There is a delirious moment in the 1988 documentary Cane Toads: An Unnatural History when a back-lit hippie explains that consuming mescaline allowed Native Americans to see the world through the eyes of the cactus. It is the same when people imbibe the skin secretions of the toad, he mumbles, although sadly he “didn’t like it that much”.
Whether seeing the world through the eyes of a toad is an experience worth having is an open question. But the ingenuity required to discover that the residue of a boiled toad is hallucinogenic and the bravery required to drink the fetid broth reveal the powerful human appetite for mind expansion.
