REPORTS FROM THE UNIVERSE
“Psychedelics are to the study of consciousness what the telescope is to astronomy.”
— TERRENCE MC KENNA
“Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.”
— JEREMY NARBY,
THE COSMIC SERPENT: DNA AND THE ORIGINS OF KNOWLEDGE
O NE THING that had me fretting was the length of the journey, 24–48 hours. I had a hard time sitting still for more than 20 minutes. If I partook of the medicine, would I feel “trapped” in the experience? Would it be too much?
“Yes, it was a long journey,” Sharese confirmed, “but it was so perfect. I felt such a deep state of surrender, trust, ease.” Her bright, peaceful eyes and the centered tone of her voice communicated even more than her words. A deep, calm current of love flowed out from her.
Sharese was a new but instantly adored friend, a yoga instructor, and a radiant, energetic lady. She shared generously about her experience. She had participated in a ceremony in Panama several years prior.
“I have also experienced ayahuasca, and they are very different,” she said. “Aya is very expansive, up and out into the cosmos. Iboga takes you so deep within...deep,deep down into yourself. Iboga felt more like a father to me. Clear, stern, gentle. Iboga shows you visions, but you cannot ‘grab’ at the visions with your mind—or they fade away. You just have to watch and receive.”
“I’m nervous actually. This medicine seems so intense,” I confessed.
“There is nothing to fear,” she said with a warm smile and knowing gaze.
Jason, an acquaintance and a close friend of a close friend, had experienced the medicine and agreed to speak with us. We didn’t know each other well, but we’d had pleasant interactions before. Even though he was a busy entrepreneur, he made time to share his story. Synchronicity would have it that he had actually visited Iboga Sanctuary and worked with Mopunga! We settled into our phone meeting.
“Did you have a positive experience?” I asked.
“Yes, absolutely. Mopunga was a great guide. I felt so at ease. Many friends of mine had experienced ayahuasca, but no one I knew had experienced iboga. I wanted to understand another perspective, another plant teacher. I came to iboga as a spiritual seeker.
“Though I didn’t seek out iboga for addiction, per se, I had definitely been partying like a rock star for a while before I arrived there. After I left Iboga Sanctuary, I noticed that my desire to party dropped to almost nothing. It just didn’t have the same draw anymore.”
“And how have you been doing since?” I asked.
“Really great! I’ve been working hard at my new business. I feel focused, creative, fulfilled. I’m loving life! I was definitely sorting through some personal issues before I experienced the medicine. I am still dealing with the reverb of it all, but I feel so clear and empowered, better equipped.”
“And what was the journey like for you?”
“Intense. Profound. Amazing. I saw myself in all my lifetimes. And I met my higher self, my eternal soul, which was threaded through all those lifetimes. It’s wild, but that’s what happened. I was in awe. I felt so much love for myself.
“I’ve had just a few psychedelic experiences that really informed my life and shaped who I am, and that was definitely one of them. I came away from that experience with a deeper respect for life and some pretty deep agreements with myself.”
“Did you feel well taken care of there?”
“Absolutely. They were great.”
I heard from another friend, Dawn. She had experienced iboga a few years prior, and she generously offered to share her intimate experience of healing in our conversation. I knew her as a serene yogini, gifted healer, and artist, but once upon a time, she’d been a wild one. Years earlier as a restless 20-something, she lived a fast-paced life working as a model and fashion designer in London.
Dawn had suffered an early impact. Her brilliant parents had been cold, distant, and severe despite their underlying love. She had emerged from their home severely traumatized, her heart and spirit numb.
Espressos, chain smoking, and partying fueled her life. Despite being a tall, gorgeous vision of feminine beauty, she loathed herself inside. “I felt so much shame because of my inner darkness. I was lost. I was destroying myself. I engaged in all these risky and extreme activities, just so I could feel my life a little,” she bravely revealed.
She compulsively traveled the world, endlessly searching for satiation in all the wrong places. She started down an even more treacherous path when she began snorting cocaine and smuggling drugs to finance her globetrotting party girl lifestyle. One day, possessed by drug-induced paranoia, she bolted from her gig in South America and abandoned a fortune of drugs in a suitcase. She wound up on her family’s doorstep as a shivering, rail-thin wreck.
“I knew I needed serious healing. I was initially drawn to experience ayahuasca. The ceremonies were grueling at first,” Dawn explained. Far from healing, they seemed to throw salt in all her wounds. In retrospect, she felt she had been working with the wrong facilitator. “I finally found an experienced traditional shaman who was also a good fit for me. ” The medicine finally granted her deep healing and lasting positive changes. Toxic elements fell away from her life. She shifted her deadly trajectory. She reconnected with meditation and yoga.
Then she learned about iboga. The medicine called to her to deepen her spiritual journey, and also to disrupt her smoking. “Cigarettes were my ‘best friend’ for 20 years. I needed a miracle,” she confessed. She was soon invited to a traditional Bwiti iboga ceremony being held in a remote countryside sanctuary in Europe. She had fasted and prayed. She made the long journey.
African Bwiti shamans and several apprentices greeted her as they prepared for the ceremony. She donned her ceremonial attire and stood in line to receive the medicine. But right before she was to receive the sacrament, the shamans pulled her aside.
“The spirits had told them that I wasn’t ready. They said I was especially delicate at that time. And they were right. So that was that. I was disappointed, as I had come so far and carefully prepared, but I accepted their guidance.
“The medicine found me again a couple years later. It was the right time, I know in my heart. I was introduced to a man who worked with iboga and ibogaine for detoxes, and he was a very experienced provider. He himself had been freed from heroin addiction with iboga. I was given the natural extract of iboga, with the alkaloids left intact. I had what is known as a ‘booster’ dose, rather than the more substantial ‘flood’ dose. My journey only lasted a few hours, unlike the more intense three-day journey with the flood dose. It was perfect for me.”
Dawn had been taken deep down into herself. The medicine had felt deeply cleansing—physically, mentally, spiritually. As she lay in bed in a meditative state, she saw thousands of snapshots of her life where she had abandoned herself. She was confronted with her darkness in a firm but loving way. She realized that she’d been wrestling with symptoms that her smoking was a part of, and the medicine showed her what truly needed to be addressed.
It was the longest amount of time that she’d gone without smoking in years, she explained. “Right after my journey, I went straight for a cigarette like a bat out of hell! But it felt different. Things had started to shift. Within a couple months, the smoking completely faded out of my life.”
My heart sang like a choir of earth angels. All good signs. Ordinary oracles showing the way.
I conveyed these reports to Chor as they trickled in. He oscillated between apprehension and enthusiasm, suspicion and curiosity, fear and love.
Iboga held the promise of complete healing. And as he wavered, I could feel the demon in him doing everything it could to avoid being evicted.