New Life Rising Chruch
Statement of Beliefs & Doctrine
New Life Rising is a spiritual community created to help individuals find enlightenment and connect with God, the divine source of all creation. Through communion with our creator with the assistance of our Sacrament, we gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of life and strive to live in harmony with our environment, with our families, with our community and to live and uphold moral principles.
We recognize Ayahuasca as our Sacrament. Our Sacrament is a divine teacher and guide that is an essential element of our path toward spiritual path. Only through its sincere religious use can participants understand the moral, ethical, and spiritual wisdom and psychospiritual healing these Sacraments teach us. This Sacrament is used by New Life Rising for those seeking deep psycho spiritual and emotional healing, ancestral clearing, shadow work and a profound reconnection with their soul’s purpose. Our Sacrament allows members and participants to understand the spiritual values reflected in this Statement of Beliefs.
We believe in an intelligent creator and that nature and all things in it are sacred and interconnected. We believe that all humans share a collective spiritual consciousness that guides us to live in alignment with our highest purpose and moral rightness. We believe that every individual can directly experience divinity through the use of our Sacrament, prayer, mediation, contemplation, and engagement with the natural world. We emphasis direct and personal communication with God where spiritual truth is revealed through lived experience. We believe that nature is sacred and provides everything humans need to live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives. Our Sacrament teaches us to live a moral code of Compassion, Honesty, Accountability, and Non-Harm. We have a responsibility to continue self-inquiry, live in integrity, respect the earth. As illuminated by our Sacrament, God is present in all living things and nature is sacred. Through communion with nature, we can deeply realize our own divinity. We believe every individual has inherent dignity and spiritual equality. We believe in living with integrity and respecting one another as divine beings.
New Life Rising Church believes that we are all part of a single thread that weaves into a beautiful and complex tapestry of life. As illuminated by our Sacrament, the underlying current of our life energy connects us to all other living things, and upon death, this life energy transmutes to merge with our creator in a single stream of consciousness. It is our belief that nothing ever dies, we just transform into the next phase of being. There is a single great creator and many spirits that represent all the nature of the world, from specific plants, to elements. Through our Sacrament, we can communicate and learn from the great spirits and God to be better aligned with our purpose (to live a healthy and moral life) and to learn how to live in harmony and in support of nature, that which provides all the sustance (food and medicine) of life.
Church members gather in worship through ceremonial circles that include ritual music, moments of silence, contemplation, prayer, and meditation. We utilize nature-based devotional practices and Sacraments that honor the sacredness of the earth. Sites used for ceremony undergo thorough cleansing and blessing before any ceremony or ritual begins. There are requirements for participating in ceremony including abstinence from drugs and alcohol, a healthy diet free of processed foods and refined sugar. Participants undergo a ministerial screening process to ensure they do not have contraindications for using our Sacrament. Our Sacrament is also always maintained consistent with a diversion prevention plan to ensure that no Sacrament is diverted from a religious purpose.
The actual ceremony is started with cleansing rituals including mapacho smoke, prayer and opening songs. Then the rest of the ceremony is guided with live Icaros by Founders Jeanae and Matthew. During the ceremony, we consecrate our Sacrament and connect with God. The ceremony is closed with more mapacho smoke and we have an optional bonfire. During any ceremony involving Sacraments, we will have on hand individuals trained in basic life support, at a minimum to ensure safety. We also have an emergency protocol is in place in case of any adverse health reactions.
Our community commitment is to be open and available to all who accept our statement of beliefs or want to explore whether our beliefs are right for them and who seek a relationship with God and their higher-self. Members and participants understand the New Life Rising provides its Sacrament as part of the sincere religious or spiritual use of this Sacrament, with a good faith belief that the use and distribution of these substances is protected by the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and similar protections in each state’s Constitution and laws.
Church founders, Jeanae White and Matthew Mormello discovered ayahuasca after years of battling mental health issues and addiction. Despite having tried almost every conventional treatment offered by the Western medical model for both addiction and depression, nothing seemed to address the spiritual void that felt all-consuming in our souls. Ayahuasca was the only thing that brought light into that hopeless place.
In 2014, after having a profound spiritual awakening with ayahuasca, they became students of world-renowned shaman Don Ron Wheelock. Ron has been living in Iquitos, Peru for nearly 30 years and has amassed a wealth of knowledge on Ayahuasca, spirits, brew making, and Mestizo traditions. He is recognized as being one of the original pioneers of bridging the gap of Ayahuasca accessibility to the West. Ron began his tutelage in 1996 under famed shaman Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez in Tamshiyacu, Peru. Ron later began working with Don Jose Coral Mori, the teacher of Pablo Amaringo and Eduardo Luna, the authors of “Ayahuasca Visions”. After studying with both Ayahuasqueros, he began working on his own in 2000.
Jeanae and Matthew have completed many master-plant dietas under the guidance of Don Ron. Dietas are a form of communion done in isolation to connect not only with ayahuasca but other sacred plants of the Amazon. In 2022, Matthew and Jeanae were able to connect more deeply to their spiritual lineage by visiting the village of Tamshiyacu and spending time at the camp of Don Agustin Rivas Vasquez and Dona Marlena. Don Agustin was 98 years old at the time of the visit and still leading ceremonies. He and Don Ron are both very well-respected spiritual leaders and members of their communities. Matt and Jeanae feel privileged to have been passed down Icaros and Mestizo traditions through a long lineage of powerful healers and strive to share these spiritual teachings and the wisdom of our sacrament with our own culture and community. At time of this writing, Jeanae and Matthew have guided 400+ ceremonies with 2,000+ participants across 150+ spiritual retreats.