The
Sonoran Desert ToadThe
Sonoran Desert Toad
Bufo alvarius
The Church of the Toad of Light. Albert Most wrote The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert (Venom Press. Denton TX. 1984). This pamphlet was so popular that the veneration of Bufo alvarius is now firmly entrenched throughout the Sonoran area. There are even toad devotees as far away as Germany who smoke exported venom. Al Most and his friends formed an informal congregation of toad worshippers.* It seems unlikely that the group ever incorporated. Nonetheless, Most did sell T-shirts for $12.00 with a toad logo bearing the caption "Church of the Toad of Light." This was advertised as "The Official T-shirt sanctioned by the high council." (NOTE: To respect the rights and health of animals, toads should only be milked by properly trained people. Untrained persons can obtain similar potent tryptamines from various chemical supply houses.) MAPS
* Strassman, R. 2001. Personal communication.
Shirt image courtesy of Thomas Lyttle.
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A non-denominational All Race Peyotist Religion
Since 1978
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Illusion is the first of all pleasures. - Oscar Wilde
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whiz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
- Monty Python's Meaning Of Life
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Some excellent Buddhist writings by Bhikkhu Bodhi: Rebirth and The Five Aggregates
Some excellent Buddhist writing by Bhikkhu Shravasti Dhammika:
Rebirth