Nechisti shrine

The Nechani homeworld contained a number of religious shrines dedicated to the Ancestral Spirits, located in an underground sanctuary. They were administered by the Nechisti Order.

One particular shrine, considered to one of their most holy places, was where the monks went to receive the gift of purification, cleansing of the soul.

The shrine was surrounded by a powerful biogenic field, believed to be naturally occurring, with an energy of over eight hundred megajoules and high levels of thoron radiation.

In 2373, Kes inadvertently stepped too close to the shrine and received a severe neuroleptic shock. To save her life, Captain Kathryn Janeway elected to undergo a purification ritual that allowed the Nechisti monks to enter the shrine unharmed. Janeway was eventually told to take Kes back into the shrine and trust the mercy of the Spirits. She did so, and Kes recovered.

The Doctor subsequently learned that the venom of a nesset bite, used in the ritual, altered Janeway's biochemistry enabling her to resist the biogenic field. Once he had applied the same treatment to Kes and Janeway took her through the shrine, the mitigated biogenic field acted as a cortical stimulator and reactivated Kes' synaptic pathways. Janeway, meanwhile, was unaffected by the shrine because the iridium ions near the shrine induced a dielectric effect in her skin, offering more protection. (VOY: "Sacred Ground")