5-MeO-DMT: The 20-Minute Psychoactive Toad Experience That’s Transforming Lives
This isn’t the psychedelic you remember from college. It isn’t an eight-hour marathon experience tripping through the woods like Alice. It’s fast-acting, short-duration — sometimes lasting as briefly as seven minutes — and is a rocket-ship ride into the center of the cosmos. In a recent European study, after one single use, the substance 5-MeO-DMT was shown to produce sustained enhancement of satisfaction with life, and easing of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
When former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson first tried 5-MeO-DMT — also called “the toad” — he said it knocked him off his feet, profoundly changing his life. “I came across this thing called the toad. I smoked this medicine, drug, whatever you want to call it, and I’ve never been the same,” Tyson said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast last year, viewed by nearly 10 million people. “I look at life differently, I look at people differently. It’s almost like dying and being reborn… It’s inconceivable. I tried to explain it to some people, to my wife, I don’t have the words to explain it. It’s almost like you’re dying, you’re submissive, you’re humble, you’re vulnerable — but you’re invincible still in all.”
One single 50mg vaporized dose — derived from dried venom secreted by the Bufo alvarius toad — often produces hallucinogenic, boundless experiences within one second of inhalation that can last from 7 to 90 minutes, and on average lasts 20 minutes. Like Tyson, people report mystical experiences, many “seeing God,” and often sensing a better understanding of their place and function in the cosmos as a result. Shortly after use, participants tend to be totally clearheaded and 100% back to their previous ordinary state.
While this material is not currently legal in the U.S., substances with similar molecular structures containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT), like the Amazonian brew ayahuasca, recently have been decriminalized in parts of the United States. This style of medicine is being touted as a healing modality for emotional trauma and used where conventional methods like pharmaceuticals fail. Their ability to heal has prompted voters in Oakland and Santa Cruz in the state of California to opt for decriminalizing a wide range of psychedelics — such as magic mushrooms, peyote and ayahuasca — making those items the lowest law enforcement priority. Last year, Denver also followed suit passing similar resolutions around fungi containing the psychedelic psilocybin; and more recently Chicago’s City Council approved a resolution that could pave the way for decriminalization there.
So when an email landed in my inbox with the subject line “I’m a Facilitator of 5-MeO-DMT / Toad,” it was an irresistible invitation to slide down the rabbit hole. Having just heard Tyson’s description that very week, the synchronicity was mysteriously enticing. Also, there was the not-so-small Michael Pollan Effect. Since 2018, when Pollan first burst through the glass ceiling of legitimate psychedelic use with his influential book How To Change Your Mind, the idea of cognitive freedom had suddenly inched up to the forefront of the American conversation on mental health. Employing an erudite, mainstream viewpoint on mind-altering drugs, the then 62-year-old straight-edge author from Long Island — who taught at Harvard and Berkeley and penned bestselling books about the clean food movement — lent a credible air to the use of these magic molecules, including LSD, DMT and psilocybin. His perspective gave gravitas to a subject that would be otherwise derided as unsafe and unwise.
The toad facilitator that contacted me — who in her regular, non-facilitating life works a professional job, is in her 60’s and looks no different from one of your neighbors — said she preferred to go by the name Lee to protect her identity. She explained how she came to be a facilitator of 5-MeO-DMT, for responsible use by adults interested in consciousness expansion, partly because she feels it could help people to be “a whole lot nicer to one another,” and personally because it has aided her own mental wellbeing. Suffering from social anxiety herself, she felt the toad melt away years of social awkwardness.
“One of the first things I thought after trying 5-MeO-DMT was, This is a cure for depression and PTSD,” says Lee. Now, the Zoloft she once took for more than 15 years is currently collecting dust in her medicine cabinet. She even attended a wedding last year and had no problem being there without a partner — something that would have bothered her before the toad.
Trained by Silicon Valley tech people, she says she attended a daylong introduction on 5-MeO-DMT that included the discussion of guidelines and medical questionnaires around serving people. The couple impressed her with their respect for the medicine and their pure intentions to help people. “They weren’t holding on to it like they had this sacred knowledge,” she says. “They had something they knew could help people heal themselves and they wanted to share it.”
Her descriptions after plunging into the expansiveness of toad are deeply profound, similar to Mike Tyson’s, a poetic unveiling of the underlying beauty of life: ‘a sense of sacredness, of oneness with the surrounding world, a profound positivity and comprehension of deep truths about reality and equanimity.’
