Indigenous groups in Brazil, including the Kaxinawa, Guarani, Apurinã, Kuntanawa, and Yawanawa, have entered the urban ayahuasca circuit, engaging with ayahuasca religions and neo-ayahuasca movements. Some of these groups claim they originally introduced ayahuasca to Mestre Irineu, founder of Santo Daime. Their participation in public debate seeks recognition of ayahuasca as intangible cultural heritage by Brazil's historical and artistic heritage institute. The entry of Indigenous people into this circuit and the participation of non-Indigenous people in village ceremonies in Acre are reconfiguring the Brazilian ayahuasca religious field.
Based on four years of fieldwork, the author examines a therapeutic ritual led by two young Kaxinawá shamans that involves consuming ayahuasca. The article discusses how Amerindians and non-Amerindians interact through equivocal compatibilities, where mutual understanding arises from a 'synonymous effect'. This effect places spirits and mythological beings on the same psychological and sentimental level as participants, creating a metaphorical continuum in communication. Ethnographic data suggest that urban Nixi Pae rites explore the equivocal compatibility between two key terms: Yube and the unconscious.
Healing in the Nixi Pae ayahuasca rites offered in large Brazilian cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo operates through a controlled form of ordering misunderstandings. Monthly meetings of about thirty people consume forest medicines—ayahuasca, snuff, and kambô—under a young Kaxinawa shamanic apprentice and a Jungian psychologist. The ayahuasca-induced visions generate psychic material interpreted by the seeker. The article hypothesizes that the mythical Kaxinawa being Yube resonates with the Jungian concept of the unconscious, creating a metaphorical continuum that recasts individual narratives considered pathological as meaningful, enabling healing through shared misunderstanding.