More allegations of abuse in Santo Daime churches in Brazil
Members are demanding greater transparency and accountability.
The problems facing the Santo Daime church in Brazil got worse this month, with two new allegations of abuse. A Brazilian TV show interviewed several alleged victims who say a Santo Daime leader and his wife abused them when they were children, including their own grandson. Meanwhile, police are investigating another Daime leader in Ceara for elder abuse and million-dollar fraud involving ayahuasca. These latest scandals come after multiple previous accusations of sexual abuse of women and girls by Santo Daime leaders in Brazil. So far, these allegations have only led to one court case, now nearing conclusion, in which a prominent Santo Daime priest in Rio de Janeiro is accused of sexual assault by his former assistant.
Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of serious and widespread abuse in the Daime church in Brazil, especially by the older generation of church leaders. Locals tell me there are more stories yet to emerge. It’s a tragic situation for followers of the second-biggest and second-oldest psychedelic religion in the world. Now, there’s a groundswell of demands for reform and accountability from Daime members and ex-members in Brazil and internationally, especially in the ICEFLU branch of the church.
ICEFLU is the biggest branch of the Daime religion worldwide. When I first wrote about the abuse allegations in 2024, the ICEFLU leadership denounced me in an open letter published in Chacruna, suggesting I am opposed to religious freedom. Not at all - in fact, in 2023 I wrote in defence of a Daime priest facing trial in France. But something has clearly gone very wrong in the Brazil Daime leadership, and the issue is not going away. I suspect it’s only going to get bigger as Brazilian journalists, activists and lawyers join the dots.
Latest allegations
The latest allegations came from Record TV’s Domingo Espectacular program. It interviewed several alleged victims who claimed that Walter Dias Junior, a 71-year-old anthropologist and head of a Santo Daime church called Ceu Do Vale near Sao Paolo, abused them when they were children, with the help of his wife Ana Maria Vieria. Among the accusers is the couple’s own grandson. The abuse reportedly occurred several years ago, in some cases while the children were under the influence of ayahuasca. Walter Dias and his wife refused an interview with the TV show, but Ceu do Vale posted an Instagram post condemning abuse, and saying:
the individuals mentioned in the events and cited in the report were immediately removed and are not currently part of the church’s membership, and administrative measures are already being taken to terminate any institutional role.
ICEFLU, the biggest Santo Daime organisation in Brazil, said it had ejected Ana Maria Vieria from a group set up to protect women in the church.
This was not the only abuse allegation against a Santo Daime leader in Brazil this month. In Ceara, the head of an independent Daime centre (as far as I’m aware not connected to ICEFLU) has been accused of using ayahuasca to extract $1 million from an elderly couple with a real estate fortune. There’s an ongoing police investigation into the allegations and he has not been named. According to media reports, the couple started to attend the guru’s Daime centre in the late 90s, and he subsequently befriended them and married one of the couple’s four daughters. The three other daughters brought the allegation of fraud and elder abuse, claiming the leader used ayahuasca and supposed spirit-channelling to turn the couple against their three other daughters and get hold of the couple’s finances. There are no charges yet.
Meanwhile, a court case involving another prominent Santo Daime priest is nearing its conclusion in Rio De Janeiro. Religious leader Paulo Roberto Silva e Souza, 76, is the founder and head of the Céu do Mar church in Rio, and he also founded and visited Daime churches around the world. He is accused of ‘sexual assault by deception’ of his former assistant, Jéssica Nascimento de Sousa, with aggravating circumstances due to his position of authority over the victim. He denies the accusations. Several other women have accused Paolo Roberto of sexual assault over many years. He’s not part of the ICEFLU network (founded by Padrinho Sebastiao in the 1970s) but is married to Sebastiao’s daughter.
Then there’s Chester Gontijo, 59-year-old businessman and prominent figure in the ICEFLU-affiliated Céu do Sol Nascente church. In 2025 he was accused by his ex-wife Marianna and her younger sister Maria, of abuse. Marianna was 15 when Gontijo met her at Ceu do Mapia (ICEFLU’s main church). He invited her to Manaus, showered her with gifts, and eventually married her. But she claims that she was subjected to violence and coercive control. Her sister Maria visited her when she was 13, and claims she was kissed and groped by him. Gontijo did not respond to questions from news site Contilnet Noticians. ICEFLU told Contilnet he is no longer part of the organisation. No charges were brought.
