Santo Daime's MeToo Moment

A law suit in Brazil, decades of earlier incidents, and wider questions about safety in psychedelic churches

In Rio de Janeiro, a woman is bringing a law suit against a prominent Santo Daime leader called Paolo Roberto for sexual assault under the guise of therapy. He is a padrinho of a Santo Daime church in Rio, and a senior figure in one particular lineage of Santo Daime, with many supporters and followers in North America and Europe. 

This is not the first instance of sexual misconduct by Paolo Roberto, or in the wider Santo Daime movement. In 2019, 15 women accused a priest of sexual misconduct in his Santo Daime offshoot church in Sao Paolo, called Reino de Sol. 

Santo Daime church leaders in North America and Brazil have condemned Paolo Roberto for this latest infraction, and one of them - Jonathan Goldman, founder of a legal Santo Daime church in Oregon - says this is an ‘earthquake’ in the movement. He wrote to his congregants in an open letter: 

Basically, the MeToo movement is belatedly catching up with the Daime world. Paulo Roberto is not the only male leader or member of a Daime church being outed as a predator. We are collectively in a moment of reckoning that has been a long time in coming. 

Goldman tells me expects more cases of misconduct in Daime churches to emerge. It’s not clear how many previous incidents of sexual assault by Paolo Roberto occurred and were accepted by Daime authorities in Brazil and North America - that’s an important question for this ‘moment of reckoning’.  

The wider question, meanwhile, is what steps psychedelic churches could take to reduce the risks of sexual misconduct and unhealthy cultic social dynamics. 

Santo Daime churches have been attacked, especially in Spain and France, for being ‘cults’ that use drugs to control people. And even leading Daimistas have used the word ‘cult’ to describe some of what happened around Paolo Roberto. ‘Cult’ is obviously a loaded-yet-ambiguous term, which can be wielded to justify government persecution of alternative spiritual movements. In the last part of this article we’ll ask what practical steps might mitigate the unhealthy cultic social dynamics that can arise in any social organisation, but perhaps particularly in psychedelic churches. 

What is Santo Daime?

Santo Daime is an ayahuasca religion which emerged in Brazil in the 1930s. It was founded by Raimundo Irineu Serra, an African-Brazilian rubber tapper, who went to work in Acre in the Brazilian Amazon, where he was introduced to ayahuasca and had a religious experience in which he encountered the Virgin Mary / Queen of the Forest. 

Mestre Irineu, as he became known, founded the Santo Daime religion out of a fusion of Christianity, African spiritism and indigenous ayahuasca shamanism. It involves church ceremonies with men and women wearing white, the men on one side of the church and the women on the other. The ayahuasca sacrament known as Santo Daime is served to the congregation. In ceremonies the group dances and sings hymns containing teachings and in worship of Nature, Divine Beings and the Queen of the Forest for several hours. In seated rituals of ‘concentration’, the focus is on silent meditation and the singing of hymns. There are also different forms of mediumship in some Santo Daime churches, in which restless spirits are taken into bodies of the worshippers and helped to pass into the light. (For those who want to know more, I’ve put some links at the end of the article). 

Here is a video of a ceremony in Ceo do Mapia, one of the first SD churches:

Many followers say their life has been improved by membership of Daime churches. A study by ICEERS found a significantly lower level of adverse ayahuasca effects in Santo Daime congregants than in those who take ayahuasca in other contexts, such as retreats. However, it’s a psychedelic church movement, which clearly presents a certain risk profile and is not suitable for everyone, and specific SD churches may contain specific risks or bad actors.  

There are various lineages in Santo Daime and lots of churches who loosely identify with a lineage or do their own thing. It’s not like the Catholic Church with a central governing body. 

After Meistre Irineu died in 1971, his wife Peregrina eventually became Madrinha of the Alto Santo lineage. Later, a follower of Meistre Irineu called Sebastiao Mota de Melo started up a small ayahuasca community deep in the Amazon jungle at a place called Ceu do Mapia. When he died in 1990, leadership of Ceu do Mapia was taken over by his son, Padrinho Alfredo. Beginning in the 1980s, some western spiritual seekers heard about Ceu do Mapia, traveled to it and took part in its ceremonies. Some seekers then went back to their countries and established Santo Daime churches there. This became a lineage known today as ICEFLU, which has around 70 churches around the world.

Padrinho Sebastiao

Santo Daime churches in Brazil, Canada and the US have successfully applied for the legal right to serve ayahuasca. There are several other non-legally-recognized Santo Daime churches around the world, in Hawaii, Florida, New York, the UK, France, Spain, Germany and elsewhere, some of which are sometimes raided by the police and have to fight for legal recognition and liberty of worship. Today there are, by one estimate, 20,000 Daimistas around the world, and others who attend ceremonies without being ‘uniformed members’.

