PRESS RELEASE 01/25/19
Toad medicine ceremonies with Dr Octavio Rettig
At WBAC 2018 a panel discussion talked about Bufo Alvarius Facilitators' Ethics and Code of Conduct and discussed these crucial issues, including some of the controversial practices utilized by Dr. Rettig in his ceremonies. Most commentators disagreed with Dr. Rettig on the following aspects of his practice, as outlined on his website:
Toad Medicine ceremony - OTAC-Bufo Alvarius - Dr. Octavio Rettig Hinojosa
Toad medicine ceremony with Dr Octavio Rettig
All participants should be aware of and agree with the following conditions. Please be informed that during the Toad Medicine ceremony, Dr Octavio Rettig:
• Might pour water on a participants face or in a participants mouth to stimulate a breathing or swallowing response.
• Can administer very small electrical shocks with a toy to keep a participant from lying down during the peak of the ceremony.
• Will blow rapé up a participants nose right after the peak of the experience.
The webpage says also: “All these actions have been carefully tested and have proven their unique value as a part of the neo shamanistic rituals that Dr Rettig developed while working with the toad medicine. They have significantly increased
the results and improved the wellbeing of participants during and after the ceremonies.”
To our knowledge, there is no evidence about reported benefits of use of those practices.
Nevertheless, experience of those techniques in the ceremony held by Dr Rettig have shown to have some risks, in some cases resulting in life-threating events, serious injuries, even in death (especially use of rapé and water as recent reports indicate). Participants have also reported it unnecessarily disturbed or cut off their experience with toad and reduced the potential beneficial effect they could get from it. Those techniques might also be forced and used non-consensually. Moreover, there have been reports and videos of other practices by Dr. Rettig:
- Rapé administered during the toad experience itself when people are not consciously controlling their body
- Participants being left on their own during or after the experience
- Informed consent rarely provided before the experience
- Water poured in the participants nose
- Physical and psychological violence
It is the belief of WBAC that these aforementioned practices are unethical, dangerous and should not be used in this way in ceremony. There is the danger of physical harm, death, emotional and psychological trauma and other mental health issues, and issues around lack of consent by people under the influence of the medicine when these techniques are used. Those practices
are also widely recognized as unacceptable in the ethical guidelines of any kind of therapy or healing (ranging from shamanic practice to modern health care).
We also want to make clear, that some of those practices might be beneficial when used responsibly, which is not always the case of ceremonies done by Dr Rettig who is using them in the excessive amounts (rapé , water).
Conversations around Dr. Rettig’s controversial practices have been ongoing for some time online, and recent reports of the death of a Mexican woman from Leon, Guanajuato, in her 40s who aspirated due to the application of rapé and water, and reports another near death in Europe from the same techniques in ceremony, have led us to believe that a line needs to be drawn in the sand for the safety of the community at large.
We ask the global toad community and all future participants to choose their practitioners well, to be fully informed of the risks of the medicine and ceremony, and to support ethical practices that nurture, not harm, those partaking of the sacred toad
medicine and more widely all psychedelics. For more information on best practices and integration, see:
Best Practices for 5-MeO-DMT by the Conclave — Aware Project
WBAC