Spiritual healing, biomedicine and intermedicality in Santo Daime

Abstract

Céu da Mantiqueira is a Santo Daime community located in the south of Minas Gerais state, Brazil. This text is based in the description of this community’s health care system. This health care system is characterized by a diversity of therapeutic practices from different fields, by the presence of an expressive number of health care professionals, and by the incorporation of biomedical resources. Grounded in the concept of intermedicality, I highlight the interconnections between the many therapeutic practices and paradigms present in this Santo Daime center. This concept was developed in Indigenous health studies and is directed to examine contexts characterized by the coexistence of different medical systems. Further, based on the case study of Céu da Mantiqueira, I argue that the boundaries between spirituality and therapy, between the ritual/religious and the therapeutic uses of ayahuasca, and between science and religion are spread out, diffuse and blurred.