Jaime Del'Aguila Art - Pachamama & Kambo
Kambo is a substance that comes from frog secretion. Known as the “vaccine of the forest,” it has also gained renown outside of the Amazon as a powerful treatment for chronic pain and drug dependence.
Kambo is powerful substance and shouldn’t be administered except under the care of an experienced shaman. In the Amazon, kambo is traditionally collected early in the morning, when the Phyllomedusa bicolor—the giant monkey frog from which the secretion is derived—are singing and can easily be found. Without harming them, a shaman scrapes secretion from the frog’s skin with a stick. The secretion is then administered to a person via small holes that are burned into the top few layers of their skin, usually on the arm. Because of its purging and cleansing properties, kambo is often used as a precursor to an ayahuasca ceremony, which is also used by many of the same tribes.
Undertaking a kambo ceremony can be an intense experience, it can cause a strong reaction in your nervous system and a strong emotional reaction which is intense in the moment, but leaves you feeling relaxed after about an hour. Kambo’s cleansing effects begin within minutes of administration, and it leaves most people feeling less pain in the days and weeks after treatment.
