DISCERNMENT IN IBOGAINE CARE An external perspective by Anders Beatty We don’t often share third-party perspectives. When we do, it’s because the values expressed closely align with how we approach this work, including our emphasis on Medically Supervised Ibogaine, preparation, and post-treatment integration. To learn more about his work, visit www.ibogainecoaching.com. Why I Can Only Recommend a Handful of Ibogaine Clinics Worldwide © Anders Beatty As my work has deepened, my recommendations have narrowed. This is not because there are so few clinics offering ibogaine. There are now many. Nor is it because others lack competence or good intention. It is because the standard I hold for where I send another human being—often at one of the most vulnerable moments of their life—has become increasingly exacting. At this point, I can honestly say I only feel able to recommend two or three clinics worldwide with full confidence. Places where I know, without reservation, that my clients will be cared for with the utmost presence, professionalism, and ethical restraint. That confidence is not built on websites, reputations, or outcomes statistics. It is built on how people are treated when no one is watching. Ibogaine is not simply a medical intervention. It is an encounter that can dismantle defences forged over decades. People arrive already carrying histories of not being seen, not being heard, not being respected—often by systems that claimed to be helping them. In that context, anything less than impeccable relational care risks repeating the original wound. The clinics I can stand behind share certain qualities that are difficult to scale and impossible to fake. They work slowly. They know their limits. They are not trying to grow. They are not trying to impress. Most importantly, they understand that ibogaine does not heal people—people heal people, and the medicine merely opens a doorway that must be stewarded with care. One such practitioner is Anzelmo. What distinguishes Anzelmo—and the very few others I trust—is not bravado, ideology, or promise. It is restraint. A quiet authority grounded in lived experience, rigorous preparation, and an unshakeable respect for the individuality of the person in front of him. There is no conveyor belt mentality. No sense of “delivery.” No attempt to shape the client’s experience into a narrative that suits the clinic. Clients are not processed. They are met. In these environments, medical professionalism and human presence are not in tension—they are integrated. Safety protocols are robust, but they do not eclipse relationship. Boundaries are clear, but they are not cold. The work is taken seriously without becoming heavy-handed or doctrinaire. This balance is rare. Many clinics are either technically proficient but relationally thin, or deeply caring but insufficiently disciplined. The places I recommend manage to hold both—clinical sobriety and deep respect for the mystery of the person undergoing the experience. Equally important is what happens after. The clinics I trust do not treat discharge as an endpoint. They understand that ibogaine does not conclude a process—it initiates one. Clients leave oriented, not idealised. Grounded, not inflated. Aware that insights now require stewardship, patience, and ongoing support rather than grand conclusions. This is why my list remains short. I do not believe it is ethical to send people into experiences of this magnitude unless I am willing to stand behind the environment in which they will unfold. That means knowing the practitioners personally. Understanding their philosophy. Witnessing how they respond under pressure. Seeing how they treat clients who are frightened, confused, or disappointed—not just those who have a “good result.” In a field increasingly shaped by scale, branding, and demand, discernment has become an ethical act. Ibogaine deserves environments that are quiet enough to listen, structured enough to protect, and human enough to care. Until more clinics meet that standard, I will continue to recommend only those I know can hold it. Not because they are perfect. But because they are careful. — Anders Beatty
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At The Anzelmo Ibogaine Center we have carefully selected various therapies as part of our detox plan and recovery program. These therapies help you on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level, in order to make your transition into a sober lifestyle as easy as possible after your Ibogaine treatment. When a recovering addict opens up new body and mind pathways of thought, emotion and being, new vibrations are created, thus disrupting and decreasing previous addiction memory pathways. As you remove your old habit — addiction — we want to replace it with new habits: positive and supportive techniques that you will take with you when you leave and start rebuilding your life. Kundalini yoga is one of the classes we offer. Our Kundalini instructor, Lily, talks about how Kundalini works: “We do traditional Kundalini yoga here at the institute, as it was taught by Yogi Bhajan, the spiritual teacher who originally introduced Kundalini Yoga to the United States.” “there aren’t a lot of Kundalini yoga teachers in Tijuana. I really respect him for wanting to add Kundalini to his program, because it’s such a beautiful practice, and not everyone understands how powerful it is.” According to the James McCrae and his blog, Shit Your Ego Says,, “Kundalini is an ancient Sanskrit word that literally means “coiled snake.” In early Eastern religion (long before Buddhism