My trip to the space shuttle was uneventful, but necessary. The dose range of this molecule for a conservative project on me was 11 mg/kg, and the protocol I followed was that of my tour guide. After a good night’s regular sleep and some cal/mag and other nutria-ceuticals to rest the nervous system for the past two weeks, I took a single capsule of 1 mg/kg and waited an hour, showered, and discussed the impending flight to my orbiting station. Getting out of US jurisdiction is getting trickier all the time.

After the hour, the remaining 10 mg/kg was divided into three capsules and one of those was given to me every twenty minutes until it was all on board. At about thirty minutes into the departure, the G forces started to build and a recognizable psychedelic energy started to quicken about me. If you ever tried a psychedelic in those ancient hippie days, my comparative was LSD, but this was not as visual and explosive as that drug. The atmosphere thickened, shadows and shapes began to swirl and swoop, shivers of fear and anxiety danced about, but not a sickening or major fear source, by any means. Some congested headache, occasionally, some muscle twinges and aches as I tried to lay motionless on my back taking in the Imax theater screen all around me.

The hallucination/images began as textures and tapestries, of patterns and weavings with no messages or meanings of note. For about an hour that intensity and velocity was building with more of the textures and details increasing. A high electronic squeal developed that warped in and out of my background like an electronic white noise. Not a problem.

Then, the content came to the images. Vignettes of little story lines, sometimes with thought balloons in a text, and occasional faint audio of a phrase or voice sound. These were in color or shades of grey, very random.

From my readings I had prepared for some freaky confrontations with fears and terrors and so forth in this stage, but I personally did not feel that beat up on here. The dream images were fast and random - like trying to read a detailed sign from a small car window speeding past. There was violence, pain, death, life, lust, love, and the whole range, but in this peak phase of hours 1-5, I was comfortable as an observer from my cocoon. These daydream video clips all seemed to portray some spectrum of perception, a face that morphed from birth to youth, maturing, aging, decaying, and rotting, an angry soldier fighting, then slowing and softening to cradle a child, a frightened boy starting to laugh, etc. Each was a duration of maybe ten to fifteen seconds and rolled into something else unconnected completely. The sense was of my brain getting all the comparisons stretched and lubricated to open each neuron to a better flexibility and responsiveness. This was not a painful or harsh process at all, but lots of astonishment was going around. Once I relaxed into it - I sensed a kindness behind the pacing. It felt like a permission requesting process came between the images. I started with the intent to give this plant medicine all the permission and surrender she needed to clean me up, and that helped make this an incredible success, I think.

After the fourth hour of this peaking turbulence, things settled down to more dreamlike segments and I revisited the ancient landscapes of my youth and early family. What I found was that again that spectrum of response exercise was going on. I could see my parents and siblings in a very lovely aspect, then a morph into ugly and angry, kindness, wickedness, etc. They were not jerky snapshots of the extremes, but animations of process where you couldn’t say it was one or the other. I wonder if Ibogaine uses the Clay-mation studio for some help - there was that quality to many of the images. These later dream stages were more involving and I was not as much of a spectator here. Also I was more lucid and able to direct with my thought. That got really interesting!

After the eight-hour mark the visuals slowed down and I started having the scanners take over. That electronic squeal became a brushstroke covering my body regularly with little twinges and twangs of pain/pleasure/tingle/nothing in parts of my brain and spine. Spock had his tri-corder on me. It felt a little like some electronic repairs were being selected, done and re-tested at lightning speed, maybe a five second jab at the frequency of about once every thirty seconds or so, but not regular intervals. When I did open my eyes, to get up and try to pee in my chamber pot, there were streamers around all my body parts, like five or six fainter images of my shoulder, hands, legs, or whatever tracing their movement. This was very cool as a special effect and I amused myself with some martial art moves that were probably not as masterful as they appeared to be. Actually rising was not very stable, so back into the cocoon was my quick goal.

I was now about twelve hours into the excursion, and the intensity was dropping off while the body senses and tingles were the focus. I would get an urge to stretch and it would really feel great to do it. So I was dreaming, remembering, rolling around more in the bed with these Richter scale stretches and returning to rest. The next morning, I got up to use a ma-roller to help with my low back, which was complaining about being in bed for eighteen hours. That felt great and helped me out quickly. I got up and talked with my tour guide about it all, and he felt that I handled the dose so well that next time I should aim at the 15-18 mg range to go farther and harder into the plant’s world. I will see what comes up for me as an aftermath for a few months and consider that later.

Feeling very refreshed, ranges of motion in stiff feet and legs are about 30-40% better, same amount of unresolved pains in sore elbow of six-week duration. More flexibility in the neck and upper back, complexion improvements around face and eyes, more even yellowish aura from head and chest according to sensitive friends. More facial responsiveness from the face in my mirror, lighter mood, and easier access to humor and mental peace. Hard to quantify these. Senses tweaked up a bit, quicker reflexes, brighter colors, and a fresher world of my senses. Water is delicious, food is great. I feel about a decade younger, but that’s another guess. I will be watching to see how I multi-task and learn new things in the weeks ahead. If this neural receptor re-sensitizing model holds, then mental flexibility and quickness will show in those ways. This is the only way I’ve run into that might actually teach this old dog some new tricks!

This is the grandfather of all botanical medicines. It will not be a recreational drug anytime soon - it’s too much work. I cannot tell you that you could use it; you get to decide if it sounds interesting. You get to formulate your intent as to what you want to accomplish with your own body and mind’s healing potential. I wish I had access to it thirty years ago, and I know of hundreds of my patients who would have survived and recovered from physical suffering had they had access to it. The repair and revitalizing of my body and spirit is important enough to me to want to learn all I can about it and help to get it out into the world of modern natural medicine. Our government has decided to classify it as a dangerous narcotic and class it among the very addictions it is proven to break.

Other Ibogaine Experiences