Failure And Mistakes In Rituals Of The European Santo Daime Church: Experiences And Subjective Theories Of The Participants

Rituals in the European Santo Daime church involve experiences shaped by the psychoactive brew ayahuasca, which produces a spectrum of effects far richer and more complex than just altered perceptions. Participants hold subjective theories about ritual actions, including ideas about failure and mistakes that attribute reasons to human, non-human, or divine agency. The chapter links psychological insights about psychoactive substances with social theories of ritual, focusing on how participants represent their experiences and understand deviations from ritual norms.

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Abstract

Most theories of ritual are based on ethnographic descriptions of ritual actions around the globe. This chapter focuses on the representations of experiences during rituals and on the subjective theories about these rituals by participants of the European Santo Daime church. The author research is concerned with substance-induced altered states of consciousness and the chapter attempts to link the insights of psychological knowledge about these substances with social theories on ritual. Since the participant's ideas about failure and mistakes include attributions of reasons why something or someone is regarded as wrong or not, the interface between human and non-human or divine agency in relation to ritual deviation is discussed in the chapter. The chapter discusses the spectrum of the psychoactive effects of Ayahuasca. It demonstrates that the spectrum of Ayahuasca experiences is significantly richer and more complex than merely non-ordinary perceptual effects.Keywords: European Santo Daime Church; psychoactive effects; ritual failure; social theories; spectrum of Ayahuasca