I have just returned from an amazing week in Amsterdam. When I made the decision to do Kambo, I wanted to do it "right" and not just burn my arm one afternoon and have at it. So, it took some effort (and money!) but I got the time off work, found an apartment to rent for the week and got flights booked. Given Giovanni's reputation, I felt it only right that he should initiate me as i wanted to honor this tradition as best I could. As I have a low resting heart rate, Gio was a little apprehensive. I have read many reports of people experiencing very rapid heart rates while doing Kambo but apparently it can have the opposite effect as well.
Here's a tip - boil some filtered water and mix that with room temperature filtered water. It is a lot easier to drink large quantities of warm water than it is to drink cold or even room temperature water.
Day 1
In order to protect my heart, Giovanni made 7 points on the kidney meridian on my right leg. He wanted to keep the Kambo as far from my heart as possible so that the effects would not put a strain on it. He put Kambo on the first dot then waited to see how I responded. After a couple of minutes, I could feel the heat rise inside my head and my face was flushed. The heat soon subsided so he applied Kambo to the second point. The heat reappeared then I purged. He had never seen anyone purge with just 2 dots of Kambo (and remember these were on my right calf). I was purging what resembled raspberry soda so there was blood coming from somewhere. Everytime I purged, it looked the same. He decided that it would be best to stop at this point and not attempt a second application. I was told to take Sangre de Drago to heal whatever was the source of the blood. I felt fine the rest of the day.
Day 2
This time he made 6 points and applied Kambo to all of them, one after the other, no waiting. Once again, I felt the heat rise in my head and started purging. This time it was green bile that came out during the first few purges, then one pink purge (so still some blood coming from somewhere), then one yellow bile purge, then a couple of white bile purges. I guess it was getting to all the bile related organs in turn. I was surprised that what I purged was not contaminated by what I'd purged earlier. So the blood purge didn't have any green bile in it and the yellow purge didn't have any green or blood in it. I found it interesting that I could purge each type of bile individually and distinctly. I then found myself zoning out and staring at my cup on the table. The next thing I knew, Giovanni was standing behind me with his hands on my head saying "you're OK". I looked down and the bucket was upside down between my feet and the contents of my purge were all over the floor. Sweat was pouring down my face. I had fainted.
I had given Giovanni a shock - he was relieved to find I was still breathing when he touched my stomach. He removed the kambo as soon as I fainted. He noticed that my stomach distended noticeably when I fainted then returned to normal after a few seconds. This was decided to be quite enough for the second day. Recovery was fairly quick - I rested in a reclining chair for 15 minutes then it was like nothing had happened, I went about my day as normal. Slept well and had a great dream.
Day 3
We tried 5 points (still on the kidney meridian on the right leg) and came up with what we called the kambo dance. Kambo was applied to all 5 points then as soon as I started purging, the kambo was removed. Once I stopped purging, I would fill up with water again and the kambo was reapplied to the original 5 points. I purged again, drank and had the kambo applied to the same 5 points for a third time. All this occurred in well under 2 hours from start to finish. No blood observed today, mostly green then white bile. Recovery was fast and I felt great the rest of the day. I was wide awake at bedtime and didn't sleep much but was not tired the next day.
Day 4
7 points were used on the last day using the same technique as Day 3. These were made on the kidney meridian on the left leg for the first time. The left side is associated with the heart so that is why Giovanni had placed all the previous points on the right leg. However, given that this was the last day and I was obviously getting an increasing tolerance for the kambo, we decided to trust the kambo and go for it.The kambo was applied 3 times to the same 7 points. The experience seemed more intense and purging didn't come as easily as it did on the previous 3 days - I was getting used to the Kambo. Mostly white bile was purged. Recovery was fast and I felt great the rest of the day.
I was also taking RB over these 4 days in increasing amounts. The night of day 4, I had the energy of a 20 yr old (not bad for 57!) and took approx 14 grams of RB. I maybe got a few minutes sleep a couple of different times during the night. The rest of the night I just laid in my bed with my eyes closed. Some unusual images were displayed in my mind's eye but on a small screen in the bottom left corner. A question came into my mind and as if in response to it, I was shown on image that had me in it (even though it didn't look like me, I knew it was me). In just a few seconds, I learnt something about myself that I think has changed me forever.
The next 2 days were two of the most amazing days of my life. It was like I was floating - my body seemed lighter, my mind was calm and peaceful. I went for long walks and just totally blissed out. The most perfect, effortless days I've ever experienced. It's like some sort of hard knot inside of me just dissolved. Pain from a slight muscle tear/strain in my left calf that has bothered me for months has disappeared.
If prior to this someone had told me that getting burns and puking into a bucket could be a spiritual experience, I would have said they were out of their mind. Now, no one could convince me otherwise.
I was inspired to undertake this journey as a result of reading KP's posts about Kambo - your passion for and belief in Kambo convinced me - a big virtual hug to you my friend, I thank you for giving me the courage to do this.
