At The Anzelmo Wellness Center we use plant medicines to help clean your system of opiates, but also to help you to see yourself: your habits, your pains, wounds, traumas, and the roots and cause of your addictions or depression, in such a powerful and clear way. Ibogaine can show you why you have your anger, stubbornness, loneliness, separation, sadness, reactions, and emotional triggers. It can help you release the shame, guilt, and self-judgement. And can help you forgive yourself, for all the suffering you caused others, yourself, and the wrongs that have been done to you.
In addition to preparing yourself physically for your ibogaine treatment by ensuring that you are off any drugs that contraindicate with it, there are other things you can be doing to get yourself ready for the experience.
Ibogaine is one — if not THE – most powerful hallucinogens on earth. If you are nervous about working with this plant medicine — you are right to be. It’s a warrior’s medicine and it should be treated with the respect it deserves. It’s also likely one of the most bizarre and beautiful things you will ever do. Oh, and at the end of it, you won’t be addicted to heroin anymore. For those of you who don’t have a lot of experience with hallucinogens, here are a few guidelines to follow:
Don’t resist. This is a big one. If your body starts to hurt and you start saying over and over again in your brain, “I don’t like this, I want it to stop, make it stop,” you will just prolong the pain. Instead of asking the medicine to stop, just breathe. Say to yourself, “This is temporary. The ibogaine is trying to heal me. Please heal me. Thank you for healing me.” And relax your body as much as you can while you say it. Try not to focus on the pain. My friend Derek taught me that whenever he gets nauseous from ayahuasca, he doesn’t focus only on the pain in his stomach – instead he focuses on his entire body, just following his breath, and once he does that, his stomach pain becomes muted. The more you relax, the easier time you will have.
This goes for your mind as well. Your mind is going to want to make sense of what’s happening — but it won’t make any sense. Don’t try. Try to shut your mind down, entirely, if possible. Do this through breath. Just focus on breathing, in and out, in and out, and try to keep the rational part of your brain quiet. It’s going to want to control the show, to make a story out of the images you might be seeing — try not to let it. Say, “Thank you, brain, for trying to help, but please be quiet now.” And go back to focusing on your breath.
Mediate. The single best way to prepare for Ibogaine is to mediate. Spend 20 minutes a day sitting alone quietly, cross legged, with a straight spine, training your mind to be still. If you want, repeat a mantra to yourself to give your brain something to occupy itself. Russell Simmons is a big Transcendental Meditation guy and he gave away his mantra freely in one of his books — it’s “Rhum.” So say “rhum rhum rhum rhum rhum rhum” to yourself as you breathe in and out for twenty minutes each day to let your mind get used to being a little quieter. This will be a really useful tool for the hour or so you’ll wait after taking the ibogaine, before the effects come on, when you’re anxiety might be at its peak. Repeat a mantra to keep yourself calm.
Pray. Prayer can get you through some tight spots during intense hallucinations.
Keep your eyes closed. It’s a good idea to have an eyemask with you. It seems that the visions stop when you open your eyes, and it can be hard to keep them shut when what’s going on behind your lids is so intense. An eye mask works to keep your lids down.
Do some research, but not too much. Skimming Erowid can be really useful, but I suggest reading the last few paragraphs of the entry first — make sure the experience was positive for the user before you read it. There is ZERO point in reading the negative ones. The vast majority of entries are wildly positive.
Don’t have too many expectations, or any, really. The beauty of ibogaine is that even if the hallucinations are not strong, the medicine is still working on your brain. So know that whatever happens during the night — even if nothing happens — you will be free from addiction, or anxiety, or depression — whatever your demon is — the next morning. The ibogaine is in your system the minute you swallow the pill, and it will reset your neurons with or without any hallucinations. You’ll have a second chance.
The Anzelmo Wellness Center is an integrated clinic dedicated to healing severe addiction, deep trauma, and other challenges that life hands us. Our treatment philosophy combines the best of Western treatment modalities with ancient healing techniques and traditional indigenous wisdom.
