The Ibogaine Experience: A Qualitative Study on the Acute Subjective Effects of Ibogaine

Abstract

Ibogaine is the most abundant alkaloid present in the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga. As a result of the lack of research on the acute subjective effects, the purpose of this study was to identify categories of the ibogaine experience and gain a better understanding of the internal processes while under its effects. We created a semistructured interview and recruited twenty individuals who had recently taken ibogaine. The interviews were analyzed according to grounded theory approach. We identified eight categories (physical, sensory, visual, cognitive, auditory, adverse, anti‐dependency agent, after‐effects) and ten subcategories (open eye visuals; closed eye visuals: ancestors and entities, sceneries and landscapes, horrific scenarios; self‐psychoanalysis enhancement; empathy, love, and prosocial behavior; catharsis; observer quality; ego dissolution; spiritual states) of the acute subjective effects of ibogaine. The study contributes to the advancement of our understanding of ibogaine and its role in personal growth, prosocial behavior, therapeutic use, and anti‐dependency treatments.

A narrative review of the pharmacological, cultural and psychological literature on ibogaine

“…The ibogaine journey within its cultural context remains a largely unexplored area, apart from the work of Gollnhofer and Sillans (1985), who categorised experiences into four phases. Meanwhile, the phenomenology of the journey in the western context has been explored by both Schenberg et al (2017) and Kohek, Ohren, Hornby, Alcazar-Corcoles, and Bouso (2020), who catalogued experiences into themes. This raises questions around the worldview of participants, and whether there are distinct differences in the experiences of the ibogaine journey as experienced by westerners in a western context, compared with indigenous participants in the cultural context, and westerners in the traditional indigenous context.…”

“…In a qualitative study by Kohek, Ohren, Hornby, Alcazar-Corcoles, and Bouso (2020) exploring the acute subjective effects of ibogaine among 20 participants, the researchers proposed similar categories to Schenberg et al (2017) with some deviations. The categories included physical effects, sensory effects, visual effects, cognitive effects, auditory effects, adverse effects, anti-dependency agent and aftereffects.…”

Gamma band alterations and REM-like traits underpin the acute effect of the atypical psychedelic ibogaine

“…In addition, the spectra were normalized to obtain the relative power by dividing the power value of each frequency by the sum across frequencies. The traditional frequency bands depicted in the figures were taken as: delta (1-4 Hz), theta (5-10 Hz), sigma (11)(12)(13)(14), beta (15-29 Hz) and gamma (30-100 Hz).…”

EEG Gamma Band Alterations and REM-like Traits Underpin the Acute Effect of the Atypical Psychedelic Ibogaine in the Rat

“…Subjective reports portray the ibogaine experience as entering into an intense dream-like episode while awake, involving memory retrieval and prospective imagination, without producing the typical interferences in thinking, identity distortions, and space-time alterations produced by classical psychedelics (e.g. DMT, LSD, psilocybin) [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] . Thus, ibogaine is often referred as an oneirogenic psychedelic 8,10,15 .…”