Knowledge of psychedelic toads was fractured across niche academic disciplines, and even Erspamer appears not to have been aware that 5-MeO-DMT had hallucinogenic properties. The man ground the glands of 10 cane toads into a paste, added lime water and ash, then boiled the mixture overnight. In 1989, two teenagers were hospitalized in New Mexico after licking toads, which they had read about in the papers. From The Ego Trip: Psychedelic Toads, a Trail of Deaths, and the Guru Who Peddled Transcendence by Kimon de Greef. Kimon de Greef is a journalist from South Africa and the author of The Ego Trip, an investigative nonfiction book about psychedelic toads.