Forgiveness I ask for forgiveness, sincerely, to all the people that in some way I misled in the wrong direction. I paid for it and still am paying a high price. I ask my family for forgiveness, my sisters, nieces and specially my beloved daughters. May the Supreme Lord Jesus Christ, the Sovereign Virgin Mother, together with master Irineu and his infinite kindness and mercy, can forgive my faults and protect me from the traps, tricks and lures of this material world. I ask forgiveness now, sincerely, to all the beings from the Light. And I thank, from the bottom of my heart, the new chance and opportunity that they are giving me. Thank you. This testimony is for the honor and glory of all that is sacred, the holy name of Krishna, and Jesus Christ, Holy Mary, and dear Raimundo Irineu Serra, who is the guide and guardian of this sacred sacrament for healing, blessing and light.” 14 I – The Beginning of Truth Beloved, I wish to tell you about the virtues of will, sensibility, intelligence and courage. And also discuss the innate capabilities of human beings, of creativity and imagination. As professor Alberto Montalvão always taught, a human being is made up of will, sensibility and intelligence. And this, I can attest, is the purest truth. When we observe closely the process of life and human evolution, we perceive that intuition always points in the right direction, the best path to be followed and brings perfect solution to the problem you are facing, including what is happening at this very moment. Therefore, giving heed to the voice of intuition is a question of wisdom. And it is through sensibility that you can perceive intuition speaking inside of you. Reason cannot and will not reach intuition, which is in us, but is beyond rational logic. She does not belong to the tridimensional world, as are reason and thought. But, once intuition has shown you where you should go, then it is time for you to use reason. Because it will be through reason that you will plan and trace the steps to be taken in order to achieve the point your intuition had shown you. And it is here that you will use much of your capabilities, creativity and imagination, including going around obstacles that can come up on the way. In the majority of cases, and thanks to your creativity, the obstacles will be surpassed easily. Once you have traced the steps to be taken and the path to be followed, then it is time for the will. Will shall make you take the steps you planned on climbing, treading step by step on the path drawn, until you reach the objective that your intuition showed you. Will, sensibility and intelligence are the three primordial virtues that are born with every human being, but they need to be worked on to become more intense. My son, know that because you are the son of God you were already born a God-Son: image and likeness of the God Father. Yes, all the virtues of God the Father already find themselves as seeds within you, the god-son, but it is necessary to cultivate them with determination and tenacity. Know that you were already born destined to manner of victory, to manner of success. Our heavenly daddy loves you very much and doesn’t part with any of his sons or daughters, including you who are reading me now! You are truly the salt of the earth and the Great Spirit already considers you a precious jewel in his treasury. The virtues that are already found within you, my son, cannot be counted by the hairs on your head or even the stars in the sky! But all of these uncountable virtues, latent within you, will only be manifested starting from the development of the mother virtues that you were born with: will, 15 sensibility and intelligence. It is important for you to know that, these of three virtues in question; the will is the support and even the basis of the other two. When you stop being a “passive-person” and becomes a “will-person,” there occurs rapid and gradual increase of sensibility and intelligence. Of all the living beings of Earth, humans are the only ones capable of creativity. Did you know that, of all the creatures known on this planet, humans are the only ones capable of imagining a situation and predicting its results? Wonderful, isn’t it? You can create in your mind a given situation and see with clarity the final result of the experiment, without having materialized anything in the world of matter. If you follow illogical thoughts, thoughts that escape the laws of reason, you will enter a world of fantasies, and will not be channeling well this capacity and its energy as well. But the capacity of creativity, if used within the laws of reason, with true knowledge acquired from past experiences and through studies done, will help you find the solution for a given problem you may be facing at this exact moment. And so the channeling of the energy is perfect. To part with your capacity to create is to deny who you are, and consequently, suffer with results that could have been easily avoided. I will tell you a little story that will illustrate well what I am affirming: Once upon a time, a little dog went on a safari with his owner. The little dog, happy and curious, was having a great time running after moths and dragonflies. And, such was his happiness, that he didn’t notice that he was moving farther and farther away from the encampment and was entering the wild hunting areas. Finally, when the little dog noticed that he was deep into the savannah, and the open hunting fields, 100% wild territory, he had already found himself too far from the safety of the safari camp. Right at this time, he noticed that a large panther was coming in his direction, and of course, guess who was for lunch? The little dog thought: “Holy Dog, what do I do now? I could run. But certainly this terrific looking panther will reach me quickly. After all, she could reach even a swift antelope. Well, I could fight. But certainly she would rip me to pieces. She is far more prepared than I and by herself is worth more than a pack of dogs.” It was then that the little dog, noticing a pile of bones beside him, had an idea and put it to practice. Turning its back on the panther, as if he hadn’t seen her yet, started gnawing one of the bones. When the panther got real close and stopped quickly to prepare for the kill, the little dog, pretending not having seen her, raised his head and shouted: “Hummmm… this panther I just ate sure was delicious!” The panther, hearing this was shocked with fright and ran away desperately thinking: “Oh mine, what a brave little dog! He almost had me for lunch!” 16 However there was a monkey nearby. He had been watching everything, and envious of the little dog’s craftiness, ran after the panther yelling: “Miss panther, don’t you see the great trick that this little dog played on you?” And told her everything he had seen. The panther was furious, saying: “Climb on my back, mister monkey. I will go back to that little dog and then will see who’s having who for lunch!” When the little dog spotted the panther with the monkey on her back, running and breathing furiously, quickly understood what had happened. “But, what now, what will I do?” thought the little dog. So, once again, he had an idea and put it into practice. Turned on his back again as if he hadn’t seen the panther and continued gnawing on that piece of bone. When the panther, with the monkey on her back, was really close, the little dog, still ignoring the presence of the panther, lifted his head and exclaimed angrily: “Damned monkey, it’s been half an hour since he told me he would bring back another panther for lunch!” The panther was filled with fright again and ran away more desperately than the first time, but this time taking the dead monkey in her mouth. Do you see, dearly beloved, in moments of crisis, imagination is better than knowledge! This little dog, even with all the fear he felt upon seeing the huge panther, was courageous and didn’t let his spirit down. Even with the fear, he elaborated a creative plan and put it to practice. Therefore, know that to be courageous is not the same as not having fear. To be courageous is to go forward despite the fear that you are feeling! Here, my son, you can stand still there, finding excuses for your failures and disillusionments or attentively evaluate the teachings I’m passing onto you. Through them, you will find that you also capable of victory in all aspects and that in reality you were already born destined for illumination. But you choose the path! I know that sometimes you might ask yourself: “How is it that some people went farther than others and reached success? How was it that people, who were apparently, were simple and humble in nature, who were born to poor families and sometimes grew up working the fields, became rich and successful in life? And, some times, people who were born in golden cradles, who had the best upbringing, schools and even received large inheritances ended their days in poverty, paying rent and often working for those that grew up working the fields?” Many times I’ve heard people over fifty complain that they were too old to change. How sad it is to hear this! These people only aged their bodies, but in spirit they grew very little. They are still prisoners of time and space. Some, rationalizing, say that they are too old to change. Imagine, too old to change in relation to what? Well, a man is almost immortal if compared to a head of lettuce! But if 17 he is compared to a mountain, he would be less than a fetus! In reality, these people only demonstrate the fear that they have of change; or great spiritual laziness that will in fact lead to suffering. Know that success is within your reach and that your age does not matter. To reach fulfillment there is no prerequisite age. Age, my son, only applies to retirement pensions! I will tell you a story I found on the internet, without checking its authenticity, however it will illustrate well the truths that I teach: An elderly gentleman of about sixty-five still worked as a street vendor with his sandwich cart. He spent practically his entire life selling hotdogs and other sandwiches. However, he always invented new types of sandwiches and was always heavily criticized by the other vendors. “You are crazy,” they would say, “wasting your time creating things that don’t work. Content yourself with making the same hot dog that we all make!” Others still mocked him: “He likes to be different!” and laughed. The old man never listened to them and never gave up. Continued to create new sandwiches and also sold the traditional ones. One day he sold his hot dog stand and rented a garage, where he finally opened his diner. He had dreamed of this diner for more than 40 years! One year later he had bought a property and didn’t pay rent any more. Then he opened a second diner in the neighborhood adjacent to his. Now I will tell you the name of this admirable gentleman who never gave up: Richard McDonald! You can say that those that reach success already possess a lot of innate talent. But, then, I ask you: why so many talented people are stuck where they are, never progressing in life? I, myself, met a young man with exceptional talent for art and painting, but who lives in the streets as a hippie, making wrist bands and rings to survive. Eventually, he accommodated himself in one of these religions that have alternative communities, waiting for the end of his days here on Earth. There are excellent alternative communities where everyone works hard, and they all share a common goal, but these serious communities do not accept people who are looking for a place to crash and eventually die in. So, talent is not the answer! Talent by itself does not lead to success. You could say that effort will crown you with success. But then I ask you: how is it that so many people that work hard in life, working on Sundays and holidays, sleep little, and never leave the place they are? How to deny the great determination and persistence and the effort of a man that pulls a horse cart on the streets collecting cardboard, pop cans and plastic all day long, but makes 400 reais per month? I knew a man that worked as a bricklayer, his name is Mr. Gregory. He was one of the hardest working people I’ve met in my life. I mean he really liked it rough, but was already 60 when he finally was able to have his own home. Then effort is not the answer. Effort by itself will not lead to success. You can allege that education leads to success. But I ask you: how is it that some illiterate people are able to revolutionize a country 18 and some semi-illiterates revolutionized the planet? I wish to remind you that Mr. Lula, president of Brazil, does not have a university diploma. Temujin was an illiterate slave, and led a rebellion uniting other slaves receiving the name Genghis Khan. He built the greatest land empire known in human history. The impact he caused in the world was so great that even to this day in Mongolia, the first milk of the day that is taken from mares is dedicated to him. One of the largest fortunes in England was formed by a cigar and tobacco salesman, who only learned how to read after becoming a millionaire. The interesting fact is that he was a sacristan in a catholic church since his adolescence. The story is as follows: A church father died and was substituted by another who was much younger. This priest, after noticing that the sacristan was illiterate, gave him some money and sent him away. Revolted, the sacristan decided out of pure rebellion, to smoke a cigar without caring what the others in the church would say. “To hell with the church!” he told himself. It was then that he realized how difficult it was to find a place to by good cigars in that town. He noticed there were very few tobacco shops, all of them very precarious. He had received some money from the new priest and knew the local enforcers and inspectors well, since they regularly attended the church where he used to be a sacristan. Then he thought: “the money that I have is enough to open a small tobacco shop and the inspectors are my friends, certainly they will give me the necessary license.” Said and done, he got his license, bought a little newsstand and got his tobacco shop together in a park downtown. The former sacristan was very zealous of his tobacco place, so that it would only carry good quality cigars, like the ones the old church father used to smoke. He took good care that the tobacco for pipes was also of good quality, and he completely immersed himself in this field. The success of his business endeavor was such that, a year later, he had already rented a commercial space and put together a large-sized shop. Just to make a long story short: in 15 years, he had a large network of large tobacco shops spread throughout several countries in Europe and was one of the many outstanding millionaires of the time. One time, a reporter, while doing a story with the former sacristan, discovered that he did not know how to read or write and said, very impressed: “If not knowing how to read or write you became all of this, imagine what you would’ve accomplished if you knew how to read!” And the millionaire answered: “I’d be a sacristan!” 19 So, education is also not the answer. Education by itself does not lead to success. You can still say that, intelligence leads to success. But I ask you: how is it that so many brilliant and intelligent people are unemployed, living in a clear situation of failure? I remember well the case of an engineer that was fired after 40 years of work, and for 2 years couldn’t find a job anywhere. Revolted, he found a job as a garbage collector in Itu, a city in the state of São Paulo, only to call the press and show Brazilians what happens to a brilliant mind when it gets old here in Brazil. It is a proven fact that in general the great minds spend their lives working as employees while the employers are not as brilliant! Therefore intelligence is not the answer. Intelligence by itself does not lead to success. But, what then separates those who achieve fulfillment and those who achieve nothing? I tell you assuredly that what separates success from failure is a fine line as fine as a wisp of hair… Success and personal fulfillment is within everyone’s reach, including yours. Socrates always taught that your beliefs determine your reality and Plato used to say that every great journey begins with the first step. Aristotle also teaches that self-discipline in your actions and thoughts results in a better you. Seneca, a philosopher at the time of the roman empire, always proclaimed that if a man does not know where he is going, no port would be favorable to him. Alberto Montalvão e o Dr. Celso Charuri always taught that man is only the reflection of his thoughts. All the great minds always arrived at the conclusion that man shapes his own destiny. Today you are the result of yesterday. And your tomorrow will be the result of today. I teach it even more simply: a person reaps today the fruits of the seeds that he planted just yesterday. And your tomorrow will be the harvest of the seed that you planted today. Look, brother, there is motivation and incentive. Both are very different! The world by itself, already gives you incentive, which gives you all the necessary conditions to reach success. Mother Earth has already given you the necessary conditions for you to overcome all your primary needs: eating, clothing and living. This is already an incentive. And there is also the incentive of new opportunities, the incentive of having a family and many others. But incentive alone is only useful to people who are already motivated! Do you understand my son? I’ll say it again: an incentive is only useful to people who are already motivated! To wait for changes to take place to put your plans into practice is a big mistake. The great person is always in movement. He knows well what he wants, knows where he wants to go. He has his objective always clear in mind. His delight is thinking about the result that he will have with the realization of his objective. He breathes his own objective, he feeds off it. And all his steps are aligned in the direction of the realization of this objective. 20 The great man does not wait for changes to happen, but goes off to battle and provokes changes to come about. He pursues the objective traced, determined not to feel down or discouraged. A person like this knows that words are worth nothing, and that by themselves do not bring about success. Intuitively he knows that intelligence is not someone who knows much, but someone who always puts into practice that which he knows, even if it’s little. I’ll say it again: an intelligent person is not some one who knows much, but the one that puts into practice the little that he knows. The way that you position yourself in relation to life makes total difference. This is the motivation that will bring you success! Talent, persistence, education, intelligence and incentive, united by the catalyst of courage and added to action will bring fulfillment. Know that you will always receive from life exactly what you put into it. Nature always favored the strong. Just observe history to find that out. To the eyes of nature, passiveness is the worst of vices and will is the greatest of virtues. I will reproduce here a speech by a very dear professor of mine. I will also clarify that the example given by this professor is one of the forces that guide me. I think therefore I am? NO! Because to be, it is necessary to do, since man is judged by his actions, by what he does. You are the one who builds his own philosopher’s stone! Live the result already in the beginning of the process, because knowledge generates happiness. Therefore, create space to elaborate knowledge, so that the nectar may arise, so that the resulting energy will rise and make you into a unique being. This energy, besides motivating you to walk further, explains hope, and it says that it was all worth it. She tells you secrets, brings secrets to you. She gives you the serenity that characterizes peace. To feel this pleasure is important, because it is the emanation of what feeds you and your life. Know that something more is always available for you to increase your truth. “Whoever believes in me does the work that I do.” (Dr. Celso Charuri, November 20th, 1981) Obs: Dr. Charuri, my dear illuminated teacher, I believed in you and my deeds testify to their extent. 21 We are entering a new era: the third millennium is making it self present and will bring a series of changes in humanity. I’m not referring to geological changes (which will also happen in a not so distant future), but a relearning of concepts by the entire human race, which will result in the fall of the old ephemeral truths. They will be the necessary changes so that humanity can enter into absolute truths. For this new age, the one who is not ready for relearning will not survive. Have this as a certainty, my son, that what constitutes the mortar of the reconstruction of humanity will be: planning, creativity, expression and action. More than ever, technology is present in our day to day lives. Therefore, the one who closes his eyes to the new goals will not believe, relearn, plan, create or act. He will not be able to conciliate talent with technology. Much less understand that to be triumphant in life and in the new millennium, one need’s to have faith, hope, willpower, energy, dedication and firmness of purpose. Times are changing and you need to change too. Open up your horizons, think big, dream big dreams and engage large efforts. Have you ever heard of Alexander the Small? Of course not, you heard of Alexander, the Great! One time somebody said that great minds discuss ideas; mediocre minds discuss events and facts; and small minds discuss people. I say that great souls put into practice the ideas that they have; mediocre souls plan to practice the events and repeat facts; and small souls envy the people that have already put their own ideas into practice. Much is lost to someone who lost money. But this can be remedied. Much more is lost when someone loses a friend. But time brings reconciliation. Meanwhile, all is lost and you abandon faith. This is where things get really complicated! There are many ways to move away from true faith. One of them is living in blind faith and defending an ephemeral truth instead of living in absolute truth. See the example of a man that claims to have faith, but takes refuge in alcohol, marijuana and other drugs: Where is the faith he claims to possess? It doesn’t exist! Where is his spirituality and faith when he is anaesthetizing himself to escape the force? When he smokes a joint in the illusion that he is only consecrating it to saint mary? There’s none there either! It doesn’t help to tell everyone that you are a man of faith, my son! Only your actions and deeds will attest your faith. Where is the scientific reason, spirituality and faith of people who have a university degree, sometimes carry the title of doctor, but call drugs psychoactive, trying to create the illusion that ayahuasca and drugs are at the same level? They ignore that science, which has proven that ayahuasca doesn’t fall into the same category as drugs and permitted its use in Brazil and several other countries, is the same science that demonstrated that marijuana is an addictive drug, dangerous and responsible for brain lesions with only one year of use. 22 Where are scientific reason, spirituality and faith, of these doctors who ignore scientific proof, only because they desire, irresponsibly, the liberation of pot? They don’t even take into consideration the damage done to the children of this nation! There’s no scientific truth in these pseudo-doctors when they ignore the observations of science, which is impersonal, and continue to guess, which is totally personal. There is no spirituality in these doctors that do not care about the consequences of “guessing” disguised in their speech. They think they are great because they parade diplomas and titles, which any common person may acquire by simply paying a university. But, calling themselves “scientific,” they ignore the scientific evidence on drugs such as pot, when the addiction that dominates them is in play. Of course having higher education is of vital importance for the formation of a scientific mind clarified in facts and not guesses and conveniences. I am so well aware of this that I sponsored the studies of a large number of people that did not have parents who were able to afford the cost of education for their children. My words now on these guessing doctors who support the use of drugs may be harsh, but I have the latest scientific evidence on drugs such as marijuana to confirm all that I say. However, for you now that are not so sure about what marijuana is, reflect on this: I recommend Ayahuasca for my children; I recommend God for my children. But what about marijuana, would you recommend it to your kids? We live in a community and this encumbers some responsibilities that go well beyond freedom of choice. How can one behave when observing incorrect and even destructive attitudes in some people? Should you reprimand them or be silent? If you decide to reprimand, would you be judging them? So, how should one behave facing a situation like this? Pay very close attention, my son: the simple fact that you live in a society already demonstrates that you should work towards the happiness and fulfillment of all, because true happiness only exists in the collective ambit and never just in individuals. The attitudes of an individual or a group can, sometimes, be very disastrous for the whole community! It is not forbidden to see evil when it exists. Sometimes this evil harms only the malefactor. But, what about in other cases, when the observed evil reaches other people and not just the one that caused it? This is a very delicate matter and we need to resort to charity that’s been well understood. First, be sure that his intention is not just to denigrate, because this does not come from the light. After, see if the observed evil affects only the one that caused it. If this is the case there is no necessity to make public the fact, since this would only result in shame and discredit. Now, if this extends to the rest of society, affecting innocent and naïve persons, it is better not to omit yourself and take a stand. It is wise to choose the sacrifice of one man to save a whole family. It is wise to choose the sacrifice of a family to save a whole neighborhood. It is wise to choose the sacrifice of a neighborhood to save a 23 whole village. And the sacrifice of a whole village to save a nation. The necessities of many surpass the necessities of one. According to the circumstances, to unmask hypocrisy and lies may be a duty. It is better for one man or a small group to fall, than many to be deceived and become victims or prisoners of this evil. I’d like to remind you that in spiritual laws there is no omission, only tacit agreement. The one that saw the evil and did nothing was simply agreeing with the evil. Since at least it was possible to warn others. As you are well aware, my beloved late wife Genecilda and I always fought with much force and voracity the use of drugs, especially within SANTO DAIME rituals, as in the case of Cefluris, founded by Sebatião Mota de Melo and left to the care of his son, Alfredo Gregório. Thanks to serious shamanic rituals, with ayahuasca or daime, in only two years, here at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição (CNSC) approximately 7 500 chemically dependent people made full recovery. When I started my journey with daime, I noticed that the churches of SANTO DAIME coming from Sebatião Mota de Melo, known as Centro Eclético da Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu Serra Universal Flowing Light Eclectic Center Raimundo Irineu Serra, or simply Cefluris, were the false SANTO DAIME, since they used plenty of drugs in their rituals. And especially when they were making the daime (feitio), which is ayahuasca, they would smoke marijuana all day and sometimes would use other drugs. This really bothered me. I saw this happening as did many former members of Cefluris who now are part of CNSC. On the other hand, it was good to witness such insanities committed by those sick with marijuana. This made it clear to me the reason why there were there so many people with little understanding, suffering from family and financial crisis, unemployed, rude and ill mannered. People who had been married 3 or 4 times and were still not living well with their current mate. So many of these thinking they were full of wisdom, judging themselves an example of life. At one time, at Céu de Maria, I saw a man of about 45, wearing a white suit, smoking a marijuana cigar and talking with a lot of attitude to a group of teenage newbies: “How absurd, they say santa maria is bad for you. Look at me, I’ve been smoking it for 15 years and see how well I am!” This man tried to portray an image of greatness to those teens. He even posed like those actors on cigarette TV commercials. He really tried to convey an image of greatness and perfection. A little time later I found out that that pompous man, in real life, had his water and electricity cut for lack of payment. I think that this was reason enough for him to drug himself. Because, when people are drugged they have illusions of grandeur, the size of their charity, their example to society, forgetting for a few hours the shit that they live in. If the reader thinks I am being radical, I ask you clearly: have you watched closely people who have been addicts for more than 2 years, what kind of example do they give, how do they behave and act? Would you like your son or daughter to be like them? 24 I met a man who claimed to speak three languages fluently and always boasted that he was an old spirit, possessing great wisdom, holder of vast knowledge. I questioned him a bit, very subtly, and slowly he let his tongue loose. This wise old spirit is a terrible example of life, and lives in pure blindness of the ego. He lives out of favor in a small backyard house and has been unemployed for eight years. He knows much, but in practice he is a leech who’s not motivated enough even to sell hot-dogs on a street corner. His family survives on his wife’s salary and through some charity, which helps his children. People like this end up alone, abandoned even by their own kids. I also met another young man through the internet, who lives in a huge ego, thinking to be great. Follows the same steps of the profane padrinho Sebastião and through the web encourages the use of drugs. But only survives by burning off the rest of the inheritance he got from his grandfather, since he’s only a junkie and doesn’t even know what work is. I was astounded to see padrinhos, madrinhas and fiscais (monitors) smoking pot under the name of santa maria. Sometimes, I even observed people snorting cocaine, which they call santa clara. Some would even go as far as mixing cocaine and marijuana to make the joint stronger. These people don’t even know the difference between medicinal plants, power plants and master power plants. But also, as I could notice, the majority of them are not in search of truth. They’ve only found, in the illusions and lies of padrinho Sebastião and Cefluris, an excuse to keep themselves in the world of illusion with drugs and addictions. I want to make it clear here that at several Cefluris rituals I witnessed underage kids drugging themselves. Early in the morning I would give them a ride home and would notice that they were already depressed. Saddened, I thought: “Do the parents of these kids know that they spent the night taking drugs?” I would very much like padrinho Alfredo Gregório, son of Sebastião, founder of Cefluris, to show me where in the Constitution it says that it is ok to smoke marijuana with daime?! Could it be that you, Alfredo, and padrinhos of Cefluris really know the great evil that you are causing so many people, when you leave them addicted to drugs, only because they follow your lies about santa maria? My goodness, ayahuasca is freedom; it makes a connection between mind and heart. She is to the human being what the microscope is to biology. A ritual with ayahuasca, as long as it is done with all seriousness and respect, results in spiritual growth and much discipline. However, drugs are drugs! They are medicine used incorrectly, which will result in addiction and spiritual harm. Padrinho Sebastião, founder of Cefluris, smoked a lot pot with mixed with a paste made from cocaine. He also used certain mushrooms and even caiçuma (a native Brazilian fermented beverage) together with daime. There is much talk within SANTO DAIME claiming that he died from a drug overdose. There 25 are other books reporting on these dark stains left by padrinho Sebastião and Cefluris. See what the writer Alicia Castilla says in her book “SANTO DAIME – Fanaticism and Brain Wash:” SEBASTIÃO MOTA DE MELO (Padrinho Sebastião) He would talk incessantly, tackling any subject, changing topics constantly in a chaotic, yet captivating manner. Some things, which I did not understand, would leave my suspicious. The image I had of how wise men were like was a far quieter one. I imagined that when a person reached a certain degree of knowledge would also achieve a certain amount of internal balance. Several times he would surprise me with affirmations on spiritist doctrine which, at the time, created a great impact on my conscience. When I checked their accuracy later on, came the deception: his affirmations were nothing more than error and fluff. His charisma and his magnetism were so intense, that they would endow the greatest nonsense an aura of credibility. I’d ask myself why he wouldn’t shut up, when he wasn’t sure about a topic, instead of babbling away. Even at that time I knew he smoked marijuana – which much frequency and sometimes I smoked with him. Years later I found out he preferred the “loaded” joints, mixed with a cocaine-based paste. Another controversial topic was his health: padrinho was always sick. It was my understanding that sickness is a sign of unbalance. The hymns would say the same thing. I thought that by taking daime I would reach a level of comprehension, transcending disease. Padrinho took daime for decades! Was this the stage I could hope for after years of daime, hymnals, vomiting and sacrifice? And it wasn’t just him: other people who arrived in the Amazon presented clear personality unbalances. Not only did they speak nonstop but also ate chaotically and gave opinions on everything. They seemed to feel the need that the group had for storytellers and promptly attempted to fill this void as someone who tries to wear a pair of shoes three times their size. 26 So, slowly, the “padrinhos” began the exercise of being the “benevolent fathers,” more for the lack of charismatic figures in the daime universe than for their own merit. Alex, in his hymnal, has a song of praise for padrinho Sebastião, which says: “Padrinho is Bastião, Padrinho everywhere.” I thought it to be institutionalized flattery. Personality worship mixed with brain wash. At the time of this hymn I would not sing. I would ask myself to what extent this was part of the larger plan. The questioning would torture me more and more. While daime would show itself more and more as a valid element for the expansion of consciousness, the attitudes of the people there indicated danger. Danger of losing autonomous thought, of becoming mechanical. The women began to dress the same as the women from Acre, without taking into consideration the climatic differences. So, with the cold of Mauá, which reaches zero degrees Celsius in winter, the women of the Céu da Montanha would wear long dresses made with light fabrics, proper for the Amazonian heat. With the men, the same phenomenon would happen. They started to speak with an accent from Acre, and conjugate verbs incorrectly on purpose, “we goes,” “we plants.” To be able to manage such opposite sentiments, with a great desire to take daime – which increased more and more the expansion of consciousness – and the rejection I felt towards the attitudes of fanaticism and lack of control, I made a decision, which at the time, seemed the most appropriate from an ethical perspective: I wouldn’t have any type of involvement with the people there. And more: I would be the last one to arrive and the first to leave. In 1989 rede Manchete (a now deactivated TV station) aired a documentary filmed in the Amazon on SANTO DAIME. The purpose of the makers seemed sincere. They tried to make an enlightening work for public opinion on this drink which seemed to make a lot of followers within the artistic community. One of the segments of the special was on padrinho Sebastião. He was talking strangely: he seemed drugged, too excited to speak. All of a sudden he bursted out: “The medical doctors who wish to learn how to heal, will have to come over here, take shit and eat what came out and only after can their learning began.” In the next block, Dona Peregrina Gomes Serra, widow of master Irineu and president of the church which he founded, spoke vehemently: “padrinho Sebastião and his followers are all pot heads.” At this point I decided to stop singing Sebastião’s hymnal and pay extra attention. What had started as a small group of daime drinkers in Mauá had become a national organization. Padrinho preached life in communities and the necessity to reevaluate consumer patterns. This speech had enchanted the 27 previous generation, during the hippie movement. Living with friends, everyone being equal is a dream that humanity has nurtured for millenniums. However John Lennon had already warned: “The dream is over.” To drink ayahuasca frequently directs your attention to inner worlds, discourages the battles in external reality. I watched, with a lot worry, the transformation of Céu do Mapiá (daime community in the Amazon forest) into some kind of “Hallucinogenic Mecca.” Many went there and didn’t return. The few that did return would sometimes bring worrying news. In January, 1990, padrinho Sebastião dies. Another leader of the same generation, Bagwam Shree Rajneesh, who also worked for the expansion of consciousness - through techniques already mentioned, such as meditation, repetition of sounds and rhythmic movements - made the passage the same day. For many, it was a double loss. He had also preached life in communities and abandoning the world of illusion. The main difference was the fact that Rajneesh had amassed a large fortune. In regards to the truth, I should say that despite being involved several times with the police, in questions never fully revealed, of contributing and supporting to the brain wash that many adepts suffered, and encouraged use of other substances with ayahuasca, Sebastião still had the sect in a tight leash. The worst excesses were committed by his followers after his death. The “Hallucinogenic Pastors” that succeeded him created a large myth surrounding Sebastião, attributing him with the status of messiah. This objective seems to be very evident in the book by Alex Polari, O Guia da Floresta - The Guide of the Forest. After 1992, I observed in the daime churches of Rio and São Paulo the ascension of Sebastião Mota de Melo to the condition of “holy man.” His picture, sold to the faithful, who put it on an honorable place in their homes, reminds one of the traditions of another holy man in Brazil, padrinho Cícero in Juazeiro do Norte – a catholic personality. In the shamanic tradition there is no concept of padrinho. Only the concept of master and apprentice. Whoever wants to become a shaman must learn with someone, and for this to happen it is necessary to resolve one’s own history, to work out your own cure. Having done that, you start to walk on your own feet. The new shaman has great respect and admiration for his master. The condition of padrinho imposed by Cefluris is synonymous with psychological dependency. The integrants of the sect ask for the padrinho’s blessing by kissing his hand. Whoever achieves the level of padrinho is above good and evil. He cannot be questioned nor criticized. In this way, the most varied types of abuse are committed to the apadrinhados – godsons – and these in turn, show submission to the doctrine. The growth of the cult is generating worry even in other countries. Sectarian leadership is without a doubt more dangerous than ideological or political. 28 Padrinho Sebastião was introduced to daime through master Irineu, in the city of Rio Branco. After the death of the master, in 1971, there were many fights among the followers because of leadership. The church at that time worked under the name Ceflu (Centro Eclético Fluente da Luz Universal - Universal Flowing Light Eclectic Center). As a result of the fights with Mota – as he is known in Rio Branco – with others that vied for leadership, he removed himself, followed by a group, and installed himself in place close to the city, where the lands were worth 5000 cruzeiros each lot. That’s where the expression “Colony 5000” came up, the first community where he built his first church, registered under the name Cefluris (Centro Eclético Fluente da Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu Serra - Universal Flowing Light Eclectic Center Raimundo Irineu Serra), According to what master Irineu’s widow manifested in the TV program aired by rede Manchete, as well as the version given by many other daimistas, what caused the split made by Mota was the inclusion of marijuana in the rituals as a sacred plant, under the name santa maria and the cocaine paste named “mescla.” In Rio Branco, I met some contemporaries of master Irineu, and of Sebastião Mota de Melo. Although there were enormous disagreements between them, there is a common point: they all have stories to tell about the times he was arrested for possession of drugs and other questions of dubious moral nature. These people, in Rio Branco, would ask me if it was true that in the South of the country Mota is called padrinho or if that only happened in the books of Alex Polari. They manifested shock at my confirmation. Colony 5000 was considered in that city a “black hole.” The shame of the daime culture. During the time that I stayed in Rio Branco I was approached by several people, of all walks of life, and for varied reasons really made a point of telling me grave facts that occurred at Cefluris. Although it wasn’t my intention to check the veracity of these testimonies, they all showed coherence and similarities to the cases that I already knew about. Sebatião Mota de Melo died the day before St. Sebatian’s day in the year 1990, while his hymnal was being sung in the church Pedra de Guaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, founded by his follower Marcos Imperial. At that time, motivated by ethical questions, I did not participate in the rituals where his hymnal or Alex Polari’s hymnal were used, because I refused to accept subjects referring to “humbling oneself” or “accept the punishments of God” and others like it. On the date mentioned – January 19th, 1990 – Mota's son, Alfredo Gregório (current president of Cefluris and known as padrinho Alfredo), found himself in Mauá to direct a series of rituals. Due to the 29 fact that he was a charismatic person, with musical talent and knowledge to “command” the rituals, I decided to open an exception. I attended the event with my daughter. When the work was at the end, exactly at the last hymn, a car arrived from Rio de Janeiro bringing the news of the death of the padrinho. Veronica heard Alex tell Alfredo: “The old man made the passage.” According to her, Alfredo spun around himself saying: “Marcos Imperial (chief of the church Pedra de Guaratiba) will have to explain this story.” In the following days, moved by my curiosity, I asked several people what was the cause of padrinho’s death. I could feel a certain amount of uneasiness from them in reaction to this question. The answer was, “a severe stroke while in the washroom,” and according to the same sources, he died holding on to the towel hanger. (Extracted from the book SANTO DAIME – Fanaticism and Brain Washing, Chap. 8 pg. 111, Alicia Castilla) It is important to point out that Alicia Castilla is a dire defender of marijuana. (However, the reports left by her in this book about padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo and Cefluris, is what is important, because they prove that they always disseminated drug addiction, as I testify today. Now, imagine the size of the hypocrisy of SANTO DAIME and Cefluris and their integrants when they deny everyone the fact that they drug themselves in the rituals? 30 II – The Trip to Acre Since I started writing this book, narrating the facts that have been happening for years, and which clearly demonstrate the stain within SANTO DAIME caused by Cefluris and the betrayal of master Irineu by Sebastião, I noticed in my daily reflections the need to bring to light the testimonies of people that lived years with the master at Alto Santo, the institution founded by him in Rio Branco, in Acre. I was still a small boy when he made the passage. So, I did not have the opportunity to know him physically, although spiritually I know him very well. I don’t lie, though thousands of people who never even heard of me are now reading an open denouncement of false churches that call themselves daimistas, but in reality are not. So, In March 2007, I decided to take a trip to Rio Branco, Acre, to find the living history of SANTO DAIME, through interviews with contemporaries of master Irineu, with the purpose of unmasking the fraud, lies and dogmas created by the false SANTO DAIME. I felt the need to have the consent of people that knew master Irineu personally, so that no doubt would hover in the air. The Bible says that the sons of darkness are more astute than the sons of light. I know Cefluris very well, there the ego and dissimulation reign supreme, people there know how to lie and pretend really well. They would not let the opportunity pass, knowing fully well that I did not know master Irineu physically, to claim that I could be lying or misleading. Here lies the importance of the testimonies of people still living, lucid and healthy, who lived with master Irineu, confirming everything that I have been warning everyone for three years now. Now, how was I going to arrive out of the blue in Acre, totally unknown there and still receive the support of the remaining peers of master Irineu? I had been in Acre about a year and a half previously, when I met Paulo Serra, adoptive son of master Irineu. I felt great empathy towards him, it was easy to perceive that he was a serious man, honest and someone who hated lies and the typical “I heard from someone that heard from someone else…” But my contact with him was at the most one hour, more than a year and a half before. It was a hard situation but I needed to go. I needed to try! The ticket was bought for a Sunday and I was going alone. But the day before, on the Saturday, my brother and friend Luis Carlos, upon seeing the great burden that this undertaking was going to be for a single man said to me: “Gideon, I’m going with you. This flag belongs to many, and you know this. It will be easier if two go.” I was very happy and agreed immediately. We were in the middle of a shamanic week here at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição – Heaven of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception – and on Sunday we were going to have a beautiful exercise in the woods. But Luis Carlos together with his wife and family went back home on Saturday to make sure he got the plane ticket. Blessed are the men of good will! Sunday evening at Congonhas airport in São Paulo, we met and were already at the check-in line. We were laughing a lot and commented: “On the internet list I said that I would do whatever I could to tape a story with some heavy weight people to benefit the book which is almost finished. But I don’t think anybody imagines that we are getting on a plane to Acre,” and we 31 continued laughing. Sweet illusion! I think that due to our natural let loose, TV Bandeirantes, which was filming on location at the airport, caught us and filmed us. We were on everybody’s TVs all across the state at least. Phone calls rained in at the Farm (Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição) with people asking: “the interview is outside SP?” Already in the plane I commented with Luis Carlos that our battle had now become a battle of faith. That we would arrive there armed only with our courage. That we would ask for difficult things to people we had never met and were already weary of false promises from writers that said one thing and did the opposite of what they had said. “What we got to help us ahead is our faith. What we are doing, is not for personal profit, we only want to clear the good name of master Irineu which was so stained by Cefluris and Sebastião. This book has been costly and is taking a lot of hard work, but the clarity of truth it will pass on to people will make it all worthwhile. I know we’ll return with victory in our hands. The higher Astral Planes certainly have already taken the necessary measures which we haven’t been able to see yet,” I told my friend. Early in the morning on Monday, we took a cab and went to see if we could find Paulo Serra’s house, because we didn’t even have his address. But it was easy to find. We clapped our hands in front of his house and his wife came to answer the door. I recognized her immediately. I asked her if he was there and she said he had gone to the city, but would soon return. “And who are you, gentleman?” She asked. “You don’t remember me but I remember you ma’am, Dona Altina, Paulo’s wife. I’m that man São Paulo that was here a year and a half ago speaking to your husband, but I had a beard and long hair,” I presented myself. “Oh, I remember yes, Emilio, right? (That’s how they called me in Acre from the first time I was there). Mr. Emilio, come on in, Paulo won’t be long. He commented you were about to arrive,” she added. “He said that, D. Altina?” I was very happy when I asked this because it was already evident that the Higher Astral Planes were already at work, preparing everything for our arrival. D. Altina answered: “He told me he saw you in vision some rituals ago. He even warned me, that man from São Paulo is arriving any moment. I even asked him, ‘Paulo, what’s your story with this man?’ He answered: ‘I’m not sure exactly, but I know that we will have a story together.’” Luis Carlos and I laughed a lot, because we were once again witnessing the mercies of the GREAT SPIRIT who was preparing the way even before we started the journey. Shortly after Paulo arrived, we drank some delicious cupuaçu juice, made by D. Altina, and started to chat. I explained to him what we were there for and that I counted with his help. Paulo answered promptly: “Emilio, I had two mirações (visions) with you. The first was in a daime ritual. When I was having mirações I saw you in front of me and said: ‘You here? How are you?’ And in the vision you answered: ‘I’m here and I always walk in sincerity.’ Then you disappeared. A second time during another daime ritual, recently, I saw you coming to my home, and then I looked more closely and saw that there were two. I even let my old lady know that you were coming. Emilio, you can count on me. I will help you with everything that I can.” It was evident that mestre Irineu’s little finger was involved in our endeavor as well as all the hosts of LIGHT. How good it is to be sincere, how good it is to be from the LIGHT! In the afternoon, we rented a rented car and Paulo took us to meet a friend of his that lived closed to a few little daime churches. There are many there. Something 32 happened on the way that definitely marked the trip. It was beautiful. We stopped the car exactly in front of one of these little churches. From the road it was possible to see the inside of the place. It was simple, but very beautiful. It was then that a white butterfly with small green lines at the edge of its tiny wings flew inside the car, and then around all of us and left. She kept flying outside about 5 meters away from us, and then flew back inside the car. Glided around us another time and left, this time she kept dancing 5 meters in front of us again. Then, for a third time, she flew back inside the car and in front of every face in the car and once again left and continued dancing at the same distance as before. We were all smiles, in ecstasy. I asked Paul, “do you know what this means?” He was laughing a lot as he answered, “of course I know, Emilio, of course I know!” For the fourth time, she came back inside the car, flew around us again and left. But this time she went inside the little church on the side that was closest to us, flew several times around the Cross that was on the altar of this church and for the fifth time, flew back inside our car, but this time landed on Paulo Serra’s heart, and remained there for a bit. Then it took off and disappeared in the nearby woods. Moved by this, he said: “It is the master giving signs.” Deep in thought and ecstasy I told myself: How faithful God is. Talking to many people in Rio Branco, I notice the huge amount of hurt that they carried in their hearts, for what Cefluris had done to SANTO DAIME, for what padrinho Sebastião did with the good name of master Irineu. Many of them told me that in the past as a result of the drugs that they used and gross conduct they displayed, the Federal Police showed up even at Alto Santo. Given the fact that Sebastião would claim that he was the successor of mestre Irineu, the police thought Cefluris was just a branch of the Alto Santo; and that padrinho Sebastião only did what he was taught by mestre Irineu! For the Federal Police to finally understand that Alto Santo didn’t have anything to do with Cefluris or padrinho Sebastião, they had to go through a lot of embarrassment. Madrinha Peregrina Gomes Serra, Irineu’s widow, was certainly the one who suffered the most with all of this. To see her husband’s work of LIGHT, being seen as a cult of drug addicts and bums by the Federal Police and many of the local population, thanks only to the insanity of drug use that padrinho Sebastião promoted at Colony 5000, together with the hippies he gathered. How strong she had to be! What great injustice and suffering Sebastião and Cefluris caused to so many people that only practiced charity. We met many contemporaries of master Irineu. All of them welcomed us with a lot of affection: When they found out the intention of our trip, they didn’t hesitate in providing for all our needs. We looked for 10 specific persons, and only two expressed their wish not to participate in the interviews and were willing to explain their reasons why. We understood them perfectly and respected them. Juarez Martins Xavier, a man completely lucid in his 83 years of age, who knew master Irineu personally, told me: “At the time I sent word to warn Sebastião Mota not to put these things with daime, because it would only bring tragedy. He did not want to listen to me. Not much time passed and tragedy came. I told him so. They castrated and killed a man there. A certain guy named Ceará that 33 claimed to be pai-de-santo (any of various afro-Brazilian religions' witchdoctors) and who also mixed crap with daime. What happened was that the people from Colony 5000, founded by Sebastião, found out that Ceará was going around saying that he was going to “heal” some of the brothers’ wives, serving a “little” daime, then taking them to a secluded corner and had sex with them. All the men were furious when they found out what was really happening. Then they took a hold of him and “stripped” him of his genitalia at once. They castrated and killed Ceará, who called himself a pai-desanto. I had warned Sebastião, but he wanted to be big, didn’t listen to anyone. Other tragedies occurred too, not just this Ceará episode,” he finished saying with an air of sadness. The digital camera I had taken with me, was presenting some problems. Then, Luis and I hired the services of an amateur cameraman, a young man of about 40, Renildo Monteiro. What a big surprise we had with him! Renildo had watched several testimonies with us while he filmed the interviews, when at a certain point, with his head down, told my friend and I: “I think I have something to say too. This book that you are writing will help many people, I see that. So I don’t think I should remain silent.” I asked him what he was referring to and he replied: “It’s just that I was born, raised and always lived with him in Rio Branco, Acre, and I know some things about this Colony 5000. Everyone here knows this as well. But even here in Rio Branco many people think daimistas are all drug addicts. They think that Céu do Mapiá, Colony 5000 and Alto Santo all are the same SANTO DAIME, This book will help many people know the truth. I also want to contribute. Ceará’s funeral was in front of the house I used to live in, when I was a kid, and from ages 15 to 16 I was deep in the world of drugs, but was able to break free. I friend of mine at this time went to live at Colony 5000 and told me that the drugs there were served in bottle gourds. After they served daime there would be a round of joints served to everyone in these gourds.” Renildo reported in a filmed testimony. Many testimonies, collected in Rio Branco that took the form of interviews, will be at your disposal throughout this book. 34 LIVING HISTORY OF SANTO DAIME Contemporaries of Master Irineu Interview – March, 2007 Paulo de Assunção Serra Adopted son of master Irineu Serra Gideon of the Lakotas: Did Sebastião Mota de Melo use drugs before he was introduced to daime? Paulo Serra: I don’t know about these details, but people told me that he did, but had stopped once he joined daime. But when he got mixed up with Ceará, Ceará started to mix alcohol, then mixed santa maria (marijuana) and then people got addicted. I was at the Center in Mapiá and Dona Rita (Sebastião’s widow) who said that Sebastião asked his son, Alfredo not to use this anymore, to continue with daime only, but he was so hooked that there was no way to end it. When I met Alfredo, he was a good kid, outside this business of drugs he’s great to talk to; his mistake was adopting this story of marijuana. Sebatião was the one who allowed this to happen. Apparently he wanted this to stop, he asked Alfredo to continue the doctrine without that, according to the words of Dona Rita. Getting to know the work at the Céu do Mapiá P.S.: In 1993 I went to Mapiá. I told Alfredo that I wanted to attend a ritual there with santa maria. He said there was no more of it there, but there was. Then he chose firm people to handle the ritual. First, the work of concentration with daime was done, and then he said he was going to switch the work to santa maria for me to see. I told him I wanted to see it after taking daime, but didn’t want to participate in the santa maria part. Then they started to pass that cigarette, and I had to use a handkerchief over my mouth and nose, because I couldn’t handle the smell and would certainly participate anyways if I didn’t. When they had finished all of it, they started to sing and I was watching all of that as a wind that swirls in a street full of leaves, and takes the leaves up to a certain height and then the wind stops and the leaves fall to the ground. At one point after 40 minutes of that confusion, I heard someone say: “What do you want? This is something from here, wanna go up? Then stick around to see.” Then after a while all I could witness, was all that filth, grease, funk and stink. That’s when they all thanked for the ritual, I thanked Alfredo’s kindness in letting me watch. He told me that what went on in there only happened in there, and what’s crap becomes everybody’s business. 35 But at least I know that today, and nobody makes my mind up for me. Juarez also knows about these things more than I do. One day he was at his center and two fellows showed up for the ritual. He told one of them: “Go back; fetch that filth that you left at the root of that tree.” Then the men went outside, one disappeared into the woods and came back with a pouch. Sebastião and master Irineu P.S.: When I got to Belém in 1969, Sebastião was learning how to make daime with dad (master Irineu). He (Irineu) ordered Francisco Granjeiro, who was a daime producer at the time, to teach Sebatião how to recognize the leaves, how to make daime – called feitio. All of this stuff he learned at Alto Santo with master Irineu and his crew. At the time, Alfredo was a very young man. We had a nice friendship, but after dad died he thought that he should plant his flag there at Alto Santo. So Sebastião Jacolte and others called a meeting to ask him about this flag. At the meeting he said he wanted to put his flag there and Mr. Leôncio (one of the coordinators at Alto Santo) asked what flag this was. Then Sebastião said that he would explain after implanting the flag. But no one wanted to plant a flag without knowing what “color” it was. And padrinho Leôncio told me that master Irineu told him this before he died: “Leôncio, don’t let anyone invent anything new here, not even a dot or comma, because everything is already the way it should be. The day you have a doubt, gather 10 people, take daime, think about me, call me and I will come and speak to you, and whatever you see and hear, so will they.” Leôncio said this to Sebastião, who got upset and left. He went home, where he carried on his business and founded Cefluris. G.L.: Cefluris means Centro Eclético da Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo lrineu Serra - Flowing Universal Light Eclectic Center Raimundo Irineu Serra. So, Sebastião is using the name of the master in a work where they use drugs. How do you see this? P.S.: This is exactly what I wanted, through a story like this, to untie the name, to take the name from him. Sebastião sold daime and still used the name of master Irineu. This has to be undone, because each one commands his own house. I’m very hurt that people took the name of SANTO DAIME and use things that shouldn’t be used with it. 36 Master Irineu and the Cost of Rituals G.L.: Master Irineu didn’t make a living from the daime? P.S.: No, master Irineu supported himself with agriculture, working the fields. And on his spare time he conducted the rituals. He was like this: if 30 men got together to work for him in the fields, the plantation. When they finished, around 5 pm, everybody had some coffee before leaving, and he would call out “hey buddy, come over here,” and from those 30 men he would take 5, 6 and at the time it was common to pay 5 cruzeiros for a day’s work, and he would pay 10. The men would say “no brother, I came to give you a day’s worth of service.” He would tell them that they couldn’t give him a day’s service, because when they got home, they would lack coffee, sugar. “The day you can give me a day’s service I will know.” That’s how he was. The “Little Finger” Story P.S.: This story happened when I went to Alfredo’s house, after the day I went to see the ritual with santa maria. And he asked me where I “commanded” my rituals. I said that I didn’t command anything, I only “asked for.” I am small, and something I am not afraid of doing is asking. So he said that if I wanted to command I could have three churches at my disposal: in Rio, Belo Horizonte and a church in Porto Alegre for me to choose. “You only take the kids and your clothing, arriving there you will have a car, a house, schooling, and driver, everything for you.” I told him I couldn’t make a decision at that time, and that I had to go home and talk it over with my wife. I told her and she was all excited. Then on a Wednesday I took ¾ cup of daime and stayed home. However I saw that it wasn’t good there, so I took another ½ cup of daime and told my wife I was going to master Irineu’s grave (at the Alto Santo) and said that if I took more than an hour and a half to return to send someone to call me. I got there, laid down next to dad’s grave and started praying. I stayed there for a bit then I sat right in front of it, thinking about Alfredo’s story. I raised my eyes a bit and saw master Irineu’s little finger signaling “no.” So I wasn’t supposed to go. Because he used to say, “if you hang out with good people, you’ll be one of them, if you hang out with bad people, you will be the same or worse.” I won’t say they are bad, but there’s the story I don’t like. G.L.: In the South and here too, a lot of people preach that Sebastião is the successor of master Irineu. P.S.: No. No. He only left a president behind, Mr. Leôncio Gomes da Silva. Whenever Leôncio was away, someone else would sign the documents, but he didn’t consider himself president. There is no successor, there’s only a person to manage the work, but not a successor. If Sebastião told anyone this word (that he was mestre Irineu’s successor), I’m sorry to say this but, if he really said this I consider it a lie. 37 Message P.S.: I’d like to say that master Irineu always told me: we will always respect the laws of man. If it is prohibited to walk on the left, then I will only walk on the right. Is it illegal to drink cachaça (sugar cane brandy)? Then we will not drink it. Is it illegal to use drugs? Then we will not use them. SANTO DAIME is for cleansing. To mix it with other substances is not something worthwhile. If you take half a glass of oil and mix it with half glass of water and mix it really well, it looks good all mixed up, but half an hour later they are already fully separated. I ask all that take daime, to take daime and not mix other things with it. I drink daime in front of the governor, secretary of Justice, anyone, now marijuana I don’t have the courage to, and would not do it. God wouldn’t let me. Daime brings light, Marijuana brings sadness. Interview – March 2007 Juarez Martins Xavier Disciple of master Daniel Pereira de Matos and follower of master Irineu Serra Date of Birth: 17/12/1924 Juarez Xavier: I met master Irineu and was with him for a short time, because I belonged to a branch in the same line as that of master Irineu, started by master Daniel Pereira de Matos. So I took daime with master Irineu two or three times. When I met him, he was a giant, but very polite man. He welcomed people with good manners and firm words. I drank daime from his hands. I am from the same line as master Irineu, because Daniel de Matos received his mission through master Irineu and put it into practice. I am a disciple of Daniel and of master Irineu. All things spiritual I received through master Daniel, but brought about by master Irineu. First daime communion with the master J.X.: The first time I went to commune daime with master Irineu I left my house and went to a place where the daime was in a large bottle-case and was being distributed to all the folk. He would leave the rest in the bottle-case and would keep a large glass with him and kept on drinking, because he was 38 a giant of a man. He would sit there on his corner smoking a Baiano Cigar, directing the rituals with the followers. G.L.: Was it really a cigar, with tobacco? I’m insisting on this because there’s a version that states that the master smoked a joint. J.X.: It was tobacco absolutely. I confirm it. The master only smoked his cigar. This business of drugs and santa maria, marijuana, came about ultimately when the money interest rose. Daime is clean, it doesn’t have these things, and whoever uses them is in a completely different line. I say this firmly because I’ve been taking daime for 43 years and my daime is clean and those that mix are not right, you can be sure of that and neither did the old man (master Irineu) or Daniel. The daime that I started to drink and work with until today is totally different from these concoctions and toxins. My daime is made with water, vine (jagube), and leaf (chacrona), fire and penance prayers. The ones that use drugs or I find out are using drugs at my center have two ways to go: by water or by earth. For a brother to follow me, he must not drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes or any vices and addictions. So all this business with santa maria is a horrible thing, I do not use it and do not let any of my followers use it. First of all it is something prohibited by law. And I’m not going to mix drugs with a sublime drink such as daime. I consider it to be a crime. Alto Santo (master Irineu’s center) and the Cost of Rituals J.X.: Master Irineu didn’t charge for the rituals because he used to say something that I say today: “The forest mother gives to us freely and freely I give you also.” The place where you take daime with money upfront is not right. G.L.: After master Irineu’s passing there was great distortion with drugs, what would you like to say about that? J.X.: With regards to drugs, they are wrong. During my initiation with masters Daniel and Irineu, there was nothing of the sort. Now, it was later that all of this took root. Daime is clean, daime is life, and doesn’t have these things mixed in it… And everything that’s banned by the law of man, daime condemns. Because the light of God is found in daime, because I have this knowledge and I’m no fanatic. Daime is divine force, a benign herb, leaf and vine. Not like drugs, that only takes an individual to profanity, moral unbalance and sickness. Daime is different. It elevates the world, adjusts a man, teaches man how to love God, one another, and even teaches the fellow how to eat. The way they are using daime is a crime. I am a soldier with a flag in hand in defense of this drink, because with her I saw things that no man in this world can show. The words I am now saying is from an old traveler 39 that has been taking daime for 43 years. I started taking it when I was 33 and she adjusted me, taught me to love my family, love my neighbor, taught me to respect the authorities and educated me. And the one who takes daime within these same directions will receive the same blessings. You are supposed to take daime and respect it, we cannot mix filth with it, no. I hope that this is clear for everyone. G.L.: Did you know Sebastião Mota de Melo? J.X.: I met him and communed daime at his cult through an invitation I received to attend his birthday. Sebastião got side tracked a bit because of the material side, he enlarged himself and swayed, screwed up, things happened in his center and with his people that were not supposed to happen. I warned him before, about what could happen in that situation, mixing alcohol. I asked him to forgive me and that his life was not my business, but that he was following a wrong path. I told this to a member of the center. Then an incident happened there. G.L.: Are you referring to the incident where they castrated Ceará (a known pai-de-santo from Rio Branco, follower of daime at Sebastião’s center who died on this occasion)? J.X.: Exactly. And this happened because of lack of discipline. You see, a man who takes daime, has to be careful about what he does. Sebastião had a lot of light, but corrupted himself, corrupted by money, fell by weakness. G.L.: In the South, and here too, there is a lot of talk that Sebastião is the successor of master Irineu. J.X.: That’s an outrage, heresy. (…) He was no successor. Otherwise he wouldn’t have done what he did. He would not have fallen. I don’t want to curse my brother, may God be with him. He fell and we are all subject to that. The external world is always with us. (…) We need to be alert always because the illusion or fantasy always comes to corrupt. We let light come to us. Only she can bring beauty, truth, love, knowledge, justice and health. Padrinho Juarez’ Center and Money J.X.: The center that I belong to is a philanthropic association and we work in charity, not charging any money. What they give to us to us, by means of donations, we live from. I don’t want much. I want little, not for material things, but for the soul. Money corrupts us, but we need money, there’s no doubt, since we live in the world of matter and have to fight it for our survival. For spirituality, it is good up to a point, when you know how to fight it, otherwise it corrupts, spoils us. Jesus said: Give Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. We appreciate money, but refuse to be attached to 40 it. We will build our castle with rocks, not with sand, because with sand the wind comes and takes away and with the rock it lasts forever. That is our way, our work and our charity. (…) I was in one of master Irineu’s rituals and saw him collect some cash from the brothers to buy a large basin to make daime in. Now, charging anyone for daime, I never saw him do it or the house that I was a member of. Message J.X.: By means of the explanation you are giving in this book, which will be shown to the entire world, a work of light made in purity, I have great satisfaction of presenting this message. A long time prior to knowing this light, which has taught me ever since, I was a very unbalanced individual. I drank heavily, didn’t know what family was and disrespected the authorities. Then at the age of Christ, 33, she opened up to me like the day. It showed me the truth about smoking, drinking and my past mistakes, without me ever saying a word to the master. It was just the light and me, guiding me to the light of truth, teaching me and bringing balance to my life. I am not well versed, but I have the type of education that this light brings. She only gives you what is good. Drugs bring unbalance, addiction, and dependency, which are the opposite of light does. You see, I take daime once every 15 days, or even every week, and only drink it when I have to minister a ritual. I don’t see this in humanity, addicted, corrupted, with only death before them and this drink is not like that. I am 83 years old and am still very lucid! I don’t work for the flesh but for the spirit. (…) Your book will help and enlighten many. CLASH OF IDEAS – Past and Present Facts Observe now the conflict of information, using as basis the concepts presented by Paulo Serra and Juarez Xavier, this is what was passed on to society by Sebastião Mota de Melo’s disciple, Alex Polari de Alvarenga, in sections of his book, “O Guia da Floresta” – Guide of the Forest: “I am preparing a people, a people who want to… take this Doctrine and take it forwards.” He spoke this way certain that these people would come (and we were the first inklings of it). There would be much to fight for, to clarify the prejudices that mistake mere drug usage with ritualistic and religious usage of sacred consciousness expanding plants. “Don’t we eat and drink what we like? It’s necessary to guarantee our right to use and drink, within our churches and homes, whatever we like. And prove that it elevates us spiritually, isn’t that right? It’s a sacrament, not an addiction, and you, people of the cities, are the ones who will fight for these rights.” 41 (Extracted from the book “O Guia da Floresta” chap. 1 – The Mage from Rio Branco, pg.27” by Alex Polari de Alvarenga) See the excerpt where the author compares Sebastião Mota to a prophet: “A prophet is a little different than a master, who only transmits his knowledge and helps the disciple realize what he has envisioned. He is not only an instructor of disciples, but master of a people, engaged in the fulfillment of God’s word, an artifice in the divine plan here in the material, temporal and human plane. The master can give himself the luxury of being a totally serene personality and selfcontrolled. As the guardian of Divine Word, the prophet needs, sometimes, to denounce rebellion and the resistance of those who are inconsistent or do not wish to see the Word fulfilled. In these moments, the figure of Sebastião Mota would enlarge itself... crying out for us to awaken from our lethargy and see what he was seeing… He would reduce to dust any illusion or falseness that we wanted to maintain in our hearts. It was at these moments, that we, his godsons, recognized in him the strength of St. John the Baptist and the vibration of Divine Justice of that great being who are one and the same.” Christ himself said the he had been Elijah. At the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s, a new phenomenon occurred. Travelers, seekers, young backpackers on their way to Machu Picchu would spread the word among the “initiates,” the news of the existence of a community near Rio Branco that used a mysterious magical drink, of Inca origin. These were the echoes that brought me there, and once I had arrived, I felt at home. Padrinho was waiting for us. Since the 40s, the hymns spoke of these people that would come from far, even from foreign lands, to gather themselves to the people that had been chosen by Master Raimundo Irineu Serra. Padrinho never forgot the words of the Master: “Sebastião, these here are still not our people. They are only the buttress. Our people will arrive from far.” (Extracted from the book “O Guia da Floresta” – Introduction, pgs 13 and 14 by Alex Polari de Alvarenga) Distortions of Daime Doctrine Daime doctrine has been described and reported inaccurately for the past decades in academic works and also through different media vehicles, according to journalist, psychologist and writer Luiz Carlos de Carvalho Teixeira de Freitas. In an article presented at the “Old and new usages of Ayahuasca in Brazil: Contrasts and perspectives” round table held at the First Paulista Shamanic Meet, which happened in 2006, in Cotia, state of São Paulo. The author points out these mistakes and makes comparisons with the original doctrine of Raimundo Irineu Serra. The information contained in this 42 article is part of the work of the author in the books “The Messenger – Replanting the Daime Doctrine” and “Queen of the Forest – Daime mission and evangelization.” To demonstrate the author’s point of view, we will reproduce here some excerpts in their entirety. “The Origins” For those that have read about daime doctrine, it is a well known fact that Raimundo Irineu Serra, a native of Maranhão, who would come to be the preacher of daime doctrine since 1931, came to Acre when he was around 20 years old to try his luck as a rubber-tapper. It is also known that at the border of Peru and Bolivia he first came into contact with the drink known as ayahuasca, customary among the native tribal shamans and medicine men of the region since immemorial times, and it is also known that a decade and a half later, master Irineu would name the drink “daime,” using this name from then on as a resource to preach a religious doctrine. However, almost all of what has been written on the formative process of this doctrine, its purpose and its identity, is faulty in terms of information. For a very understandable reason: since the first academic studies, the samples adopted as reference did not represent this doctrine as it was revealed to master Irineu and preached by him thereafter, because they contained field data collected from Cefluris – Eclectic Center for The Universal Flowing Light Raimundo Irineu Serra, which is a dissident group with a system of beliefs and ritualistic practices different, if not opposed, to what in fact characterized the daime doctrine as it was revealed and preached. In this manner, the “split” was described and analyzed, instead of the original, greatly distorting the perceptions one could have on daime doctrine. The Basis of the Doctrine Master Irineu passed away in 1971, June to be more exact. Up until then, daime doctrine was exclusively Christian, never approving the mixture of different types of worship and the use of other psychoactive plants together with the daime – be it jurema (acacia), marijuana, mushrooms or any others – and always preached within the principles of identity and purpose expressed in the hymns and oral teachings of its original preacher. For posterity, master Irineu determined as the doctrinal bases the hymns of five hymn books, one written by him and four by his four followers, Germano Guilherme, João Pereira, Maria Marques Vieira “Damião” and Antonio Gomes da Silva, a fact recognized even by his greatest dissident, Sebastião Mota de Melo, the principal motive by which principles of faith are dissonant from the hymns with doctrinal basis and cannot be taken to be daime doctrine, if by “daime doctrine” it is understood, as I do here, what was revealed to master Irineu and preached in the hymnals with doctrinal basis. 43 Bias A few years after the passing of master Irineu, Sebastião Mota de Melo, who up to that time was one of his followers, instituted his own form of religious service, starting in 1974 regular meetings at Colony 5000, the place where he lived located on the outskirts of Rio Branco and founding Cefluris in 1978. Despite the homage given to master Irineu (in the acronym Cefluris), the dissidence was already evident: “Eclectic Center.” Little by little Sebastião Mota was aggregating to daime doctrine ritual practices firmly prohibited by master Irineu, according to many initial followers and even those that lived in his own house, such as his nephew Daniel Acelino Serra and his adopted sons Paulo de Assunção Serra and Percília Matos da Silva. Among such alterations, such as gradually emphasizing “cure” aspects and the realization of “dancing services,” accepting unconscious spirit possession of deceased relatives and the adoption of practices originating in Candomble, such as the “kiss the hand” ritual. In 1977, ritual marijuana usage was introduced, in open divergence with the orientations given my master Irineu, who taught, “those who wish to follow me, it will be done with daime and no other mixture, spiritual lines or plants,” according to the testimony of Percília Matos da Silva registered in the book “The Messenger.” In regards to the prohibited use of other plants, if her declaration is not enough (besides being adopted daughter, was also right-hand helper for more than 40 years) I cite the testimony narrated by Paulo de Assunção Serra collected by me back in 1994, in the city of Rio Branco: “from 1959 to 1969 I was in Belém do Pará, where I went to make a living and married Altina, my wife. There I was introduced to marijuana and “traveled” a bit with it. One day, when I returned to Rio Branco I went to visit dad and took some for him, asking if it was good for me to use. He looked, thought for a bit and told me: ‘Look Paul, take this and bury it there under that paxiúba (palm tree typical in the Brazilian North), because this is not part of the doctrine and it is not good for you to use.” In the period between 1977 and 1981, however, important occurrences took place at Colony 5000: the absorption of wanderers, hitch hiking from the urban centers of the South and Southeast and the decision to implement a social community model – mirrored in the models of the hippie movement, dominant in the second half of the 60s elsewhere, but prolonged in Brazil until the late 70s – the castration and death of a man, the arrest and imprisonment of a young man in the possession of daime and pot in the streets of Rio Branco and the invasion of the Federal Police to eradicate marijuana plantation found in the property. Later, in what has always been pointed out as popular messianic occurrence, but probably as an alternative to escape the growing social and legal pressure, Sebastião decided to transfer the population of the community to the interior of the Amazon Forest, opening the rubber tapping community “Rio do Ouro” and later, the small village “Céu do Mapiá,” both in the state of Amazon. 44 In this exact sense, the anthropologists Alberto Groisman and Clodomir Monteiro da Silva respectively registered that, “at the end of the 70s (…) arriving at the place, coming from the urban centers, are young hitch hikers (…) Their insertion in the group causes a redefinition of values practiced until then and inaugurates an ideology of community” and “for lack of resources to acquire tractors and other equipment, attempting to recycle the tired land, and due to the growing of the community and mainly for constantly feeling disturbed by the presence of the Federal Police and people who were not fully committed to the project, starting from May, 1980 Cefluris initiated and implemented the installation of the rubber tapping facility ‘Rio do Ouro.’” At this time daime gained national visibility by the media – although daime rituals occurred in Rio Branco for half a century -. Attracting attention to what appeared to be a “new religion,” even if the hymns with doctrinal basis had never stated this and master Irineu denied it vehemently: this was the preaching, “done in the local style,” of the “doctrine of Jesus Christ the Redeemer,” and devotional worship to Holy Mary, an evangelical mission without violating the principles of the Gospels, not deriving from the syncretism with previous forms of worship or contemporary ones, neither arising as another popular form of Catholicism, by reinterpreting catholic rituals, as had been desired as well. It was from then on that studies were developed in Brazil on what became known as the “SANTO DAIME Cult” or “SANTO DAIME Religion.” The pioneer studies are the research done by historian Vera Fróes Fernandes (1982-1983), which resulted in the book “History of the people of Juramidam – The Culture of SANTO DAIME,” and the Masters dissertation of anthropologist Clodomir Monteiro da Silva, “The palace of Juramidam –SANTO DAIME, a ritual of transcendence and detoxication,” dated 1983. Many others joined them, and I mention only a few national ones, such as the research done by sociologist Geovânia Barros Cunha (The Empire of the Humming Bird, 1986) and the Masters dissertations in Anthropology by Fernando de La Rocque Couto (Saints and Shamans, 1989), Sandra Lúcia Goulart (The Cultural Roots of SANTO DAIME, 1996), Arneide Bandeira Cemin (Order, shamanism and gift – the power of SANTO DAIME, 1998) and Beatriz Caiuby Labate (The reinvention of the use of ayahuasca in urban centers, 2000), besides books such as the one from anthropologist Edward MacRae, “Guided by the Moon – shamanism and the ritualistic use of ayahuasca in the SANTO DAIME cult” (1992), the ones written by Alex Polari de Alvarenga, “The Book of Mirações (visions)” (1984), “The Guide of the Forest” (1992) and the “Gospel According Sebastião Mota” (1998), anthropologist Alberto Groisman, “I Come From the Forest – A study on the symbolic context of SANTO DAIME usage” (1999), and the work organized by anthropologists Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Wladimyr Sena Araújo, “The Ritualistic usage of Ayahuasca” (2004). 45 All of these studies, and others still, made the same crucial methodological error, failing in what is expected from a work of reference: trustworthy information. Taking as basis what became practice for years after master Irineu’s death, and accepting as trustworthy witness to the history and the profile of the daime doctrine, the verbal testimonies of Sebastião Mota de Melo and his followers, two decades of academic production registered principles of belief and doctrinal aspects believed by these as characterizing what, in fact, was one day daime doctrine. Spirit Possession Master Irineu taught, according to numerous of his first and main followers, that possession could occur as long as consciousness was preserved, for the personal expansion of personal knowledge or the partaking of teachings as brothers, in one of the most discreet of daime doctrinal teachings, he referred to the possibility of “coexisting,” in the same person for the instances or longer periods as it were, of the person’s own spirit and the spirit of a relative, in universal human phenomenon and by far not restricted to Kardecist (spiritist) teachings. It’s sufficient to remember one of the major Christian theologians, who preceded the works of Alan Kardec by more than a millennium. Saint Augustine taught that, “when a spirit unites with another, it is possible to communicate to him what he knows, thanks to the images that he possesses, be it guiding him to understanding them, be it accepting them as one who is learning.” As Percília Matos da Silva reported, according to a testimony I took from her in 1996, “the master used to say: ‘whoever wants to follow and learn something in this doctrine she has to do it with daime only, there is no such business as mixing with this or that, following other spiritual lines, (…) And this is why the master did not adopt (other lines), don’t you know? This business of spirit possession, these things he never adopted, because within the daime line, if the brother is prepared, he takes daime and goes to look for his own line, his own segment. The brother receives the message that is necessary. The spiritual entity may even come to him and speak to him. Then the brother listens or receives the information through intuition. But fully conscious! The message only! There’s no need to send message through someone else, don’t you know? (…) This is what he used to say: ‘there are more lies, than truth in these spirit possession lines. Where there is one truth, there are one hundred lies.” It’s interesting to note this point, so no one thinks that there is some kind of prejudice towards cults of African descent, as has been pointed to me in the past. The fact is that “not every contemporary religion proposes an internal work, or expects this from its followers; I mean, not all forms of religion expect to unfold the path to the inner dwellings,” as Brazilian anthropologist José Jorge de Carvalho summarizes. 46 In the dissention studied, however, through the personal history of Sebastião Mota de Melo – who used to practice spirit possession as a young man – and later, through mixing with African based religions, the incentive for possession was adopted, including unconscious possession, resulting in a major modification of the daime ritual doctrines, interpreted later, by the academics and media, as representing the original daime doctrine. Healing Services and Dancing Another detail relates to “healing services.” If we go back to the beginning of daime doctrine, in the 1930s, we will see that the first initiative taken by master Irineu was to implement “concentration” sessions on Saturdays, in which the faithful would commune daime and then would sit in silence, as it is done until today, immersed in meditation, about themselves, their family or social surroundings, spirituality and the purpose of life. Some time after there came about “healing services,” when requested by men or women who suffered some degree of organic or emotional disorders and believed that they would find resolution to their illness or problem there, or at least some comfort. These “healing services,” whenever they occurred, and until master Irineu’s passage were done in contrite silence (and never sung, as Sebastião Mota de Melo later instituted), with the “healing panel” praying and clamoring on behalf of the “patient,” through charity, seeking to make their ardent prayer request heard by the Holy Spirit of God to “heal” whoever was deserving. Many years later, master Irineu instituted as ritualistic practice “Hymnal based Dancing Services,” or festivities, attending to the initiative taken by certain brothers, since he found no harm in praise celebrations held in days considered to be consecrated to various saints, and truthfully, idealizing benefits for all, occasions which the hymnals received by him and other brothers and sisters could be sung festively; St. John’s day, held at Maria “Damião’s” house, in the mid 1930s (the first dance ritual registered in the history of daime doctrine), St. Joseph’s day, more than a decade later, by suggestion of Francisco Granjeiro and others. Books on the Internet The books “The Messenger – Replanting the Daime Doctrine” and “The Queen of the Forest – Daime Mission of Evangelization,” by Luiz Carlos de Carvalho Teixeira de Freitas, which contain a more extensive analyses of daime doctrine, can be found in its entirety at: www.juramidam.jor.br 47 III – Drugs and Shamanism I fear that drugs in Brazil will be liberated. Yes, the thoughts and desires of millions of people together could very well result in the approval of laws that sanction the use of drugs, and of course, with harmful consequences to the entire nation. A great number of brothers and sisters of CNSC were uniformed members in Cefluris churches. But today, they have been totally rehabilitated, walk in the light and still try hard to help their old friends to be set free from the SANTO DAIME with drugs. So, unmasking Cefluris is a responsibility, an obligation. In reality, I’m vouching even for you, who I may not even know, but who is being warned as you read this book. Know that there is no resentment in my heart. I didn’t even know padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo personally and have never been with Alfredo Gregório, his son. But, the illusion of drugs that they propagate has grave consequences and could bring a lot of harm to the people of our society. Besides, where would my light be if I remained neutral and omissive in relation to the filth of drugs that Cefluris is insanely spreading to the families of the country I was born in? Where is the light of a padrinho who is dominated by addiction? Brothers, pay attention: the world is changing; the world is far more evolved now. The ones that take refuge in drugs are the only ones who haven’t understood this. Such changes brought marked consequences. The space for the illusions of “war, shade and fresh water,” “live and let live,” “peace, love and rock'n roll” is quickly closing up. There’s no more time for the illusion of drugging yourself in the name of love, spirituality and mysticism. All of these things were foolishness in the 60s and 70s. Today what is demanded of us is humility and the recognition that we are all brothers and sisters equal in liberty and responsibility. Today a new learning is required of us. Those that persist in error, rejecting changes, are doomed to moral, spiritual and material bankruptcy. Every day we are required to make an effort for self-perfection. Today it is required of us drive, strong will and a lot of responsibility. Today society demands of us emotional balance, gentleness and sweet actions, without looking for anything in return: in exchanges and relationships with others, especially coworkers and church brothers. Today it is asked of us the end of hypocrisy. In the new age, no one will have the right to think small, do things half-way, not be involved, not participate, not fight. Today companies are hiring only the best and hardest working people of each field, and cannot forget the emotional balance of each one of them. Today we know that there is no company 100% behind employees who are only 50% balanced. To the brothers and sisters who are trapped in the illusion of santa maria who desire their liberation from drugs, I say that I do not wish you harm. But I cannot agree with the evil that you cause yourselves and others. Remember the good qualities of padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo, but learn also with the grave errors he committed while disseminating drugs with the serious SANTO DAIME that master Irineu brought to the world. Change the way you think and act while there is time. Believe that the future will be 48 spectacular for those who know how to live and work in the new times. During my teenage years, I read a very good book that was written with a lot of simplicity, which demonstrated with accuracy the type of inquisitive spirit that will inhabit the new age. The curious thing is that this book doesn’t even mention the third millennium and only tells the story of a sea gull. The name of the book is “Fernão Capelo Gaivota – (sea gull).” You can find it easily at any public library of your neighborhood or city and will be done reading it in a few short hours. The third millennium, which we are entering now, will be inhabited by people who will not accept ephemeral truths, but will make a concentrated effort to reach absolute truths. Each time that you defend that a church is the house of God, you deny the part of God that is inside you. Because man is already born being the living temple of God and He will not inhabit any other place made by human hands. Each time that you allow an addiction to overcome your spirit, you deny the position of God-Son that you already occupy. And I don’t just speak of drug addiction, such as marijuana or other drugs. I speak also of the addiction to lying, addiction to hypocrisy, addiction to greed and specially the addiction to laziness. Know that those that choose to live in the world of illusions and pretend to grow, instead of living the reality of the spirit and engage the battles of growth, are addicted to cowardice. Polarities are not enemies, but there is a natural order to the value of each one. Inside you there is the ego, and there is the spirit, or rather, the rational mind and the spiritual mind. Which of them do you think has the greater value? Which of them is in control of you? One thing I can tell you my son, every type of addiction comes only from the ego. Even that little story of the powerful armies of darkness that some even claim to see, in reality come only from internal demons that a person possesses, or rather, from the ego. It is the father of all suffering. The ego is the dark side of human beings. And is also the father of spiritual blindness. The rational minds that judge themselves great, because they went to university, defend, irresponsibly the liberation of drugs, not caring about the damage that it will cause the children of others and to the nation. In the blindness of the ego, they reject, inclusively, the fact that the youth of today are the foundation of this nation’s tomorrow. The greatness of a nation is only the