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The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef review – a bizarre tale of psychedelic toads and hair-raising treatments

A journalist investigates the unsettling world of a charismatic shaman and the people who trusted him Which, in your opinion, is the worst current cultural trend: social media influencers; unregulated wellness practitioners; macho manosphere posturers; psychedelic bores; cultural appropriators? The good news is that, with Octavio Rettig, the central character in Kimon de Greef’s The Ego Trip, you don’t have to choose

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Ledger record
#77
First seen
17 Aug 2026, 21:26 UTC
Last checked
17 Aug 2026, 21:26 UTC
Version history
1 version
Current fingerprint
ab37026c2bf9...bc8fbd
01

Publisher layer

Recorded article metadata

Publisher
The Guardian
Country
England / United Kingdom
Source published
17 Aug 2026, 08:00 UTC
Source updated
No update timestamp supplied
Byline
Oliver Bullough
Section
Books
Source-supplied excerpt
A journalist investigates the unsettling world of a charismatic shaman and the people who trusted him Which, in your opinion, is the worst current cultural trend: social media influencers; unregulated wellness practitioners; macho manosphere posturers; psychedelic bores; cultural appropriators? The good news is that, with Octavio Rettig, the central character in Kimon de Greef’s The Ego Trip, you don’t have to choose
02

Change layer

Observed version timeline

  1. 1
    Initial capture

    The Ego Trip by Kimon de Greef review – a bizarre tale of psychedelic toads and hair-raising treatments

    A journalist investigates the unsettling world of a charismatic shaman and the people who trusted him Which, in your opinion, is the worst current cultural trend: social media influencers; unregulated wellness practitioners; macho manosphere posturers; psychedelic bores; cultural appropriators? The good news is that, with Octavio Rettig, the central character in Kimon de Greef’s The Ego Trip, you don’t have to choose

    Changed fieldstitlebylinedescriptionTextcontentTextsourcePublishedAtsourceUpdatedAtsectionimageUrltags
    Version SHA-256
    ab37026c2bf9...bc8fbd
    Capture SHA-256
    2bce3d4df01c...722802
03

Interpretation layer

Labels with declared origins

Not an adjudication.

Publisher categories are copied from source metadata. Machine signals report observable wording or format and do not determine truth, intent, ethics, or wrongdoing.

  • machine content-type Analysis or opinion observable-rules-v1 / 70% rule confidence
  • machine language-signal Investigation language observable-rules-v1 / 65% rule confidence
  • publisher category Biography books rss-category
  • publisher category Books rss-category
  • publisher category Culture rss-category
  • publisher category Drugs rss-category
04

Public response layer

Reception snapshots

No reviewed reception capture yet.

Comment counts and samples remain absent until a lawful, source-specific capture method is reviewed. Absence is recorded instead of estimated.

05

Evidence layer

Capture provenance

Capture ID
#1
Observed
17 Aug 2026, 21:26 UTC
HTTP result
200 / parsed
Raw payload
460,621 bytes, private gzip evidence
Collector
news-ledger/0.1
Public boundary
metadata and excerpt