Journey into Plant Medicine: My First Encounter with Kambo and Sananga
Photo, Even Perkens @perklax
A few weeks ago, I attended Awakening 2024, organized by the Psychedelic Institute of Los Angeles, where I got the opportunity to try kambo and sananga for the first time. I’m always curious about plant medicine, especially those I haven’t tried yet, so I could not turn them down. I fasted before kambo, as suggested, for a little over 12 hours and made sure to drink extra water. At the conference, I met the facilitators that would be administering and helping us through the process, both very kind folks with positive vibes and experience using and serving the medicine. Without further ado, I sat down on a pillow with a bucket nearby for the purging that would be just around the corner. I have been box breathing a lot after learning about it at a previous conference - in for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, out for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts and rinse and repeat. I started this right away and the facilitators had us do some breathing to prepare as they burned sage and some incense to set the stage.
Being my first time with kambo, I decided to go with four gates to try things out. Kambo is administered through “gates”, small burns on the skin. I chose my left shoulder for the location of the burns, as it’s the arm I have the most trouble with due to an old gym injury. We passed around the kambo stick and stated our intentions for the session. Mine were to be humble, meet the medicine and learn from it. We each drank about half a gallon of water right then and there. The burns were quick and administered with a piece of incense. Water was added to the kambo stick and a tool was used to scrap this and work the kambo together into a paste. The facilitator applied a test gate to my arm to let me see how it felt and make sure there were no adverse reactions for me. Then, she added the other three, and I was off to the races.
Photo, Even Perkens @perklax
As soon as the first dot of kambo medicine touched my arm, a wave of heat moved across my shoulder and back up my neck into my ears. It felt like a very hot shower after you had been outside in the cold for a long time, prickling along the skin and an inner ear pressure that felt kind of odd. Shortly after this, I was in the zone so to speak. You don’t trip with kambo or see things, but the intense nausea, heat and waves of discomfort the medicine brings definitely puts you in some kind of space where you’re not focusing too much on the external or the future; it’s all right there right now. I continued to box breath and tried to stay sitting up straight in a meditative state. The facilitators blew sage and incense my way and encouraged me to keep drinking water. Time was passing slowly for me as I tried to breathe through the intensity. I started to feel as though I may not purge at all before I was proven wrong.
Photo, Even Perkens @perklax
My left calf cramped up, and as I moved to straighten my leg a pain just under my right rib cage had me grabbing for the buckets that were supplied right away. I never thought I’d be writing about throwing up, but here we are. It felt amazing to purge and calming in some sense. I purged again and felt most of the nausea dissipate. Sitting there for the remainder of the experience, I breathed and found a clarity, a sense of well being and grounded nature that overtook my often rapid thoughts. For a few moments, a strong thought came to me about my wife and daughter and their importance in my life which was reassuring.
As things wore off, that sense of wellbeing and calmness persisted allowing for some solid meditation and a relaxed mindstate. At this point, sananga was offered to which I said, why not. They explained it was administered as eye drops and would burn for a short time before feeling better. I laid on the couch, and my friends, it seriously burned. I was not expecting it at all. My hands shot up to my eyes, and they snapped shut again. The feeling lasted a minute or two along with blurry vision, but it resided quickly. The world around me looked so crisp and clear; it’s hard to explain. I don’t have vision issues at the moment, but for the rest of the afternoon/evening post sananga, I really felt like I was seeing the world as it was - sharp, crisp, clean and vibrant.
So, what are these plant medicines? Let’s start with kambo, also known as frog medicine. It is a traditional practice originating from the tribes of the Amazon in Brazil and Peru. It all starts with finding the Phyllomedusa bicolor frog early in the mornings. Also known as the giant monkey frog, these guys have no natural predator and live a good life in the trees of the Amazon. With great respect and reverence, their limbs are lightly tied which causes them to excrete a milky white substance from the skin on their back. This is collected and spread onto thin strips of wood that become the kambo sticks once they are dried out.
Kambo has a unique list of over 20 peptides within it including dermorphin and deltorphin, potent opioid peptides that aide in pain relief, phyllokinin and phyllomedusin, which promote blood vessel dilation and digestion, along with adenoregulin that interacts with the body’s stress response. Without further research, I cannot elaborate on these, but I do know that it's the phyllomedusa that causes the purging effects of the medicine. Benefits of this natural cocktail of peptides include mental clarity, focus, emotional wellbeing, energy, vitality, detoxification and physical healing. I definitely noticed my shoulder feeling better during the weeks following kambo and the emotional and mental clarity and well being.
The eye drops I tried were called sananga, which is also a traditional medicine from the Amazon. This is created from the roots and bark of certain plants primarily the Tabernaemontana undulata also known as the becchete plant. It’s used for spiritual and physical purposes. Some of the benefits reported include improved vision, spiritual/energetic cleansing and clearing, emotional release and physical healing. It releases negative energies and can help with eye health and visual acuity. Again, I really did feel these effects and see (literally) them, but it was not a pleasant application at all.
There you have it; two new plant medicines for me and hopefully an interesting read for you. I would try both of these medicines again for sure. I may look at ordering some sananga myself and have found a few other facilitators and ceremonies that provide kambo for me to visit in the spring. I felt better afterwards, not that I had any major issues beforehand, but that mental clarity and more peaceful accepting mindstate lingered for many weeks. Both medicines should not be used without respect and appreciation. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend them to others either; it's more of a thing you should be “called” to as they are trying experiences, especially kambo. Also, please remember to talk with your doctor, do your own research and make sure you’re healthy, well hydrated and willing to be open and reverent before trying either of these.