Secret Magical Dictionary
Are you confused about how magicians pull off their tricks? Are magicians actually illusionists? Don't worry—you're not alone.
When a global psychedelic retreat operation gets "reborn" and puts on a clean new dress, it may decide not to write "DMT brew, 5-MeO-DMT toad venom, Mescaline cactus, and Peptide frog poison" on the checkout page. Annoying bureaucrats and "non-understanders" may ask awkward questions. So the stage curtain goes up, the magic wand swings its spells, and molecules get baptized as "ancestral technologies" and "experiences of alchemical fire."
There is a practical trick behind the vocabulary, too. Under the 1971 UN Convention on Psychotropic Substances, raw plant and animal materials—or traditional infusions brewed from them—sit outside the treaty's classification of synthetic preparations and extracts, even when they carry scheduled compounds inside them. Back in 2012, the UN's own International Narcotics Control Board clearly and explicitly advised governments to stay vigilant where trafficking and misuse of such plant and animal materials occur and to act at the national level. Until national authorities step in, vague wellness poetry does the heavy lifting.
Here are some magical illusions that the wellness magicians have up their sleeves—and how to read the spellbook.
Part I: The Spells
Before naming a single plant or amphibian, the ecosystem loves a cloud of magical buzzwords. Depending on the online presence, the same "session" might be sold as high-tech therapy, an ancient wisdom download, or a look inside as your weekend plan.
| The Stage Illusion | The Magic Trick Revealed |
|---|---|
| "Conscious transformation process", "living framework", "personal-process container", "transgressive solution" | A retreat where psychoactive substances are served under the banner of personal development, introspection, or reflection. |
| "Tools", "ancestral tools", "ancestral technologies", "mysterious tools", "power plants", "plant teachers", "Plantas Maestras" | Psychoactive plants, brews, snuffs, or secretions—dressed up as spiritual enablers. |
| "Medicine", "the medicine", "shamanic medicines", "entheogenic therapy", "integrative therapy" | Psychoactive administration framed in quasi-medical or sacred language. |
| "Experiences of alchemical fire", "alchemical process", "expanded states", "non-ordinary states", "reconnect to divinity" | Altering your conscious state—or getting intensely high. |
| "Evening sessions", "the night session", "nighttime master plant ceremony", "deep work night session" | Most commonly Ayahuasca (conventionally run after dark, sometimes boosted with Yopo). |
| "Optional morning activities", "optional complementary sessions", "additional treatments", "optional extras", "package" | The upsell menu card—often Kambo in the morning, or Bufo alvarius and San Pedro during the day. |
The Schedule Tell: Even when a brochure deletes every substance name, the timetable gives the trick away. Often Morning means frog secretion (Kambo). Daytime means desert toad (Bufo) or mescaline cactus (San Pedro). Nighttime means Ayahuasca.
Part II: The Apothecary (Substance by Substance)
1. Ayahuasca / Yagé
The flagship nighttime headliner: a cooked concoction combining MAOI-rich vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) with DMT-bearing leaves (Psychotria viridis or similar), containing UN-scheduled DMT.
- Mystical spells: "Ayahuasca", "aya", "Yagé", "Yagé cure", "Yagé remedy", "Amazonian concoction", "traditional Amazonian brew", "shamanic infusion", "ancestral remedy", "sacred medicine", "spirit rope", "liana of the soul".
- Behind the curtain: Ayahuasca on Wikipedia
2. Bufo alvarius
A daytime smoke session using dried secretion from the Sonoran Desert toad, packed with nationally scheduled 5-MeO-DMT (plus traces of 5-HO-DMT). Routinely marketed as an "ancient" or "ancestral" sacrament, even though its psychoactive use is a modern neo-shamanic discovery first published in 1984.
- Mystical spells: "Bufo", "toad medicine", "Bufo sessions", "Optional Bufo sessions", "power animals", "dissolution of the ego", "connection with spirit", "Mexican Sonoran Desert toad", "Colorado River toad".
