- The Misfortune of Right Wing Psychedelia in Brazil - August 18, 2022
There is a myth that people who drink ayahuasca tea, a psychedelic drink of Amazonian origin, are more likely to have a progressive mentality, free from prejudices of race, class, and gender, and support environmental and human rights. But statements in line with the discourse of President Jair Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party, made by senior members of the União do Vegetal, one of the main ayahuasca religions in Brazil, alongside Santo Daime and Barquinha, contradict this idea.
Concerned about the image and direction of the institution at a time of intense political polarization, members of the UDV decided to show their dissatisfaction with these ultra-conservative statements in a letter (click here to read) addressed to the General Master José Carlos Garcia, the institution’s highest authority. In the anonymous document, representatives of different hierarchical levels state that: “The way in which certain issues are being addressed by the present government, both in discourse and in practice, do not simply translate a political vision but rather harm human dignity, and are therefore very different from the main aim of the União do Vegetal, introduced by the Master, to make peace in the world.”
For the representatives, despite the General Master reinforcing an assertive non-partisan position, “the demonstration of people from the Board, especially the Masters of the top hierarchy, in social networks, sessions, or mass media, in defense of the proposals of the current government, shows a lapse in the institution,” pointing out that “We all have our free will, but, as the Master teaches, we are responsible for the positions we occupy.”
Without identifying himself, one of the writers of the letter told Psicodelicamente that the trigger for the letter was the statements of masters, such as the denialist doctor Edson Saraiva and the lawyer Luís Felipe Belmonte, who has previously held the position of General Master Representative in the UDV.
In 2021, Belmonte was recognized as one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the creation of the Alliance for Brazil, a political party intended to promote President Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections. The plans, however, were frustrated because the number of signatures did not reach the minimum required by the Superior Electoral Court to formalize the party’s registration.
Also in 2021, the Organized Crime and Corruption and Reporting Project group, an international consortium formed by investigative journalists, had access to official data from the government of Luxembourg, a country known as a tax haven, and demonstrated that Belmonte has an undeclared company there, a fact that he denied until he was confronted with the official documents by Piauí magazine. Possessing assets and rights abroad without a declaration to the Federal Revenue Service is a crime.
In addition, Belmonte had already been convicted by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) for irregularities and damage caused to the assets of another company between 2003 and 2004. As a punishment, he was unable to hold the position of administrator or fiscal councilor of publicly held companies for five years.
In addition to financial dilemmas, Belmonte has also taken interest in moral issues. In a 2008 text obtained by journalist Carlos Minuano in a report for TAB UOL, Belmonte states that the UDV will never be able to agree with the “practice of homosexuality” “since it goes against the natural origin of human existence,” also opposing same-sex marriage for fear of a possible “extinction of the human species.” The document is an internal UDV circular read in ayahuasca sessions.
Declared Dissatisfaction
The ultraconservatism of the members became more explicit in 2020, when an audio by Raimundo Monteiro de Souza, one of the longest serving leaders of the UDV, was made public. In the message, Souza was disseminating false information such as the invention of “school books for five-year-olds defending debauchery,” repudiating what he called “gender ideology,” and asking for votes for Bolsonaro.
At the time, the UDV stated that “the demonstration of its members or leaders on politics must be considered a personal position within the freedom of thought and choice that is the right of every Brazilian citizen.” But there were members who were deeply uncomfortable with these declarations.
Within the UDV, members belong to four different levels; namely, the members, the instructors, the council, and the group of masters. Over time, members can move between these ranks. The Telegram app group that started to think about the letter of response to the demonstration of support for Bolsonaro initially contained about 40 people, and reached a maximum of 120, with representatives of different levels of the hierarchy, including intellectuals, teachers, psychologists, doctors, and other professionals.
“With the growth of the group, one person entered and took screenshots of conversations in which some leaders were called ‘old crazy men’, or their involvement in political scandals was criticized,” says the representative of the group, explaining that the actions of the group had consequences. “Some people were punished, not for the letter itself, but rather for the fact that they had referred to these masters ‘disrespectfully.’”
This punishment is why the letter was written anonymously. Being a member of one of the levels of the UDV does not guarantee their permanence there, either because they can move to higher levels or because they can be “demoted.” “When people are punished in the UDV, they ‘change places,’ and in this case, five counselors returned to the group of instructors and three people from the group of instructors returned to being members,” he explains.
But the letter also had positive effects. The voice of the masters who had spoken out in favor of Bolsonaro was reduced. “At the UDV, the oratory and narrative skills of the masters, in addition to their memory of the history and causes involving Master Gabriel and the ‘refoundation’ of the UDV, make them more or less in demand by the various nuclei, which facilitate their visits so they can share their skills and religious knowledge. These masters had their schedules drastically reduced after this dissatisfaction was declared.”
As the document that made the dissatisfaction official points out, the Bolsonaro government’s policies, guided by environmental destruction, denial of science, and the discourse of hatred, are completely alien to the teachings of the founding master of the UDV, as well as with the defense of democracy and human rights. “We believe that the idea, reinforced by some, that support for the current government would be able to help the União do Vegetal, does not fit in with what we learned in the Union,” says the letter. “Attracting the authorities is quite different from playing the power game or ignoring our principles.”
Contacted by Psicodelicamente, the UDV did not respond to requests for an interview.
Psicodelicamente is an independent digital publication of psychedelic journalism, based in Brazil, created by journalist Carlos Minuano. It aims to fill an information gap in the Brazilian publishing market in terms of this controversial and controversial topic, with a diverse and panoramic content. Combining in-depth and investigative reporting, news, interviews and articles, the journal seeks to expand journalistic narratives on psychedelic drugs.
This text was originally published in Portuguese here.
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