More Tea Vicar?

The US Supreme court has allowed a church in the States to drink hallucinogenic tea containing a banned substance.

O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal are a Brazillian based church that mix Christian beliefs and traditions from South America.

The BBC website has this:
"Members of the group believe they can understand God only by drinking the tea, which is consumed twice a month at four-hour ceremonies.

"The brewed tea, made from two plants that grow in the Amazon, contains dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, a controlled substance banned under federal drug laws.

"About 130 members of a Brazil-based church were involved in long-running dispute with federal agents, who seized their tea in 1999."

George Bush is said to disagree with this ruling (but then he is a Methodist!).

So, plans for worship when I begin at St Mary's ...

Comments

Anonymous said…
Arthur C. Clarke remains convinced that the existence of "entheogenic pathogens" in nature, and the apparent similarity between the hysteria we see at music and sporting events with the descriptions of religious experiences proves that belief in the numinous is misdirected.

He even used the research he did into entheogens in a couple of his book (I know there is one reference in "Fountains of Paradise" but I can't remember the other - it might be "The View From Serendip.")

It's a good response to the Argument from Experience - but since when did any of the "Arguments" actually prove God's existence?

One thing's for certain: I'm going to watch you very carefully when you make the drinks next time I'm in Bristol.
10:56 am
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