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Positive effects of Iboga on personal evolution. Introduction.
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Introduction • How may Iboga, the sacred wood, improve one’s personal evolution ? I will describe some phenomenons which occurred consecutively to my Iboga intake and I will present the African ceremony I attended in Gabon in 2006. I will also present one long lasting inconvenience of these intakes on my everyday life. We will link Iboga to different notions such as meditation, tummo or internal heat, kundalini or spinal awakening, insight, visualisation and the use of hypnagogic states. To make it short, may Iboga be the swiss knife of self improvement ? This will be my contribution to the Iboga user's manual.
A few steps in my life • First I will briefly present myself. I changed my job every five years and was successively student and journalist, explorer and diver dedicating myself to caves exploration, lecturer, teacher, sales person, software developer, boss of my own company, journalist again, writer (22 books published, mainly thick technical unreadable computer books), project manager and so on… One difficulty I met when realizing most of my dreams was that it came each time to a dead end. None of these activities was able to fill my life for more than a few years.
From adolescence to manhood • In September 2005, at age 56, I decided, after reading on the internet some description of the Iboga’s effects, to attend an Iboga seminar. I took this decision with my friend Sylvain who is a tycoon, plus a healer and a shaman and who came with me a few months later to Gabon, to attend the great african ceremony in the bush.
Iboga is an initiation plant • Since Iboga is intended to trigger the passage of adolescence to manhood, our purpose was, in both cases, to check if some kind of awakening would possibly occur. So we did not take Iboga for getting rid of drug abuse but for increasing our potential on meditation and maybe, who knows, wisdom.
The quick part of our mind • When under the influence of Iboga, you may see series of faces appearing and disappearing very quickly before your eyes. It is so quick that it may let you think that part of your brain is always working at this surprising speed. It may also explain what happens in an accident when you slow down like in a film, and seem to be conscious every tiny part of each second.
May we harness this ability to be in this quick mode ? May we put this ability to work for us ? It is likely that many geniuses found a way to think speedily, this not only in an unconscious way but maybe as a natural process of everyday life. By now, what we see in this state is not cartesian. Many people I spoke to had this same vision of so many faces appearing and disappearing so fast. If it were possible to teach this quick part of our mind to become educated, the benefits would be limitless.
Overeating no more • I used to overeat. I could do three meals at a time. My body accepted it and I grew not heavier. Why did I overeat ? Why did I feel happy overeating ? Was I depressive ? Were there any holes in my life which I filled with food ? I am not aware of anything like that.
When I was in my younger years, between seventeen and twenty five, I suffered from cold on several occasions and I suffered from shortage of food during climbing or cave explorations. This occurred while mountaineering, for I stayed fifty two hours on the mountain Dru, on the Chamonix Massif in France. We slept on the vertical wall (600m high) on the Charpoua side. We had planned only ten to twelve hours return, so we had both a hard physical work and not enough to eat. The strange and interesting side is that I only suffered from cold and hunger a very few times in my life. However my body immediately acted accordingly, as if I or maybe you, were pre-programmed to switch in survival mode. So I became a grand mother’s dream for I could finish any dish presented to me, no matter the quantity.
After my first three days Iboga ceremony, end of January 2006, I went on eating three times less and with no efforts. Do you believe I lost weight ? No way, this is the funny part. We went trekking to Himalayas and my friend Sylvain lost seven kilos. I lost two hundred grams ! However, I presume eating less was good for cholesterol.
Putting more distance • Of course, putting more distance between the world and you is part of maturity and it comes naturally with age. However Iboga intakes stimulate this distance bringing more patience and allowing oneself to see further into one’s life and attain more elaborate goals. Future does not seem out of reach.
Another plant which probably helped me is Saint John Wort (Millepertuis in French) which will give you the same state of mind as if you had been ten years with a Zen master.
So I recommend St John Wort to everyone. The negative side of things will not touch you any more with the same intensity. So, to make it brief, Iboga helps to take decisions and St John Wort to be in an harmonious state of mind. The mixing of both may contribute to the harmony of your life.
Breaking the barriers • Inhibition is part of the survival kit. However inhibition is like a break always pushed on and it may prevent you from improving. After Iboga intakes, you get more free to take decisions for the long run. You don’t feel fear the same way.
For example after I came to Africa for the Iboga ceremony, my previous girlfriend, who is the mother of my daughter asked me to leave the house because she loved me no more. • Maybe without iboga and St John Wort I should have felt depressed ?
What I try to emphasize is that maybe through Iboga, and certainly with the help of St John Wort, I found a way to settle the situation for everybody in such a way that everybody was nearly satisfied. • Note that both plants may act in such different ways that you should not take them together.
