Origins and practice
The CRF was organized in Acre around 1916 by Irineu Serra together with brothers Antônio and André Costa, drawing on ayahuasca knowledge from the tri-border region shared by Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia. Meetings combined ayahuasca consumption with mediumistic communication and a hierarchy of military-style ranks among members, blending elements of spiritualism and Christianity under conditions of frequent police persecution; the group is generally described as having dissolved around 1925.
From the CRF to Santo Daime
Irineu Serra's years in the CRF are described as formative for the religion he went on to found in 1930, after what the tradition holds as a visionary encounter with Nossa Senhora da Conceição, whom he called the Rainha da Floresta (Queen of the Forest). Santo Daime retained ritual elements that trace back to the CRF period, including the use of hymns and uniforms, layered onto the esoteric framework Irineu Serra later adopted through the Círculo Esotérico da Comunhão do Pensamento (CECP), whose motto "Hei de Vencer" ("I Shall Overcome") is still displayed in many Santo Daime temples.
A center Irineu Serra affiliated with the CECP, the Tattwa Luz Divina, operated until the CECP distanced itself from ayahuasca use in the late 1960s, prompting Irineu Serra to found the independent Centro de Iluminação Cristã Luz Universal (CICLU) in 1971. After his death, his disciples divided into separate branches, including Cefluris (later ICEFLU) under Sebastião Mota de Melo, A Barquinha under Daniel Pereira de Mattos, and the União do Vegetal under José Gabriel da Costa — three distinct traditions, each with its own subsequent history, that all trace some part of their origin to this same period and milieu.