About Kambo
What is Kambô?
Kambo (also known as Sapo locally to Peruvians) is the venom from the Phyllomedusa bicolor, the Amazonian giant monkey frog. This medicine is well known around Peru and Brazil as the “vaccine of the forest.” It is most easily understood as a detoxifying, purgative, immune-boosting substance and a powerful treatment for chronic pain and drug dependency.
The venom contains short chains of amino acids, known as peptides, that affect gastrointestinal muscles and blood circulation and stimulate the brain's adrenal cortex and pituitary gland. While there are currently no clinical studies that definitively show kambo’s efficacy, the properties of Kambo peptides make it a promising treatment for the following conditions:
Depression
Migraines
Blood circulation problems
Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease
Vascular insufficiency
Organ diseases
Cancer - Tumors
Fertility problems
Deeply rooted toxins
Chronic pain
Addiction to opiate or prescription painkillers (Kambo reduces physical pain, thus helping people kick their addictions to other painkillers)
Fever and infections
Negative or non-beneficial attached energies
Chronic Fatigue
PTSD
High
Blood Pressure
Detox and Cleansing
HIV
MS
Diabetes
Panic Attacks
Fertility
Herpes
Hepatitis
Parkinson’s
Various Autoimmune conditions
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Lyme
Gut & Digestive Issues
Candida
Ailments of the Eyes
Impotence
Parasites
Fungal Infections
Thyroid
Alcohol and Drug Addiction
Chronic Imbalances
Kambo is an excellent way to prepare the mind and body for the effects of ayahuasca. It is said the purging process experienced during Kambo can help reduce the amount of purging in the ayahuasca ceremonies. It also helps clear the energy and prepare the mind for the psychological effects of ayahuasca. The connection between Kambo and Ayahuasca is special – being that the spirit of ayahuasca is what, according to legend, brought about the knowledge of Kambo use and its incredible benefits.
The Origins of Kambo
Each tribe has its own legend or story about how they came to use Kambo. The most prevalent legend comes from Brazil.
There are many legends from many tribes – but the most well-known one is that of the Kaxianawá tribe from the Northern Amazon Basin in Brazil. This Kaxinawá legend tells that the Indians of the tribe were very ill, and their medicine man/Pajé tried everything to cure them. Nothing helped.
On an Ayahuasca journey, he entered the forest and, while there, received a visit from a female spirit of the forest. She brought a frog, took a white secretion, and taught the Pajé how to apply it. Returning to the tribe and following the guidelines he had received, the Pajé could cure his brothers and sisters. From then on, he was known as Pajé Kampu or Kampum.
When he passed on, his spirit lived on in the frog, which continued its mission to protect the health of those who defend the forest. The secretion became known as Kambo, but in some tribes, it is called Sapo, Dow-Kiet, Kampu, or Vacina da Floresta.
Usage spread, and for thousands of years, Kambo has been used as medicine by the Kaxinawá people and by many other indigenous groups, including the Amahuaca, Katukina, Kulina, Yawanawá, Matses, Marubo, and Mayoruna. It is still used widely amongst indigenous people in the Amazon today.
The first observations of Kambo use were made by a French priest, Father Constantin Tastevin, in 1925 while staying with the Kaxinawá tribe in the upper Juruá River in Brazil. In the 1980s, an American Anthropologist, Katherine Milton, described Kambo use among the Mayoruna tribe in Brazil. In the 1980s, Peter Gorman wrote about his experiences taking Kambo with the Matses tribe in Peru.
During the 1990s, rubber tappers in Brazil learned about Kambo from the Amazon Indians. They began to take it out into the towns of Acre and apply it themselves. Having spent several years living with the Katukina, Francisco Gomes from Cruzeiro do Sol was one of the first to pioneer Kambo's use outside the Amazon. The practice spread, and soon, people in the larger cities of Brazil were using Kambo.
Kambo is legal almost everywhere in the world, with few exceptions.
Continue reading . . .
