https://5-meo-dmt-malpractice.org




Open Letter Concerning Abuses by Octavio Rettig and Gerry Sandoval


Join us in standing against psychedelic and entheogenic malpractice.

Sign the open letter

For many years there has been concern in psychedelic and entheogenic circles about what appears to be reckless, unethical, and potentially criminal behavior by Dr. Octavio Rettig and Dr. Gerry Sandoval in their capacity as facilitators of ‘Bufo’, the 5-MeO-DMT containing secretion of the Bufo alvarius toad.

Despite difficulties in gaining a clear picture of the overall situation, there is now overwhelming evidence that these concerns are well founded. For that reason we, coming from the psychedelic, entheogenic, and broader consciousness communities, have decided it is necessary to make this public statement.

A brief list of reported malpractices by Octavio include: dangerous sessions leading to hospitalizations and deaths; psychological and physical violence; non-consensual interventions and abuses of power; and neglect of people who have been damaged.

A brief list of reported malpractices by Gerry include rape; clandestine drugging; planting drugs on people with intent to endanger them; intentional overdosing; grossly unsafe serving practices; psychological manipulation; and financial fraud.

The collective consequences, apart from death, include physical injuries, psychological trauma, ongoing mental health issues, and shell-shocked and divided entheogenic communities.

For these reasons we, who come from the psychedelic, entheogenic, or simply the broader consciousness community, think it is time to take a stand. Now that these long running problems have come clearly to light, choosing to push them back into the shadows is no longer an option. Silence in the face of this knowledge risks making us complicit in any future abuses. It also risks completely distorting the role of this entheogen as it makes its way into the world.

We invite you to sign and take a stand with us.

OCTAVIO RETTIG – DEATHS AND VIOLENCE
In the case of Dr. Octavio Rettig, we are certain of at least four deaths (there are rumors of more). The latest that we know of was Araceli Ramírez Hidalgo, a Mexican woman in her early forties from the town of Leon, Guanajuato. Married and a mother of two children, Araceli was by all reports happy and healthy. In the previous two years she had experienced 5-MeO-DMT toad medicine several times with another practitioner, as had her husband Jorge Villalpando. Both reported great results, and both were enthusiasts for the medicine. Neither had ever met Octavio before.

On the morning of Friday October 5th, 2018, we understand that Araceli joined approximately eighty (80!) other people who were to be served by Octavio that day (altogether from the Friday to Sunday some two hundred people were reportedly intended to be served by him with help from three or four assistants). At noon Octavio gave Araceli the toad medicine and then moved on to serve another person. Some minutes later, while she was emerging from the peak experience, Octavio returned and administered rapé to her, before leaving again to attend to others. We believe she may also have had water poured into her lungs. At some point Octavio was alerted to the fact that Araceli was in trouble and returned to try to save her.

A criminal case of involuntary homicide (homicidio culposo) is currently being prepared in Leon against Octavio. We are not in a position to make any judgement, but we understand that the prosecution will allege a conspiracy to protect Octavio and his collaborators which may have compromised efforts to save Araceli’s life. This includes failure to promptly call a public ambulance (a public ambulance would potentially involve the declaration of an official crime scene); delays associated with calling a private ambulance (some two hours elapsed between Araceli smoking the toad medicine and departing for the hospital); intent to have it be known that Araceli died off the property when she had almost certainly already died in the two hours before the ambulance arrived (following a fifteen minute journey to hospital Araceli was declared dead on arrival); forging Araceli’s signature on a waiver document so as to produce a false veneer of legal protection for Octavio and the other organizers of the session.

Two postmortem investigations have been carried out on Araceli’s body. We do not have access to those but understand that she is believed to have suffered an anaphylactic shock due to the rapé under conditions of stress brought on by the toad medicine and, possibly, water on the lungs. She was not taking any medications, and toxicology showed no traces of cocaine, alcohol or other common drugs.

