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.