reflection of its culture. What kind of culture does a nation hope to have, with its sons and daughters using something that harms the health and kills neurons? Son, I teach shamanism here, but true shamanism, where science is united with spirituality. Reason and intuition, science and spirituality are things that need to walk hand in hand. What I’ve been teaching is what quantum physics is proving more and more each day. In shamanism, we know that happiness is not individual, but collective. So, we very much desire for you to be happy also, independently of who you are, because shamanism does not have a specific people, tribe, nation or planet. For shamanism there are no borders. Shamanism is universalism! You can observe that, in our statute, before the words CNSC, it is written “Shamanic Spiritual Institute.” This is because here we tread the good red path, as I was taught by the Sioux Lakota in my last incarnation. Yes, I am a Lakota spirit in a white man’s body and express, with much honor and steadiness, Lakota love. Here at CNSC all peoples are gathered in one group. Here is a sacred place 49 where all spiritual egregores (spiritual groups) merge into one. Under Wakan Tanka (The Great Spirit) there are only brothers. All light egregores that come from the superior astral plane are one and the same. They take shape according to the psychological necessity of a person or people so they are not rejected and can therefore help. The Divine Mother is the feminine representation of the mind of God and presents herself under diverse forms, such as Yemanjá (Afro-Brazilian ocean Goddess), Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, White Buffalo Woman, the Wicca Goddess and others. Master Jesus (my Lord, and the only one I serve) is the representation of the Christ Consciousness that blossomed at the cross. I know power plants well, and the correct manner of using them. It is necessary to understand that there is a distinct difference between medicinal plants, power plants and master power plants. Not every power plant is a master plant! Some indigenous tribes that know cannabis sativa or marijuana give her a name that translated means, “plant that binds.” The word marijuana itself already denotes misguided knowledge. Cannabis sativa is a good medicinal plant and possesses healing ends, but only if correctly used. The correct use of this plant is the extraction of the oil from its root, that, if applied on the skin it is very good for certain women’s issues and glaucoma. Some medical doctors claim that it is good in the prevention of cancer. But, if taken as tea, cake, smoked, or inhaled under the allegation of consecrating it to santa maria, she will really imprison the ego, greatly harming your cerebral synapses, making you lethargic, weakening your memory and even destroying your neurons. Energetically, it will cause atrophy in your chakras and will lower your spiritual frequency to the gross frequency of the illusion. And you can be sure of this my son, marijuana will make you an addict, yes! Know that there are plants that favor the spirit and plants that favor matter. So, one favors freedom in absolute truths of the soul and the other, if incorrectly used, binds the individual in the illusion of ephemeral truths created by man-egos and defended as true. As with all medication, if incorrectly used, will harm and result in addictions. But the worst kind of blind person is the one who doesn’t want to see. Imagine a carriage being pulled freely by a beautiful pair of horses going down a road. The horses are strong and are used to guiding themselves and going wherever they please. They’re used to trotting freely on this road as they wish. They really think they own the road. For their total surprise, there’s a passenger inside the carriage. He says: “Stop!” The horses are startled at first, then rationalize a bit and tell themselves: “Must be too much sun.” The passenger now orders more earnestly: “Stop!!” The horses are startled again. Now they realize that there is something more in the carriage, but they offer great resistance, because they think they are their own masters. The passenger then grabs hold of the reins with both hands and pulls with all strength. A small battle is struck between the horses and the passenger, until the horses finally obey and do exactly what the passenger wills. The two strong horses are your brain and your rational mind, in other words, the ego. Until today they have been dominating you, they are the ones who have been barking orders and are accustomed to doing only what they wish. The carriage is your body, your apparatus. Nothing more than a vehicle for the passenger to 50 experiment the world of matter. The passenger is you, your spiritual mind. It is the one that does not need to think, because if it thinks it is not the real you. The conscience is the passenger, you! Understand now? However, do not forget that the passenger needs to start pulling the reins of the horses. So, why not only use what strengthens the passenger and not the horses? I just said: “if it thinks it’s not you!” I know this sounds strange, especially because you are used to thinking always. So, I propose you do an experiment with me right now. Choose an object and stare intently at it. With your index finger, (the one you stick into the birthday cake) point to the object chosen. Conclusion: you are looking at an object outside of you and are still pointing to it with your finger, right? Now look at your body. You can see it, not entirely, but you see it. Look at your feet and point your index finger at it. Conclusion: You are looking at the outside part of your feet and are still pointing at it right? Now put your index finger right in front of your eyes and point at yourself. What do you see? Your finger! So, where are you? You can say you are there inside your body, but this cannot be true because you can only see outside if you are outside. If you are inside a closed cave, will you be able to see outside? You know you won’t. At the most, you might be able to use your memory. This concept may surprise you, but it’s true. Want to see why? Close your eyes. See your heart. Can you see your heart? Of course not! At the most, you can use memory, recalling the image of a heart you may have seen in a magazine or video. You cannot see your heart because it is inside. It’s a part of you that’s inside and you cannot see. But external things you do see, and very well! Why then, can you see external things? Answer me now: Where are you? Because inside that body you are not! You are not the part that thinks. But yes, you are connected to the body and manifest yourself through this carriage. Concepts like this will be part of the third millennium. Those that persist in remaining in the illusion of the ego and addictions will not have space to coexist with absolute truths of the people of the new era. Have you seen how a child asks for food? As soon as she has learned to verbalize a bit, how does she ask her mom for food? Does she say: “I’m hungry?” No! She says; “Johnny is hungry,” the mom replies, “no, you are hungry!” The child finds this strange and insists: “Johnny is hungry.” Do you know why children express themselves this way? Because every child is born knowing that the body and the thinking mind is not who she really is. The child is born knowing her true identity. It’s natural in all children to be well beyond the body and rational mind. But it doesn’t take long for adults to start reprimanding the kid insistently, imposing rational affirmations: “Don’t say: Johnny is hungry, YOU are hungry!” The child still finds herself in a fragile state. From much adult persistence, finally the child’s identity is killed, and she starts to accept this false identity that is the body and the thinking mind. So then, who are you and where are you? Your body is only a sensory apparatus that permits the experience in the world of matter, of illusion. The mind is only a vehicle. She thinks, and if it thinks, then it cannot be you. It is the ego manifesting itself through reason, logic, and thoughts. The ego is not you. In truth, it is a wonderful tool that you have but which will also be your dark side if you do not dominate it. 51 You are far beyond your body and mind. You are much more than your body and mind. But, then, who are you and where are you? It is to obtain these answers that shamanism guides you. When you are cosmically integrated you will know the answers. There are many ways that will conduct you to cosmic integration. In truth, all paths lead to God. Some are fast and straight, as it is taught by the light. Others all full of curves and much too long. That’s where we get the expression: “some go by love, others by pain.” Meditation and power plants, if used correctly, are one of these fast and straight ways to integrate with the cosmos, integration with God. Both will guide you to mental states of expanded consciousness. In shamanic rituals, Ayahuasca is a shortcut for illumination. This shortcut, besides not making any curves, is also on turbo speed. Medicinal plants used incorrectly also will guide you to integration with God, but it will be through a long winding road and will last a very long time. Through drugs you’ll reach God through pain and suffering. Drugs only generate suffering. And suffering is one form or returning to God. But you can choose to go back to God through the path of love! I leave registered here that I’m conscious of many of my past incarnations. I have been Hebrew, black, yellow and red. I have been a slave and a master of many slaves. I have been member of churches but also a priest in synagogues. I have been a soldier and used the gladius (roman short sword), but also a centurion. I thought to have suffered great injustice by others but also committed great injustices when born to noble families. At other times, I lived moments of peace and moments of great wars. One day I matured and looked back and saw how great the journey had been which I had been travelling. I bring within me experiences of many cultures and religions born of these cultures. Because of that, I know that the Great Spirit looks at us all the same way, with the same love. That is why I teach respect to all peoples and all churches. I do not seek disciples, I seek brothers. Brothers and sisters walking together, hand in hand, all united with the same objective of a better world. Here you won’t find masters and disciples, because I know that every human being is both master and disciple at the same time. The only real Master is the Lord Jesus Christ, who commands the entire Higher Astral Plane and it was He that sent me. That is why CNSC is on ecumenical grounds. I preach only love, not power. True Power, only belongs only to the light, but those that walk in the light commune with power. Only love can place you on the path of love. Therefore, only those that love commune the power of the Light. There is no power without love. But don’t be fooled, there are situations where it is just for a son of light to use power. Especially in matters that include honor and sacrileges, that’s where the person will find out that justice always comes before benevolence! Here we receive brothers and sisters of every faith and culture. Here we have the Buddhist, spiritist, Jew, Umbanda, evangelical, catholic, mystic and esoteric, the wise and the ignorant, the well 52 educated and the illiterate. Here people come from all nations and denominations. But all of them find a deeper connection with God. I learned throughout these long journeys that only an intimate contact with the Greater Light transforms us for the better. That is why I teach shamanism. Because shamanism is not a religion or a doctrine. Shamanism is not just one ray in the spectrum, but the entire spectrum itself. Shamanism is integration. In the good red path it is quickly learnt that every man needs to find his center. Here you will find your center. When, through life’s tribulations, you move away from your center, you can always find it again here. The day will come when you too will look back and see how great the journey has been. The day will when you too will know who you are and where you are. The day will still come when you will understand that darkness flees from light, because light shows darkness why it is dark. I only preach love. In the position of shaman, I only show doors within you that you did not know you had. But the key that opens these doors is love. I only teach the virtues of the spirit that every human being carries latent within himself. But love is the basis of all virtues. I have always taught that we should be strong with the strong and weak with the weak; when in the midst of wolves we need to be lions, not sheep; that we should be good and not goody two-shoes. I am grateful to Great Spirit for having lived enough to see thousands of brothers and sisters awaken their own inner warrior and transform themselves in warriors of the heart. My mission is almost complete with the publication of this book. I have given a living testimony with regards to detachment from material things, consciousness of impermanence and unconditional love. I have spread the seeds of the good news to many thousands of brothers and sisters. When I am gone, I will go in peace, because I will know that I had a useful existence and that I left my humble contribution to the rebirth of a new and better world. But I stress once again that those that do not gather, naturally scatter. Spiritually, there is no omission, only tacit agreement. Omission in relation to evil is only agreement. No one is master. All are masters. Christ is my Master! Testimonies of those who lived through the FALSE SANTO DAIME My name is L.M.B.M.A., I was born in Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul on November 28th, 1955. I’m a dentist, that is, I practiced Preventive Dentistry – Odontopedriatics for 18 years. Then I completed a post-graduate degree in Business Administration and worked another 6 years at Setorial TV Station (an educational channel in the region of Vale do Paraíba). 53 I thank God for the opportunity and honor to stand beside Gideon, my friend and godfather - padrinho from Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, but as much as I have placed here a few adjectives they will never be enough to describe the firmness and determination of a person that embraced a mission with open heart and does not rest until he sees it completed. As he says it himself, we should live for something that is worthwhile to give up your life for. Before I say what I know, what I lived through, I have to set forth some concepts and forms of conduct, in essence actions that guide my life. The jargons of society are phrases said and repeated for a long time until they become “truths” only because we hear them since we are born. They make us rigid and really make us “dumb!” The main jargon or saying that I do not accept is: “That is not my business,” “I’m not responsible for this” or “for the world’s disgrace.” These and other similar phrases that can be said in a “thousand and one” circumstances should be banned from society because they strand their own evolution! If it really is a subject I do not understand I can answer: This is something for the carpenters (as an example, because I know nothing of carpentry). Or I know a great carpenter, he is so and so. Or, so and so, must know a carpenter, we can talk to him and what we can do we’ll do! But for the love of God! All of us that are here in the world are in fact responsible for it and should do something, anything. What each of us can! When we’re dealing with things that destroy society, then we can never omit ourselves or worse, support it. As Gideon says: Omission does not exist, only tacit agreement. We should be involved with the world, rationalizing and acting this way; the world will change faster, starting with what’s around us. Peace in the world starts within me, within all of us. “But I have to do it inside first so that I can help the world around me.” It is true! And we park there, at this stage all our life. It is necessary to let go of the attitude: “I need to take care of myself,” and adopt the attitude: “I can do this also and still take care of myself.” That’s the point! The key! The structural basis for action, a mission in life. 54 When you leave the state, “I need help” to the state “I can help” is when life begins to flow. When we park at the first stage we are, in a very comfortable way, accepting the posture of an addict, which makes a person spend his entire life thinking only of himself, and the time to look at those around him, never comes. I handle my own peace while at the same time taking care of the peace of those that surround me! I can! I want! We are ONE. You only have to decide. My father, M.M.M., used to say with a certain frequency two phrases that marked me and that I was able to confirm all my life: RICH IS THE ONE THAT GIVES AND POOR, THE ONE THAT ASKS FOR. As needy as a person may be, if she starts to see the possibility of helping another, with love, being whole in the act, with the only intention of helping the other, she changes her own situation. The other phrase is: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NO TO BENEFIT YOURSELF WHEN YOU THINK AND ACT FOR THE GOOD OF ALL. The thought, “first I will take care of myself” has justified much selfishness and omission, multiplying the number of “Pilates.” We should always have the common good in mind starting with those next to us. It is possible, YES, at any moment, even amidst the greatest of crises, or especially in them. The time of thinking only of me does not exist. I’m an important unit of the whole. The whole surrounds me and needs me and vice-versa. We should always have in sight the good of humanity. Why not? Are we too small for this? No. We are a unit that composes humanity. Let’s each do his or her own part! My part here: I heard about ayahuasca in a documentary on the Discovery Channel. We started watching it half-way through, my husband and I but we were very curious. A short while later, I found out that in Pindamonhagaba, the city where we lived, there was a place that this plant was being used. We went to visit. I was initially shocked. I didn’t know it was taken in such a ritualistic manner, or rather, dogmatic. Today I know how to position myself better in this question, and am not in favor of “dogmas and taboos” (dogma: unquestionable point in a religious doctrine and taboo: conventional prohibitions imposed by custom or tradition), but I really respect rituals. The seriousness and firmness of purpose happen in the sequence of rituals (ritual: group of practices consecrated by use, which should be observed in certain situations, and are in reality an effective methodology to achieve an objective). Gideon always explains: All rituals should be covered with all seriousness and respect, so that the objective is reached. Dogmas and Taboos enslave and have no practical sense, whereas a ritual you practice freely and without embarrassment. But only today, with theory and practice well lived, that I have this discernment. 55 However, at that time this was impossible for me and so we dived in “head first.” My husband and I started to attend Santo Daime. I even went as far as getting my uniform. Always reading and studying everything that we could. Always seeking, both my husband and I, more and more explanations. Although it was this institution’s habit of having a “meeting for new members,” as much as I went to these meetings, they wouldn’t clarify my questions, even the ones that were “answered.” And after, when I got better explanations, I noticed that there was knowledge that would be lost if depended on being asked. What happens is that one time I asked a madrinha, at the end of a meeting: “Ana, why don’t you explain everything, in order, a sequence, so you don’t get lost. Look today you didn’t mention the body cleansing” (vomit, diarrhea). To which she replied, “We only answer what is asked. Daime answers everything.” Today I realize that this posture is risky and dishonest. For all that I lived through. The explanations given in the initial lectures, done in the works (rituals) of the Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição prove this point. It is simply a natural attitude of respect that Gideon has with all persons that show up there. No one that goes for the first time to an ayahuasca ritual will know what to ask for that would be of value to know in order to have a good experience with it. And It is worth repeating it here: Omission is lying! In my excitement and lack of prudence, I took my mom and a sister there (I have another sister who was already attending) and also, a nephew. My husband has a natural tendency of not letting himself get involved until he feels more secure. This is a strong quality in him. I was enchanted by it and although I continued to study it, I had given myself over completely, so much so that I had taken my mom, sister, etc. There was a time when my husband asked madrinha, Why Cefluris? Answer: Ah! Because that’s the way it is. We had to have legal support and Cefluris is an “appropriate” institute (her opinion). On another occasion, he asked; If Daime harmonizes peoples and groups. Why didn’t master Irineu – the master of the doctrine, trust the succession to his wife or son? Why would he trust the doctrine to a “friend?!” One day, my husband, arrived home ready to explode. “There are drugs there! They use drugs, let’s go there and you’ll see it.” I went, and upon arriving there, I didn’t even remember I was supposed to observe. My husband did, and began to rebel. He was trying to show me, but I didn’t want to see. Today, I realize what was happening, but at the time, involved as I was, with my mom and sister with me, I really didn’t want to see it! 56 First, I discovered that the line I followed wasn’t the only one, there were others. Then I found out that this line (CEFLURIS) is a line that uses marijuana, and I disagree with this. I even got my uniform without knowing this “detail” (omitted of course!) A detail of fundamental importance for me. I rebelled, but today I understand it was my path I had to follow it to understand my mission. My husband began having a crisis, due to my stubbornness in not wanting to accept and see that they used drugs there, and that they lacked clarification, transformation, prosperity and everything that ego edification results in. One day in the middle of this crisis, I found myself in a car belonging to “Padrinho Valter,” with me were my two sisters. I was telling them that Caio, my husband, made up a story that there were drugs there! Then, padrinho Valter answered me, and if my sisters are strong, they will confirm it! “Have you seen a Santa Maria ritual here” (No, I answered) he continued, “So, during the week I keep telling the boys, you can only use it twice. Lia, it’s just that … with Daime these things happen… it saves lots of people from drugs, but it introduces it to a few!” (that was the first hole in the foundation I was trying to build there!) The Daime that Raimundo Irineu Serra left us, never “introduces” drugs to any one, much less to a few! Afterwards, at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, I found out the catastrophic number of these “few.” There I also had much clarification, specially the fundamental ones. And everything was done with much transparency and honesty. I keep on studying and seeking more and more knowledge, but there at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição I learned many important things such as: Ayahuasca expands your consciousness but you can expand it through other ways. Breathing, meditation and other techniques that they teach there also. Cleansing (vomiting, diarrhea, crying etc) may occur and is more than welcome, when there is something to clean. There I took many courses including a lecture with a medical doctor who was working on a scientific study on the effects of ayahuasca in helping recover the damage done to drug users’ brains. Another important thing I learned there was to separate the ego from our Higher Centered Self. It is so beautiful to live this knowledge. It may seem strange for those that have not lived through it. But only after experiencing this can we really began to change. 57 Anyways, it is there that I take many people who are seeking the light of understanding through consciousness expansion. I will take, right now, a friend of mine who is suffering with a 17-year-old son, who steals from his own home to be able to buy drugs. Speaking of which, in this story of ayahuasca with drugs I still need to clarify some things. At the time I attended the institution (Cefluris) here in Pinda (short for Pindamonhagaba), and the use of marijuana was hidden from me, as I have previously mentioned, I took my mom and a sister - my other sister already attended and still goes there until today with my mom. Today the other sister doesn’t even want to hear the name ayahuasca, Santo Daime or Daime – stain on the name! She witnessed drug use in the ritual, right in front of her! Maybe a type of pressure to make her do it also. They sat around my sister, after a ritual, and started to smoke and pass around a joint, in the circle were the madrinha and the high director board of the institution! But when I started attending the place I heard (from the madrinha), at the so called meeting for the newbies that young people hooked on drugs and alcohol would lose, respectively, the taste for drugs and drinking. I thought that was wonderful! I went to fetch a nephew that I knew was a pot junkie. I invited him to go with me and this is what happened: The first time he took Santo Daime (they used that name there) he decided to stop using drugs and did so for three months. Then there came up a group hike to Aparecida. He went alone, at the time I worked a lot and couldn’t attend all events. Halfway through the hike, my nephew saw the padrinho and madrinha, from Cefluris; smoking marijuana (they use a saint’s name there – I believe to sabotage the consciousness). My nephew dived into these drugs again, and for some time he thought I supported all of this. It was through this nephew, and my husband’s suspicions and all I lived through there that I finally found out I was supporting an institution that I would never have supported if I knew the whole truth. Gideon makes this story very clear and that’s why I took and take many people who need help and clarification to the farm. I, myself, received many blessings by going to this place. I have much to learn. But I recognize that my spiritual progress brought about my professional and financial progress and everything thing else I’ve achieved thanks to this path. There are a few more things I would like to say here, for example, about the Cultural Diffusion Course we took A at USP (São Paulo University) 58 Entitled “Drugs- Social Science Perspective (October 3rd to December 5th, 2006, Tuesdays, 7:30 pm to 10:30 pm) I could tell by observing this course that there was a great effort by all the participants, or better yet, a very clearly expressed intention of the movement itself, of placing Cannabis Sativa as a psychoactive substance of no consequence, or even with many benefits to the user. The main arguments were weak and based on analyses that ignore, and even ridicule science and scientific proof. Not at any point was the use of drugs as a social catastrophe pointed out during the course. There was a debate, if we could call it that, at the end of the course. I say this because in a debate there are usually two sides discussing and in fact there were 4 speeches in favor of legalizing marijuana use. There was much talk and many citations from a paper done by ABRAND – Multi disciplinary Brazilian Association of Studies on Drugs, whose theme is Marijuana – a multi disciplinary view. This paper is in direct opposition to a scientific publication done by ABP – Brazilian Psychiatry Association – entitled “Scientific Review: Marijuana and Mental Health.” During the entire course there was still the very clear intention of putting in the same pot as it were, Cannabis Sativa and Ayahuasca, ignoring their clear differences. Cannabis fetching a ride on the qualities of ayahuasca in an attempt to enchant and encourage its use. Ayahuasca was brought from the indigenous culture to the white man by ex-rubber tapper Raimundo Irineu Serra – master Irineu, in 1930. The phenomenon master Irineu (a master of the new age, as many other masters sent to aid the development of humanity) has been studied and documented, clearly showing how he was the creator (or rather, the one that channeled or received) a methodology for the ritualistic use of ayahuasca, today known as Daime. After 1930, or rather, after master Irineu, there came about other institutions such as, Barquinha – by Daniel Pereira, 1945 and Associação Beneficiente União do Vegetal known today as UDV, by José Gabriel da Costa – 1961. Preparing for his own passing, Irineu preoccupied himself with organizing a statute, because he felt that after his death there would be more ramifications - the so called lines. The diverse lines are forms of varied rituals that were foreseen and accepted by master Irineu. When asked, which line he would adopt, he answered: I adopt them all. It’s natural that he was referring to the lines that would be used with ayahuasca, only in the sense of varied forms of rituals. 59 The addition of another substance – Marijuana – to the Daime Ritual in one of the “lines” brought about by Sebastião Mota de Melo – Padrinho Sebastião, as he is known, and this line is CEFLURIS. If we look at article 19 of the statute left behind by master Irineu, we will see that this “line” cannot even be considered a line. It is, in its essence, a great detour, a mistake with much consequence that can be proved several ways. Today they persist and the ramifications show themselves, the lines that came up after the death of master Irineu. In fact, we can consider valid the lines that follow the basic precept left in the statute and by the will of master Irineu. Ayahuasca had its share of persecutions and proofs, it is legal and only brings benefits to human beings in a proven scientific manner and by other non-scientific means. The truth is given to those who want to see it. USP is a very serious institution but one does not know what goes on in there. But that’s how the students there find out about “daime,” the version distorted with drugs, which is not really daime, just a bunch of misinformed youth, whose parents have no idea what goes on in there, an educational institution. The kids are “learning” to ignore and ridicule scientific proof and disrespect the laws of their own institution. It’s interesting to note that the organizers of this course were given opportunity to do it simply because they dominated a branch of science. They are in an educational institution in the name of science which they profess, but ignore and mock other branches of science, to achieve their objective of undoing, disorganizing and even disrespecting other sciences which prove what they don’t want to see. Total lack of professional ethics! To conclude I will tell a little about the experience we are living through now: We are presently conducting rituals with ayahuasca in a “point of light,” an institution affiliated to Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição. Caio, my husband, and I accepted this mission, we understood that we could serve, we understood what it would take, it is a great honor and an even greater responsibility. We prepared for this by taking a formation course of “Padrinhos and Madrinhas” where upon completion we received authorization, or rather “approved” in the very first attempt. Even so, we decided to take two more courses after the first. I think we’ll do all that are available and will continue studying in all ways possible to make sure we are well prepared for this mission. We will never stop studying and learning. 60 There is a very important detail. No matter how much we prepare ourselves we will never be better than “nurses.” Gideon, the Shaman and our padrinho, always calls himself a “simple nurse” explaining that the ones that really conduct the ritual are the higher planes of spirituality, the beings of light. I say this so that it is clear that we should work with a lot of seriousness, transparency and humbleness. In these courses (the first lasted 9 days and the two others lasted 5 days each) we spent all days in absolute silence, eating a rice mush with no salt and sometimes cassava root with no salt. And of course, taking a lot of ayahuasca. We learned a lot. The silence, the diet and the continuing days with ayahuasca, the lectures and orientations from Gideon, the exercises and techniques – and the presentation of tools, provoke deep inner work and great changes. For the better of course! Some of the tools are courses or exercises called: “Mental Screen,” “Power Animals,” “Breaking of the Illusion of Reality,” etc. They strengthen and transform us to live much more consciously. We learn that there is no separation between spiritual life and material life. The material life is a reflection of the spiritual life. Another important thing that we learn there, which has been mentioned already, is the separation of the ego from our centered self (our higher self). With ayahuasca as the main consciousness expansion facilitator, we see ourselves from the inside. But soon after the expansion of consciousness that an ayahuasca ritual provides, with the days that follow, the ego could strongly resume control of our lives. In the day to day life we should be alert so that we do not lose that lucidity that an expanded consciousness gives us. If not, the ego, which has always reigned supreme, dominates us again, and if we allow it, if we are not paying attention, it will sabotage our consciousness. So we create mechanisms of defense, we invent stories and justifications for everything to return to the way it was before and that’s exactly where danger lies. When a person takes Daime without having the experience of separation of the ego or without further clarifications, she falls prey to her own weaknesses and ends up strengthening the ego. Let’s take responsibility for Change! IT IS UP TO US to change the world for the better. We can live bringing light to the lives of others as we bring in light into our own! I take full responsibility for all that I have said here: L. M. B. M. A. 61 Testimony by police officer F. Dear Brother Emiliano Dias Linhares, Gideon of the Lakotas Through the present letter I give my testimony of the events I lived through in the Churches affiliated to CEFLURIS, during the period I spent there. Back in the 1990s I had a girlfriend that regularly attended the church Céu do Mar, which is located at 3036 Canoas Road, São Conrado, state of Rio de Janeiro. Due to her constant invitations I finally gave in and went to visit what she called Santo Daime. However, I had my prior doubts as to whether Santo Daime was a drug or not, since I had never had any experience with drugs, and I’m not even into drinking or smoking, so I was very careful in doing some research and found out that Santo Daime was not listed as a drug, so I decided to try it. After arriving at Céu do Mar and taking Santo Daime I had a revelation, in which I saw the being that called herself Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, who told me that she would require my assistance for a mission. As I continued to attend the spiritual rituals, I kept receiving more clarifications, always upon taking Santo Daime and finally perceived that there really was something strange in the form which things were conducted there. I noticed that the breath of several people there had a similar smell to that of marijuana, and their eyes would be very red, characteristic evidences of people that make use of this drug. This is easy to notice, since all of us at some point found ourselves face to face with an addict; Finally at a spiritual work (ritual) at Céu do Mar church, the figure that presented herself to me in these visions told me that she needed my help to “clean up” her house, or rather, the church. Later I found out that this was an even bigger problem, spread throughout all the Santo Daime churches that venerated Sebastião Mota de Melo, known as padrinho Sebastião. When I began attending the spiritual works, padrinho Sebastião had already passed away a few months prior and everyone mentioned his name with a great deal of respect. When I attempted to probe the facts revealed through the Vision, I found out that there really was a parallel doctrine in the churches that idolized Sebastião Mota de Melo, and that this parallel doctrine was the communion with marijuana which they entitle “Santa Maria” (Holy Mary), and to participate in this ritual only trustworthy individuals were invited and the member of the Church entitled “Fardados” (in uniform). After several attempts at talking to one of the leaders there whose name is Paulo Roberto, and without success in reaching a solution to the facts in a personal interview, finally in one the rituals the same entity that had been appearing to me gave me a solution for the question. So I followed her orientations and began the process of initiation, which they call there “becoming uniformed.” After “becoming uniformed” I began to exercise more influence within that brotherhood, however they would not let me know about the doctrine of “Santa Maria” and its details. Only after some “uniformed” participants and some “ex-uniforms” (who had found out about my proposal) of Santo 62 Daime rituals be practiced in a Legal manner, without the use of parallel parasitic rituals such as “Santa Maria” which is the use of marijuana. I had found out about the use of marijuana with the name Santa Maria, and that they had a specific area outside the main ritual hall, or church, which are called “house of joint,” and the act of smoking the joint or communing the “Santa Maria” was to use marijuana as a power plant, and that by simply going to the “house of joint” during the ritual or afterwards, and being committed not to reveal the secret that it was Sebastião Mota de Melo who introduced the worship/ritual to Santa Maria, and that this ritual began in the period after the death of Master Raimundo Irineu Serra in 1971, when Sebastião Mota de Melo declared himself to have the right to be the Master’s natural successor, parting with the Church founded by Master Irineu, called Alto Santo and founded his own spiritual line together with his sons and current successors named Alfredo and Valdete. At the time many hippies regularly attended his spiritual works, and some time later, Alex Polari, and a psychologist by the name of Paulo Roberto, who became his son-in-law by marrying his daughter, Nonata, they structured what is known as CEFLURIS – Flowing Light Eclectic Center Raimundo Irineu Serra, and that all of them took advantage of the good name of Master Irineu, a person of great moral, material and spiritual disposition and character, began to develop a network of Churches that use Santo Daime and the good name of Master Irineu as a façade to cover up their illegal rituals with the use of marijuana, and that this is the real reason for the great numeric expansion of the Churches that idolize the person and doctrine created by padrinho Sebastião, a cult directed by greedy people, with branches spread to several cities in all the Brazilian states, including a few countries, and that the source of their great wealth is the selling and distribution of the tea Santo Daime, and an integrant member of the cult by the name of Caparelli, is responsible for selling and distribution, who also has a Church located in Pontal da Barra, Rio de Janeiro and is called Jardim Praia da Beira Mar, and that Alfredo and Alex Polari are at the head of CEFLURIS and that Paulo Roberto, by his own greed, has his own network of Churches with the same principles throughout Brazil and abroad, and this is easily ascertained seeing how these people have enriched so quickly since starting this type of activity, and if probed, one will find occurrences involving these people in some way or another with narcotics, and that Sebastião is recognized in the Doctrine which he founded as being the reincarnation of John the Baptist, that Alfredo is known as the reincarnation of King Solomon and Alex Polari, King David, that many followers really do know that they are practicing many wrong things but according to the instruction of their leaders, “the world is not ready for public revelation of the deep meaning of the practices left behind by Sebastião Mota de Melo.” During the period that I was a member some exuniforms told me that Sebastião’s cause of death was the excessive use of “Santa Maria,” and that when he had passed, Sebastião had left a recording stating that he had failed in his convictions and whoever wanted to take up the “Santa Maria” banner, would do it under his own name. After his death a myth was created around his person and was popularized by his Doctrine of “Santa Maria.” So, with 63 the passing of time I could observe and tried by diverse means to speak to some representatives, who instead of correcting all the distortion that I pointed out, decided to increase security with regards to the knowledge of this information, so that no one would come to me with similar reports. Marijuana liberation is openly defended by Marcos Imperial, leader of the Rainha do Mar Community, located in Rio, also affiliated to CEFLURIS. In Brazil, the places where certain churches plant marijuana buds are kept in secret, but I believe it is easy to find as long as the Federal Police begins to probe and ascertain such facts. I believe that all around Brazil and abroad there are many sad reports that involve many people and that they are all afraid of exposure and persecution, since the leaders of these churches claim to be friends with high and influential people… Children participate in rituals with Santo Daime as well as mothers with small children. There is a special day set aside for children, who from an early age learn to idolize padrinho Sebastião, and many are initiated as teenagers in the worship of “Santa Maria,” as has been reported to me. During the time I lived with this situation, from 1990 to 2000, I was invited by a person from the Doctrine, tenderly named Baixinha (little person), spiritual leader of the church Céu da Montanha in the city of Nova Friburgo, and together we tried several times to bring awareness to people of the problem of “Santa Maria.” Many times she would propose that rituals were done with the intent of curing addiction and the exclusion of the use of “Santa Maria.” I also noticed at this time that the times that the words, “Santa Maria” and “Santa Clara” were used in the songs and lectures in the associated and affiliated churches of CEFLURIS that these words were a reference to marijuana and cocaine respectively. Through spiritual study and the ingestion of Santo Daime I ascertained that in Master Irineu’s Hymnal, nowhere in the book or songs are there the words “Santa Maria” together. You can read the hymn book from beginning to end and find out for yourself the truth of what I say, that is, to conclude that it’s not for nothing that Raimundo Irineu Serra is recognized as a master. He never allowed the use of drugs in his spiritual works, leaving it clearly written in the Foundation Statute of Alto Santo as to the procedures to be taken, this way never allowing his name to be associated with illegal substances. As much as they try to mix his name, he is unhurt, either by his words, actions or writings. CEFLURIS and Céu do Mar keep sites on the internet divulging information on padrinho Sebastião, and all anyone really has to do if he or she wants to weigh the facts is to start attending their rituals and spiritual works so that in a short time they will be able to witness everything that I am affirming. 64 I hope that this report touches others like me, and that they too can send in letters reporting on their experiences with Churches associated with CEFLURIS that disseminate the doctrine of “Santa Maria” addressed to Emiliano Dias Linhares, whose spiritual name is Gideon of the Lakotas, responsible for the Shamanic Institute Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição so that he can either reproduce it on paper or divulge it through other means. Fraternally F. 65 IV Power Plants x Drug Plants First of all, I’d like to explain that shamanism is universalism. Therefore, a shaman is not bound by the anchors of ephemeral truths based on human or tribal bias, dogmas or taboos, which really originate from attachment. We know that only absolute truths promote an accelerated spiritual growth. So, we shamans know that intuition and reason must walk side by side. Science and spirituality should be part of every day of your life so that you can enter the wonders of the kingdom of heaven. Intuition will give you direction, and reason will map the way, and through your will you will reach it. In the world there is light and the absence of light. In truth, there is no shadow, but only the absence of light. Absence of reality. You think too much, rationalize too much, then you see as if there were smoke in front of your eyes and you lose your way. But when you find yourself in the light, with steadfast courage to face and dominate the passions of the heart, silence your own brain and defeat vice once and for all, then your light grows even larger because the Great Spirit smiles on the obedient son. So, by not agreeing with the things that deviate you from the light is wise; and to see them is a great need of evolution. All plants come from the Great Spirit, all are blessings. There are no “bad” plants, and all were created with distinct functions. There are medicinal plants, power plants, and even master power plants: Medicinal Plants: created exclusively for healing purposes, medicine. They act through their chemical composition and are usually directed to act on a specific organ, with rare exceptions. However, medication used incorrectly harms and causes dependency. Power Plants: have the capacity to promote consciousness expansion and a connection with the spiritual world. But they do not guide you. They only place you there. Then you must make use of your own spiritual baggage and knowledge to be able to find your way around. Unfortunately the great majority of humanity is only crawling with regards to knowledge of the invisible world. Master Power Plants: have the capacity to promote the expansion of consciousness, a connection with the spiritual world and still guide you through this world and teach you many things. That is why they are masters, or teachers! Ayahuasca is the Queen of Power Plants at this time that we live in. 66 The Power Plant The power plant is characterized by its capacity to cause alterations of consciousness to those that use it. It does not cause any physical harm to the user and can even go as far as completely reactivating damaged organs or even, in some cases, reactivate organs that had stopped working all together. Another important characteristic is that the power plant possesses both masculine and feminine elements. This is why it causes balance! This is why in men it will act more on the masculine side and less on the feminine, because men’s nature is stronger on the masculine side and less on the feminine. Masculine energy is creation and circulates mainly in the arms and thorax. That is why kambô (a type of natural antibiotic collected from Amazonian frogs), in men, is applied on the arms. In women, it acts more on the feminine side and less on the masculine, because the nature of women is more on the feminine side and less on the masculine. Feminine energy is receptivity and circulates mostly in the legs. That is why in women, kambô is applied on the legs. Another important characteristic is the fact that a power plant never causes dependency to those that use it. It will never make anyone addicted, because it acts through the energy that it carries and not its chemistry. So much so that scientific laws are not able to place a power plant under the same class as drugs! This is the reason why the organism never offers resistance to a power plant. In other words, the effects that 50ml of ayahuasca cause you today are the same effects that 50ml of the same ayahuasca will cause you after 20 years! What changes is the level of spiritual experiences and never the effects. Another detail is the fact that every power plant promotes, whenever there is a need for it, physical and energetic cleansing of the channel or body that is taking it, because light does not live in a dirty temple. The power plant connects those that use it to sensitivity and the energies of the spirit. It promotes, more and more, the opening and alignment of the Chakras. Therefore, the user begins to greatly increase FEELING. He begins to comprehend through intuition and base his certainties on the light where he begins to live in… He knows the way to follow, because he FEELS it, not because reason has defined it so. In the spiritual works or rituals of amplified consciousness with ayahuasca, you will always have the tendency to maintain direct contact with your inner self, your essence. You will see yourself from the inside, with all the qualities and faults you possess. You will enter the world of causes and will break the veil of illusion, which will maintain you in the truth… There are many power plants, but I mention safe examples as: ayahuasca, peyote and watchuma (san pedrito). Besides the plants, there are still some types of mushrooms, but the great majority is only 67 medicinal. If used incorrectly, they can cause a lot of harm. A really powerful mushroom is the one that sprouts from guano (bat feces). But unlike ayahuasca, it does not guide or teach. Medicinal Plants All plants are natural, and come from God. But the science of correct usage is also natural and comes from the same God. Medicinal plants also characterize the fact that they are capable of altering the consciousness of the user, but at the cost of physical damage and side effects for medium and long terms. These harmful consequences have been proven scientifically by common medicine, but especially by spiritual medicine. Another characteristic of a medicinal plant is that it possesses only one type of elemental or energy, masculine or feminine. Spiritually speaking, we shamans, know that the even the energy of diseases have masculine or feminine characteristics. This is one of the reasons why a healer really needs to know plants of masculine or feminine energies well. Used incorrectly, medicinal plants cause serious damage to the energetic body of the user. See, for example, cannabis sativa, also known as marijuana or santa maria, which possesses a feminine elemental. The correct use of this plant is the extraction of type of oil from its roots and the application, as an ointment, on the surface of the skin. Only in the case of glaucoma can it be inhaled, but at the most three times. If it is inhaled (smoked), taken as tea or cake, it will cause you, in the short term, grave physiological damage. Marijuana affects men much more rapidly than women. It quickly causes damages to the sacral chakra, causing in men a decrease in sexual attraction towards women and can, yes, lead to sexual impotency. We can observe that women who make incorrect use of marijuana or santa maria suffer the damaging effects more slowly, whereas male users succumb much more quickly. Now, cocaine only has masculine energy. Even being refined in a laboratory, its energy does not change. Observe that women who use cocaine incorrectly suffer the effects much more quickly than male users. Because coca is plant of exclusively masculine energy, it causes, immediately, a sort of short circuit in the feminine energy field, going as far as completely closing a woman’s chakras. But, whether in a male or female, the THC contained in marijuana kills neurons, causing cerebral lethargy and memory lapses (see the scientific chapter in this book that deals with marijuana and its effects). This medicinal plant, when inadequately used, promotes an even stronger connection with the beta state, with logic, with raw rationality, and as a result of the chakras undergoing atrophy, it diminishes sensitivity or mediumship of those that use it. In this aspect marijuana or santa maria is relentless. As I’ve said before, in some indigenous languages, it can be translated as “plant that binds.” The more you use it, the more you will be subject to the earthly or lower frequencies. Remember this reader: everything in the universe is frequency, everything vibrates. If your frequency lowers, or becomes coarse, what kind of entities from the invisible world can access you? 68 Another characteristic is that the incorrect use of the medicinal plant causes dependency or addiction, something that a power plant will never do. That saying that cannabis sativa is a light drug is just a lying excuse created by minds that are already addicted. Marijuana causes serious side effects already in the first year of use. It’s currently the main entry point for heavier drugs. It damages the part of the brain responsible for the manifestation of the will in both sexes, leaving the user lethargic, with slow reasoning powers, and especially an accentuated tendency for laziness. Marijuana is natural, but its incorrect use is not natural and disrespects the principles of creation. So much so that the user’s body knows this, and in a short time begins to reject the THC from the plant, offering much resistance to it. But the user’s mind usually ignores the warnings that the body gives, insisting in even larger doses to have some sort of mind altering experience. The user even goes as far as substituting it for stronger drugs! Among the medicinal plants used incorrectly nowadays, I mention: marijuana (santa maria) and cocaine. I want to make it clear that the real shamans use only power plants or master power plants for exercises of consciousness expansion. Medicinal plants are only for medicinal use. We know that the incorrect use of these plants stain and blacken the body and spirit of man. This is very serious because we know that man is the living temple of God, and God does not live in a dirty temple. SOME ASCERTATIONS ON AYAHUASCA The lethal dosage (LD) is the quantity of a given substance that, once ingested, leads to death. The LD of water is 10 liters: if you drink 10 liters of water all at once, the risk of death is almost 100%. The LD of ayahuasca is 7.8 liters. In other words, a person needs to take in at once 7.8 liters of ayahuasca for there to be the risk of death. Can you notice the similarity between water and ayahuasca? However, here at the Shamanic Spiritual Institute Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição you will take in, for a ritual of altered consciousness of approximately 12 hours, at the most 200ml of ayahuasca. The lethal dose of ayahuasca is very similar to that of water! The LD of pure passion fruit juice is 8 liters. And finally, and more impressing, the LD of whisky is only 1 liter. If you take in, all at once 1 liter of whisky, you might die. Our Brazilian cachacinha - sugar cane brandy, is very similar to whisky! Do you understand what this means? A liter of whisky has more toxins than 7.8 liters of ayahuasca. Another form to scientifically establish the level of toxicity of a substance is to give it 5 guinea-pigs doses of 1gram per kilo of body mass. The substance is considered inoffensive if it does not cause physiopathological damage in the quantity of up to 5 grams. For ayahuasca, this mark was considerably surpassed, because it reached 5.8 grams per kilo, without any type of damaging effect. Psychiatric tests recommended by the scientific orthodoxy were also applied: the CIDI (Composite International Diagnostic Interview) with the criteria being CID 10 and DSM IIR.c; and the TPQ (Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire). It was found that in relation to the two separate groups for 69 this research (the group of ayahuasca users and the control group), that the users of ayahuasca presented themselves more reflexive, resistant, loyal, stoic, calm, frugal, orderly and persistent. And yet, more confident, optimist, uninhibited, unworried, willing and energetic. They also showed happiness, determination and elevated self-confidence. And, contrary to speculation that ayahuasca hampers memory, the neuropsychological tests scientifically ascertained that the memory of the “ayahuasca users” group had a significantly better performance than the group of non users. 70 V - TRUTHS YOU MUST KNOW Thanks to a recently approved law, now it is almost impossible to remove drugs from SANTO DAIME. Almost impossible to give SANTO DAIME back to its originality and seriousness in the form that it was given to master Irineu. People always have the government that it deserves, that is a truth. They wanted it this way, they got it. A sad fate for the world’s cellar is about to happen. And these people will only see when it is too late. During an expanded consciousness work I did among some pine trees, I shed enough tears to fill my boots. It was a cry felt for the choice that they made. I see far, sad was this choice for the world’s cellar. But this law will be reverted in the future, thanks to the political weight that this movement from the light is reaching. Drugs are favorite dishes of matter and gross frequencies. And it is exactly this dish that is being served to humanity now. So, those that are still sitting on the fence, not resisting this dish, will quickly decide. One thing is for sure: God doesn’t judge or condemn. Man judges himself. His attitudes decide if he is wheat or if he is chaff. The dish from the Light will also be served to humanity and this will happen here in the world’s cellar. You can wait. I know well what I’m saying. Each man will choose the side he wishes to stay on, so chaff and wheat will separate naturally. In this day there won’t be a way around and each will have to answer for him or herself, according to their deeds and works. Then you will see how true my teachings were and how great was my love for you. I did all I could to warn you. From my part and those here at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, we’ll continue to freely distribute jagube and chacrona seedlings in the hundreds of thousands as we have been doing. Also, we’ll continue to be open thousands of points of light (churches) that do not seek profit and do not mix drugs. Sister points of light from CNSC that also walk with the same seriousness and nobility of master Raimundo Irineu Serra. Honor is something you need to conquer for yourself. What good is it to talk about he glories of your grandfather, if you yourself haven’t reached any? Peace and love with a lot of drugs is only an illusion and will not bring you honor! Know that light will enlarges even more those that seek honor and make an effort to reach it. Honor comes from love as light comes from the sun. Nobility is in the soul and honor in kindness. Where is the honor and charity of those that help disseminate vices? Where is the nobility of those that seek the illusion of drugs? Steadfastness and meditation accompany nobility of the spirit. So it’s wise to have them as friends. If you want fame and greatness, and chose drugs and its liberation movement to reach them, will see how in time all truth will come to light and revulsion will be in the faces of those that remember you. The ambitious person knows how to pretend and hones his skill in misleading. So, for a time, she will 71 be well seen in the multitudes. However, ambition is present in all men, for it is part of human nature. Well or badly conducted, it will be a blessing or a curse. Foolish is the one that lives in ambition and ignores modesty. It is like trying to quench your thirst by drinking sea water. Ambition resides in the soul of the traitor and hypocrisy follows him every day. With well calculated actions followed by soft words, he distributes his venom on those that give him ears. In search of applause, promotes apologies and excuses for something that will harm millions. He disdains the heavy karma that he acquires with this, as if he could escape the laws of higher justice. But be sure of this: before benevolence, comes justice. Those that walk in the light desire the virtues of the spirit and despise the fame that ambition wants. Those that live in unconditional love do not seek applause, and therefore never feel offended. There is no victory if not in unconditional love and the resulting detachment. The greater your unconditional love, the less will be your need for applause, and greater the light that will irradiate and greater the honor received by the merits gained. In my journey, I’ve seen many people looking at daime only as a source of income, ignoring the sanctity lying therein. Ignoring that daime and drugs are very different. Ignoring especially, the gigantic difference between our sober and glowing master Irineu and Sebastião Mota de Melo, who brought drugs, the ones he used so much, and commerce to SANTO DAIME. I saw persons, who called themselves padrinhos in daime churches, that acted like politicians, lighting up candles for two masters in the attempt to be seen by all, without even caring who was in the light or not before the laws of God. How can they expect the blessings of the light if, even with the little they received, showed such infidelity? Who is unfaithful with little is unfaithful with much! I became very sad when I saw one of these padrinhos sink like a hammer with no handle stick. Much did I warn him that before the laws of the Creator there is no such thing as diplomacy, only what is right. If he had heard my warning, the light of the Lord would not have left him. My late wife Genecilda and I never sold ourselves or stepped aside from what is true. We always kept firm within the teaching of the Divine Mother, and the spiritual teaching of the higher astral plane. Yes, I can claim in a loud voice: “I honored the great masters, with actions and steadfastness and feel honored for having done so.” It’s through the care of madrinha and the teachings of padrinho that today CNSC has tens of thousands of adopted sons and daughters. Her passing took place and not even widowhood changed this situation. As for my part, I did it well. With much transparency have I passed on the teachings from above and have asked for nothing in return. I have given a living example of unconditional love and spiritual sobriety. I have demonstrated firmness of character and the spiritual courage for doing what is right found in a son of the light, only for the sake of being right, without caring if it will please this or that 72 person and, decidedly, refusing everything that is half right, because what is half right is also half wrong. In the light there are no stains. LIVING HISTORY OF SANTO DAIME Contemporaries of Master Irineu Interview – March, 2007 Adália de Castro Granjeiro One the oldest followers of master Raimundo Irineu Serra Date of birth: 18/11/1933 Adália Granjeiro: I met master Irineu when I was 5 years old and knew him for 30 odd years. My father, Antonio Gomes da Silva, was a one of master Irineu’s men of trust. Master Irineu was very charitable, happy and only taught us good things, like being humble, working for the good of humanity, treating brothers and sisters with love, care and respect. He taught us to sing hymns, pray and dance. All of this we learned with him. For me, there were only good things. Gideon of the Lakotas: Did master Irineu ever charge for the rituals? Adália Granjeiro: He never did. There could be contributions or offerings, but never charged anything and even refused the money that certain people gave him. He only used it for charity. G.L.: Do you know what master Irineu’s opinion was about drug use? A.G.: He was against it. I never heard him say that he had personally used it or ever recommended anyone to do so. Some people that used drugs went there to look for help and he would help the person be set free. With daime? Not even in thought. Daime is pure; it’s not mixed with anything. So today there is this mix because of the world out there, but he never taught this to anyone. 73 G.L.: While at Alto Santo, did you ever meet Sebastião Mota de Melo? A.G.: Yes. And to me he was a good person at the time. I never thought that he would change like this. When he lived with us he was a very good person. He even helped us much in those days. After he left, when there was the division in the Alto Santo, then everything changed. I couldn’t believe it because of the person he used to be. We had such high regard for him, working with daime together with my husband, who taught him how to make it. How can a person change so quickly to the other side? He learned it correctly, everything well, and then did the exact opposite. Master Irineu used to say to us not to be scared that there would come a time that some things were going to happen which would make us doubt. (…) I leave it up to God. Only He can solve it. In my mind I ask God to give you more strength and courage for this work. G.L.: What is the advice that you leave for the youth, about daime, about the experience that you have? A.G.: I desire for everyone to return to the light to see where truth lies and the power and mercy of God. It is through this doctrine that we gain happiness, salvation and well being. The youth need to think about this. I don’t know how to say much. G.L.: Does daime need to be used with responsibility? A.G.: Those that lack responsibility don’t have the right to a single drop of daime. That’s what the master used to say. The person that does not respect daime, in the house that there is no harmony or peace, daime does not enter. The master used to say: “whoever has a filthy mouth do not take my daime.” (…) Daime has only three ingredients. Vine, leaf and water. Now the “refinement,” the end result, only God gives. These are some of the things I heard the master say. G.L.: Do you have any other stories to tell us? A.G.: At one time, Sebastião Mota invited my husband to go work with them, but he refused because of these things with drugs. Then the friendship ended. Because my husband was not easily fooled by talk. (…)I heard that Sebastião Mota used to say that master Irineu was the one who introduced marijuana to him, that he saw him coming in the spirit world bringing him the leaves, with branches and showed him, to make use of it, and to cure the world with that. 74 Message A.G.: Everything that the master did was with the help of God. Money does not bring power. He wanted God’s power not the money: He always said that after he was no longer here, we were supposed to take daime and ask for his help, and then he would come. Interview – March, 2007 Family from Rio de Janeiro who knew master Irineu Raimundo Serra Júlio Carioca Filho Date of birth: 24/09/1956 Maria de Lourdes Carioca Date of birth: 16/02/1936 Jane Maria da Silva Carioca Date of birth: 03/04/1959 Gideon of the Lakotas: What brought you to master Irineu? Maria de Lourdes Carioca: I was very sick, with acute appendicitis, and had been in bed for days and everything was set for me to undergo surgery. Then I went to master Irineu, where there was no headquarters, the rituals were held in his house and he gave daime to 30 people. We didn’t speak about what I felt. I took the daime, and everyone started to have mirações (visions) and so did I. In my vision I saw a hospital and then I was healed. And I didn’t say anything to him. G.L.: Do you know if master Irineu used any drugs? M.L.C.: He never did that. We didn’t even hear about drugs, marijuana, or anything like that. It was from 1975 on that all of this started. And we heard that they were giving marijuana even to kids. G.L.: You, who knew master Irineu, believe he left a successor? 75 M.L.C.: There is no successor because he was a pure man, natural. He was and is natural. He always told us that when we gathered together for a ritual he would be with us. He said it would be difficult to reach the true daime. And that those that learned to make daime with him should gather the others in their own backyard and make it the way he taught, because it would be very difficult to reach the true and pure daime that he left. G.L.: Some people say that Sebastião Mota de Melo wanted to be a master? Jane Carioca: Up to the time that he was here with us we did not know this. Júlio Carioca Filho: When we found out he had left, he had already set up a well made center there at Mapiá, well under way. And he called himself padrinho. J.C.: He took some components there, some who were friends of the master. J.C.F.: He took the components that sought profit. J.C.: I don’t really know if that was the case, because as soon as he went there, there was no “santa maria” (marijuana). Only after two or three years that we found out he had adopted “santa maria,” through a vision that he had. And for this reason we were even attacked by the Federal Police here. J.C.F.: Madrinha Peregrina still feels the effects of all of this, that’s why she closes up whenever there is a documentary or things like that. J.C.: You don’t see a book that speaks of daime which really reflects us, our image. Everyone sees the image passed on by Mapiá, that’s why madrinha Peregrina preserves us. Money and drugs J.C.: Master Irineu never valued money. He preferred to use anything from these woods, from nature. His focus was to serve humanity. J.C.F.: We have seen many people come here from Mapiá to ask for help getting better. G.L.: What do you think master Irineu would say about all of this? J.C.: He would keep to himself, silent, observing what we wanted. J.C.F.: We are seeing today what he warned was going to happen. J.C.: Master Irineu is in fact the power. 76 J.C.F.: There were never any drugs with master Irineu and should never be with anyone who wishes to follow him. (…) And Sebastião Mota will try to infiltrate drugs into the world with daime supporting it. I give this testimony collaborating for it not to happen. (…) For those that preserve this doctrine, leave Sebastião Mota out of it. This is something that exists throughout the colony. What master Irineu left for us was to cultivate the doctrine. And Sebastião Mota is already gone and spread the seeds for what? Evil. The seed he left to the world is evil. And unfortunately his children think that this is serving some purpose, which I fail to see what it is. And still use the name of master Irineu? G.L.: And Cefluris is Centro Eclético da Fluente Luz Universal Raimundo Irineu Serra, do you think this is fair? J.C.: No, it was a sin. (…) He never came here to discuss anything with madrinha Peregrina saying that he was going to use the name of the master for his work. (…) And the rituals that we do here are done exactly how the master used to do them. There is no spirit possession or dispossession. Everything is beautiful, using the phrases he left, everyone leaves this place happy, better than when they arrived. But it is pure because the person only takes in water, tea and daime, lucid. Madrinha doesn’t even smoke cigarettes anymore. And she doesn’t ask for a cent, the community helps. J.C.F.: How far are Sebastião Mota’s people going to go? How long will justice be blind? We will have to stop this; we cannot let this go on. J.C.: I think that what happened in the brain of this person with this deadly mix was the lack of modesty, lack of love within human beings. Daime is the center, the divine, the power. What they are doing will take away the self love people have, the love for others, for nature. From 1975 to now we have death, we have war. When it was just pure daime everything was calm until 1975, from that year until now all of this other stuff came about, mixing with cocaine and marijuana, spirit possession, and none of these things were there before. None of these lies. G.L.: There was even a murder here, the castration of Ceará, isn’t that true? J.C.: It was the castration of the healer Ceará. What happened was that when he in the “act of healing” with the women other things happened, and the husbands got together and did quite a job on him. But all of this came after marijuana and other drugs. And he (master Irineu) warned us before he left that there would be some ugly things. Message J.C.F.: The person who wishes to know more about the doctrine should always look for what is true, and not be taken by illusions. Drugs never. This thing with Cefluris with drugs, this does not exist, it’s not real, and these words are from someone who really got to know the real daime. An advice I give 77 and even ask of you: if you want to know this doctrine, look for people that know the real doctrine and who knew and lived with master Irineu. These are the words of someone who knew both master Irineu and Sebastião Mota. M.L.C.: My message is the same. Forget Sebastião Mota, they are totally misguided. Look for the truth. J.C.: I pity the people who mix divine power with an illusion, that lead you to do evil. Master Raimundo Irineu Serra and Sebastião Mota don’t ever mix, like water and oil, light and shadow. The truth I know, in my 48 years, is the truth of the three parts: leaf, water and vine, together with fire and prayer. And the words that came from him (master Irineu). Be sure that drugs are illusions, toxic. Sing the hymns you already know. Whoever is young and reads this book, make an effort to notice that if you mix daime with marijuana you are trapped in a great illusion. You’ll always remain in the plane of the people that do not know the truth. 78 VI Ayahuasca Situation in Brazil In Brazil, there are four traditional daime or ayahuasca lines that form the basis of all other independent ayahuasca churches: Alto Santo: founded by master Raimundo Irineu Serra. He is the pioneer and it was through him that daime came about. This is a very serious work, of pure light and love. It does not use and will never use any type of drug in the rituals. And is in agreement with the Brazilian Constitution. Barquinha: founded by master Daniel Pereira de Matos. He is a follower of master Raimundo Irineu. It is also a very serious work, that does not use or ever used drugs within daime rituals. It is in conformity with our Constitution. União do Vegetal (UDV): founded by master José Gabriel da Costa. This is a very serious work, of great light, does not use and never used drugs within ayahuasca rituals. It is also in conformity with the current laws and our Constitution. And, unfortunately Cefluris: this work is the black stain of daime, practicing everything master Raimundo Irineu Serra said, and wrote in his statute, for everyone never to do. There are other independent lines, such as Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição (CNSC). They are serious works of light, without lucrative goals, that do not use and never used drugs with ayahuasca, or any other form. However, there are other independent lines founded by disciples of padrinho Sebastião that, though not affiliated to Cefluris, also use a lot of drugs. They also preach and encourage the use of these drugs, claiming that they are consecrating it to santa maria and nonsense of this sort. Here at CNSC, in the past two years, by the grace and mercy of the Great Father, and through the shamanic works with ayahuasca, more than 7500 chemical dependents were recovered. Drug addicts hooked on marijuana (santa maria) and cocaine (santa clara). A considerable number of these chemical dependents who came here in search of help were “uniformed” and regular attendants in Cefluris churches. I was even sadder when I heard the reports and testimonies of some of them. They would say that they had never used any type of drugs, until they started participating in the SANTO DAIME rituals at Cefluris churches. There they believed the story that consecrating marijuana to God somehow it stops being cannabis sativa and becomes santa maria. In a few months they were totally hooked. It wasn’t too long before they made the leap to stronger drugs. 79 Brother Sebastião had love in his heart when he started. Along the way, he made the terrible mistake of becoming addicted to drugs and this was exactly what led him away from the light. But things became more serious when he left behind a great number of disciples that believed in the myth “padrinho Sebastião, a man illuminated by drugs.” Therefore it is necessary to break this myth so that daime retakes its holy origin. In this way, even padrinho Sebastião’s karma, which is very heavy due to the effects of what he did, will also be diminished. Therefore, CNSC is also helping him. You can’t even imagine the joy I feel when I see people come here from Cefluris and waking up to life, to the liberating reality of the spiritual world. Just a couple of years back, there was a line-up of daimistas who hated me to the death because to the truths that I show and scientifically prove. Today, only about 30% of this line-up is still standing, the rest woke up and saw how true my words were. The universal harvest is knocking at the doors! Do you think that Hercolubus is a tooth fairy story? That the biblical apocalypse will not happen? Know that even the commas will be fulfilled! Two thirds of the world’s population will fall. And half of these will fall by drug addiction. Know that vice is a spiritual problem. It has its share in the physical world, but it is in the spiritual one that it happens. You disembody and it follows you. Can you imagine a spirit suffering for its need of matter? I still hope to see them corrected, happy and free, unconditionally adding force in the path of light illuminating all the brotherhood of the earth! Beloved, spiritual growth happens sometimes by the rose and sometimes by the whip. No one in this world will be able to escape this. When the cards are all on the table, when truth is shown, it is necessary to expose merit as well as faults. This is not criticism, but simply showing the error and explaining why it is an error. Once the illusion of dogma and the reality of truth are shown, only those who wish to keep the veil of illusion will not see. And there is nothing worth taking from this world! Testimonies of those that lived through the FALSE SANTO DAIME To whom it may concern: I, B___, D___, R___, RG (Id number):___, resident of São Paulo city, will now give my testimony with much satisfaction and happiness for being so blessed and seeing others blessed. The least I can do is to tell others of the many blessings and liberations that I had and witnessed many others receive as well. This way, I am taking a little bit of light to them too as they began to know this path. I’ve always sought people, who like me, were willing to make the world a better place. Up to now, I was only disappointed with selfish and illusioned people. 80 I lost myself in drugs and alcohol, for seven years, rebelling against the world, harming myself and my family. The world seemed like endless darkness, where people were lost, unable to see, stumbling, falling, crying. Until I came across the Shamanic Spiritual Institute “Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição,” until I learned about Daime/Shamanism as taught with so much seriousness and tenderness by Shaman Gideon, until I met the Divine Ayahuasca. It is thanks to daime/shamanism and ayahuasca that I was healed and freed from the vices of drugs and internal disillusionment. This power plant opened up a new vision, a new meaning in my life (and for many others too), she showed me the way for me to find myself again, she showed me that I was much more than I thought I was. Here at this Céu - Heaven (CNSC) we can love with open hearts, with courage, because everyone maintains the same harmony, the same objective: a better world for all. And this Shamanic Spiritual Institute, our Heaven, is the perfect place to help brothers that come in search of healing and Divine Love, because here is found a great number of brothers and sisters with the same objective! Ayahuasca brings light to people’s lives and walking in the light one does not get lost, because everything is so clear. I witnessed a great number of people who were hooked on drugs, from marijuana to crack cocaine and ecstasy; free themselves once and for all from drugs and vices even in the first ritual of daime/shamanism from CNSC. It was like this with me and so many others that I cannot even number. On several occasions I hear Shaman Gideon speak on the false churches that fraudulently used the name Santo Daime. He said: These people that mix daime with drugs, are doing a great evil to others and staining the true and divine Santo Daime, the one brother Irineu left for the white race. With this story that santa maria is not marijuana and santa clara is not cocaine, they are drugging themselves more and more. Not only them, but others who innocently go there. They need to change! As for myself I met many marijuana addicts, who came from these false santo daime churches our shaman had spoken of. A great number of people, who started with that little misleading story that they were only consecrating to santa maria and santa clara, and got hooked and found themselves at the bottom of the well, losing everything they had including family and dignity. 81 They came here to Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição desperately seeking freedom and light, in search of a path of truth. Already in the first ritual of daime/shamanism the majority of them liberated themselves completely, dropping drug and alcohol dependency, strengthening themselves and today are walking in the light. I witnessed many of these ex-addicts regain their family, material possession and especially their self confidence and dignity in a short while. Today, they arrive in their own cars and still bring old drug buddies to heal themselves as well. I also witnessed many wonderful physical cures, people that arrived here sick, feeling awful and leave this place healed and with a wonderful feeling of well being. What really impressed me, and I know impresses those that come, is the fact that in this Shamanic Institute, the works with ayahuasca do not seek profit. There is no commerce here. It is only 7 reais per person, which is the price of the cost of ayahuasca used in the rituals. But since many hippies and beggars come here also, many times our beloved Shaman pays for them. I thank our dear Shaman Gideon who, with much seriousness and much love, manages the wonderful shamanic spiritual works, and who, through a lot of effort and compassion, gave birth to the blessed Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição with a single objective: a better place for all brothers and sisters. He teaches us the very teachings of Lord Jesus and the great secrets of the universe. I also thank madrinha Genecilda and all the brothers of the farm who dedicate their lives to the teachings of Master Jesus, to the work and to aiding their brothers and sisters. I thank God for having created this Divine tool called Ayahuasca which makes us evolve in hours, what would’ve taken years, healing us, physically as well as emotionally. Healing resentment stuck deep inside the heart, strengthening us to carry on the journey, 82 To the Shamanic Institute “Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição” I always had a very agitated life, fueled by drugs and easy money. So you have an idea, I used all types of drugs in my life. The lighter ones were marijuana and cocaine at the beginning, then I moved on to L.S.D., ecstasy, M.D.M.A. or molly, crystal (methamphetamine), Ketamine, crack, amphetamines, well if I put all the ones I used I’d write a pharmaceutical encyclopedia. I went through a life of promiscuity with everything thing wrong that you can imagine. I was at the end of the line. Until one day, when I couldn’t take this life anymore, I decided to change, and with the help of a friend of mine I had the opportunity of visiting “Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição,” a divine place, blessed by God, where I was welcomed with dignity, and there they made me feel like a real person. They welcomed me with much love and taught me the real meaning of life. I arrived there one day as one person. Two days later, with a spiritual treatment of herbs (power plants), I was a different person, I became a dignified man again, with good thoughts, clean body and clean heart and spirit as well. Today I think about the people I harmed and I know that from now on I will be able to help many others that are in this world to heal themselves as well as the ones I personally harmed. I owe all of this to our Father above, my padrinho Gideon and “Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição,” and I say that Ayahuasca is the beginning of a new life. M.A.M.P.S., 30 years old, healed and thankful. Love, Peace and Light São Paulo, August 23rd, 2004 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Dear Sirs/Madams, Through this letter I’d like to report my passages through the center “Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição” Since December, 2003, I participate in the rituals held by this entity and have the following report to declare. 83 From the very first moment I was at the place: and I need to say that I study natural herbs (I’m a student of phitotherapy) I ascertained the presence of people coming from varied places seeking cure and liberation from drugs. Coming also from other churches and institutions, a great deal of these people let go of the addiction, after one ritual only. And after returning there at other times and in contact with these people, I could tell that they had really left the vice, and many started working, relating themselves in a social context again, going back to having a natural and healthy life. Many even brought their relatives who wanted to visit the place that had made them healthy again. I, myself, can say that I was suffering from a well known modern disease called stress. After a month of treatment I stopped taking anti-stress medication, and I have lived since then in mental and physical health.After attending this institution for a while I observed the increase in the number of participants and sick being healed and blessed with this remedy.This gentleman who is at the head of this organization possesses honorable dedication and his work has become more and more admired in spiritual circles.Having read numerous researches done on Ayahuasca, I found that there are many countries in Europe who authorize its use for religious ends, being themselves countries of strict antidrug policies. Simply saying, it is not only the person that takes this remedy that realizes the physical, psychological, mental and social benefits that the same provides. It is important to point out that at no time did I feel a dependency with regards to its use, since going to this event is very much like religious worship and attending a church. I cannot recall a time when I felt withdrawal syndrome in any of the times that I decided to participate. And I understand the worry felt by the authorities having in mind the problems that drugs have been causing society. And I place myself at your disposal, if it is the case, to make a more detailed study to support my report. I have never had experiences with drugs, but the reactions and sensations of a person who takes drugs are totally different according to what has been said to me by other, more competent people on the subject (medical doctors). It is true and I sign under it. 84 N.F.G. Thinking today about my life, the constant radical changes that have been occurring since December of last year until now, I have the clear sensation of being in the middle of a hurricane where all things around me are being ripped from their places, transformed and are flying around me, and I simply remain tied to a single point, centered, visualizing and walking softly on this new path that is opening before me, and by which I am taken as a feather floating on the whim of the wind. Knowing exactly the reason for each occurring event, conscious of each step and where the path is taking me… For a long time, I have been in search of something I felt was missing in my life… In reality, I felt it was something inside of me, because I had everything: family, friends, health, work…. But nothing really fulfilled that constant emptiness… My joy was always momentary; I’d feel happy to be with people I liked, as well as being with my “friends,” in being able to help them in some way, but always felt different, since I no longer felt joy in the “diversion” that people wanted to be in constantly, because what always “went down” to provide that feeling of happiness was exactly the things I always tried to avoid: drugs (marijuana was common there), alcohol, smoking, etc…. The night clubs I actually liked, being close to my friends, but many times I really felt out of place in the middle of that crowd jumping, screaming, swearing, making fun of someone else for the simple fact that they dressed differently… No… I couldn’t take that empty life anymore. So, slowly I began to drift away. People kept saying that what was really happening was that I was getting old, couldn’t handle the good things of life anymore and so I became Isolated. What became clear when I joined a “religion” in search of something to fulfill me is that people started to move away from me, because they thought I was becoming a witch, enchantress or something like that… But when they faced some problem that they couldn’t find a solution for they would look for my help. So, I was beginning to feel better about myself, because I didn’t care about what people were going to think or say… What mattered was that I was doing my part; I thought I was doing the right thing… Even though there were some things I didn’t agree with in this path, I tried to practice what was good, pulling to myself only the teachings that I identified with… In reality I already knew the great teaching that “where there is light there are no shadows,” but there were some explanations and beliefs that made me stay there, especially because I had attended several other places and where I didn’t identify as much with… But when we know the truth, our spirit can even accept some things up to a point, until we remove from that experience the necessary learning, but since we came from the light and will return to the light, we have to go back better than before, more purified than when we arrived here and this does not happen if we remain in error and then, eventually our souls cries out for help and we began the search again… 85 I remained in this path for four years, thinking that I was treading a path of truth, but did not realize that all the money I was making was disappearing, and even wine, a drink I really liked and drank occasionally, had become a necessity in my home, one glass not being enough, more like a bottle always… Adding to this the fact that if I had people over I’d feel like having a cigarette. Boyfriends? I didn’t worry about it… If I felt alone I’d get a guy, then another, and after a while I couldn’t live without sex… Everything in my life was taking on exaggerated proportions. The addictions were coming and staying: shoes, I had to have many, the same with clothing, purses, etc… Materialism taking me over more and more and I didn’t notice the bad influences dominating me each day. At work, I couldn’t speak to my boss, the fights were constant… With co-workers there was constant friction, with a terrible atmosphere of envy, insecurity, gossip… This was already causing stomach pains, headaches and throat aches and I was taking many days off… When I saw that things were going from bad to worse, I couldn’t take living in this madness and didn’t see a way out to solve all of this, feeling like I was in a prison. Then an immense door opened up and a hand of light pulled me and directed me to the farm Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição… in December, 2003, where for the first time I participated in a shamanic ritual using Santo Daime, known as ayahuasca (or wine of souls). This holy beverage brought me so much cleansing, for the physical body as well the spiritual one and brought me back to the reality of life, made me see how fleeting our existence here is and how I wasn’t doing anything which I was really predestined to do. Spiritual evolution and doing what is good and right. This tea, that is so pure and sacred, brought me to a reunion with myself, causing me perceive that everything that I looked for in other places or people was really well kept inside of me, like a present covered in a package waiting for the time I was willing to undo the ties binding it and access everything that was given to me since my birth. From then on, nothing was as before, happiness and unconditional love became a part of my life and daily vocabulary. The work that used to cause me so much harm me was taken away and the people who were detrimental to me distanced themselves. Today I am radiant and happy, because I learned that it is enough to have faith in order to achieve everything that we need. I had no more sickness… Even the pair of glasses I used for almost ten years to regulate short-sightedness and near-sightedness was banned from my life… If sometimes I falter, and move away a bit from the Higher Astral Plane (God) and diseases prowl around me, I already know the weapons to fight against them and keep myself whole and strong in the purpose that was given me. 86 My ecological consciousness blossomed in a way I had never noticed before… Today I can see that there is a sun that rises in the morning and sets each day, that there are stars and a beautiful moon shining in the sky, that the wind blows and caresses my body every day, that the earth that hides beneath our feet is full of life and though men try hard everyday to pollute it and extinguish it, forgetting its greatness and importance, she continues to generate life and resources for our survival… So the need arises for us to paddle against the tide and find ways (and there are many) of continuing our process of growth and evolution without harming nature. Better than simply noticing it, is to learn that I am a part of her and she is part of me and we need to harmonize to continue the sweet cycle of life. I am grateful! Immensely grateful to God for opening up my vision to this sweet path of light called Shamanism, the restoration of man to nature – specially his own nature, and specially for being at the farm Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição where divine light shines with such intensity never seen before, where people arrive in such dismal states, addicted to heavy drugs like cocaine, crack and others (I myself had the opportunity to meet several people who arrived like this) and from the first ritual with daime/shamanism received total liberation. People, who for years and years were hooked on alcohol, smoking, etc. and were freed on the first contact with santo-daime. This tea is sacred… IT IS WONDERFUL! Besides the fact that we gained a new family (literally), people who walk hand in hand, one helping another, in truth and spirit, because we know that real success is the success of all, the happiness of one is the happiness of the other… and of course I could not end without thanking the holy trinity, God and Jesus Christ. Father, Son and Holy Ghost, for being so wonderful and blessing us with this work. My dear mom, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception who is our guardian and protector and to our beloved and illuminated Shaman Gideon of the Lakotas, who is at the front of this work, for always giving us so much love and passing on to us with so much clarity the teachings received directly from the hand of our Master Jesus. MAY DIVINE LOVE, PEACE AND LIGHT BE OUR GIFTS AND GUIDES IN THIS DAILY SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE WILL OF THE HIGHER ASTRAL PLANE IN OUR LIVES!!! 87 My name is T. C. da S. N., Rg xx.xxx.xxx And I live in the city of Cruzeiro-SP I’ve been attending the spiritual works of daime/shamanism of the Shamanic Spiritual Institute Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição for little over a year. During this time, due to the shamanic work a great number o brothers who arrived there, many of them well versed, doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, people of all faiths, rich and poor, literate and illiterate, all of them shared something in common with me, we searched for light, a cure for our troubles, wisdom, comprehension of the spiritual world and spiritual growth. There is no profit from ayahuasca, no commerce mixed with spirituality. A shamanic work with ayahuasca that lasts for 12 hours only costs SEVEN REAIS. But many of these brothers arrived there with sickness and trauma, and what really grabbed my attention was the great number of people hooked on drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, alcohol and other things. I was very surprised as I spoke to many of these addicts, because they would tell me that they used to attend churches that called themselves santo daime but where they actually got addicted! The great majority of these drug addicted brothers were freed completely of the traumas and drugs right at the first ritual of daime/shamanism. They were desperate people unable to free themselves and today lead normal lives. Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição has been a spiritual emergency room for the liberation from all types of vices and complete cures from any disease. I can say this, because I myself was healed and can prove this via medical report for whoever wants to see! In August of last year, I had severe pain in my abdomen. Pain that would only subside with high dosages of Butyl scopolamine (Buscopan) directly applied to the vein, and still wouldn’t solve it completely. I looked for a specialist at the Santa Casa Hospital in Cruzeiro where I live and after many x-rays and a series of exams it was diagnosed that I had gallstone. The diagnosis was given on a Wednesday after 4 pm, and I keep the x-rays and exams with me in case there is any doubt. A surgery was scheduled for the following Friday at 5 pm for bladder removal. I was not satisfied with the result needless to say and looked for Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, where our beloved Shaman Gideon promptly made himself available to conduct a healing ritual. This shamanic work with 88 ayahuasca lasted a little over four hours, the pain subsided right at the start of the ritual and I woke up in the morning after (Thursday) as if nothing had happened. I was healed! I scheduled an appointment with the same specialist to cancel the surgery, but he did not believe what he was hearing me say. He told me: “There is no such thing as miracle, a month from now you’ll come back here with a swollen abdomen and will need an emergency surgery with life threatening risk.” He was even more surprised when I told him that at CNSC there were a great number of medical doctors dealing with all kinds of problems. With the grace of God and our Lord Jesus, never again did I have any more gall bladder problems or any other organ in my body. I can only thank everyone at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, the daime/shamanism rituals that have been healing and liberating more and more brothers, especially those that began their addiction at the so called santo daime churches that mix drugs with daime. Brothers who desperately arrive here not knowing what else to do, and find their freedom in the very first ritual. They find a new meaning for their moral and financial lives. More and more, Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição has been helping a larger number of brothers and sisters who are in need. Thanks to all those that are part of this Céu who in the name of Lord Jesus have been helping all those who need. STATEMENT I, A.M.D., Rg…. Living at ….., declare, for the desired end, that I regularly attend the Shamanic Spiritual Center Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, located in the city of Pariquera-Açu, since July, 2004. In my first visit to the Farm where Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição is located, the objective was only to see the place, or the “cult,” that had freed my son from drug use. 89 Such was my surprise upon arriving and having the opportunity to witness, the presence of so many others, coming from diverse churches and sects, that through Shamanism and the Wine of Souls, used at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, found their spiritual freedom. And found their freedom from drugs specially. Notwithstanding my shock with so many testimonies and reports of cure, that I had the opportunity to participate in the rituals, where I received healing for a health problem that afflicted me, Endometriosis. Since then, I have never taken a single painkiller again. What fascinates and fills me with wonder in relation to the “Little Farm,” is the great number of young people, a good majority with their families, giving the place a family atmosphere. Besides the increased value a “family institute,” we have the increased value of youth, their work, and of the human Being. I’ve also gotten used to seeing churches, temples, etc., where at some point the offering “basket” is passed around. There’s nothing like that there. Also, by visiting their website, I could gather the following: “If you, brother or sister, received a cure, donate a basic supplies package to a less fortunate family.” Well, it is obvious that the Farm is not looking for anything back, only preaching charity. Another impressive thing is that people free themselves from drug use. The majority of those I spoke to were freed right in the first few rituals. The changes in the personal lives of each one are visible after the first few visits. My son, for example, seems to have found an objective in life, and is no longer that same aggressive person he used to be at home. He is interested in family problems, is always singing religious songs and I had the opportunity of seeing him helping other people, like for example, carrying bags for an elderly woman, which in other times he would certainly never do. I stress again that the blessings above mentioned were only reached through the use of the Wine of Souls, administered in a competent and responsible manner at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição. 90 VII Dissemination and Allure of Drug Use with Daime through the Internet In this chapter, you’ll find the proof of the actions taken by disciples of FALSE SANTO DAIME that seek, through the internet, to disseminate drug use, manipulating information and attempting to transform addiction into something sacred. In the majority of e-mails, marijuana is called santa maria. Besides this, many times they speak lies with respect to master Irineu in an attempt to legitimize drug use with daime. At this very moment, your children could be entering the world of drugs by the doors of the false SANTO DAIME, which spreads like a virus via email and discussion groups throughout the internet. Please read the following emails. Attempt to convince users that master Irineu used marijuana From: Naiara To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2005 3:23 PM Subject: [plantassagradas] (sacred plants) Re; Re: Federal Police invades 5 thousand By the way, I liked this question because I was also in doubt. In fact I have many doubts about santa maria. Z [email protected] wrote: Hello Marco, I know the text is not yours, but I would like to know if there are records (oral, recordings, and written material) or anything that could prove that Master Irineu made use of Santa Maria. Last year, I interviewed a contemporary of Master Irineu and he even became visibly irritated with the question I had about the connection between Master Irineu and Santa Maria. What about other contemporaries of the master, what do they say? 91 From: “Marco Antônio Gracie Corte Imp^ [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [plantassagradas] Mestre and Santa Maria Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 17:15:14 – 0200 Listening to Crybaby, to let the mind travel through the possibilities. Well, actually I always knew that the Master used it in secret, and of course we can understand why. But talking about this is taboo and war, because they always refuse this and get offended with this possibility. In the case of Master Irineu things get a little topsy-turvy if we state that he did not know about or did not approve of its use, knowing full well that he passed through Tambor de Mina which is known as Casa de Mina, where Cannabis is well worshipped. Master Irineu was black and from Maranhão, in an area dominated by blacks where the plant was always cultivated. Nothing out of the ordinary since the use of Cannabis was common among the African tribes. “Ma Konia” or Divine Mother as they call it. Padrinho told me that the Master used it; Padrinho Wilson also said that Master used it, and I heard many other reports there, from Rio Branco, that he did in fact use it. But here lies the question, many will say otherwise and others will confirm it, but now it is kind of impossible to try to find out what he really used. The bigger question is about what each one wants for himself. I, Marco, embrace Santa Maria as Doctrine and know that this can be really good for those who really want to know the Doctrine. In a larger context, I also think that people should be free to smoke his or her joint without fear of jail or persecution. The Doctrine of Santa Maria is there for whoever wants to follow it. For those who don’t, don’t do it. But this controversy is very bad, because huge monsters rise up with a lot of spit and anger. 92 We got reports of relatives that introduced marijuana to the Master and he said that this was a plant of great science, and so on. But I don’t think that if the Master used it or not should influence the will of anyone. Master Irineu used to eat 12 eggs per day according to some historians, and ate pork also. This example I will never follow, because I think it’s horrible to eat pork and eggs as well. The Master died sick and his blood circulation was terrible, so some things he did I find horrible, like eating meat, especially pork. In spite of this, I don’t look down on the Master and his mission which is also my mission and the mission of whoever wants to follow the steps to serve the sick, distribute Daime and Doctrinate the Whole World. To be polite, happy and loving, always following truth and justice. The truth of the matter is Santa Maria is good for some, but bad for others. Some need it and others should keep distant. I’ve seen many cases where the person couldn’t handle the spiritual work with Santa Maria, many people don’t. I think Santa Maria rituals can be stronger than those with Daime. Here, at Rainha do Mar, every once in a while I suspend the use of Santa Maria. Then many come to me to complain and I kick them out, because Doctrine is not doing what you want when you want, doctrine is to discipline yourself. Smoking it freely is good, but to use it in Doctrine is much better. Every three days, every seven, fifteen, thirty, with fasting, decrease usage… this is the Doctrine of Santa Maria. Just like Daime, Santa Maria can also plunge a buddy into the lowest depths. Daime does the same, the person is there, taking Daime and thinks he’s climbing up, when in reality he’s going down. This happens when the person is blind with illusion in her own discoveries and thinks that she is the one that retains the power. Padrinho used to say that Daime gives more and more step ladders for the person to climb, then all of a sudden, takes the ladder away. Whoever knows how to hang on to the brush can save himself. But to smoke it in Doctrine one has to have balls, because I’ve seen many shake and never again even come close to the smell. I’ve seen a dude come by with a kilo of smoke, a drug dealer, and after the ritual with Santa Maria, never smoke again and give up all the stuff he had, not even dealing the plant again. The Doctrine is very good, and only has good things to give to this country and the world. In the case that it is legalized for personal consumption, immediately it would end the great financing that these crooks have. The prisons would deflate to a third of its current population. 93 Corruption would greatly decrease. Family problems between parents and kids would decrease, because the parents that are not educated and who are driven by propaganda and government do horrible things to their children. Some months ago, a teen of about 14, very studious kid, good guy, calm and admirable person, was kicked out of his house because of a joint that his dad found in his pocket. Well, the guy ended up on the street without any help. There we see only tradition, my dad kicked me out when I was 12 because he saw me smoking a joint. For months I slept on the streets, I really went through hell just because the government and society decided so without scientific or moral base. The fact that a person uses a joint doesn’t make her capable of immoral acts, much to the contrary, it is a sedative, a pain killer, a muscle relaxant prescribed by the first considerable medical records adopting it as the Father of Medicine, to be used when giving birth, the sacred time we have in our lives. Chrism (holy oil) was made with marijuana, that’s a proven fact, so? Well, much will be revealed, like many things were hidden under the light of night. But nothing like the light of the Sun, brilliant and happy, revealing what was hidden by the dark shadows. Let’s see the evil this law does to the country and then we can say if prohibition causes more injustices and poverty than harm to health, yes, which is possible, but there never were any proof. We can quickly see the injustice of this law if compared to cigarette use. What’s really unfair, are those who speak about it without having the sacred knowledge and real social knowledge, as it relates to what really happens. We cannot accept that we still have such perverse laws of a segregationist nature, much like Confederalism in the South of US. Cotton, cotton, neither sweet nor salty. The important thing is for the person to know what is good for her and let the rule accommodate itself to each person’s reality. In my point of view, it seems to me that the Master used it. Marco Gracie Imperial “Marconheiro” (nheiro as in maconheiro, Brazilian equivalent of pothead) and the death of padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo 94 From: Marco Antônio Gracie Côrte Imp [email protected] To: [email protected] [email protected] Subject: [plantassagradas] god forbid!!! (sweet jesus) Date: [email protected] There was a fellow here in Pedra that used to call me this, but he was mad at me. He told this to a bunch o girls then his girlfriend came after me to see if it was true. But I think it’s really cool, I got no problem whatsoever in being called marconheiro in this Land where so many injustices were made. I myself starting at 12, only feel happy now, happy with God. One time as I was arriving at my dad’s house, as he was about to leave, there were several girls there who, while my dad was at home, hardly spoke to me. But as soon as he left, they encircled me, much to my curiosity, because they were super cold with me in front of dad. So I was there in the middle, and they started, “Marquinho, do you smoke marijuana?” And they were all looking at me and I said yes, and they asked to smoke with me. So we smoked and they told me, that before I arrived, dad had really bad mouthed about me to them, that I was a junkie, and that they shouldn’t even speak to me. But what happened was the opposite. They came all happy and asked me for a joint. Life is like that. Now imagine this, every body knows how I was treated when Padrinho died. In truth, this lie that Padrinho died of overdose was created by the people from CEFLURIS, to bring down my reputation because of what happened at the time Padrinho Sebastião had demanded, with a lot of cursing against those that didn’t want him to come here to Rainha do Mar. Padrinho was always well treated here. He was suffering a lot, only complaining about the blahblahblah of the people. Here at Rainha he was treated the same way I treated my dad in his last days here on earth. I welcomed him and treated him, always against the people that surrounded him. I went through hell. Alfredo saying something cruel like that. And that’s how it was. As if I was guilty of Padrinho’s death. That’s how I was treated and now and again someone comes to me with these things. If the old man had died of overdose, I would be the first to say, but he didn’t. I have here with me the broken towel hanger, that he clung to and fell. Padrinho died after a stroke, because he had Chagas’ Disease, a sickness that increases the size of the heart and it becomes more vulnerable to this type of stroke. But padrinho got here almost dead anyways. I went to get him at his request at Céu do Mar, and I took him from there. As I got there he was cursing everybody, and I Marco, went and hugged him and told him to calm down and relax, telling him I was there and was going to take him to our home. Actually, I stopped the 95 unforgettable cursing, which was strange for someone who only saw Padrinho blessing, all the time, to be cursing now. That was extremely rare. But after his death, that’s all I got from his son and many others. In his death, I took the body to Céu do Mar and extended my hand to greet one of the leaders there and he turned his back on me. I tried to find out why and was informed that I had killed Padrinho with an overdose. This I found out the same day he died, and this thing was born there that day, motivated by what I can only think of as being pure evil, an uncalled act of indecency. Why this against me? There are things that backfire. Today, this lie grew and is getting everyone. You’ll see, in a little while this will be common thought. They are blaming everybody and I don’t even care, but there will be people who will not be able to sleep at night. This fellow is actually making me famous. Specially me, son of Carlos Imperial, a man that used to say: “Speak evil, but speak of me.” I learned to take a beating at Gracie Academy from an early age, and today I’m just like a sponge cake, the more you hit, the more I grow. I grow in study, in family, in friends and in love. I am more ready than ever, to work in the astral plane, “I have weapons in hand” and am happy for it. I’m happy progress of Rainha do Mar is going by leaps and bounds in three municipalities working with production and being self sustained. “The lines of good are present here at Rainha do Mar, salve the incarnated children, salve all orishas” and “Salve Rainha do Mar.” And Santa Maria. I love it to bits. I’ve eaten it even with chocolate. It’s delicious. Even though there were some guys here who wanted to kill me just by watching me eat the goodies that showed up here. The smell is enough to make one want to eat it. Another thing, if they want to increase Daime all they have to do is to speak badly about it. At one time, Veja had a horrible story on Daime, and then the phones here wouldn’t stop ringing. Here at Pedra more than 10 people came just on account of the story. Speaking crap about Daime will only increase its fame for sure. Marconheiro is really cool. Today I say I’m a Sacramental-Use Mariano. It’s really chic! A big hug to you all Marco Gracie Imperial 96 Recognition of the negative effects of cannabis From: valerialuanova To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2005 5:09 PM Subject: [platassagradas] Re: Cannabis X Ayahuasca How wonderful!!! So you mean to say that we are in the right path… Hurray to Santo Daime!! Hurray to santa Maria!!!... Thank you brother for the information… Hugs… Valeria Lamat Ka <[email protected]> wrote: I forgot to say that the negative effect of cannabis are decreased and almost reverted with infusions of 5-HT (serotonin), or analogs such as DMT. Since the loss of memory effect seems to be related to a decrease in 5-HT in the hippocampus, that is the region responsible for learning and storing memory. With this, I can say with certainty that Daime helps to inhibit the negative effects of memory related to the ingestion of THC. Attached is the article where this data is revealed. Hugs and Kisses Lamat Ka – Lunar Star 28 7:7::7:7 In Lak’ech Felipe F. Hess, M.Sc. Laboratory of Cognition Physiology Carlos Chagas Filho Biophysical Institute Federal University of Rio de Janeiro 97 Doubts and Persecution From: “Marco Antônio Gracie Corte Imp” [email protected] [email protected] Sent: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 02:23:11 “0200 Subject: [plantassagradas] To brother Marco Imperial Well, with regards to persecution it really is a drag. Many people persecute and then it gets tough. That’s why secrecy is necessary, not speaking about it to those that don’t use it, and not even giving a chance for anyone to speak about it. Those that persecute don’t know what they are talking about or what they are doing. I’ve been persecuted since I was 12, image that today I’m 47 and still see persecution. When use becomes legalized then the persecutions will diminish. But the secret is to be secretive, live calmly, without showing it to anybody. Make your intention known without parade, so that the pressure of those against it will diminish. With so many people speaking so much crap, we end up having this doubt if we are doing the right thing and end up thinking that we could be wrong. But this way is still one of persecution, whoever wants to follow it will also face these things. Don’t wait for anyone to be understanding, and find out for yourself if this is your path. But get yourself ready to face persecution, because it is still considered a crime, by Brazilian legislation. One day this will end. A big hug, Marco Gracie Imperial 98 I have something in my head and I need to speak to someone like you about it. Someone who is eager to help and I’m sure will understand me. I make use of marijuana, which I recently found out was a power plant and can be called Santa Maria, but have been harshly criticized for it. Am I doing something wrong? Shouldn’t this herb be used in this manner? I’m here to learn and trust your judgment!! Thank you for your attention! A hug, Cris From: Marco Antônio Gracie Corte Imp To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, March 26, 2005 8:58 AM Subject: [plantassagradas] Santa Maria Hello, I’ve created a community for the legalization of Cannabis I have placed here some very good texts for debate Cannabis Legalization Brazil http://www.orkut.com/CommTopics.aspx?cmm=1515024 Love, Joy and Education are the basis of the Doctrine of Santo Daime Address of this page: http://www.grupos.com.br/grupos/santodaimeplantassagradas Group E-mail:[email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Cancel Subscriptin: [email protected] Group Founder: [email protected] Group Monitors: [email protected] 99 Group Administrators: [email protected] Love, Joy and Education are the basis of the Doctrine of Santo Daime Address of this page: http://www.grupos.com.br/grupos/santodaimeplantassagradas Group E-mail: [email protected] Subscribe: [email protected] Cancel Subscriptin: [email protected] Group Founder: [email protected] Group Monitors: [email protected] Group Administrators: [email protected] From: Antonio Garcia <[email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, 27 March 2005 11:51 Subject: [plantassagradas] Re: Re: Santa Maria Marco, I don’t want to in any way shape or form, question the value of Santa Maria to those that make use of it with respect and wisdom... But I keep asking myself if this thing of speaking about it freely, in public means such as Orkut, of its use within the Doctrine of Daime wouldn’t be somewhat risky for the free development of our works… When I did my first “smoke” ritual, it had a very restrictive and secretive air about it which was only talked about by those in uniform… And what I see today is wide-open talk that makes those who were already very prejudiced towards the tea to be even more defensive of their little points of view, since cannabis has been defamed every way possible through our society… 100 But what really worries me is the side of human justice, of laws and of papers… To speak openly about the use of a forbidden substance (as much as we are tired of knowing the truth) is, in my view, a way to give the foxes judicial support… God willing, the time won’t come when we have to take Daime under cover. And just to reiterate what I said at the beginning, “I don’t want to in any way question the value of Santa Maria for those that make use of it with respect and wisdom…” In the end, I’m just opening up my heart. A good Easter to everyone, Antonio Garcia Dissemination of marijuana recipes From: "Z" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, 28 Nov 200411:45:31 -0300 (ART) Subject: [plantassagradas] Re: Santa Maria Tea Hello there guys, *Look, I’ve always had this idea that santa was liposoluble and so making tea would not serve any purpose… I’ve never done it, but whenever I get a first grade joint I will make the test… My wife has made the cake a few times and the effect takes a little while to kick in, about half an hour or less a bit, but when it comes it’s very good… You can also make a delicious spread… Hugs to all, 101 From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Senti Fri, 26 Nov 2004 17:46:48 -0200 Subject: [plantassagradas] Re: Santa Maria Tea Hello Marco, Sérgio and the other brothers on the list... My inbox is a bit small and ends up filling up fast, anyways I’d like to ask you for your kindness in sending me information on how to make Santa Maria Tea, because I’ve just gotten a few little Santa buds and I think they’d be perfect for making a little tea… If you can, forward it to [email protected] Much thanks and have a good weekend everyone… Ricardo From: "Marco Antônio Gracie Côrte Imp" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 09:39:10 -0200 Subject: [plantassagradas] Santa Maria Tea I believe it’d be a waste to make it, because the THC (active substance of the santa) is not hydrosoluble, that is, it practically does not dilute in water. Look at it this way Alex, I don’t know if THC is or isn’t soluble in water, but something must come or then THC is not the only property to give the effect, but the tea is very good, and takes about 10 minutes to work, and it’s much smoother and less offensive to the throat. 102 I’m in favor of the tea, the cake, or just eating it. I’ve eaten it many times, it’s good. Some time ago a soltinho de ouro showed up here and I ate it all, much to the revolt of everyone here at Rainha do Mar, they wanted to kill me, for eating almost all of it. I was breaking it apart to make the joint, and as I was doing it, I kept eating parts of it. Kept eating, and eating until I ate it all. The people here were banging their heads, saying it was a waste and all. I know that the people who couldn’t eat it were right in a way, but it is so delicious. THC is fat soluble. Like in butter for example. You can melt enough butter for a cake in a frying pan in low heat, put in the already broken santa until it becomes a black paste, but be careful not to burn. Then you use this “paste” to make a normal cake. Besides being delicious, the force comes in an incredible manner. But if you are going to do it, find the purest santa you can find, of high quality, to avoid allergies, intoxications, etc. Yes, plants cultivated within the Doctrine of Santa Maria, or by people that have a connection with the invocation of the spirit that dwells there, allow for more purity. Now I tell you, there’s something to this story of active ingredients. Example: It has been proven that active ingredients do not survive very much after hot water extraction. Here at room temperature, I guarantee that they are well preserved. My extraction is at room temperature, doesn’t spoil and stays that way for years to come. It’s like what I always say. Many think that these concepts about active ingredients explain the spiritual world. But they are far from being at the leading edge of a study of the spiritual world. A day will come when they’ll find another concept of active ingredients from a plant in relation to those that use it, seeing that the metabolism of each one is different. I have experience in this area and I see that the most important thing is each person’s own understanding of what he or she is invoking. Of course these ingredients must be important, but my observation tells me they are not. 103 They say that boiled Daime produces Methanol, and that various samples showed methanol in its composition. According to Ana Vitória, who sent Daime to be analysed which had been made by Pedro Dário and others. Hugs, Marco Gracie Imperial See how currently the dissemination of santa maria (marijuana) is being done in an e-mail regarding a Women’s Retreat scheduled for July, 2007 Mensagem forwarded by [email protected] ---From: Palloma Caroline <[email protected]> To: Ceu de maria <[email protected]>, Reino do Sol <[email protected]>, Grupo Cheia <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, 2 May 2007 14:02:35 -0300 (ART) Subject: [reino_do_sol] Maria Alice’s message on the Womne’s Retreat Reply-To: [email protected] Women’s Retreat in the Forest Céu do Mápia – Amazon From July 15th to the 25th, 2007 TO MY DEAR SISTERS OF THE DOCTRINE OF SANTO DAIME During the rosary opening of the ritual for São Sebastião, to the sounds of many Hail Marys, I entered into a meditation about the feminine, about the origin and purpose of organizing a “Women’s Retreat or Meeting” at Céu do Mapiá. I traveled through time seeing Master Irineu and Padrinho Sebastião, illuminated masters who while on Earth, always valued the feminine. 104 Master Irineu received the doctrine of Santo Daime from the hands of Our Lady, who presented herself under the white moon. With this feminine power he developed the doctrine. Padrinho Sebastião, as he was creating the community, always counted on and valued feminine service, giving greater liberty to women, putting them on equal terms as men, in spiritual works as well as in material ones: working in the production of Daime, managing the community centers, sitting at the table in spiritual rituals, working the fields planting and gathering. In the history of Padrinho Sebastião, the feminine has always been present and fed by the force of Santa Maria. And in this force or strength, as women under Padrinho Sebastião’s Banner, we saw the necessity to organize this meeting, and invite the women of all Santo Daime churches to participate. It is a challenge for each one of us and at the same time an opportunity to be united together in this beautiful Amazon Forest, exchanging knowledge. It will certainly bring much happiness to our hearts, seeing it happening. For this important event we count with the support and blessings of our dear Madrinha Rita, a feminine example of love and wisdom. At this time, New Jerusalem is rising up with the women of the New Age, who will awaken and free the mind, creating a great spiritual link. It’s the time of the realization of Being, the great Being that is already inside each of us clamoring for internal liberty. It’s time for a union that generates power. Let’s live this time! Let’s be these new women! This meeting has as its main objective creating a feminine link of interchange and doctrine. Signed: Regina Pereira and Women of Céu do Mapiá. Decriminalization of marijuana From: iranildo correia To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesd<:iY, November 24, 2004 5:12 PM Subject: Re: [hymnoftheweek] Vices 105 oh c’mon! go screw yourselves, I smoke too and don’t go around blaming myself for it. now this bunch of fanatics talking about oh my god this or my god that, stand up for what you do and be happy with no guilt if you are in the light or darkness, only god judges what we do, right or wrong, and I think I’m leaving this chat room, people in here live in the times when fear of hell reigned supreme. What’s up with that people, stop it already, fuc… I’m tired of this room and so much cheap fanaticism, you don’t even look like you take daime, and can see far beyond!!! Seriously now, how polyannaish!! And after the ritual that crowd smoking their little cigarettes and putting themselves through a guilt trip… not me. Ahh YOU CANnabis GO AND BE HAPPY WHAT A DRAG!!!!!!! From: marciorogeriomarques TO: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, May 10, 2005 8:31 PM Subject: [hinodasemana] Re: In Argentina, 23 thousand people manifest pro- Cannabis legalization! Well then, I understand that we made a mistake in the preparation of the act one more time, during that opportunity of the march where the police threw water at the participants. I understand that when we organized the march, during the preparation, we should have sent an official report to the authorities asking for police protection during the public act, which is a constitutional right, as long as it is done without violence of course. Another fact that we should make really clear is that the antiprohibitionist fight according its diverse segments, is general or rather, relates to drugs in general. Even the famous chemical drugs and their derivatives. This is not a police question but a public health one. However we should make it clear in these fights that, despite the fact that antiprohibition marches generalize, there are differences between drugs and power plants. This we should make very clear. On the other hand, we can’t confuse decriminalization with liberation or favoring the use, incentive or apology of drug use or even the use of teacher plants. 106 We should consider that there is no need to use drugs or plants to be a good human being, and on the other hand, the use thereof doesn’t make a person “bad.” There really should be respect for those that use and those that don’t. Finally, I ask that you send or resend to me this message in pvt. I’d like to see the attachements, please. Hugs, Márcio See how marijuana (santa maria) is even worshipped in hymns From: “Vinicius, Viana” [email protected] To: hinodasemana@yahôogrupos.com.br Sent: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 13:10:24 -0300 (ART) Subject: [hinodasemana] Santa Maria 108. Santa Maria Those that don’t know Santa Maria And make use of her every day Live in constant agony But now it arrived the way I wanted it My Lord St. John the Baptist Jesus Christ and St. Joseph 107 Now it arrived the way I wanted it Now it arrived the way God wants it Arriving how God wants it, then everything is alright Arriving how the Father wants Arrived how I want it too By the will of the Virgin Mary She will be in charge now She’s in my command And commands my wants I command the one that believes In Jesus Christ and St. John May this truth That we have in our union I tell this to everyone I want to fulfill what I say Whoever doesn’t help me Doesn’t prove he’s my friend 108 He sends this message to us all Now, those who want will respect But now I tell this to everyone Let’s all be as God wants us to be Let’s all look really close to the Sun And everyone look really close to me If there is confusion still But my Father doesn’t act this way God Father and Holy Ghost In our Mother ends Let’s all affirm peace Let anyone else affirm war From: "Vinicius Viana" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 13:36:44 -0300 (ART) Subject: [hinodasemana] Santa Maria 109 When I came back from Petrópolis I made a pledge of faith I threw a Santa Maria stone away And promised never to use it again Until it was free to use I waited for liberation until the end of the year But I have a Father, not a stepdad Now I am sure That what will be made free Is not the herb that makes one hear But the true one, the one that speaks to the ears Hail freedom declared by Santa Maria! May the chains be broken! They threatened me to be silent, but underestimated the truth that supports me: Hymnoftheweek: Message: ALE FELICIANO Page 1 of 2 Well, I received many e-mails from these drug addicts who are part of this Internet group list, saying that they were going to sue me, that I hide behind false identities, that they could make the law confiscate my extensive lands and blah blah blah… so it is for this people who speak so much about laws, that I write the summary below once again: “I, Emiliano Dias Linhares, baptismal name of this incarnation, and Gideon, my spiritual name, under my complete responsibility and perfect mental capabilities say this: 110 - That the false daime churches including CEFLURIS USE DRUGS in their daime rituals… AM I BEING CLEAR!!!??? Alfredo, show me where in the constitution it says that it is permitted to use drugs with daime??? - That padrinho Sebastião was just a man addicted to drugs and betrayed the true daime teachings from brother Raimundo Irineu Serra. He never achieved illumination specifically because he used marijuana with cocaine paste. “SUE ME!!” I ACCEPT GOING COURT….. How about we get the federal police involved in this story, the Brazilian Anti Drugs Bureau, the media, TV stations, and the parents of the families whose kids are drugging themselves with marijuana there with you!!! How about you explain to a judge in a courtroom that you are only consecrating santa maria and santa clara when you smoke pot and snort cocaine!!! You are foolish to think I will hide myself behind e-mails with different names. I love with courage and trust in the Light of Great Spirit who leads me. Here lies an old spirit and a warrior of light. You’ll find a lion and not a lamb. I came to unite and not separate, until today I have only fought against drugs mixed with daime and the excessive charge for spiritual rituals. But, from now on, you will decide which way this will take. Signed: Emiliano Dias Linhares Gideon of the Lakotas. 111 VIII - Altered States of Consciousness Beloved, I will explain, with much simplicity and without mysticism or dogmas, under the light of science and spirit, what altered states of consciousness are and what their relation is with the wine of souls or with true power plants. consciousness are. The first step is to understand what is to feel. As you may already know, beloved, everything in the universe vibrates, everything in the universe possesses frequency and the frequencies walk, so to speak. To feel is simply the capacity to notice the different frequencies. It’s the shock between auras, plain and simple! The second step is to be conscious of the cerebral levels. Our brain pulsates, it has frequencies. Man has defined, through medical science, four levels of cerebral pulsation that any electroencephalogram (EEG scan) demonstrates clearly: beta, alpha, theta and delta. At the beta level, the human brain pulsates between 14 and 28 cycles per second. This is the vigil state, when a person is awake, with accelerated frequency. In it, you are prepared to perceive the world of the third dimension, to perceive gross matter with much agility. You can do actions such as avoid an obstacle when you are driving or act on motor reflexes, do hard physical tasks and even go to war. In the beta state, the human feeling is small, limited, only the gross part of matter frequencies and physical survival. It’s in the beta state that time and space exist for us. At the alpha level, the brain pulsates in a frequency that oscillates between 7 and 14 cycles per second. It’s a state of great peace. In it, your feel is enlarged and you’re capable of perceiving subtle and refined frequencies, much more than in beta and are able to perceive things you didn’t think existed. Beloved, you know when you are almost sleeping, but not sleeping, but also not awake? That’s alpha! That fuzzy good feeling that precedes sleep, where time and daily concerns seem to cease to exist, that’s alpha! Alpha is the perfect state for mental programming and it‘s in it that reception of telepathic frequencies and other parapsychological phenomenon like clairvoyance, psychography, energizing and others happen. In alpha, man possesses at least double the cerebral capacity of beta, and still possesses an almost perfect memory. This is the perfect state for mental projections of their desires and meditation as well. In this state, time and space don’t exist anymore. Maintaining your mind alert, conscious, in deep alpha, you have access to your frequencies and easily notice the fourth dimension, being able to achieve intimate contact with the beings that dwell there. With some training, any human being can However, it will be necessary to delve a bit into modern parapsychology and medical science. It will then be possible to fully understand what altered states of 112 enter and remain in alpha for long periods with much ease, even in the middle of a battle field. In the shamanic and real magic courses, given freely here at Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, the brothers and sisters learn this in practice and with much ease. In theta, the human brain pulsates in the frequency that oscillates between 3 and 7 cycles per second. Time and space do not exist. In this state, a human being has access to tools such as telekinesis or psycho kinesis, astral projection with materialization and even bilocation. However, to be able to do a bilocation, the person really needs to know what she is doing. In all of known history, there are only half dozen proven cases. The degree of mind perception when a man maintains consciousness in theta is something wonderful. It is possible to access DNA memory that is registered in each of our cells, as well as spiritual memory. Then, you can add your spiritual memory, which is eternal to your DNA body memory in this incarnation, greatly enriching it! When you are in deep theta, you can feel like you are one of your ancestors. All his knowledge and consciousness is clearly you! But this is no spirit possession. It is only you accessing the DNA memory of your cells. It is also in theta that we have easy access to archetypes, collective and individual. And, exactly at the passage from deep alpha to theta that dreams occur. As there is no time and space in this cerebral state, the microseconds of each passage can seem like an eternity in dreams. With more training, self discipline and self control, any brother or sister can easily reach theta consciously and enjoy the many advantages of this mental state. In the shamanic and magic courses at CNSC it is quickly taught. In delta the brain pulsates between 0.something and 3 cycles per second. Zero point something, because absolute zero is brain death. It is in delta that humans restore energies for the whole day. Research demonstrates that the sum of all the time man spends in delta is only about 4 minutes. I do not know of any human who was able to achieve consciousness in delta. But what is the relation between power plants and altered states of consciousness? A power plant, such as wine of souls (ayahuasca), maintains you conscious in the theta cerebral state and opens your chakras as well. To open a human chakra is something that is slow and not as simple as some claim. Through meditation it is possible to open your chakras and reach a deep theta state with consciousness, but sometimes it takes as much as half a century to do it with strong training. Now when you use a power plant within proper rituals, this happens in a few minutes. So, through the correct use of a power plant, any human being can, even without training, have access to mediunic tools, of total sensitivity. You will have access to what’s “inside” you. Beloved, the wine of souls opens a connection between the brain and the heart, reinvigorating health and love! The power plant is a 113 great help for a brother in opening his channels to God, to the cosmos. Know that there are passages in the Bible that speak of great prophets of God with a chalice of golden and foamy sparkly wine in their hands! Is grape wine golden by any chance? What golden and frothy wine do you think this is, my dears? Through drumming it is also possible to reach deep alpha and theta. That is why the drum is also one of the sacred tools of the shaman. There are mantras that when sung for long periods also take man to theta. Our Tibetan brothers use these mantras quite a bit. A person with amplified consciousness can easily understand the real reasons behind traumas, gain access to solutions and learn to put them to practice. She can easily receive the orientations of mentors from the light under the regency of Lord Jesus and Virgin Mary supreme. A man in beta can observe a rose and feels or sees something very different than what he would see or feel when he is in deep alpha or theta. With an expanded consciousness, a beloved has easy access to the fourth dimension, which completely escapes the knowledge and “science of the white man.” You start to deal with knowledge and data which greatly extrapolates your own limits. You perceive colors that you couldn’t before. You get fast answers to questions that humanity has been making for thousands of years: Who am I? Where am I? Where do I come from? And Where will I go? It is very interesting to remember that the power plant is only a spiritual tool given to humanity by the grace and mercy of the Great Spirit. She quickly elevates you to a high degree of light, consciousness, self control and sensibility. The power plant used correctly in rituals takes man from the rational level to the spiritual level, then after a while, you no longer need the power plant because you are ready to walk on your own in this great garden. The universe of ayahuasca is full of people that say that hey know everything and talk much. With a bit of research you find out that this is the type of person that has always thought about how an altruistic movement or a work of light should be like, but when it comes down to “doing the deed,” actually doing an altruistic act of light, he simply backed out giving a poor excuse and simply won’t do anything real or concrete! It shall be your works or deeds which will define who you are. Those that don’t gather, automatically scatter! If you observe Hitler, Napoleon, Attila the Hun, and even Temujin (Genghis Khan) you will see that all of them materialized great works, but works without light. Therefore, their works only testified to the size of their egos! On the other hand, observe Gandhi, St. Francis of Assisi, Llamas and Tibetan monks, Francisco Cândido de Xavier, Dr. Celso Charuri, Alberto Montalvão, some shamans and many others who did great deeds of light. Their works testify to the size of their spirits! As the sayings go, “the worst kind of blind people are the ones who don’t want to see” and “show me their works and I will know their faith.” 114 IX - Marijuana seen from a Scientific Perspective Obs: Tomographies of user human brains (Current Research). Introduction We think it is of great importance to approach this controversial topic on marijuana because there still persists in the scientific-medical world great divergence of opinions, maybe because they ignore the psycho-neural-social damage in all its scope. Thanks to recent advances in technological resources (nuclear magnetic resonance or MRI, computerized tomography – CAT, PET, SPECT, cerebral mapping – digital electroencephalograms or EEGs, polysomnographyand lab exams in the area of psychoneuroendocrinology) we can clarify all of these doubts surrounding the medical field and consequently, make it clear for the lay person. Marijuana is unique from a pharmacological point of view. It is not similar to any other known drug. Its clinical actions are unique, as well the chemical substances that are found in its molecular structure (WEIL, 1986). The Cannabis sativa is the type of marijuana cultivated in the western hemisphere, while Cannabis indica is the type cultivated in the eastern hemisphere (SEYMOUR and SMITH, 1987). Contrary to popular belief, this plant is not originally from Brazil. In fact, it was brought by African slaves from West Africa, which was used there for intoxicating purposes. However, Africa received the plant from Asia, where it freely sprouts at the foot of the mountains beyond Lake Baikal (DÓ RIA, 1986). A Chinese emperor in 2200ac had already described the use of marijuana (LEAVITT, 1995). The Chinese recognized the potent psychoactive properties of marijuana for more than 4000 years, but western society only found out about these properties in the 19th century, when Napoleon III troops returned to France with Egyptian Hashish. A member of the Arts and Science Commission reported in 1810 that marijuana cultivated in Egypt was really intoxicant and narcotic (BEAR et al, 2007). Marijuana was described by various researchers as the “entry door” drug; a study relates that 98% of cocaine users started with marijuana. But, in spite of this, there are places where marijuana is permitted as a remedy which makes the general perception of marijuana being dangerous cease to exist. As the perception of its dangers declines, its use increases (AMEN, 2000). 