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Dr. Richard Deandrea: I'm Dr. Richard Deandrea. It was a long journey to make it here. Gabon, the Tibet of Africa. People from around the world are drawn here for one specific reason - they have a bush here they call iboga. They say that when you eat from this bush, that there are miraculous cures, but some who've eaten from this bush have died. Is it a miracle cure or a death sentence? That's what I hope to find out.
Here we are in the town of Libreville, the largest city in Gabon. We come here because there's a compound called Ibondo where people from around the world come together to experience the power of iboga. But there's one special thing about this place - we have a western Shaman here, the first in the world. His name is Tatayo, and I'm anxious to meet him.
Speaker 1: Tatayo is obviously a product of the 60s, you know? He’s an old hippie. And then Tatayo, the first white initiate, the first white man to take iboga and be initiated to bwiti, was this crazy fuckin hippie.
Speaker 2: He's an amazing character, the white ganga, known as the white wolf. Several people have written books about him as well, and all the work he's carried out with the pygmies here to preserve the natural resources.
Speaker 3 [translated]: Tatayo knows what he’s doing. His Bwiti is not different, because he has truly learned the tradition.
Tatayo: The Bwiti father Motamba, which is very respected in Gabon, says iboga is for everybody, even for little birds.
Dr. Deandrea: How is it that the most powerful part of the plant is in the dark part of the earth, and then the above part is in the light?
Tatayo: The above part is in the light, [it] has another reason to exist. This tree is very sharp, and if you do wrong, it will do you wrong - not the tree, yourself. I don't like this thing of bad and good, but I know it’s kind of… everybody talks about that, bad and good, good and bad. If you have a very good intent, iboga will help you. If you have a bad intent, you'll be fucked up.
Dr. Deandrea: So the main thing, like with everything, is you could say a lot of words but what your intention is, especially with these sacred plants, is important.
Tatayo: You can talk, talk, talk, if it’s not true, the plant knows. You're always forgiven if you don't know that what you did wrong is wrong. But something that you know you did wrong, because you’re not true to yourself, then iboga fucks you up.
Speaker 4: There's a big problem in this world that many people are lost. Just lost. They don't know where they go, they don't have any goal.
Speaker 2: This is my sixth time in Gabon now, so obviously there's been something for me to dig here.
Speaker 1: The first time I heard the word Bwiti or iboga or ibogaine, I was injecting heroin on the Lower East Side of New York in 1991.
Speaker 3 [translated]: When I was young, I started to goof off, smoke, fight; I was taking a very hedonist type of path.
Speaker 2: I took drugs in my past.
Speaker 1: I was on heroin, cocaine, and methadone.
Speaker 2: I was addicted to opium.
Speaker 1: But my drug use spanned over 20 years.
Speaker 3 [translated]: It was my spiritual father who redirected me towards the Bwiti. If my spiritual father had not given me the root, I wouldn’t be here today.
Speaker 4: Generally, the effects start between, you know, the first 30 minutes to 1 hour. And, you know something that is holy, something that is pure, you know, - you must accept it naturally, you must accept it, you mustn't fight it. You see most of the people, when they take iboga, they go like [mimes the face of someone eating iboga].
Speaker 2: It's quite disgusting. It’s really disgusting. It's very bitter. If you just take a couple of spoonfuls a day, it's alright, but when you undergo the ceremony, you have to take sometimes 20, sometimes 30 spoonfuls, and then it’s really, really bad, so.
Speaker 1: I had to do iboga for three solid days, eating it, because I was on methadone, and there’s a whole spirit to that. Three solid days of sitting in a dark room, being very well taken care of and loved, but sitting in a dark room without the technology of Bwiti. Let me just say in small doses it's fun, okay? A lot of people don't want to say that. In small doses it's fun and it's safe. I know that’s not getting in, but I’m saying it anyways!
Dr. Deandrea: Authenticity, ritual, and history would help people in the West to understand that there is much more to iboga than just another experience. It takes you through a path, on a journey. That authenticity and that structure helps people to find a way and helps them to see how they can use the substance for healing rather than allowing it to use them.
The amount of energy rushing through that room was like a volcano. It exploded. We've been going at this since 11 PM. It's now daytime - we go till daytime. They will continue doing this until the afternoon. People will stay up dancing consistently for 12, 16 hours, going in and out of there. The shamans are constantly producing energy. The object is to come to daylight so that the shaman is reborn into a new place, this idea of light of day meaning that he's passing to light.
Speaker 5 [translated]: Music guides you in your spiritual path, and the costumes are a mirror of your own spirit.
Speaker 1: Bwiti is so many different things - music, dance, iboga, the knowledge of the trees, that this is a living planet, that this is a living universe. That's iboga, that's Bwiti. Dance is an expression of that.
Dr. Deandrea: Just a big slow moving animal, that’s all, kind of looks like the foot of an elephant, doesn’t it?
Speaker 4: The dance is important - you can express different things, you can express your joy, you can express your anger. You can dance like an animal. There's a dance for war, there’s a dance for joy, there’s a dance to mourn. That's the physical expression of what you have inside.
Tatayo: For us, detox is a total - for us Gabonese, I say - detox is a total trailer. It's a small trailer behind us. I mean, it's not the matter - the matter is To Meet Yourself.
Speaker 3 [translated]: It makes the Gabonese feel that their own plant is useful. It’s really something important. We hope that westerners continue to come to Gabon in search of this plant.
Dr. Richard Deandrea: Our quest from the open arms of America to the deep rainforest of central Africa has left me with a sense of mystery, intrigue, and illumination. In weighing in on the healing power of iboga, it seems more questions arise. Certainly shamans, doctors, and patients believe that iboga has the power to change lives, but it is not so much the substance that is in question as much as how it is used. When there is a connection to the ceremony, to the universe, to the spirit, there is much more to iboga than just another experience. I'm Dr. Richard Deandrea. Be well.