Ayahuasca in Brazil: from a Huni Kuin village to a Santo Daime church and the lab

Once a month, at nightfall, the chief of a Huni Kuin village in the far west of Acre paints his face, serves the bitter brew in a bronze-colored cup and begins to sing verses he learned from his father. Among those who drink are children, at a smaller dose, and tourists from across Brazil. Hours later many of them vomit, which their hosts see as purification.

Por que tem tanta gente tomando ayahuasca no Brasil? (Why are so many people taking ayahuasca in Brazil?), a 26-minute documentary from DW Brasil, the Portuguese-language service of the German public broadcaster, travels to three places where the brew has gained weight: the forest, the church and the lab.

In the village

The crew reaches Jordão, one of the poorest municipalities in the country, and travels four hours upriver to the village of chief Ibã. He says he preserved songs that were nearly lost when his father died. The film shows the harvest of the vine and the leaf that go into the brew, which is prepared once a year, and the sale of Huni Kuin paintings, which have reached museums in Brazil, Chile and Germany. The chief wants to use the money to reforest the land.

In the church

In Rio, near Sugarloaf Mountain, a 40-year-old Santo Daime church follows the doctrine of Raimundo Irineu Serra, known as Mestre Irineu, who founded the faith in Acre in the early 20th century, blending folk Catholicism with caboclo and Afro-Brazilian traditions. There, ayahuasca is a sacrament. Emerson Agulha, a tattoo artist from the Rocinha favela, says he quit cocaine after joining the church ten years ago. Before the first dose, a guide explains the risks to newcomers, such as vomiting; the ceremony lasts ten hours.

In the lab

Neuroscientist Dráulio de Araújo has studied ayahuasca since 2006. Using magnetic resonance imaging, his team linked the brew to dreamlike visions, heightened introspection and less orderly communication between brain regions. In a trial with 29 patients with treatment-resistant depression, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, ayahuasca had a greater antidepressant effect than placebo as early as the following day. In the film, Araújo says the brew causes neither dependence nor overdose and hopes it will become a medicine. It is not one yet.

What weighs against it

In Brazil, a 2010 resolution of the National Council on Drug Policy allows use only in religious rituals and bans the sale of the brew and its exploitation for tourism. Ayahuasca contains monoamine oxidase inhibitors: mixed with common antidepressants it can trigger severe reactions, and it is contraindicated for people with a history of psychotic episodes, uncontrolled hypertension or heart disease. There are also reports of anxiety and paranoia even in controlled settings.

Why watch

It is reporting that neither sells the brew nor demonizes it. It shows why so many people seek it out and makes clear that, outside rituals and clinical trials, the questions remain many.