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DEBORAH PRUITT, PH.D. declares under penalty of perjury in USA vs. Quintance CR 06-538 JH 07/18/2006 Doc. 135 Resume Deborah J. Pruitt, Ph.D. Page1 of 11

Dr. Deborah Pruitt, PH.D., a cultural anthropologist,

testified about what constitutes a religion and the

differences between faith based and experience based

religions. Below is a draft copy of her affidavit filed

with the court.

DEBORAH PRUITT, PH.D. declares under penalty of perjury

in USA vs. Quintance CR 06-538 JH 07/18/2006 Doc. 135

Resume Deborah J. Pruitt, Ph.D. (Pruitt Resume.pdf)

80Kb

I am a cultural anthropologist serving as tenured

faculty member at Laney College at 900 Fallon Street,

Oakland, CA, 94607. I also serve as an associate

faculty member at the Western Institute for Social

Research, 3220 Sacramento Street, Berkeley, CA. I was

awarded the Ph.D. in Anthropology from University of

California at Berkeley in 1993. My doctoral research

was conducted in Jamaica, 1989-1991, during which I

worked with numerous NGOs and community groups working

on community development. These groups included two

Rastafarian associations. One established a basic

school and the other developed a crafts producers'

collective. Peer reviewed publications include research

on the cultural impact of tourism in Jamaica, women and

family law in Jamaica, ethics in teaching anthropology,

and ethics and cultural pluralism in professions. For

the past seven years, I have taught courses on the

anthropology of religion. These courses include a


survey of the religious use of drugs from

anthropological studies spanning the past century. For

this reason I have been asked to explain the cultural

context of the use of mind altering substances for

religious purposes to the court. This declaration

represents the perspective drawn from cross-cultural

and pan-historical accounts of the use of psychotropic

substances. This issue deserves much more attention

than is possible in this declaration. This declaration

is intended to be a summary and guide to decades of

intensive research and insight into the common uses of

psychoactive substances for direct access to sacred

forces and healing in the universal quest for a better

life. I have provided references for further

investigation into this very complex issue.

I begin with a short explanation of what

constitutes religion as a universal human phenomenon.

What is religion? Religion is often mistakenly

identified with established institutions. But religion

is more accurately understood as a set of beliefs and

practices that address the relationship between people

and sacred, mystical forces. Every society of people

has explained their existence as originating in

mystical times and circumstances and have sought ways

to reconnect and/or influence those forces from which

they come (Eliade, 1949). Thus religion manifests in

many forms in different societies and may include

formal doctrine and institutions but often does not.

The basis of what we call religion then, is the fact


that humans universally are driven to seek experiences

of unity with spiritual forces (Eliade, 1949; Harris,

1989). As I will explain below, people have employed

numerous methods to do so. That pursuit leads to what

are commonly called “religious experiences.”

A religious experience is a subjective state that

has emotional and psychological elements that may

involve fear, a general sense of well-being, or a

profound sense of connection with a spiritual force.

(Clark, 1958) It always involves an experience of

something that exists beyond the individual and that is

understood to be an essence of the universe ordinarily

out of awareness. Clark’s definition of religion

included the effect such an experience has on behaviors

while one attempts to live her or his life in accord

with the values derived from that inner experience.

There is an important distinction to be made between

religions based on faith (that doctrine or sacred

scripture speak truth) and religions based on

experience. Religions based on faith rely on full-time

specialists to serve as intermediaries to spiritual

realms and seek to influence the gods through prayer

and ritual (Turner, 1972). Through special training

they become the legitimated voices for the religious

beliefs and practices, interpreting god's will for the

populace. Religions based on experience revolve around

creating the circumstances in which members can

directly experience the numinous aspect of life. This

is the ecstasy, or state of grace described in every


major religious system and may include direct contact

with spirits or deities. Adherents are sometimes

referred to as "mystics." Examples include the magical

rituals of Wicca, the spirit possession of vodun, Sufi

trance dancing, or the healing journey of the shaman.

Slotkin (1955:65) quotes a Comanche peyotist as saying

"The white man talks about Jesus; we talk to Jesus."

Gnostics fall in the category of religion based on

experience (knowledge) - seeking direct experience of

God and the divine nature within. As such, they

comprise a mystical segment of Christianity analogous

to Muslim Sufis, or Jewish Qabalists.