Previous controversies

The ICEFLU / Mapia lineage - the lineage in which Paolo Roberto rose to prominence - has faced certain controversies in the past, which insiders have been reluctant to discuss publicly for fear of provoking government persecution. 

One controversy has been Padrinho Sebastiao and others’ use of marijuana, or Santa Maria as they call it.  The original Santo Daime church used a ‘single sacrament’ - ayahuasca. But Sebastiao and his followers, perhaps through the influence of all the foreign hippies who came to their church in the 1980s, started incorporating marijuana and worshipping it as Santa Maria, in hymns like this: 

Those that don’t know Santa Maria 

And make use of her every day 

Live in constant agony 

But now it arrived the way I wanted it 

My Lord St. John the Baptist 

Jesus Christ and St. Joseph 

ICEFLU churches’ heavy use of marijuana has been criticized for bringing unwanted police raids on Daime churches and undermining the religion’s case for treating ayahuasca as its unique sacrament. It’s also been criticized by some Daimistas for causing adverse psychedelic experiences, cannabis dependency and even psychotic breaks in worshippers.

Reverend Dr Jessica Rochester founded the Ceu de Montreal in 1997, and managed to get it legally approved by the Canadian government in 2017. Her church broke off from ICEFLU in 2010 partly over its use of marijuana. She tells me: ​​

They tried to pretty it up as spiritual work instead of everyday recreational/dependence  use. I watched Paulo Roberto smoke a joint in the car and then put it out on the heel of his shoe. I'm sorry, what's sacred about that? Another time a member of the congregation came to me to tell me that he was smoking a joint in the men’s bathroom. This was during a Work when he had been told absolutely no cannabis. What is this, high school?

A 2010 book called Santo Daime Revealed, by the head of another Santo Daime church, criticized Padrinho Sebastiao and his followers for their excessive use of marijuana and even alleged use of coca-leaf paste (a DIY version of cocaine supposedly referred to as Santa Clara). Others say there was briefly a cocaine problem in Ceo do Mapia among some of the youth. Reverend Jessica says: 

I was asked by an American church leader to donate money for Padrinho Valdete to buy him a new car. This was 20 years ago. I donated $1000. Sometime later, I asked what happened with the car. What happened is some of the adult children of senior people at Mapia had spent it all on cocaine. I thought, that’s the last penny I give. 

I asked ICEFLU about the ritual or recreational use of coca or cocaine but didn’t hear back.

Another controversial issue has been what some see as the cult of personality around Sebastiao and other church leaders. Sebastiao apparently claimed he was the reincarnation of John the Baptist. The small jungle community in Mapia was said to be a New Jerusalem, where the elect would survive after a final reckoning. Here is Alex Polari’s description of his first encounter with Sebastiao, from his book Forest of Visions:

Perhaps this cultic reverence and guru-worship for the male leaders fed into the most important issue - the tolerance of sexual misbehaviour by male church leaders, and the blaming of it on women. 

Although the focus is presently on Paolo Roberto, some Daimistas say the issues go back at least as far as Padrinho Sebastiao. The ICEFLU lineage admits he had an affair with a young woman who his family had taken in, called Jaci. 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.

However, Reverend Dr Jessica Rochester of Ceu de Montreal, one of the few female church leaders in Santo Daime, wrote in an open letter to her church this week: 

From sources I know to be very credible, and based on information affirmed by senior Mapia women, it is said that she [Jaci] was placed in the home of Sebastian Mota de Melo at the age of two years, from then on she considered them to be as a mother and father.

Certainly, from the church’s own official account, Jaci seems to have been living in Sebastiao’s house - if she ‘visits him every night’. And clearly the church (or at least, this official biographer) sought to defend Sebastiao’s actions and blame them on her, for being possessed or ‘weak in the head’, when he is the church elder taking advantage of someone younger than him.

Paolo Roberto 

Then there is the case of Paolo Roberto. He has also tried to excuse his various acts of sexual aggression as what to expect from ‘a Brazilian man’ but in this instance, Brazilians also seem to have an issue with his misbehaviour. 

Paolo Roberto is sometimes described as a psychologist, although apparently he does not have a PhD. Nonetheless, Daimistas say he is charismatic, a good speaker, and the creator of some rousing hymns in Portuguese and English. He married Padrinho Sebastiao’s daughter, Nonata, and in 1982, the couple set up a Santo Daime church in Rio de Janeiro called CEFLUSMME (they really go for brief, catchy church names in Santo Daime). 