In 2019, meanwhile, multiple accusations of sexual assault were made against Ge Marques, a 68-year-old leader of a Santo Daime church in Sao Paolo. Three women made an official accusation to police, and the BBC spoke to 8 other women who made similar claims. He was accused of assaulting women while they were under the influence of ayahuasca, under the pretense of providing a healing ‘bioenergetic massage’. Paolo Roberto is accused of using the same ruse to grope a woman. No charges were brought against Marques and his lawyer told the BBC the relations with all the women were friendly and consensual. Marques’ church was not officially part of ICEFLU.
The reaction in Brazil within and outside the Daime church
There have been accusations made against several other senior figures in various Daime churches in Brazil. It should be noted these are allegations, and only one case has gone to trial - the case against Paolo Roberto, now in court in Rio. Nonetheless, the fact that so many women, and also men, have come forward to the police, media or NGOs to accuse Brazilian Daime church leaders of abuse, fraud, paedophilia and other criminal behaviour is worrying.
ICEFLU, the leading organisation in the Daime church, is trying to respond to the allegations. It published social media posts against abuse, telling victims to contact them, but these posts provoked hundreds of angry responses from church members and psychedelic activists. Here’s a sample of the (translated) responses from Brazilians:
Showing solidarity is very cool but you have to prove it in actions. I was a complainer myself and what I heard at the time was: Leave it alone!!
Very sad all these heavy facts involving leaders of our doctrine. The master cries from above. Let’s hope all the masks fall off!
These are not recent reports. These are reports of old cases that have been covered up for years. Where was Iceflu while all this was going on?
Again ?! All the time?! And what real action will you take to help the victims?!
It’s past time that there is stricter regulation of the house that claims to be a church...
These stories are recurrent... sad reality!
In the face of all these criminal acts and the slow response of the institution, it becomes difficult to devote ourselves to the work.
Isn’t it time to do something about it? I mean not after, but before. Conduct manual, instructions for people attending ceremonies on what is and what is not acceptable?
If there was a real commitment from ICEFLU “to justice and integrity the principles that guide the doctrine” the organisation would have already made an internal sweep many years ago, in all centers connected to it, starting with Céu do Mapia, in search of incidences of abuse of this like to really eradicate this rot. This would have saved a lot of pain and evil. But nope. These people only react when another bomb explodes in the media, they hire a crisis management marketer to stifle the case and measure the most appropriate words, they write something like what we’re reading here and wait for the dust to settle to keep profiting from Daime.
There are also comments from women in Brazilian Daime churches who said they were not listened to when they reported abuse, and were demonized for making allegations:
in my case I had to leave the church after openly discussing what happened, because I couldn’t stand being around the unfortunate man playing the guitar, and I also became the villain of the story when I openly said that the leadership protects aggressors, including “feminist” women who still criticize my stance on that episode to this day.
in my church when the victim reports [abuse] to the leadership, the most she hears is her clothes were provocative
Jéssica Nascimento de Sousa, who brought the sexual assault case against her former employer, Paolo Roberto, tells me:
Based on my experience, I can say that rape culture is very well structured by most (I can’t say all) of the [Santo Daime] brotherhoods throughout Brazil. What happens in one church is very similar to what happens in others. Everyone knows each other, everyone knows what everyone there does. But nothing is done to change this structure because it doesn’t benefit those at the top of the pyramid.
‘Everyone knows each other, everyone knows what everyone there does. But nothing is done to change this structure because it doesn’t benefit those at the top of the pyramid.’
- Jéssica Nascimento de Sousa
There’s clearly a lot of anger at years of inaction by ICEFLU. Rev. Dr. Jessica Rochester, who secured the legality of Santo Daime in Canada in 2017, tells me she spoke directly to senior people about problems in ICEFLU two decades ago, warning them of ‘the lack of accountability, the cover-ups and the concern that the senior people in Mapia acted more like a family cult, placing themselves above the law and the doctrine’. In 2009 she met with the spiritual leader of Mapia, Padrinho Alfredo, and gave him a file that contained documents listing the problems with Paulo Roberto’s actions.