115 The hemp plant (Cannabis sativa), source of marijuana, grows throughout the world and flourishes in temporal tropical regions. It is one the most cultivated non-edible plants in the world. Its primary psychoactive component is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which is an alkaloid found in the resin that covers the hemp female buds. Besides THC, the resin contains around 60 cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol and the cannabinol. All of them much less active than THC. (Cannabis and the brain – Leslie Iversen, Department of Pharmacology – University of Oxford Brain 2003; 126: 1252 – 70). The products of Cannabis include marijuana, hashish, bhang, ganja and sinsemilla. Hashish (charas) consists of the purified resin of flowering tops of female plants, and the preparation is more potent, containing around 10 to 20% THC. Ganja and sinsemilla are dried products of the female plant flowers and contain between 5 to 8% of THC. Marijuana and Bhang – can also prepare in liquid form – which are the weakest preparations taken from the leaves and sometimes from dried flowers and its THC content is around 2 to 5%. The marijuana plant synthesizes at least 400 chemical substances. From these, more than 60 including the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol are cannabinoids (LEAVITT, 1995). The chemical structure of THC is unique, differing from the structure of sedatives as well as psychedelics. Composition SÁ describes 421 constituents in marijuana, being: others; Nitrogenous Compounds (20 known), among them: quaternary basis, amides, amines and Cannabinoids (61 known), among them of the cannabigerol type, cannabicromeno, cannabidiol, delta-9-THC, delta-8-THC, cannabiciclol, cannabielsoin, cannabinodiol, cannabitriol, miscellaneous and spermidine alkaloids; Amino acids (18 known); Proteins, Glycoproteins, and Enzymes (9 known); Sugar and related compounds (34 known), among them: monosaccharides, disaccharides, polysaccharides, cyclitols and amino sugar; Hydrocarbons (50 known); Simple alcohol (7 known); 116 - Simple Aldehydes (12 known); Simple acetone (13 known); Simple acids (20 known); Fatty acids (12 known); Simple esters and lactones (13 known); Steroids (11 known); Terpenes (103 known), among them: monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, dyterpenes, tryterpenes, mix of compounds of terpenoid origin; Non-cannabinoid phenols (16 known); Flavonoid Glycosides (19 known); Vitamins (1 known); Pigments (2 known). Statistics Marijuana is the most used illicit drug in the world and the number of users has risen each year. In 10 years (1991 to 2001) there was a 5.4% increase in the number of users in the US and also in the THC content – 2.1%. Life use increases each year, starting at 12 years old (1%) and peaking at 19 (18%). At 25 years of age this frequency drops to 8% and returns to 1% again between the ages of 50 and 54. 4 million young users between 18 and 24 years (14%) are regular users, the majority men (17%) followed by women (11%). 22% of unemployed adult youth are users, this number being smaller among those who are employed (12%) and also among those that work part-time (15%). According to a research made with High school and Elementary school students, from the public sector, by the Brazilian Center of Information on Psychotropic Drugs – CEBRID (1997) marijuana is the number one drug used in Brazil. 117 In the 1997 count, the capital cities that presented the greatest consumption were Curitiba (11.9%) and Porto Alegre (14.4%). It was ascertained that 7.6% of students reported having experimented marijuana once in their lives. In the study realized by Saibro and Ramos (2003), with 1586 students, in 14 public and private high and elementary schools of Porto Alegre, it was found that the use of marijuana had its experimental peak between the ages of 14 and 16 (72.5%), being the primary use in life or experimental use of 21% of this population. (Rigoni, M.; Oliveira, M; and Andretta, I. [2006]. Neuropsychological consequences of marijuana use in adolescents and young adults: a recent scientific literary review. Sciences and Cognition; Ano 03 Vol 08). An increase in automotive, motorcycle, train and even truck accidents has been reported which include drivers under the influence of marijuana. An experiment involving aviation pilots evaluated that marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, and the mixture of both. There is information that THC is 4000 times more potent than alcohol in decreasing performance of a motorist in adequately controlled conditions (KALINA, 1997). In 1993, 175 people were studied. These people had been detained for “reckless” driving, under the influence of cocaine or marijuana. Of these, 68 motorists were tested positive for marijuana use. 88% (60 people) oscillated between moderate states and extreme intoxication (12%). 98 people didn’t show signs of alteration. In 18 cases, cocaine was also detected. 3 types of conduct were classified according to their disposition: 19% (8 people) were classified as paranoid, arrogant and combatant, 62% (26 people) were cooperative, unprepared and happy, and 19% (8 people) were slow and drowsy (KALINA, 1997). Endocannabinoid system Currently it is known that the central nervous system produces similar substances to THC – they are endogenous cannabinoids – anandamide (N-aracdonil-ethanolamine), 2-aracdonilglycerol (2-AG) and the 2-arachdonilglyceril ether. These, together with the cannabinoid receptors and the degradation and syntheses enzymes, form the endocannabinoid system. The anandamide is the most known and studied, but 2-aracdonilglycerol is the most abundant. They are synthesized starting from long chain fatty acids, special aracdonic acid. The endogenous cannabinoids are secreted locally, while the THC (main 118 marijuana psychoactive) at once reaches all the CEL brain receptors. The cannabinoid action lasts a few seconds and THC remains for hours in the central nervous system; in the end, anandamide is around 4 to 20 times less potent than THC. Engeli and colleagues demonstrated that the endocannabinoides anandamide and 2-AG are increasing in the plasma of obese humans and its levels are inversely related with FAAh activity (Fatty acid amide hydrolase). It has been shown that fasting increases the levels of anandamide in the large intestine, what relates to food ingestion stimulus (hunger – “getting the munchies” in slang). SNC also possesses specific endocannabinoid receptors and THC. There are two types of receptors known: CB1, present throughout the brain (close to nervous ending and neurons belonging to other systems) 1’ and CB2, located on peripheric tissue, especially in the immunological system. Site: Alcohol and Drugs without Distortion (www.einstein.br/alcooledrogas) / Alcohol and Drug Program (PAD) of Israeli Hospital Albert Einstein. SNC areas with greater receptor density are the following, with the respective functions: Frontal Cortex – logical thinking, abstraction, planning. Base Nucleus – motivity Cerebellum – balance and coordination Limbic System – elaboration and expression of emotional phenomena a. Hypothalamus – coordination of emotional manifestations b. Hyppocampus – emotional memory and aggressiveness inhibition c. Cingulate gyrus – impulse control CB1 cannabinoid receptors are located in the pre-synaptic membranes of diverse systems of neurotransmission. The pre-synaptic receptors are the ones that determine the quantity of neurotransmitters that will be liberated in the synapses. Therefore, the cannabinoid system modulates the action of other systems on the brain. 119 GABA system is considered a system of brain inhibition while the glutamate system is considered an excitatory system. Both work in harmony. GABA system prevails in relaxation, sleeping moments, and the glutamate system prevails in moments that require attention and vigil. The cannabinoid system seems to inhibit the GABA system as well as the glutamate system. In moments of greater activity (work, study, games, etc.) they inhibit GABA system and in moments of less activity they inhibit the glutamate system. GABA and glutamate systems are spread diffusely throughout the brain. Now, the cannabinoid systems concentrate mostly in the frontal cortex, base nucleus, cerebellum and limbic system. The base nucleus and cerebellum are responsible for the coordination of motivity and balance while cannabinoid is the “maestro” of the inhibitionary/excitatory symphony of these regions. With an unbalance in this system, there is a drop in the motor and balance function. The hippocampus, responsible for memory storage, is part of the limbic system, which is rich in CB1 receptors. The presence of anandamide and THC inhibit in a backward manner GABA system (inhibitory) as well as glutamate system (excitatory) – this one with greater intensity – making this structure incapable of storing information coming from diverse situations, due to the deficit in processing sensorial information. Experimentally, in the hippocampus the neurons atrophiate and lose a great number of connections between them, after a mere three months exposing rats to THC. Pharmacological Effects Pharmacology Even though marijuana research started around 150 years ago, only in 1964 was the active substance called delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinoid isolated (Δ9-THC) and only in 1970 was the conclusion reached that this is the main psychoactive component of marijuana, with some other cannabinoids also being active – less potent – and even agonist to THC. (Site: http://qmc.ufsc.br/qmcweb/artigos/maconha/thc.html) The distribution of THC, which is fat soluble, is rapid and complete. The pharmacological effects occur around 10 to 15 minutes after the use of the cigarette, remaining for about 3 to 4 hours, if another dose is not administered. The substance can be detected in the body up to 12 hours after the use of a single cigarette. The oral absorption is slow and incomplete and the effects arise half an hour to an hour, being able to persist for up to 5 hours. 120 It is known that the effect of Cannabis is three times more potent when smoked than when taken orally, even in the natural form (tea or resin), although the gastrointestinal absorption is satisfactory. A medium-sized marijuana cigarette has around 0.5 to 1gram of the plant. If we consider 5% the percentage of THC, we’ll have approximately 50grams of THC per cigarette. Generally, around 1.4 to 1.2 of the THC present in the cigarette is available in the smoke. So, in a cigarette with 50 mg of THC, around 12 to 25 mg are available in the smoke. In practice, the quantity of THC in the blood flow after the use of 1 marijuana cigarette is between 0.4 to 10 mg. Once absorbed, THC is distributed to the various organs of the body, specially those rich in fat. Therefore, it quickly penetrates the brain –rich in fats – without being blocked by the hematoencephallic barrier. THC also goes through the placenta barrier and quickly reaches the fetus. It is almost completely metabolized by the liver to one active metabolite (11-hydroxy-delta-9-TEIC) that is subsequently converted into inactive metabolites and then excreted by urine and feces. THC metabolism is very slow: a half life of 30 hours is accepted by the majority of researchers, but some report a half life of 4 days. Therefore, THC may remain in the body for many days or weeks on end and subsequent use of new doses of marijuana can be intensified or prolonged. For the fact of minimum quantities of THC being found in the urine of users, the tests isolate mainly their metabolites. In acute or occasional users the metabolites can be identified from 1 to 3 days in the urine. Now, in chronic users (even 2 or 3 times per week) the tests remain constantly positive. A heavy user that stops smoking could have positive urine tests for around 30 days. Therefore, a single positive exam does not make it clear if the user is acute or chronic. Multiple samples may be necessary to differentiate the results. Marijuana can become extremely toxic when it’s intoxicated with paraquat, a venomous chemical herbicide used to kill undesirable plants. It affects lungs and other organs. The worst problem is that often this herbicide is hard to identify in the marijuana (WEIL and ROSEN, 1993). Pharmacological effects in animals THC and other cannabinoids produce similar behavioral effects in a great variety of animal species. In low dosage they produce a mix of depressive and excitatory effects and in high dosages, predominantly depressive effects on the central nervous system (CNS). THC and anandamide are sedatives and analgesics (in the medulla as well as the brain), depress motor activity, depress the corporal temperature, calm aggressive behavior, potentialize barbiturate effects and other sedatives, blocking convulsions and lessen reflexes. 121 In primates, it diminishes the ability to do complex tasks, appearing to induce hallucinations and distortions of time. It also increases social interactions. High doses also seem to diminish the concentration of feminine sexual hormones, decreasing ovulation and also spermatogenesis. Pharmacological effects on man For such well studied drug such as marijuana, there are still many controversies on the acute and chronic effects on man, maybe due to the lack of works which study marijuana use in “real life.” We will see what current literature has to say, based on the new psychoneuroendocrinaimmunological discoveries: Neuropsychological Effects Four researchers from the University of Washington published a study that appeared on the respected magazine Journal of Neuroscience, showing what no one wanted to believe in: marijuana kills neurons. Chronic use of marijuana can lead to cognitive deficits and loss of cerebral tissue as the studies of Daniel Amen unequivocally demonstrate. 3D Images (SPECT) of a normal brain Images of marijuana users’ brains Cardiovascular System As described by Huestis and cols. (1992), the increase in cardiac frequency and arterial pressure are commonly observed effects after marijuana use and are proportional to the dose. These effects are 122 due to the vagolitic action of the plant. The cornea veins dilate, provoking hyperemia observed long after the use of the substance. Pulmonary System In a classic study, Hoffman and cols. (1975) made an analysis of tobacco and marijuana components and noticed that, with the exception of nicotine in tobacco and THC in marijuana, the other inhalants were very similar. Tashkin and cols. (1995) found evidence of bronchial irritation and inflammation in a marijuana user, but could not demonstrate a decline in pulmonary function for the long-term, as in the study of tobacco. It is also still not possible to associate marijuana use with the development of lung cancer, but scientists also cannot affirm that chronic marijuana use is safe for pulmonary tissue. It should be pointed out still that the presence of benzopyrene, highly powerful carcinogenic, and benzatracene, found in a proportion 50% superior in marijuana in relation to the common cigarette. Immune System Outside CNS, there are specific cannabinoid receptors in the immune system. Prolonged marijuana use is associated with various degrees of immunosupression, which can lead to infections and other diseases. The evidences on this are still inconclusive but it should be pointed out that, other depressant drugs such as alcohol, harbiturics, benzodiazepenics and anticonvulsants share this immunosuppressive action. The spleen and the lymphocytes, due to their importance in the immune system, were studied on their relation to cannabinoids. Kaminski and cols. (1992) identified the same cannabinoid receptors in spleen cells and Diaz, Specter and Coffey (1993) identified the same receptors in the lymphocytes. When activated by THC these receptors inhibit the immune response of these cells. Cabral and cols. (1995) reported that THC, as well as anandamide, inhibit the function of the cells responsible for killing tumors. 123 Reproductive System The evidence on the damage caused to the reproductive system and sexual hormones are even stronger in chronic users of marijuana. It is already known that it diminishes testosterone and spermogenesis levels in males. In women, the levels of LH (Luteinizing Hormone) and SFH (Stimulating Follicle Hormone) are diminished and can occur in irregular and anovulatory cycles. All of these effects are reversible with the interruption of use. Pregnancy It is already known that marijuana goes through the placenta barrier freely. Fried (1995) researched the effect of marijuana use in the children of mothers who used it during pregnancy and didn’t find any significant data in children aged 1 to 3, but at 4 years there was an increase in behavioral problems, decrease in visual and cognitive performance. The pre-natal position alters execution functions and, therefore, affects the child’s pre-frontal lobe which is under formation. Recent studies relate the use of marijuana by pregnant women to the development of lymphoblastic leukemia in the child. The THC seems to produce spontaneous abortion, low weight at birth and physical deformities when given at specific periods of gestation (ZIMMER and MORGAN, 1997). Some studies reveal that the children of mothers who smoked marijuana during pregnancy were smaller, or had less weight (ZIMMER and MORGAN, 1997). Effects of intoxication Acute The effects of acute intoxication by Cannabis appear after a few minutes of using the cigarette and depend on certain factors such as the quality and quantity of the substance used as well as the user’s humor, personality and previous experiences with the substance. Studies demonstrate that different effects occur in “new” and “veteran” users. It seems that with repetition the user learns to anticipate, recognize and make better use of the effects, while a “new” user can feel confused and dizzy. The environment and the company also influence the experience. 124 Psychic Effects . Euphoria and/or general well being . Laughing without motive . Increased sociability and verbal communication . Increased perception of colors, sounds, textures, taste . Increased mental and creative energies . Alteration of consciousness . Distortion of time and space . Increased appetite (“getting the munchies”) . Decreased concentration and memory . Paranoia – generally connected to the fact that the user knows he/she is breaking the law. Anxiety and confusion . Lethargy and drowsiness Physical . Conjunctive hyperemia . Tachycardia . Dried mouth . Retardation and lack of motor coordination . Bronchodilation . Cough 125 Chronic Effects Chronic marijuana use can lead to neuropsychological damage, infertility, impotency, respiratory problems, immunological deficiency, and aggravation of cardiac problems and also, it can be the introductory drug for the use of much stronger drugs. Bioelectrical Field Effects User Patients User Patients 126 User Patients User Patients Dependency Mechanism The constant search for pleasure stimulus, with flavorful food, cold beer and exciting sexual relations, are associated with a “cerebral reward system,” as named by the American neurobiologist James Olds in the 60s. It deals with a complex network of neurons that are activated when we do activities that cause pleasure. This system provides us with a reward whenever we do certain activities, leading us, therefore, to repeat those activities. Biologically, it has a specific and essential function: guarantee the survival of the individual and the species, to give motivation for behaviors such as eating, drinking and reproducing. Unfortunately, not only normal physiological functions stimulate this system – related to the liberation of dopamine, but also alcohol and other abuse drugs, and sometimes generating a pleasure that is 127 much more intense than the natural functions. (www.adroga.casadia.org/news/sistemaprazer.htm). The circulating dopamine in the rewards system could be 10 times greater than the one found in common everyday “internal” pleasures. Facing such stimulation, the system decreases its sensibility and the person needs more and more drugs to produce the same effects. The drug alters the rewards system “point zero” in such a way that never again the same degree of pleasure or reward will be reached again, with or without the drug. Withdrawal (Abstinence) Syndrome Cannabis abstinence syndrome is not included in the DSM-IV because “the abstinence symptoms of cannabis… were described… but their clinical significance is uncertain.” A revision done in 2002 by Smith concluded that the studies did not present strong enough evidence for the existence of Cannabis abstinence syndrome. This revision preceded the scientific discovery of the cannabinoid receptors, fact that allowed for more consistent and well controlled studies. Therefore, in more recent revisions there are no more doubts about the existence of the Cannabis abstinence syndrome. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) being highly lipophilic (fat soluble), takes many days to be eliminated and only 20, 25 or even 30 days after the last use do the symptoms of abstinence occur, including irritability, agitation, anguish, tremors, sleep, appetite alterations and aggressiveness besides the search for dopaminergic substances such as cigarettes and/or coffee which act like the THC, preferably in the DA2 receptors in the septo accumbent nucleus in the limbic area of the brain (KALINA, 1997). Also due to this lipophilic property, it has been difficult to study THC and related cannabinoids, going as far as having some researchers suggest that the effect is due to direct action on the membrane and not mediated by a receptor (NESTLER et al., 2001). The symptoms are primarily emotional and behavioral – negative humor: irritability, anxiety, depression; insomnia – in spite of changes in appetite, loss of weight and physical discomfort being frequently mentioned. The start and course of symptoms were found to be similar to those found in abstinence syndromes provoked by other psychoactive substances. The magnitude of these symptoms was consistent, and the findings suggest that the cannabis abstinence syndrome has considerable clinical importance. Treatment of ex-marijuana users should include support during the abstinence syndrome and subsequent neuropsychoimmunendocrinological rehabilitation of this individual, because as it has been said in previous items, the damage reaches other organs and systems beyond the brain. 128 X - How to make Daime or Ayahuasca – FEITIO To make first grade ayahuasca, you use one 60kg flour sack (like those found in bakeries) of jagube and half a sack of leaves (chacrona), the proportion being 2 to 1. Prepare a pan of roughly 70 liters, putting in the first layer jagube and the second leaves then adding successive layers, totaling 4 layers of jagube and 3 of leaves. Note that he leaves should be between the jagube. Set up 4 pans, on a furnace fire or high pressure stove. The fire element is very important for ayahuasca to gain force otherwise it will be that raw ayahuasca without force or light or with force and light which last very little. Then, put together the contents of the four pans. Take 30 liters from the first pan, 15 from the second, 10 from the third and 5 from the last. Take these 60 liters and put them in another pan, reducing all of this to 20 liters only, always finishing the feitio process, taking out and putting in the mixture successively for 4 times. When the mixture becomes the wine of souls, she will look like a type of vanish and will smell like sugar cane syrup. The real feitores (makers), who are conscious that they are nothing more than instruments of higher power, know the “point of light” of the wine of souls, because when it is ready everything becomes scintillating, magical and wonderful. Then you extract first rate wine. Abstain from sex for 3 days before and 3 days after. Women do not participate, but can gather the leaves and give them to the maker. Bend your knees in the name of Master Jesus, pray to the Great Spirit and place the feitio in His hands. Choose a good jagube, which is at least 7 years old and that has flourished already. They say that ayahuasca made with young branches work, and it really works, but it doesn’t have the same strength or force of a mature jagube. As for the leaf, use the queen leaf or chacrona “cabocla,” because the leaf orelha-de-onça - jaguar ear makes you feel like throwing up, what many think to be of the spiritual cleansing type, but in reality it is a chemical reaction in the organism. Avoid a feitio with too much chatter, babbling and opinion giving. Put on hymns that do not idolize false divinities or that do not praise drugs, as for example, santa maria (marijuana). Brother Irineu Serra only made first grade ayahuasca and extracted only 12 liters per sack, but as times have changed, I’m in favor of using the most of the material… During his days, the vine grew abundantly in everybody’s backyard. A more refined wine of souls Normal or first grade Use one sack of jagube and ½ sack of leaf, being 4 layers jagube and 3 of leaves (between the layers put 2 of jagube powder) for 60 liters of boiling (redone several times). Reduce to 10 liters. 129 Concentrated: Put together 30 liters of boiled mixture and another 30 liters of first grade ayahuasca and reduce to 20 liters. Doubled: 60 liters of ayahuasca plus 1 sack of jagube and ½ sack of leaf. Reduce to 30 liters. Refined Refine 60 liters of first rate ayahuasca plus 30 liters that have been passed twice with ½ sack of jagube and 1 sack of leaf. At the boiling point, refine for 2 hours and reduce it to 15 liters. Honey Boil ½ sack of queen in 60 liters of water. When it is well cooked at 40 liters, add 20 liters of first grade ayahuasca. After an hour or more, reduce to 6 liters. 130 XI - The Real Accounting of Daime/Ayahuasca Rituals Now I will show the reader how false shamanism and FALSE SANTO DAIME turned sacred rituals into an easy way of making a living simply exploiting the spiritual search of man for GOD. Today we produce almost all the daime that we use in our rituals of daime/shamanism. But at the beginning of this great work, we bought daime from other states such as Acre, Rondônia and Amazonas. Therefore, I know exactly how much a liter of daime costs in these places and I know how much the freight costs per liter to reach São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. A liter of fourth degree daime (which is very strong) will in these states be around R$ 25 reais, plus another R$ 2 added per liter due to the freight cost to São Paulo, so a liter of this strong fourth degree daime will reach São Paulo at a cost of R$ 27 reais. The use for each participant is 150 to 200 ml of this fourth degree daime so as to have a strong ritual of expanded consciousness for 10 or more hours. It is the equivalent of 4 little coffee cups, but in general people take only 3 cups, refusing the fourth, or rather, they consume only 150 ml. 200 ml of this daime costs only R$ 5.40, as we give the rituals at R$ 7 reais per person, R$ 1.60 is left over from each participant, which easily covers the cost of toilet paper, water, and electricity that each participant uses. In a 9-hour ritual, for 100 people, the toilet paper, water and electricity here, do not reach R$ 100. So I ask: if we charge R$ 7 here with all these costs, what makes other places that call themselves spiritual and detached from material things charge R$20, R$30, R$80 and sometimes more? ANSWER: They commit this insanity for money, due to a high profit of more than 300%, commercializing sacred spiritual rituals with ayahuasca at R$ 25 reais per participant. Imagine those that charge even more! So, to charge twenty or more reais per ritual is to seek high profit. You have left the spiritual path and entered the commercial path. All blessings come from GOD and free of charge, what right has man to negotiate with such things? “What you have been freely given, also give freely,” Lord Jesus said. So if your work is really spiritual, pass on to the participants only the costs that you had. Master Jesus always said: Take care of my little ones on Earth, so I will make you great among men. This is what we do here at this sanctified Céu. Love and compassion, tenderness, care and seriousness are our welcome. The word of the HOLY SPIRIT and the practice of these teachings is our motto. In our actions and attitudes, the clear demonstration that faith without works is dead faith and, “There used to be a day when I believed in words.” Participants have been reaching marvelous results through the spiritual works of daime/shamanism with complete liberation from drugs and addictions. Healing of physical disease, breaking of remaining karmas, fast spiritual growth and prosperity even in the material world, are the things that all those that come here experience. This is the testimony and proof of the truths that we teach here. You will recognize the FALSE SANTO DAIME and false shamans by these signs: the amount of money they charge and the drugs that they use. 131 I will show you now what the scenario of commercial exploitation of spiritual hunger and thirst for integration with GOD was like three years ago, when we inaugurated Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição. Here we give numerous courses in shamanism and esoterical topics at prices that are affordable by all and the proceedings help us in the social work that we do here, putting together basic food supplies packages to deliver to the less advantaged communities around here. All of this without having to exploit the spiritual necessities of spiritual seekers. A regular Reiki course takes three years. The three levels cost at least R$ 1 500 at other places, but here at this shamanic institute the cost is R$ 30 for all three levels together. Daime rituals in false churches that charge R$ 25 with a profit of 300%, but here it is only R$ 7 and we will lower it even more. It’s only a question of time! A sweat lodge revolves around R$ 350 or 2 X R$ 190, and they don’t even serve ayahuasca, but here the value is R$ 15 reais with ayahuasca if you wish. A course in drum making, the cheapest I saw out there was R$ 190 and there wasn’t even a consecration of the instrument, but here where we practice true shamanism it is only R$ 40, including a shamanic fire ritual to consecrate the instrument and with ayahuasca if you wish, and you take the drum home, because it is yours! Recognition and invocation of animal powers, a very sought after course, false shamanism charges R$ 450 or 3 x R$ 175, but here, where truth lies, it is R$ 20 and in a beautiful ritual! I, shaman Gideon, demonstrate this with an open chest so that you will clearly see how false daime churches, false shamans and other opportunists mercilessly exploit the spiritual need of humanity, who are seeking integration with GOD. 132 XII - Who is ready to be Padrinho and Madrinha Who is ready to open their own point of light? Ready to be padrinho or madrinha of their own little church of light… Have you ever asked yourself this? To help someone who is drowning, you first need to know how to swim or you run the risk of drowning with the person! Don’t be fooled, my beloved, to lead a work of light takes much responsibility, dedication, effort and much self discipline. To minister works of light without being in the light, is pure illusion. Blind leading the blind, both falling over the cliff! Sincerely reflect on the questions that I make now to those aspiring to be padrinho and madrinha of their own points of light: How is your compassion doing? Because a man without compassion is like a lamp with no oil… Are you by any chance bending your knees to God in the name of Master Jesus at least three times a day? Because the prayer that is made to the Great Spirit with knees to the ground in humbleness, in the name of Lord Jesus, is the oil that fuels the light of the lamp! Have you refrained your tongue? Because the foolish speaks randomly and twists his own tongue. What condition has a man to counsel and show the way to be followed by others if he doesn’t even dominate his own mouth? Know that nothing that enters the mouth can contaminate you, only what comes out of it! And the objective which motivates you to open your own point of light: altruism or selfishness? Have you by any chance looked on the status that a padrinho or madrinha has with envy, forgetting the great responsibility that they accepted before God? So you got God’s permission and trust, but you let your heart’s ambition speak louder than altruism, the rational mind more than the spirit, the desire of the flesh more than your duty with the light, rage more than compassion, vice more than your will, “having” more than “being,” know that you betrayed yourself and God who lives within you! What good is it to say that you read a text from the Bible every morning, meditate on it the rest of the day, if when you minister a spiritual work you charge it with profit? What good is it for you to speak so much of peace and universal laws if when your actions are observed you are only a drug addict, like marijuana, for example? It is by the fruit that the tree is known, and such works reveal clearly who you are in fact! How is your sincerity, at least with yourself? Why do you claim to be a daimista? Know that a lie is the torn that sinks in the deepest in a man’s soul! 133 If you came to daime searching for love, peace, light and spiritual growth for yourself and those around you, then halleluiah! You’ve come to the right place, yes, God will be with you and you’ll prosper in all senses! Or perhaps you’ve come to daime to enjoy a “buzz” and “trip out” in a way that no other drug can give? That’s sad, brother, the wine of souls is not a drug and it is valid only for those that wish to evolve! It is divine and makes you grow. It sees right through the “Zen” mask you try to put on, it clearly sees your primitive impulses and the vicious tongue that you still worship. A junkie and fool walk in the path. Both find themselves disqualified before the light, so how can they lead people? Good fruits do not come from a bad tree, the Master taught! See how it is here at CNSC. Some think it’s like the army here because we put a stop your persistent rebellious nature. After taking wine of souls you insist on staying outside the church and rituals, you go take a walk on the plateau or think that it is your will that should prevail during the works, like smoking cigarettes or pot, you talk loudly and other things that are contrary to the norms of light of this church, they are attitudes that represent the dark ignorance that are still inside you,. Be aware of this! Even here, at our sacred Céu - Heaven: do you recognize with your heart, the great effort and the sweat that’s spilled everyday so that the work and priorities are fulfilled. Or, without doing anything to help, have you simply judged and criticized through your ignorance, without even noticing that you still don’t know the priorities passed on to us from High? Those that do not gather, scatter, and his works and words will demonstrate this, padrinho or madrinha. It takes sacrifice doesn’t it? How is your gratefulness to God? After receiving the blessings you asked for, did you maintain yourself Jesus’ path of light? Looking with sincerity at the attitudes that you have been having and the constant chorus of your tongue, you will know! There are limits in the path of light, even if you are weak. To err is very human and God forgives much. But err the same error is to root yourself in shadows, refusing the light, making it clear which way you chose to tread! What good is it to come rituals of light here, tell me lies when you say that you gave up drugs, lying and being fake, having a vicious tongue and being evil, that you now walk in the light, if your attitudes after the ritual clearly show that you still insist in erring before the light? Though they are few, some still do this! Learn the lesson of the mole that walks in darkness thinking she’s alright, and by mistake walks out into the light with mud on her face. And the finger of ridicule is pointed at her. How can you say that you are attending false daime churches but don’t mix with the chaff? Well, tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you are… pointed the Master! If a canary flies with bats, it sleeps upside down, and people that live with pigs, learn to eat slop, I say! 134 Do you really know true works of light? I know a few! I congratulate Alto Santo and Barquinha. I also like UDV very much, which was founded with a lot of wisdom by brother Gabriel, a work of great light. And all the independent daime churches which are serious and are from the light because they fight against drugs and avoid profit with spiritual works, as was taught to us by our dear brother Raimundo Irineu Serra. These churches that I’ve mentioned are serious churches with much light, they honor the divinity of daime or vegetal (as they called at UDV). However, there are many false daime churches. In truth, the great majority of them are false and misleading, looking for financial profit and work in a way which weakens the spirit of those that attend. They quote the name of serious brothers of light such as Irineu Serra and even place photos of him at their rituals, but in reality all they do is stain truth with drugs, like marijuana. They stained the divinity of daime. They are like whitewashed tombs, which are beautiful outside but hide decay on the inside. The karma that they acquire is terrible and increases by each person they lead to the path of vice and drug addiction. What a high price to pay, padrinhos e madrinhas of these false churches. Which seeds you sow is up to you to choose, but the harvest is mandatory! With the pretext that santa maria is not marijuana anymore and santa clara is not cocaine, they drug themselves and are now addicted. They insist on this morbid vice and still take many others down the abyss with them. People that are weak or who mistakenly came to them for help. On that day, the false padrinho will prefer the punishment of 1000 criminals, than to face his own karma. To take responsibility for a work of light, with light and for the light is a hard decision, it takes much willingness, altruism and courage. But it is worth it, dears. As long as you are faithful to the light your blessings will be many. Wherever you place your hand the Master will also place His. What you say, shall come to pass. From my part, I, Gideon of the Lakotas, who bear in my heart the seal of my Lord Jesus; will do everything that I can to aid the new padrinhos and madrinhas of the new churches to be built. I will ask nothing and will not charge for anything, because we live in unconditional love. Our only desire is that you live in the light, spread the light and pour out the light. We are fulfilled watching you fulfill yourselves, if you are happy, we are also happy! There is no need to be affiliated here, because the connection we have is the desire for a better world. What will keep us united is the connection to the light of Master Jesus which is within our hearts. Therefore my dear ones use your spiritual common sense and love in your hearts and choose the denomination of your point of light! A work of light comes from God, what difference does it make what name you give it? I’m positive that for those who are faithful to the light, we offer: 135 Wine of souls. As much as you need for your rituals, at the price of cost/expenses and financed if necessary; Judicial help for the legalization of you points of light; Musical collection that you need, what I have I will share; Any problem that you may be going through, we are here for whatever is necessary. Just a reminder, you are responsible for your church. All we can do is aid you in some problem you may have, but this cross is yours and what you do, and what transpires there at your church is your responsibility, so, ground yourself! We have the objective of making the new churches 100% independent. For the new padrinhos and madrinhas of the new churches I say the following: beloved, it is worth it to follow the path of light, it is worth it to be faithful to the commitments that come from the light. Your blessings will be numerous and plentiful. But remember this: Never mix commerce with power plants or the wine of souls; What you receive freely, also give freely, as taught by Lord Jesus; Pass on only the cost/expense of the wine used to the participants, as I have given you the example; The wine of souls is a divine tool, so to stain, defame, vilify it, disrespecting this sacred and divine wine, mixing it with drugs, alcohol and other things is to disrespect the divinity itself. I ask: are you really ready? If the answer is yes, I am here! 136 XIII - How did the Passing of Madrinha Genecilda Occur I make it a point to expose in this book how madrinha Genecilda made her passage, the only woman I loved in this life. Here, you the reader, will be able to clearly see the lack of light that these Cefluris people have. How much these people, that defend and spread drug use, are low and mediocre. In this chapter, you will know how they acted during the death of my wife, even during her funeral. Even in the middle of a battle, there needs to be honor. I can understand the fact that Cefluris and its components have great aversion towards me, after all I am the one who began to unmask the fraud that they have been and the deception that they’ve been preaching. However, I never made up any story to denigrate or speak ill of Cefluris or padrinho Sebastião. I went after the facts and only spoke the truth. All that I speak about Cefluris and Sebastião I can prove in front of any judge or jury. I fight lies showing the truth. But these people, who defend drugs, these people of santa maria, are really fake and live in lies. Now I will show you how they are and how they act. My dear wife Genecilda made the passage in a rough manner. It was murder and it hurt very much. Only with a warrior spirit and a sense of responsibility for the work could we maintain ourselves firm in this terrible time. However, God gives the cold according to the blanket. I know I can overcome once again. We were in a shamanic ritual with numerous people. It was already the early hours of dawn of the month of July, 2006, and my wife, getting into a car, went to buy some analgesic in a 24-hour pharmacy at Petropen gas station, which is located nearby in the municipality. Hours later, a police vehicle came and gave us the news that she had suffered an accident and had died. After a little while, the police said what had really happened: she had been murdered. The shock was intense and for a few minutes I was a total blank, no reaction. Then I recovered quickly. I know my wife, to tame that woman is no easy task, she was always a lioness. I believe a robbery occurred followed by the killing, since money, wallet and jewels were taken from her. Many crimes have been happening here in this valley. Recently, in Registro, they killed a civil police officer with several bullets. One day we will know the truth. It was not easy. I had to forget my own pain and remember those who were participating in the ritual. My wife’s daughters, Isis and Tatiana, were also present at the ritual. What a difficult time! But I had felt that way before, centuries back, during the great massacre. I do not wish this on anyone. Using the same strategy as the police, I oriented the fiscais - monitors of the house to tell the others that there had been an accident and that madrinha had passed, so the ones that were new to the path would be spared. When the day broke, I went after what had really happened. We ascertained that a gold necklace of hers was missing, a gold ring with two diamonds and a ruby, the wallet with money and that there was a flat tire which had something strange about it. Maybe she had been the victim of a robbery, maybe not. This world is still a world of challenges. The fact that you walk in light does not 137 free the person from these things. Even Master Jesus went through this. His apostles and all the great minds from the LIGHT that came to preach love in this world also subjected themselves to these things. Life in this world is still like this. It could have happened to me, to you or any other. But this does not matter now. The ways of GOD the FATHER are strange in the sight of men, but everything always happens the way it should independent of us understanding it or not. So I will ask the GREAT SPIRIT for my anger not to consume my spirit, for resentment not to find a dwelling place in my heart, and for my hands not to be stained in blood when truth comes to light. I know the limits of my strength and I know well what I am capable of. I will maintain myself in the straight path of humility as I’ve always done. I will face each situation with the courage and bravery that I’ve always had and which are typical among the sons of light. I will wait on the LORD, because it is on this rock that I rest on. I informed the deputy of Pariquera-Açu of my knowledge of legal procedures in murder cases and would cooperate in all ways possible. I provided him the list of persons present during the ritual on the day of the death, with names, phone numbers and addresses of everyone. I also personally informed the deputy that my wife and I always paid for life insurance, even before we knew each other and did so for the security of the family. And that roughly two years before we decided to purchase new life insurances where our children and stepchildren would be the beneficiaries. My life insurance is almost two million reais and my wife’s is one million. But in both insurances the beneficiaries were our children. Little by little we began informing people that it had not been an accident, but a murder. We let the law take its course, but in my opinion, there were mistakes in the police investigation from the start. Things that may have made a great difference. Some relatives who had never called my beloved wife Genecilda during these three years that had passed, never even to say hello, as soon as they had found out about the death, were already talking about inheritance. Stingy people who did not respect our pain and were already looking if some money would come their way. How could people like this become related to a soul of light like my beloved wife Genecilda? How great the mission she was born into! Genecilda’s own daughters, who lived here in this Céu and were present on the day of the passage, Tatiana and Isis (my stepdaughters) were very angry. They answered these relatives calling their attention and telling them some very clear truths. But these people were at least authentic standing up for what they said. But now I will narrate the attitudes taken by these people from Cefluris and how they acted. In the online community Orkut, some people created false e-mails to hide their true identities to avoid being found out or held responsible. These people were angry with the truths about padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo, the drugs and commerce at FALSE SANTO DAIME churches, which I have been exposing with so much clarity for years, the same people that defend the use and liberation of drugs or commerce with 138 spiritual works for their own benefit. So they posted on the internet lying rumors out of pure evil, such as “Gideon. Suspect in the murder of his wife.” Unfortunately, in the IG and Yahoo groups, and also on Orkut, you can create a bunch of emails as if you were someone else. They don’t require identification numbers from the person and there is no verification of authenticity of the information provided by the person who is creating a new email. So, hiding behind a false identity, pretending to be someone they are not, anyone can go to a cyber café and send in false accusations and lies about people or entities. It’s the same tactics used by Coca-cola’s competitors when they launched that rumor that a person had been drinking a cold coke one day in a restaurant and found a piece of a human finger inside the bottle. This way they can lie and bring down a person, without being held responsible for what they say. And they put on the internet that I was a suspect in the case of my wife’s murder, and that her insurance was under my name. What a low blow, what crafty people. They really have no idea what the word honor is. All of these fake names and identities were created only to see if they could stain my image and the image of Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição which has been helping people for last few years. The true intention of these anonymous lies was for me to stop alerting the world about Cefluris and their drug use in and out of rituals. They wanted me to stop showing the truth about padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo. That he was simply a drug addict and had stained the name of SANTO DAIME, betraying master Irineu. They thought I would get discouraged and give up the spiritual mission I had accepted. But seeing all this garbage coming from these people made my resolve to fight drugs within SANTO DAIME stronger. Here lies an old spirit, a warrior of the heart. A great quantity of energy was liberated by the emotion of hatred that I felt for the situation, and I channeled it for positive constructive realizations, so that the work that would take us five years to accomplish, is now being done in two and a half years. The materialization of these works is the gift I offer my beloved late wife, Genecilda. The only woman I truly loved in this life. This attitude will also be my answer to these false personalities that hide behind false e-mails, mediocre and dishonorable people that are ignorant of the virtues of the spirit and the benefits of the light. From now on, I will be very much engaged in the new constructions and the fulfillment of my goals. So I let this people speak without giving them much importance, which is the correct path. But to every action there exists one or more reactions, for them that spoke about my wife, about the moral integrity of our marriage and even attempted to create a situation where I was a suspect in her death, claiming that her insurance was under my name and not under the name of our children. So now it becomes a question of honor, something they are foreign to. This went too far. By supporting themselves in anonymity, lies and hypocrisy, they crossed all limits allowed, believing they were safe behind their masks. But I know who they are, where they live and what they do, each one of them. It was easy to find out. And in regards to these people, 2007 will be a just year. I know that my 139 time here may be short. Perhaps even at an end. Because with the publication of this book, and the acquisition of new and gigantic lands, I will have fulfilled 100% of my mission. But this makes no difference, this does not affect me. The absence of a physical body will only make me stronger. At present, I need to take care that all the goals I set forth are followed through in the next years and will observe these people with much attention, and will make an example of them to be seen. The weapons of darkness are gossip and tittle-tattle, since they are no more than base people and bankrupt firms. But I walk with the light and power is only in the light. This is something that these sordid people do not know about, this is called “honor.” Honor is from the spirit, it does not belong to flesh. Starting in June 2007, they will see the weight of the honor of a shaman spirit. The worms that live in the mud have much to learn with my people. I know the implications of what I have just written well. But I make it a point of leaving my words registered here and have written in this matter so that there will be no doubts, and they will understand the message clearly. To make an example of these for all to see is the final word of the Golden Lion, White Buffalo and White Dragon, the Blue Whale, Grey Bear and of the Wolf. More on the passage of madrinha Genecilda, my beloved wife, follows below: This story involves two men, whom my wife and I welcomed with much care and even went as far helping financially without asking for anything in return. One of them is called Francisco, who lives in Santos, and according to his own words, used to attend Cefluris. He came here bringing a few mushrooms and claiming to be a very, very old spirit, who was a remnant of Atlantis. My wife and I never take such nonsense into consideration and know that they come from a very large ego and we extended our hands anyways, in the hope that he would wake up. Now, the other man, Paulo, a musician from São Paulo, I really had the hopes that he would firm himself in the LIGHT, but succumbed to the ego unfortunately. He chose to continue in the illusion that he was a prophet, a psychic, speaking much about the lives of other, but what is even worse, was exploiting others with spiritual works, trying to enrich himself through ayahuasca. What a shame, because I really liked this Paul character. But both had their material and selfish intentions totally frustrated, due to the seriousness and the zeal for the principles of light from Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, where commerce with the sacred and power plants is strictly forbidden. So they took advantage of the hard time we were all going through, with the death of my beloved wife Genecilda, madrinha of this work, in July, 2006. They made up a prophecy, and proclaimed it secretly to various people that attended CNSC and were here for the funeral, that “darkness had entered CNSC and that after December 2006 there would be no more spiritual works held here or a church standing, because even the land would belong to another owner.” These two characters, who judge themselves “super evolved souls,” said this to many people, who will confirm what I am saying exactly the way I 140 am saying it, even before a court. It was a sordid attitude, very low and they only had this opportunity because we (Gideon and Genecilda) loved them and helped them as brothers. God knows how many like them we helped without asking for anything in return. Well, after the prophecy was given by these two “illuminated supreme messengers of light,” we, mere mortals from CNSC, with humility, much work and little talk, by the grace and mercy of the Great Spirit only prospered between July and December 2006: We increased our sister churches from 11 to 57. We are now in 6 states, spread throughout Brazil. I believe we’ll finish 2007 with more than 100 sister churches; We built a ritualistic hall for 2 000 people (standing) and has already been used for the new year’s passage in a beautiful ritual; The number of participants increased so much, that we have to initiate soon the construction of a new church with capacity for a thousand people (sitting), which we were going to built only in 2008; In July we distributed approximately 30 basic supplies package. After that we began distributing 60 packages per month to needy families in the region; We had, what I believe to be, the greatest Baptismal ceremony in SANTO DAIME history, where 126 people were baptized together, without counting the children that didn’t sign the book. And we have an even larger line-up waiting for the next one; We were able to pass on our very concentrated ayahuasca that was produced to our sister churches, not just at R$ 27 reais per liter, but also in three installments, interest free; We have more than 350 requests for the next uniform ceremony here at this holy Céu; We expanded and renovated the washrooms with new flooring and walls, 20 toilets, 6 new showers, 8 sinks and 1 urine stall; People from all over Brazil and even other countries have called attempting to participate in the padrinho and madrinha course that was offered in December, 2006 (which had a great number of participants); Our site was translated to Spanish and English. Now it’s on the internet in three languages. Videos were also added to our site, showing lectures, rituals and courses to be seen by you at home; Look at the prosperity in a few short months after the egoic prophecies of Paulo and Francisco. In regards to Paulo, I saw greed and naivety, even going as far as setting up a financial goal of receiving 141 two thousand reais per month with spiritual works with ayahuasca, ignoring the consequences of this attitude. Now, in regards to Francisco from Santos, I saw evil and hypocrisy, because he envied the success and victory of those that worked hard to reach success. Instead of fighting to get out of the place you live in, Francisco, you are worried about going around telling others that you are already an old evolved soul from Atlantis, and ignores the somber reality of being unemployed for eight years and living in constant crisis. Your reality clearly demonstrates who you are. Just the same way the reality of this Céu shows exactly who we are! I say this in a clear loud voice: be careful with those that like to prophesize and show their clairvoyance. In general, they are crooks and failures, people with much personal and professional frustration, people who are purely tied to the material world. In truth, they are only victims of their own enormous ego, which dominates them completely. OBS: Today, 21st of April, 2007, the book has been handed to the publisher and together with two other brothers, we increased the lands of the Farm Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição, from 150 acres to 40 000 acres. 