​The issue of control lies at the very heart of addiction, depression and most other forms of spiritual or emotional suffering; rather than accepting and embracing life in its entirety, we often feel the need to control it by clinging on to certain experiences and averting others. Yet the tighter we hold on, the less we are able to flow with the ever-changing stream of experiences that life throws our way, and we end up getting stuck in a loop that never seems to progress. Ibogaine and other plant medicines can help us learn to let go and be vulnerable, which is what makes them such powerful facilitators of recovery.

Most of us pick up an unhealthy need for control during childhood. We learn that some of our characteristics, tendencies, emotions and needs are unsafe as they cause others to scorn or reject us. As a result, we start trying to hide, suppress and avoid parts of ourselves as a means of protection. In doing so, we disconnect from a piece of our soul and create an inner emptiness into which experience and life are not allowed to flow.

Plant medicines heal by helping us reconnect to this part of ourselves and open up once more to feeling. The Bwiti, for example, achieve this by using iboga as a means of understanding that they each carry within them the souls of their ancestors and the light of the spiritual realm. As such, they are the physical vessel through which this spirit is able to remain present in the material dimension. They are the means by which the divine experiences life.

This leads to a profound reframing of their own value and purpose. Suddenly they become free to experience life without needing to control it, as they understand that experience is sacred and gives purpose to all of existence. Life will continue to be both joyful and painful, yet the Bwiti know that they are accompanied by their ancestors through every experience, and that by allowing themselves to feel everything rather than suppress it they also keep the ancestors connected to life. By experiencing life they nourish their soul.

Like the Bwiti, Westerners who wish to heal their soul using ibogaine or other plant medicines must understand that the key to recovery is to open up that inner void and allow experience to rush back in and fill it. When things get difficult and we feel the urge to shut down, we have to remember that vulnerability to experience is what makes life meaningful and gives the whole universe its purpose. In doing so, we give ourselves the freedom to mess up, to hurt and to let go of control.

This is summed up perfectly by the great Carl Rogers, who said: “I believe it will have become evident why, for me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful and enjoyable do not seem quite appropriate to any general description of this process I have called the Good Life, even though the person in this process would experience each one of these at the appropriate times. But adjectives which seem more generally fitting are adjectives such as enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging, meaningful. ​

This process of the Good Life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-fainthearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.”

​Good recovery is all about self-love. This means living with respect, reverence, integrity and intentionality. Unfortunately, many of us acquire the habit of disrespecting ourselves at a very young age, which then becomes a lifelong pattern. Ibogaine and other plant medicines provide an opportunity to reconnect to ourselves on a more authentic level and begin changing this pattern, although it is up to us to continue to develop this connection and allow it to flourish after treatment.

Self-love begins with changing the narrative we have in our heads about who we are and what our purpose is. Invariably, this internal narrative is a result of our conditioning, which tells us that we are not worthy of love and respect unless we fulfil certain criteria. We learn that our “failings”, our bad moods and our needs are unacceptable, and that we must eliminate certain characteristics and feelings. Rather than loving ourselves for all of our gloriously messy human-ness, we start to narrow ourselves, adopt false personas, and reject parts of our soul.

​The purpose of plant medicines like iboga, ayahuasca and psilocybin is to lead us back to the truth that has become lost underneath all that conditioning, and to help us rediscover the value of our lives. It is about reconnecting to the inner child that we have been neglecting for so many years, re-integrating this abandoned part of ourselves and becoming whole.

