SANTA FE, New Mexico -- A secretive religious group that fought a long legal battle for the right to drink hallucinogenic tea in pursuit of spiritual growth now plans to build a temple and greenhouse in a wealthy community here -- to the dismay of local residents.
A woman in Brazil picks one of the two plants used to make the potent hallucinogenic tea (Magali Girardin/pixsil.com).
The church was founded in Brazil in 1961 and remains most popular there. But about 150 people in the U.S., including about 60 in Santa Fe, practice the faith, which goes by the Portuguese name Centro Espírita Beneficente União do Vegetal, or UDV. Members say the church is based on Christian theology but also borrows from other faiths and finds spirituality in nature.
The man who defused the "Population Bomb"
The "Green" Revolution, which provided unsustainable bumper crop yields, was the work of frankenfood founder Norman Borlaug ("the greatest American of the 20th century"). He died late Saturday at 95. He either saved a billion from starvation in the 1970s or caused the current population explosion and the health problems that stem from genetic manipulation of plants and intensive use poison chemicals in agriculture.