‘The cover-ups for Paulo Roberto went on for years if not decades’, she says. ‘The public response from ICEFLU was “there is no administrative connection” with Paolo Roberto [despite him being married to Padrinho Alfredo’s sister]. Meanwhile Madrinha Rita [the matriarch of ICEFLU] was telling everyone to forgive her son-in-law.’ Rev Dr Rochester subsequently took her church out of ICEFLU in 2010. ‘This is their playbook’, she says. ‘Deny, cover-up, discredit the whistle-blowers or victims, and tell “technical” half-truths like ‘Paulo Roberto is not connected to ICEFLU’.’
There’s also growing outrage from psychedelic activists in Brazil, such as Nati Avellar, an activist and social media influencer who shares videos on Instagram @umbigo.tampado. I asked her why so many cases of abuse which occurred 10 or 20 years ago are coming to light now. Nati says:
I believe what we are seeing now is the result of a growing movement of awareness and collective courage. Initiatives like Movaya [an ayahuasca social justice organisation in Brazil], together with the work of independent pages like mine and, above all, the positioning of the victims themselves, have created an environment where silence is beginning to break. Many of these abuses are not recent — in many cases they have been happening for 20 or 30 years. What changed was the possibility of speaking about it. When some victims find the strength to come forward, that opens the way for others to do the same. It’s a domino effect: each account legitimises the next and weakens the structures that previously sustained the silence.
I also wondered how Daimistas in the US and Europe felt about this wave of abuse allegations. The main feeling seems to be sadness, sympathy for the alleged victims, and a desire to stop such incidents occurring in the future. One woman who has been a member of a US Daime church for 10 years spoke to me on condition of anonymity, saying there would be negative consequences if she gave her name. She says:
It makes me emotional, because this is something I care deeply for. It’s a very important part of my life. I very much want to protect it, and at the same time, the only way things will change is if the complete truth comes out. In North America the response to ICEFLU has been that they’re not doing enough. There’s nice words but what are you doing? Where is the proof of actions?
Historical problems in the ICEFLU branch of Santo Daime
Santo Daime is the second-biggest and second-oldest psychedelic church or religion in the world, after the Native American Church. It was originally begun in the 1920s in the far western Brazilian state of Acre by Raimundo Irineu Serra, a migrant and grandson of slaves. According to followers, Mestre Irineu was probably initiated into ayahuasca by indigenous shamans, and he then Christianized the ritual use of ayahuasca, with aspects of Umbanda and spirit-mediumship later added by some churches. The first official ritual or ‘work’ of Santo Daime was in 1930
When Mestre Irineu died in 1971, the church split. One branch calls itself Alto Santo, and was led by Mestre Irineu’s widow, Madrinha Peregrina Gomes da Serra. Another branch was called CEFLURIS, now renamed ICEFLU, and was founded by a follower of Irineu’s called Sebastiao Mota de Melo. He founded a church in the jungle in Mapia called Ceu do Mapia.
The ICEFLU branch was distinct in various ways. First, it was more expansionist and international, helping to found and supply Daime churches and ‘points of light’ around the world. Some have questioned if Daime / ayahuasca has always been sold and exported legally, and if all the centres securing ayahuasca are genuine followers of Daime, or properly trained to serve the brew.
Second, ICEFLU churches, including Ceu do Mapia, often used marijuana along with ayahuasca, sometimes ritually as ‘Santa Clara’, sometimes recreationally. This was and is controversial with Daime members in other lineages. In addition, Padrinho Sebastiao and his family became venerated as guru figures, even as reincarnations of various disciples of Jesus. His son, Padrinho Alfredo, took over the church after Sebastiao’s death, and he and other family members are revered as prophets.
Finally, there have been historical incindents of sexual abuse, in which the male perpetrators have been forgiven while the female victims are blamed as temptresses or even demonically-possessed. Sebastiao himself impregnated a young woman called Jaci who lived in his house in Mapia. Official accounts say she was in her mid 20s when it occurred but some reports say she was a teenager. In official accounts, the young woman (or girl) was blamed for having seduced Sebastiao, as if it was her fault that an older authority figure in whose house she lived had sex with her. The official church biography of Sebastiao by Lucio Mortimer (Benca, Padrinho, 2018), says:
Padrinho Sebastião fought hard to resist the sexual appeals of a young woman who was with him. There was no way. For this reason, Madrinha Rita [Sebastiao’s wife] suffered, seeing her old companion involved with this temporary love. [She] was very angry with the situation and warned very harshly the woman who dared touch her husband. Every night, at the hour of the deepest sleep of the woman and the children, he received that visit. Mysteriously no one woke up. He fought bravely, giving advice, but finally he gave in, and it all happened. In fact, the woman who pursued him was in a passage where she did things unconsciously, as if being possessed. Many people thought she was weak in the head. She was about twenty-five. Jaci, who is the name of this woman, moved in quietly, and eventually got pregnant. A beautiful girl was born who restored the complete mental equilibrium for her mother.