In order to maintain and deepen this healing process, we must show this inner child the love that it has been crying out for in our day-to-day lives. For example:

• Learning to nourish one’s soul by reconnecting with nature on a regular basis is one of the best ways to heal and undo self-neglect. This can involve anything from taking regular walks in the forest, travelling to a remote and beautiful location, or simply bringing plants and flowers into the house. The more time we spend with nature, the more we realise that we are a part of it.
• Other regular acts of self-respect can be as simple as making one’s bed each morning, or taking the time to make a healthy breakfast rather than eating something straight from a packet. Doing so enables us to start living more mindfully, taking our needs and feelings into consideration rather than ignoring them, and going about our lives with a conscious respect and intention to connect to the world around us.
• Recognising the ways in which we disrespect ourselves and reinforce our conditioned narratives on a daily basis is also essential for recovery. For instance, some people may have become ‘people-pleasers’ as they have learnt to prioritise the comfort of others over their own. Making the decision to respect our true needs when we may feel tempted to neglect them is an act of self-love. This might mean saying ‘no’ to a request from a friend, relative or colleague, or it could mean asking for help instead of staying quiet to avoid making a fuss.

Virtually all forms of existential suffering come down to a disconnection from a part of ourselves that we learnt not to love when we were young. This can manifest itself through a wide range of symptoms such as addiction, depression, compulsive thinking or anxiety. The western medical establishment may like to diagnose these with separate labels, but self-love is the number one remedy for all of them.

You don’t have to suffer from addiction to know that life can sometimes be overwhelming, and can temporarily lose all meaning and purpose. Yet addiction invariably occurs when it becomes impossible to connect to life in a coherent way, and self-medication provides the only relief from this void. Above all, therefore, addiction arises out of a frustrated search for meaning, and true recovery entails a profound reconnection with oneself, with life and with the world as a whole. Ibogaine and other visionary plants can play a huge role in this process, but it is ritual that provides the roadmap for navigating life’s ups and downs without becoming disconnected.

Unfortunately, however, modern Western culture is largely devoid of valid rituals, leaving many people feeling lost, isolated, worthless and empty.

What is Ritual?

Ritualising a behaviour creates a sacred container around it that separates it from ‘ordinary’ life. While the world outside of this container can sometimes seem chaotic and pointless, inside the ritual we can construct a semblance of meaningful order that gives value to our experience. Ritual therefore provides a lifeline that helps us remain on track when life becomes challenging; it keeps us connected to our identity and purpose and guides us towards unconditional self-love. The effective use of ritual can be seen in countless non-Western cultures around the world, with Native American peyote ceremonies providing a particularly beautiful example:

During these rites, the psychoactive peyote cactus is ingested in order to remove the veil between the physical and spiritual domains so that all of the counterbalancing forces of nature and the universe can be invited into the tipi: spirit and man; light and dark; masculine and feminine; life and death; day and night; material and divine. By entering the tipi, participants ritually return to the cosmic melting pot from which they were created, restoring their connection to the universal order that gives meaning and purpose to their lives.

Having rediscovered their true worth, individuals are now able to extend this ritual through their daily lives by acting in alignment with this renewed sense of identity and purpose. When times are hard and the conditioned narratives of pain, shame and inadequacy surface, ritual provides a way back to authenticity and a connection to meaning.

Indeed, every indigenous culture that uses visionary plant medicines recognises that it is the ritualised consumption of these sacraments that unlocks their healing power. In Bwiti tradition, for example, iboga is consumed as part of a ritual “crossing over” into the realm of the ancestors, where initiates discover their place in the cosmic chain that links past, present and future generations. This discovery then permeates their daily life, which they dedicate to “continuing the work of the ancestors”. Essentially, their whole life now becomes one continuous ritual as every activity is performed with a conscious intention and a respect for the value of life, which in turn provides the clarity, meaning and self-esteem to assist them through difficult moments.

Ritual in Addiction

Ritual may not help us control what is happening in the external world, but it does help us control our feelings by injecting a sense of value, order and meaning into a particular experience. Given that addiction stems from an unfulfilled search for these qualities in life, it is hardly a surprise that so many (though by no means all) people who suffer from addiction ritualise their drug use.

This may involve preparing drugs in a highly personalised and repeatable way, always using in a particular place, or a host of other aspects. Regardless of the ritual, the point is that it transports us to a separate space where we are in control of our experience, even if we believe we have zero control over anything outside of this container.

