Ibogaine

(Iboga, 10-Methoxyibogamine)

TrippyWiki score: 7.2/10

What is ibogaine?

Ibogaine is an alkaloid that comes from an African plant called iboga. Ibogaine isn’t as safe as most other psychedelics but it is the most effective substance we know of when it comes to treating addictions, especially opioid addiction.

Why choose ibogaine over other psychedelics?

Ibogaine…

Is the most effective psychedelic for treating addictions
Decreases symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
May reduce viral loads of HIV, Hepatitis C, and other viruses
Has cured many people of their opioid addiction (and these people usually didn’t notice any withdrawal symptoms)
Is perhaps the best psychedelic to microdose with
Usually doesn’t cause nausea or physical discomfort
Has a longer duration than other psychedelics, which allows you to reap more benefits from your trip
Cannot make you addicted
Isn’t as stigmatized as other psychedelics

Long-term benefits & side effects

Many of the benefits will only occur if you follow the tips below.
Most (if not all) of the side effects are preventable and they will not happen if you follow the Safety checklist.

Ibogaine…

Is the best way we know of to cure addictions
Decreases symptoms of Parkinson’s disease
Can lower your levels of stress and anxiety, including social anxiety
Might help you form positive habits, such as meditation and exercise
Helps treat depression and PTSD
Increases neuroplasticity
Makes you more creative and open-minded
Helps you look at your life from a different perspective
Allows you to heal your childhood trauma and forgive people who’ve hurt you
Makes you more conscious and loving
May reduce viral loads of HIV, Hepatitis C, and other viruses
Can help you transcend the fear of death
Gives you insights into the nature of reality
…

Can be lethal if you suffer from heart problems
Can cause insomnia if you take lower doses on regular basis without cycling on and off.
Has led to self-harm by people who took it in an unsafe environment
Might speed up the onset of schizophrenia if you’re genetically predisposed to it
Can deplete you of electrolytes
Can cause HPPD and physical damage if you combine it with other substances (such as alcohol or stimulants)
Could cause you trauma due to bad set and setting
Might lead to drug-induced psychosis if you’re predisposed to it
Can cause seizures in rare cases
Is illegal in many places and you might get arrested for getting involved with the substance
Will make you dislike the government and the way that our society functions
…

How to take ibogaine

Administration

Ibogaine is taken orally. You can either use Ibogaine HCl, a TA form, or a root bark form (usually sold in capsules). Iboga root bark can have anywhere from 2-4% of ibogaine in it and 1-7% of alkaloids.

Dosage

The doses below are displayed for Ibogaine HCl. If you use the TA version, multiply the dosages by 1.5.

For microdosing, doses of 25-50 mg are being used.

In ibogaine psychotherapy, patients first receive a threshold dose of 2-3 mg/kg of body weight at least 2 hours before taking the full dose to test for possible allergy to the substance.

A high dose used in psychotherapy sessions is anywhere from 6-24 mg/kg. Opioid addicts should usually take at least 15 mg/kg.

For personal development, doses of 8-12 mg/kg seem optimal.

Doses over 12 mg/kg might cause heart problems to people who are predisposed to them.

There is a report of a woman who took 8 mg/kg and died 4 hours later. Later, it was found that she had a familial history of heart problems.

Never exceed 24 mg/kg in a 24-hour period, it could be dangerous even if you are a healthy individual.

Booster doses of 1-5 mg/kg are given to psychotherapy patients a few times in the following weeks or months after the high dose if they notice any opioid withdrawal symptoms.

Safety checklist

Maximize the benefits

Keep in mind that integration might be even more important than the trip itself. Taking ibogaine would be useless if you didn’t retain any lessons in your day-to-day life.

What will help you the most is contemplating about the experience – be it by journaling, thinking about the trip, or sharing your memories with a trusted friend.

Distracting thoughts can get in the way, which is why you want to spend the day after your trip without TV, social media, and other distractions.

If you can, spend time in silence and solitude. Meditate, go for a walk, contemplate the experience.