These are all things that every human being would agree make up a valuable life experience. She quotes a phrase by Stanislav Grof, the noted Czech psychiatrist with over 60 years of experience in research of non-ordinary states of consciousness, to describe the overall sensation. “Experiencing 5-MeO-DMT is this amazing feeling of ‘oceanic bliss,’” she says. “By experiencing this profound connection with the universe and all living beings, one gets the feeling that we’re incredibly lucky to have even been birthed on this beautiful planet.”
Much of the recent awareness around these potentially palliative psychedelic drugs owes a great debt of gratitude to pioneering psychedelic explorers like Grof and Pollan (and a dozen other key figures before them), but also to modern researchers like Roland Griffiths at Johns Hopkins University. Griffiths’s rigorous academic examination of psychedelic states has been instrumental in the creation of the newly formed Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Featured on a well-received 60 Minutes segment late last year, the center has had great success using psilocybin therapy sessions to offer relief to terminal patients facing crushing end-of-life fears.
For Lee’s part, she came to 5-MeO-DMT after years of self-reflection, meditation and therapy, and an understanding that altered states of consciousness can lead to profound insight. “I’ve been on a lifelong quest to heal myself. Even as far back as my tween years, I felt there was something going on in the universe, so it’s been a lifelong exploration for me,” she says. And she’s seen expansion occurring with others too. “I’ve had people I facilitate come out of sessions with profound feelings of hope, and as one friend told me, ‘an easing of the grip of negativity’.”
Her typical recipient tends to be educated, ranging from 30 to 75 years old and with deep trauma or with a feeling of being weighed down by something they can’t overcome. She shares how some people under the substance can be totally quiet during their internal journey, while others are decidedly not — like the man she facilitated last summer who was yelling for almost the entire 20 minutes of his experience. “The guy was screaming from joy, he was in total bliss, was very verbal and saying, ‘Wow wow WOW! We’re all one! Now I get it!’”
A cliché response perhaps, but again, wouldn’t it be nice if we could all feel that way about life?
Because access to 5-MeO-DMT is not readily available for everyone, Lee tries to provide safe use for less privileged people, for instance providing for the working poor. “The mode of practice I’m in fully supports donating to the underserved,” she says. “I know there are people who can benefit from this, so if I can just cover my basic cost, I will donate.”
Lee notes that this medicine should not be viewed as a panacea and stresses the importance of integration after the experience, or reflecting on the changes brought on post-toad. “This may not fix all of your problems,” she says. “A lot of the really beneficial part happens in the weeks or months after taking toad, when you integrate what happened to you into your everyday life. That’s when the real payoff occurs.”
In an effort to help preserve threatened Bufo alvarius populations, Lee is now solely serving synthetic versions of the substance.
Time will tell if 5-MeO-DMT makes its way from the shadows of scientific trials and a smattering of compassionate-minded people like Lee to increased access for the masses. All signs point to the use of psychedelics gaining in popularity and gaining steam as another vital mental health tool.
Read more about Lee’s work as a facilitator and where she’s at now in my ongoing book series Your Neighbors Are Doing Psychedelics.
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THE BIOHACKING BENEFITS OF SHAMANIC FROG POISON KAMBO CEREMONIES
It all begins with an idea.
APR. 13, 2022 WELLNESS, INFRARED, TECHNOLOGIES
For centuries, Indigenous Amazonians have extracted frog poison for its alleged healing powers and utilized the venom in a sacred ritual known as a Kambo ceremony. Kambo ceremonies are believed to detox the body through an intense 20 minutes of flu-like purging, allegedly helping to dispose of toxins, while also strengthening stamina, promoting clarity, and addressing other health concerns such as anxiety and depression. But, is the bile worth the benefit? On the latest episode of Biohack-HERS, HigherDOSE Founders Lauren Berlingeri and Katie Kaps meet with Todd Shipman, a shaman-trained biohacking expert who guides them through the Kambo ceremony with a scientific twist.
What Is Kambo?
Kambo is a South American Indigenous ritual that calls upon frog medicine — aka the poisonous secretion from the giant monkey frog — to detoxify the body through an intense cleansing experience. The ritual is centuries old and was traditionally used to increase the stamina of South American warriors, protect against bad luck, and strengthen the body’s natural defenses.
