Ibogaine Treatment Clinics

My research into the Dogon continues with a look at ibogaine use among the Dogon. Ibogaine, or iboga,  is a psychedelic from Africa that has received some attention due to its reputation as a treatment for addiction and alcoholism. It is legal in Canada and Mexico, where several detoxification clinics have sprung up. There is also an ibogaine treatment center on the island of St. Kitts, off the coast of Florida. Addiction treatment centers using ibogaine can also be found scattered throughout Europe and Central and South America. Israel has a clinic offering offering ibogaine. Even Pakistan has one.

Don’t Even Plan to Purchase Ibogaine in the United States – Unless You’re a Rodent or a Scientist

Ibogaine is, of course, illegal in the United States, where it’s classfied as a drug with potential for abuse and no medical value. In other words, you’ll bring the Drug Inquisition down on your head if you take it – or even plan to take it – on U.S. soil. In December of 2005, a Casper, Wyoming couple were arrested by the feds for the crime of planning to purchase ibogaine. They could get up to twenty years. Their motive was that they were trying to cure their addiction to crystal meth (and a painkiller called hydrocodone).

Even while the Casper, Wyoming couple faces a prison sentence for trying to obtain their hoped-for miracle drug, rodents in America have been successfully treated for laboratory-induced alcoholism. At UCSF’s Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, scientists have proven conclusively in their experiments that ibogaine really does reduce alcohol consumption in their tiny charges. Furthermore, they have discovered how it works. It increases the level of a brain protein called glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). They have even conducted a study in which they pump GDNF directly into the rodent brains and decrease the little mammals’ cravings for alcohol. Rats that received ibogaine or GDNF treatment proved to be less likely to fall off the wagon.

Ibogaine Isn’t Just a Treatment for Addiction – It’s Sacred

To those peoples in Africa who have traditionally used ibogaine in their rituals, it is much more than a clinical treatment. It is sacred to them. The intrepid etheogen researcher and writer Daniel Pinchbeck ventured into Gabon to experience his own ibogaine initiation in a traditional setting. He took off his own clothes and donned the red robe of the initiate, symbolic of dying and being reborn. Then he had a bundle of leaves placed in one of his hands, a bundle of thistles placed in the other, and he was told to shake both in rhythm with the music. He was brought into a temple, where he was seated in front of a mirror that was surrounded by ferns and carved figurines. The King and tribal elders sat in the temple with him to his left, while the rest of the tribe sat on benches to his right. He was told, “If you see a window, you must try to go through it.” The Bwiti repeatedly told him to narrate all of his visions out loud for the entire tribe to hear. When he asked for a pillow, the King mocked him. Finally, after having no visions and retching, he began to experience the oft-reported memory theate, in which the ibogaine taker sees the process of their own self-development. The sought, but not always experienced, effect is a reputed freedom from the past and its emotional baggage. This is the effect that Pinchbeck experienced.

“Through iboga,” he writes, “I recognized my existing self as the product of all the physical and psychological forces that had acted upon me. Yet there seemed to be something beyond all of it, something that was ‘mine,’ an energy projected from outside of my biographical destiny. That energy was the self – and the self’s trememdous capacity for transformation.”

After reading about Daniel Pinchbecks ibogaine initiation ritual in Breaking Open the Head, I became curious as to how widespread ibogaine use is in Africa. I wondered if the Dogon make use of it. A little research online quickly confirmed that the Dogon use both ibogaine and cannabis. It is difficult to find detailed information about this subject, other than that fact that they use it. I can only surmise that their use of ibogaine may be similar to that found in places like Gabon. Research online didn’t turn up much, other than the facts that Fang art has some similarities with Dogon art, and that Tantric elements can be found in both Fang and Dogon religious beliefs.

Valis, the Dogon and Ibogaine

Curiously, my online research in this area has led me to Philip K. Dick’s Valis trilogy. Both Dogon mythology and ibogaine figure in Valis. Valis is one of those books that I have on my shelf, that I’ve always intended to read some day, and that I’ve never read. Now that I’m so obsessive about all things Dogon, I know I will not be able to resist reading it.