The Ego Trip
Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A charismatic doctor claimed to have rediscovered the ancestral roots of “toad medicine,” becoming the face of a global psychedelic movement. But in his wake, he left a trail of destruction that embodies the maladies of our spiritually desolate age.
“Entirely mesmerizing. . . . Richly reported and written with humor and flair, The Ego Trip is itself a trip—and Kimon de Greef is a major talent.” —Patrick Radden Keefe, #1 New York Times bestselling author of London Falling
In 2012, a Mexican doctor announced that he had revived a forgotten indigenous ritual: smoking the secretions of the Sonoran Desert toad, which releases a potent psychedelic substance known as “the God molecule.” The drug, which often induced states of ego death and the sensation of being directly connected with the divine, had remarkable effects on those suffering from PTSD, depression, and drug addiction. As the doctor’s fame grew, however, stories emerged of extreme dosing, abusive behavior, and even dramatic deaths.
In this gripping and deeply reported book, Kimon de Greef explores the promise and the peril of “toad medicine” and captures the defining tensions of this new era of psychedelics. As the notoriety of this powerful drug rose, psychonauts, spiritual seekers, and sufferers of innumerable conditions flocked to Sonora, giving rise to a bourgeoning economy of psychedelic tourism. Many of the Seri people, who had once lent their imprimatur to the doctor’s narrative of indigenous tradition, conspicuously avoided using the substance at all, and evidence of ancestral use appeared questionable. Impoverished toad collectors chased after the animals in drug cartel territory and risked their lives in the process. And pharmaceutical companies raced against one another to harness the therapeutic potential of the toad’s chemical wonders and develop a world-altering breakthrough in mental illness treatment—a drug that could rival Prozac in its impact on psychopharmacology.
Part true crime, part cult story, part cultural history, The Ego Trip is a chronicle of the rise and fall of a messianic figure, but it is also an investigation into a larger truth about our age of spiritual desolation. As this story forcefully demonstrates, no matter the lengths we go to in attaining a more cosmic understanding, we will always be firmly rooted in the real world, bound by our limitations and inescapably human.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This true tale of drugs, danger, and deception would seem like far-out fantasy if it weren’t all stone-cold fact. In this fascinating and strange nonfiction read, journalist Kimon de Greef makes the exotic world of “toad smoking”—inhaling the secretions of the elusive Sonoran Desert toad—seem like an everyday reality. He offers an engrossing history of the psychedelic substance’s study, use, and effects, focusing largely on the drug’s self-styled ambassador, Mexican doctor Octavio Rettig Hinojosa. A charismatic combination of mystic, man of science, and straight-up cult leader, Hinojosa claimed to have tapped into the indigenous Seri people’s traditions involving the drug, all while offering toad trips to paying customers. And when he’s eventually exposed for being less than trustworthy, things somehow get even stranger. We were awed by de Greef’s jaw-droppingly detailed reporting and dazzled by his vivid rendering of the whole bizarre saga. The Ego Trip is a tantalizing look at the relationship between psychedelics and morality.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
South African journalist de Greef (Poacher), who has spent years reporting on global psychedelic movements, delivers a chilling saga about a former doctor who spearheaded the rise of toad smoking in the 2010s. Part exposé, part Mexican travelogue, the narrative profiles Octavio Rettig, who claimed that he cured himself of cocaine addiction by smoking the dried secretions from the Sonoran Desert toad in 2012. The author details how Rettig stripped the rituals of the Indigenous Seri peoples for parts, claiming that the Seris had a long history of smoking the secretions. In addition to the trippy high the practice achieved, Rettig claimed the "medicine" could cure suicidal tendencies, PTSD, and alcoholism, drawing huge crowds to Sonora to attend his rituals. But even at the pinnacle of Rettig's fame, stories circulated about people dying—including Rettig's girlfriend—during those rituals. As de Greef digs into those deaths and Rettig's motives, he takes the narrative on intriguing side quests, including a look at the heaps of corporate money being poured into the development of synthetic toad venom. Propulsive and rigorously reported, this wild work of true crime grips from first page to last.
