Andrew Gallimore

“His conclusions are astonishing… And to some they will be horrifying. This book is not to be missed." — Dennis McKenna, PhD DEATH BY ASTONISHMENT: Confronting the Mystery of the World’s Strangest Drug. (St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan). OUT NOW

The "needle aversion" that's now so prevalent in the West just didn't exist in Japan in the 1940s/50s. And not just with drugs: Injectable vitamins for example were very common and widely used by the general public at the time. If you wanted to get a molecule into your blood, injection was the obvious route and happily taken.

@alieninsect What is it with the japanese and shooting up shabu

Japanese high school students playing mahjong and injecting methamphetamine (Hiropon, ヒロポン) (ca. 1950)

The future was cancelled three decades ago. Of course they’re all the same you muppet… The road to hell is paved with bare concrete, your route mapped on chalk boards , and your guide a bearded fellow with sailor tats… Expect more of the same moving forward.

Sunset at Eleusis. 🌅 In this work, setting is everything. The environment, the nervous system, the intention. When the setting is right, the mind can finally let go and explore. This island was chosen for a reason. #SetAndSetting #ConsciousnessExploration

@GavinBrinck @bryan_johnson Not my institute. I work with them. Eleusismind.com

@bryan_johnson Consider linking up with @alieninsect What’s the name of your institute again ??

My next longevity experiment: 5-MeO-DMT.

@Rhys6443945008 Kambo isn’t a psychedelic and shouldn’t be associated with them.

@alieninsect Let's resist the temptation to sensationalise. This is a rare occurrence that shouldn't taint the slowly growing reputation of psychedelics. They are generally very safe, and their value is potentially mind-blowing.

Purging is one thing, but I've never understood the appeal of consuming a potent frog toxin that makes you vomit to the point of dying from a "perforated oesophagus"...

@SymmetryForge They’ll do anything better than anyone if they decide it’s worth the effort. Meth most certainly was worth the effort.

@alieninsect Isn't it nuts they went from medieval to manufacturing meth and building ships beyond the level of the British in like 25 years in the late 1800s?

Early 1950s Japanese clandestine meth lab…

@lilyregale Maybe both.

@alieninsect You have interesting collection of old photos, postcards related to drugs etc. Preparation for new book or "just" interest?

@Slowdancingfool Perhaps. Oesophageal rupture also reported in a number of cases.

@alieninsect I thought the fatalities from vomiting where from embolism in the neck.

@TheWolfmanJesus So how can you compare LD50s when you don’t know them?

@alieninsect It's probably 'cause not enough people have died from it.

@TheWolfmanJesus So please tell me what the LD50 is for kambo?? I can’t find any publications that have measured one.

@alieninsect Yes, I didn't compare those things. I compared the LD50.

You can’t compare absolute numbers of deaths. Around 100 million people per year use paracetamol in the US. There are around 500 deaths annually (almost always overdose). Impossible to compare this to kambo without knowing how many people use it. Do you have a number of annual users in the US?

What you did here was take an extreme circumstance and try and conflate it to something that happens every time somebody does this, which is not true. What I'm saying here is that there are probably less deaths per year from this frog toxin than there are from Tylenol. And I'm willing to bet that this is reflected in the LD50 of both. Now make an actual argument.

@TheWolfmanJesus LD50 and rates of fatal complications can’t be compared. But anyway, tylenol is extremely safe when used as directed. Hence it being an OTC drug. Even non-lethal toxic effects are rare when not used in overdose. Kambo’s effects are *always* toxic.

@alieninsect I guarantee you the death rate of using whatever this frog toxin is nowhere near the LD50 of Tylenol.

A new psychedelic retreat calling itself a “SETI for the mind” aims to establish two-way communication with the nonhuman entities people encounter while tripping on DMT. wired.com/story/some-peo…

@Pinkopankino ⬇️

@alieninsect That screenshot is really confusing and the article can't be read...

@XSuxBro Different frog (toad). Synthetic version more ethical.

@alieninsect How do you get 5-MeO-DMT? I thought they got it from the frog.

As is well documented in pseudo-indigenous ayahuasca "ceremony" circles, the natives will often happily go along with all manner of distortions and bastardisations of a drug's traditional use as long as people keep turning up and paying a fee. And who can blame them. "We use it for hunt..... I mean, wellness."

@alieninsect @CodyArocho Some Tupi guys I met in Brazil told me they use kambo to mask their scent before they go hunting, nothing more.

@JR78202114 Of course not everyone, but this isn't the only case in the literature... sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@alieninsect The 🐸 doesn’t seem to make everyone vomit to the point of a Mallory-Weiss tear. Perhaps there was underlying pathology?

@theawakecoach I agree entirely. Awful.

@alieninsect What an awful idea to get these two substances anywhere close to each other. Months apart, at the least. RIP to Mr. Antonovich. Great read & a cautionary tale. Know your shaman.

@CodyArocho It's kambo. Completely different to ayahuasca. See my article on it here: alieninsect.substack.com/p/kambo-the-co…

@alieninsect Is this a new type of ayahuasca? Is the old MAOI and DMT Vine not potent enough?