Iboga Alkaloids

Iboga root bark is experienced differently then when isolated extracts, such as ibogaine or the total alkaloid extract of the root are consumed. Iboga root bark can be a more prolonged experience when compared to working with ibogaine alone.

Low-dose iboga is stimulating, has mood lifting properties and can ease hunger or cravings slightly. It can also cause anxiety, nausea, and sleeplessness in some users, especially when taken for long periods of time or at higher doses. Iboga is different than traditional psychedelics when micro dosing in that you do not build a rapid tolerance like when using mushrooms or LSD due to rapid sensitization of the 5-HT 2A site. Iboga alkaloids primarily act on other transmitter sites, and when metabolized their metabolites become more lipophilic molecules that are stored in fat cells. This causes a buildup of the medicine over time, and when taking small doses gradually over multiple days this can lead to an increased effect from just a small dose taken. Effects can persist for a few days or weeks as medicine continues to accumulate in the system.

Positive effects of low dose administration include increased energy and mood, creative insight, relief from cravings, spiritual connection, and a quieting of the mind.

Negative effects include having a difficult time sleeping, irritability, heightened awareness of things that are wrong in the environment or need changing. This could eventually be positive but may feel negative in the moment.

Hyper sexuality can occur, as iboga is known as a fertility medicine and aphrodisiac. Iboga is a powerful anti-bacterial and antiviral and can strip intestinal flora. Supplementing with probiotics is important to replenish bacteria.

Both iboga and ibogaine can prolong the QT rhythm of the heart and interact with a number of different medications. Proper medical screening, including EKG and bloodwork is necessary for a high dose experience, and for some, it can be important for a medium to low dose, as well. Especially if taken consecutively for longer periods of time.

Medium dose iboga and ibogaine experiences are often times compared to more traditional psychedelics like mushrooms and LSD. Medium range doses can begin to feel dreamy or daydream like characterized by a wandering thought process or hypnagogic like imagery. Some can begin to have visions at this dose range. A typical psychotherapeutic dose was often in the mid-dose range in one to three spoons of iboga or 5 to 7 mg per kilogram of extract.

Higher dose experiences fall into their own category completely. Initially doses of either iboga or ibogaine can instill a dream like or visionary state that can last from 8 to 16 hours depending on dose or form taken. Visions are often accompanied by a loud buzzing, feeling of high intensity energy flowing through the system, ataxia, nausea with vomiting that is motion induced, and a markedly reduced need for sleep for up to 72 hours past the last dose.

How people experience the medicine is largely determined to why they came to work with the medicine. Whether it be for chemical detox, for psychospiritual reasons, and factors such as overall health, age, gender, how someone metabolizes the medicine, how someone deals with discomfort in general, and what sort of expectations are brought into the experience.

It is not uncommon for people to be let down because they don’t “see anything” or experience what they thought they may experience due to hearing about other’s experience. People often come to iboga after having heard it can be the most intense and worst experience of one's life, so some expect to suffer, or to be shown hard things and get let down or think it didn't work when this doesn’t occur.

It is a myth that iboga/ibogaine has to be hard or difficult for it to work.

It is very pleasurable experience for some, others describe it as mostly neutral or weird, and for some it can be a gruelingly long experience. Everyone’s experience is unique and it is best not to judge or compare one’s experience to another’s. Managing expectations going into the experience is a good way to avoid letdown and make the most use of the experience. And it is not so much about what happens during the experience, but what happens after the experience that is arguably more important.

Ibogaine is a synaptic pruner. It helps to clear out the mental cobwebs. It can get rid of the damaged, unwanted connections that have to do with repetitive addictive patterns, obsessive thought forms and trauma. The pruning process can feel intense like a tornado going through the brain. In the following days some may feel lighter, some may feel emptied out or hollow. The day after medicine is taken can be a day of reflection and processing repressed emotional content and/or one’s experience from the night before.

Once the system resets itself after a good night sleep, the GDNF release begins and the critical window of neuroplastic change continues for up to 1 to 3 months following a session in the medium to high dose range. This time of increased plasticity is an important time when we can learn new patterns, change old ways of thinking and being in the world and create the foundation for the self we would like to grow more into.

Post session, people generally describe their mind as quieter and they notice they have more space between stimulus and response. This can help give us a choice where there was once automatic reaction. Some can feel less depressed and more connected to the world around them. Some may no longer crave or desire that which was not healthy for them. And some may say, “I just feel better now though can't say how”. It works on a subconscious level and some believe that a conscious psycho-spiritual experience isn't even necessary for the healing to take place. This is why they are designing molecules, such as 18-MC and Tabernathalog to be used for healing addiction, depression, trauma and increasing neuroplasticity . We should not go in search of an experience that is prefabricated by our imagination and assumptions but instead go into it knowing we will be better off after it on the other side.