Ibogaine
Global History, Pharmacology, and Modern Practice
The Bwiti root with an unusual modern claim: interrupting addiction.
Prepublication edition v0.42 · EPUB · 380 sources
Downloads need a free invitation code during the prepublication period. Request one.
About this volume
The root bark of Tabernanthe iboga has anchored Bwiti initiation in Gabon for generations. In the West it became known for something else entirely: a single dose that can blunt opioid withdrawal and interrupt the rhythm of addiction. The volume holds both stories together, the initiation tradition and the clinic, without letting either flatten the other.
Ibogaine is also the most medically demanding substance in this series, with real cardiac risk that has shaped where and how it can be given. The volume covers the screening that responsible providers use, the clinics from Mexico to New Zealand, the veterans’ studies that revived scientific interest, and the Gabonese-led efforts to protect the plant and the tradition at its source.
Synthesized from 380 sources, including the Mash and Brown opioid cohorts, the Stanford-led MISTIC veterans trial, Fernandez’s Bwiti ethnography, the 2026 Gabonese sovereignty actions, and the U.S. executive-order and Texas-Kentucky funding landscape.
Inside the book
- IOrigins · Chapters 1 to 3The substance and its first uses, the lineages that carried it, and the ethics of writing about it at all.
- IIMechanism · Chapters 4 to 6The molecule, receptors, and dose; the brain under the influence; what doesn’t mix.
- IIIExperience · Chapters 7 to 9The arc of an experience, what it is like inside, and when it turns difficult.
- IVMedicine · Chapters 10 and 11The clinical evidence, indication by indication, read closely and without inflation.
- VPractice · Chapters 12 to 15Ceremony, clinic, and solo practice; set and setting; harm reduction; integration.
- VILandscape · Chapters 16 and 17Legal status, the regulatory moment, and the questions still open.