The Sonoran desert toad (Bufo alvarius), not the marine toad (Bufo marinus), is a plausible candidate for ritual use by ancient Mesoamericans. The marine toad's venom is too toxic for such use, but the Sonoran desert toad secretes large amounts of the potent hallucinogen 5-MeO-DMT. Experiments show that while the venom is toxic if eaten, it can be safely smoked and is powerfully psychoactive by that route. This is the first documented hallucinogenic agent from the animal kingdom and provides clear evidence of a psychoactive toad that could have been employed by Precolumbian peoples.
The Nahua people of central Mexico divided their supernatural dimension into two parts, classified by the numbers eight and nine. Eight described a realm of communication with the gods, while nine described a realm of destruction and subsequent transformation into new life. Concepts such as Mictlan, Tlalocan, or Tonatiuh Ichan, traditionally understood as supernatural regions, were actually conceptual domains, each related to a particular space, time, gods, attributes, and potential actions. Analysis of four domains related to the metamorphoses of the god Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl—Tlillan Tlapallan, Tlahuizcalli, Itzmictlan, and Chiucnauhnepaniuhcan—reveals a new understanding of the Nahua otherworlds and sheds light on the life cycle of this key god and his mysterious destination, Tlillan Tlapallan.