Ayahuasca, seen here being prepared in a pot, is a psychedelic brew made from the Psychotria viridis shrub and Banisteriopsis caapi vine. Photo by Terpsichore.
America is sadder today than it has ever been: 75 million people, 29% of the adult population, have been diagnosed with depression. Despite advances leading to longevity and material comfort, sadness suffuses progress with a melancholy hue of emptiness. As a result, many Americans are revisiting entheogenic traditions that preceded modernity.
Courtney Close, owner of Hummingbird Church, a religious organization based in California offering ayahuasca ceremonies, emerged against this exact background. After experiencing postpartum depression, she turned to the DMT-containing drink in hopes of addressing her pain. Three years later, in 2020, she began her ayahuasca church (a religious organization that uses ayahuasca, a drink containing the potent and federally illicit psychoactive compound DMT, as its sacrament). Since then, Hummingbird Church has had over 3,500 participants—all seeking some form of healing or personal insight.
Ayahuasca may not be the spontaneous miracle that some expect. But these ceremonies evidently offer something the modern, 21st century mind desires. Emerald spoke to Close about her church, the legality of ceremonial ayahuasca for religious-use, and how Hummingbird’s ceremonies are organized for safety and to facilitate personal change.
The Emerald Magazine: The creation of Hummingbird Church was spurred by your personal experience with ayahuasca. How did that lead to forming the church?
Courtney Close (CC): I became friends with an Indigenous medicine man who served ayahuasca, and we started doing ceremonies. But we did them all underground. After a year doing ceremonies—I probably did 40—he asked me to start organizing for him. […]
Then I had a ceremony where it made it really clear: “Do this as a church. If you do this, everything will line up for you.” Afterwards, my neighbor asked if I’d want to do ceremonies on his farm, and we converted the barn into a ceremony space. Then I met an entheogenic attorney. He helped me set up the church, and everything just fell into place from there.
Emerald: Is Hummingbird Church an officially recognized religious organization?
CC: Yes. We filed to become a church in the state of California. We didn’t do the federal filing because you have to follow a lot of federal laws. And technically, ayahuasca is breaking the law.
Emerald: Some religious exemptions are available, such as the Native American Church, which can legally use Peyote [a mescaline-containing cactus] ceremoniously. Does Hummingbird Church have an exemption to legally administer ayahuasca?
CC: It helps us operate, but it doesn’t make it any more legal. We’ve dealt with local law enforcement and had conversations with the sheriff. They tell us, “Don’t create a problem, and we won’t get involved.” But the problem is trying to import medicine from South America. We aren’t able to import because we don’t have the [Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)] exemption. The exemption gives you a control number like doctors have when they’re writing prescriptions. We never filed because we consider the whole process unconstitutional.
Emerald: Do you work with Indigenous communities?
CC: Most of our ceremonies are Indigenous led. We’ll organize song circles that are usually donation-based. With the money that we collect from the ceremonies, we donate it to the Tribes [to] help with their initiatives in their villages [like putting more infrastructure in the village, building a school, or getting boats]. We work with a Tribe, the Yawanawa, out of Yawarani in Acre, Brazil.
Emerald: What happens during a typical ayahuasca retreat?
CC: We do weekend retreats that are two ceremonies. That’s the standard offering in the United States. One of the main things that we incorporate in our practice is breath work. After breath work, we do the ceremony. Our ceremonies have live music. You’ll hear the prayers from the Tribe. Then we do share circles after each ceremony, where we talk about our experiences with each other. And during the day, we have different activities. Sometimes it’ll be yoga or movement or sound baths. We’re just trying to introduce people to different tools that can help them outside of the ceremony itself.
We also work with some other plant medicines that are non-psychoactive. We’ll introduce people to these different medicines that they can use to replace caffeine, nicotine, or cannabis. If somebody’s struggling with an addiction issue, there are some awesome legal plants that they can use. The whole weekend is designed around not just doing ayahuasca but having a community experience and hopefully sparking people’s interest towards some healthier modalities.
Emerald: Last year, an ayahuasca church in Florida, Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth, lost a $15 million negligence court case after a 22-year-old named Brandon Begley passed away during a retreat. How does Hummingbird church avoid tragic events like this and deal with medical emergencies?
CC: I think the main thing is to have an actual safety protocol in place. There’s so many ungrounded people in this space that are like, “I’m gonna burn an incense or say a prayer if someone’s having a medical emergency.” That’s how people fucking die.
By the time we started, Brandon Begley had already died. It was gross negligence in Brandon’s case, and it was proven in the civil court case. If they had called 911 and gotten him medical attention within three hours, he would still be alive. Ayahuasca churches need to not be afraid of law enforcement—calling 911 isn’t even law enforcement. Even basic life support and first aid training is a good start. Having something like a pulse oximeter that’s non-invasive, that you can put on someone’s finger. You can quickly check their vitals, and that will let you know if there’s an emergency. We always have a nurse present at the ceremony, so that we have somebody who can definitively make that decision for us.
The entheogenic churches need to focus more on actual physical harm reduction instead of emotional harm reduction. There are so many courses on how to talk to people to not hurt their fucking feelings. But there’s not a lot on how to do CPR or what to do when someone’s airways are blocked with their own vomit.
Emerald: Psychedelic experiences can be deeply personal. How do you help those who come to your retreats integrate any insight gained into reality?
CC: When you’re a novice to psychedelics and you have these prolific experiences and visions, it’s important to have somebody who can help guide you. After a ceremony, we have a meeting with the group. We give them tips and tools to ground that experience. Not trying to understand your visions with your mind because it won’t get it right. We encourage people not to make big decisions. You’re thinking, “I’m supposed to leave my wife, or I’m supposed to leave my job.” But you need 30 days to ground your experience, instead of upsetting your whole life.
We try to gently guide the boat, keeping it from smashing into the rocks. It gets really dangerous when you start telling people what to think and what to get out of their experience, or you start trying to interpret someone’s visions for them. Our approach is for them to interpret their vision. We just ask questions so that they can go into their feelings—don’t think, just feel. The answer is always in that.
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