{"product_id":"christ-returns-from-the-jungle","title":"Christ Returns from the Jungle","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn in-depth, ethnographic study of the transnational expansion of Santo Daime, a mystical religious tradition organized around sacramental ingestion of the mind-altering ayahuasca beverage.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAfter more than 450 years of European intrusions into South America's rainforest, small groups of people across Europe now gather discreetly to participate in Amazonian ceremonies their local governments consider a criminal act. As devotees of a new Brazil-based religion called Santo Daime, they claim that they contact God by way of ayahuasca, a potent psychoactive beverage first developed by native communities in pre-Columbian Amazonia. This bitter, brown liquid is a synergy of plants containing DMT, a mind-altering chemical classified as an illicit \"hallucinogen\" in most countries. By contrast, Santo Daime members (\u003ci\u003edaimistas\u003c\/i\u003e) revere ayahuasca as a sacrament, combining it with rituals and theologies borrowed from Christian mysticism, indigenous shamanism, Afro-Brazilian spiritualism, and Western esotericism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Santo Daime religion was founded in 1930 by an Afro-Brazilian rubber tapper named Raimundo Irineu Serra, now known as \u003ci\u003eMestre\u003c\/i\u003e (Master) Irineu. Presenting results from more than a year of fieldwork with Santo Daime groups in Europe, Marc G. Blainey contributes new understandings of contemporary Westerners' search for existential well-being on an increasingly interconnected planet. As a thorough exploration of daimistas' beliefs about the therapeutic potentials of ayahuasca, this book takes readers on an ethnographic journey into the deepest recesses of the human psyche.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"State University of New York Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54410280173912,"sku":"9781438483146","price":40.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781438483146.jpg?v=1777895159","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/christ-returns-from-the-jungle","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}