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A First Encounter With Kambô

Nick Vonpitt

Everything You Need to Know About the Amazonian Frog Medicine, Including how to Prepare for your Ceremony

Plant medicine does not just improve symptoms; it approaches healing the whole of the body - as opposed to Western medicine, which may just approach the symptom.

— Karen Rose

My Journey with Kambô: An Unexpected Healer

The first time I heard about Kambo, I didn’t quite know what to think. The idea of using frog secretion to purge toxins from my body sounded, to put it lightly, intense. I had already tried various plant medicines, but Kambo was something else entirely. Yet, I kept hearing remarkable stories from those who swore by it for clearing their minds, strengthening their immune systems, and even easing deep-seated emotional traumas. So, I decided to dive in.

And I wasn’t disappointed. The experience wasn’t what I expected—it was raw, cleansing, and profoundly transformative. But before you leap into a Kambo session, let’s break down what this Amazonian practice is, how it’s administered, and what you need to consider.

For some context both Karis and I have had our fair share of health issues over the years namely eczema, parasites (liver flukes) severe gut health issues, brain fog and more recently Lichenplanus is something that Karis has been treating for the last 2 years. We have exhausted Western Based treatments, recently we have namely focused on Eastern, Energetic and holistic approaches to treat all of the above.

Many of these have completely disappeared or have been managed by treating all the bodies (mental, emotional, physical, energetic and spiritual) yet there are still layers which have yet to be uncovered.

The goal behind these natural medicines /processes is to aid in our unique ability to heal the physical, mental, and emotional trauma, illness and disease. This has felt more of a calling and by no means are we advocating for you to do this unless the medicine genuinely speaks to you. Plant or Frog Medicine opens you up to what is innately available within your body.

What is Kambô?

To Define ‘Kambô’, or ‘sapo’, ‘vacino da floresta.’ are some fo the names for the waxy secretion of a tree frog living in the northwestern part of the Amazon rainforest. The scientific name for this frog is ‘Phyllomedusa bicolor’ or more typically known as the ‘Giant Monkey frog’.

It is a practice that is used to get rid of bad luck or as the locals call it ‘panema’,- bad luck, depression, laziness, sadness, or a condition attracting difficulties and disease - and it is also used as a powerful medicine against snake bites, malaria, yellow fever and other epidemic diseases.

Kambô is composed of peptide substances (bio-active peptides) that are analgesic and anti-inflammatory and improve the immune system by *killing bad bacteria, viruses and parasites*.

Scientific research on kambô: nine powerful bio-active peptides

Among the several dozen peptides found in kambô, up to 7% are bio-active. They bind with receptor sites situated in our brains, triggering chemical reactions in the human body. To Date, researchers have found nine bioactive peptides that have a potent effect on the gastrointestinal muscles, gastric and pancreatic secretions, blood circulation, and on the stimulation of the adrenal cortex and pituitary gland.

Note: Phyllomedusin - is a peptide of the tachykinin family.** Phyllomedusin strongly affects the salivary glands, tear ducts, intestines, and bowels and contributes to deep purging. Phyllokinin and phyllomedusin are potent vessel dilators, increasing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier.

The peptides caerulein and sauvagine end up causing a fall in blood pressure accompanied by tachycardia. They stimulate the adrenal cortex and the pituitary gland, contributing to heightened sensory perception and increased stamina.

Both of these peptides have a strong analgesic effect, enhance endurance, increase physical strength and in general, enhance the capacity to face pain and stressful situations. They possess medical potential as digestive aids and have demonstrated analgesic effects for individuals experiencing some sort of chronic pain.

History Behind Kambô

Kambô - as well as other natural ancient medicines, is based on the principle of the transmission of energy from the shaman to the person who receives the treatment. The indigenous people have different reasons and means for/how delivering the Kambô and every tribe has developed their own unique set of rituals.

The Katukina and the Matses tribes, for instance, take the kambô burns several times a night before hunting. The number of burns administered, frequency of treatments and intention may vary from tribe to tribe.

According to the indigenous people, kambô is first and foremost a Spirit of the forest who is to be treated with respect. Harming the frog could offend the animal and result in severe misfortune.

The Matses combine kambô with nu-nu, a snuff which informs the hunter through visions of when and where prey will offer itself. The tribal members say that shamans see the frog in their visions and dialogue with it.

For some years now, kambô has been used outside of the Amazon rainforest and is no longer the exclusive realm of the native tribes. As usual, a lot of western influence has come into play and this ancient practice/ ceremony is no longer reserved only for the natives upholding the tribal culture within the Amazon.