and Hinduism) it was believed that each individual possessed a divine energy at the base of the spine. This energy was thought to be the sacred energy of creation. This energy is something we are born with, but we must make an effort to “uncoil the snake,” thereby putting us in direct contact with the divine. Kundalini Yoga is the practice of awakening our Higher Self and turning potential energy into kinetic energy.” “In Kundalini, we’re always in a meditation process. You go very deep within your soul. You start with a mantra for protection, then we do a small warm up, and then we do the kriya. In Kundalini Yoga a kriya is a series of postures, breath, and sound that affect the body, mind, and spirit simultaneously. It’s a position that is connected to the breath in a certain way. The breath is connected to the brain and the heart and the lungs, so what we are doing is rewiring the brain. You are sending messages to your brain, teaching it to be different through breath, through pranayama breathing.” “Through Kundalini, you can reprogram your DMT levels. Kundalini works with the DMT that the body naturally produces. You can reach the same places you get to on ayahuasca through Kundalini. I always feel like I am raising my vibration through my own breath.” “With Kundalini, we are working on the very cells of the body. We are getting them to vibrate on a higher level. With the breathwork, we get the oxygen levels where they are supposed to be. We are cleansing the body, we are healing the body, the mind, and the soul. Kundalini goes beyond where you would go with regular yoga. It will take you out the space and connect you with the divine, with the source.” “When Yogi Bhajan, the spiritual teacher who first brought Kundalini to the United States in 1968, the first people he worked with were heroin addicts, and he healed them. That’s how he became famous. Once you can go to that place of peace, you’ve rewired the brain and your body produces its own DMT, and you are able to heal yourself. You are healed because it rewires your brain, so you get to the point where you don’t need anything else to make you feel better. You have the Kundalini glow.” “We all have energy in our root chakra. Our creative energy. When you want to take it up through the third eye so you can create something, you elevate your energy, your love. That’s the process of creation. You take the energy up the spine. Your spine is your lifeline. As long as you have a healthy spine you are young. If you have a stiff spine and you are old. The main focus of kundalini is breath and the health of the spine, breath and the muscles of the body.” “So many of the patients here never heard of Kundalini before they came here and they leave loving it. It’s not for everyone, but if you are ready to go inside, it’s for you. Most rehabs just do yoga classes. But here, they want to make sure people have a tool for when they get home. It solves your problems because it works from within. It works with your soul. So if you are okay, everything else is going to be okay. It’s a magical practice.” Kundalini yoga is a vital step in a 10-part program at The Anzelmo Ibogaine Center. We have found that this ancient Hindu practice will not only increase vitality but is directly able to re-direct cravings into emotional balance. The Anzelmo Ibogaine 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.
How Kundalini Yoga helped me beat Addiction
ewebmarketing1@gmail.com, , Addiction Treatment, Holistic Therapy for Addiction Treatment, 0At The Anzelmo Ibogaine Center we have carefully selected various therapies as part of our detox plan and recovery program. These therapies help you on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level, in order to make your transition into a sober lifestyle as easy as possible after your Ibogaine treatment. When a recovering addict opens up new body and mind pathways of thought, emotion and being, new vibrations are created, thus disrupting and decreasing previous addiction memory pathways. As you remove your old habit — addiction — we want to replace it with new habits: positive and supportive techniques that you will take with you when you leave and start rebuilding your life. Kundalini yoga is one of the classes we offer at the Anzelmo Wellness Center, A recent patient, AP, 39, a plumber from Baltimore, talks about how Kundalini yoga helped him: “Kundalini has probably been the biggest impact on me since I’ve been in treatment, other than the Ibogaine. It’s hard and it makes my shoulders hurt, but at the same time the feeling of triumph makes me leave my body,” says AP. According to the James McCrae and his blog, Shit Your Ego Says, “Kundalini is an ancient Sanskrit word that literally means “coiled snake.” In early Eastern religion (long before Buddhism and Hinduism) it was believed that each individual possessed a divine energy at the base of the spine. This energy was thought to be the sacred energy of creation. This energy is something we are born with, but we must make an effort to “uncoil the snake,” thereby putting us in direct contact with the divine. Kundalini Yoga is the practice of awakening our Higher Self and turning potential energy into kinetic energy.” “If I hold the kriya (In Kundalini Yoga a kriya is a series of postures, breath, and sound that affect the body, mind, and spirit simultaneously) long enough, I leave my body. And every time I leave, I go see my brother. He’s been dead since I was two and I never consciously knew him,” says AP. “When the kriya is done I lay on my back, and I get the exact feeling I got on