History, 359-361

Early Reports and

Synthesis of Ibogaine, 359 Recent Usage, 360

Botany, 361 Chemistry, 361-362

Physical Effects, 362-363

Mental Effects, 363-366

Native Accounts, 363 Modern American Experiences, 365 Naranjo's Psycho therapeutic Findings, 366

Forms and Preparations, 367

CHAPTER EIGHT

Iboga and Ibogaine

Figures and faces materialized from the depths, moving effortlessly on unseen currents. Each was unique, each appeared at a different point in my visual sphere, moved toward me, and attained a peak of aesthetic perfection just as it confronted me from the tiniest distance away. Then it dissolved into light as another, equally beautiful, came into being elsewhere. They were a people suspended in time, adrift in a mind-warp through which I could not reach but clearly saw, for when I stared into the forest, the visionary faces were superimposed on whatever I looked at, and when I withdrew within by closing my eyes, my brain-space became a theater of many dimensions in which my phantom tribe appeared, peered, and passed in wondrous procession.

—Walter Anirman

HISTORY

Ibogaine, the most studied of the alkaloids present in the roots of Tabermanthe iboga, is representative of another cluster of indolic molecules that have been included among Psychedelics. Ibogaine is a naturally occurring compound of special interest because it comes from an entirely different botanical family than anything discussed above—a contribution to the mystery of Psychedelics from equatorial Africa.

Early Reports and Synthesis of Ibogaine

Some commentators credit wild bores with inspiring the practice of ingesting bark from the roots of the "iboga," "eboga," "boga," "Iibuga," "bocca," "e'boge," "leboga" or "lebuga." After digging up and eating roots of the shrub, boars go into a frenzy and jump around wildly, according to natives. Similar reports have been made about porcupines and gorillas.

The earliest known record of T. iboga dates from 1864, when Griffon du Bellay brought specimens to Europe. He stated that when the yellowish root of this plant is eaten,

it is not toxic except in high doses in the fresh state. In small quantities, it is an aphrodisiac and a stimulant of the nervous system; warriors and hunters use it constantly to keep themselves awake during night watches.

359

360 Iboga and Ibogaine

By the 1880s, use of shavings from the root of iboga was known to be quite widespread in Gabon and adjacent parts of the Congo. Natives used it during lion hunts to remain awake and alert for up to two days while waiting for the cats to cross their path. According to some residents of Gabon, colonial Germans permitted and possibly encouraged use of iboga to suppress fatigue among workers on such projects as the Douala-Yaounde railroad. In 1889 came the first botanical description.

In 1901, Dybowski and Landrin extracted the major alkaloid in the root bark, which they named ibogaine; they found it to be almost as psychoactive in isolation as the entire root. French and Belgian investigators then undertook a flurry of chemical and botanical studies, concluding that it was a stimulant for the central nervous system. M.C Phisalex suggested that ibogaine contained psychoactivating qualities. Psychoactivity, though evident from native accounts, was not, however, followed up by Western scientists until the mid-1950s. The earliest written report indicating consciousness-changing effects came in 1903 from J. Guien, who commented on the experience of an initiate in a Congo cult:

Soon all his sinews stretch out in an extraordinary fashion. An epileptic madness seizes him, during which, unconscious, he mouths words, which when heard by the initiated ones, have a prophetic meaning and prove that the fetish has entered him.

Recent Usage

In 1966, Bu'chi, Coffen, Kocsis, Sonnet and Ziegler published a "total synthesis of iboga alkaloids" (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 88: 3099-3109). In 1969, Harrison Popejr. summarized the findings in scores of studies on Tabernanthe iboga (pp. 174-184 in the April-June Economic Botany). These papers, coming at a time of great interest in Psychedelics, stimulated renewed examination of this compound-cluster.

Iboga, like peyote, has become politically significant through its use for religious purposes. Bwiti (male) and Mbiri (female) iboga-using groups have apparently unified once-warring tribes in the Congo and Gabon in resistance to Christian and Moslem missionaries. The cults, which have been growing, conduct their ceremonies mainly at night amidst dancing and drumming. As with yage, iboga root scrapings are employed to evoke communication with deceased ancestors.

Outside of Africa, very few people have had access to the botanical source or to synthesized ibogaine. People who have tried them have often been impressed;a few have not, considering this cluster merely composed of stimulants like amphetamine. PharmChem has regularly analyzed a small number of genuine samples.

Psychotherapeutic efficacy has been investigated by Claudio Naranjo and described in The Healing journey. He comments on forty sessions he conducted with thirty patients using "either ibogaine or total iboga extract."

