The Toad, the Shaman, and the Dangerous Drug: A Strange True Story

A new book called "The Ego Trip," written by journalist Kimon de Greef, tells a wild and troubling story about a man who called himself a healer. His name was Octavio Rettig, and he gave people a powerful drug made from a desert toad's venom. He claimed the drug could cure addiction and trauma in just minutes. But the book shows how his methods caused serious harm to many people who trusted him.

The story starts with the Sonoran desert toad, which lives underground in the hot, dry land along the Mexico–Arizona border. When it rains, the toads come out to mate and lay eggs. They have lived this way peacefully for millions of years. What makes this toad unusual is that it produces one of the most powerful mind-altering chemicals ever found.

In the early 1980s, people discovered that the toad's poison glands make a chemical called 5-MeO-DMT, sometimes called the "God molecule." This substance is a hallucinogen, which means it causes people to see, hear, or feel things that are not real. The first known user accidentally got the dried venom on his car windshield and smoked it. He later described "an overload of thoughts and perception" and a feeling that time and space had disappeared.

Rettig was a troubled young man from Mexico who began using dried toad venom in the early 2000s. He claimed it helped him quit using crack cocaine. Around that same time, doctors were studying whether powerful mind-altering drugs could help patients who were not improving with normal treatments. Rettig saw an opportunity and decided to become a healer using the toad's venom.

Instead of studying medicine, Rettig chose to wrap his practice in the traditions of an indigenous group called the Seri people. The Seri live between the Sonoran Desert and the Gulf of California, and they had suffered greatly under Spanish and Mexican rule. By 2011, only a few hundred Seri remained, living in very poor conditions. Rettig adopted their chants and falsely claimed he was reviving an ancient toad-healing tradition that had been forgotten.

The way Rettig treated people raised serious alarms. He gave large doses of the drug without properly checking whether people were healthy enough to take it. Reports said he sometimes forced treatment on people who had not fully agreed to it. When patients died, he denied responsibility, and he showed little sign of learning from these tragedies.

Journalist Kimon de Greef came to this story not from the world of drugs, but from researching wildlife smuggling. That gave him a sharp, critical view of Rettig's methods. Much of his research was first published in the New Yorker magazine before becoming this book. Critics have praised his careful, detailed reporting on a very complicated subject.

The book also asks bigger questions about modern culture and society. Why do people trust those who claim special knowledge without any proof? How does greed hide behind spiritual language? The Sonoran desert toad, once a quiet creature living underground, has now become a traded commodity — something bought and sold for profit. De Greef's book is a warning about what happens when ambition, false authority, and a lack of rules come together.