Barry Rossinoff y Jeff Berwick, El justiciero del dólar

​Getting into Iboga
Barry: I first heard about Iboga in the late 1960’s, I was living in New York and I had a friend in common with Howard Lotsof, and Howard Lotsof is the man who is justly credited with discovering the addiction interruption qualities of Ibogaine, which is one of the alkaloids in the Iboga plant. Back then Howard was looking at Iboga from a business perspective, in the sense that he was looking to patent a number of the medicinal qualities of Ibogaine. We discussed if it would be better for him to instead really learn how Ibogaine works, instead of trying to protect his position through patents, a position which was not really protectable.
 
It was not until about 16 years ago that I first had the opportunity to actually try Ibogaine myself. If I want to describe that experience, I’ll be trying to describe something that is very difficult to describe. But it gives you the opportunity to move away from the conditioned thinking, that comes from our cultural heritage. Having that opportunity, to give yourself a little bit of space form the habitual patterns which have developed, perhaps even before cognition, or even before this lifetime, cannot help but leave you changed. In my experience changed in a very positive way.
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Psychedelic Research in the 1960’s
Let me give a moment of history, it’s important to recognize that in the mid 1960’s there was a tremendous amount of work taking place, in some of the most august hospitals and teaching universities, having to do with the nature of mind and to do with various elements that we’ll call hallucinogens, or mind-altering substances. Lsd being the best known of them. On a practical level there was a lot of money available for research, and both the psychiatric community and the medical community was very excited about the possible curative and beneficial elements contained in this view of how the mind works.
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In the mid 1960’s that whole thing came to an end, it was the beginning of the “War on Drugs”. Under the presidency of Richard Nixon all the money was removed and the hallucinogenic substances were labeled “Category 1”, stating they had no medicinal value and were prone to abuse. It was like stopping knowledge from progressing in the most brutal kind of way. Looking at it today, many years later, there have not been much progress at all, even though it has been widely understood that a number of conditions could be treated with, lets call them hallucinogenic medicines, because they really are medicines.
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But recently things have changed, and I would like to tip my hat off for Rick Doblin and the organization MAPS. They have been able to get small projects going, such as treating people with PTSD (mostly military veterans) with MDMA, as well as the use of psilocybin for people moving into a death experience.
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Trauma and Iboga
We really are victims of habitual patterns, and these patterns take all kinds of insidious routes in our lives. It could be very obvious like if you are an heroin addict, or it could be a thought pattern where you are constantly putting yourself down, and constantly judging yourself and others.. These patterns, can easily have begun perhaps in a prenatal stage (before you were born), or having to do with trauma when you were very young, or perhaps later on…
 
When trauma happens, you get caught up in an emotion that never got fully expressed. When you are in a situation like that, it leads to a discomfort that we may describe as depression, anxiety, it could manifest as eating disorders, or sexual patterns that are not compatible with the culture that we live in. You start behaving in a way which lowers your opinion of yourself, and interferes with your ability to feel integrated with the people in your midst, not to mention feeling integrated with yourself. Ibogaine has the capability to allow a traumatic instance to be re-experienced, so the emotional energy can be released without it being an intellectual matter. The experience is emotional, energetic, and it is spiritual.