What convinced me to try it once, was that someone said that it also had a chakra balancing effects too. The first time, I puked my guts out, and then felt really good. The feeling really good part afterwards is what usually helps me through the rough parts if I keep that in mind. It is like Having a bad flu bug, but only for like 20min. I think that helps knowing too while going through it, that it won't last, unlike the flu where you have no idea what is going on or how many days it will last. I was then told I should do it three times in one moon cycle for its full protection, so I was like, damn, guess I survived the first one fine, lets see what the rest is all about........
Anyhow, the second time, I took the morning after a aya ceremony. I sat with it with a sense of no fear and sense of respect and love, instead of the feeling of dread about going to be so sick so badly. That time I didn't get sick! It felt very energetic in nature that time too, like it was working on the "light body". So for the third one, I took towards the end of an aya ceremony, and I had drank aya the night before with a different group in another state. They had run late with starting their ceremony, and then late the next day with starting a sweat lodge.So I ate when I should not have, and some of which had vinegar in it. I then rushed to this ceremony....in NYC, the belly of Babylon, such an intense urban jungle for healing work . The rape' before the first serving of aya, kicked my butt! pineal throbbing,colors, and me "getting well" into my bucket plenty. That has been my strongest rape' moment to date (though I don't do it anymore), and jungle tobacco is much stronger than western tobacco, fyi. So late in the night, after the second cup was served, they started apply the kambo to those who wanted it, but only after they started drinking lots of water. Well, I was thinking I had it mastered after the last time, but this one really kicked my butt the hardest! I heaved so hard from puking, I pulled a muscle in my side that hurt for weeks! It is funny how people literally turn into a frog during the experience. Their face will get puffy, and their lips....looking just like a frog, and you end up on all fours heaving into a bucket, and the puking and burping sounds just like a bunch of frogs!
I find it takes far more courage to go through Kambo than an Aya ceremony, but it is so worth it, it lifts brain fog for a while by flushing toxins out of the brain that have built up, along with a immunization type of "shot". You can always start with small amount of "dots", like 1-3, and then work your way up to 7-9 dots. Some of these shamans will take dozens of dots at once!