Toad (5 MEO DMT), which is a feeling of comfort and bliss. It’s my absolute favorite thing to do here. Kundalini is the crack cocaine of yoga. I see colors in the ceiling. I haven’t done any research, I had no idea what to expect. I don’t want to do any research. Kundalini is my go to now. I never meditated once before I came here. I’ve done vinyasa yoga, but that’s all. My outlets seem to be meditation and kundalini.” “During the kriyas, when it hurts to the point where I want to drop my shoulders, it’s almost like I feel like they’re held up by my brother. I know it’s my brother.” “I started out with painkillers and went to heroin. I used because something was taken from me as a kid that I wanted back. My brother. I started using ten years ago and it turned into a full blown addiction seven years ago. I came here because I knew if I didn’t quit using I was going to die.” “I’ve already found a kundalini studio to practice in at home. It’s already in my recovery plan. It’s giving me a connection to something that I’ve obviously been missing for 37 years and seven months, since my brother died.” “I got my first taste of how powerful Kundalini is a few days ago. I left my body for a second. And after that I was hell bent determined to get a full dose. And the next time it was absolute glory. And since then I’ve been able to meditate and slow my breathing down enough to get a little taste of it just through breath. And if it’s all in my mind, I’m comfortable with that. It’s all in my mind anyway.” “I had a craving the other day and I talked to Lily about it and we did a meditation to Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. We just did a meditation with a chant, and it helped.” “That’s the thing I was looking for with drugs — this feeling of bliss and comfort within my own body — and now I have it inside me. So that’s what I’m gravitating towards. Right now it’s going to be two nights a week when I get home, and it might even become more.” “I’m a Christian, but I’m more religious than spiritual. I used to go to church but the deeper I got into my addiction, I sort of stopped. I’ve done more praying than church going. Now I think I kind of have them both — the spiritual thing and the religious thing — working for me.” “I feel prepared to go back home. Adamantly, yes. No more using. It’s a pretty good feeling. I was using between 100 and 200 dollars a day — I spent $450,000 over ten years. Kundalini is a lot cheaper. I’m ready to get on with my life.” Kundalini yoga is a vital step in a 10-part program at The Anzelmo Ibogaine Center. We have found that this ancient Hindu practice will not only increase vitality but is directly able to re-direct cravings into emotional balance. The Anzelmo Ibogaine 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.
Anzelmo Ibogaine 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 and ayahuasca 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. Gabor Maté, MD, is an addiction specialist who believes addiction stems from a spiritual illness, a history of trauma, and is a disease of isolation, not a physical one, writes Roger R. in Psychedelic Times. Maté’s work stems, in part, from a “1981 study called the Rat Park Experiment in which psychologist Bruce Alexander first showed addiction as our adaptation to isolation and purposelessness—what he calls a “poverty of spirit.” Alexander thought that people who are addicted have a void to fill. When they can’t fill it with love, community, and a sense of meaning, they fill it with whatever substitutes—or substances—are available,” writes Roger R. Mate argues that “addiction is a direct extension of the coping mechanisms we develop early in life to deal with stress, trauma, or abuse. . .When we are young, we use mechanisms like detaching ourselves to keep traumas from overwhelming us. But as we get older and those traumas are no longer relevant, the attitude still sticks. It’s difficult to get close to others, and we don’t develop a stable community or identity. We feel empty or uncomfortable in our own skin,” Roger R. writes. “So people turn to drug abuse or compulsive behaviors, which temporarily numbs instead of providing lasting relief.” “Dr. Maté believes that we can only resolve this emptiness by turning inward. It takes a spiritual, healing experience to undo the detachment and reconnect with ourselves. Recognizing its psycho-spiritual healing capabilities, he advocates ayahuasca as a source of treatment for these issues.” We treat patients with three Ayahuasca ceremonies after their ibogaine treatment. While the ibogaine resets the brain, erases the cravings, and shows the root causes of addiction, the combination of ibogaine and ayahuasca allows patients an even more potent chance at healing. Led by a Yaqui shaman, Arturo, the three nights of ayahuasca ceremonies work to uncover root trauma and release it. The three successive ceremonies work away at the patient, each night revealing more as the patient grows more comfortable working with the sacred plant. Each night the patient resists less and is granted access to more and more information about his or her past. By the last night, hopefully, they are able to release the trauma that drove them to addiction. We agree with Dr. Mate, that addiction is a spiritual issue stemming from unresolved trauma. The plant medicine treatments — Ibogaine, Toad, and Ayahuasca — work in tandem with each other to release the trauma, working it out of the system like a psychic splinter buried deep underneath the skin. Anzelmo Ibogaine 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.
