Silicon Valley elites are poisoning themselves with frog mucus to improve mental strength

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Silicon Valley elites are employing an ancient Amazonian frog-mucus ritual to rid themselves of stress.

The practice, called kambo, involves burning the skin with a smoldering vine or wooden stick and then smearing frog mucus on top so it absorbs into the bloodstream for its poisonous and vomit-inducing properties. This ritual, as kambo expert practitioners told the New York Times, is meant to cause a physical and mental exorcism of sorts.

Practitioners apply a paste made from kambo resin mixed with water or saliva to pencil eraser-sized burn holes in the arm or ankle. Moments later, users' lips swell up, they feel nauseous, and often end up with diarrhea and vomiting.

Afterwards, users have reported feeling physically stronger, more mentally sharp, and less anxious.

It's the latest drug to become popular in tech industry circles due to its potential mental health benefits.

"Last year, none of my patients had ever heard of kambo," Dr. David Rabin, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist in Monterey, California, told the New York Times. "Now, I would say 20% to 30% of my new patients already know about it. I have a lot of patients who are like, 'Oh, I'm going to do kambo this weekend.'"

Previously, Silicon Valley executives have both invested in and experimented with psychedelics like LSD, ayahuasca, ketamine, and MDMA as a mounting body of research suggests psychedelic drugs have the ability to rewire the brain and reduce anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms.

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Right after taking kambo, you'll vomit or poop

When you take kambo you're poisoning yourself, and the effects - swelling of the lips and eyes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, increased heart rate, fever, faintness, and chills - are almost immediate.

"They call it 'frog face,'" Julia Allison, a media strategist in San Francisco, told the New York Times. "It kind of looks like a celebrity plastic surgeon went to town on your face, like Kim Kardashian in a fun-house mirror. And then, suddenly, you are unbelievably nauseous. You're basically going from zero to the worst flu of your life within 60 seconds."

Another user, Emma, told Vice's Max Daly that kambo made her feel "like my brain was being punched from the inside."

These effects are short-lived though, and tend to subside about 40 minutes later once practitioners remove kambo from the skin. After a kambo session, people tend to feel tired and might fall asleep.

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