The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef review - a bizarre tale of psychedelic toads and hair-raising treatments

A review of The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef, a book that delves into the world of psychedelic toads and the dark tale of Octavio Rettig, a self-proclaimed practitioner of indigenous medicine.

The book "The Ego Trip" by Kimon de Greef is a bizarre tale of psychedelic toads and hair-raising treatments. The story revolves around Octavio Rettig, a central character who embodies the worst cultural trends of our time, including social media influencers, unregulated wellness practitioners, and macho manosphere posturers.

The tale begins with the Sonoran desert toad, an amphibian that spends most of its life hiding underground in the baking badlands along the Mexico-Arizona border. The toad's poison glands secrete a venom that contains a potent hallucinogen called 5-MeO-DMT, also known as the "God molecule". The first known user of the toad's venom was a man who smoked it after it dried on his car's windscreen.

Rettig, a troubled young man from Mexico, started smoking dried toad venom in the early 2000s and claims it helped him kick his crack cocaine habit. However, his contribution to the world of psychedelics was not to pioneer the use of the toad's venom, but to create a tradition for it, giving it a mystical authenticity that is similar to that of peyote, morning glory, and ayahuasca.

Rettig adopted the chants of the Seri people, who live between the Sonoran Desert and the Gulf of California, and presented himself globally as a practitioner of indigenous medicine. However, his treatment methods were questionable, and he offered huge doses of the toad's venom with minimal screening, sometimes inflicting treatment forcibly.

The author of the book, Kimon de Greef, has a clear-eyed view of the grim practices of the world of psychedelics, and his reporting is methodical, exacting, and well-written. He avoids the temptation to go gonzo and instead provides a detailed and entertaining account of Rettig's story.

The book can be seen as a parable for the current economy, highlighting the undeserved authority of charlatans, the exploitation of the natural world, and the hiding of hyper-capitalism behind a shield of cod-mystical woo-woo.

The Dark Tale of Octavio Rettig

Octavio Rettig's story is a dark and disturbing one. He engaged in sexual relationships with women after serving them the toad's venom, denied responsibility when patients died, and never seemed to learn from his mistakes. Rettig claims that his work has been misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused, but it is hard to see any argument for treating people with the toad's venom the way that he did.

The Legacy of the Toad's Venom

The toad's venom has become a commodity to be exploited, and the movement that Rettig helped to popularise has mutated and expanded at the speed of social media. New influencers appear, and new markets open, but the toads themselves have become just another product to be used and discarded.

The book "The Ego Trip" by Kimon de Greef is a fascinating and disturbing account of the world of psychedelic toads and the dark tale of Octavio Rettig. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of culture, economy, and the natural world.

Source: The Guardian Books