Kambo, the Frog Venom Making Suburbanites Puke Their Guts Out
· Vice
Careful: After watching our latest documentary about the Amazonian drug, kambo, you might start seeing frogs wherever you go.
Thinking about the poison, which is derived from giant monkey frogs, and then seeing the creatures dotted hither and thither as you go about your daily life would be taken by most people as a funny coincidence.
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However, there are those to whom this is a clear sign that they need to dab their flesh with the venom and then vomit their guts into a bucket, in the name of a ceremonial ritual that supposedly cures almost any ailment (naturally, there’s no clinical evidence for these claims).
VICE’s Amber Rawlings has been meeting British kambo enthusiasts, who have been gathering in apartments, parks, nature reserves, and lay-bys across the suburbs to be “healed” by part-time shamans armed with venom sourced from Indigenous rainforest tribes.
Though this is not illegal in the UK, the stuff isn’t a licensed medicine. Earlier this year, a 40-year-old man died after reportedly taking part in a ceremony—one of a number of suspected fatalities around the world.
Amber first got interested in kambo while interviewing tripsitters, and although this isn’t a psychedelic, fans of the venom credit it with all kinds of powerful psychological benefits.
Read Next Tripsitting the Mega RichI gave her a call to find out a bit more about the documentary, which you can watch on YouTube now.
VICE: How did you stumble into this one?
Amber Bean Rawlings: Psychedelics can do a lot of good, but if you’re professionally into psychedelics, you’re probably gonna have a god complex. It’s funnier if someone’s got a god complex and they’re just some man you could find down the pub, but on the weekend he’s a shaman wearing a cloak. There’s something so funny about going into someone’s flat that’s meant to look spiritual, and it’s a throw from Urban Outfitters on the wall.
How would you describe the people involved in this?
Practitioners, it’s a spectrum from health and wellness to woo-woo. With the people doing it, there are health and wellness people, people who treat it a bit like a psychedelic, to whom it’s a really spiritual experience—people who probably rely too much on kambo. It also intersects with anti-pharmaceutical, anti-conventional medicine, kind of like, “Kambo’s the answer.”
How do you feel about the woo-woo side of it?
I don’t know if there’s anything actually spiritual going on. If you’re sick enough, you’re going to feel quite euphoric. You’ve fasted for 16 hours and you vomit loads, someone’s blowing sage around and there’s tribal music on—if this was in the jungle, I’d be well into it.
Did you feel awkward sitting around watching these people vomit?
I’ve had some awful hangovers in my time where I’ve vomited 30 times in a day. So I don’t mind the vomit that much. Whatever—it’s not vomit, vomit. It’s just the water they’ve drunk. It’s not like seeing someone chunder up a McDonald’s.
Any weird shit you didn’t include?
We did a whole other session with two older ladies that we didn’t have time for in the documentary. One really cried when she took the kambo, and I found it quite moving and had a little tear myself. I was like, “Maybe my mom should do kambo.”
What’s behind the popularity of kambo in the suburbs?
A lot of people are disillusioned with conventional medicine, probably somewhat due to misinformation. People are able to promote kambo through social media and make it look like this sleek package. There’s no regulation around saying, “This is going to heal you and help addiction issues.”
“It’s not like seeing someone chunder up a McDonald’s”
I don’t know, the world’s a bit fucked, so maybe people are like, “Yeah, fuck it. I’ll do kambo. Why not?”
Where’s your thinking around regulation at the moment?
There probably should be. The people I met seemed well-intentioned. People are going to watch the documentary and think they’re grifters, but if you actually chat with them and hear about how kambo changed their life, I’m kind of like, “There’s worse things going on.”
Did making the documentary change your perspective on kambo then?
It hasn’t made me want to do it. I’m happy for other people to do it. Fill your boots, but I’ve been sick enough in my life.
You don’t want that kambo glow?
During all the ceremonies, there’s a point where they’re all gray—the color of their face changes, and it’s really freaky. Then they have a little sleep, and like 20 minutes later they look amazing. So I don’t know, maybe I can make it part of my routine, like going to the sauna. I don’t think I’d be doing it for a spiritual epiphany. It would just be to see how skinny I can get.
Since doing the documentary, have you been seeing any frogs around?
I don’t think I’ve seen a single frog, and to be brutally honest, I don’t think I will. But maybe it will happen, and then I will find myself in Preston by the motorway, vomiting up my demons and shitting everywhere.
Follow Amber on Instagram @amberawlings
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