It should be noted that Octavio has not offered a single word of support (indeed words of any kind) to Jorge, Araceli’s husband, neither in the hours and days after, nor in the months since.1

It should also be noted that a few weeks prior, in Central Europe, a man in one of Octavio’s toad sessions was hospitalized and put into a coma for several days after being repeatedly dosed with rapé and large quantities of water.2

Of the other known deaths, both were apparently men. One of them was a quiet, reserved man in his early fifties who had previously taken Bufo with Octavio. The site for the session was Ibiza, Spain, and it is possible the man may have been on some kind of antidepressants. The entheogenic medicine community in Ibiza was appalled by Octavio’s behavior and have made it clear he is not welcome back. We know less about the other man, but some suggestions are that he may have been an elder of the Seri people of Sonora. When publicly questioned about these deaths, Octavio has typically given curt answers, and while admitting to them, has disowned any responsibility.3

The final death we know about is of a different order, and is mentioned here because it provides important context. From newspaper reports and testimonies, we know her name was Ana Patricia Arredondo Tueme. She was 26 years old, originally of the town of Torreón, in the State of Coahuila, Mexico.

Patricia drowned in a sinkhole (cenote) near Xpu-Ha, in the Yucatan Peninsula, on December 20th, 2012. While apparently outside of a ritual as such, Patricia died shortly after smoking Bufo with Octavio and in the presence of Octavio and one other person. Her body was recovered by professional divers six days later from an underground cave.4

We have no reason to believe that this death was anything but accidental. However, it is astonishing to us that this death, occurring back in 2012, appears not to in any way have persuaded Octavio to take a precautionary principle when considering the safety of those he serves.5

We are not aware of any other contemporary facilitator, of either 5-MeO-DMT/Bufo alvarius or of any other psychoactive, with such a dismal safety record.

What is to be said of a practice which is so patently dangerous and which, despite repeated public and private interventions from a wide array of experienced 5-MeO-DMT practitioners and other concerned people, Octavio refuses to significantly change?

Multiple reports confirm that Octavio does no screening of people prior to administration of the substance, leaving that task to his hosts in various countries. Aftercare is also left almost exclusively to others. Nor does he measure his doses with a scale. Doses are often very large, to the point of leading to blackouts and respiratory failure. He also frequently leaves people alone once they have been dosed, relying on others to watch over them (or not, as the case may be). Sometimes people, essentially helpless under the effect of the substance, are treated aggressively.6 This high-volume, high-dose, haphazard, dose-them-and-then-leave approach, repeated in numerous countries around the world, has lead to many complaints from others in the community who have found themselves in the role of therapeutic support staff for people suffering severe after effects from Octavio’s sessions.

In Australia in 2015, for example, one man in his early thirties was dosed twice and left alone, unable to breath, stomach down on the grass, in a state of bodily paralysis yet conscious of dying from asphyxiation. On this occasion Octavio returned just in time to get him to start breathing, but the psychic damage involved, along with sometimes attentive and sometimes abusive email ‘aftercare’ from Octavio, severely disrupted this man’s life for years afterwards.7

Octavio is likewise notorious for manhandling people while they are in the medicine, and for occasionally kicking them and applying electric shock devices to their bodies.8 On a subsequent visit to Australia Octavio broke a man’s wrist while forcing him to his feet. For months Octavio disowned all responsibility, and it took a great deal of mediation to redress the situation.

Despite the dangers, as we have seen, Octavio also regularly blows rapé up people’s nostrils when they are insensible on the toad secretion. On many occasions he has done this against people’s will, ripping people’s hands away from their faces to administer very large quantities of this powder with its undisclosed ingredients.9 He or his assistants also make a habit of pouring water into open mouths to induce a gag response. This kind of practice has to be seen to be believed.10

GERRY SANDOVAL – SEXUAL ABUSE, FINANCIAL CRIMES
Stories have long circulated around Dr. Gerry Sandoval concerning not accidental, but intentional harm to others. The worst are reports of rapes. We have one direct testimony, from Gerry’s partner at the time, a woman from Slovenia. According to her, in Slovenia in 2016, Gerry drugged her with an unknown substance and then raped her.11

As is well known, charges of rape are often difficult to substantiate. However, we have heard several second-hand rumors of rapes, and have direct verbal testimony of two cases of sexual abuse.