An African Contribution $62

Naranjo also discusses ten sessions with a different group of people using iboga extracts in conjunction with amphetamine, plus fifty treatments "which I have either witnessed or known indirectly."

BOTANY

The Tabernanthe iboga bush, growing to about five feet high, is common in the equatorial underforests in the western part of Africa. It is one of at least seven species of this genus—two of which are known to have been used as mind-alterers (the other is T.manii). One of the mysteries about Tabemanthe, says Schultes and Hofmann, "is why the Apocynaceae, probably the family richest in alkaloids, should be so sparingly represented in the list of species valued and utilized for their psychotomimetic properties." They suggest that there are

undoubtably sundry species in this family possessing organic constituents capable of inducing visual or other hallucinations, but either they have not been discovered by aborigines or they are too toxic for human consumption.

Iboga is frequently cultivated in villages of Gabon as a decorative shrub, producing a yellowish- or pinkish-white flower. This flower often grows from the same point with pairs of leaves and branches. The plant yields a small, oval, yellowish-orange fruit—about the size of an olive with an edible sweet pulp—which doesn't contain ibogaine but has sometimes been used as a medicine "for barrenness in women."

The stems, which are said to have a vile odor, contain small amounts of ibogaine and related alkaloids along with large amounts of latex. Roots similar to those of Rauivolfia form from a bulbous mass, which can grow to about four inches across. Individual roots branch off from this mass in all directions and may extend as far as 32 inches. The bark from the roots, especially the smaller ones, is preferred by the natives. It is yellowish-brown in its fresh state and turns gray when dried. Alkaloids constitute up to 2-5 percent of the roots and may constitute more than 6 percent of the root bark,

CHEMISTRY

Ibogaine was isolated in 1901 from Tabernanthe iboga roots by Dybowski and Landrin and by Haller and Heckel. The most abundant alkaloid in the shrub's root bark, ibogaine exhibts the indole nucleus structure common to most Psychedelics. Its stereochemistry (the dotted lines are at angles to the rest of the molecule) was established in the late 1960s:

362 Iboga and Ibogaine

Starting in 1942, a number of chemical studies were made of other iboga alkaloids, mainly by the French. At least twelve such alkaloids are known; they appear in about the same proportion in both T. iboga and T manii. They are all similar in structure to ibogaine. The most important are taber-nanthine, ibogamine, coronaridine, voacangine, isovacangine and cono-pharyngine. Their structures are described in The Hallucinogens.

The only study so far on the effects of ibogaine homologues in humans was done by P.B. Schmidt, who in 1967 reported on doses of 0.1 to 1.2mg./kg. of ibogaine hydrochloride administered orally to twelve subjects. It produced states of inebriation and mild sedation with minor psychic changes. The dosage used by Schmidt may have been insufficient. Chemical references, mainly in French, are listed at the end of Pope's paper in Economic Botany (April-June 1969).

PHYSICAL EFFECTS

Moderate doses of ibogaine or iboga root bark are stimulating (much like amphetamine) and act as a choline-esterase inhibitor, causing some hypotension and stimulation of digestion and appetite. As with harmala alkaloids, there is no pupil dilation. In larger amounts, these compounds induce nausea and vomiting and put users into a trance where little physical activity is possible. In excessive amounts, iboga ingestion has led to convulsions, paralysis and even death brought on by arrest of respiration.

On a number of occasions, leaders of the Bwiti cult have been brought before courts on charges of murder. An instance occurred in November 1950 when it was alleged that they had administered large amounts of T. iboga to a young boy for purposes of acquiring a cadaver (there also being the question of panther whiskers mixed in). James Fernandez reports in Flesh of the Gods that most such cases of suspected murder involve "women or young people of small body size."

Native iboga cults generally use two or three teaspoons for women and three to five for men of the dried, powdered root bark. At this dosage the results are not primarily mental but do excite a substantial activation of motor response, which considerably assists drumming and dancing. Users often feel light, almost as if they are walking above the ground. Naranjo found that a third of his subjects administered ibogaine felt a desire to move or dance during their sessions.

As much as a third to a full kilogram of the root bark has been ingested in some initiation ceremonies. In order to enter the Bwiti cult, an initiate has to see Bwiti, a vision which can only be attained by eating sufficient quantities of iboga. The practice has been to start early in the morning, with the root bark being eaten throughout the day "to break open the head" and establish communication with Bwiti and ancestors. The visionary state is usually achieved in the evening, when all members of the Bwiti cult join in a ritual dance. Some candidates almost pass out during the many hours of visions.

Archetypal Contents of This Journey 333

Some sleep for several days once the effects have ended, but ordinarily users feel little in the way of after-effects.

