Ayahuasca Religions: A Comprehensive Bibliography & Critical Essays

The last two decades have seen a broad expansion of the ayahuasca religions, and it has also witnessed, especially since the millennium, a true boom in studies of these religions. This book grew out of the need for an ordering of the profusion of titles related to this subject that are now appearing. This publication offers a map of the global production of literature on this theme. For one year, three researchers located in different cities (Beatriz Caiuby Labate in São Paulo; Rafael Guimarães dos Santos in Barcelona; and Isabel Santana de Rose in Florianópolis, Brazil) worked in a virtual research group to compile a list of bibliographical references on Santo Daime, Barquinha, UDV and urban neo-ayahuasqueiros, including the specialized academic literature as well as esoteric and experiential writings produced by participants of these churches. This book presents the results of that collaboration. The book includes two texts commenting on aspects of the bibliography. The first presents a profile of these religious groups, including their history and expansion, and a general assessment of the principal characteristics, tendencies, and perspectives evident in the literature about them. The other text, Comments on the pharmacological, psychiatric, and psychological literature on the ayahuasca religions, summarizes the most important studies of human subjects in the context of Santo Daime, União do Vegetal and Barquinha, evaluating their results, contributions, and limitations. The article offers, in addition, some preliminary anthropological reflections on biomedical research of ayahuasca.