Complete Guide to Bufo Alvarius (5-MeO-DMT Bufotenin Toad Venom)

Before doing anything in your life, you should ask yourself… why am I going to do this? Sometimes we might feel an inner explicable calling that we are supposed to do something beyond reason, but one must be able to differentiate that inner calling from feelings of boredom, impulsive pleasure seeking or avoiding reality.

Bufo has serious health risks and many people have died taking it. Many more people who do take it do not feel any mentally or physically better than they did before. Entheogens should never be used for recreational purposes, this is serious business that could alter your consciousness forever.

Someone taking bufo alone could easily overdose and kill themself. If one goes consulting with a “bufo shaman”, that person might actually be a total fraud and offering you ceremonies just to take your money as a business. It is an illegal substance in many countries, too.

Please support the charity project based around the Sonoaran Desert Toad at this link. 100% of the profit from this book will be donated to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

We hope that people who find our Bufo articles and read them will decide to abstain from smoking any Bufo toad venom, help the natural conservation to protect the frog, and donate money to charity.

What is Bufo Alvarius Toad Venom?

The Colorado River Toad / Sonoran Desert Toad

Alkaloids of Bufo: 5-MeO-DMT and Bufotenin

The toad venom contains two primary alkaloids: 5-MeO-DMT and Bufotenin.

The main alkaloid in terms of potency found in the venom is 5-MeO-DMT. Something like 1/3 to 1/5 of the venom by weight consists of this primary alkaloid. An average strong dose of the venom is about 50mg, while for pure 5-meo-dmt, 12-15mg is the high dose range. Never start at that dose.

Unlike most psychedelics, 5-MeO-DMT is actually extremely dangerous. Even an overdoses by only 1/3 too much can result in death or be permanently mind shattering. If someone combines Bufo with a serotonin or dopamine boosting drug (such as Ayahuasca or Syrian Rue) the venom can become much more deadly. This is particularly bad, because many people who are in circles of safe ayahuasca use could be tempted or sold these experienced and convinced to take bufo soon after an ayahuasca session which could be so dangerous for their mental and physical health.

More information

Here is a video of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia that you can watch on the topic.

Historical use of Bufo Alvarius Toad Venom by the Cherokee

It is disputed whether there is evidence of the use of Bufo by the Indigineous people of North America. The only research ever done that would prove it comes from research work done by Dr Jeanne Runquist.

In a 1981 article in OMNI Magazine, the following was published:

 

Rediscovery of the Bufo by Ken Nelson

Ken Nelson is the name of the man who re-introduced the usage of Bufo to the world in the 1980s as part of his own discovery. He published booklets and distributed them under the pen name Al Most.

Traditional and Modern use of the Bufo Toad Venom

Traditional usage

This is a very disputed and touchy topic. Some people insist that there is a bufo tradition of use, however many people actually dispute this and say there is absolutely no bufo shamanic tradition that has been carried over into the modern world.

Modern usage

How is Bufo consumed?

The toad venom can be smoked directly out of something resembling a glass pipe, or it can be vaporized in a vape pen. Both of these methods are unreliable, because you never really know exactly how much you are getting.

Smoking Bufo venom

Most commonly, bufo is smoked in a glass pipe.

If someone is ever inhaling Bufo and feelings a sudden heart pain or a change into an irregular heart beat, they should immediately exhale and abort abort abort.

One notable side effect aside from the bothersome nausea is inability to breathe. For this reason it is traditional to have a friend watch you who can spray water on your face if you stop breathing for too long (and try CPR if that doesn’t work). Ideally one would have someone medically trained to supervise, but that is not always feasible. A notable Bufo proponent splashes water on people, but multiple people have died of asphyxiation due to this approach.

Bufo vape cartridges and 5-MeO DMT vape cartridges

While regular DMT vape cartridges are starting to become more mainstream and sold illegally in places such as the deep web, vaporizer pens loaded up with Bufo or 5-MeO DMT are also starting to appear for sale. As always, we suggest you stay away from this.

At least someone smoking bufo can scale out a maximum weight of possible bufo that is going into their pipe, however when someone is vaporizing then they are just trusting the vape pen. They can think they know how much they get based on a 1 second, 2 second, 3 second pull etc. but this could very well unintentionally become the last pull of a vape pen you ever take.

Some people will pre-dose with an amino acid called taurine, which can be purchased easily on the internet and is found in fish and energy drinks. Taurine protects your heart and it’s a sort of panacea in many ways for longevity. But specifically, it may protect your heart from the harsh effects of toad venom, to some extent.

Benefits of Bufo and Positive Experiences

Many people report positive experiences smoking and vaporizing the Bufo toad venom.

Here we will discuss them …

Health Risks of Bufo Alvarius Toad Venom

Physical health risks of Bufo

You can die, it is very serious.

Your heart can stop, or you can become asphyxiated and unable to breathe.

Bufo practitioner malpractice

This also a big problem. There is an entire website devoted to 5-MeO-DMT malpractice which covers horror stories by a few bad practitioners. These guys positioned themslves into being experienced trustworthy people, and then were involved in all sorts of issues like sexual misconduct and having a lot of people die under their watch. Nobody at Sananga Canada has ever worked with these guys in particular so we will not name anybody, but this is an important topic to bring up.

It also calls into question the qualifications of who is able to give others Bufo. With Kambo there is the IAKP, with Ayahuasca someone could have a history with a well known Curandeiro of a real well-known lineage, but with Bufo things are like the wild west in comparison. When a group of people come together to drink Ayahuasca, the leader of the charge will demonstrate their qualities of confidence in the space to lead the charge and ensure a positive powerful safe experience for everyone involved because that is the nature of the activity. With Bufo on the otherhand, it is a much more solitary endeavor. The practitioner and the participant are not entering the state of consciousness together. In a situation with Ayahuasca, a newbie can look at someone who is confident and mirror the joy and happiness and stillness of mind from them, but with Bufo you just pray to God and get put on some roller coaster thrilling ride through the astral where you lose yourself completely.

This is not meant to be a shot at all Bufo practitioners. There are many people who assert that they have recieved a lot of happiness and joy and healing from psychological traumas through using Bufo, where trustworthy people have given them a safe amount and created the space for the opportunity to flourish. 

Psychological health risks of Bufo

While this is not something that can be objectively measured, the friends of many people who get into Bufo report that the person who has started consuming the toad venom “changes” and often becomes a totally different person. Sometimes, it is a depersonalized version of their former self who seems to be more removed from the body, or that they become more distant. Sometimes they cannot even put their finger on what the issue is but they know that their friend is not the person they were before.

There are also reports that people who use bufo will start to get wrapped up in their own egos, believing that they have ascended into higher realms of reality and now are quasi-angelic beings or gods themselves. However, this is not the case with everyone who takes Bufo, but remember that any time you consume a plant or animal product you are changing the constitution of your body and pointing it in a particular direction.

Spiritual and social risks of Bufo

Anecdotal evidence from reports on Facebook in Brazil in Ayahuasca churches say that Bufo is the number one new age entheogen that is breaking up the churches. Keep in mind that these churches are often well organized communities that have core groups of members dedicated to carrying out a tradition for many years, it is not as “free-spirited” as new age spiritual circles of North America and Europe.

When someone is smoking Bufo they cannot do anything else – they are out cold. They are removed from this world, you cannot get them to dance or sing or do any actions here. This is the antithesis of the community involvement that the Ayahuasca communities typically carry which are based around teamwork and consciously working together in the force of the entheogen. For that reason, it is antithetical to the activities carried out and can orient them in a different direction in life.

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