UDV will participate in the 3^rd International Ayahuasca Conference

| May 14, 2019

Jocimar Nastari*

The Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal will actively participate in the 3^rd International Ayahuasca Conference, in Girona (Spain), on May 31^st, June 1^st and June 2^nd. In total, 11 members of the UDV will participate in the event, giving presentations and conferences, and being a part of discussion panels. This group will be composed by the General Representative Mestre of the União do Vegetal, Paulo Afonso Amato Condé; the Assistant General Mestre, Teodoro Irigaray; and the President of the General Directorate of the Center, Mestre Tadeo Feijão (see the complete list of participants below).

The conference is sponsored by the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education Research & Service (ICEERS). The event will bring together representatives of religions that use Ayahuasca (in the UDV called Hoasca Tea or Vegetal), scholars, scientists and people interested in the subject. ICEERS has its headquarters in the Netherlands and has an administrative office in the city of Barcelona (Spain).

The União do Vegetal participated in the first and second conferences, held respectively in Ibiza (Spain) in 2014; and in Rio Branco (Acre) in 2016.

Care and Responsibility

The General Representative Mestre summarizes the importance of the participation of the União do Vegetal in this third conference:

“Our participation in this conference is important for the moment that the União is experiencing in Europe and around the world, in recognition of the UDV’s safe use of Hoasca and the care it has for this Sacred Tea. It will be an opportunity to show the world the responsible way in which the União takes care of people, children, the elderly, and the care it has for sacred plants and the environment.”

Participation of UDV members

In addition to the participation of some of its members, the União do Vegetal will present a new institutional video at the conference produced with the support of the Department of Memory and Communication. There will also be a video presented with the work of the UDV in the Xingu and the launch of the UDV-Science portal with information from the Center’s Scientific Committee and reviews of scientific research already completed and under development.

Below is the list of content that will be presented by the 11 members of the UDV:

May 31^st

Presentation

Science in the UDV: scientific and academic interest and orientations of the Beneficent Spiritist Center União do Vegetal – Joaze Bernardino Costa (Representative Mestre of Nucleo Principe Teceu – Brasilia-DF)

Molecular research on the rapid antidepressant effect involved in the pharmacodynamics of Ayahuasca in patients with resistant depression: literature review – Francisco Cid Coelho Pinto (Nucleo Fortaleza – Fortaleza-CE)

–

June 1^st

Conference in the main auditorium

Environment and cultivation of sacred plants: the UDV experience – Paulo Afonso Amato Condé (General Representative Mestre)

Brief history about the institutionalization of the religious use of Ayahuasca in Brazil – Edson Lodi (member of the Council of General Administration – Conage)

 –

Panel Discussion

Imagining the future: moving towards policies based on Ayahuasca’s human rights practices – Several participants, among them Jeffrey Bronfman (Mestre Responsible for the Authorized Distribution of Vegetal of Hawaii-USA and Vice-President of the General Directorate of the UDV)

 –

Presentation

Ayahuasca and cooperative learning: the experience of the União do Vegetal – Cristiane Holanda (Nucleo Inmaculada Concepción – Madrid-Spain)

Environmental characteristics may cause variation in the production of DMT (N, N-Dimethyltryptamine) in Psychotria viridis? – Ordilena Ferreira de Miranda (Nucleo Lupunamanta – Campinas-SP)

 –

June 2nd

Presentation

Ayahuasca, “buen vivir” (“good living”) and multiculturalism: UDV, experience in achievement of the principles of religious freedom, “buen vivir” and intercultural dialogue – Teodoro Irigaray (General Assistant Mestre)

The fundamental right to religious use of Ayahuasca: a new approach to strategically positioning Ayahuasca in a regulated setting – Naiber Pontes de Almeida (General Headquarters – Brasilia-DF)

The multifaceted challenges addressed by the UDV over its 58 years – Tadeo Feijão (Mestre and President of the General Directorate of the UDV)

Professor Gabriel: The Pedagogy of Example – Patrick Walsh Neto (Nucleo Fortaleza – Fortaleza-CE)

>> Click here to access the full Conference schedule.

* Jocimar Nastari is a member of the Body of Counsel of the General Headquarters (Brasilia-DF) and Adjunct Director of the Department of Memory and Communication (DMC).