Kambo

Recently on facebook a friend posted “Kambo, My first ceremony…” or some such, with an attached photo. Until then I'd not heard of this thing, but it seems it's been around in NZ at least since 2016. It's claimed to be at practice from Amazonian tribes (that's their feeble attempt at an appeal to antiquity). Although no doubt there's truth in that, Brazil banned the sale/marketing of the substance in 2004 so, if you have used genuine Amazonian giant monkey frog poison (yes that's what it is) just know that someone may have committed a crime in Brazil so you could poison yourself and purge though multiple orifaces…you're welcome.

So what's deal deal with Kambo?

They call it a ‘ceremony' (that's how you know white people are making money appropriating some indigenous culture's healing practice, but I digress). Basically they burn you with a smouldering stick, creating a blister, they scrape the blistered skin off, then rub the secretions of the frog directly into your wound. Nowadays they might add a few things, like meditative music (hopefully tuned at A=432) Tibetan bowls, gongs and other crap. They tend to apply the burning stick to your chakras in the westernised version, because why not? I also read that they might blow tobacco powder up your nose and squirt sananga (an Amazonian plant extract) in your eyes. Honestly, that might make you forget about how awful you feel after fasting, or diet limiting for up to three days in prep, because now your corneas are on fire and there's powder up your nose. After the ‘ceremony' you'll most likely experience the following: rapid heart rate, headache, flushing and your face swells up like a frog (which is fitting). Oh yes, also diarrhoea, and profuse vomiting. Of course this is all the Kambo doing it's great work, flushing out the ‘toxins'...which is ironic, since probably the only ‘toxins' in your body at that time are the frog secretions.

Though the word ‘toxins' is misused so much by the proponents of these types of phony modalities, and the Kambo people are a case in point, I find it hilarious that frog poison is literally, definitionally a ‘toxin'. So yes, in a way you power-chucking is your body trying to rid itself of toxins…that you put in there, dumbass.

Also, you'd best not be a vegan, because an animal definitely suffered to bring you Kambo. The Amazonian giant monkey frog has to be stressed before it will secrete it's poison from its skin. They stretch it out and literally torment it to get it to excrete. I wonder if these people are against animal testing?

What does it do, really?

In short, there's no good evidence it does anything useful. The list of claims is extensive*, and yes cancer is on that list, so is HIV and AIDS. Infertility is on the list but, amazingly, also, if you're pregnant but didn't want to be, you're in luck. It's traditionally used to induce abortion. (I'm kidding, please don't rely on this.) The list of risks is much longer. It's pretty bad. Look here: https://www.healthline.com/health/kambo#risks

I read testimonies from people that say they felt amazing afterward. I mean, I think you would feel amazing after going through that. Recovering from any horrific experience always feels good. The risks and bad side effects are extreme. This very silly thing needs to be banned, in my opinion.

When a “modality” has a long list of maladies it claims to heal/cure, that's always a red flag. Nothing works like that in the real world. Yet you see this all the time with these fake cures.

When whatever happens to you after treatment, you're told “that's the treatment working”, or “that's the toxins coming out of you” honestly, it's very silly, and it's poison. Much risk, for no evidence of gain.

• Here's a longer list of things it definitely doesn't help with: Addiction, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, cancer, chronic pain, depression, diabetes, hepatitis, HIV and AIDS, infections, infertility, rheumatism, vascular conditions.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/kambo-frog-poison-for-health/

https://www.healthline.com/health/kambo