Alex Bellos profiles a Brazilian religion and its drug of choice:
Ayahuasca—or Daime as it is known locally—is a muddy-looking concoction made from boiling the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the Psychotria viridis leaf. Across the Amazon, indigenous people drink it as a part of their rituals. In Brazil a century ago, however, the hallucinogen led to the birth of a new Christian movement, the religion known as Santo Daime.
How the religion started in Brazil:
The first man to use ayahuasca in a Christian context was a 6ft 6in rubber tapper called Raimundo Irineu Serra. A black man, the son of former slaves, Irineu was introduced to the shamanic brew in the 1910s and under its influence had a vision of a beautiful woman—Clara, the Forest Queen—who commanded him to go several days in the jungle without having sex and eating only saltless manioc. He obliged, and during this time he was "channelled" the doctrine of a new religion. He called it Santo Daime because in the trancelike state he repeatedly asked the drug to "daime", or "give me", qualities such as strength, love and light. Santo Daime’s literal meaning, therefore, is Saint Gimme.
Notes from a New York chapter of Santo Daime here.
The Dish 