Ayahuasca: dependence and cure in the Pronto Socorro Espiritual Céu Sagrado

• Grant number: 12/09174-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2012
• End date: February 28, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: José Guilherme Cantor Magnani
• Grantee: Roberta Marcondes Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present research Will be developed in "Pronto-Socorro Espiritual Céu Sagrado" (Holy Sky Spiritual Emergency Room), located in Sorocaba, which is one of the many institutions that uses ayahuasca to treat drug dependence. The resolution built by the Multidisciplinary Working Group from CONAD (National Council on Drug Politics of Brazil) that regulate use of ayahuasca in Brazil also requests more scientific studies on the therapeutic use of it. The choice of this specific place for this study was made considering it's peculiar way of understanding treatment. Different from other places in Brazil, the use of ayahuasca in "Céu Sagrado" is not one element among a longer process of drug treatment, with other therapeutical activities. The search of a cure, in this case, is based only in the "power of ayahuasca" used once. Luciano Dini, the main director of the center says: "If the Daime doesn't cure, it is a loss of time to try other treatments. If the goal is to end with the problem of drug dependence in Brazil and the world, we can't loose one year with each patient". So, this project aims to contribute with the knowledge on the use of ayahuasca in the drug dependence treatment trough a revision on the bibliography, an analisys of the recording of the Meeting "Ayahuasca e o Tratamento da Dependência" (which occurred in São Paulo University in 2011) and mainly through an ethnography of the "Pronto Socorro Espiritual Céu Sagrado", where ayahuasca is used for the last 15 years to treat drug dependence.