Duration

Onset = 45-180 minutes
Peak = 18-24 hours
Comedown = 8-12 hours
After effects = 24-70 hours

You should notice the first effects within 1 hour after you take the psychedelic
You will reach the maximum effect around the 3-hour mark
The whole trip usually lasts for 36-48 hours
At heroic doses, your trip may last for even longer
If you eat before your trip, the substance will take longer to kick in
Phase 1 (explained below) lasts for 4-8 hours and Phase 2 lasts for 8-20 hours

What ibogaine feels like

A high-dose ibogaine experience can be divided into 3 phases:

Phase 1

During this phase, most people visualize re-living their life. The visualizations may be intense but during this phase, users stay detached and don’t get too emotional. The hallucinations are similar to dreaming and people often feel like they are floating.

Phase 2

During this phase, users get to evaluate their life and the memories they have from phase 1. This is the most difficult part of the trip. Users are likely to experience sadness, anger, and regret.

Phase 3

This phase still involves introspection to some extent. Users are likely to experience stimulation and insomnia.

Other common short-term effects include:

High energy
Euphoria
Greater sexual desire
Less hunger
Increased creativity and open-mindedness
Seeing life from a different perspective
Appreciating small things
Increased awareness
Stamina enhancement
Time distortion
Mild open-eyed visual effects
Confusion
Dry mouth
Nausea, vomiting
Increased body temperature
Increased heart rate
Worse thermoregulation, coldness
Anxiety, paranoia
Vulnerability

The higher dose you take, the more intense these effects will be.

With that said, the only way to truly know what ibogaine feels like is to try ibogaine.

Bad trips on ibogaine

When you take a high dose of ibogaine, you will inevitably face some bad emotions.

There is nothing wrong with that and facing your shadow can be the most healing and transformative experience of your life.

With that said, there are some things you want to avoid if you don’t want the drug to make you traumatized:

Tripping in an unsafe environment (in public, at a party, even nature doesn’t feel safe if you take higher doses)
Rejecting to let go and trying to hold on to your ego and control the state
Being afraid of the trip (either because of the stigma around psychedelics or because you are not sure how pure your substance is)
Mixing the psychedelic with alcohol, weed, or other drugs
Expecting a bad trip (it can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy)

How to cope with a bad trip

Do not perceive this experience as something bad, remember that facing these difficult emotions is extremely healing
Fully surrender to the experience, do not try to feel good
If you’re alone, call a trusted friend to come over and keep you safe

How to end a bad trip

In case you are not ready to face your inner demons yet, there are a few ways to end a bad trip.

One possible way is to put on music that is familiar to you. Another way is to switch up your location and move from one place to another. This can completely change your train of thought.

In case the trip becomes extremely challenging and there is no one around you to keep you safe, consider ending your trip with a trip killer.

Using a trip killer usually is not the best idea because the bad emotions will stay unresolved and you will get little to no benefits from the experience. With that said, using a trip killer is smarter than harming yourself.

The 2 best options that you have for ending a bad trip are Phenibut and benzodiazepines.

Phenibut is generally safer. The downside is that it can take hours to kick in.

So to end a trip, use benzodiazepines but only do this if you completely have to.

Interactions

Electrolytes
Keeping your electrolytes (mainly sodium, potassium, and magnesium) at a healthy level is absolutely essential if you’re going to take ibogaine.
Qualia Mind
This nootropic is comprised of 28 ingredients designed to support and maximize your brain function. These ingredients act synergistically and many of them will protect you from the neurotoxic effects of psychedelics. Qualia will also make your trips more pleasant and help you retain more benefits from them.
Herbs
Herbs can help calm you down. Herbal teas (chamomile, lemon balm, valerian root, …) are especially helpful.
Green tea
Tea makes you both more alert and calm at the same time. It also contains neuroprotective antioxidants, such as EGCG.
CBD
CBD has a calming effect.
Benzodiazepines (Valium, Xanax, …)
Benzos will end your psychedelic experience within 40 minutes but using this method may cause you side effects in the long-run.
5-MeO-DMT
The combination is being used to treat opioid addiction and it is the most powerful method we know of. As Dr. Joseph Barsuglia stated, “We’re finding that the combination of [5-MeO-DMT and ibogaine] is like… 1+1=5. It’s just exponential.” With that said, combining the two could be dangerous for those who have heart problems.
Alcohol
Alcohol minimizes all the potential benefits of a psychedelic experience. It also greatly increases your chance of having a bad trip.
SSRIs or MAOIs
Not only will these antidepressants greatly decrease the intensity of your trip, but they can also lead to long-lasting side effects.
Lithium
Combining psychedelics with lithium significantly increases the risk of seizures and psychosis.
Stimulants
The combination can easily lead to heart problems, even if you’re a healthy individual.
St. John’s Wort
This combination may lead to serotonin syndrome.