Historically, we see that as religions became more

formal and codified within doctrines and institutions,

they became more faith based and reliant upon

specialists. Established institutions show great

concern over maintaining consistency of teachings and

their doctrine. Competing interpretations are not

allowed. Direct mystical experience is de-emphasized as

more emphasis was placed on specialists and their roles

as intermediaries between humans and the spirit realm.

As doctrine is institutionalized, those groups that

continue to emphasize direct experience of mystical

realms and promote individual enlightenment are

considered threatening to newly emerging order and are

identified as heretical by the church authority, thus

marginalized, and sometimes persecuted.

Early Christian history is a prime example. During

the first century of Christianity there were many


competing ideas and beliefs. Gnostics represented a

substantial branch of Christianity at the time.

Historians identify theologian St. Irenaeus, bishop of

Lyon during much of the second century, as a prominent

figure in establishing the early Christian canon and

attacking Gnosticism as heresy. Their numbers quickly

diminished and Gnostics have carried that legacy sense.

Methods of Pursuit of the Sacred Cross-culturally, a myriad of methods have been

employed for transcending ordinary everyday experience

to enter into a sacred realm. These vary widely with

cultural tradition and purpose.

• Meditation may be passive or active. In active

meditation, commonly used by shamans, the mind is

focused on an object or sound such as rattling or

drumming in a monotonous rhythm.

• Spirit possession involves offering the self as a

vessel for a spirit to enter and communicate with

people on the earthly plane, bringing spiritual

information and sometimes healing.

• Isolation and sensory deprivation such as experienced

through fasting, vision questing, or prolonged

meditation are frequent modes of transcendence. We see

these among the vision quests of Native American tribes

as well as Buddhist and Christian monks.

• Sleep deprivation is sometimes a component of

altering consciousness, employed over a period of

several days along with prayer and meditation.


• Pain, usually self-inflicted, is a common form of

worship and transcendence. Common across South Asian

groups (where it is sometimes combined with spirit

possession), present in the Native American Sun Dance,

and Christian self-flagellation originating in 11th

Century Italy and practiced across the world to this

day.

• Psychoactive substances are commonly used throughout

the world.

Religious use of Psychoactive Substances: The use of drugs for pleasure exists everywhere,

however, religious purposes are the dominant use. Not

all societies depend on psychoactive plants, but where

they exist they are embedded in the culture and

spiritual practices, playing important roles in the

belief systems, social organization and economic

behavior (Dobkin de Rios, 1990). They are seen

everywhere to be sources of divine inspiration. Robert

Forte (1997) writes, "Entheogens . . . alter

consciousness in such a profound way that, depending on

the set and setting, their effects can range from

states resembling psychosis to what are perhaps the

ultimate human experiences union with God or revelation

of other mystical realities." Many studies by

anthropologists, psychologists, religious scholars, and

theologians have confirmed the spiritual significance

of entheogens. Examples include Ralph Metzner (1968)

Harvard psychologist; Walter Houston Clark (1969)


professor of psychology of religion at Andover Newton

Theological Seminary; Harvey Cox, a Harvard theologian;

Huston Smith (2000) MIT theologian and comparative

religion scholar; David Toolan (1987) Jesuit scholar;

ethnopharmacologists Terrence and Dennis McKenna

(1976); and anthropologists Peter Furst, (1972, 1990)

Michael Harner (1973); Francis Huxley (1970); Jeremy

Narby (1998) just to name a few. Commonly cited and

well-studied examples are: Huichol peyote, Yanomamo

ebene, Jivaro ayahuasca, Native North and South

American tobacco, Rastafarian marijuana, Psilocybin

mushrooms in Mesoamerica, Arawak coyaba, Ancient Maya

ritual enemas, Ancient Hindu soma, Aztec ololiuhqui

(morning glory seeds), Eleusinian Mystery rites in

ancient Athens, Australian Aborigines pituri, the Fang

of Equatorial Africa and the use of Tabernanthe iboga,

and many more.

In summary, we can say that indigenous people

across Russia, Africa, Mexico, South American, North

America and Asia use a variety of psychoactive

sacramentals (Jesse, Robert "Testimony of the Council

on Spiritual Practices, 1995) The types of drugs most

commonly used, called hallucinogens, are also

frequently called “entheogens” (from Greek roots

meaning “to realize the divine within”) to mark the use

of substances for spiritual purposes. Researchers have

identified the chemical and psycho-neural properties of

entheogens as distinct from products such as cocaine

and heroin that serve to prohibit addiction. “Were it


not for the legal classification of most entheogens as

Schedule I drugs, it would go without saying that the

examples of entheogen use... bear virtually no

resemblance to the patterns of abuse and addiction

frequently seen with drugs such as alcohol, cocaine,

and heroine” (Schuster, 2001). This aspect, along with

ritual setting are seen to generate the healing and

enlightenment properties of drug use and preclude the

damaging addictive effects of purely recreational use.