142 XIV - Gideon of the Lakotas and the beginning of Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição BRIEF BIOGRAPHY MY CHILDHOOD I was born at 4 pm on March 7th, 1964, in a small town that is at the foot of several mountain ranges in the Zona da Mata (Wooded area) in Minas Gerais. When I was a boy, I didn’t like studying much. This thing of rationalizing was very difficult for me. My grades weren’t so great. I’d rather go horse back riding then stay behind with the books. I had a normal childhood, like any other healthy and shrewd little boy. One characteristic of mine was that I was always very obedient and always manifested a deep love for nature and all living things. I liked to discover and observe plants and animals. I liked to take care of the vegetable garden and talked much with trees and animals. I also used to secretly free the little birds that my older brother used to catch in the trapdoor and put in birdcages. Sometimes I got beaten for this. I had a great friend in kindergarten, his name is Paulo Roberto and his dad used to own a butcher shop in the city. We grew up together and many times I used to go with him to get late payments from some customers of the shop. It was a way to get a few extra bucks. His parents, Amauri and Lourdes, were always like mom and dad to me. Ever since I was a kid, I used to tell people, though in an immature way, that one day I would buy a big farm and there I’d be able to take in hurt animals. I’d say that there I would free a million horses, a million birds, a million cattle, a million dogs; a million cats etc, so that they would be free to live and die in their old age. In the mind of a child a million seems to be a good number. Perhaps, while taking care of the garden I saw the abundance that comes from there, and that led me to notice that the earth was always thankful and always retributed with much. This was one of the reasons I used to always ask adults how people were hungry if Brazil had so much land. I remember very well that I always woke up before dawn, at 4 am, got changed and went to Sr. Zeli Pereira’s house to wait for him to come out to go to his farm, where he dealt with cattle and milk. I did this for many years. Through intuition I always knew that I needed large lands to accomplish the mission that I came to fulfill, although I did not, at the time, have clear consciousness of what exactly this mission was. So I knew that by going to Sr. Zeli’s farm (who was like a grandfather to me) every day, that in some way I was already starting something. 143 My God, how I talked! I didn’t stop asking Sr. Zeli questions about the animals. I asked everything about the horses, cattle, goats, chicken and ducks, fish, gardens and fields. Sr. Zeli would patiently answer everything. One time, he found my dad at Prachedes Bakery, where they met to play a few card games, and he said smiling: “You have to give me a kilo of candy.” My dad asked: “Why?” Sr. Zeli answered: “So I can give it to your kid so he keeps his mouth occupied and gives me a break with the questions.” And both laughed a lot. I was in a public primary school, where it was common to receive visits from father John. I really liked father João! He was an enormous Dutch man, going bald with blue eyes and constantly smoked a strong smelling great big cigar. Many times we could tell he was around by the smell of the cigar, which would arrive first. I always dreamed of a little black saint with a cloak made of stars around her and she would comfort me through hard times. Grandma Bijuca, who was raised catholic, used to tell us, her grand kids, the stories of Saint Corrêa. This was something else I really loved. But the interesting thing is that, in spite these positive factors, I always had a grudge for the Roman Catholic Church. The thing I most liked about the church was distance! That little story of me confessing, even if it was with padre João, whom I really liked, never was to my liking and it was a vicious fight to try to force me to confess in that way. Many times my teacher, grandma Bijuca and even my mom, asked: “Why don’t you like the catholic church?” “I don’t feel it’s the right thing.” “How is it then that you like father João so much?” “I feel that he is good.” After many fights, in which I was at a clear disadvantage, I needed to start articulating plans. I knew that the confession thing happened at school only twice a year. I could pretend that I had gone to confession and no fight would happen. Then it would be easier. Then came the first communion and things got complicated again. I was only a child and suffered a lot of pressure from my mom and my friend’s moms too. But I also felt that the way was not there, though I could not explain it. However, there was no way around it and they forced me to have my first communion then. How I hated being still small that day! At 7 years of age, the sensitivity that I manifested was already strong. I also knew how to read and started to study the Bible. I was always guided by intuition, and found passages that were against the attitudes of the Catholic Church. Some texts spoke about images and reverences, about faith without works and the sweat of us all. They also spoke that a “tree is known by its fruits” and so many other 144 things. Though I didn’t like to study, there was a strong reason to motivate me to read the Bible. In a short time none of the mothers, mine or my friends’, tried to make me follow the Catholic doctrine, because now I had arguments that would put them in check. Sometime later, my mom began attending a Kardecist Spiritist Center and there I felt at home. I knew it was the right thing. At one time, a marvelous medium called Floripes was observing me in the street while I walked with my mother, and coming closer, she said: “Your son is a medium with strong traces, he needs to develop it.” These words entered my mind like an arrow. When I was 10, attending fourth grade, I became good friends with a boy my age and we started studying in the same class. A black boy, who was very endearing, intelligent and very tall and who many times, taught me the day before tests. His name is Jerônimo. He came from a humble family, a Kardecist cradle. His parents, Sr. João and D. Isaura, were like parents to me and it was through them, in fact, that I entered the Kardecist world. Many times I used to participate in the weekly spiritist meetings that happened at the retirement home in a nearby street. Going there I could witness real examples of unconditional love. Also at this time, Paulo Roberto, Jerônimo and I used to camp in the mountains. We were shrewd and swam very well, so our parents used to let us go. What a golden age it was! When I turned 12, already in junior high school, there came the time for confessions, but something happened that would change everything for me: the presence of a bishop and another priest. I don’t know why the loving father João didn’t come. For my love for him, I would have kept my mouth shut. I had seen a way to fight back, to solve once and for all the problems and father João wasn’t there. That was the perfect moment. I was sharp with my Bible knowledge and for more than a year I had been learning with the spiritists the great truths not told in history. I filled the bishop and the priest with biblical questions which doubted many of the Catholic Church’s attitudes. The interesting thing is that up to then I didn’t know I could be so successful. And yet, taking advantage of the stories of the holy inquisition, I asked the bishop if the Lord Jesus Christ would approve of the murders and tortures that happened by papal order at the time? The bishop and priest looked at each other, coughed and cleared their throats heavily. Both of them were already upset at the situation I put them in before 40 students, and before they thought of an excuse, I asked: “Lord Bishop, can you explain to me what hypocrisy is? I hear so many people use this word when the topic is Catholic Church, I would like to know what it means.” The new priest, with a noticeably altered voice, answered energetically, telling me to be respectful and courteous, and ask my mom about these things in my own house. Then I knew it was the right time: “Father, does hypocrisy have something to do with the fact that you drive around in a brand new Brasilia, but never pay the bills that you make in the butcher shop that belongs to Beto’s father?” Screaming, they kicked me out of the room, thank God! That school martyrdom of so many years ended with that confrontation. But something happened that day that left me marveled: I discovered the 145 power of intelligence followed by action. And something else happened that would conclude once and for all this lesson, the very same year. I was too lazy and failed the year. I flunked out. I never forget how I felt to see my friends move on, while I stayed behind. I felt as if I had lost motivation to continue on the same path as them. This caused me to feel so rejected and generated such a huge energy that woke me up for life once and for all. I felt so defeated in that day that I made a decision to never, never again, ever, give up on anything that I started while victory was not reached. I would never be defeated again. I would die on my feet, but wouldn’t live on my knees! This really changed me, because it was then that I discovered the power of intelligence and will. In the year that followed, I started to study in a room with strange people, and as I walked in I was loudly booed. I felt like the worst man alive that moment. But the warrior spirit of decision had taken me over and supported me. I became a diligent student. I even started teaching my colleagues the day before tests. I found out how much I enjoyed science. I discovered the force of “creativity.” I started competing and winning the science fairs held at my school and neighboring schools also. I made great friendships with Wilson, his cousin Bruno, Regis do Guido, Reginaldo do Pedro Capixaba, Flávio Bichinho de Luz, and Naldo his brother, João Almada and his brother Rogério, who we used to call priest. What started as martyrdom transformed itself in golden years. Some years later, together with my friend Flávio do Juquinha, I went as far as competing in Belo Horizonte (the state capital), representing my region’s Board of Education. We had beaten all the schools in that sector and were now in the big city. We stayed in the Gontijo hotel and the director of a company called Nordberg, was so moved with the project we had developed that he gave us 100 US$ as a gift. I started practicing capoeira and was very good at it. A year later I switched to heavier martial arts with Professor William. Together with me were also my inseparable friend Jerônimo and Lala, Orlando’s (the soldier) kid, whom I really liked. Martial Arts really taught me self discipline. I found out how much a strong and well channeled will made my body strong and my mind obedient. I often swam in the Paraíso Plant dam and Pomba River also. Running in a fast pace I would encircle the 8km “O” track there. I learned to juggle on top of horses and liked the challenge of mounting the bulls in Sr. Zeli’s corral. Being strong and athletic resulted in many compliments and made me popular among friends. But I also became full of myself. There was a time I thought I was the “man.” There was much ego within me. Before flunking the year I was in one extremity. Then, through will and intelligence, I walked towards the center, towards the balance. And now I forced the issue too much again and found myself on the other extremity. That’s when I was taught a lesson that really marked my life. There was a rodeo in the city and the real rodeo riders that made their living this way had refused to mount the bull araçá of that 146 tournament. And I, feeling very big, wanted to show off and said I would mount it. I almost died that day! Death flashed before my eyes! That mooing war tank threw me over 10 meters on the ground and throttled on top of me as if it was a locomotive. In a desperate act to avoid that monster, I quickly dragged my body over the dung mixed with corn hay and squeezed under the fence. But not before having my right leg stepped on by that train with horns. Besides being hurt, I was booed vigorously by that audience. At that moment, all muddied and hurt, as some bull riders were helping me, I could clearly see the high price that vanity asks for, while the audience, laughing shouted for more entertainment. Vanity gives you nothing but demands everything in return. My leg didn’t break, thank God, but the calf muscle swelled up and was as thick as my thigh. It took more than a month to recover completely. This made me take the path of balance again. As for the bull, his decision of never letting anyone tame him was fascinating. That bull was magnificent. Most afternoons I used to go to my friend Jerônimo’s house. The fact that we studied in different rooms didn’t hamper our friendship. But that particular afternoon something was in the air. Jerônimo noticed a different breeze and different heat as well. Although the heaven was all blue and sunny, and the wind was calm, a sensation that something was different was present. Animal behavior wasn’t the same. In that afternoon there was no customary bird flight and neither was there any bird singing. Even the sparrows that nested on the trees of the square every afternoon did so very nervously. That night a great mass of heavy clouds took over the region. It was around 9 in the evening when it began to rain a lot. Once in a while, the dark of night was cancelled by strong lightning flashes that ran through the sky. The rumbling thunder echoed followed by the clarity of the rays. The rain was so strong and relentless. At the start of dawn, the thundering became louder and the rain increased. Right at dawn, when the rain subsided, we heard some people pass on the street warning the whole town: “The river is rising! The river is rising!” I thought to myself: Every year Pomba River rises. I had already witnessed that river rise 3 meters, why would people now announce that a flood was coming? The night was ending and the day was breaking. The sky was totally clear, and we would have once again a bright sunny day. But there was a different sound that morning: a sound like a continuous roar. It was about five thirty that morning when I got changed and went to see what it was. When I arrived on the other side of the square, I saw something that froze my stomach. Pomba River had risen more than 10 meters. The high bridge, the one I crossed over every morning to go to school, was now half a meter under the water that continued to rise. I remembered Jerônimo immediately. Though his house was not at the river’s edge, judging by the height of the flood his house would certainly have been reached by now. I went running and as I got closer, I saw a great number of houses under water. By chance, on that area the water had a lot of volume, but there was no current, because it was a rather flat terrain far from the original river bed. 147 The water level around the houses was already a meter and a half and rising. At the other end of the street, in the middle of a crowd I saw Dona Isaura and Jerônimo sitting on an old bench. I swam across the street and when I reached them I felt Jerônimo totally down. Dona Isaura, in silence maintained a worried expression while she looked at her house now in water. I asked her where the things from the house were, and she said the water rose up too quickly and they couldn’t take anything outside. Each family had to worry about their own houses and couldn’t help each other. Dona Isaura said that not even the monthly groceries which were bought the day before could be saved. I asked Jerônimo if he knew where the groceries were kept, He said yes, but what good was it to ask that now? It was a time for decision and not words. I took strong hold of my beloved friend’s hand and literally pulled him under water. Then he revived. As we got into his house, a big box that contained all the month’s groceries was up high on the wall in Nancy’s room (his sister). It was on a wooden support, and dry! We took out the groceries, all the remaining clothing and all the furniture from the house. By now the water was very high and we had to stop, but there was almost nothing left inside. An hour later, the water rose so much that it reached the roof. Only a few roof tiles were seen. Sadly, we saw the tiles move and the house crumble. There were no victims or injuries, thank God. Sr. João and Dona Isaura stayed at Sr. Beazino’s house. And Jerônimo accepted my invitation to stay at my house. Then everything fell back into place again. That night, before dawn, Jerônimo had a nightmare and woke up screaming. We had many laughs after that. Two days later there was an even larger flood. Now Pomba River rose up a meter more than the first time. I remember well Jerônimo telling me: “The damage that the flood could do, it has already done. So now I will only admire the second one.” I thought this was wonderful, because Jerônimo as well as I had learned to see the good side of all things. On our bikes, we went around the region admiring the force nature had. Two months later, Jerônimo and his family were living in a new house with a big backyard, on Caribó hill, a high neighborhood in the city. Every thing was back to normal and peace reigned once again. Now in high school, I studied at night and the mediunic or psychic manifestations became stronger and more visible. I had a girlfriend that lived in Dona Euzébia, in a neighboring town called Leninha. She and I and many of her friends from the village Jacaré studied together. That’s when I found out how much I could help people with my psychic abilities, without their knowledge of it. I discovered that I could talk with the mind of a person as she slept. And, even better, the next day, when they woke up, the idea I planted in their minds was still there. Unaware of what had happened, they thought the idea was theirs and were very excited and enthusiastic about putting it into action. Then I began to understand the responsibility that I had in my hands and that I needed instruction. It was around this time that a spiritual entity, a very loving preto velho (Brazilian for old black man), 148 started to instruct me in the spiritual world, It was a spirit of great light and extreme love. He had deep knowledge of things. I was directed to climb up high on the mountains for spiritual retreats, where I learned much about the spiritual world, the secrets of the forest and the spiritual healing power of plants. It was also around this time that I realized that I could very easily, invoke animal spirits. It was then that I also learned to silence the mind and hear the voice of Great Spirit that was in all things. Many times, I climbed up mountains in hikes with many of my friends, because I tried to share with them the wonders that I saw. Impotent, I watched a great number of friends and acquaintances, people that I loved, fall victim to drug addiction. They’d start with marijuana. They said it was wonderful and defended the use saying that they were alright. They began having explanations for everything and lived in complete rational blindness. Six months later, the signs of degeneration were clear in their personalities. They were depressed, smoked everyday and didn’t admit that were addicted. The majority of them moved on to heavier drugs, maybe in search of a solution for the emptiness that corroded them inside. Great friends of mine were completely destroyed by drugs. Damned be these drugs! One time, a young man of legal age, from the city of Ubá, came to the portuense week commemorations, together with another guy I really liked, and offered to sell me drugs. Surprised, I asked them why they offered me these things since I didn’t use and didn’t need. The guy from Ubá, angry at my response, refuted: “hey geek, are you trying to show off? Even your brother buys my stuff.” Damned be this moment, because I broke this guy’s front teeth and his right arm. He was unconscious on the floor when I took out from his wallet a plastic bag with marijuana and many small homemade perfume spray flasks used for huffing that we used to call loló at that time. From the top of the bridge I threw everything in the river. In those days, it was the end of dictatorship and the cops didn’t play around. So, there was no complaint filed due to the large number of witnesses that saw me taking the drugs from his pocket. And he decided to keep his mouth shut and was always hiding. Otherwise it could be worse for him. I attribute my reaction to youthful impulsiveness. I regret having done it until today. There were always those that offered me joint here and there, but I always refused because my intuition would point it out as not being right thing to do. I had all opportunities possible to use drugs, but never used any one of them. When I found out that my brother was involved with these things, I knew it was no time for passivism. I like to make it clear here that I always knew from a child that I had come here at this time to began a sacred work that would help humanity. Sometimes my ego would inflate on account of this and I would feel big, and then I would remember the lesson of the bull araçá to keep myself humble. 149 In 1984, I felt my days in Minas Gerais state were at an end. I was always broke. I didn’t even have money to date girls. The ticket to Dona Euzébia was fifty cents, and there was a time I didn’t even have that and had to walk back home. My family lived in a financial crisis due to the corporation Souza Cruz and their ready-made cigarettes. Two of my uncles, manufactured cigarettes as well, and for reasons that had nothing to do with me, they denied me a humble job so that I could attend college. My intuition pointed me to São Paulo. That’s when I looked for a man named Ailton who lived in my town and worked for Bradesco Bank. I asked him for a job opportunity, because I needed to start my life. Even with few clothes and almost no money, I came to São Paulo. I arrived on a Monday one week and was already employed at Bradesco in the City of God the following week. On the written exams I did very well, but the typing exam not so much and I knew Ailton was the one who helped me out. One of the few people in life that really helped me was Sr. Ailton. I have for him nothing but deep respect and gratitude. Today I’m a blessed man in the material world, and out of this gratitude I sponsor a great number of youth acquire higher education. But everything started with the support that this man gave me. I was now employed, what a blessing! At the city’s ambulatory, I met a spiritist physiotherapist and mystic whose name was Cláudio. Though much older than me and having a family of his own already, we had much in common. We became great friends and through him I joined the Rosicrucians, which was excellent. One day, before waking up, I had a vision: I saw a tall white man, with dark hair parted in the middle and side burns. He looked me in the eye very seriously, but said nothing. His enormous light was clearly visible and I felt that he had the universe inside his chest. This same day, I met up with Cláudio and he told me about a parapsychology school called Pró-vida. I knew right then that I had found what I was looking for. He gave me the phone number and I called them and got the address. The next day, I was already being interviewed by Mr. Fausto. That’s when I saw a photograph of the tall man of my vision. It was Dr. Celso Charuri, founder and visionary of Pró-vida, who had passed away in 1981. I knew I had been prepared for a time until I was ready to start the great work that I came here begin. From this time until I turned 38 years of age, I occupied my time with learning, but also in saving money so that when the moment came I could start the work. I looked for a government job, where I’d have stability, and didn’t depend on production. So I became a firefighter. My shifts were 24 by 48 hours, in other words, I worked one 24-hour day, and was free the next two, the salary was small, but guaranteed. Besides, I had 20 free days per month at my disposal. I used to kid with others: “The rice and beans (bread and butter), the Fire Department provides, the beef I look for elsewhere!” I started to sell pure honey brought from Minas Gerais. Once I sold in just a month one thousand five hundred kilos of honey, just at the Military Police’s blue round building close to Armênia subways station. I was known as the “honey fireman.” At the end of sales that week, a major by the name Hitil, with Japanese background, and who commanded a small office on the fifth floor, officially 150 communicated to me that I didn’t have written authorization to sell honey there. An ill-humored presumptuous man! The coronel who commanded the building, told me to be cool. He wasn’t going to go against the official order from the major, but would call my commander and I wasn’t going to be punished. Anyways, I had already sold all the honey I had and had a good amount of money in hand. That’s how I got the down payment for my first little house and moved to the countryside of the State, so I could better raise my kids. In the capital city, drugs were already doing much damage! I always liked to save money in silence. Since I never trusted banks or the government, I bought American dollars. Mr. Collor de Mello (president of Brazil at the time) didn’t bother me when his administration confiscated the savings accounts of the Brazilian people. But I saw many people die of heart attacks when this government plan came into effect. So I continued my life and raised my family. My sons grew up strong and healthy and learned to have much responsibility. In the countryside, I decided to study Theology, something that I always liked. I also used to love visiting the Nova Gokula farm of the Hare Krishna movement, located in the Ribeirão Grande neighborhood of Pindamonhagaba. There I met a devotee by the name of Harakanta who took care of the kitchen. This was a true devotee. He was always one of the first to rise and among the last to lie down. One time I gave him a flask of pure honey. Without hesitation he told me: “Wonderful, I will put this honey in the cake I’m preparing this afternoon to serve everyone,” his sincerity and solidary spirit fascinated me. To enhance my studies even further, one time I decided to spend a week with there to study them better. They taught that food is sacred and taking a bath before dawn every day at the river was a way to start the day cleansing themselves from impurities. One night at the bunker room a young black devotee told me the story that there is an ocean white as milk and in it are fish so big that they eat whale shoals everyday. When he finished the story he asked me if I believed him. I answered with a big smile: “I only know the earth’s ocean which is blue greenish, where whales are the largest mammals. I think the whales in this white ocean reproduce like rabbits or are already extinct. That’s a lot of whales, isn’t it my black brother!” He felt a bit awkward and stopped telling me stories. So we went to sleep. At three thirty in the morning, they sounded a trumpet (that had the shape of a sea shell). It was a beautiful sound. It was the signal for all to get up, take their baths and go to the temple to dance. It was the month of July, winter month and the place was part of the Mantiqueira Mountain Range near the city of Campos do Jordão. The cold was intense and the mist came in waves in the air. Like the saying here goes, “If you go out in the rain, you must want to get wet.” I put on shorts, went down to the stream where it formed a natural pool, threw water on my chest and wrists first, mustered some courage and dove into 151 the water. A minute later I no longer felt cold, but also didn’t feel my hands, face, feet, I didn’t feel anything anymore! But since none of the Hare Krishna devotees showed up, I came back up. I thought I had gone down to the wrong place. When I got back to the dormitory, a very pleasant Japanese-Brazilian young man, named Paulo with long hair looked at me surprised and said: “You have a very strong mind, because to convince the body to enter the river in this cold is not easy at all.” Then, I was surprised. I asked him how long he had been at that farm and he answered me: “Tomorrow will be 30 days. They will cut my hair and I will be accepted as a devotee!” Wow, he had been there 30 days and was surprised that I had gone in the river before dawn? Something was very wrong! I headed for the dorm and saw the other devotees taking good warm showers. The only idiot was me it seemed. I went with the others to the temple and observed them dance beautiful tunes to the sound of wonderful instruments. It was very beautiful. As the sun rose we were well fed, then I decided to take a walk on the border of the 62 acres of that farm. It was another surprise. From up in the mountain, you could see the entire farm, and I didn’t see a single garden, not even a little one. Not even a tangerine tree. So all that stuff about being careful with food and how we eat, planting and eating your own food, what was that all about? When I came back down, I stopped by and old house, where they kept books. Beside it there was a big abandoned cracked pool. I was lost in thought when a very old devotee passed by me. He was so old, that in order to walk, he moved his feet without lifting them from the ground. He dragged his little delicate feet little by little. This old man had much light and transmitted much peace. Remaining there a bit more, I noticed a little orange tree branch, with very few leafs in the middle, above a hayfield. This struck me as odd. I walked into the field and saw a variety of fruit trees abandoned there and many were already dead. So, going down to the dormitory, I told the black brother, the one from the story of the big fish that ate whales: “I found a whole garden abandoned in the middle of the field. Don’t you find this strange?” He told me it had been planted by an old devotee from the farm, who was so old now that didn’t have the strength to take care of the fruit trees. The old man that had walked past me was the one who had planted it. I asked the man why he didn’t take care of it. And he answered me that he wasn’t born to do those things. I rather not write down here what thought about it at the moment! I went to see Harakanta and told him seriously: “I walked around the farm, and didn’t see any gardens. I saw an orchard garden dying by lack of care, in the middle of the colony. Where does the food you eat come from Harakanta?” He observed me for a split second and then took me behind the kitchen where there was a pile of boxes from Ceasa – a distribution market and said: “We worry more about selling books 152 and incense. It’s not always possible to conciliate theory and reality, Emiliano. We need to adapt always.” Then I understood. There was nothing wrong there. They did what was necessary to survive in the best way possible and still disseminate the philosophy that they lived. As for the brother of the incredible stories, I understood his need to believe such things. I learned a lot with the Hare Krishnas and have deep respect for them. Only those that do not know them as I do, speak ill about them or their philosophy. Theirs is no my path, but I tell every one that it is a good path. I know the day will come when they will have their own orchards and gardens. There are good people there. There are also those who only hide behind the movement. But then, the problem is the person, not the philosophy. I commented with Paulo that I would soon set up a community similar to that one, but with more magic. With a happy look on his face he told me that he would very much like to come and visit when it was ready. This year, 2007, I will look for him. Some years later, together with another person I rented a small farm. We started getting some drunkards and beggars from the streets and took them to live there. At night we used to light up a big fire and Laterninha, a big firefly came to visit us. We could see him from far, and he would stand out from the other fireflies. Spiritual entities always came by to visit, but not all present there could notice this. Many times, the thin and slim inhabitants of the subterranean city of Aurora dropped by to say hello. They are wonderful brothers. THE VISION When I was 38, I went back to the city of Osaco. My family was had been raised, my sons were all grown up and capable. I could have bought or rented any house in that neighborhood, but chose to live in a little house on my father-in-law’s back yard. Many cousins and relatives lived there, so security was increased and that’s what I worked for. I even had internet access in my house. How wonderful technology is in favor of the sacred! On a Sunday morning, I had a vision that would change my life once again. In this vision I had gotten up from my bed and went to the window. Then I saw in the backyard a big yellow ipê tree, all flowery and on its branches was resting a beautiful red macaw. I looked at the bird and it looked back at me with a different look, a mixture of deep spirituality and sadness. Then I woke up and there was a word impressed on my mind that I had never heard before in my life: “Shamanism!” I turned on the computer and looked up the word on UOL search engine. The result was numerous pages. There was, only in the first page, a great number of links to shamanic sites. In the 153 middle of this multitude there was one in particular that my intuition fixed on immediately. Then I clicked on it. It was the first time I entered a site on shamanism. It was the first time I had knowledge of the word shamanism or power plant. I landed on a site where an Indian talked about power plants and ayahuasca. I had never heard about this ayahuasca. I thought it was very strange. I had good knowledge and good spiritual background about the secrets of the forest, but I had never heard about this shamanism thing and this ayahuasca. The question tortured me for a few hours. There was a contact number on the site, and I called it. The Indian answered, his name was Romã. I told him about the vision that I had and what happened after. He laughed and said it was all true. There would be a ritual in his home that very Sunday at night and he would be waiting for me. It would be an ayahuasca ritual and I should attend it. The cost would be eighty reais per participant. I was very happy, because I noticed I was entering a new cycle in my life. I wrote down the address of the Indian. I was very happy with that “I found it” feeling. I kept on researching the web for various shamanism sites. I was reading and reading to find out a little about ayahuasca, as well as shamanism. The more I read the more apprehensive I got. Shamanism was everything I that I had been practicing for a long long time. Nothing that I read was new to me, with the exception of ayahuasca. I knew in practice what the majority of people only theorized about. Then why had I not even heard the word shaman or shamanism? There was something wrong. My mind was taken by a huge sensation that the spiritual world had been hidden from me on purpose: all the books and manuscripts, any type of literature that was related to ayahuasca or shamanism. I know my intuition and never doubt it. But then, what was it that the higher astral plane did not want me to discover? Why shouldn’t I know, whatever it was? Be it what it may, I knew that night that everything would be clear. I invited my son Junior to come with me if he wished. As always, he said yes right away and at night we went to the home of this Indian Romã to participate in the ritual. Upon arriving I noticed a good vibe. A little boy named Tomas answered the door. He’s the son of Cristina, Romã’s wife. I met Cristina and Romã and really like them. I felt that Romã had great ancestral knowledge, but also felt in him a bit of negative money energy. After a little while, more people came to the ritual as well. Some mats were laid down with blankets on the floor. We were served a little coffee cup, with a little bit of this ayahuasca in it. Nothing happened. Another cup was served, and nothing again. Then on the third time, another cup, Romã said that I might be a bit anxious. I said I wasn’t. Whatever it was I knew it wasn’t me. I laid down again and helped myself lower my brain frequency to the theta state, as I had learned at Pró-Vida. Then it happened. At first there was much light. A little while later I returned to my last incarnation. I was in the Lakota tribe once again. I was home. Together with thousands of brothers and sisters and Great 154 Peace was present. Mitakue Oasin reigned supreme. They called me Gideon, my spiritual name, but there was another name that they used to call me from childhood. I had the privilege of being the son of a great shaman, and this name translated would be something like a sacred man or a white shaman. When I was a little boy in this tribe I was initiated in the healing and spirit arts by the older shamans and delved deeply into this realm. Among the healers, I occupied the position of consecrated healer, having gone through severe tests. This was an incarnation of many trials. Then, while we the men were out in a ritual, we felt much pain around the solar plexus and sadness was clear on grandfather the sun and on the clouds of elementals that came to us. As we approached camp we came upon a scene that even today is hard to describe. I then relived all the intense pain of my last incarnation. I relived the great massacre and all our suffering. I understood why the higher planes had taken away from me all the consciousness of that life. Several shamans and I had vowed vengeance against the white race all those centuries ago. And this is something very serious when coming from spirits that already occupy the position of shaman. We are faithful to the word given, and time does not affect our decisions. For centuries, in silence, I kept this fire within me and for this reason took so many centuries to reincarnate. When I was about to reincarnate, I promised my people that I would raise up the banner of the good red path among all peoples and would leave a clear testament of the steadfastness and love of the Lakotas. However, hidden within me, there was the intention of dominating the science of the white men and provoke extermination. Of all the shamans, that took the oath, only I persisted in accomplishing that specific intent. And the Great Father that sees all knew of the resentment that burned in my heart. So I came back, and there I was, sitting in front of a fire made by the Indian Romã, with my son and others beside me. The tears rolled down, and all the pain was there again. But this time I needed to forgive. I needed to forgive myself specially for not being able to do anything to stop the massacre. Romã asked me why I cried. I told him it was because of my dead brothers. He asked me if they had died in São Paulo. Then I saw that he had no idea what was happening, so I only shook my head. Finally, after a period of tears, I found strength to forgive and the centuries of hurt were gone with my tears in front of that fire. I will try to put into words all the consciousness that was given back to me in the ritual. About the great massacre that I and many of my brothers witnessed only yesterday, when brother Tatanka was vast in the fields as the stars are in the heavens. We lived free and in peace. Great Spirit was present all around us. The thunder was his voice and on the wings of the wind he walked with our spirits. Mother Earth took care of us, grandfather the Sun smiled happily, and our sister the Moon, always irradiating her blessings to our people. Saying to us: “I love you brothers. Mitakue Oasin.” 