How Does Kambô Work?

The bright green giant monkey frogs that live in the Amazon secrete a poisonous waxy substance or mucus to defend themselves from predators. This is what’s used in the actual ceremony.

As mentioned before the substance contains nine powerful bio-active peptides. One of which interacts with the body’s own opiate receptors so that it can help with pain, purging etc.

The Benefits of Kambô: What Can It Do for You?

Kambo is analgesic and anti-inflammatory and improves the overall immune system by **killing bad bacteria, viruses and parasites**. This Frees up space, and energy and allows the body to function more optimally. Kambô is also known for the treatment of the following ailments/diseases, among others:

  • Brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s

  • Skin diseases (Eczema etc)

  • Migraine & headache

  • Candida & Parasites

  • Stress

  • Problems with the blood circulation

  • Cure hepatitis, herpes and more

  • High blood pressure

  • Cancer

  • Allergies

  • Depression

  • Addiction

  • Chronic diseases

The Kambo spirit works with your intention as well as what it feels is most needed in the moment, therefor every experience is unique. Upon entering your body, the spirit scans your body and answers the call of where help is needed most.

Kambo Ceremony Preparation: Detailed Guide for a Safe and Effective Experience

Proper preparation for a Kambo ceremony is essential to ensure the best possible experience. From adjusting your diet to setting clear intentions, each step helps your body and mind embrace the healing process. Whether you're new to Kambo or have participated before, here’s how to thoroughly prepare yourself for this powerful Amazonian ritual.

1. Diet and Fasting: Prime Your Body for Detox

One of the most crucial aspects of Kambo preparation is fasting and following a clean diet. This ensures your body is in the best possible state for detoxification, allowing the medicine to work more effectively and reducing discomfort during the ceremony.

  • Three Days Before the Ceremony: Transition to a clean, plant-based diet. Focus on whole foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, and grains. Avoid processed foods, dairy, sugar, and especially meat, as these can weigh down your digestive system and inhibit the detoxification process.

  • 12 to 24 Hours Before the Ceremony: Begin fasting. Most practitioners recommend a 12-hour fast, during which you should consume only water. This fast allows your body to be free of food so that the Kambo can work directly on cleansing toxins from your system without obstruction.

  • Avoid Caffeine and Alcohol: At least three days before your ceremony, eliminate all caffeine, alcohol, and any other stimulants. These substances can dehydrate your body and disrupt the flow of the ceremony. Alcohol can also interfere with your liver’s ability to process the Kambo efficiently.

The cleaner your body is before the ceremony, the smoother your purging process will be. A light, plant-based diet and a proper fast are key to minimizing discomfort and maximizing the benefits.

2. Hydration: A Vital Component for Kambo

Hydration plays a crucial role in preparing for Kambo. During the ceremony, you’ll be required to drink 1.5 to 2 liters of water before the secretion is applied, and being adequately hydrated beforehand ensures that your body can manage this without strain.

  • Three Days Leading Up: Drink plenty of water—at least eight glasses a day—to ensure your body is well-hydrated before the ceremony. Avoid sugary drinks, caffeine, or alcohol, as these can dehydrate you.

  • The Day of the Ceremony: On the day of your Kambo session, continue drinking water in moderation. You’ll be asked to consume a large amount of water right before the ceremony to aid in the purging process. The water helps the Kambo peptides activate, promoting the expulsion of physical and energetic toxins from your body.

Remember, being well-hydrated helps the ceremony run more smoothly. An under-hydrated body can make the purge more difficult, increasing discomfort and nausea.

3. Mental and Emotional Preparation: Set Your Intention

Kambo is more than just a physical cleanse—it’s a holistic detox that touches your emotional and spiritual layers. Taking time to mentally prepare for the experience is crucial for receiving the full healing benefits.

  • Set a Clear Intention: Before the ceremony, reflect on why you are participating. What do you hope to achieve? Whether it's healing a physical ailment, releasing emotional trauma, or gaining mental clarity, being clear about your intention will guide the medicine to the areas that need the most attention. Some participants choose to write their intentions down in a journal or engage in meditation in the days leading up to the ceremony. (Journalling was our go-to approach)

  • Emotional Readiness: Kambo can bring up deep, unresolved emotions. Mentally preparing yourself for this emotional release is key to making the most of the experience. Practicing mindfulness or breathing exercises can help ground you, especially if difficult emotions arise during or after the ceremony.