The first is alleged to have happened in ceremony. In this case an American couple with prior experience of Bufo attended a circle run by Gerry in a house in the USA. The sessions were conducted individually in a separate room. The amount of Bufo Gerry served to the woman was enough to effectively knock her out, and when she came back to waking consciousness she reports that Gerry’s naked penis was by her face, and her own hand was on his stomach. There was also a camera there, and she was left wondering whether Gerry had surreptitiously filmed her, and whether he had not also added some other drug to the pipe. The psychological fallout from this abuse has been considerable.12

In the second case, Gerry is alleged to have terrorized his partner, a woman from Arizona, coercing her into sex, telling her he would kill her if she had an abortion, telling her he’d given her AIDS, giving her Bufo surreptitiously laced with N,N-DMT, and locking her up alone, sick, and with no food in a compound in Ciudad Juarez while he took her passport overseas for two weeks. The woman, an American who spoke no Spanish, and who, over the course of her involvement with Gerry had lost her rental home in the USA, considers herself lucky not to have been killed by Gerry. Three years later she still suffers from suicidal depression.13

We also have three separate first-person reports of Gerry planting drugs on people before they went through border security. On one of those occasions, in Mexico in December 2016, Gerry is alleged to have secretly hidden drugs in his companion’s backpack, and to have pretended that he was unassociated with the person as they went through customs.14

On another occasion, again in Mexico, Gerry is alleged to have planted hash in the wallet of a friend he had recently fallen out with. The young man was detained at the US border and spent ten days in immigration detention for drug possession.15

On yet another occasion, Gerry is alleged to have planted a container of marijuana in the luggage of the female business partner he had just been having an affair with. After dumping her with no money a few blocks from the Juarez/El Paso border, she took a Greyhound bus back to Arizona. On the bus she opened her luggage and discovered the hidden marijuana. These reports are from separate and unrelated individuals.16

We have also learned of at least two cases where Gerry is alleged to have used the lure of a ‘toad sanctuary’ to rope in other organizers, and thereby to solicit very substantial donations. These iterations of ‘The Bufo Alvarius Foundation’ have all fallen through, and Gerry allegedly misappropriated the funds. Needless to say, the toads are none the better for this ‘help’.17

There are also reports of Gerry slipping huge doses of LSD and other drugs into confectionary and causing people to unintentionally trip,18 of giving people massive doses of Bufo, of secretly adding N,N DMT, and perhaps meth and other drugs, to pipes assumed by others to be pure Bufo,19 and of giving Bufo sessions in unsafe locations (like among rocks in a wet river bed, as per the infamous Vice documentary with Hamilton Morris).20

SUMMARY
The allegations against Octavio Rettig and Gerry Sandoval are of a different nature in each case, but each case has led to very serious consequences. As mentioned, Gerry’s abuse seems to be intentional. Octavio’s abuse seems rather to take place mainly during ceremonies, and to result in needlessly risky, and yet still accidental, harm.

We readily admit that many more people may have benefited from Gerry and Octavio’s provision of the toad medicine than have been directly hurt by it. However, the material we have managed to assemble is only a fraction of what appears to be a larger pool of reports of physical injury and psychological damage from some of their sessions.

Gerry, it must be said plainly, has developed a reputation as a habitual thief, liar, and conman, saying all the right things, but betraying the trust and funds of many who know him well. At the same time, he is not shy as a self-promoter, and doubtless many people do go away feeling grateful from his sessions.

For his part, Octavio has developed a highly interventionist practice. In the guise of ‘shaman’, and if he is not off elsewhere while people are journeying, he inserts himself into people’s experiences of the transcendent. This might be viewed as simply his trademark ‘house style,’ however, it contributes to the glorification of his persona.

One consequence of all this is that the charm of ‘the God molecule’ tends to settle over these facilitators. It is not surprising then that some people are prone to defend Octavio or Gerry from any criticism, even when news reaches them of fatalities and other grave allegations.

Others feel bound, by duties of friendship, or out of loyalty to the good reputation of the sacrament, not to speak out. Yet others feel that each person’s life path is their own, and no warnings need be issued, and no responsibility need be due to those in the future who may unwittingly put themselves in harm’s way. Still others seem spellbound by the contradiction between rumors of deaths, sexual abuse and other malpractices on the one hand, and the benevolent image of these two facilitators conveyed in the media, on the other.