For at least two decades (and probably longer) there have apparently been instances of Roberto’s sexual assaults against women. I’ve seen internal church emails regarding his behaviour that refer to ‘what happened in Hawaii in 1998’, so it seems these incidents go back 30 years, possibly further.  

In 2007, a Canadian Daimista called Maria traveled to Rio and took part in a ceremony at Paolo Roberto’s church. She was unsettled by a ceremony, so went to Roberto for spiritual advice afterwards. He took her into his office and, from what I have heard, rubbed himself against her. She fled, went back to Canada, and tried to report it to the Canadian police, who told her they didn’t have jurisdiction over an incident in Brazil. She complained to the Santo Daime church in North America - CEFLURGEM-AN. They said there ‘appeared’ to be misconduct and suspended him for a short amount of time. 

Maria felt this response was insufficient. She wrote to the Synod of Protectors of CEFLURGEM: 

The next time Padhrino Paulo Roberto hurts another woman with his aggressive sexual nature you can know with certainty that you allowed it to happen. You are not only allowing him to hurt again, but you are assisting him by ignoring the truth you already know. Hiding him behind your report is a band aid solution and the truth will surface. Padhrino Paulo Roberto has already sexually assaulted other women. 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? I pray that those already hurt receive healing and find their own voices, receive the light that they deserve.

Soon, Paolo Roberto was welcomed back into Santo Daime churches across North America. Sometime later there was yet another incident, this time involving the wife of a guitarist in Paolo Roberto’s church in Rio. Once again, there was an outcry within the Daime network, once again he was forgiven and welcomed back into a leadership position. A number of people spoke out, some left the Santo Daime. Rev Dr Jessica Rochester publicly spoke out against the decision and she says a ‘campaign of darkness’ was waged against her by Roberto and his supporters. 

Paolo Roberto

I asked CEFLURGEM: 

• Does CEFLURGEM know of other instances of sexual impropriety or sexual assault by Paolo Roberto, in addition to the present case, the Hawaiian incident of 1998, the incident involving the Canadian lady Maria in 2007, and finally the incident involving the wife of the church guitarist?

• Why was he allowed to continue to lead ceremonies in North America after all these incidents? 

• Are any American members of CEFLURGEM supporting Paolo Roberto now , helping to pay his legal fees and so on? 

They were not able to reply in time for publication, but I will report on any positive steps they take to bring transparency and justice to historical incidents of abuse.

Which brings us to today, when a 33-woman Brazilian woman is bringing a civil law suit against Paulo Roberto for sexual assault. She was a member of Roberto’s Ceu do Mar church in Rio, and in 2020 became Roberto’s personal assistant. She also became Executive Director of his NGO, Associação Proteção da Floresta (Forest Protection Association), and managed his and his son Jordao’s company Nova NI (also known as Ni Yushin). 

A press release from the woman’s legal team says: 

In April 2022, Mr. Paulo Roberto leveraged his position as a religious leader to propose an unorthodox intervention he described as therapeutic, intended to address the woman’s relationship-related traumas. However, this dynamic has been identified as abusive. The emotional, psychological, and sexual manipulations intensified over time, exacerbated by the fact that Mr. Roberto, in addition to being a religious leader, exploited this professional relationship to create environments conducive to these abusive practices, which he referred to as “therapeutic.” 

In December 2022, the woman was expelled from the church by Mr. Paulo Roberto’s wife, who publicly accused her of having engaged in an inappropriate relationship with Mr. Roberto, thereby justifying her expulsion. Nonetheless, she was compelled to remain in her employment, which she did until July 2023. At that point, she felt it necessary to resign, as she was unable to continue working under such conditions while maintaining the facade of normalcy amid an environment that viewed Mr. Roberto as a virtuous religious figure. 

In an effort to hold Mr. Roberto accountable, the woman has initiated a labor lawsuit in the Regional Labor Court of the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This case is currently being conducted in secrecy, which precludes the sharing of further details without risking legal repercussions. The lawsuit seeks formal recognition of the employment relationship between the plaintiff and the defendants, as well as compensation for moral damages arising from acts of sexual harassment; specifically, allegations of rape of a vulnerable individual and rape by fraud, in accordance with applicable provisions of Brazilian law., was her employer. 

