New allegations against Santo Daime in Brazil
Plus, new warnings from the US Embassy in the Peru and Costa Rica's Ministry of Health regarding ayahuasca retreats
Welcome to another Tuesday Brunch, our weekly round-up of interesting stories on psychedelics and other ecstatic practices from around the world. The first part is free, the second half just for paid subscribers. Ecstatic Integration is the newsletter of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project, a non-profit which focuses on trying to improve safety and ethics in psychedelic culture.
In Brazil, new allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against a leader in a Santo Daime ayahuasca church – the third such accusation in three months.
Two sisters have accused Chester de Souza Gontijo, leader of the Céu do Sol Nascente Church in Manaus, of raping them, in interviews with Brazilian news site ContilNet Noticias (here, in Portuguese so you’ll need to use Google Chrome or another platform to translate it). One of the sisters, Mariana, was married to Gontijo when she was 15 (they’re now divorced) and says she suffered rape and violence at the hands of her ex-husband. She provided photos of bruising she suffered at the time of her marriage. Her younger sister Maria Clara says Gontijo raped her when she was 12.
There was no comment from Gontijo in the article but ICEFLU, an international Santo Daime organisation, told ContilNet:
based on the seriousness of the complaints, we have determined the removal of Mr. Chester until the allegations, both from the complainants and the accused, are duly investigated and proven in due legal process.
This is the third allegation of sexual misconduct by a Santo Daime church leader in Brazil in the last three months. In November, a prominent Brazilian Santo Daime leader called Paolo Roberto was accused by an employee of sexual misconduct, in an ongoing legal case. As I reported at the time, Paolo Roberto has faced accusations of sexual assault for many years.
US representatives of ICEFLU sent me a response to that story on December 29, which I added comments from to the piece. I also added comments from a Canadian woman called Maria who says she was sexually assaulted by Paolo Roberto in 2007 in Brazil. She reported this incident to the leading Santo Daime organization in North America, CEFLURGEM-AN, who responded by suspending Paolo Roberto and then letting him return to officiate services in North America. Maria wrote to CEFLURGEM 17 years ago:
How many women will it take before something is done? How many women will have to endure pain and suffering before anyone has the courage to stand up and say no to his behaviour?
Earlier this month, Contilnet Noticias published (here in Portuguese) an interview with the ex-wife of another Brazilian Daime leader, Maurilio Jose Reis, who accused him of sex abuse and other crimes – accusations that apparently have been made to the federal police. These accusations all need to be investigated properly by the legal authorities in Brazil.
This is I’m sure a very difficult time for Santo Daime members, but it could be an important time of renewal and improved standards for the 95-year-old religious movement. As the founder of an NGO dedicated to reducing psychedelic-related harms, I support the efforts of reformers and whistleblowers within and outside Santo Daime to bring greater levels of transparency and ethical safeguards within their churches, especially to protect women and children from predatory behaviour by church leaders. Santo Daime has a right to exist, but also an obligation to protect its members and the wider public from harms.
In other news:
Psychedelicare is a new initiative in the European Union, calling on the EU Commission to support the establishment of an expert consensus on psychedelic care – similar to the initiative in the US Congress at the moment.
Next Monday I’m taking part in a free online discussion with Rick Doblin, president of MAPS, called Antidotes to Cultiness, hosted by Holomind in Poland. We’ll be discussing the issue of ‘cultiness’ in psychedelic organisations, and what organisations could do to protect themselves against the harmful aspects of cultiness.
On the CPEP website, we have a new ‘Story of Recovery’ from artist Brynja Magnusson about how she recovered from post-Bufo derealization. Thank you Brynja for sharing your story to help others.
After the paywall, the video of our recent psychedelic journalism seminar, plus the US Embassy in Peru puts out a warning about harms including deaths related to ayahuasca and kambo; the Costa Rican ministry of health also puts out a warning (today) about ayahuasca and iboga centres in the country; a link to watch the RFK Junior confirmation hearings live tomorrow, a free upcoming series of seminars at Synthesis, and why the new religion of therapy is not enough for young people today.
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