  • Letting Go of Control: Trust is an important aspect of the Kambo journey. Understand that the medicine may take you through unexpected paths. Being open and allowing the process to unfold naturally will deepen your experience and help you heal more fully.

4. Physical Preparation: Rest and Restore

Your body will be going through a physically intense process, so it’s essential to prepare physically by resting and restoring your energy reserves.

  • Sleep: Ensure you get plenty of sleep in the days leading up to your Kambo session. Your body will need energy to handle the purging process, and being well-rested allows you to face the intensity with more resilience.

  • Light Exercise Only: Avoid strenuous activities at least two days before the ceremony. Engaging in light yoga, stretching, or walks can help relax your body, but overexerting yourself might leave you fatigued during the ceremony.

Taking time to care for your body beforehand will allow you to enter the Kambo ceremony with a balanced, prepared physical state.

5. Medical and Safety Considerations: Protect Your Health

Kambo is a powerful tool, but it’s important to approach it responsibly, especially if you have any underlying medical conditions.

  • Medical Check-Up: If you have any pre-existing medical conditions—particularly heart issues, high blood pressure, or if you’re taking prescription medications—consult your doctor before participating in a Kambo ceremony. Certain medications and health conditions can cause adverse reactions during the ceremony.

  • Inform Your Practitioner: Ensure that your Kambo practitioner is fully aware of your medical history. A reputable practitioner will screen you before the session to ensure that Kambo is safe for you to use.

Safety should always come first. Ensuring that both you and your practitioner are aware of any potential health risks will allow you to participate with peace of mind.

Process Before A Kambô Ceremony

The first thing to do is get the Kambô. The practitioner does this (or someone working with the practitioner collects it). According to the indigenous people of the Amazon, Kambô is a spirit of the forest and is deeply respected. So, everything about the gathering is done with respect and reverence.

In our experience, Sara (the practitioner) had already collected said frog mucus. The collected secretions are put on bamboo sticks, where they dry, ready for future use. (The Kambô remains stable for a long time.) After all, this is done, the frog is released and won’t get harvested again for at least three months. This way, he still has enough of his own Kambô to protect the frog itself.

Sara (Practitioner) spent time with each person to understand what issues they're dealing with, what's happening in their lives, and what's going on emotionally.

She gave an overview of the medicine, and simple protocols to incase one battle’s to purge or may need help getting to a bathroom. The added touch of ambient amazonian music really set the tone.

What Happens During A Kambô Ceremony

We all sat in a circle, well spaced out on mats for floor padding, having to bring our blankets. Pillows were in abundance. One must sit up, the energy flows better and the purging seems to happen with more ease. (After the intensive 20mins or so you can lay)

Due to the purging, there’s usually a bucket nearby and your water.- I would recommend having a large bottle of 5l and a 1l bottle to decant into as you may need more water during the purging process.

The space was blessed through prayer, Sara drew cards for each individual, adding to our intention.

Nick Vonpitt and Nathan Maingard before the start of the Kambo Ceremony in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa.

Before we even began with the Kambô we all had to lay down and receive Sananga, which are Amazonian Eye Drops -This burns like hell btw.

What is Sananga?

Sananga is still used by many tribes in the heart of the Amazon, but its benefits are reaching the rest of the world as these tribes open up ceremonies to outsiders and train those who are interested in the administration of the eye drops. Used either in conjunction with ayahuasca or as a stand-alone treatment, sananga shows powerful potential to treat a spectrum of physical and psycho-spiritual illnesses:

  • Treats and prevents ocular diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, farsightedness, nearsightedness, astigmatism, and blindness

  • Detoxifies the body

  • Increases visual perception and enhances colours

  • Clears long-standing inner anger

  • Used in conjunction, helps with mental disorders such as addiction, depression, and anxiety

  • Resets energetic field

  • Treats spiritual diseases (“panema”) caused by negative energies in the body. These spiritual diseases can accumulate in a person’s energetic body and make a person depressed and anxious. The next step is to create openings for the Kambô to go into. These are called burns or gates and are made by burning the top layer of skin with a smouldering piece of vine or incense stick. The area is small.

Source: https://psychedelictimes.com/sananga/

This was just a taster before we dove into the main ceremony. I will say, it was an intense couple of minutes yet once you wipe the Sananga out of your eyes, you really do notice a difference in the quality of your vision.

The number of burns and where they put them depends on what’s going on with the person. First-timers will have a test point to gauge how sensitive they are. This initial sensation of the application really gives you a taste of the power of this medicine. The Gates are Often placed to correspond with meridian or chakra points in the body. The shoulder or back of the arm is one of the most common areas.

