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Church of the Holy Light of the Queen

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Church of the Holy Light of the Queen
Formation1993 (1993)[1][2]
FoundersJonathan Goldman; Jane Seligson[1][3]
TypePsychedelic church
Location
Websitewww.chlq.org

The Church of the Holy Light of the Queen (CHLQ) is a Santo Daime ayahuasca church located in Ashland, Oregon.[4][1][2] It was founded by Jonathan Goldman and Jane Seligson in 1993.[4][1][3][2] In 1999, federal agents seized a shipment of the church's ayahuasca, raided Goldman's home, and arrested him.[4][1][5][2] However, he was not prosecuted.[4][1] The church was warned against further practicing, which led them to continue their ceremonies in secrecy.[1] In 2008, the CHLQ sued the federal government for their right to practice legally.[1] In 2009, a federal court ruled that use of ayahuasca by the church was legal and protected in Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey.[1][6][7][8] The church is notable in being one of only a handful of legal psychedelic churches in the United States.[9][10]

See also

References

  1. Fernandes Antunes, Henrique (2025). "On Rights and Risks: The Legal Victories of the União do Vegetal and Santo Daime in the United States". Religion, Drug, or Cult?. Vol. 5. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland. p. 83–119. doi:10.1007/978-3-032-04368-9_4. ISBN 978-3-032-04367-2. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  2. Weber, Alex L. (5 May 2011), The Holy Dose: Spiritual adventures with Southern Oregon's psychedelic crusaders, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
  3. Barnard, G. William (7 June 2022). Liquid Light: Ayahuasca Spirituality and the Santo Daime Tradition. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-54672-0.
  4. Lattin, Don (11 October 2022). "A Santo Daime Church's Legal Success Paved a Path Towards Psychedelic Legalization". Lucid News - Psychedelics. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  5. Fernandes Antunes, Henrique (2021). "Between Prohibitionism and Religious Freedom: The Legal Disputes Concerning an Ayahuasca Church and the United States Government". Novos Estudos - CEBRAP. 40 (3): 463–478. doi:10.25091/S01013300202100030009. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  6. Antunes, Henrique Fernandes (27 February 2023). "Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey". Religious Freedom and the Global Regulation of Ayahuasca. London: Routledge. p. 38–50. doi:10.4324/9780429001161-3. ISBN 978-0-429-00116-1. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  7. Monteith, Andrew (2016). ""The Words of McKenna": Healing, Political Critique, and the Evolution of Psychonaut Religion since the 1960s Counterculture". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 84 (4): 1081–1109. doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfw010. ISSN 0002-7189. Two recent cases are those of Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal and Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Michael B. Mukasey. [...] In Church of the Holy Light of the Queen, very similar reasons were given for allowing ayahuasca to Oregonian members of the Santo Daime religion. Citing the Uniao do Vegetal case, a federal court agreed that ayahuasca's use in Santo Daime was legitimately religious and that it should be protected (Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey 2009: 1211–1212). However, what is notable about these cases is that indigeneity is a prominent feature in the court opinions. These cases do not offer blanket freedom for the use of entheogens in religious practice. They allow the use of ayahuasca only to identifiable, South American sects with indigenous characteristics, while explicitly analogizing this to peyote exceptions for Native Americans.
  8. "Church of the Holy Light of the Queen v. Mukasey". vLex. 2009. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
  9. Stoddard, Brad (2023). "Entheogens: Psychedelic religion in the United States, part one". Religion Compass. 17 (10). doi:10.1111/rec3.12474. ISSN 1749-8171. Admittedly, the U.S. government has only officially recognized that a handful of groups have the right to consume for religious reasons what are otherwise illegal psychoactive substances. These groups include Native Americans, whose use of peyote is protected by the most recent version of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act; União do Vegetal, a group in New Mexico that consumes hoasca or ayahuasca (Beyer, 2010); two branches of Santo Daime in Oregon, a group that consumed Daime or ayahuasca (Dawson, 2013); Flower of the Divine Mother church in Los Angeles, a group affiliated with Santo Daime in Oregon (Lattin, 2022); and Oratory of Mystical Sacraments, a church in New Hampshire that consumes mushrooms (Hayward, 2020). If there are more churches that have obtained full legal recognition, they have kept their status private and not, to my knowledge, shared it with the public.
  10. Janik, Tarryl (1 May 2023). "Soul Quest Church of Mother Earth: Ayahuasca Decriminalization and the Struggle of an Institution to Become a Church". MINDS@UW.