Reverend Jessica Rochester says:
You can peel it back to the original problems with the cannabis use and what happened with Sebastiao and the girl, how that all got accommodated and covered up and lied about and characterized in a way that makes him some redeeming saint. What a bucket of garbage.
The ICEFLU leadership told me in 2025:
The fact that Padrinho Sebastião had a relationship with Ms. Jaci so long ago certainly does not offer any suggestion of tolerance for abuse as is being alleged today.
Others think the combined use of marijuana and ayahuasca could be part of the problem, along with guru-worship of church leaders. Benjamin Mudge is a Daime follower and psychedelic researcher at the University of Maastricht. He tells me:
It’s my opinion that use of ayahuasca with marijuana can lead to ego-inflation and narcissism, and to this attitude of ‘let’s get stoned, forget our worries and let the sexual abuse go unchallenged’.
ICEFLU’s executive secretariat told me in 2025:
Cannabis is not an essential part of the doctrine in the way that the Santo Daime itself is. Some groups encourage the use of cannabis, others do not allow it.
Should children receive psychedelics in psychedelic churches?
There is also the sensitive question of whether Daime churches, or other psychedelic churches, should give psychedelics to minors. Brazilian Resolution No. 1/2010 of the National Council on Drug Policy (CONAD) allows the participation of children and adolescents in religious rituals, provided it occurs under the responsibility of their parents or legal guardians and in compliance with the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, as well as the religious freedom guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. ICEFLU says this protects their legal right to serve Daime to children. But is it a good idea?
I suggested it was risky in my 2025 article, considering the history of groups that gave psychedelics to children and then abused them, such as Centrepoint in New Zealand or The Family in Australia. This caused outrage in ICEFLU, whose leadership wrote an open letter in Chacruna denouncing me (a letter co-written by Walter Dias, now accused of abusing children while they were on ayahuasca).
Chacruna’s director Bia Labate, who orchestrated the ICEFLU open letter denouncing me, also complained to Doubleblind’s editors about my article, and Doubleblind has not published an article by me since.
This time, ICEFLU is a bit more civil in their response, telling me:
Within ICEFLU, the participation of children and adolescents takes place in a restricted and responsible manner, exclusively in specific festive ceremonies, with the use of symbolic quantities and always under the direct supervision of their legal guardians.
I asked Brazilian psychedelic activist Nati Avellar what she thought on this topic.
This is a delicate question. Personally, I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of offering ayahuasca to children. Mainly because we’re talking about a potent psychoactive substance, which, from a scientific standpoint, still lacks substantial research on its effects on children and adolescents, especially in the long term. Beyond that, there’s a point I consider especially sensitive: in contexts where abuse has occurred, the victims were often also under the influence of the substance. This can significantly increase vulnerability. I should note that everything I say here refers to use by non-indigenous people. I firmly believe in the agency of indigenous peoples regarding these matters, and I won’t compromise that conviction.
Bringing light to Daime
What could help reform Daime? I asked Jéssica Nascimento de Sousa, a lawyer, and the woman who took Paolo Roberto to court for sexual assault. She says:
In my view, the first step to change something is recognizing the inability of organisations to solve this internally and instead to seek external audits.
Another Daimista, in the US, tells me that ethical concerns should be discussed openly and without guru-worship or fear of reprisal:
The most important thing for churches to do is foster an open culture of discussion on ethical subjects. My background as a therapist has taught me that predators and abusers cannot thrive in such open environments. They require the shadows of secrecy and manipulation to gain the necessary level of control over their victims.
I don’t think that open culture exists yet in the Daime church - several people, both in Brazil and North America, told me they could not speak on the record for fear of ‘reprisals’. The only way we can learn about what has occurred, around the world, is for Daimistas and ex-Daimistas to speak up and bring light to the darkness. I hope the next generation of Daimistas succeed in their attempts to reform and improve their churches, and if that’s impossible, to find or build better Daime churches, where people can worship safely. Their efforts are important not just for the Daime religion, but for the future of psychedelic churches around the world.