MUSIC, TRANCE, AND TRANSMISSION IN THE SANTO DAIME, A BRAZILIAN AYAHUASCA RELIGION.
Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park) – January 01, 2015
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Santo Daime rituals, practiced by diverse communities across Brazil and beyond, showcase a unique blend of Ayahuasca use, collective shamanism, and music that facilitates profound trance experiences. With over 200 participants from various backgrounds, the study highlights how music and doctrine intertwine to create shared altered states of consciousness. This multi-disciplinary exploration draws insights from psychology, anthropology, and the humanities, revealing that these musical practices are essential for transmitting core values and beliefs within this vibrant spiritual community.
Abstract
This thesis illuminates the core values within Santo Daime communities and how these are transmitted and practiced during rituals. Santo Daime, a Brazilian Ayahuasca Religion originating in the western Amazon state of Acre, is practiced both inside and outside its urban Amazonian roots, including most Brazilian states and smaller communities in a handful of Western countries, such as the United States, Mexico, and the Netherlands. Adepts of the Santo Daime combine the sacramental use of Ayahuasca (a psychotropic tea with a long history of use in the Amazonian basin), collective shamanism, and music performance practices (singing, dancing, and playing instruments) to achieve a state of religious ecstasy. Using a multi-disciplinary approach with emphasis on ethnography, an expansion of Judith Becker's categorization of trance, and musical and phonological analysis I argue that the doctrine of the Santo Daime and the transmission of these teachings through music are inseparable elements of producing and navigating the altered states of consciousness collectively experienced in Santo Daime rituals.