Maps Studies
ewebmarketing1@gmail.com, , Holistic Therapy for Addiction Treatment, Ibogaine Treatment, 0At The Anzelmo Ibogaine 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. Two promising studies published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse found that Ibogaine Treatment should be further studied as a treatment for opioid dependence – especially for those for whom other treatment options have not worked. Found in the iboga plant of Africa, ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance that is used to treat various addictions including alcohol, methamphetamines, heroin, methadone, and food. It’s also effective treating anxiety and depression, as well as other types of mental illness. Both studies were sponsored by MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. The study in Mexico, which came out on May 25, had 30 participants. 12 of 30 reported 75% reduction in their drug use 30 days following treatment, and 33% reported no opioid use three months later. “Iboga could give an opiate addict several months to half a year of freedom from craving, and a period of time in which to get their life together and learn to face things straightforwardly, directly and honestly. Iboga will not do the work for you,” said one participant in the Mexico study. The second study, from New Zealand, which came out April 12, showed that a single dose of ibogaine could reduce withdrawal symptoms for heroin and opioid users, and result in complete abstinence from the drug or a consistent reduction for up to 12 months. One patient in the New Zealand study who was not properly monitored by the medical staff, died. It’s unclear what caused her death, exactly. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the opioid epidemic caused 91 deaths per day in the United States in 2016. The Anzelmo Ibogaine 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.
Ibogaine Saved my Life
ewebmarketing1@gmail.com, , Addiction Treatment, Holistic Therapy for Addiction Treatment, Ibogaine Treatment, 0At 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. A recent patient, Kim, shares her story: “It’s been 77 days since I got to The Anzelmo Wellness Center and I’m still sober and I feel great. Every morning I wake up and I tell myself what I’m grateful for. I go to two to three meetings a day. I have a sponsor, I’m doing service work. I’m going to talk to schools during Drug Week. When I was in high school, my drug program was focused on weed and drinking they never talked about hard drugs ever. I feel like schools need to concentrate on heroin. They need to know they really could ruin their lives if they use. That’s my dream, to go around talking to kids about meth, crack, heroin and how it ruins your life.” “I don’t know if it will help but I look really young and I feel like they would actually listen. Maybe not, but even if I’m talking to 200 kids and just one kid came up afterward and started talking to me, I would feel so good about that.” “I will tell them how I started using and how I lost everything. I’d tell them about my dad, who was a drunk, and how I grew up in a my dad’s friend’s bar, serving drinks to the old guys who would tip me because I was cute. My dad worked there, he’d get super drunk and then we’d walk home at five in the morning together.” “I was introduced to drinking when I was 11 by my sister. I started with Bacardi 151. I thought I was so cool. Then I started smoking pot, the older kids thought it was cute that I smoked. Then at 13 I was doing coke, experimenting with ‘shrooms and ecstasy. Then my dad stopped drinking and my mom started drinking.” “My boyfriend was abusive mentally, physically, and he cheated on me. We were together for 8 years. He was a dealer so girls would throw themselves at him. When I was 19 I got into a car accident and I fractured my pelvis in two spots and I was prescribed Oxycontin. I was on bed rest for six months. When they stopped prescribing it to me, I tried to get them on the street but they were really expensive so one day my boyfriend said “Just do a bag, it will make you feel better.” So I did. And then I just started using heroin because it was cheaper than Oxy. I sniffed it at first and then a month later I was shooting it.” “I was using it for three years and when I got pregnant I was clean for nine months and when I was breastfeeding. But at the hospital they gave me pain meds to help after the pregnancy and that started me using again. I was still a good mom. I was working at a bank. But in 2011, I got a settlement from my car accident — $90,000 — and I spent it all on drugs. I was spending $1,000 every other day for my habit – three stacks every two days. My son and I were in and out of shelters, living on other people’s couches. I moved back in with my abusive boyfriend and Children’s Services were called on me four or five times but somehow I beat it every time. I tried to get clean a million times. I would go to detox, rehab, detox, rehab, for three years. I would get out of the program and immediately be using again. In April of 2017 my new boyfriend, Christian, died of an overdose.” “I went to his funeral and I watched him get