What Is Kambo, And Why Is It Spreading Across The Wellness World?
- Mar 20
- 5 min read
Lewis Powell is a teacher, spiritual mentor, and public speaker. He founded the Kambo Practitioner Alliance and directs Inner Guru CIC. His work blends psychology with spiritual growth, helping people break old patterns, reconnect to purpose, and step into purpose-driven self-actualisation.
Most people hear about Kambo the same way. A friend mentions it, something surfaces online, or someone says it helped them reset in a way nothing else had. That curiosity is a reasonable place to start. But curiosity alone is not enough. Kambo deserves to be understood properly.
I have worked with Kambo for years, trained practitioners across the UK, and watched how this practice is both used and misused in the modern wellness space. What follows is what I wish more people knew before they searched for a session.
Where kambo actually comes from
Kambo is a natural secretion collected from the Giant Monkey Frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor), native to the Amazon basin. For generations, the Matsés and neighbouring Panoan-speaking peoples of the western Amazon have used it as part of their traditional practice to strengthen the body, clear illness, and prepare hunters for days in the forest.
This is not a new wellness trend dressed up in ancient language. The knowledge base behind Kambo is deep and specific, belonging to communities that have held it carefully for a very long time. That context matters when we talk about how it enters the mainstream.
What actually happens in a session
Kambo is applied to small burn points on the skin's surface, not ingested. This allows peptides in the secreted fluid to enter the lymphatic system directly. The body responds quickly and noticeably.
In the first few minutes, most people experience a rapid rise in heart rate, a surge of heat moving through the body, sweating, and a physical purge. This purge, usually nausea and vomiting, is not a side effect. It is central to the process. The body is doing what it is being asked to do.
The intensity is real, but it is usually short. A typical active phase lasts between 20 and 40 minutes. Most people are sitting up and talking within the hour. What follows that window is where the more subtle shifts begin to show.
Why people seek it out
People come to Kambo for many different reasons. Some are dealing with chronic fatigue, brain fog, or immune challenges that have not responded to conventional approaches. Others are in a period of life where something feels stuck, emotionally, physically, or mentally, and they want to move through it rather than around it.
It is important to be clear here, Kambo is not a cure. It is not a substitute for medical care. When used properly, it can create a window, a period of heightened clarity, reset nervous system function, and a certain kind of openness that some people describe as the first time they have felt like themselves in years.
What happens after that window, the choices made, the integration done, is where the real work lives.
What most people get wrong
There are two dominant narratives about Kambo in popular culture. One portrays it as a miracle, a shortcut to healing, transformation, and spiritual breakthrough. The other treats it as inherently dangerous, to be avoided entirely. Both miss the point.
Kambo is not a psychedelic. It does not produce visions or altered states of consciousness. It works through the physical body, specifically through peptides that interact with the gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and immune systems. The experience is bodily, not psychological.
The risks are real, but they are almost entirely a function of how Kambo is used. Proper screening eliminates the most serious contraindications. Proper preparation and dosage management account for most of what remains. Kambo is not inherently dangerous. It requires competence from the person facilitating it.
Who should not use kambo
This is the part of the conversation that matters most, and it is the part most often skipped over in enthusiastic online accounts.
Kambo is contraindicated for people with heart conditions, serious liver or kidney disease, a history of stroke, certain psychiatric diagnoses, those who are pregnant, and several other categories. There are also important interactions with certain medications and substances that must be assessed before any session.
A practitioner who does not take a full health history and screen rigorously before applying Kambo is not practising Kambo. They are applying a powerful compound without the foundation that makes it safe. That distinction is not minor.
Training, responsibility, and the state of the field
Kambo is spreading faster than the knowledge base around it. In the UK and across Europe, it is possible to receive Kambo from someone who has done a weekend course, watched a few videos, or simply used it themselves and decided to start facilitating. That is a problem.
A trained practitioner understands not just the application, but the physiology behind it. They know how to read the body's response, when to adjust, when to stop, and how to hold space for someone going through a genuinely intense physical process. They also know when to refer someone on rather than proceed.
Responsible practice includes the conversation before and after the session, not just the 40 minutes in the middle. It includes follow up. It includes knowing the origins of Kambo and approaching it with the respect that knowledge demands.
Respecting where this comes from
As Kambo continues to spread through Western wellness culture, one thing risks being lost, the source.
The peptides in Kambo have been studied extensively by researchers, including the Italian scientist Vittorio Erspamer, who identified over 30 active compounds in the secretion. That scientific interest has never gone away. Exciting ongoing research is currently examining the therapeutic potential of Kambo's peptides, including their antimicrobial, analgesic, and neuroprotective properties. This is an area of active scientific inquiry right now, not historical curiosity.
That interest has also grown alongside commercial interest, and in some cases, indigenous communities have been excluded from both the profit and the conversation about how their secretion is being used.
My own work has taken me deeper into this history than most. My book, Matsés, First Contact: Oral Testimony and the Historical Record of Contact and Cultural Transition, documents the 1969 first contact between the Matsés people and the outside world, drawn directly from elder testimony and recorded with the community's knowledge and permission. The Matsés are among the primary custodians of Kambo knowledge. Understanding their history, on their own terms, changes how you approach this practice.
Ethical sourcing, genuine respect for origin, and some humility about what we are working with are not optional extras for the practitioner who takes this work seriously. They are part of the practice itself.
A final word
If you are curious about Kambo, that is a legitimate place to be. It has helped many people, and the interest in it is not unfounded. But curiosity is the beginning of the process, not the end of it.
Understand what it is and what it is not. Ask hard questions of anyone who offers to facilitate a session. Find out where they trained, how they screen, and what their approach to aftercare looks like. The quality of the practitioner is the most important variable in any Kambo experience.
For those looking to train professionally in the UK, to learn Kambo from a rigorous, ethical, and grounded foundation, you can find out more here.
Read more from Lewis Powell
Lewis Powell, Wellness CEO, Spiritual Leader & Teacher
Lewis Powell teaches and speaks on real psychological and spiritual change. He founded the Kambo Practitioner Alliance and leads community wellbeing work through Inner Guru CIC. He created NEOSH to train space holders in pattern-breaking and awareness-led healing techniques. His work blends psychology and spiritual growth, pushing people toward self-actualisation and purpose that’s actually lived, not performed. He writes about why we aren't getting better, culture, and indigenous communities. Have you ever wanted to change your life but felt the pull to stay the same was stronger? That’s exactly the space he talks into.
