June 1, 2019 - These considerations are what initially led me to the ayahuasca analogue hypothesis, as the structure and performance of the ritual during which ayahuasca is drunk by members of one the churches that use it as a sacrament, namely the church of Santo Daime, exhibit similarities with the ritual ...

July 2, 2024 - The National Council of Native American Churches describes the purpose of the practice as a way to build community: “[w]hile peyote plays a central role in the [NAC] service, it is not to induce visions (per the common misunderstanding), but to bring people closer to their creator and to ...

6 days ago - Zoroastrians treat Ahura Mazda as the supreme god, but believe in lesser divinities known as yazatas ("beings worthy of worship"), who share some similarities with the angels in Abrahamic religions. These yazatas include Anahita, Sraosha, Mithra, Rashnu, and Tishtrya.

February 11, 2023 - In the traditions of every culture, plants have been highly valued for their nourishing, healing, and transformative properties. The most powerful of those plants, which are known to transport the human mind into other dimensions of consciousness, have always been regarded as sacred.

March 14, 2025 - Haoma (/ˈhoʊmə/; Avestan: 𐬵𐬀𐬊𐬨𐬀) is a divine plant in Zoroastrianism and in later Persian culture and mythology. Haoma has its origins in Indo-Iranian religion and is the cognate of Vedic soma. Both Avestan haoma and Sanskrit soma derived from proto-Indo-Iranian *sauma.

Nowhere near the same sage you cook with, Salvia divinorum is a pretty badass psychoactive plant that can induce “visions” and other hallucinatory experiences. Miley Cyrus made it famous a few years back when she was caught on video smoking it, but don’t let that give you the impression ...

Psychoactive plants that induce a form of altered states of consciousness (hallucinogen-induced ASC (H-ASC)) have been widely used during the religiou…

The ceremonial use of psychoactive/hallucinogenic plant based drugs, such as ayahuasca, psilocybin and others, is a growing trend in the United States (US) and globally. To date, there has been little research documenting how many people are using psychoactive ...

June 10, 2014 - PDF | Psychoactive plants which contain hallucinogenic molecules that induce a form of altered states of consciousness (HASC) have been widely used... | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

January 1, 2005 - Psychoactive plants have played ... which appear to have dominated throughout much of human pre-history, trance induced by psychoactive plants and other techniques permits direct contact with the divine....

July 1, 2016 - There has been little rigorous research on the spiritual content of ayahuasca sessions, despite the tribal use of this herbal concoction and the existence of three Brazilian churches in which ayahuasca is considered a sacrament.

The Quaintances contend they have a right to marijuana as the central focus of the Church of Cognizance, founded by Danuel Quaintance in 1991 and registered as a religious organization in Arizona in 1994... Danuel Quaintance testified the Church of Cognizance is based on his research and ...

1 week ago - They have traditionally been used ... healing, divination, meditation, yoga, sensory deprivation, asceticism, prayer, trance, rituals, chanting, imitation of sounds, hymns like peyote songs, drumming, and ecstatic dance. In ancient Eurasian and Mediterranean societies, scholars have hypothesized the sacramental use of entheogens in mystery religions such as the Eleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece. According to Ruck, Wasson, and Hofmann in The Road to Eleusis, psychoactive kykeon brews ...

The history of psychedelic mushrooms dates back by hundreds of years. Learn about the history of psilocybin usage & how Beckley Retreats is now part of it.

October 3, 2019 - CANNABIS CULTURE – The ancient religion of Zoroastrianism is still a practiced faith today, and its influence on the cosmologies and beliefs of Judaism, Christianity and Islam has long been noted by religious scholars. However a topic less discussed are ancient Zoroastrian references to the ...

May 14, 2025 - Different religions have varying stances on the use of cannabis, historically and presently. In ancient history some religions used cannabis as an entheogen, particularly in the Indian subcontinent where the tradition continues on a more limited basis. In the modern era Rastafari use cannabis ...

The Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research (CISUR), formerly CARBC, is a network of individuals and groups dedicated to the study of substance use and addiction in support of community-wide eff...

Caapi Vine, Peruvian Amazon. Photo by: Chris Kilham © 2010 · See also: Sacred Plants Media

Historical narratives tell us as much about the present as they do about the past—and the grand narrative of psychedelics in the ancient world is no exception. “What is soma?” is a perennial question for historians of psychedelics as they investigate this mysterious psychoactive sacrament ...

January 8, 2018 - How much of religious history was influenced by mind-altering substances?