MYEBOGA Conversations

Shea Prueger - Expectations & Inclusion DIRECTOR, IBOGAINE ADMINISTRATOR - IBOGAINE REVELATIONS Shea Prueger was introduced to ibogaine therapy by Eric Taub who she met while seeking treatment for suboxone addiction in 2010 while working as a full time fashion model. Following her own transformation, Shea began an apprenticeship under Lex Kogan at I Begin Again's ibogaine facility in Guatemala and then Costa Rica, eventually taking over as director of the center. Shea Prueger has trained with Dr. Franco Lopez, and Dr. Sofia Artavia in order to learn the necessary medical side of administering ibogaine. Prueger continued training alongside Erika Florianova (director of I Begin Again: Czech Republic and also a psychotherapist) and learned methods in alternative healing that she utilizes to help clients integrate their experience into their day to day life. Following many attempts at running large centers with the initial goal to provide ibogaine to as many people as possible, Prueger took a brief break to reformulate her approach to ibogaine treatments. She has restructured her modality and is focusing on individually tailored sessions and one on one attention from each staff member. This is done through longer stays, a focus on integration, and a slower introduction to the medicine using low wave doses in the initial prep days. Prueger is most notable for opening the first medically supervised ibogaine center in Asia, Ibogaine Thailand. Prueger has EMT training, has AED, CPR, and first aid certification, and chooses her mentors wisely to facilitate further growth and understanding of ibogaine. Currently, Prueger is also offering low wave dosing as an option for clients alongside a longer stay. Prueger is also one of the co-founders of The Root Ibogaine Collective. This is a new and evolving project with the intention of supporting ibogaine clients and providers, while also providing radical inclusion and safe and ethical guidelines for the ibogaine community.

Yann Guignon first discovered iboga in 2004 in France when a Gabonese traditional healer named Aristide Nguema, helped cure his chemical dependency. With Aristide Nguema, Yann founded an association called ‘E-BOGA' in order to have the remarkable therapeutic properties of iboga accepted as a treatment by the French authorities (AFSSAPS). In 2006, after the sale and merger of the company Yann worked for, he went to Gabon to be initiated into the Bwiti tradition by Master Atome Ribenga in the branch of the ethnic group Fang's Dissumba. In 2007, following the death of a young drug addict, iboga became classified as a class 4 drug by AFSSAPS and was made illegal in France. Furthermore, Bwiti was classified as a cult. The E-BOGA association then had to be dissolved by its founders. Yann returned to Gabon and decided to film a documentary on iboga and the Bwiti tradition. Yann was then invited several times to speak on RTG1 TV to raise awareness about the French attacks on their ancestral traditions and iboga, which in Gabon is recognized as part of the national cultural heritage. He was received by Mr Louis Gaston Mayila a strong advocate of iboga and also the Gabonese Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of National Solidarity, Social Affairs, Welfare and the Fight against Poverty. The latter asked him to keep on working in this field as 'compensation from France' and invited him to move permanently to Gabon. Alongside his professional activities, Yann continued to study the Bwiti tradition. He met with many villages and traditional Masters from all branches. As a consequence of his documentary and television shows, he was regularly contacted by people from around the world wanting to go to Gabon to be initiated with iboga. He organized and cared for hundreds of travelers working in different traditions. Meanwhile Yann trained Yann to be a ‘Kambo' (Keeper of the Tradition) in addition to the training he had already received from Master Atome Ribenga and others. During his studies, Yann met Professor Jean Noël Gassita who was the first black African recognized by the French Medicine Academy and the special scientific advisor to the President of the Gabonese Republic. In 2011, Professor Gassita and Yann convinced the Gabonese authorities to support them in reporting on the national and international state of affairs of iboga through the foundation of the First Lady of Gabon. The report was submitted to the Gabonese government in July 2012 and revealed that iboga was soon to be threatened by extinction in Gabon if an active protection and replanting scheme was not immediately set up, along with further urgent research in the field of botany, chemistry and medicine. The Gabonese authorities then decided to integrate iboga into the framework of the Nagoya Protocol, which aims to provide ‘access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their utilization'. In 2014 Yann was acknowledged as a ‘Benefactor to Gabonese culture' by the Minister of Culture and was asked to represent Gabon at the 4th international conference on ibogaine in South Africa organized by the Global Ibogaine Therapist Alliance (GITA), chaired by Jonathan Dickinson. Upon his return from South Africa, the Communication Team of the Gabonese Presidency asked Yann to chair a television show about iboga to share the information that was in his report with the Gabonese people. The TV show ‘Ca s'explique' was produced and broadcast several times during prime time. Having suffered from the separation of his children, Yann moved back to France at the end of 2014 and decided to look for European partners in order to create an organization to continue to research, protect and invest in the future of iboga. Given the legal situation in France it was in England in October 2015 that the legal structure, Blessings of the Forest CIC (Community Interest Company) was set up with co-Directors Ben Taylor and Kate Hewett.

