The Diet

I’m writing this entry out of curiosity and frustration. The church that Matthew is studying adheres to a strict diet. If you’ve been reading my blogs, you are aware of “the diet“. Before drinking Daime, you must be “prepared”. The diet consists of no alcohol or sex three days before and three days after drinking Daime. Now, the question that come to my mind is; why no sex?? I can understand the alcohol, but sex? Hear me out here. It can get down right ridiculous, take this month for example. There is a hinario, this is a session where the members wear their ornate white uniforms and dance and sign until the wee hours of the morning (this work will go until 2AM). So that means members have been on the diet since the 7th of February, the work is on the 10th, so they will be on the diet until the 13th. But, on the 15th is the bi-monthly concentration session. So, the diet will last from the 7th until the 19th. Hence the frustrtation part. So, if you are a couple wanting to conceive a child and are ovulating between the 7th and 19th you’re screwed (pun intended). Does the diet work to regulate births?

Do members really stick to it? Asking around we hear people say things like, “she knows if you haven’t just by looking at you”. She referring to The Dona. What power this woman has. But then we’ve also gone to churrascos (bbq’s) where we’ve seen members hanging out in the back drinking during the diet time. So, there is some dissent from the Dona’s power. Its is interesting to note that all the other Ayahuasca churches in the area have abandoned the diet. Maybe by keeping the diet, the Dona sets her church apart from all other churches as the original church… hum. There has got to be some reason that the diet endures, I’ll keep sleuthing.