A congress is being held in Mexico city on July 27th-29th in relation to 5-meo-dmt. Tickets are expensive but would be worth it if you're interested. There will be quite a lot of interesting speakers, for any locals, tickets are half the price of an international ticket.

Here's the website: https://www.wbac.info/

Sounds really interesting. I hope they publish videos of it.

But I feel ambiguous about it. IMHO putting the toad, and not the substance into the spotlight is not ideal, as it may increase the pressure on it even more.

Agreed, although I would be suprised if enviromental awareness wasn't discussed at the event. The meeting shouldn't have to mean an increase in the toads being exploited.

People should know that this event is littered with problems. Aside from the problematic work of Octavio and Rak, I've heard firsthand from folks who had some level of involvement in this event that it's been a sham from the beginning.

As I understand it, many of the listed presenters are not actually presenting/attending. In at least some cases, the organization apparently just listed people, even creating bios and whatnot for them. I do not believe Ralph Metzner will be there, for example.

Additionally, I've spoken with a number of folks who were invited to participate but are incredibly distressed about how the conference is being conducted and the participation of problematic individuals, as well as the ongoing commodification efforts they are engaged in. This conference seems to be more than a little unsavory, imo.

That's a big shame, I was hoping something productive would come out of it.

Hey there,

Wanted to mention there is already a Bufo Alvarius Foundation which claims to have the intention to build a resort for the Sonoran Desert Toad and is trying to save the animals from further export and abusing! (furthermore extinction)

Main webpage


they‘ve got a forum too

Forum

you can donate if you would like to help or do voluntary stuff as well I think but it is more or less in the fledgling stage at the moment so donations would be appreciated very much I think...

Therefore Mr. Garcia, who is the founder I think, uses the Toad as medicine for his ceremonies, there would be a risk that he is trying to farming them for big commercial selling but I don‘t think so or moreover I don‘t hope so but at least there would be a chance to a tiny degree.... I really can‘t verify if the toads population is decreasing but he sounds almost worthtrusty and it wouldn‘t be the first species that disappears from this planet as a result of our consumer society!
So don‘t take my little doubt too serious as I do not either... just came aware of this possibility when I was writing this post and I‘m a skeptical being per se!

See it for yourself!

Dr. Gerry facebook
Podcast with Daniel Vitalis

I've heard some negative things about this conference, much in line with what SnozzleBerry has stated, and I personally know some people who were placed on the speaker's list for this event without their prior knowledge or approval. My hunch is such an event will only result in a net loss to wild toad populations. I'm also sceptical of the motives of the Bufo Alvarius Foundation...it has been in its "fledgling stage" for some time now, and I had heard from someone who lived alongside Dr Gerry for months (in fact hosted him in his house) that he saw no evidence that any money sourced through the Foundation was going towards conserving the toads, but rather going into Dr Gerry's own bank account and supporting his lifestyle. Obviously both him and Octavio Rettig maintain the view that 5-MeO in Bufo extract form is in some way superior to pure, synthetic 5-MeO, likely because they both make a lavish living through the former, whereas the latter is a fraction of the cost. The content of the pinned post of the facebook group "BEWARE of the Bufo Gangsters" may be of interest if you’d like to investigate this further.

Yeah but the people involved with its creation (Rak and Dr. G) are some of the individuals at the very center of the "toad" controversy. I don't have any information to back up the intuition, but I've been suspicious of this from the first i heard about it from Dr G while he was soliciting large donations long before non profit status was granted.

Gerry has also shown an incredible change of personality as his fame in the small circle of underground psychedelic practitioners has grown, from a seemingly humble man with good intentions to a nearly self-deified "medicine giver" driven by notoriety and money with a sketchy backstory and some serious allegations against him from various people including theft of money and medicine as well sexual abuse. Again, these are allegations but he doesn't answer any of thembut just continues soliciting business on social media.

This conference seems designed to lend credibility and legitimacy to a growing group of self styled practitioners who are creating a false mythology around the toad and elevating themselves as professional$ in the process. They are once again putting more value on the container in which it occurs than the event, as some have done with psuedo-traditional aya ceremonies in Peru. Only this time it's all made from whole cloth. But it serves the same purpose- to effectively create a priest class within the psychedelic community that are endowed with some right and power given to them by themselves to disseminate toad venom.

Wow, I really was in hope that my skepticism was more paranoia than rather intuition at this point
Maybe there are many things that collide in their personalities like "Psychedelic-Ego", "Messiah-Complex", "Media/Selling/Survival-S**t"

I'm really glad that I can say that I'm staying away from facebook for approx. 4 years or more now... and have to say that I really didn't expect that I get so much interesting advises to facebook groups here that are linked to yeah literally this kind of "underground psychedelic stuff" we are into...

On the one hand I think that there have to be so many people now on facebook from every kind and aspect of human being who ALL give a shit about data collecting and abusing privacy actions - that it's maybe still one of the best connection things in our generation(s) and it would be somehow a personal failure to miss that incredible huge community action/thinking/discussion/connecting streamflow
BUT ON THE OTHER HAND
If all that stuff is spreaded so widely, which is probably more bad than good - I don't know I could be wrong, - the chances or probabilities that the hostilis trading or acacia tree abusing or whatever could be commercial "usefull" in this aspect (Son. Desert Toad), could lend to an even bigger amount of environmental pollution and destruction for no benefits at all....
I mean this thing with "Psychedelic-Ego's" or the Enlightenment-ChopWoodCarryWater isn't something that HAS to change your life... at some point you're still in a role to choose and ponder your actions after experiences, probably even after the "best" cocktail of psychedelics...
I have seen many friends or acquaintances that have used the stuff and were saying "oh wow, now I know it and....." things like that
Yeah you guys know what I mean, but what it tells us and if it tells us something we have to work through ourselves like I make the most delicious veggie food plate with at least 20 different ingredients spices whatever for my dad and he says "yeah that's so delicious, someone wouldn't need meat with that" if I ask him a day after when he's hungry again why he's eating meat he says "my body needs this to stay healthy" Back to ignorance again 'nd again O-KAY!
So if we want(or moreover if we think we are ABLE) to learn from that or not should be the initial question and than someone should present us the whole richness of mother earth's tools (step-by-step) - like I'm just saying you would "sign up to facebook- joining techno group detroit (e.g.)- seeing dmt post - joining dmt group - buying mimosa - blasting off" could be a worst case in my eyes, seen from a learning curve viewpoint in some way... but that's another story


However, contigent upon my facebook absence I wasn't aware of groups like "BEWARE of the Bufo Gangsters" thanks for this Banco , I wouldn't have felt that bad writing about my skepticism if I would have been aware of that group...
unfortunately commercial seems to be always more powerful than pure intention, but that's monetarism/capitalism




bad publicity is publicity, too
marketing is everything
sick of it all

now I'm too much enlightened in this topic.... hope these toads are doin some much longer hibernations in the future to protect themselves from the "toadmafia"- stpd ppl

While this is pretty cool as a concept from first hand experience going to psychedelic conferences the main angle of most of them is just to raise money for the people presenting/setting up the event so they can make off with a fat stack. Not interested to pay top dollar to go to events like this in the future, even though they can be quite enjoyable they are usually a rip off and promote a materialistic atmosphere.

I can wrap my head around a powerful psychedelic experience long before I'll ever understand why the "underground" is laying there with its belly exposed all over Facebook. The only reason i ever look at it is to know what the cool kids are doing.

I'm even more confusedas to why it seems to be the main source of information for the majority of people there, and how few know about this place...


I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels that way. At this point there are some real sacred cows ta that might be getting a little too fat...