Thank you. You are absolutely right. United States v. Meyers, 95 F.3d 1475 (10th Cir.1996), did use the criteria you outline. The list was first used by the trial court in that case, "gleaned," as the 10th Circuit put it, from a whole string of earlier Free Exercise cases. What is interesting, though, is that both the trial and the appellate courts found that, under these criteria, the marijuana-using Church of Cognizance was not a religion for purposes of exemption under RFRA.

It is worth looking at exactly what the 10th Circuit said. The court quotes with approval the words of the trial court:

>>>Marijuana's medical, therapeutic, and social effects are secular, not religious.... Here, the Court cannot give Meyers' "religious" beliefs much weight because those beliefs appear to be derived entirely from his secular beliefs. In other words, Meyers' secular and religious beliefs overlap only in the sense that Meyers holds secular beliefs which he believes so deeply that he has transformed them into a "religion."<<<

And the appellate court adds (citations omitted):

>>>Were the Court to recognize Meyers' beliefs as religious, it might soon find itself on a slippery slope where anyone who was cured of an ailment by a "medicine" that had pleasant side-effects could claim that they had founded a constitutionally or statutorily protected religion based on the beneficial "medicine." Finally, the court noted that "Meyers' professed beliefs have an ad hoc quality that neatly justify his desire to smoke marijuana." We agree with the district court. Under the district court's thorough analysis of the indicia of religion, which we adopt, we hold that Meyers' beliefs more accurately espouse a philosophy and/or way of life rather than a "religion." The district court did not err in prohibiting Meyers' religious freedom defense.<<<

And, although the Meyers criteria are certainly more vague than those the IRS uses to determine whether an organization is a church for tax purposes, I am still not sure that an ayahuasca gathering would successfully meet the Meyers criteria.

I should add that, as a matter of my own view of religions, the Meyers criteria are sociologically and philosophically unsophisticated, and seem to be similar to the sort of thing one would read in an undergraduate text on "World Religions." It seems to me that many indigenous, animistic, and shamanist religions -- and not just ayahuasca shamanism -- would fail to meet these criteria.

-- Steve
www.singingtotheplants.com/