Kambo is a healing ritual used mainly in South America. It’s named after the poisonous secretions of the giant and very cute monkey frog – Phyllomedusa bicolor.
Kambo cleanses are gaining popularity in North America and Europe despite a lack of scientific evidence to back up the health claims surrounding the ritual.
Nature’s poisons have been used for medicinal purposes for millennia. Small doses of opium, mandrake, henbane, and hemlock numbed the pain of surgery for more than 1,000 years.
“What is a poison?” asks Mark Siddall, curator of the special exhibition The Power of Poison. “It’s a substance that interferes with normal physiological processes, that alters or stops them, or makes things happen. That is essentially what medicines are, too.”
Here are some examples of poison used as medicine by contemporary medicine
The diabetes drug Exenatide, which lowers blood sugar and increases the body’s production of insulin, is a synthetic version of a component in the saliva of Gila monsters, large venomous lizards found in the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico.
We need to remember, in order to patent a drug, the pharmaceutical company is creating a synthetic version of the chemical components they are finding in nature that are helping in healing an illness. But in addition to that component, they are adding others or manipulating with the natural formula, so the drug could have a shelf life, be unified and be patented. And at the end, those drugs have a huge list of side effects that will require more drugs in the future. This creates a vicious circle, but unfortunately, this is the only way our modern pharmaceuticals can work.
This is exactly the reason behind the lack of research of many natural healing substances, used by healers throughout our planet for millennia.
The development of the first oral ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitor, which treats hypertension, was based on an understanding of how the venom of the Brazilian pit viper, Bothrops jararaca, causes a drastic drop in blood pressure in its prey.
Bacteria, algae, and fungi, including molds, that produce toxins could all potentially yield medicines.
(A version of this information appears in the Fall 2013 issue of Rotunda, the Member magazine)
These days shamans and naturopathic practitioners still use Kambo frog poison in the healing ceremonies for cleansing the body of toxins, as well as treating numerous health conditions.
Indigenous people have used kambo for centuries to heal and cleanse the body by strengthening its natural defenses and warding off bad luck. It was also believed to increase stamina and hunting skills.
Kambo medicine believe to help with a range of conditions, including:
Anxiety
Cancer
Chronic Pain
Depression
Diabetes
Hepatitis
Addiction
Alzheimer’s Disease
HIV And Aids
Infections
Infertility
Rheumatism
Vascular Conditions And Others
While there are plenty of people who’ve reported good results after doing a kambo ceremony, there’s not much scientific evidence to back up these claims.
Kambo is legal but not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration or any other health organization. This means there’s no oversight on quality or contaminants in the product.
The process of the Kambo Healing Ceremony as follows:
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The participant is drinking about a liter of water or cassava soup. And no food for the 8-12 hours before the ceremony;
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A practitioner will use a burning stick to create a number of small burns on the skin, small blisters of skin are then scraped off, and the kambo is applied to the wounds.
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From the wound, the kambo enters the lymphatic system and bloodstream, where it’s said to race around the body scanning for problems. This usually results in some immediate effects such as increased heart rate, face redness and vomiting.
Symptoms can range in severity. They typically last from 5 to 30 minutes, though they can last for up to several hours in rare cases.
Once these effects begin to fade, the person will be given water or tea to help flush out the toxins and rehydrate.
You may feel horrible for some time, so that you may feel wonderful after!
Kambo medicine, long used by many Indigenous tribes in South America as a sort of rainforest vaccine, is not a recreational drug. There is no psychedelic trip involved here, only energy movement and physical effects on the body.
Kambo is a cleanse for the body and the soul, the goal is to purge not only so-called “toxins” trapped in your body but also, psychological trauma and bad life experiences.
Skin can be burned by the practitioner in different places of the body: hands, legs, back. This is how some of them may look liked.
The burns will heal over time, leaving tiny scars on the skin.
We came to this incarnation with a lot of negative karma from our previous lives, as well a lot of new negative experiences in this life.
But for each one of us, the time comes, when we either need to heal those traumas, or we can choose not to and then the life will become a suffering from illnesses, pain and more traumatic experiences.
So the ones, who choose the transcendence, need to know, it does come with a price, but the price of healing and eliminating the old karma is much less than living all life in suffering.
Some uncomfortable experiences come with every healing technique, if you want them to work.
Noone can do the work for you, the ones who said they do, do not tell you the whole truth.
Whatever healing practice you choose, either shamanic healing, emotional healing, Ayahuasca, San Pedro, Psilocybin Mushrooms or any other psychedelic ceremonies you will be experiencing different kinds of uncomforting.
In order to get healed and become healthy and whole again, we need to shed our skin, to let go of the old experiences, to let go of a lot of things we were associated with. And letting go never comes easy.
It is your choice – a spiritual awakening and transformation, or boring and painful long life.
I’ve chosen a happy life through transformation and advice you to choose wisely.
Some other effects may follow the ceremony including:
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dizziness, heart palpitations, feeling of a lump in throat, trouble swallowing, swelling of the lips, eyelids, or face, loss of bladder control.
Kambo, as well as other psychedelics are not for everyone. You need to be “called” by this kind of medicine. When you have a “calling” you will have no doubts and will know what to do.
Certain underlying health conditions can increase your risk for serious side effects. It’s best to avoid kambo if you have:
cardiovascular conditions
a history of stroke or brain hemorrhage
psychosis
low blood pressure
epilepsy
aneurysm
blood clots
severe mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety disorders, and Addison’s disease. Those who are pregnant or breastfeeding as well as children shouldn’t use kambo.