put in the ground and I thought, “That could be me in the ground and Dominic standing where I am.” A week later I asked my mom to meet me at a park. I hadn’t talked to her for 3 years. I told her I really need to get help. It so happened that a friend of her’s had a son who had heard about Ibogaine Institute so I went. I didn’t know anything about plant medicines.” “I’ve been in and out of more than 20 rehabs. The Anzelmo Wellness Center wasn’t like any of those. At the rehabs, they just wanted you in and out. They didn’t really care about how I was doing. They were about making money. When I first got here, I was really resistant. But the staff never gave up. I almost got kicked out like 4 different times and they actually cared enough to knock some sense into me. They listened when I talked and they gave me amazing advice. They’re like a family. The doctors and the nurses were so great. I gave the nurses so much shit but they took it and never got offended and just tried to help me.” “The ibogaine cleaned my system, but it was the ayahuasca that really saved me. It’s not like you’re tripping, it makes you dig deep into your soul and see things that you never wanted to deal with — the things that got you using in the first place. I was in so much pain from my car accident, my body hurt so badly. But during one night of ayahuasca, I just started to accept the pain. I finally gave up and accepted it. And my body hasn’t hurt since then. As soon as I accepted it, it went away instantly. My back has not hurt since then.” “And then I dealt with Christian’s death. I kept avoiding it during the first five ayahuasca ceremonies, but on the sixth night I accepted it and I cried and cried about it. I can’t say my grief is gone but I’ve accepted that he’s gone. The heaviness lifted. I still think about him all the time.” “Now I’m living in a sober house in Florida and I have no desire to use anymore. I work the program, too. The medicine saved me, but after you leave the Institute you can’t expect to stay clean if you don’t go to meeting and do service work and have a sponsor and work the steps. I do all of that. I feel great. I am so happy. I wake up every morning and say what I’m grateful for. I’m so proud of myself.” 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.
Ibogaine and QT Prolongation
ewebmarketing1@gmail.com, , Holistic Therapy for Addiction Treatment, Ibogaine Treatment, 0At 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. Ibogaine can be dangerous to those with heart conditions – most of the fatalities reported from ibogaine treatments are as a result of QT Prolongation. “After each heartbeat, your heart’s electrical system recharges itself in preparation for the next heartbeat. This process is known as repolarization, according to the Mayo Clinic. “In long QT syndrome, your heart muscle takes longer than normal to recharge between beats. This electrical disturbance, which often can be seen on an electrocardiogram (ECG), is called a prolonged QT interval.” QT Prolongation is often the result of abnormalities in the heart’s electrical system that are either inherited or acquired, due to a medication or an underlying medical condition. A side effect of ibogaine is that it can slow the heartbeat of healthy individuals with normal heart rates, and increase QT intervals. In a patient with normal heart rhythms, this won’t cause any risk. But in patients who have preexisting QT prolongation, ibogaine can cause the heart to slow too much, posing a risk for ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden death. The staff at The Anzelmo Wellness Center performs an exhaustive medical assessment and rigorous cardiovascular monitoring prior to treatment to prevent any risk to our patients. This includes a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s medical background and current medical conditions. Each patient is given an EKG (electrocardiogram) which measures the electric impulses that pass through the heart, causing it to contract and release. Our doctors are trained specifically to screen for those who have QT prolongation. Those with an abnormal EKG reading will be seen by an outside cardiac specialist who will map the heart through a 3D rendering to see how it will react under stressful conditions. Anyone that we treat — normal heart rate or not — will have a heart monitor affixed to their chest during the entire treatment. A doctor and two nurses are with the patient for the duration of the treatment, and an EMT and ambulance are on standby throughout the night. Those who don’t pass muster with the outside cardiologist can still be treated with ibogaine, but instead of a “flood” dose — 10–25 mg/kg of body weight — they will be given a microdose regimen of the medicine, which means they will get the same amount as a flood dose, but spread out over 14 days. That way there is never a high enough concentration in the body to cause a QT prolongation, but the end of the 14 days, they will have taken enough to end their addiction without withdrawal. It will be administered slowly enough to keep the slow heart rate from being affected. 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.
