Is Kambo Really the Next Wellness Trend?
Devotees say the gooey secretion scraped off a frog’s back can cure everything from acne to cancer. Could there be something to the hype?
Five people are sitting cross-legged on the floor in a circle, looking down at their white pails with trepidation. “Remember throughout, you have four things to guide you: your posture, your water, your breath — and your bucket,” the practitioner reassuringly tells the room.
“Using a stick of incense, I will burn a small hole in your skin, just enough to burn off the outer layer of the epidermis. I’ll then put a dab of kambo on the exposed tissue, or ‘gateways,’ usually three or four spots, depending on how easily you react.”
I’m at a modest apartment in suburban London, quietly observing a small group that has gathered to experience an exotic form of medicine exported from the rainforests of South America. Kambo is the dried skin secretion of Phyllomedusa bicolor, or the waxy-monkey tree frog. Sitting in wait on a small wooden palette, the substance looks like a few blobs of craft glue.
The group shares their reasons for being here. This is not the stereotypical middle-class, New Age, ayahuasca crowd, all flowing white robes and ornate jewelry. Two of the women are…
