A man seeking some kind of spiritual high got more than he bargained for when he smoked toad venom and promptly looked like he was dying on camera.
In the raw footage circulating online, the bearded guy takes a hit of the stuff from a desert toad known for producing the powerful psychedelic compound 5-MeO-DMT. Within seconds, the color drains from his face. He goes pale white, loses control, and ends up thrashing around before helpers drag him into a shallow creek.
There, he continues convulsing and appears to vomit while people hold him and try to keep his head above the water. It’s a chaotic, unsettling scene that lasts several minutes as the intense effects peak and then start to fade. Eventually he comes around enough to sit up and even hug someone nearby, looking shaken but alive.
The clip has drawn plenty of shocked reactions, with one social media user writing that she’d never felt the need for drugs because “life is already beautiful” and questioning “what possesses people to put literal venom in their bodies.”
Smoking the dried secretion from the Colorado River toad (also called the Sonoran Desert toad) has become a trendy “ceremony” in certain wellness and spiritual circles. Users chase what they call ego death or profound mystical insights. The experience hits extremely fast and hard, often lasting only 15 to 20 minutes, and can include strong physical reactions like involuntary movements, tremors, nausea, and temporary loss of motor control.
Experts note the intensity can strain the heart and breathing. Being near water or rocks during the peak, as seen in the video, adds obvious dangers if no one is carefully monitoring the person. There have been reports of serious problems, including drownings in poorly supervised settings and cardiac issues.
Fans of the practice claim it can bring lasting perspective shifts or help with mental health struggles. Critics call it a reckless fad that turns people into flopping messes for a short trip into the void. Either way, this particular man got a front-row seat to just how overwhelming the whole thing can get.
One thing’s clear from the video: whatever “insight” he was after came with a heavy physical price tag in those first few minutes. Not exactly the serene spiritual awakening some Instagram posts promise.