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 the late 1800s, the Bantu tribe of Gabon retreated into the rain forest of Equatorial Gabon to avoid French Christian Missionaries who wanted to eradicate the tribe’s traditional beliefs. In the jungle they met pygmy tribes who introduced the Bantu to Tabernanthe iboga — a small rain forest shrub that contains hallucinogenic alkaloids. The Bwiti religion rose up around the sacramental plant — a combination of pygmy, Bantu, and Christian beliefs combined into a new, hallucinogen-based religion. The root bark of the iboga plant is an entheogen — allowing users to “see God within.” Instead of hearing about God in church as with traditional Christianity, the Bwiti get to see God for themselves, thanks to iboga. “In church, they speak of God. With iboga, you live God,” according to one Bwiti practitioner, writes Wesley Thoricatha in Psychedelic Times. Many Bwitists commonly believe that Gabon has a connection with the biblical Garden of Eden, and iboga with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, according to the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance. According to GITA: “Bwiti incorporates elements of ancestor worship as well as animism, which holds that all things hold within them the energy that was produced during the first moment of creation and that by learning the language of the spirit of things it is possible to communicate with God.” The Bwiti hold weekly mass ceremonies in which the tribe dances, plays music, feasts, and imbibes low doses of sacramental iboga to facilitate a feeling of joy and connection within the tribe. During an initiation ceremony — held for a new member of the Bwiti tribe, which opens itself to anyone who would like to join — the initiate takes a large dose of iboga over a three day period. The initiate lies on the floor of a church, watched over by a “mother” and “father” who oversee the initiation process. Other tribe members will play the mougongo, “a monochord usually fashioned out of a single bent piece of wood and a taut string, and a ngombe, or a ritual harp with eight strings often fashioned out of fishing line,” along with rattles, bells, sticks, and drums, according to the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance. “Large doses of ibogaine can result in complete disassociation with reality for extended periods of time, which can lead to powerful revelations as the initiate speaks with their ancestors or even religious figures such as Jesus, the Virgin Mary, or God. After the iboga runs its course, the initiate shares their experiences with the rest of the tribe and is then considered a full member of the community henceforth,” writes Thoricatha. “Among the Bwitis the moment of initiation is the moment of greatest illumination and must be taken into consideration for the rest of the initiates’ life: in each moment of crisis, the Bwitist goes back to the time of initiation, thus putting himself at the best strategic point of observation., writes Giorgio Samorini in the journal Integration. “During the vision, the initiate undertakes long journeys to the land of the dead, who serve as mediators with the divine. He may also encounter his ancestors or other persons known to him. Others find celestial figures during their journey, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, St. Peter, shedding their divine light. Others have direct encounters with God. The hallucinations experienced during the trip are full of profound symbolic meaning, personal as well as cultural; the world of the jungle with its trees, plants, and animals acts as an experimental and imaginative substrate for the visions. Always during the vision the spirits of the dead, Jesus Christ or any other entity tells the initiate his new name, the initiatory name (nkombo), a name which is added to the initiate’s proper names,” writes Samorini. “Following the three days and nights of the initiation, the initiate wakes up to what he considers a new life. Sometimes energetic intervention on the part of the officiating member is necessary to wake up the initiate and at times the loss of consciousness may continue into the following days. This is interpreted as a positive sign since if is taken to be contact with the divine. Only on rare occasions has the initiate failed to wake up and died. As in the rare instance of a “bad trip”, iboga is not considered the cause, it is the individual who is responsible, because of his impurity and bad thoughts,” Samorini explains. 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.