Microdosing

Ibogaine is perhaps the best substance to microdose with.

In the past, African tribes used to take tiny doses of iboga root to lower their hunger, thirst, and to stay awake.

Today, people take microdoses for multiple reasons: to enhance mood, treat addictions, have higher energy, enhance cognition and physical activity, and a lot more. Some people also use ibogaine as an aphrodisiac.

A recommended microdose is 25-50 mg but lower doses may be sufficient. The optimal dose to take is highly individual.

Microdoses of ibogaine are taken daily but you want to cycle on and off. If you don’t do it, you are likely going to experience insomnia.

Microdosing is generally safe and you can stop at any time in case you notice some adverse reaction or if you simply don’t see any benefits.

If you are going to microdose with ibogaine, make sure to start small and build your way up.

If microdosing makes you jittery, you are probably taking too much.

History of ibogaine

Legality

As of 2021, ibogaine is controlled in the US, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, and a few other countries.

Elsewhere, you can legally get your hands on ibogaine. These countries include Mexico and Canada.

Where to get ibogaine

These are the ways you can get your hands on the psychedelic, ranked from the safest to the least safe:

Become a research subject
In multiple countries, it is legal to make research on ibogaine. This is the safest way to experience the substance.
Buy ibogaine legally from the internet
If you live in a country where ibogaine is uncontrolled, you may be able to buy it legally from the internet.
Buy ibogaine in-person
Whether you buy ibogaine from a random drug dealer or a trusted friend, you can’t know for sure what the drug contains until you use a test kit. Do not take a substance if you don’t know for sure that it is pure.
Buy ibogaine from a hidden market
The problem of going this route is that most dark web markets are a scam (including current SilkRoad) and you might not receive anything.
Make ibogaine on your won
Ibogaine can be synthesized but the process is extremely difficult. Even if you have a fully-equipped home lab and a very deep understanding of chemistry, you may still not be able to synthesize ibogaine.

FAQ

Microdoses can be taken daily but make sure to cycle on and off. If you don’t do that, you might experience insomnia as a side effect.

Becoming addicted to ibogaine is virtually impossible. You will not develop tolerance to the substance either.

Do not 2 or more take high doses in a row, doing so can be extremely dangerous!

Ibogaine might act as a 5-HT reuptake inhibitor, dopamine reuptake inhibitor, and NMDA antagonist.

The drug might also increase your GDNF, which could lead to a reparation of dopamine neurons.

With that said, scientists still don’t know what exactly ibogaine does to your brain. The only way to truly know what this psychedelic does to you is to try it yourself.

In a psychotherapeutic setting.

If you cannot attend psychotherapy, make sure to take the substance in a safe, familiar space and have a friend nearby.

Ibogaine tastes bitter and earthy.

Those who suffer from liver damage
People with heart problems
Immature people who are not willing to follow the safety guidelines
People who suffer from psychosis
People who have a familial history of schizophrenia
Those who suffer from HPPD
People who are going through a manic phase of bipolar disorder
If you’re going through extremely challenging times, you can take psychedelics but the trips might be unpleasant, beware of that

The 3 most common plants that contain ibogaine are: Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana, and Tabernaemontana undulata. They all belong to the Apocynaceae family.

Ibogaine treatment can cost up to $10,000. On the internet, you can find a gram of TA ibogaine for around $50, and the HCl version is usually 3-4 times more expensive.

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