- Behind the curtain: Colorado River toad on Wikipedia
3. Yopo
A blended seed snuff (Anadenanthera peregrina) containing nationally scheduled 5-HO-DMT alongside traces of DMT and 5-MeO-DMT, commonly blown up the nose as a booster during nighttime Ayahuasca ceremonies.
- Mystical spells: "Yopo", "Ancient Amazonian snuff", "cohoba", "parica", "calcium tree", "recognize and release mental patterns, conditioning, and blockages", "expansion of consciousness".
- Behind the curtain: Anadenanthera peregrina on Wikipedia
4. San Pedro / Huachuma
A daytime decoction brewed from Andean cactus (Echinopsis pachanoi), containing UN-scheduled mescaline.
- Mystical spells: "San Pedro", "Huachuma", "Wachuma", "Andean cactus", "daytime session", "release repressed emotions", "celebrate life", "indigenous natural medicine", "achuma", "giganton".
- Behind the curtain: Echinopsis pachanoi on Wikipedia
5. Peyote
Another mescaline-bearing cactus (Lophophora williamsii), occasionally name-dropped in their wider entheogen glossary.
- Mystical spells: "Peyote", "Lophophora williamsii".
- Behind the curtain: Peyote on Wikipedia
6. Syrian Rue
Seeds of Peganum harmala, rich in harmala alkaloids (reversible MAOIs used to activate oral DMT or mimic ayahuasca pharmacology).
- Mystical spells: "Syrian rue", "wild rue", "African rue", "esfand", "harmel", "Harmala alkaloids".
- Behind the curtain: Peganum harmala on Wikipedia
7. Bobinsana
An Amazonian river-bank shrub (Calliandra angustifolia) frequently folded into retreat diets and plant-teacher lineups.
- Mystical spells: "Bobinsana", "Calliandra angustifolia".
- Behind the curtain: Calliandra angustifolia on Wikipedia
8. Kambo
The morning purge: skin secretion scraped from the giant monkey frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor) and burned onto the skin, delivering unscheduled bioactive peptides that trigger violent vomiting and cardiovascular spikes.
- Mystical spells: "Kambo", "Kambó", "Amazonian frog medicine", "power animals", "body purification", "body detoxification", "Optional kambo sessions", "Sapo", "vacina da floresta".
- Behind the curtain: Phyllomedusa bicolor on Wikipedia
9. The Heavy-Nicotine Quartet: Inwasi, Ambil, Rapé & Mapacho
Four different ways of delivering unscheduled, high-potency nicotine from jungle tobacco (Nicotiana rustica)—sold in online shops or administered before and during ceremonies:
- Inwasi & Ambil: Thick, concentrated tobacco pastes taken orally ("Inwasi", "Ambil").
- Rapé: Fine-ground tobacco snuff blown forcefully into the nostrils ("Rapé", "Rapeh", "Rapé Healing", "Sacred tobacco", "traditional aromatic blends").
- Mapacho: Raw jungle tobacco (Nicotiana rustica), often used as a snuffed liquid infusion right before nighttime Ayahuasca ceremonies begin.
- Behind the curtain: Nicotiana rustica on Wikipedia
10. Ceremonial Cacao
Roasted bean powder containing unscheduled theobromine—the exact same mild stimulant found in your kitchen pantry, marked up with cosmic adjectives.
- Mystical spells: "Ceremonial cocoa", "process of opening", "process of increasing sensitivity".
- Behind the curtain: Cocoa bean on Wikipedia
11. Sananga
A sharp, stinging liquid squeezed from the roots and bark of Tabernaemontana sananho, dripped directly into participants' eyes during daytime sessions.
- Mystical spells: "Sananga", "Tabernaemontana sananho".
- Behind the curtain: Tabernaemontana sananho on Wikipedia
Once you know the slang, the magic trick loses half its mystery. Every "ancestral tool" has an esoteric name, psychoactive chemical compounds, and a magical price tag—no magic wand required to join the club of "inside explorers."
Stay tuned for the next trick.