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SANTO DAIME: A CAVEAT

Because I am beginning to share a more intimate view of my perceptions of and enthusiasm for the path of Santo Daime, I feel that I need to state, here near the beginning, an important declaration:


NO PROSELYTIZING IS PERMITTED IN THE TRADITION OF SANTO DAIME

No one is ever "invited" or told that they "should take Daime."

Yes, as it is said, "the center is free," and the Doctrine is an open testament for all to see without any secrets. But participation is totally based on the First Principle of all true spirituality -- FREE CHOICE.

For some years, elsewhere and now within this blog, I have been presenting views of the Santo Daime but only because I love to share whatever is important to me, and not as either a recruitment or a solicitation. What you do, dear reader, with what you see and read here is up to you.

Here is the account given by Padrinho Luiz Mendes of how he came into the Daime:

I joined the Daime when I was 23 years old, through my wife, Rizelda, whom I married a year before. She drank it since the age of seven and at the beginning I only went to accompany her - I didn't want to drink the Daime yet. I was the bearer of a spiritual disease - which was alcoholism in an out-of-control way. But I had the wish of finding something to overcome it and to get rid of that vice. I would get wasted and later I would be regretful and ask for some help from God. Then I remembered that what I needed was to drink Daime instead; to try it out.

I would see children and elders drinking Daime, authorities also, and I would think: “These people can't be led by something without any foundation.”

Then there came a day when I said,
"You know dear, today I am going to drink the Daime."
And she said,
"It is up to you!"

From the personal accounts of Master Counselor Luiz Mendes do Nascimento.