Like drug use itself, the rituals that accompany addiction are all part of the need to control our experience in a world from which we feel so disconnected. Yet they fail to achieve this because they don’t guide us towards any meaningful identity or purpose that can add value to life outside the ritual container. On the contrary, they amplify this sense of disconnection by reinforcing our understanding that our life only makes sense when we are using.

Ritual in Recovery

The key to a successful ibogaine treatment (or any other psychedelic treatment for addiction) is to create a ritual out of the entire process – just as would be the case in any indigenous culture that uses visionary plants for healing. One of the functions of pre-treatment preparation is to learn how to create a sacred container around the process, and to invite into this space all of the elements that you need in order to feel a sense of meaning and value. Doing so generates the respect, reverence, integrity and intentionality that are absolutely essential for a treatment to be effective.

It is this approach that truly unlocks the power of visionary medicines to reconnect us to our authentic self and facilitate recovery from addiction. Going forward, small daily rituals allow us to remain within this sacred container of meaningfulness as we go about our lives, extending the healing process and helping us stay conscious of our own value when challenges arise.

Anders Beatty and Ben Taub from Ibogaine Counselling Services will be speaking at a live event all about psychedelic treatment for addiction in London on December 13th. Hosted by The Psychedelic Society, this unique talk will tell you everything you need to know about treating addiction ibogaine and other psychedelics. Click either of thes link below for more info:

https://psychedelicsociety.org.uk/events/psychedelics-and-addiction-thu-13th-dec-2018-412

https://www.facebook.com/events/713578765678680/


Using Psychedelics To Treat Addiction

This event will explore the potential of psychedelics to help bring about recovery from addiction. Led by Anders Beatty and Ben Taub – the founders of Ibogaine Counselling Services and psychedelicsforaddiction.com – the discussion will focus on the ways in which visionary compounds can be used to generate meaningful rites of passage that facilitate a lasting recovery.

We will look at the pros and cons of the current psychedelic treatment options available to people suffering from addiction, and shed light on the necessary components of a successful treatment. In particular, we will explore the nature of addiction as a spiritual condition arising from the disconnection and inauthenticity that is particular to modern life. As such, spiritual knowledge and practise are fundamental to the future success of psychedelic treatments for addiction.

However, the indigenous spiritual traditions that have developed around plant medicines are not always culturally relevant to Westerners, and may not carry the emotional salience necessary to inspire healing. With the help of Bwitist and plant medicine expert Ben Taylor, we will examine the practises that can and should be introduced by those working with psychedelics to heal the spiritual deficiencies inherent in addiction.

​If money is a barrier preventing you from attending this event please contact events@psychedelicsociety.org.uk to request a bursary place.

​Ibogaine may be famous for its ability to remove withdrawals from opioids and other drugs, but staying clean requires more than just a detox. Anyone who has successfully recovered from addiction using ibogaine will tell you that the process is not about drugs per se. Rather, it is a rite of passage; it is a quest to discover one’s true identity and move onto a higher level of consciousness where the need to self-medicate does not exist.

​To be able to undergo such a transformation, however, it is first necessary to learn how one has become disconnected from their true self in the first place, and how this has left them with an inability to find meaning, value and purpose in life.
Most people learn at a young age which aspects of their personality are unacceptable to others. When our care-givers disapprove of our neediness, anger, capability limits or any so-called ‘weaknesses’, our survival instinct kicks in and we automatically begin to suppress these traits. We do not feel safe to fully express ourselves, and our vulnerability compels us to commit our first act of self-hate by refusing to love ourselves fully.

This then sets the tone for the mental chatter that continually narrates our reality to us for the rest of our lives. It tells us who we are, how we fit into the world around us, and the meaning of each event that occurs in our environment. For those who have learnt not to love themselves, this voice is always highly critical, afraid and negative, creating a need to escape the experience of being oneself – often through drug use.