Today, Kambo is growing in popularity as shamans guide biohackers and health enthusiasts alike through the intense cleansing experience, which involves 20 minutes of flu-like purging.
The Kambo Ceremony
On the latest episode of Biohack-HERS, HigherDOSE Founders Lauren Berlingeri and Katie Kaps experience the ceremony for themselves, through the guidance of Todd Shipman, a trained shaman and biohacking expert who puts a scientific spin on the centuries old ritual.
To begin their experience, Todd sat down with Lauren and Katie to discuss exactly what to expect during and after the ceremony. “Todd’s really amazing because he’s trained by shamans so he has the traditions and he’s very respectful of that, but he is really rooting this practice and this medicine in science,” Lauren explains. Before the ceremony, Todd had Lauren and Katie put Apple Watches on so that he can monitor their heart rate in real time. He also checked their glucose levels for a baseline test. “The vitals are a great way to quantify the biologial shifts through Kambo,” Todd explains, adding that he monitors glucose before and after the ceremony because the “blood sugar rises and then lowers at the end” of the ceremony. With their vitals checked and their Apple Watches in place, Lauren and Katie were ready for the ceremony.
The ceremony begins with a few minutes of breathwork to calm the mind and stop any anxious thoughts before going into the intense ritual. Next, Todd gave Lauren and Katie a few minutes of silence to set some internal intentions and goals for the ceremony. After that, Todd gave Lauren and Katie some Rapé (pronounced “ha-peh”) or shamanic snuff, which is inhaled through the nose. “The Rapé was really interesting,” says Lauren. “I’ve had it done before and it immediately gives you this buzz and takes you out of your head and into your body,” she adds, noting how it gives you a “crazy jolt and changes your state to prepare you for the Kambo.” The last step in this pre-ritual was to drink around 1.5 to 2 liters of water while Todd prepared the Kambo for application.
“Kambo is administered topically through burn marks on the skin,” Todd explains, noting that this is traditionally done in the Amazon with “a big thick vine” that is burned at one end and stuck to the recipient. Todd’s approach is a little less intense, as he opts for a smaller piece of incense to take the first layer of skin off before applying the frog medicine to the open wound. “Burning the skin is necessary to create an open gate for the Kambo to be absorbed into the body,” says Todd. “When the Kambo goes onto the skin, the bioactive peptides go in your system,” he adds, noting that, while it is poisonous, “it just so happens that, for mammals, there are hundreds of bioactive peptides that are beneficial for us.”
Once the Kambo is applied to the skin, it kicks in almost instantly, as some of the bioactive peptides acutely increase the heart rate, causing you to feel really hot, followed by the nausea and purging for 20-25 minutes. “It is a very vulnerable, sensitive, and intense experience,” Todd says of the Kambo ceremony. “There can be physical releases as well as emotional releases,” he adds, noting that it is an excellent bonding experience for those who go through the ritual together.
3 Things We Learned About Biohacking With Kambo
Kambo is an intense experience and, according to Todd, “not for everyone.” But, it also has incredible biohacking benefits that might make the extremeKambo ceremony experience well worth it. “It’s 15 to 25 minutes of extreme discomfort for long term benefits,” Todd adds.
Here are three things we learned about biohacking with Kambo, aka frog medicine.
Kambo Helps the Body Eliminate Mold, Candita, and Parasites: The whole purpose of the Kambo ceremony is to detoxify the body through a deep purge-induced cleanse. Despite the discomfort of purging orally — and in some cases, through the bowels — this ritual can help the body eliminate toxins and you will likely “purge out a lot of mold, candita, and parasites,” says Todd.
It Targets Physical and Emotional Conditions: Through the cleansing process, Kambo ceremonies help target a variety of physical and emotional conditions. “Kambo has an incredible cleansing and detoxifying effect,” says Todd, adding that “it can help with chronic disease, autoimmune, anxiety, and depression.”
It Increases Clarity and Energy: While the post-ceremony effects might be different for everyone, Kambo can increase clarity and energy levels for extended periods of time after the ceremony. “There are certain peptides that stimulate the adrenal cortex and pituitary gland, which is going to boost your energy for long term,” says Todd. After the ceremony, Lauren and Katie experienced this biohacking side effect for themselves. “It was pretty wild just how energetic and clear I felt for weeks afterward,” says Lauren. “The next day, I definitely felt energized, inspired, and just really alive,” Katie adds.