In addition, it is obvious that Octavio and Gerry have so far been protected from adequate reaction by the illegality of 5-MeO-DMT in most of the world, and in particular by public lack of trust in the judicial system in Mexico. If these conditions were different, both these medical doctors would almost certainly have been struck off for malpractice, or have simply been imprisoned.

A defense is sometimes heard, namely that, after all, Octavio and Gerry are providing toad medicine to thousands of people, so a few casualties are to be expected, if only as a matter of statistical probability. This observation forgets to ask why these two are ‘processing’ so many people without careful screening, without always keeping people away from sources of physical danger, without attending personally to those they have physically and psychologically damaged; it also forgets to ask why they misrepresent their results and fail to take any responsibility for damaged people (while taking credit for successes), and why they persist in conducting unnecessary practices that obviously increase the likelihood of harm.

In some sense it may be true that both Octavio and Gerry are “wounded healers.” As many have observed, they themselves need healing. The problem, meanwhile, is that they are wounding many other people in the guise of healing them. Given all these considerations, we believe that it is up to the broader consciousness community to clearly disassociate itself from the practices of Octavio Rettig and Gerry Sandoval.

SUGGESTIONS
Specifically, we make the following suggestions to the community at large:

That this Open Letter be widely distributed and hosted on different sites. Its basic task of helping to warn people about these facilitators will be accomplished when it can be easily found by anyone doing an online search.

That anyone hitherto involved in hosting or otherwise promoting Octavio Rettig or Gerry Sandoval anywhere in the world cease doing so. As mentioned, we know that some people are bound to one or other of these facilitators by friendship, or by other ties of a financial or other kind. To stop promoting or organizing their sessions may involve a difficult struggle over loyalties. However, even friends have a duty not to cooperate with obviously dangerous and unethical behavior. It should be noted that hosts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the USA, Australia and Spain, have already decided to no longer work with one or both of these facilitators. The list may well be longer.

That anyone contemplating making further documentaries featuring either Octavio or Gerry, seriously consider the damage to others involved in sweeping the evidence that is now known of malpractice under the carpet. The same goes for future podcasts, interviews, conferences, and other media and public platforms. To be clear, we are not suggesting that Octavio or Gerry be prevented from expressing their sides of the story.

That any person who comes forward with credible evidence of having been abused, should be given moral and other kinds of support if they decide to press charges. This is obviously a contentious area, and it is not an invitation to treat the internet as a court. Nor is it an invitation to treat all allegations as true. It is an invitation to extend support to anyone wanting to take legal action where there is clear and credible evidence that they, or someone close to them, has been damaged in a 5-MeO-DMT session due to gross malpractice. This of course goes for any other facilitators as well.

Additionally, we invite anyone else with relevant testimonies to submit them to the ‘Beware of the Bufo Gangsters’ page on Facebook.21

We believe that the abuses listed above have very little to do with the inherent risks associated with 5-MeO-DMT, and everything to do with entirely avoidable, not to mention unconscionable, behavior on the part of these two facilitators.

We are aware that Octavio and Gerry are unlikely to be the only 5-MeO-DMT/Bufo facilitators who have abused people’s trust. However, they are certainly the most celebrated Bufo facilitators; they have modeled Bufo facilitation to the world; and their abuses are by far the most grievous we know.

We are respectful of the range of ways of facilitating psychedelics and entheogens, and we know there is no one right way to administer 5-MeO-DMT. People’s expectations around safety, trust, and personal versus facilitator responsibility are varied. However, manslaughter and rape fall outside of anyone’s definition of good practice.

In this regard, one good thing to come out of concern about abuse of trust by some facilitators of 5-MeO-DMT has been the formulation, by The Conclave, of recommendations to facilitators about best practice.22 This is just one view, but a lot of thought and experience has evidently gone into this document. Meanwhile, anyone wanting to get safely introduced to the 5-MeO-DMT experience, but unsure of where to start, might begin by joining the 5 Hive,23 or the Facebook page Toad & 5-MeO Forum & Support,24 where all (legal) things connected to 5-MeO-DMT can be discussed.