I am sure iboga and St John Wort helped me to stay positive… • From may 205 to march 2006, I had a maximum stress for in twelve months the following events occured : • I lost my job • My mother died • My girlfriend left • I had health problems and could not run any more • My brother talked to me no more • I nearly died from two phlebitis, the blood clot went through heart and lungs
Seeing further, understanding, generalizing • After Iboga intakes, the way you perceive time and integrate it in your everyday life is different. The difference between short term and long term gets blurred. You see better the way they are linked. You will give less privilege to the short term and see how a bad decision in the ‘now’ will bring drawbacks in the future. You will see more easily how choosing a more difficult attitude in the ‘now’ will bring advantages in the future.
Deciding • For example you may wonder, should I go back to the university for a five years or seven years cursus ? I am fifty, for example, and in five years I will be fifty five… Then no way ! Then a voice in your head will speak ‘If you don’t go to the university, in five years time, you will be fifty five anyway. So what difference will it make on your age that you go or don’t go that you do or don’t do ? ’.
My daughter in law is in high school, so I help her to do her mathematics preps. What I could notice after Iboga intakes is that I am no more inhibited toward basic mathematics. I may see clearly that many things are just statements, observations, and I do use theorems just as if they where inside my piggy-bag. Suddenly I feel things are clear and simple. I wont no more write extra lines to convince a teacher who is already convinced. I use the economy principle, just according to Ockham’s razor.
Link to Kundalini, Tummo and hypnagogic states • I have been checking that the link from Iboga toward Kundalini and hypnagogic states occurred not only in me but inside other people too. So even if I speak of my personal case, it may be generalized. I awakened a mild Kundalini in February 1999, through breathing and letting go. What I mean by mild Kundalini is that nothing dramatic nor psychotic occurred in my life. Kundalini itself, which begins with a big burst of energy in the spine, is violent and frightening. However my body opposed no resistance, and the electric current of the kundalini went through from sacrum to brain at least two times, in a very energetic way.
What Iboga has been bringing about until today, starting 2006, is a bigger frequency and a higher intensity in the tingling of kundalini in the head, neck, shoulder and spine. Though the intensity is tamed, it remains actual. So Iboga may be part of the awakening process of the Kundalini. During the sessions I attended, at least two persons had the very symptoms of Kundalini awakening, mentioning the vision of a snake appearing at the level of the lower part of their spine, except that they did not know the word Kundalini and so didn’t use it. My friend Sylvain and I were amazed, since it seemed to prove that Iboga is triggering very old universal powerful symbols.
Hypnagogic states occur just before sleep. It corresponds to theta waves, that is from 4 to 7 vibrations per second. This means that the main brain frequency is then set between 4 and 7 hertz. After Iboga intakes, these hypnagogic states became longer and more intense. Since these states are related to creativity and problem solving, it is important to systematize their use and I work on this every day. Even poor results are interesting. • I guess it contributes to being ‘on the way’.
Disappearance of some visual habits • Sometimes when you see things, there is an ambiguity. For example a wooden fence may look like a pile of wood, according to the angle you are looking at it. But as in a familiar environment you do know what is there, you don’t feel this ambiguity. Your mind knows how to determine immediately what is there. The habit kills the ambiguity, and suddenly there are not so many habits left. I interviewed some friends who took Iboga and they feel the same. Old habits were erased, both in everyday life and in the visual field.
My girlfriend has a daughter. Sometimes, I may for one second make a confusion. However Ornela is sixteen and Virginie is 36. So what happens ? It seems I now get in my conscious mind, one by one, the different steps of the process. And the curious thing is that at first what I see is neither man nor woman, just like a basic model I should see for the first time • It slows down my conclusions but it gives me more control on what is going on, provided I am not in a hurry. Ornela and Virginie have the same facial structure. They have not the same size not the same weight. • I do perceive the similarities between them before I perceive the difference. This, in my opinion, is an important point.
So I have the feeling I may see a face that might be the very model of a man or a woman, undifferentiated. • Only after I will make the difference. • The question is, may this new ability to see beyond be of any use ?
Drawback • So what is the drawback ? It is linked to any situation when you have to take a quick decision. For example it will make things difficult when you drive, because recognizing without ambiguity what is in front of you is part of a survival kit. Another example is that I may be better at chess except for quick games. • So maybe I am more conscious but part of my mind is occupied when and where it was not before. I become both slower and more informed. Since I am writing a book by now, I think it will be a better book.
Conclusions • Iboga intakes was a boon in my life for now at age fifty nine, I do feel my life is just beginning. My opinion is that Iboga will increase what you are, good or bad and amplify your self. • It will be de-structuring some habits in your mind and it is up to you to re-construct them. • You will feel more free but you will be responsible for your re-adjustment in everyday life. Don’t forget that the breaking of visual habits maybe puzzling or even dangerous. • However, I now see details that I could never see before. I am more prone to perceive structures and see things from far away. • Jacques De Schryver • jdsetls@aim.com
For iboga seminars in Gabon, contact Tatayo ibogabon@yahoo.fr , alias Hugues Obiang Poitevin (241) 06 25 09 17
