Psychedelic churches pushing boundaries of religion in small but growing U.S. movement

The tea tasted bitter and weak, but Lorenzo Gonzales drank it anyway. On a cold night in Utah, expecting a life-changing experience, he found himself inside a tent with two dozen others waiting for a psychedelic drink known as ayahuasca.

Before long, the soft guitar sounds are drowned out by people throwing up in buckets – a common weakness of the drug.

Gonzales started yelling, crying, then laughing and laughing.

The facilitator of the Hummingbird Church placed him face-down on the grass, calming him momentarily before he started laughing and crawling away, only quieting after his wife touched his shoulder and prayed.

Looking for enlightenment, relief

“I saw this dark vein appear in this big red light, and then I saw this image of the devil,” Gonzales explained later.

Gonzales’ trip to this small town along the Arizona-Utah border is part of a global trend in which many people are turning to ayahuasca in search of spiritual enlightenment and an experience they say brings them closer to God than traditional religious services. Many hope that psychedelic tea will cure physical and mental suffering after conventional medicine and therapy have failed.

His problems include eating disorders, depression, substance use disorders and PTSD.

In the US, there is a growing push to decriminalize the use of psychedelics. Colorado has passed an initiative to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms for people 21 and older. It joined with Oregon to create a regulated system for hallucinogens found in some mushrooms.

The growing demand for ayahuasca has led to hundreds of churches that say their proponents are protected from prosecution by a 2006 US Supreme Court decision. illegal under US federal law.

But with the growth of the pro-psychedelics movement has come increased scrutiny.

There is no real understanding of risk

Shipments of ayahuasca from South America have been seized and there are concerns that unorganized ceremonies could endanger participants, as ayahuasca is not well studied.

“Our knowledge is limited,” said Anthony Back, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

“There’s not a lot of information out there about safety,” Back said.

It was dark – except for the flickering of candles and the orange glow of the heater – as the Hummingbird ceremony began last October. psychedelic art festooned the walls; statues of the Virgin Mary and Mother Earth are positioned near the emergency altar.

A mix of military veterans, corporate executives, and thrill seekers join the $900 weekend.

They sat in silence, waiting for Taita Pedro Davila, a Colombian healer and traditional healer to oversee the ceremony.

The effects of Ayahuasca can last for several hours

The drink contains an Amazon rainforest shrub with the active ingredient N, N-Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, and a vine that contains harmala alkaloids that prevent the drug from breaking down in the body.

Those who drink ayahuasca report seeing shapes and colors and going on wild, sometimes terrifying journeys that can last hours. In this dreamlike state, some say they see dead relatives – one woman saw a family member killed in a car accident – as well as friends and spirits who talk to her.

“When you’re invited here, you’re invited for a weekend of healing,” Davila told the group in Spanish through a translator, before people lined up to take doses of thick, dark glass in plastic cups.

Davila, wearing a fedora, a boar necklace and a beaded chest plate with a picture of a jaguar, locked eyes with each participant, said a prayer into a cup, blew it with a whistle and handed it over. After they all drank and settled on their beds, Davila walked through the tent while the drugs were being held, shaking leaves and playing sad songs on the harmonica.

“We will kill the mind and open the heart. If you feel dead, die. This will allow you to be born again,” he said.

The last hope for many

Gonzales and his wife, Flor, drove here from California, hoping for relief. He is among the few newcomers to ayahuasca. Gonzales, who has battled drug addiction for 50 years, has been diagnosed with early-stage dementia, linked to past concussions. He rarely sleeps and is irritable.

Flor Gonzales, 48, is fed up with doctors and pills, with side effects, she prescribes. Nothing works and he is afraid of losing Lorenzo.

“If he’s already sick… Should we lose him?” he said, adding, “Maybe it helps him … accept more without anger.”

Ayahuasca is legal in South America

Ayahuasca roots go back hundreds of years, used by Indigenous groups in the Amazon. In the last century, churches sprouted up in South America where ayahuasca is legal.

Some Brazilian churches are a mixture of Christian, African and Indigenous influences. The movement found a foothold in the US in the 1980s, increasingly, as celebrities like Hollywood star Will Smith and Britain’s Prince Harry talked about using it.

Some people spend thousands of dollars to take ayahuasca at a five-star retreat in the Amazon. In the US, the movement remains underground, fueled by social media and word of mouth.

Courtney Close, 42, the founder of Hummingbird, credits ayahuasca for helping her overcome cocaine addiction and post-partum depression. Asked about the meaning of religion, he said, “We’re just trying to create a spiritual experience without dogma.”

Close has seen a change in who arrives for the ceremony since starting the church five years ago. They say it has changed from young hipsters, and now more and more older working class people are desperate for mental health care.

But Close says ayahuasca has potential risks.

To improve safety, Hummingbird has brought doctors, nurses and CPR-trained staff to the ceremony, encouraged participants to stop taking certain medications before arriving, and created an intake process that excludes those with severe mental illness and some heart conditions.

They also enforce a no touching policy during the ceremony.

Back in California, Flor Gonzales says the experience changed her husband.

Lorenzo has stopped taking medication for depression, PTSD and insomnia. He still struggles with memory problems, but says he sleeps through the night, without screaming.

“I feel healthier,” Lorenzo said.

“I feel that a dark force has been taken from my soul.”