Finally, we are aware that some people will wonder at the need for this Open Letter. Why not simply speak directly with Octavio and Gerry? The answer is that over the years many, many people, including some of the authors of this letter, have already spoken with them directly, both privately and in the semi-public space of Facebook. There have also been ‘interventions,’ and public admonitions.

Gerry was officially uninvited from the World Bufo Alvarius Congress in Mexico City in July 2018 when new information about his criminal behaviour came through to the organizers.25 Octavio was openly questioned, criticized and pleaded with at the same Congress in regards to his practices. As he well knows, many other facilitators and members of the community have long held deep concerns over his methods. Recently, the Congress issued a statement disassociating itself from Octavio’s methods.26 In his Facebook responses, Octavio falls far short of taking responsibility for his actions, or accepting the need for thoroughgoing changes to his methods.

For these reasons we, who come from the psychedelic, entheogenic, or simply the broader consciousness community, think it is time to take a stand. Now that these long running problems have come clearly to light, choosing to push them back into the shadows is no longer an option. Silence in the face of this knowledge risks making us complicit in any future abuses. It also risks completely distorting the role of this entheogen as it makes its way into the world.

We invite you to sign and take a stand with us.



Footnotes
Note, due to the nature of these matters, almost all testimonials are anonymous. However, they have all been collected diligently, with care for accuracy, and with express permission for use here. The videos have been in the public domain for several years, and their use here is asserted in the public interest.

1: Information re Death of Araceli Ramirez Hidalgo in Session with Octavio Rettig

Phone interview with José Jorge Villalpando Medel, husband of Araceli, Feb 8, 2019, and other sources. Used with permission.Back

2: Anonymous Testimonial: Person Hospitalized by Octavio Rettig

I want to share a report about Octavio Rettig almost leading a client to the death by his practices and then failing to give first aid to him when he stopped breathing, after he received few times toad and few times rapé from Octavio and litres of water had been poured on him. It happened last year [2018]. I do not want to share the details about the location, victim and other witnesses, although I agree that would make it more trustworthy. There is still the same issue of protecting the other people around the medicine. This report is based on a few first-hand reports of the people who were present at the site.

There was present a person with the some kind of medical education and practice which most probably saved the life of the unconscious guy. After many interventions (toad, rapé, water, as well as kicking the guy lying on the ground), the guy finally stopped to breathe. Octavio was shaking the guy and started to panic, he checked the pulse and haven’t felt any. He started to repeat: “He is gone, he is gone” and panicked more. He didn’t do any of the steps which are required in the first aid procedure (CPR). The other person saw that Rettig is not helping the guy. He has been trained in giving first aid and CPR, and started to give the unconscious guy a heart massage. Another person has already called the ambulance. Rettig then gave a few mouth-to-nose breathes. It can be a speculation, but by doing this he possibly pushed all the rapé and maybe also vomit further into the breathing tubes and lungs. The other person continued with the heart massage, and interestingly, Rettig was obstructing him eg. by trying to sit the guy up and shake him. There was a person talking with the ambulance and repeating what they kept telling him on phone from the hospital: to keep heart massage, no breathing, just massage. The person giving a heart massage kept telling him the same.

Once the ambulance came, they called the police as well. After Rettig received that message, he went to manage his toad medicine, so someone could hide it or get it out from the place, probably to protect himself from the police.

The guy stayed a few days in artificial coma in hospital. There was a message from the hospital, that they had to keep him in coma for the next few days because they had to clean his lungs, which were full of “mud”, probably a combination of rapé and vomit. Most of the people around started to doubt Octavio’s medical education, as by his actions he almost made a young guy die and failed to provide basic first aid when it was needed.