CEFLURGEM - the North American branch of the ICEFLU lineage - published a statement saying they were ‘taking immediate action to suspend indefinitely all invitations and permission for Paulo Roberto to tour and / or lead work within CEFLURGEM churches.’  However some close to Roberto have sought to defend him, including Kenewma Yawanawa, an indigenous woman who is married to Roberto’s son Jordao and who has shared business interests with him. She put out a statement saying: 

The confusion and chaos surrounding this situation stem from people listening to only one side. Those truly walking the spiritual path know that judgment without discernment only darkens the soul…A woman can make an accusation, and often, she is believed without question. But true spirituality asks us to go deeper—beyond surface emotions and the human lens—and seek clarity from the Divine….Paulo Roberto is not just any person. He is a servant of God, a spiritual leader and pioneer who helped bring Daime to the world. He has flaws and makes mistakes, as any human does, but he has also dedicated his life to serving the Divine. To judge him without considering the full scope of his life and work is to risk judging the very spirit of God.

Really? 

Getting away with it

How has Paolo Roberto - and apparently other predatory men in Daime churches -  gotten away with their mistreatment of women for so many decades? 

One reason is Santo Daime is a globalized religion, a mash-up of different cultures, one of them being Brazilian culture, and Brazil is a patriarchal society. Women’s equal rights to men were only codified in the Brazilian constitution in 1988. Macho culture is even stronger in the Amazon. So misconduct by Roberto or others could sometimes be minimized as ‘Brazilian’. It’s significant that this latest incident is a Brazilian law case brought by a Brazilian woman. 

Another reason is Santo Daime is a neo-Christian religion with a strong emphasis on forgiveness. Madrinha Rita, the matriarch of the ICEFLU lineage, has apparently tended to emphasize the importance of forgiving Paolo for his misconduct (Paolo is of course married to her daughter, Nonata). One ex-Daimista tells me: ‘Santo Daime can focus a lot on forgiveness, love and charity, and that can get distorted. We have to point out that it’s also about truth and justice.’ 

Centre - Madrinha Rita, wife of Sebastiao; on the left, her daughter Nonata, and on the right Paolo Roberto, Nonata’s husband 

A third reason is a habit of blaming the female victims or being seductresses or even possessed. Jonathan Goldman, founder of the Church of the Holy Light of the Queen (a legal Daime church in Oregon), wrote in an open letter to the Daime community: 

There are people, mostly women, in the Daime world who have long identified both Paulo Roberto and others as committing predatory behavior, only to be castigated and accused of jealousy and disloyalty and of being controlled by negative beings. The women who have been subjected to the predatory behavior have in particular been called Pomba giras [an Afro-Brazilian term for a dangerously seductive female spirit], whores, and seductresses by Nonata and others in positions of power in the Daime world. And even now, there is an effort among some prominent men in the Daime world to classify the claims of sexual predation and the support of people backing those claims as the work of radical, man-hating feminists, and women seeking money. These transparent claims, expressed so far by male leaders and supporters of Paulo Roberto, are typically seeking to perpetuate the male-dominated, patriarchal culture that includes license for male leaders to abuse women with impunity 

Fourth, male predators in Daime have sometimes excused their behaviour by claiming they had evil spirits within them, which they then altruistically worked to convert to the light. This is what Padrinho Sebastiao claimed many years ago, and Paolo Roberto claims the same. Whenever he assaulted another woman, it just required another exorcism. Extremely convenient. He even launched a new ‘work’ in his church called Illumination, to bring evil spirits to the light. As one Daimista commented: ‘Wow, he took his bad behaviour and turned it into a whole course.’

Fifth, Paolo Roberto has been enabled to stay in a leadership role and cause harm thanks to wealthy supporters in the US, who (according to some sources) fund him and his family through organisations like Niyushin and Indigenous Celebration. His wealthy US supporters include Paul Sulla Jr, a lawyer who founded a Daime church in Hawaii, and who has been investigated and indicted by the Department of Justice for wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy. That court case is ongoing in Hawaii. 

Sixth, Santo Daime is a secretive, untransparent and under-reported-on culture. Academics who write about Santo Daime have also (as far as I can see) barely mentioned the issue of sexual misconduct in SD (Marc Blainey’s Christ Returns from the Jungle does at least have a paragraph referring to misbehaviour by some leaders, writing: ‘if daimistas turn a blind eye to foreseeable mishaps and criminal abuses or negligence within their ranks, this is what really threatens the viability of their practice’). The reason, perhaps, for this apparent reluctance to publicly discuss issues of abuse might be because supporters of SD are scared of harming SD churches and their shaky legal status in Brazil, North America or Europe. They don’t want to give their enemies ammunition to attack them. But this ‘don’t speak out’ attitude seems to be changing.

The rest of the article is for paid subscribers only by Daimistas can sign up here for a two-day free trial to read the whole article. And if you’re a student or a university researcher get 50% off here by using your university email.