https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/28/the-pied-piper-of-psychedelic-toads Skip to main content The New Yorker * Newsletter To revisit this article, select My Account, then View saved stories Close Alert Sign In Search * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Puzzles & Games * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On * Shop Open Navigation Menu To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories Close Alert The New Yorker New Yorker Favorites * Survival of the Richest * The Creepiest Children's Book * Tucker Carlson's Fighting Words * Crying in H Mart Dept. of Psychopharmacology March 28, 2022 Issue The Pied Piper of Psychedelic Toads Octavio Rettig, an underground practitioner of 5-MeO-DMT, a hallucinogenic substance derived from Sonoran Desert toads, claims that he has revived a lost Mesoamerican ritual. By Kimon de Greef March 21, 2022 * * * * * Save this story for later. An abstract person holding the face of a toad. Sonoran Desert toads secrete a compound known as the "God molecule." Illustration by Boris Pramatarov * * * * * Save this story for later. Content This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. In 2013, a charismatic Mexican doctor took the stage at Burning Man, in Nevada, to give a TEDx talk on what he called "the ultimate experience." The doctor's name was Octavio Rettig, and he would soon become known by his first name alone, like some pop diva or soccer star. He told the crowd that, years earlier, he had overcome a crack addiction by using a powerful psychedelic substance produced by toads in the Sonoran Desert. Afterward, he shared "toad medicine" with a tribal community in northern Mexico, where the rise of narco-trafficking had brought on a methamphetamine crisis. Through this work, he came to believe that smoking toad, as the practice is called, was an ancient Mesoamerican ritual--a "unique toadal language," shared by Mayans and Aztecs--that had been stamped out during the colonial era. He announced that he'd restored a lost tradition, and that he had a duty to share it with others. "Sooner or later, everyone in the world will have this experience," he told an interviewer after the talk. At the time, Octavio, who was thirty-four, was virtually unknown within the world of psychedelics--as was smoking toad. But two years later Vice made him the subject of a laudatory documentary, calling him "a hallucinogenic-toad prophet." (The film has more than three and a half million views on YouTube.) Octavio became, as Klaudia Oliver, the organizer of the TEDx talk, put it, "the Pied Piper of toad." By Octavio's count, he has introduced toad smoking to more than ten thousand people. Published in the print edition of the March 28, 2022, issue, with the headline "Toad Smoke." New Yorker Favorites * Forrest Tucker had a long career robbing banks, and he wasn't willing to retire. * Suddenly, a New York cop remembered a long-ago murder. * Hot Tamale Louie, the Muslim immigrant who became a local legend in Wyoming. * The faces of college wrestlers. * Biff the show dog was four years old when he was in his prime. * Dispatch by Mavis Gallant: an affair that scandalized France. Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. Kimon de Greef is the co-author of "Poacher: Confessions from the Abalone Underworld." More:DrugsDoctorsRitualsToadsBurning ManSmokingAddictionShamans PatientsComplaints This Week's Issue Never miss a big New Yorker story again. Sign up for This Week's Issue and get an e-mail every week with the stories you have to read. E-mail address [ ] Sign up By signing up, you agree to our User Agreement and Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement. The New Yorker Sections * News * Books & Culture * Fiction & Poetry * Humor & Cartoons * Magazine * Crossword * Video * Podcasts * Archive * Goings On More * Customer Care * Shop The New Yorker * Buy Covers and Cartoons * Conde Nast Store * Digital Access * Newsletters * Jigsaw Puzzle * RSS * Site Map * About * Careers * Contact * F.A.Q. * Media Kit * Press * Accessibility Help * Conde Nast Spotlight (c) 2022 Conde Nast. All rights reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Conde Nast. Ad Choices * * * * * Do Not Sell My Personal Info