Studies regarding the use of psychoactive

substances for spiritual purposes identify a clear

distinction between spiritual uses and recreational use

of drugs. Key here is (1) the spiritual intent of its

use and (2) the ritual context of its consumption -

what we call “set and setting.” (Huxley, 1970,

Schuster, 2001). The religious use of drugs everywhere

is distinguished by the desire to achieve direct access

to alternative realities for the purpose of spiritual

insight and healing. This "set" of intention is

distinct from secular drug use for recreation or

escapism. The “drug” must be placed in service of an

idea and consumed in a manner that provides for

spiritual communication.

Ritual provides the "setting," creating a

structure for establishing an altered state of

consciousness. Ritual is understood to be necessary to

generate spiritual results and to protect from madness

- from getting lost, losing touch with reality, or

sliding into addictive use. Universally, the religious


use of drugs is bound in ritual context, often with the

guidance of a religious specialist referred to in the

anthropological literature as a shaman. Those who are

skilled in the use of psychoactive substances as a

method through which to contact the spirit world in

service to their communities and bring them physical

and spiritual healing and spiritual guidance are called

shamans. Shamanic traditions include an immense

knowledge of plants and their properties - knowledge

that science has barely begun to assess. The intention

for the use of these substances is understood to affect

the outcome of the experience. These plants are sacred

in their native cultures for a reason - they are known

to be powerful and will cause serious problems if

abused (Narby, 1998). For instance, members of the

Native American Church are emphatic that peyote should

not be taken outside the ritual setting. The healing

and spiritual wisdom available from peyote will not be

available (Slotkin, 1955). Another revealing example

from Native American cultures is that of tobacco. While

tobacco is consumed by many people in the US

habitually, it has a spiritual meaning in indigenous

American cultures and is used to heal (Narby, 1998).

The meaning and experience of drugs is culturally

mediated. The fact that South American shamans can use

tobacco to achieve spiritual visions and healing, while

many habitually smoke dozens of cigarettes a day with

no spiritual significance illustrates this. The

substances that are considered sacred by most people in


the world are prohibited in the US. The legal

classification and prohibition of substances

traditionally used for attaining spiritual

enlightenment has further disconnected these entheogens

from their spiritual context (Schuster).

The disciplined practice of transcending the

material realm and the ego mind in order to connect

with larger sources of knowledge and insight is a time

honored tradition in every culture. Seeking direct

access to and connection with the life giving forces

bring wisdom and perspective to daily life.

Psychoactive substances have played an important role

in that pursuit of spiritual enlightenment. In fact,

the use of psychoactive substances for religious

purposes is so common throughout the world that it can

be said that it is not the act of using a substance

such as marijuana

or peyote that is unusual or exceptional, rather it is

the prohibition of such use that is peculiar.

Prohibition of psychoactive substances has only

occurred in very recent state organized societies that

use their monopoly on power to constrain the population

and guarantee its allegiance. Such prohibition can be

seen as the ultimate limit to freedom - the freedom to

make spiritual connections as one understands them.

New Religious forms: From the view of mainstream religious

institutions, new religious groups are generally seen


as strange "cults", or even as charlatans. But new

religious groups form all the time in response to new

insight or something perceived as lacking in existing

religious institutions. Thus, by definition, they are

viewed as suspicious or even threatening by established

religions. This does not make them any less “religious”

or sincere however. These were the beginnings of all

religious institutions viewed as "mainstream" today.

It could be argued that new religious forms

necessarily spring from a highly genuine and sincere

spiritual pursuit because of the effort it takes to

articulate and develop a practice (or in the case of

Gnostics, to revive one) rather than to follow an

established conventional path. In addition, they must

do so in the face of skepticism, sometimes ostracism,

and at times, persecution. This is especially true in

the U.S. when psychotropic substances are involved. The

religious rhetoric surrounding their use is often

dismissed as rationalization for getting an exemption

from the laws that prohibit their use. This is likely

due to lack of recognition of the distinction between

recreational and religious use of drugs.

DECLARED UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THIS 25th DAY OF

APRIL, 2006 AT SAN

FRANCISCO, CA

/s/ Deborah Pruitt, Ph.D.

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