A Florida-based religious group, Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth Inc., incorporated Christian beliefs with the Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca, a Schedule I controlled substance, as its central sacrament. Members consumed ayahuasca to connect with the divine and treat various conditions. The church operated without DEA-approved religious exemption. The legal conflict between Soul Quest and the DEA illustrates how the church positioned itself legally and under DEA oversight to be recognized as a church entitled to use ayahuasca.
A book review describes Kathleen Bolling Lowrey's work, which uses disability theory and feminist scholarship to reinterpret shamanism across the North and South American Great Plains. Lowrey applies Eva Feder Kittay's concept of 'dependency work' to frame vulnerability as a universal moral relation, illuminating indigenous revitalization movements and ethnogenesis. The book counters a prior emphasis on masculinity in shamanism studies by highlighting feminist allyship and long-term solidarity with community members in difficulty.