DMT and its deep-rooted religious use.

Dimethyltryptamine has been used for centuries in various South American and Amazonian religions. The earliest known account was found in a dig of an 8th century burial site in Chile where bags of snuff remnants containing DMT, 5-MeO-DMT (5, Methyloxy Dimethyltryptamine; a slightly different sister compound with approximately the same effects and a slightly longer duration), and bufotenine (found in various frogs and toads as a defense mechanism and causes indistinguishably similar effects as the other compounds; probably because the chemical makeup is near identical) were found. From the sixteenth to eighteenth century, Colombian natives and people from the surrounding area used DMT-containing concoctions, including similar brews to the Chilian snuffs as well as oral brews known today as ayahuasca (pronounced EYE-ah-WAS-ka) or simply huasca (WAS-ka). As DMT is not psychoactive orally, it was combined with other herbs (later found to contain MAOIs, or monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which make DMT active orally) to provide an effect.

The snuffs were also found in Trinidad which they called yopo. Brazillian natives used an oral brew which they called vinho de Jurumena. Lastly, Amazonian shamanism is deep rooted in the use of DMT and other psychoactive substances as a medium between the physical and spiritual realms. They use it to communicate to the deceased, spirits of animals, and elder gods. They also administered it to sickly and tribesman with mental issues so they could think about and resolve their problems from within. William Burroughs, ethnobiologist and drug afficionato such as Timothy Leary, stated that "Ayahuasca [and therefore other DMT-containing brews] is said to afford communication across great distances and to permit encounters with animals and ancestors." These experiences have kept the shamanistic religions alive for centuries, quite possibly since before christianity.

Even today, DMT use is active in a few religons, including some based upon the fundamentals of christianity. The two recognised by the United States are the O Centra Espirita Beneficiente Uniao de Vegetal (popularly shortened to UDV) which was founded in 1961 and has approximately 8000 members, and the Santo Daime Church, founded in 1940 with about 2500 members. Both of these churches import hoasca brews from Brazil (where church members dedicated their lives to growing and producing the tea in a ceremonial manner) and injest them during various ceremonies. The UDV, however, is the more popular of the two, as the DEA raided their church and obtained large drums of the tea from the church's office. The church then sued the agency, claiming that the tea is used in their religious practices and therefore should be legal to posess, citing the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This act was the same one that allowed various American Indian religions to use peyote in their practices. They first obtained an injunction allowing them to posess and use the psychoactive brew in their Christmas services that year. Later on, they won their case in Supreme Court after a unianimous decision. In part, this was simply because the courts could not find tangible evidence that the DMT brew was posing a serious health risk to the church members, and therefore not showing reason to interfere with the practice. Justice Antonin Scalia stated, "It shows that you can make an extemption [to drug control policy] without the sky falling."