Suboxone Detox
ewebmarketing1@gmail.com, , Addiction Treatment, Holistic Therapy for Addiction Treatment, 0At 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. Our unique approach walks you through your work to have deeply entrenched patterns fall away to be replaced with new habits and the discipline to resolve future cravings, create supportive relationships, resolve past wreckage, and get back to building the life you dream about. Many heroin users turn to suboxone to get off dope. But at the The Anzelmo Wellness Center, we know how hellish it is to get off of suboxone. We talked to our patient Andrew, who came here to get off of suboxone, about how hard it is to detox from a drug that is just as addictive as heroin. “I tried to stop taking it, but I couldn’t function. You get restless leg syndrome, you’re sick, depressed, confused, sweating, you have diarrhea, you’re vomiting, you’re confused, and sleep is out of the question. “Doctors claim that it’s easy to get off of, but it’s not true. They don’t really talk about that part too much, but if you ask, they say it’s not a big deal. But it is a big deal. Its awful. It’s like heroin withdrawals, not perhaps as intense, but they last for weeks instead of days. It’s just awful. I’ve been trying to get off myself but that’s a hopeless situation. I came here because I was desperate.” “When you try to go off on your own, you can’t do anything. You get desperate. You get restless leg syndrome, you’re sick, depressed, confused, throwing up, sweating, you have diarrhea, you’re vomiting and sleep is out of the question.” “The drug itself is very sticky. It sticks to your brain receptors, it just hangs on to your brain and it doesn’t let go. It’s a living hell to get it out of your system.” “Doctors put you on it too easily. The idea is that you’re getting free of your addiction by taking this, you’re taking something safer than heroin, but suboxone is the definition of addictive.” “People stay on it for their whole lives unless they want to go through several months of hell. I’ve heard that people who go off it, it takes about a year until they feel normal. I tried to stop taking it, but I couldn’t function. That’s why I’m here.” 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.
The MAPS-sponsored study on Ibogaine and addiction which was published earlier this year found that the entheogen was effective against opiate addiction — 12 of 30 participants reported 75 percent reductions in their drug use 30 days following treatment, and 33 percent reported no opioid use three months later. The results of the study were published in May of this year. But what is at times lost in the statistics is the more mystical side of the plant medicine, the side that’s harder to quantify with numbers. We know that ibogaine works to treat addiction, resetting the neurons to baseline so when the treatment is over, the patient is no longer in withdrawal, and no longer craves heroin. But there’s another side to the medicine — the psychological side, the hallucinations — that can show you why you started to use in the first place. “Ibogaine’s value is not only the interruption of withdrawal but, by mechanisms not fully understood, to assist the patient in changing learned behavior and becoming more aware of their behavior in order to change it. After ibogaine therapy, many patients become more agreeable to change,” write Howard Lotsof and Boaz Wachtel in their Manual for Ibogaine Therapy. At the recent Psychedelic Science Conference in Oakland in April of last year, Thomas Kingsley Brown, PhD, who ran the Mexico study on Ibogaine, gave a talk in which he discussed the more metaphysical aspects of the ibogaine experience, which can be just as important as the physiological effects. He explained that a large percentage of patients reported seeing visions of what their lives would look like if they continued using heroin. The visions were extremely detailed and realistic, based on the current conditions of the patients’ lives. “My ibogaine experience was very profound. It opened up a portal. Over the next few days I had visions of myself continuing to be a heroin junkie, living with the rats in the sewers of New York City,” reported one participant. “At the final part of my trip…I realized why I was in a self destructive pattern. Then, for what felt like hours, I saw my future as a heroin addict. I was in and out of prison for a long time ’til I was old and decrepit and alone…I felt like I’d wasted my whole life. Then I was under a collapsing bridge; it fell on me. I died,” says another. “ showed me that if I continued on opiates I would some day be smuggling heroin into Florida…I had an affair with my brother’s wife and then murdered ,” reported another man, who had recently bought a yacht with his brother. In addition to seeing the painful paths their lives would follow were they to continue using, the patients reported having mystical visions as well. Many “sense that someone is watching over them or that everything is going to be okay, and that they are on their way to health,” said Brown. Just as importantly, others reported healing damaging relationships with their family members, seeing clearly at last the pain they had caused others, or being freed from painful familial patterns. “I had acquired from dad a relentless and very negative voice in my head. During that journey, that voice left me — it was extraordinary! It was like a tape loop in my head broke and the tape spun off into space…I could sense the space in my mind that was freed up by its departure,” reported one patient. “ a profound sense of love for my family and their love for me and an intense, almost piercing agony as I was overwhelmed with the remorse and the waste and loss, feeling empathy with my family over all their hopes for me dashed by my relentless pursuit of drugs,” said another. “On the 10th day after the start of treatment, while still at the clinic, I woke up and realized suddenly that all my life experiences made me who I am today, and with that realization I totally forgave my mother and father. Before Ibogaine I hated my father. Now I am thankful for all that I learned from him,” reported a third. 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. “Rockland County Times: Ibogaine: Addiction Cure for Many, Lethal for a Few.” MAPS, 2017, https://maps.org/news/media/6702-rockland-county-times-ibogaine-addiction-cure-for-many,-lethal-for-a-few.