The whole problem is therefore rooted in the fact that we have a completely false image of who we are; as a result of early conditioning, we learned to see ourselves as somehow flawed and not worthy of love until certain aspects of our self have been purged. Yet the truth is that it is not possible to eliminate any part of oneself, no matter how much we suppress it. Continually attempting to do so only increases the sense of inadequacy, failure, misery and shame. Nor is it necessary to try and do so. Instead, learning to accept and love all aspects of oneself is the key to true happiness.

This is what ibogaine is all about. It is a tool to reconnect to the parts of our selves that have been locked away in the basement for too long, allow our falsely negative self-image to dissolve, and reconnect to our true identity.

Yet it is worth noting that this does not occur automatically. Every indigenous culture that uses visionary plants for healing understands that certain tasks must be accomplished by those seeking healing, and education is provided so that community members can acquire the skills to undergo a true rite of passage. In the West, this education is lacking, and many people fail to bring about the transformation they are hoping for with ibogaine. We work with our clients to help them understand exactly what they have to do in order to complete their quest, move onto that higher level of consciousness and release themselves from the unconscious pain that compels them to self-medicate.

​Being alive can sometimes seem like a blessing and a curse at the same time; our lives contain moments of incredible joy, beauty and pleasure, but also pain, sadness and suffering. Embracing the full range of experience and facing up to life can therefore be scary, but learning to do so is the key to becoming fully alive and alleviating the inner emptiness and numbness that afflict so many of us.

Painful experiences during childhood or adolescence can teach us on a subconscious level to become wary of life, leading to a belief deep within the unconscious mind that we are not safe in this world. Thereafter, any time we are faced with a challenging or unpleasant scenario, this conditioning becomes activated. In such instances, the mind’s defence mechanisms are deployed, all of which are designed to protect us by encouraging us to withdraw from others and isolate ourselves so as not to experience the pain of life.

Addiction is often the product of these defence mechanisms. When we feel threatened, our mind responds by blaming, accusing, projecting, intellectualising or some other means of convincing us that the world around us is not a desirable place to be, and that escaping through drug use is the best option.

Yet rather than protecting us from pain, this unconscious response only makes us feel more alone and empty. This is because these defences essentially force us to turn our back on life; rather than opening up to the experience of being alive and flowing with the ever-changing current of life, we attempt to separate ourselves from this flow so that we never have to experience the pain that sometimes comes our way.

As a consequence, many people suffer from a sense of not being fully alive. Relinquishing these defences and letting down one’s armour is the only way to remedy this. Naturally, this can be difficult to achieve, as it implies re-inserting oneself into the chaos of the universe without trying to control what can’t be controlled. Yet in doing so, we learn to see the beauty in not only joy but also pain, to experience life to the full and to find our true purpose and meaning.

This is perfectly explained by the great Carl Rogers, who says:
“I believe it will have become evident why, for me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, enjoyable, do not seem quite appropriate to any general description of this process I have called the good life, even though the person in this process would experience each one of these at the appropriate times. But adjectives which seem more generally fitting are adjectives such as enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging, meaningful. This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-fainthearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life. Yet the deeply exciting thing about human beings is that when the individual is inwardly free, he chooses as the good life this process of becoming.”

​We are committed to helping our clients not only detox and get clean, but to stay clean by learning to release themselves from their conditioning, let down their psychological defences and become fully alive.

Ibogaine is often referred to as a cure for addiction, although the truth is not quite that simple. Yes, it will take away withdrawals from opioids and other drugs, but anyone who wants to stay clean long-term must learn to use ibogaine as more than just a detox agent.

We believe that addiction stems from a deep need to fill an inner void, and that ibogaine, when used with the correct level of respect and reverence, can help people to connect to life in such a way that this need is finally fulfilled. Yet this type of transformation does not occur automatically, and it is essential to chase one's own recovery, put the work in and learn how to use ibogaine wisely.

In this video, our counsellors Anders and Ben explain what ibogaine does and why the right preparation is so important.

(Video courtesy of Tabula Rasa Retreat)