Mestre Gabriel's path
José Gabriel da Costa was born in 1922 in the interior of Bahia state, near the city of Feira de Santana, and moved north decades later to work in the rubber trade. He is described within the tradition as having shown a spiritual gift from childhood and as having been incorporated into Umbanda practice early in life, later becoming associated in Umbanda cosmology with an entity known as the Sultão das Matas. He is said to have first encountered the ayahuasca brew — which he named Vegetal, from the leaves of chacrona (Psychotria viridis) and the mariri vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) — near Brazil's border with Bolivia, and he founded the União do Vegetal in 1961 with the aim of sharing it more widely.
A distinct doctrine and practice
Within the UDV, ayahuasca — referred to in the tradition as Hoasca — is used as an aid to mental concentration during sessions centered on meditation rather than on the dance-based rituals characteristic of Santo Daime. The UDV developed its own separate institutional structure and doctrine following Mestre Gabriel's death, and it remains organizationally and historically distinct from both Santo Daime and the Barquinha, sharing with them only a common regional origin and the use of ayahuasca as sacrament.