The Bwiti cult is fairly puritanical and thus regards manifestations of aphrodisiacal effects as antithetical to the religious purpose of iboga. Earlier reports emphasized this component of the experience. According to Adam Gottlieb in his Encyclopedia of Sex Drugs and Aphrodisiacs'. "It is also used as an aphrodisiac and cure for impotence. Its efficacy as a sex drug is borne out by my personal experience and that of others."

Animal studies with ibogaine have been extensive. When many species are given large amounts, they appear to be frightened and act as though they are hallucinating. Hoffer and Osmond have summarized much of this work in The Hallucinogens (pp. 469-470).

In 1905, a Dr. Huchard used doses of 10 to 30 mg. of ibogaine in treating influenza, neuresthenia and depression, and some cardiac disorders. He found that the results were improved appetites, muscle tone and generally improved rates of recovery—along with mild euphoria.

MENTAL EFFECTS

Native Accounts

James Fernandez, writing about iboga in Fursi's Flesh of the Gods, drew on accounts from some sixty users, most of whom spoke of the experience as a journey. As Bwiti initiates, they communed with ancestors, who mostly appeared white (a color identified by natives with the dead). A feeling of levitation is common; rainbow-like halos are taken as a sign that one is beginning to approach the land of one's ancestors and gods.

Fernandez noted similarities in visionary elements: typically, one first saw a crowd of black men who have not eaten ehoka and were unable to pass to the beyond; then one was met by a relative who is white and guides the user over rivers and other obstacles, traveling on "a journey down a long road that eventually leads to great powers." Often the user meets other ancestors in order of descent, going further and further back in lineage. Sometimes the journey ends in the middle of a rainbow. Time perception was often lengthened, so initiates felt that they had been traveling in the spirit world for

several days.

Here is the report from Ndong Asseko, age twenty-two, unmarried and a member of the Essabam clan:

when I ate eboka I found myself taken by it up a long road in a deep forest until I came to a barrier of black iron. At that barrier, unable to pass, I saw a crowd of black persons also unable to pass. In the distance beyond the barrier it was very bright. I could see many colors in the air but the crowd of black people could not pass. Suddenly my father descended from above in the form of a bird. He gave to me then my eboka name, Onwan Misengue, and enabled me to fly up after him over the barrier of iron. As we proceeded the bird who was my father changed from black to white—first his tail feathers, then all his

-)0^ Iboga and Ibogaine

plumage. We came then to a river the color of blood in the midst of which was a great snake of three colors—blue, black, and red. It closed its gaping mouth so that we were able to pass over it. On the other side there was a crowd of people all in white. We passed through them and they shouted at us words of recognition until we arrived at another river—all white. This we crossed by means of a giant chain of gold. On the other side there were no trees but only a grassy upland On the top of the hill was a round house made entirely of glass and built upon one post only. Within I saw a man, the hair on his head piled up in the form of a Bishop's hat. He had a star on his breast but on coming closer I saw that it was his heart in his chest beating. We moved around him and on the back of his neck there was a red cross tattooed. He had a long beard. Just then I looked up and saw a woman in the moon—a bayonet was piercing her heart from which a bright white fire was pouring forth. Then I felt a pain on my shoulder. My father told me to return to earth. I had gone far enough. If I went further I would nor return.

The State of "One-Heartedness" 365

The aim of the experience is for members to achieve a state of "one-heartedness" (nlem mi-are) in the early hours of the morning, when the spirits of the initiates and ancestors have mingled. Afterwards, there is a large communal meal.

Modern American Experiences

Only a few people in the U.S. drug subculture have tried ibogaine. But as Walter Anirman, author of Sky Cloud Mountain, indicates in his first description of two such trips—the other appears in a chapter entitled "The Lady Iboga"—the results are similar to accounts from Africa:

I expected to do very little moving later, since I knew from experience that Iboga would thoroughly discoordinate my body, and, indeed, the first effects of the drug were nausea and dizziness. By the time these were intense, I was . . . breathing rapidly, and trying to sit up on the mat; but my legs and head

became unbearably heavy and my stomach sagged with pain___Behind the

discomfort of my body, however, I was getting the first of Iboga's exuberant hallucinations. My perceptual space melted to a crystalline liquid where shapes shimmered like stains and vivid, piercing sen sat ions pulsed through as pictures from another dimension. I became a continuum of experience in a galactic swirl whose energy first nullified the pain in my body, then penetrated deeper and dissolved my body as well.