Juliana Mulligan (ibogaine integration specialist and community organizer) has been an active member of the Ibogaine community for eight years and holds a B.A. in Psychology. She has worked in three Ibogaine clinics, completed Andrew Tatarsky's IHRP training, and has presented at multiple Psychedelic, Ibogaine, and Harm Reduction conferences. Under her current business Inner Vision Ibogaine, she works therapeutically with people supporting them in preparation for, and in integration after, treatment. Previously Juliana was an opioid dependent person and in 2011, with the help of Ibogaine, she left opioids behind and set off on a path to transform the way drug users and their treatment is approached. Her work centers around guiding individuals to their own inner power and supporting them in reframing their life experiences into sources of knowledge and inspiration. She has co-authored a guide for finding safe Ibogaine treatment and is also currently working to create new systems of accountability and responsibility among Ibogaine practitioners and in the greater psychedelic therapy community. She is also currently the Program Coordinator for the Psychedelic Program at The Center for Optimal Living (NYC). Juliana has been featured in Double Blind magazine, Woman's Day magazine, and Psymposia. Please note: The provider mentioned in this podcast has indicated to Juliana that she could share her experience. He has since passed away.

Founder and director of the Awakening in the Dream Group, Rocky first took ibogaine for poly substance addiction interruption in Dec 2003. Trained as a provider at the Ibogaine Association he worked in the underground as a provider from his home. In 2006 he moved to San Pancho Nayarit Mexico to open the Dream House, a medical licensed detox center, where he conducted treatments for 10 years and began the first integration program in combination to primary Detox. Currently Rocky and Asha are doing sessions in their home in San Miguel de Allende like the old days bringing people into a family setting to work with Ibogaine and Iboga extracts with the same medical safety standards as San Pancho. Rocky had been a flooring contractor for 25 years with 20 years of methamphetamine addiction on and off. Ibogaine was the breakthrough which resolved both his Heroin and Methamphetamine dependence and inspired a new career in service as a provider creating a new modality of treatment for drug dependence and psychological issues.

Tatayo, a former French man 48 years in Gabon since October 1971, a builder of community and preserver of tradition, instilling pride in the lives of ordinary Gabonese people, robed of their heritage as collateral damage in the march of progress, allowing them to value and take pride in their Bwiti culture in an honorable and dignified fashion. Tatayo has made it possible to present Bwiti to the western world while maintaining its purity devoid of corrupt speculation by building an honest god fearing community around him. He has been instrumental in bringing knowledge of the Bwiti to the Western world through his involvement with Daniel Pinchbeck 'Breaking Open the Head' and Bruce Parry's BBC documentary 'Tribe ' among others. Those considering an initiation in Africa cannot ignore this podcast and have no business going to Africa without familiarising themselves with this man and his work unless they wish to take their lives into their own hands. Those who feel called to support his work can do so here : Blessingsoftheforest.org. I for one give thanks for his work and pray for the continued blessings and success of his community.

Jonathan Dickinson is a counselor and consultant who has been working with iboga and ibogaine since 2009. He currently resides in Tijuana, Mexico where he works under a private practice, Ceiba Ibogaine Therapy, supporting people through the ibogaine treatment process. He previously served as the Director of the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance (GITA), during which time he led the development of the Clinical Guidelines for Ibogaine-Assisted Detoxification, a risk management guide that remains a standard in the field. He organized several conferences on ibogaine therapy practice and safety protocols, and has collaborated with researchers in multiple disciplines. In 2014, Jonathan was initiated into a Dissoumba/Fang tradition of Bwiti in Gabon, and remains actively involved with both clinical and ceremonial approaches.