He kept giving toad and using rapé the same way the days following that event.Back

3: Octavio Rettig Response to Question About Death of a Client

The following is from the document titled ‘Octavio Q & A’, by Dean Jefferys, 2018.
Q. 7 A letter from someone that you forwarded here expresses that a person has died either during or after doing a ceremony with you. Can you provide clarity on this allegation and were you ever charged with anything in response?
Octavio: Pulmonary thrombosis and embolism product of the diet sedentarism and lack of care during whole life and maybe genetic factors.”
Complete document with further questions and answers available at: https://www.facebook.com...o-forum-support/octavio- qa/1684068345002567/
Octavio refers to a second death in a confidential interview. Back

4: Newspaper Article Regarding Death of a Woman by Drowning Following Bufo Use with Octavio Rettig



Translation from the Spanish from DIARIO RESPUESTA, Friday December 28th, 2012, p. 62.
The body of a woman who drowned has been rescued from a cenote
A woman who had disappeared six days ago, was finally found dead at the bottom of a cenote, close to which she had been camping with her friends, all residents of Torreón, Coahuila.
The prosecutor’s office, in coordination with professional divers and members of the Mexican Red Cross, managed to rescue the body in a cenote of Ana Patricia Arredondo Tueme, 26 years old, originally from Torreón; the young woman had been missing for six days.

The event occurred when members of the Attorney General’s office were informed of a missing person, on the 20th of December, thus travelling to the cenote located approximately two kilometers from the federal highway, on a dirt road 50 kilometers from the Xpu-ha gas station, at kilometer 265 of the road from Playa del Carmen to Tulum.

When they arrived, they met with a group of friends, led by Octavio Hinojosa (who presumably maintained a closer relationship with the deceased), who had arrived at this camp a few days prior. However, Ana Patricia disappeared. Initially they thought she had left, but as time went by and she didn’t return, the friends became concerned and requested the help of local authorities.
The officers, imagining the worst, requested the support of professional divers and rescuers from the Red Cross to rule out the possibility of her being at the bottom of the cenote; however, reality differed.

At one-thirty in the morning, unfortunately, the body of Ana Patricia was rescued, in a state of decomposition. The expert report indicated she had been dead for about six days due to asphyxia by submersion.

During the rescue procedures, lead had to be placed on the deceased to free her body from stalactites, then dragged by the divers for 15 meters to exit the underwater cave; finally, members of the Red Cross carried out a vertical rescue.
The body has not yet been claimed, however, official sources reported that her relatives have been informed and are on their way from Torreón. Back

5: Anonymous Testimonial of Octavio Endangering an Elderly Woman, Mexico 2013

I saw Octavio almost kill a small, 60-something year old woman in San Miguel de Allende Mexico, in 2013. After she stopped breathing, she was blue and not breathing for many long minutes, maybe 5-7 mins. He stripped her down naked, water boarded her with a hose, and shook her upside down from her feet… All this was in front of a small group of people. Apparently, she had been on medication (anti depressants) for many, many years and he told her to “just stop taking them” after he served her medicine.Back

6: Anonymous Testimonials (from Different People) re Psychological Abuse From Octavio Rettig

Testimonial A:

There was a retreat in Spain for few days. One young guy probably didn’t breathe enough of the smoke for his experience. He tried to do it again. He was starting to be anxious and Octavio started to yell at him, that he is not doing it properly. Client was asking for help and Octavio kept screaming at him that he is not going to spend more time with him until he decides to follow the instructions properly. The guy seemed to be very confused, as he had taken some medicine but probably stayed partly conscious. One assistant went to help him, to provide him some care, and Octavio started to yell at her as well. Saying something like that he has said he has to stay alone and screaming at her to leave him alone. Octavio’s reaction was very aggressive. The guy seemed to stay confused and pretty traumatized after the experience.

Testimonial B:

In Cozumel Mexico, I witnessed Octavio verbally and physically abuse people outwardly. He called a woman a fat pig and a cow and a slew of many many other horrendous names. He shamed and humiliated her in front of two other people.Back

7: Anonymous Testimony Regarding Long Term PTSD From Session with Octavio, Melbourne 2015

…I arrived on the last day in Melbourne and in the afternoon, I was one of the last people to partake and I believe the event was stretched out to accommodate my wife and I. The gentleman before us had had a long passage with his experience and by the time it was our turn there was a sense of there being a rush. We had our baby with us, who at the time was 5-6 months of age and we sat with our friends under the trees. We watched the end of someone...

Signed.

Amazing journalistic work here. I am gonna follow up on this as the years progress. The sheer amount of allegations and the agressive personalities of these guys is very incriminating. Its the kind of story I have heard a thousand times unfortunatley...Signed.