Consciousness awoke to its electromagnetic matrix and bedazzled me with lights. My head prismed with colors that resolved themselves into eidetic, omnisensual scenes of long forgotten times I was ten years old again and running down the railroad tracks near home, off with my boyhood companions into another day of adventures. The tracks became silver cords weaving a Turk's head knot around me, then straightened and became the implacable bars of a crib where I—a diapered baby—howled to be free. The colors turned red, crimson, scarlet, purple; became bright liquids flowing as blood in my sentient tubeways, oozing nourishment through flesh, pulsing with a million aspects of life.

Occasionally, the visionary onslaught would ease fora moment, and I would awaken to my body crumpled on a blanket in a magically unfocusable forest. I managed to sit up several times, hoping to channel the energy more directly along my spine, but could never hold it, and fell over. No sootier was I down than I was off once more, foraging through luxurious strata of psyche, meeting myself in mirrors of mind, abbreviating time to dally with images of yesterday as real in recall as they had been in reality. It was an unending parade, a continuous, extravagant creation, but the flow brooked no impediment Nothing could be stopped; nothing held for the inquiring mind to examine. Like- a volcano, I erupted and bubbled over with marvels, but nowhere could the lava be slowed ....

Anirman experienced a "recurring motif in this "unending flow of encyclopedic images":

... a series of very beautiful, visionary people grew from my mind and moved rhythmically through my seeing.. They were lovely to look at. Their

366 Iboga and Ibo^ainv

bodies were exquisitely formed; their features highly refined Dark eyes and black hair accentuated burnished skins, and they were strangely alive, though they appeared to be neither awake nor asleep .... Figures and faces materialized from the depths, moving effortlessly on unseen currents. Each was unique, each appeared at a different point in my visual sphere, moved toward me, and attained a peak of aesthetic perfection just as it confronted me from the tiniest distance away. Then it dissolved into light as another, equally beautiful, came into being elsewhere. They were a people suspended in time, adrift in a mind-warp through which 1 could not reach but clearly saw, for when I stared into the forest, the visionary faces were superimposed on whatever I looked at, and when I withdrew within by closing my eyes, my brain-space became a theater of many dimensions in which my phantom tribe appeared, peered, and passed in wondrous procession.

Naranjo's Psychotberapeutic Findings

In The Healing Journey, Claudio Naranjo describes his use of ibogaine in conjunction with psychotherapy. Although he doesn't specify dosages, he declares that archetypes are prominent in the visions and that actions in dreamlike sequences often involve destruction or sexuality, Ibogaine, he claims, elicits a "less purely visual-symbolic experience" than harmaline. He adds; With no drug have I witnessed such frequent explosions of rage as with this particular one .... With ibogaine, anger is not directed (I would say transferred, in the psychoanalytic sense) to the present situation, but, rather, to persons or situations in the patient's past, toward whom and by which it was originally aroused This is in accord with the general tendency for the person under ibogaine to become concerned with childhood reminiscences and fantasies.

The salience of animals, primitives, sexual themes, and aggression in ibogaine and harmaline experiences would justify regarding them as drills that bring out the instinctual side of the psyche. This stressing of man-the-animal contrasts with the effects of the airy or ethereal "Psychedelics" . . .

Aside from differences in the quality of the ibogaine experience, there art differences in content: a less purely archetypal content, more childhood imagery, and certain themes that appear to be specific to the mental states evoked by the alkaloid—notably fantasies of fountains, tubes, and marshy creatures ....

There is a great difference between the domain of past experience to which MDA facilitates the access and that which is exposed by means of ibogaine. Whereas with the former it is a matter of events being remembered, and perhaps reactions or feelings in the face of such events, with ibogaine it is a world of fantasies that the person meets. Parental images evoked by means of ibogaine probably correspond to the child's conception of his parents, which still lies in the subconscious of the adult—but these do not necessarily match the parent's reality. The therapeutic process with ibogaine may be depicted as that of seeing such constructions for what they are and being freed through confrontation with them ....

Instinctual Dreamlike Sequences 367

FORMS AND PREPARATIONS

Tabernanthe iboga is grown mainly in Gabon and the Congo, although it can be cultivated in most tropical and semi-tropical areas. Little has been raised in the U.S. It has been propagated successfully in a few greenhouses, as in Berkeley, California.

Natives generally rasp off the root bark and then eat it as a dried powder. Sometimes the powder is mixed with water and drunk as a beverage. Iboga is said to be stronger in its fresh state. In a few places, it is taken with other plants, especially with Alchornea florihunda (also considered an aphrodisiac), or marijuana.

A small amount of ibogaine has been synthesized for the psychedelic subculture, but this is rare. It is proscribed in Schedule I of the 1970 drug legislation. Its illegal status and the difficult manufacturing process have led most psychedelic chemists to conclude, as Michael Valentine Smith suggests in Psychedelic Chemistry, that it isn't worth the trouble.