The Santo Daime is a syncretic religion that arose in the Amazon region of Brazil in the middle of the twentieth century and now has churches throughout the world. Its spiritual practice is based around the sacramental use of ayahuasca, a psychedelic brew consumed only within regular ceremonies. In Liquid Light, G. William Barnard—an initiate of the religion and a scholar of religious studies—considers the religious practice and transformative inner experiences of the Santo Daime community.
Immersing readers in his own journeys into nonordinary states of consciousness, Barnard provides a vivid as well as introspective depiction of the dramatic ritual and visionary worlds that a practitioner of this tradition encounters. He combines striking first-person accounts of the ritual life of the Santo Daime with accessible examinations of the psychological and philosophical significance of mystical states and mediumship. Bridging insider and outsider perspectives on religious experience, Barnard demonstrates how the Santo Daime offers its practitioners a transformative and profoundly illuminating spiritual path. Liquid Light also reflects on the broader implications of psychedelics, arguing that entheogenic religions can shed light on a wide range of key philosophical questions concerning consciousness, selfhood, and reality.
About the Author
G. William Barnard is a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University. He is the author of Exploring Unseen Worlds: William James and the Philosophy of Mysticism (1997) and Living Consciousness: The Metaphysical Vision of Henri Bergson (2011), as well as coeditor of Crossing Boundaries: Essays on the Ethical Status of Mysticism (2002).
Industry Reviews
Liquid Light is a monumental achievement, a unique synthesis of psychedelic experience and critical scholarship. Writing as a philosopher, historian, psychologist, and daimista, Barnard takes us deep into the Santo Daime community and its sacramental use ayahuasca. His descriptions of ayahuasca initiation are penetrating, searingly honest, breathtakingly beautiful, and told with self-deprecating humor. Liquid Light is an absolute gem of a book and a milestone in the emerging field of psychedelic philosophy. -- Christopher Bache, author of LSD and the Mind of the Universe: Diamonds from Heaven
Liquid Light is a magical mystery tour of Barnard's immersion into the Santo Daime Church. As a professor of religious studies, his journey is set within the sophisticated context of William James and Henri Bergson. It's a wild ride on many levels and an important contribution to our understanding of what it means to be a modern mystic. -- Rachel Harris, author of Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety
Liquid Light is a spiritual-intellectual memoir that moves back and forth between two voices or genres: that of the believing (if often struggling to believe) participant in the religion of Santo Daime and that of the more detached scholar of religion. In his doubled spirit, Barnard answers objections to and criticisms of visionary experience, psychedelic revelation, and the often quite striking experience of mediumship. By so doing, he makes a most welcome and original contribution to the growing literature on Santo Daime and its central sacrament, commonly known as ayahuasca. -- Jeffrey J. Kripal, author of The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities
In this book, Barnard describes, in a highly personal and vivid manner, some of the experiences he has been having during the over fifteen years that he has been taking Daime (the name given by the Santo Daime tradition to ayahuasca). The result is a rather unusual blend of rigorous academic thought and vivid descriptions of his own personal spiritual experiences, written in a highly readable style that makes the book difficult to put down. -- Edward MacRae, coeditor of Ayahuasca, Ritual, and Religion in Brazil
