WHAT TO EXPECT
in Kambo Session
Session time
Kambo is a powerful morning medicine traditionally administered in a dry fasting state. This means no food, water, or supplements should be consumed prior to the ceremony to ensure the medicine works most effectively.
Our ceremonies typically begin around 10 AM. Upon arrival, you will enter a carefully prepared sacred space infused with the spirit of the medicine. The area will be cleansed and smudged with various sacred scents, and your bed, blankets, and bucket will be set up to ensure your comfort throughout the process.
Before we begin, we will take time to sit together, ground, and connect. Kambo is an intimate and deeply personal journey, and we want you to feel fully safe, supported, and ready before we proceed.
If you choose, we may first serve you Hapé (Rapé) and Sananga, which help to center and prepare the mind, body, and spirit for the medicine. Afterward, we will proceed with opening the gates—the process of applying Kambo—at which point you will begin drinking water.
Important: You will not drink any water before your session; this is an essential part of the preparation protocol.
You will drink 1+ liter of water before the medicine goes on. This helps with the purging process. Not everyone throws up with Kambo and that is ok!
Kambo can be applied anywhere on the body, but is more effective near the Lymph nodes. For your first session I will either place the medicine on your arm or leg. We will decide together the day of ceremony. Any session after that we can explore the back with the chakras, stomach, ears + more.
A small stick is used to burn the first layer of skin with a number of points to create your gates.
The number and position of the points will vary from person to person, depending on individual needs. Kambo enters directly into the Lymphatic System via these 'gates'. Usually for a first treatment, one should expect to receive 3-5 points. However, some require less and some much more. Generally these marks fade within two weeks and disappear completely within 6 months, depending on how healthy the body is at the time of placement.
After the drinking the liquid, we will place your Kambo 'dots' on your 'gates'. This begins your Kambo journey.
Usually the effects of Kambo are felt within 1-3 minutes depending on the area of the body the gates were placed. You will know kambo is kicking in when you start to feel a slight temperature rise and energetic rush in the crown. At this time I will bring focus to your breath and suggest you breathe deeply and slowly. Try to observe what sensations you are experiencing. With the awareness of the heartbeat rising it will be time to relax, focus on the breath and surrender to the process.
If you would like to drink some water, you’re welcome to. Your heart rate will begin to rise for a couple of minutes and you will have a lot of sensation and possibly some swelling (as the medicine is flushing the system out) in the throat and face. You will feel a slight discomfort in your stomach while bile is ejected into your stomach, from the liver and gallbladder. Decades of toxins are loosened and collected, and soon the purging will begin helping to ease the discomfort.The uncomfortable part of the experience is NOT the Kambo, it is the toxins your body is releasing. You manifest this discomfort every day, but don’t realize it, because this negative energy is dispersed throughout the body. Kambo gives us the gift of opening the body, mind, and spirit. It cleanses desensitization. Many emotions may be released during your session.
Some people cry and have a deep emotional release; others can feel euphoria as negative emotions are removed from the body.The energetic pressure and temperature will soon reduce while the process is nearing resolution. The entire process will usually take approximately 20-40 minutes varying between individuals. Typically you're not throwing up that whole time. Purging comes in many forms. Crying, sweating, burping, yawing, laughing, shaking. About 5-15 minutes of that can be intense while deep purging is happening. Energy pulses throughout the body and the hands with a sense of electricity circulating in each and every cell. The cleaner and stronger the body, the easier the process will be, and it happens quickly; usually in a few sessions. Once the session is complete and the Kambo points (dots) are removed, we will apply Dragon’s Blood, a natural resin that supports skin healing. (No worries—no dragons were harmed in the harvesting process!)
At this point, you are welcome to lay down, rest, and integrate the experience. After about 20 minutes, we will offer you fresh fruit and herbal tea to gently reintroduce nourishment into your system.
The majority of people are fine to drive home after, they generally can go on about their day, as normal, but they may feel the Kambo working in the digestive tract. In the jungle, hunters take this medicine, then go on very long hunts.
The following day, you should feel great, and have more and more energy each day. Be sure to drink lots of electrolytes and stay hydrated. I recommend taking the day off from any other actives to process your ceremony & just be.
