The Spiritual Experience of Practitioners in the Santo Daime Church

______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Walden University College of Social and Behavioral Sciences This is to certify that the doctoral dissertation by Justin Panneck has been found to be complete and satisfactory in all respects, and that any and all revisions required by the review committee have been made. Review Committee Dr. Jason Seacat, Committee Chairperson, Psychology Faculty Dr. Susan Marcus, Committee Member, Psychology Faculty Dr. Thomas Trocchio, University Reviewer, Psychology Faculty Chief Academic Officer Eric Riedel, Ph.D. Walden University 2014 ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Abstract Ethnopharmacology and Stress Relief: The Spiritual Experience of Practitioners in the Santo Daime Church by Justin Panneck MA, American InterContinental University, 2006 BA, University of Colorado, 2001 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Health Psychology Walden University March 2014 ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Abstract The inability to effectively cope with stress brings about numerous physical and psychological disorders. Alternative methods of coping with stress are important to examine, but there is a lack of awareness and acceptance of non-Western spiritual practices within the general public and mainstream scientific domains. Due to limited research on the ritual use of ayahuasca as part of the means to cope and thrive in daily life, conventional assumptions about its status as an illegal substance negatively alters its interpretation as an effective therapeutic aid. This phenomenological study was an investigation of the spiritual experience of participants of the Santo Daime Church, a syncretic religious group that uses ayahuasca as their sacrament. The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of spiritual guidance to enhance coping strategies and reduce stress. The theoretical lens of holism, which holds that individuals are best understood as a function of their social, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual contexts, informed this study. From the population of approximately 60 local church members, 14 individuals volunteered to participate in semi structured interviews. The resulting transcripts were analyzed using the method of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to uncover themes within and across cases. Overall, 6 themes and 53 subthemes were identified. The 6 primary themes included: The Trial, Ecstatic Spiritual Communion, Supernatural Contact, Rapture, Macroscopic Kinship, and Enhanced Coping. The results of this study may impact conventional assumptions regarding the potential of mind-altering substances as effective therapeutic aids. Positive social change may result when health professionals consider expanded alternatives for therapeutic tools to help clients cope effectively with stress. ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Ethnopharmacology and Stress Relief: The Spiritual Experience of Practitioners in the Santo Daime Church by Justin Panneck MA, American InterContinental University, 2006 BA, University of Colorado, 2001 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Health Psychology Walden University March 2014 ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Dedication I would like to dedicate this research project to my two daughters, Calista and Zuma, whom have both served as sources of inspiration for my tireless and ceaseless work. They are amazing, gifted children and I hope to serve as a source of inspiration for them, as they certainly have done so for me. I hope to encourage their own exploration of the great mysteries that lie outside and within the human psyche, and also galvanize them to question the very foundations of science, culture, and religion so that they may come to their own conclusions. I hope to encourage them to be pioneers, or to strive to make the world a better place, if not through their own profession, then through their passion and vigor for life. I would also like to dedicate this study to the spiritual leaders of the Santo Daime church, of which there are too many to name, for providing spiritual direction and a safe forum for spiritual development. Although I should again mention Mestre Irineu for his commitment to his vision in that forest nearly a century ago, and for bringing a sacred plant medicine into the depth of an organized spiritual tradition. I would also like to dedicate this study to spirit of ayahuasca itself, for helping unleash my creative and spiritual potential, and for aiding me in gaining valuable insights into my own issues, the mysteries, and the inner-workings of the human mind. ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge several individuals for their overall level of support, knowledge, and encouragement during this seemingly interminable, albeit stimulating, and sometimes intoxicating research study. I would like to thank Dr. Jason Seacat, the chair of this study, for his continued support, including his sharp intellect, knowledge, helpful commentary, encouragement, honesty and forthright manner, and not to mention his openness in considering a strictly qualitative study. His depth of knowledge and experience in his judicious quantification of the world added a fresh and incisive perspective and encouraged me to acquire brevity toward my cumbersome writing in a subject for which I ostensibly expressed voluminous passion—nearly 500 pages of passion, actually, before the really serious editing was undertaken. For this new-fangled brevity and qualitative analytical skill set, I am also extremely grateful and in fact lucky to have had the lovely and talented Dr. Susan Marcus, my 2nd committee member. I am indebted to her genuine advocacy on my behalf, her knowledge of and interest in alternative healing modalities and qualitative research paradigms, her immense intelligence and charm, and her hard work in helping me to restructure and modify an immense amount of data into something of ample value. I owe her in a very big way for her tireless contributions and extensive support on this research project. I would also like to thank the Santo Daime Church itself, including the local branch leader for her support in my study and its contribution to an emerging spiritual phenomenon. Most importantly, I would like to acknowledge the support of my participants for their interest and support in this study as they opened themselves up to ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info me, revealing very intimate details of astounding, heart-felt stories of personal transformation and spiritual resolve. I appreciate your candor, honesty, and passion for your commitment to your spiritual development and your courage, persistence, and bravery for consistently attending very challenging works, including dealing with some very painful processes. You have exemplified and set examples for the world to know that the struggle can be beautiful and that we all may be authors of our own destinies. Your intestinal fortitude and spiritual commitment to yourself, your families, and your communities reveal the ever-shimmering light at the end of a frequently dark tunnel. I would like to also acknowledge the founder of the Santo Daime, Mestre Irineu, and his successor, Padrinho Sebastião Mota de Melo, God rest their souls, for their profound leadership in extending a powerful medicine into the hearts and minds of individuals who lost their way; and also to Padrinho Alex Polari de Alverga, for his brilliant book, The Forest of Visions, which provided insight into the phenomena experienced in this study, and also for his tireless advocacy in allowing the legal use of a most sacred and divine plant medicine so that it can do the work it was intended to do— to spiritually transform; to provide light, love, passion, strength, and resolve for a world that desperately needs it. Most of all, I thank the sacramental medicine itself, the Holy Daime, for my own personal transformation. I have reached spiritual and creative depths I never would have known. I knew when you fortuitously revealed yourself shortly after contemplating the dilemma of how to connect individuals to nature, that I was called forth to begin my spiritual and academic path. Although there are many others who stumbled upon entheogenic substances and transformed the way we think about the ______________________________________________________________________________________________www.neip.info world, I would like to thank Stanislov Grof for his brilliant interpretation of the psychedelic experience, which has matched my own experience. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge both my mother and my partner, Adrienne. My mother has always supported my gifts and goals, and she has been inspiring and warm during the more difficult aspects of this study, and has even been there for some good conversation regarding my ideas. I can always rely on her for any type of support and feedback. She is a woman that deserves to be taken care of in her later years, which

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