155 Mitakue Oasin means “We are all brothers.” We have consciousness of the real meaning of this phrase. The great brother buffalo was our strength and root. From him we ate and his skin gave us clothing and shelter, tatanka in my language. We became a portal of heaven in our planet. We lived and walked in the light and according to the guidelines of the higher spiritual plane. That is why, my tribe Lakota was always known as the tribe of the father of shamans, because we made integration with the universe a way of life. We were out in a ritual with the spirits of nature, and for the first time we saw brother wind warn us of tragedy. The look on grandfather Sun’s face was of sadness, and Mother Earth stopped. In great clouds the beloved elementals flew over the vast fields in clear manifestation of disgust. We stopped the rituals and came back with heavy hearts and much pain in the solar plexus region. As we returned to our tribe an indescribable scene was before us: thousands of them were spread, women, old men and children, massacred and dead! We saw our families, women, fathers, sons and daughters lying on the ground bathed in red, bathed in the blood of our loved ones. The white race had arrived and with them came greed, and the insatiable desire to HAVE. Oh, Great Spirit, why? We knew nothing and understood nothing. Only the unbearable pain was present... But our warlike spiritual nature kept us firm. Our brothers arrived from many other tribes, including our mother tribe, the Sioux. A great shamanic war ritual took place. Using all our real knowledge of shamanism and magic, we woke up the power animals in physical form within hundreds of brothers... The wind, thunder and the force was with us and in us. We took to the battle against the executioners of our people, a people with different feet than ours. With transformed bodies, we attacked them in open field and they did not have a chance, as they did with our beloved elders and children. The battle was fast and merciless. There were no prisoners or wounded in the white race and none of their hearts remained in their carcasses. What could they do against the magic of shamanism when it is directed to war? Cruel and insane race, how could we call them brothers? The filthy worms from the mud have much to learn with you! Great Spirit, why? Why, o Merciful?!! What have we done wrong, oh Great Spirit, for such evil to overtake our souls? I witnessed my brothers dying in battle because they desired to die, or kill themselves after the last of those with strange feet had their heart ripped out. I felt the weight of my people on my back. I saw them, still alive with transformed bodies, give a look of gratitude for the ritual that was done, then, take their own lives and take off to meet the Great Light. Where would we go, what would we do, how to handle the pain, and even worse, how to understand what had happened? Three days passed, and I left my body in sadness and disgust. White Race, was it worth it? We are back! We are here! Although now in white bodies, we are still Lakota in spirit and are united again. Many of us have met again, our tribe is gathering. White race, we 156 dominate your science and understand how you think, how you rationalize. We learned to use the left side of our brains and became even better warriors, we became stronger. Time has not affected us, white race, and now is the time for the great spiritual vengeance: “Bringing light to white hearts!” White race, you have no choice. You will illuminate yourselves or leave. You’ll repair all the damage done to Mother Nature and the sons of the Earth. Bringing light to the hearts of the white race is the great Lakota Vengeance, and we will still call you brothers. We are all brothers. Mitakue Oasin will reign once again. After the ritual was done, late into the night, Romã told me: “You took a horse dose of ayahuasca.” I was surprised, after all the ayahuasca he gave me did not amount to 50ml even. Then he told me that ayahuasca was the same as SANTO DAIME. Not even the words SANTO DAIME had I heard before. But that’s how it is. The superior astral plane does not do anything poorly. I paid Romã a hundred and sixty reais, for my son Juninho and me. We said our goodbyes and left. When I woke up the next day, I went straight to the computer. Now I was going to research everything I could about ayahuasca or SANTO DAIME. I found out that there were many SANTO DAIME churches right there in SP capital and proximities. Céu de Maria, at Pico do Jaraguá (Glauco and Bia); Céu da Lua Cheia, in Itapecerica da Serra (Leo Artese); Céu Nova Era, in São Lourenço; Céu da Mantiqueira, in Camanducaia (Chico); Céu de Midan, in Sorocaba and many others. I found that the leaders of the churches were called padrinho and madrinha. This I really liked, because where I was born, to be baptized, our fathers would always invite two people that they considered to be friends, to become padrinho and madrinha of the child that was being baptized. (Portuguese for godfather and godmother respectively) Then, I decided to visit Céu da Lua Cheia, in Itapecerica da Serra, where the padrinho was a man by the name Leo Artese. I got his contact number and called. A young man named Caio answered the phone. The phone was from a restaurant in the city. I went there to talk to them personally. No interview was made, no lecture given. They only told me the price, which was 20 reais per person, and that there would be a full moon ritual the following Saturday. I told them I wanted to attend and they explained to me how to get there. On the Saturday of the full moon, my son Junior and I went to Céu da Lua Cheia. Being a good mineiro (native of Minas Gerais) I did not miss the train, as the saying goes there. I got there much earlier than the time they had told me. It was good, because it wasn’t so easy to find the place, but with the help of locals at the edge of the iron road we found it alright. At first, I was observing a lot and there were few people there. The energy that came from the nearby woods was very good, but the energy of the participants was very heavy. There were some however that I identified with. But even so I noticed dense energy in them. I also noticed much arrogance in many of those that had been attending for a longer time. There was a certain air of superiority 157 imposed. A woman claiming to be a doctor was nervous because she had shoved her car in a hole, when she had stopped to fill a gallon with 20 liters of drinkable water. That woman was clearly out of tune and was even aggressive with the others. I tried to come close to her and she would back away. There was a young man there who was a runner and lived close by, and went to take her car out of the hole. The young man seemed like a good guy so I offered to go with him. We walked for about 20 minutes at the most and found the doctor’s car. It was a very old car. An old brown Chevette in horrible condition. There was no hole at all. The car was only parked across on the asphalt in such way that it took only a simple maneuver to fix everything. This made me very pensive. Either that woman was a terrible driver or something was really wrong with her. Was she drunk? Drugged? Was she even a medical doctor? When we got back I gave her car keys back and noticed that she didn’t smell like alcohol, but was chewing on mint candies continually. I knew what this usually meant. I also noticed that spirits similar to the ones that accompany Umbanda had arrived at the place, but were definitely of little light and showed much anxiety. Dealing with spirituality was never hard for me and the control and handling of energies was something I brought from past lives. I just kept myself firm and in peace, but I covered Juninho and the others who were there for the first time with an energetic mantle of protection. So, the time of the ritual came, and there was, I believe, about 25 people there. They told me to go to a wooden cabin and my son and I went there thinking there would be some explanation about daime or how the ritual would proceed. Good grief, I only signed a book and paid the 20 reais that they charged. There was no explanation or lecture. There were no orientations or explanations to me, my son or the others who were there for the first time. We went inside the church without the slightest notion of what would happen in there. You don’t need to be a very experienced person to realize that proper things are not done in this manner. THE RITUAL Within the church Céu da Lua Cheia, I observed that men and women were separate. Each group to one side of the little church. I liked this very much. The women wore long white dresses and the men, white pants. In the middle there was a round table with the shape of a star. Some musicians were sitting down. The members had each a hymn book in hands. Then the session began, Caio, who was serving daime to all, always in the same cup. I questioned myself why they didn’t use disposable cups, to preserve hygiene and avoid risk of transmitting some disease like hepatitis, for example. Finally, I tried the so called SANTO DAIME. They gave me a full American cup. The taste was strong and acidic. The smell reminded me a bit of vinager. Then, I remembered Romã telling me that in his ritual I 158 had taken a horse dose. What a story full crap! All the daime I took with him in his ritual did not amount to 50ml. This was the first time I had contact with commerce within SANTO DAIME or ayahuasca. After everyone had taken daime, the musicians began playing and everyone began singing. In twenty minutes I began seeing an infinity of colors. In fact, there was an explosion of wonderful colors and then the visions that they called mirações. As everyone began singing the hymns, the mirações started and, as the songs diminished and ended, the visions stopped as well. I was amazed. I had never been through such an intense experience. Time and space stopped existing, something I was already used to, because I always went to the fourth dimension during the meditation exercises that I did with frequency. But with ayahuasca it was much more intense and wonderful. I was conscious the whole time. Though I was in complete contact with the spiritual world, I was also firmly in contact with the material world. My perception had just simply been expanded many times over and it was fantastic. I could hear and see in a way that I had never before heard or seen. Clairvoyance and psychic abilities were at its fullest. After a while, we all took another American cup of daime. And what was already intense became even more intense. I was enchanted. I really thought I had found paradise, the philosopher’s stone. A while later I felt nausea. I left the church looking for a washroom and one of the fiscais (monitors) told me to follow a trail that led inside the woods, for what I believed to be 50 meters and finally I found a canvas tent wherein there was hole covered by a piece of wood with a hole in it, which served as a toilet. I threw up a bit. When I was returning I ran into a young man who was also looking for the washroom, but was clearly confused. He didn’t know if he was going or coming. I talked to him briefly, held him by the arm and took him to the washroom. Seeing the state that young man found himself in and the fact that he was alone up to the, made me worry about my own son. He threw up also and I took him back to the little church. Then I saw many people throwing up right there outside the church. It was he older members as well as the people who were there for the first time. I got back inside the church and didn’t see my son. I came back out and asked the monitors that were outside and they couldn’t tell me anything concrete. Then they came with a story that I shouldn’t worry about my son because everything was alright. Then I asked them: “If you can confirm everything is alright, then tell me where he is.” They gave me a yellow smile, didn’t know what to say. So I turned my back on them and went to look for him around the church. Hell is full of smiling irresponsible people. I found Juninho leaning on a tree and vomiting as well. I talked to him and saw that he was as lucid and as well as me. I told him to try to stay in the little church and I would do the same. However, it was clear to me that the monitors should accompany the newbies. The ritual continued and was wonderful. Then they had and interval and lit up a fire, but Juninho and I remained in the church. 159 Some young guys were eating some bananas and offered us some. My God, how delicious! I had never eaten such tasty bananas before. Even the taste buds had amplified with ayahuasca. A very nice young lady, Daniela, came closer and asked me my name. Then asked me how I was. I told her that I was very happy and that I had found old friends from other journeys. I felt a lot of love for this woman. From that day until now I have this lady in my heart and feel a deep fraternal love towards her. I noticed she was going through some financial problems, because when I gave her a flask of pure honey she told me that she would use it to make a ritual within the woods to gain a financial solution. I know that these things of the material world are not fixed this way and that a ritual would not work. I thought about aiding Daniela financially, but my intuition told me otherwise. Even today, sometimes I remember her. I wonder how she is now and which path she took. Did she, like many there, lose herself in drugs? Is she today, like many of those who defend marijuana, cursing my name because of the truths that I expose in the light of science? Sometimes I think about looking for her and seeing how she is. Many times I gave her flasks of pure honey. At the time she had a little daughter and serious problems with rent. Many years passed, but sometimes I remember her and think about giving her a house as a present if she stills pays rent. Maybe I will find her again. After some time the ritual began again. The choir began to sing songs to Yemanja. That’s when I felt a great light, yellow and greenish in color, enter the little church and give me an enormous hug. I entered into a bigger ecstasy than the one I already found myself in. I felt something like a hug a mother gives to her son. I smiled a lot, I was so happy. It’s impossible to put these things into words. The night followed in colors and visions and once in a while a train would pass by in the railways close to the church, but wouldn’t bother me the least. It was the most incredible experience that I had in this life. I could clearly see the power ayahuasca has. At the end of the hymnal the ritual ended. We talked to many people, including with the more experienced members who called themselves “uniformed.” I could tell that they were flying high. I thought maybe they were tired. I tried not to speak about my experience and keeping the conversation going, very gently, I found a way for them to speak a bit of their experience. They definitely didn’t achieve ecstasy and didn’t even notice the presence of Yemanja. This made me very thoughtful, because I already knew well the laws of cause and effect, the law of merit. I also noticed many little groups of men and women going into the forest. I thought: “Maybe they’re going to see the sun rise in some higher part of the woods.” Happy, I mean very happy, my son and I got into our Gurgel and left. That same Sunday, in the afternoon, I already longed for the next work. Remembering everything that had transpired I had a large smile on my face. On Monday afternoon, I got into the internet and intensified my research. I wanted to know what that vine and that queen of the forest bush were like. I wanted to know how to cultivate them, and specially, know how to make the daime. I wanted to know the history of SANTO DAIME, where it came 160 from and how it came about. I had much free time that week and took the advantage to go in as deep as possible. On Tuesday afternoon, I called Romã. I told him that I had participated in a ritual at Céu da Lua Cheia. We talked for a while and then we agreed to meet at his place in the evening. However, it was already clear to me that Romã commercialized ayahuasca, he commercialized with what was sacred. I returned to Céu da Lua Cheia several times. Drug use is common among them. CÉU DE MARIA Through the internet I found out the phone number from Céu de Maria that is on Pico do Jaraguá. Calling the place, they confirmed that there would be a ritual the following Saturday, at 8 pm. I got there at 6 pm. The church was large and beautiful, and I believe it can hold about 300 people. I observed the people that were coming in. Older folk, monitors and newbies as well. They were not well greeted. There was bad mood and a certain air of presumptuousness among the uniformed people there. I heard them say the name of padrinho Sebastião and padrinho Alfredo several times, so I decided to find out more. That’s when some of them told me that padrinho Sebastião was the successor of master Irineu and that he was the reincarnation of the prophet John the Baptist. An extremely illuminated man who brought the doctrine of the forest, SANTO DAIME, to the south and the world. They even claimed that padrinho Sebastião was the patron saint of SANTO DAIME. This affirmation I began to doubt, with basis in all the material I had studied on the internet. There the history showed that master Irineu Serra as being the first daimista, and so how could padrinho Sebastião be the patron of SANTO DAIME? And as for padrinho Sebastião being the reincarnation of John the Baptist (the one that preached in the desert), I didn’t even have to question, because it was evident that it was a big lie and nothing more than fanaticism. I signed the attendance book and paid what was at the time twenty reais. I always had good commercial sense and training, had always been able to evaluate the real price of anything, if there was exploitation or not, based on the cost of the product. That’s why I thought to myself: I wonder how much a liter of daime costs. Three hundred people, what I imagine the church to hold, times twenty reais, is six thousand reais! The liter of daime must be really expensive. But if it’s so expensive and comes from only two plants, why don’t they grow them here in São Paulo and produce their own daime? The ritual started with a group of people standing up inside the church saying the Hail Mary and the Lord’s Prayer. They prayed, and prayed and prayed these two prayers. I asked a boy at the entrance if they prayed always. The boy told me that the work always began with those prayers, always. I could tell that they didn’t know the marked difference between repeated words and a heart felt prayer, something that anyone with little light knows at least! Then this boy showed me a picture of padrinho 161 Sebastião. I looked closely at the photograph, observing attentively the physical traces of padrinho Sebastião. In high magic courses I had already learned to recognize the real condition of the incarnated soul by the physical traces of his body, specially the traces on the face. It is the law of cause and effect, which reaches the human being in all aspects. It was definitely the photograph of someone without light. There was a young man at Céu de Maria, whose name is Luís. He is a thin man and has a son named Acauã. I really liked that young man! I was really sad to see him lost in marijuana, in drugs. He would light up one after the other. Then he told me how he had been unemployed for quite some time, and his wife had left him. He told me that he came to help make ayahuasca or anything else so he could participate in the rituals after. He also told me that padrinho Valter Dias was opening up a new Cefluris Céu in Pindamonhagaba, close to the Hare Krishnas. I told him I knew the region well. Ten days after, with another young man, I decided to go there and see how the start of a new church was more closely. I got there and right away noticed that drugs were wide open all day long, even during the construction phase. I was surprised to see Luís form Céu de Maria there. He had a machete in his hands and was cutting a timber rafter for the roof with a joint in his mouth. My goodness, I was really sad that the new Céu would be a new drug location! On another occasion, during a work at Céu de Maria, a man fainted. He fell shaking with his face to the floor, hurting his face. It was just an epilepsy attack, nothing more. But the monitors gathered around telling others to stay clear because he was being possessed. This was not the worse part. I asked the monitors to step back and I began help procedures for the man. A very white young man with spiked hair, feeling resentment toward my attitude of not accepting the monitors’ instruction, rudely told me to stop, because it was a problematic incorporation and that he would call someone else in the church that dealt with these things. I answered energetically, due to the necessity of the situation: “Young man, I worked as a nurse in an Intensive Care Unit for many years. This is just epilepsy.” There was tall black gentleman besides me who added abruptly: “If you are not going to help, stand aside boy.” And told the boy off. Thank God, that gentleman got down and started helping, because then others came to help and we took the patient outside the hall, where the normal procedures for the situation were followed. When everything was said and done, the man had only a minor epileptic hang over, and a monitor came by and said he had prepared a mattress with blankets in a corner in the church. We placed him there and he remained in peace until the morning. I’d like to leave it registered here that I continued attending Céu da Lua Cheia of Leo Artese and Céu de Maria, of Glauco and Bia, for a while still. I witnessed intense drug use in both, but at Céu da Maria things are much worse. 162 THE APPARITION On another occasion, there was a feitio, which is the name they give to daime preparation. I participated with my two sons, Juninho and Leonardo. We met many people there. Some of them walk with us until today. During the feitio, daime is also served to anyone who wishes. I was impressed with the amount of people smoking marijuana during the event. My God, how they drugged themselves! How could they not know that heavy energy from the drugs is absorbed by the daime and would pass on to the people who took the wine after? But we were there to observe and learn. We’d only contribute with manual labor, washing jagube vines, cutting wood for the furnace, washing rags and pots, carrying pots and helping with beating the jagube. I participated for several days. I’d arrive early and would leave between 10 pm and 1 am. In a group that was cleaning the jagube, almost all of them only stayed a little while and left. Only another guy and I stayed there working for more than 8 hours. Then I asked his name to make conversation. He told me his name was Eugênio and that he lived in Piedade. I asked him what he felt during those hours of work. He said: “I’ve been here doing the same thing since morning, when you arrived. I took some daime and kept myself here, as you. But the experiences are different for each one. I went through several stages. There were times I felt like stopping; felt like leaving; sometimes I felt like relaxing; or eating and drinking. But I kept myself in the firmness of the daime and now I can only stop with happiness in my heart.” I was impressed with the words of this young man. He seemed like a good person to me. The great majority of people there were good people. They only made the mistake of taking refuge in the illusion of drugs, escaping the duties and responsibilities of reality that we all have to deal with everyday. At night, drug use would intensify even more. During the night jagube beating they would pass the joint from hand to hand, which they would call santa maria. When it reached me I simply passed it on to whoever was next to me. A young man named Pedro that I already knew from Céu da Lua Cheia asked me: “You don’t make use of santa maria?” I answered that I did not. Then he told me that whenever I held it in my hand I should make the sign of the cross at least, before passing it on. I looked at him firmly and also said no. He quickly looked away and didn’t bring up the subject again. That feitio would have been beautiful if it wasn’t for the drugs that they used so much. On a given Sunday, during the night of this feitio, I felt something different. My intuition told me to go somewhere where I could be alone for while. I had met a man who became a good friend, Rafael Soriano. He is hard-working, and was there since the beginning of the feitio sleeping in a tent. Together we took over the jagube beating for hours on end. I came to him and said that I was going to step aside for a little while, but would come back later to continue the work. I went to a part of the Pico do Jaraguá where you can see the city below. A few hours earlier I had taken some daime. 163 Suddenly I looked at the sky and saw the little black saint that had always comforted me as a child. She was beautiful and was wrapped in a mantle of stars. But this time the contact was much more intense and I was given clear messages. I remembered the saints of the Catholic Church, something I never liked. At this moment Master Jesus also appeared and said: “Gideon, you have my permission.” Then everything became alright, if it was according to my Master’s will nothing could really be wrong. I was taken by happiness and ecstasy impossible to describe in words. There, the little black saint told me that the time had come for me to do the work that I had come to earth to realize. That now my material resources (which were already abundant) would be increased greatly. That the lands that had been promised me, would now be given, and in vision I saw the sacred lands. A yellow sun came and the leaves of the trees became greener, then I heard the singing of a bellbird. Many other things were told me, but one was clearly more emphatic: “That I should return daime back to the seriousness that Irineu walked in.” After everything I saw, I came back to the feitio only to say goodbye to Rafael Soriano and some others. I went home. THE PURCHASE OF THE SACRED LANDS The following day, very early in the morning, I was with three nursing friends of mine, whom I greatly love: Gomes, Aluísio and Marquinhos. Ages ago I had already told them that my intuition pointed to Vale do Ribeira, where I believe would be where I would purchase the lands. On this Monday morning, the four of us talked and laughed a lot, when Marquinhos opened a newspaper beside me, in the classified section… My intuition immediately focused on a little spot of the paper, something that wasn’t bigger than a finger nail. It only said “Good farm for sale” and gave the phone number. Happily I said that I had found the lands. The three of them were surprised. Marquinhos, who was very skeptical and playful, looked at the paper and said: “But didn’t you say that the lands would be at Vale do Ribeira? This phone number is from the capital!” Then we called. A gentleman by the name Sebastião answered. I asked about the ad and he was surprised that the newspaper was still printing, because they had already printed it on Saturday. I asked where the lands were. And he answered, “in Pariquera-Açu.” At this point, Marquinhos hit his forehead with the palm of his hand and said: “It’s in Vale do Ribeira, I was born there!” I told Sr. Sebastião that I wanted to see the farm. On Tuesday, before daybreak, we traveled from São Paulo to Pariquera-Açu, in Vale do Ribeira. We arrived early morning. I got down from the car and asked Sr. Sebastião to stay silent for a moment and I remained there contemplating the beauty of the place for a while. A yellow sun came down and the leaves from the trees became more vivid, then a bellbird 164 landed and sang loudly. It was the same vision that my little black Mother had showed me in vision. I asked Sr. Sebastião the price he wanted. We closed the deal and it was there that began the blessed work of Céu Nossa Senhora da Conceição. www.ceunossasenhoradaconceicao.com.br 165 APPENDIX Some stories in the press showing the dark side of SANTO DAIME: Veja Magazine – Date: 10/01/1996 Issue: 1426 page 40-44 The Buzz Cult Accusations rise that there is something rotting in the SANTO DAIME kingdom and its Cults driven by a hallucinogenic tea. Okky de Souza, from Boca do Acre A few months before Laudelino Geraldino de Souza shot himself in the forehead with a riffle two years ago, he could be mistaken for any of the thousands of rural workers that live in the municipality of Boca do Acre, south of Amazonas state. At 30 years of age, married with three kids, he told his friends he was happy. He had only one problem: was epileptic and from time to time suffered attacks. One day Laudelino heard about a cure for his disease, which is incurable, could be close, in Pauini municipality, a day and half canoe trip by River Purus. There the community known as Céu do Mapiá, headquarters of the cult SANTO DAIME, was located. The one where the adepts take a hallucinogenic tea in their religious services and also in the healing sessions that they have with patients. Laudelino took off without delay. The Santo Daime, which came about in the 1920s in the countryside of Acre, became known at the end of the 80s for attracting famous artists to its ranks. Lucélia Santos, Ney Matogrosso, Maitê Proença, Eduardo Dusek, Raul Gazolla all participated in rituals in one of the thirty centers that the sect maintains in the country and that today are multiplied in a pace similar to Edir Macedo’s Universal Church. The agriculturalist Laudelino didn’t know about this glamorous side of SANTO DAIME. He wanted only to be cured and spent two prolonged periods of time at Céu do Mapiá. When he returned home for the second time, his health and personality had changed – for worse. The epileptic attacks became more and more frequent. He became violent, to the point of his wife and children abandoning him. He went to Daime a third time, came back home with a bottle of the hallucinogenic tea, took it, and at the end of the last drop, killed himself. “Each time he went to Daime he became more and more disturbed,” cried his mother, Lindalva de Souza. Laudelino’s suicide is one of the many episodes that have been raising doubts lately about Santo Daime activities. For the faithful, who today add up to 5 000 in the country, the cult represents a way to help through spirituality. The tea, known as ayahuasca, obtained through the boiling of a vine and a plant, both native of the Amazon, has 166 powers to unveil new worlds to its users. It supposedly helps them dive into the consciousness, making them reevaluate their own lives and bring them closer to God. Daimistas believe so much in the powers of the drink, that in the ceremonies, they even give it to their small children. They go as far as mixing it in babies’ bottles. At the same time the cult flourishes, the accusations increase that their rituals could lead to insanity and death, and that their adepts are subject to brain washing and that drugs such as marijuana and cocaine are common currency at the ceremonies. DEATH AT THE BONFIRE Two books launched in the last few weeks bring together the gravest package of accusations up to date raised against the daimistas. In the first, Santo Daime – Fanaticism and Brain Washing, the therapist Alicia Castilla relates the arduous road that she has taken to bring her daughter Verônica back. In 1990, then at 13 years of age, Verônica began attending Daime at the temple the cult maintains at Visconde de Mauá, a tourist city at Serra da Mantiqueira, Rio de Janeiro. She moved there, never to return home and today lives at Colony 5000, nucleus of the sect in Rio Branco, Acre. Alicia exposes a series of arguments to prove that Verônica was victim of a Daime maneuver to kidnap and entice her. In the second book Tragedy at the Daime Cult, journalist Jorge Mourão relates the suicide of his adoptive son, Jambo, which happened three years ago at the colony in Céu do Mapiá. In a mad outfit, Jambo, who was twenty at the time, built up a fire, lit it up and then threw himself in it. Mourão is suing the cult. Around the telling of these two family dramas, Alicia as well Mourão are weaving a rosary of accusations against the Eclectic Center Flowing Universal Light Raimundo Irineu Serra, known as Cefluris. The biggest within the various Santo Daime streams. The most well know integrant, who occupies the position of general secretary and main administrator is Alex Polari, ex-terrorist who, in the 70s, was a militant in clandestine leftist organizations and spend several years in jail. [Polari gained a certain amount of notoriety for being the last person to see his fellow armed combatant Stuart Angel Jones alive, son of stylist Zuzu Angel, killed in the basements of DOI-Codi. Fourteen years ago, abandoning Marxist atheism, Polari joined Santo Daime, transforming himself in its main authority and spokesperson. Today, he even uses a long white beard like Methuselah which characterizes the “padrinhos” – Religious leaders of the sect – and has two published books on Daime. For Alicia Castilla and Jorge Mourão, Polari is a type of Amazonian Jim Jones and commands an unscrupulous organization. In her book, Alicia details the diverse steps in her fight in court to get her daughter back from Cefluris. In June, 1990, the daimistas received guardianship of Verônica before a judge in Resende, in Rio de Janeiro state, alleging that she was mistreated at home by her mom. Alicia appealed to public office and in October, another judge sentenced Verônica to return home. As she relucted in accepting the decision, the prosecutor gave her an alternative: “The only chance, if not your mother’s house, then the Underage Street Home.” Verônica preferred the second option. After 167 sharing the same roof with delinquent minors, the next two years she was taken by many Resende families and lived at actor Carlos Augusto Strazzer’s home for a while, who is also a Daime drinker and died of Aids complications in 1993. She then went to São Paulo and took shelter with cartoonist Glauco, author of the Geraldão comic strips, also a daimista. Finally she got a loan from Glauco and bought a bus ticket to Rio Branco, where she installed herself at Colony 5000. Alicia denies mistreatment. Verônica only claims to have “suffered much” with the Legal battles and constant home changes. ARTISTS Jorge Mourão, in his book, accuses Cefluris of having submitted Jambo to psychological tortures that drove him to suicide. In 1991, Jambo left Porto Seguro, Bahia, where he lived with his family, and moved to Visconde de Mauá, starting to attend the daime center there, where he worked as a carpentry apprentice. According to Mourão’s report, he called the family a year later, desperate. He said that the job was unsafe for his health, inhaling dust all day and having to put up with constant motor saw noise for hours on end. He packed his bags and tried to leave the community, but was stopped. Apparently they said that he was mentally unstable and would be tied down if he tried to leave the place. Jambo escaped, taking shelter at his parents house in Rio, and a few weeks later went to Acre, certain that at Céu do Mapia he would find better life conditions within the daime community. He ended up taking his own life. Cefluris tries to minimize the cases of Verônica and Jambo. For Alex Polari, Verônica chose, of her own accord, to live at Colony 5000, and her mother’s book is the result of a “disturbed, damaged mind.” As for Jambo, Polari affirms that he went to live at Céu do Mapiá against the orientation of the community and that he was addicted to cocaine. “Cases like those of Verônica and Jambo, of young people who abandoned their families or committed suicide, happen with people of any creed, Catholics, Protestants, or Umbandistas, but no one blames these religions for the fatalities.” Ponders Polari. “Why then, blame daime for these two episodes?” He asks. Polaris is right. It’s impossible to evaluate how much living with daimistas influenced Verônica’s escape or Jambo’s suicide. But there is no way to deny that Santo Daime is a cult with peculiar characteristics. Its largest concentration of devotees lives deep in the Amazonian jungle which is accessible only by small boats. Though they live almost as Indians, most of them are originally from middle class families of the major Brazilian capital cities. There are also sons and daughters of rich families. They mix their faith with a hallucinogenic drug, consumed abundantly even by children. They attract successful artists and foreign tourists. They are commanded by an ex-terrorist turned spiritual leader. Finally, the strangeness is complete by the fact that many of their adepts abandon them with accusations about what goes on in the day-to-day life at Céu do Mapiá. Alicia’s accusation as well as Mourão’s should be looked at with certain skepticism – both have their share in the responsibility of what happened to their children. Alicia was a Santo Daime adept for many years – she took Verônica there herself, in Mauá, for the first 168 time, allowing her to consume ayahuasca. Jambo, ended up at Céu do Mapiá with Mourão’s consent, who even helped him financially for the trip. If the boy’s experience in Mauá was so frightening, it’s strange that he moved so quickly to the headquarters of the daimistas, and even stranger his stepfather helping him to do it. Mourão, who in the book’s preface, prides himself in having had an adventurous youth, with long peregrinations on the world and deep diving in all drugs, claims that Jambo only followed the path he chose. CABOCLO ACCENT Behind the cases of Verônica and Jambo, what goes on is the typical behavior of religious fanatics, followers of cults that promise illusionary worlds to their faithful. Many of them are satisfied and follow ahead without any problems. Some, more susceptible to mental damage in those experiences, end up as victims. Verônica, who had a comfortable childhood, today lives out of favor in a shack that belongs to a friend from the cult at Colony 5000. She passes time working as a housekeeper in the houses of the fourteen families that make up the community. Has a lost look on her face, as if in another dimension. Speaks little, in poor broken down Portuguese, with a heavy caboclo accent – the urban, polished Portuguese is not well seen by daimistas. Verônica says she will never go back home and that Daime is her only life now. All you have to do is basically watch a Santo Daime ceremony to verify how their rituals can easily induce to fanaticism. Bearing the mandatory ceremonial clothing, called “uniforms,” they gather in the temple and go as far dancing and singing religious hymns for twelve straight hours. The rhythm of the ceremony is frenetic, obsessive. The fuel, to dive deeply into spirituality and handle the physical marathon, is ayahuasca, the hallucinogenic tea, consumed repeatedly during the worship. In a short time they are taken by what they call “mirações” – something similar to the “trips” experienced by the hippies that took LSD. Ayahuasca is used traditionally by several indigenous groups of the Amazon. It entered Santo Daime through the founder of the cult, the agriculturalist Irineu Serra, who died in 1971 at age 79. He wrote the hundreds of hymns sung at the rituals. The hymns, which mix Christianity and Spiritism, talk of God and love, of the virtues of labor and justice. Together, they form a book with more than 300 pages which is customarily copied and printed at the Federal Senate printing office as homage to the politicians of Acre and daimistas electors. ENZYME Ayahuasca is one of these scary creations of indigenous medicine, a chemical combination made intuitively by natives based on plants that don’t even grow near each other. The psycho biologist 169 Elisaldo Carlini, of the Paulista School of Medicine and current secretary of Sanitary Vigilance for the Ministry of Health, explains that the vine, known as jagupe, contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a substance that, when taken, produces strong mental alterations. What occurs is that one of the enzymes present in the human intestine impedes the absorption of DMT. The function of the second ingredient of ayahuasca, the plant known as queen, is to neutralize this enzyme. “DMT can lead to several states of mental alteration,” explains Carlini. “The person can become delirious. Experience hallucinations or simply visual illusions.” Since 1961, DMT, in its synthetic form, is forbidden for human use by the International Narcotics Control Board, an UN sector that studies chemical substances and advises its member countries as to its rules and regulations. The UN, however, never made a pronouncement on ayahuasca. In Brazil, the Federal Narcotics Counsel, CONFEN, ordered studies on ayahuasca in 1992, and understood that it should not be prohibited. “At the time, it was found that its use was ritualistic and there were no motives for State to interfere in the matter, but it’s possible that this position will be changed in the future,” says Luiz Matias Fach, president of CONFEN. “Ayahuasca without a doubt has hallucinogenic properties,” he completes. At the beginning of last year, CONFEN determined that the tea should not be ministered to underage children and those who suffer from any form of mental disturbances. The first determination is thoroughly ignored by daimistas. As for the second, there is no control over the mental health of those that consume the tea. BLACK MARKET Medical doctors agree that ayahuasca, when taken only during a ceremony, to reach a kind of spiritual trance, is inoffensive. What happens is that more and more it has been used indiscriminately. The great daime centers make around 8000 liters of tea per year. It is impossible to exercise any type of rigid control over the use of the product. Lately, even at candomblé centers in Rio Branco one can see people taking ayahuasca. “Many people are tripping out on daime, leaving their family, work, because they take the drink without spiritual monitoring,” says a veteran daimista at Rio Branco. Today, part of the tea produced in the country is exported to the 10 daime centers operating abroad, in France, Spain, Netherlands and Finland. Theoretically, it should reach these countries for free, or in exchange for small donations of 5 or 10 reais that the daime adepts usually pay to the centers to cover production costs. It is known that abroad, ayahuasca is commercialized in the black market, at 30 dollars per liter, enough for half dozen dosages. By coincidence or not, the people who usually end up being at variance with the cult come from in the majority of cases from Céu do Mapiá, the major center of Cefluris. The village at Céu do Mapiá gathers around 800 people who live in a community regime. It is installed within the National Mapiá-Inauini Forest, created by the Sarney administration in 1989 in an area of 311 000 hectares in the south of the Amazon. This area, Ibama delimited eight territories for the development of model-projects of occupation and management sustained by the 170 forest. One of them was given to Cefluris. In it, the daimistas dedicate their time in extravist activities, gathering fruits and nuts, doing their rituals, and in their every day life in the community, bartering with foods and services. “MESSIANISM” However there isn’t a shortage of testimonies that Céu do Mapiá is far from being a paradise. A Paulista advertiser that spent three years at the place says that the community spirit of Cefluris works only for the more humble inhabitants. “Those that are more educated form a ruling class, that eats better and enjoy more comfortable accommodations,” he says. “Mapiá also has a dictator, Polari, who lost himself in messianism and despotism,” says the advertiser, who prefers to stay anonymous. A Porto Alegre student who also spent some time in Mapiá also came back with a bad impression. “There are many people who are there only to get a buzz, who have money and live much better,” he says. The carioca Carlos Alberto Macedo, partner in a video production firm, spent three years among the daimistas of Cefluris, in Rio and Mapiá, and doesn’t like to remember what he went through. “When one begins to attend Santo Daime, he enters into a micro society that has all the defects of large societies: Corruption, privileges etc.” And it is very difficult to leave, due to pressure from the faithful. There are many people going crazy there than it is made public. When someone can’t handle it, the person starts to hear things like she can’t “bear the light,” and that this is very dangerous. The people end up losing vitality and become amorphous.” PASSIONATE CRIME The father of Carlos Alberto, Luiz Macedo, ad executive and vice-president of the Jockey Club of Rio de Janeiro, tells us that he went through some stressful times to try to get his son out of Santo Daime. “He was on the brink of fanaticism, suffered brain washing, and was exploited. When I saw the situation, I decided to rescue him. I went to speak to padrinho Sebastião Mota, a poor caboclo that thought he was sent from God. There was no use – there was a fence around my son. I doubt if any father whose son has attended Santo Daime has any nice words for the cult. “Padrinho Sebastião Mota, who Macedo mentions, dead for five years, was the major disciple of Irineu Serra, the founder of Santo Daime. Mota created Cefluris and was also responsible for the introduction of the habit, today theoretically abandoned, of accompanying the beverage of ayahuasca with marijuana joints. Baptized as “santa maria” by the daimistas, marijuana was part of Cefluris rituals until 1992, when Federal 171 Police decided to put an end to the party. In a visit to Colony 5000, police burned an enormous plantation of marijuana and received the promise of padrinho Raimundo Nonato (Mota’s grandson) that from that moment on the herb would not be part of the rituals. Nonato had already been visited by the police on several previous occasions. Some time before the marijuana incident, his ex-partner in dried and wet goods was arrested for cocaine traffic. And he has been answering a court charge for the past twenty years for having killed and castrated a man who used to seduce women in the colony. At his trial, he was found innocent under the argument of legitimate defense of honor. Céu do Mapiá is today attended by Brazilian and foreign tourists that seek spiritual comfort or just an exotic adventure. The people who are not going there anymore are the artists and famous personalities, who transformed Santo Daime into the fashion cult of the 80s. Many of them are reticent to speak on the subject, what indicates that their experiences might not have been as positive as they claimed at the time. The singer Eduardo Dusek keeps good memories: “Daime is a natural therapy, it is similar to regression therapies conducted by psychiatrists,” he says. Ney Matogrosso thinks Daime “gives a different experience for each person.” Now Maitê Proença, who took ayahuasca until the sixth month of her pregnancy to daughter Maria, simply refuses to speak on the subject. He colleague Lucélia Santos, who became the cover-girl for Santo Daime, also does not open her mouth to evaluate her passage in the cult. The actor Raul Gazolla, however, who at the time was married to Lucélia, has some complaints to make. “They took advantage of Lucélia, who raised 30 000 dollars for the cult, and the money simply disappeared,” accuses Gazolla. “Santo Daime has many people of faith, but the ones that manage it only do so with no faith.” Can you imagine people who were raised in the South Side of Rio talking with a caboclo accent from one moment to the next?” questions Gazolla. In Rio Branco, there are half dozen of other current daimistas, such as Barquinha and Alto Santo, attended and managed by simple and humble people, who seek to preserve the primitive traditions of the cult. In these centers there are no tourists, community projects or messianic leaders. But it is a completely different situation with the group at Céu do Mapiá. In Rio Branco as well as in Boca do Acre – a little town that works as a base for the boats that leave for Mapiá- every one seems to have a story to tell about a relative or friend who had a bad experience with Santo Daime. Stories like this are part of the folklore of the two cities. Often, the individual would go to one of the centers associated to Cefluris. Now, with the accusations of Alicia Castilla and Jorge Mourão made into books, the chorus of attacks to this branch of the cult become even heavier. 172 TRAGEDY BY THE HANDS OF “SANTO DAIME” CULT MEMBER Date: January 7th, 2004 at 4:47:31 pm Topic: News Laborer kills friend and is taken to Penitentiary Civil Police has already concluded investigation in the death of worker Arnoldo da Silva Franquino, which happened on November 20th of this year. Yesterday morning, the judge from the jury at Vara do Tribunal determined the preventive arrest of the manual laborer Alessandro Arruda dos Santos. According to police investigation presided by the director of the Civil Police, Walter Prado, Alessandro is accused of homicide and concealment of body, with the aggravating factor that the crime was committed with extreme cruelty. After killing the colleague, Alessandro used an ax to cut the body into several pieces. He then set fire to the mortal remains and buried it in a shallow grave in the proximities of the encampment where they worked. Alessandro, who confessed the crime, said that he was in a little house in sr. Hermítlio’s farm, located in Bolivian territory, where they took daime. “The Santo Daime.” He tells that Amoldo had been possessed by an evil spirit and tried to kill him, after mixing the tea with an alcoholic beverage. After the physical fight, Alessandro killed Arnoldo and fearing that the spirit would revive him, chopped up the victim with machete and ax strokes. The crime was only found out because the criminal himself, after consulting his spiritual guide and patron, Hermínio Feitosa do Nascimento, looked for the police to surrender and tell his own version of the crime. According to the result of the exams produced by the Criminalist Institute, the place accused no signs of a struggle and concluded that the victim had been attacked by surprise as he slept. The inquiry will be given to Justice within the legal deadline. The prisoner is already serving preventive arrest and will await the final decision in the penitentiary complex Dr. Francisco D’Oliveira Conde. (Source: A Gazeta Newspaper, on 12/12/2003) 173