Santo Daime: A New World Religion

The book to be written about Santo Daime will comprise 90,000 words shared between the substantive narrative (six chapters, totalling 73,000 words), Introduction and Conclusion (combining to 7,000 words), and bibliography and index (sharing 10,000 words).

Introduction:
i) the place of new religious movements within the contemporary religious landscape and the rise and consolidation of Santo Daime within it; ii) the contribution which this study of Santo Daime makes to broader academic understanding; iii) the relevance of social theorists of late-modernity (e.g. Bauman, Beck, Bourdieu, and Giddens); iv) the book's structure.

Chapter One (1930-Present):
i) emergence of Santo Daime to the death of its founder Irineu Serra (1892-1971), including the foundational strands of Santo Daime (e.g. afro-Amazonian religion, popular Catholicism and traditional European esotericism); ii) Sebastião Mota de Melo (1920-1990) and the breakaway movement of Cefluris, including the importance of Brazilian Spiritism, the progressive adoption of new age beliefs and practices and the movement's spread to the professional classes of urban Brazil; iii) 1990 to the present day, treating the growing influence of Afro-Brazilian religion (e.g. Umbanda and Candomblé) and the implications of a changing demographic profile and increasing internationalisation.

Chapter Two (Ritual Repertoire & Use of Ritual Space):
i) rituals of Dance, Concentration, Feitio, and the Mass; ii) the distribution of ritual responsibilities, use of sacred space and importance of song-referencing Bell and Bourdieu; iii) the role of psychotropic substances (especially ayahuasca and marijuana) and the religious experiences they engender; iv) implications of variations in ritual practice and interpretation.

Chapter Three (Spirit Possession):
i) broader academic discussions in respect of spirit possession in the modern world; ii) three phases of spirit possession practices in Santo Daime (a) 1920-1971, afro-Amazonian spiritism gives way to traditional European esotericism, (b) 1971-1990, Brazilian Spiritism becomes the dominant paradigm, whilst new age beliefs and practices also grow popular, (c) 1990-present, Afro-Brazilian possession repertoires of Umbanda and Candomblé come to the fore but do not replace existing discourse and practice; iii) transformations of spirit possession repertoire (e.g. 'expressivization') indicative of movement's geographical spread and changing demographic profile.

Chapter Four (Millenarianism):
i) the use of end-world (millenarian) discourse; ii) the continuity between the traditional Brazilian millenarianism and the new era millenarianism of Santo Daime; iii) daimista millenarianism as expressive of the late-modern context.

Chapter Five (The Daimista Narrative):
i) the architectonic motifs of Santo Daime's religious worldview (e.g. reincarnation, holism, subjectivism, and pragmatism); ii) motifs engaged as typically modern tropes which express a range of values, hopes and preoccupations characteristic of the urban-industrial middle-classes; iii) Wallis' typology of new religious worldviews combined with social-theoretical late-modernist critiques of commoditisation to argue that despite its ostensibly counter-cultural (world-rejecting) rhetoric, the contemporary daimista worldview should be viewed as a form of religiosity which both affirms and accommodates typically late-modern dynamics (e.g. 'mystified consumption' and 'recreational religion').

Chapter Six (Implications):
aforementioned strands combined and situated within contemporary debates in respect of the status, role and future of religion in modern society (e.g. religious hybridism, well-being culture, religious individualism, globalizing religion, fundamentalist belief systems, conversion dynamics, religious economy, and secularisation - sacralisation).

CoConclusion: the future trajectory of Santo Daime and possible adventures of further study.

Increasing media interest in Santo Daime (e.g. Times headline, 7 April 2007; BBC's Around the World in Eighty Faiths, 13 February 2009), the movement's continued expansion across the world and ensuing battles to legalise the ritual use of ayahuasca (e.g. Spain, 2000; Holland, 2001; US Supreme Court, February 2006; Ireland, 2008; Ohio State Court, January 2009) are giving rise to a distinct heightening of public interest in this novel religious phenomenon.

At the same time, current debates about narcotic use in the UK and Europe stand to gain from a project engaging communities of interest in which the non-recreational (i.e. ritual) use of psychotropic substances is central to the formation of collective ethos and individual identity. As an edition of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (2005, 37:2 - 'Ayahuasca in Cross-Cultural Perspective') indicates, interest in the religious use of psychotropic substances spans both academic and professional communities. Consultations with representatives of organisations such as DrugScope, Release, Transform, and the Beckley Foundation further indicate the contribution which elements of the book to be written during sabbatical leave stand to make both to government policy and professional practice. For example, key sections of the book raise important questions in respect of the established distinctions between 'recreational' and 'therapeutic' drug use which have traditionally informed law making and policy debates in this area. As Santo Daime's use of ayahuasca appears to problematise this traditional distinction, what, then, are the implications for existing narcotics policy of its continued growth in Europe (over 30 communities) and the UK (over five Santo Daime communities and many more groups using ayahuasca in ritual contexts)?

In the same vein, and as recent interest in religious and cultural fundamentalism demonstrates, Santo Daime's expansion across a wide variety of geographical contexts raises a range of issues of direct relevance to contemporary public policy debates about, for example, social-cultural pluralism, religious tolerance, lifestyle practices, and political activism. Furthermore, critical analysis of the discourse and practice of Santo Daime stands to raise interesting questions in respect of prevailing definitions of 'religion' which law makers and policy practitioners (e.g. EHRC) currently employ. As a new religious movement, Santo Daime is a thoroughly modern phenomenon and thereby embodies a range of contemporary processes and dynamics. In combination, these processes and dynamics are radically reshaping traditional understandings of what 'religion' is and, consequently, what the process of being religious actually entails by way of belief and practice at individual, organisational and structural (e.g. political, legal and economic) levels. Given the continuing centrality of religion's definition to government engagement with a wide range of issues (e.g. extremism, discrimination, charitable status, and civil liberty), the matters raised by the proposed book (not to mention subsequent conference papers, talks and articles) stand to make an impact well beyond the established academic community.