The Effects of Kambô

Some clinicians may liken the symptoms to an allergic reaction. The first wave of symptoms is feeling hot and flushed. That’s quickly followed by:

  • Face swelling

  • Nausea

  • Difficulty in swallowing

  • Palpitations

  • Vomiting

  • Stomachaches

  • Dizziness

  • Rapid pulse

The Dangers of Kambô

These reactions can last for half an hour and rarely go on for several hours. You can be rather fatigued after the process.

The is not a great deal of research out there, and the National Institute of Health is not really for it. The issue that arises, is that Kambô has some really potent chemicals that can interfere with your CNS (central nervous system) and your cardiovascular system. Damage to kidneys, pancreas, and liver could also occur due to the toxins,

So please make sure you do your research and work with someone who practices this medicine with integrity.

What Does Kambo feel like?

The First Minute

The experience is intense and fast. Usually, within a minute or so, a person will start feeling the effects: a hot flush of heat in the upper body and face, and an increased heart rate, some may feel dizzy or spaced out, while others have slight tingling on their skin and clammy hands/feet

The Next 30 Minutes +

One can feel the wisdom of the medicine pulsing through the system as it works alongside your own intuitive guidance system.

After a few more minutes, you’ll often feel some nausea, but it’s not really intense or you don’t really notice it due to your heart pounding in your chest, or your stomach may start to hurt. The purging is thought to eliminate physical, emotional, and energetic toxins and that can be done from both ends, typically one vomits for 15 to 30 minutes. Topping up with water in between.

The Kambô is acting as a conscious tool, teaching you active surrender in yourself, where you are forced to be completely present in your body. Time seems to stop and you are just there, exactly where you are sitting with it.

I personally had some additional resistance in my system so Sara administered shamanic snuff or better known as Rapé. This induced calm and ease into my system which allowed the process to be more fluid.

As the intensity lessened, I found there was like this pause, where nausea stopped and I just sat, in a space honouring the journey that I have experienced in this life. It gives you space and place for deep reflection on yourself, possibly with more compassion than before.

After The Ceremony

After a time, the actual mucus of the Kambô is removed from gates ( bare skin), and natural tree sap is used to prevent infection and heal. Most people recover and are back to normal within 2 hours or a little longer.

Find space to rest, replenish the body with healthy foods and get a good night’s rest.

Sara said something that I have found true over the last couple of days

"Kambô is called the great revealer,” she says. This brings forth change, and awareness and uncovers parts that have long been seen or witnessed within ourselves.

Note - Yes you do have permanent burn marks on the skin, which don’t look too bad, to be honest. A beautiful reminder of an incredible life lived.

Our Personal Experience

It is truly different to any other plant medicine that we have tried. Nothing has brought me back into my body as Kambô has. I feel like there has been a biological reset and in a way a right of passage.

Life is full of knocks, our experiences shape us and allow us to share this wisdom with the shade we create as we age. And this really brought that home for me.

If you feel like you need a jump start for your system, your immune system or your possibly suffering from disease physically this could be an option for you. Speaking to Sara, she has worked with individuals with severe skin disease, and sometimes cancer-related patients, and the results have been incredible.

I’m not here to advocate for anyone to try or not try this as I believe we all feel called to the medicines that we need as we move through our cycles of healing.

That being said this is also not a ‘fix-all’ for your psychological, physiological, or emotional problems - nor does any plant medicine do that on its own. There is a need for you to do the work before, and after to integrate the parts that arise and seek to be witnessed through plant medicine. That is your job.

Conclusion: Is Kambo Right for You?

Kambo is not for the faint of heart, but its rewards are substantial. If you’re dealing with chronic health issues, emotional trauma, or feel stuck in life, it could offer a pathway to healing that you haven’t yet explored.

That said, this is not a medicine to take lightly. Do your research, find a qualified practitioner, and enter the experience with respect for the medicine and yourself. Like all plant medicines, Kambo is a tool—how it’s used will determine whether it becomes a catalyst for profound transformation or just another fleeting experience.

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Similar Treatments to Kambô

Reach out if you are In South Africa if you would like to get in touch with the healer/facilitator we connected with. She lives her life in alignment with the work that she does including Bufo Ceremonies - read blog here on Bufo - and breathwork. We both felt supported and honoured before, during and after the experience.

Sara (Practitioner)

Thank you for taking the time to educate yourself and feel free to connect, or share your thoughts if you are feeling curious, want to explore your internal landscape and dive deeper into your authentic, empowered self check out our private coaching here

Until next time traveller.

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