Clare S. Wilkins is a former intravenous drug user & methadone patient who shed those chemical dependencies with the aid of ibogaine in 2005. As founder of Pangea Biomedics, she has facilitated over 800 treatments with a diverse team & has collaborated with MAPS to study the long-term effects of patients undergoing detoxification therapy with ibogaine for opiates. (Brown, Alper M.D., 2017) Since 2010 she has been an active board member of The Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance (GITA); is co-author of the Clinical Guidelines for Ibogaine-Assisted Detoxification, a comprehensive risk-management resource & minimum standard of care for opioid detoxification. She is also co-author of a noteworthy case study (Wilkins, Bouso, Ph.D., et al 2017) published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies. Mentored by Howard Lotsof, she is committed to advancing scientific research of iboga, including ibogaine, its alkaloids & analogs. She is currently collaborating with ICEERS in Spain, where a Phase 2 safety & efficacy study, using ibogaine for methadone patients has been approved, utilizing the cumulative administration method she developed over 13 years of clinical practice in Mexico. Clare is also part of a cutting edge cohort of experts who are advancing Parkinson's Disease treatment, utilizing a successful combination of ibogaine, orthomolecular medicine & nootropics. As these case studies build, data gathered will contribute to new methods that can become open-source material for the safest and best outcomes. As a member of INPUD, an international drug user rights organization, Clare is devoted to reducing stigma & harm, promoting the health, dignity & cognitive liberty for people who use drugs, and every human's basic right to compassion-based medicine.

Dr. Anwar Jeewa is the founder and director of Minds Alive Wellness Centre. He holds an Honours degree (2004) in Religion and Social Transformation from the University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN), for which he submitted a mini-dissertation entitled “Religion, Spiritual and Substance Abuse.” He also holds a Masters degree in Social Science (2006) from UKZN; the title of his dissertation was “The Treatment of Substance Abuse in Residential Centres in the 21st Century.” He is currently in the process of submitting a PhD proposal focusing on the long term effects of Ibogaine. Dr Jeewa is heavily involved in drug awareness programmes both in South Africa, as well as in other African countries. His life story was featured in the Readers Digest in September 2003. He has been featured in various magazines and newspapers and regularly appears as a guest on a range of radio stations, including Voice of the Cape FM, Radio 786, Radio Lotus, Radio Islam and Radio Al-Ansaar. He produces and presents his own programme “Fools Paradise” on Channel Islam International. Dr Jeewa has presented papers on substance abuse, and specifically on using Ibogaine for the purposes of detoxification, at conferences around the world including: Hope Conference (Bombay 2005, 2008); Ibogaine Conference (Washington 2008); Harms Reduction Conference (Miami 2008); Ibogaine Conference (Boston 2009); Drug Policy Alliance Conference (Alberqueque, 2009); Ibogaine Conference (New York, 2010); Ibogaine GITA Conference (Barcelona, 2010); Psychedelic Science Conference (Amsterdam, 2010); Harm Reduction Conference (Austin, 2010); Ibogaine GITA Conference (Vancouver, 2012). He was also published in the South African Family Journal in 2009.

The life & times of Richie aka Eric Taub in the ibogaine world. Richie takes us from his beginnings with ibogaine to the present day (Mar 2020) and details his unusual and synchronistic journey into the world of iboga and ibogaine that sees him travel across the world to Africa in hope of finding a cure to the opioid crises in the US. On his return he quickly began to give treatments as well as train others who had been clean for at least one year after treatment. In all, he oversaw 754 treatments. Not content with the feasibility of ibogaine he then travelled to Vietnam seeking a local herbal remedy purported to be used for heroin detox. On his return home he teamed up with a Chinese doctor and developed a herbal preparation effective for tapering from opioids, based on the herbal remedy available in Vietnam but not the same, as not all the Vietnamese herbs were available in the US. However, in regard to tapering from opioids it appears to be more effective than the Vietnamese detox remedy. Richie is one of life's unsung heroes and will no doubt go down in the history books as someone who cared more for others than himself and gave himself almost innocently to the cause of others. It has been a pleasure to make this very first MYEBOGA podcast with Ritchie, in large part due to his endless patience as I learned the process, and in return I wish Richie the very best in all that lies ahead.