União do Vegetal

In 1961 Jose Gabriel da Costa, a Brazilian rubber trapper, began a spiritist movement that combines elements of Christian imagery with ritualized drug-induced entheogenic exploration. The movement is known as União do Vegetal or UDV, which translates to English as "Union of the Plant." You can read more about that here:
União do Vegetal

UDV received considerable publicity at the turn of the millennium, very little of which had anything to do with the movement's Christian spiritist trappings. Attention focused on the psychedelic trappings instead, in particular UDV's sacramental use of ayahuasca. Ayahuasca is a mixed brew containing leaves native to the Amazon jungle that contain dimethyltriptamine (DMT) and a potent monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). Though UDV's roots are young, this blend has been pivotal to shamanist religions in South America for centuries. While we're still, haltingly, trying to figure out what makes cocktails like ayahuasca so powerful, some of the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place.

The Drug Enforcement Agency lists DMT as a schedule I controlled substance, but it can be better described as a neurotransmitter than as a drug. DMT is literally the stuff that dreams are made of, ubiquitous in mammals, tightly correlated with cycle of wakefulness and REM sleep, and apparently essential to consciousness, though the link is poorly understood. Since some level of DMT is always present in the brain, the body is able to process it quickly, and the trip from inhaled pure DMT lasts only a matter of minutes. When combined with an MAOI, this natural breakdown is inhibited, and the traveler can stay in psychedelic wonderland for hours. This ability to wander through entheogenic space is the backbone of UDV's central sacrament, and is what drew the attention of US customs agents in 1999.

A year after a shipment of ayahuasca leaves was interdicted by the American government UDV sued for an exemption from the Controlled Substances Act on a religious basis. UDV sought a similar exemption to that granted to Native American tribes for traditional peyote ceremonies, and after going to the Supreme Court, they got it in a unanimous decision in 2006. While I think the outcome of that case was sensible, it's curious to see that our government openly and unambiguously accepts the spiritual utility of the psychedelics while simultaneously banning them for almost all of its citizens. Our democracy can do better, and I think that it should.

I'll get down from my soapbox now. Here's a video that has nothing to do with UDV, but seems psychedelically delightful to me anyway: