The Real Journey Begins

It may be the end of this iboga retreat, but it's not the end of the Iboga Experience. Once the medicine is in a person, it remains with them and continues to teach them as long as they do not smother the voice.

It's been fun to get to know this beautiful iboga family. I've listened to the stories of their personal journeys and their crazy experiences in Africa and Costa Rica.

As one story goes, they were in Costa Rica for a retreat at the Iboga Wellness Center. This is where Matt and Christy first met when Christy arrived there to detox in 2016. On a later trip when they were in training, it was frog season, and there were 5-6 inch round frogs everywhere. During ceremony, all of the attendees were laid out on mats around the tent while the giant frogs jumped around, between, on and over the bodies. The cats present then began to chase the frogs around the room. One guy laying on the mat caught a frog from off his shoulder in a blind reflex grab and flung it across the tent. 

Today, Matt received a text message from another Iboga worker. It said, "Hey, we just worked with an atheist who jumped up off the mat during ceremony, stripped naked and said he saw Jesus. It was a wild night."

It's always interesting to read the birth stories of my patients. I was there, they were there, but their version of the story is quite different than mine. Often when they try to relate what was going on during their birth, the information is all scrambled and often inaccurate especially when it comes to medical things. I'm aware that this week I'm the patient, and my story is probably a freaking mess to my mentors. I apologize for my ignorance.

On the last evening, a song came to my mind randomly,  'My Country Tis of Thee, sweet Land of liberty, of Thee I sing. Land where my father's died, Land of the Pilgrim pride,  from every mountain side, let freedom ring.'

We all sat together around the table for our final dinner last night. Julie prepared a magnificent Spaghetti Squash, noodled out within the skin and topped with meat sauce.

After dinner, Matt showed me pictures of their time in Africa. I didn't even recognize Christy in the pictures 6 years ago after her detox. I also found out that the thing that Trisha put on my head that I thought smelled good was the real hide of a skinned African cat with the tail hanging off of it. I was just a little grossed out.

We watched the movie The Matrix together. You know, the red pill is iboga, and there are a lot of parallels in that movie to the iboga awakening.

Cheesecake with Trisha's homemade raspberry sauce topped off the night, and Matt gave me a few closing thoughts for going home.

So the real journey now begins. I've been released from the grip of The Matrix and can now live freely.Read more