|
|||||||
|
|
|
|||||
|
|
|||||||
Author: Robert Goutarel
Reprinted with permission from The Ibogaine Dossier.
Tabernanthe iboga H.Bn. is an apocynaceous shrub from Equatorial Africa whose
roots are used in Gabon at low doses as a stimulant and at high doses during the ceremony
for admission into the Gabonese initiation society, the Bwiti.
Four periods are described:
the first three relate to the pharmacodynamic studies conducted in France (1864-1905; and
1940-1950) and subsequently in the U.S.A., essentially Ciba's work (1950-1970).
The low acute and chronic toxicity of ibogaine is established (Dhahir, 1971).
Ibogaine inhibits the oxidation of serotonin and catalyzes that of catecholamines by a MAO
(monoamine oxidase), ceruloplasmin (Barrass and Coult, 1972).
Ibogaine is a type of hallucinogen (oneirophrenic) at high doses.
The present period began around 1960 and covers the applications of ibogaine in
psychotherapy and psychoanalysis according to Naranjo (1960) and in combatting drug
dependency according to Howard S. Lotsof.
The role of iboga in Bwiti initiation ceremonies was studied by ethnologists in Gabon.
The intoxication by iboga (chewing) is slow and progressive and is characterized by
four stages of oneiric manifestations.
The first three stages are essentially of the Freudian type; the fourth one, called the
stage of normative visions, corresponds to the collective image of the tribe, visions of
the beyond and of spiritual entities, Masters of the Universe.
The initiate will see the Bwiti only twice during his life, on the day of his initiation
and on the day of his death, which means that the normative visions have some similarities
to the near death experience (NDE).
The psychotherapeutic method of Naranjo involves only the Freudian stages produced by
subtoxic doses of ibogaine, while H.S. Lotsof goes beyond that stage to reach another one
comparable to the normative visions or NDE, bringing about the cure of addicts.
Based on recent "neuroscientific" evidence concerning the mode of action of
ibogaine, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has added ibogaine to the list of
drugs whose activity in the treatment of drug dependency is to be evaluated. Ibogaine
blocks the morphine- and cocaine-induced stimulation of mesolimbic and striatal dopamine
and reduces the intravenous self-administration of morphine in rats.
The Bwiti: Gabonese initiation society.
Ibogaine in Psychotherapy and for Controlling Narcotic Dependency
(Translated from French by William J. Gladstone.)
by Robert Goutarel,
Honorary Research Director; Otto Gollnhofer and Roger Sillans, Ethnologists, C.N.R.S.
(French National Scientific Research Center)
Chemical investigations for the purpose of establishing the structural formula of ibogaine
were undertaken by two groups: a Swiss group headed by Professor E. Schlittler (Organisch
chemische Anstalt der Universität Basel), and a French-Swiss research group including
Professor V. Prelog, Nobel laureate in chemistry (Zürich Federal Polytechnic School),
Professor M.M. Janot (School of Pharmacy, Paris), and R. Goutarel.
The discovery of ibogamine, a nonoxygenated alkaloid, the basis of the other iboga
alkaloids, was published jointly by C.A. Burckhardt, R. Goutarel, M.M Janot and E.
Schlittler (Helv. chim. Acta, 35, 1952, p. 642)8.
Using the alkaline fusion of ibogaine, Schlittler's group isolated
1,2-dimethyl-3-ethyl-5-hydroxyindole (Schlittler, E., Burckhard, C.A., Gellert, E., Die
Kalischmelze des Alkaloides Ibogain, Helv. chim. Acta, 36, 1337, 1953)50, while the
French-Swiss group (Structure de l'ibogaïne, R. Goutarel, M.M. Janot, F. Mathys and V.
Prelog, C.R. Acad. Sci., 237, 1953, p. 1718)26 characterized 3-methyl-5-ethylpyridine.
The combination of these results led R. Goutarel to propose, in 1954, a formula that
included all the elements of the structure of ibogaine; the definitive structure
necessarily had to include a fifth ring formed by a bond between the C-17 or a carbon atom
from the ethyl chain and another carbon atom of this molecule (most likely C-16).
The definitive structural formula was established by W.I. Taylor (Bartlett, M. et al.,
1958)3 in which ibogaine has an ethyl chain, following the study of the seleniated
dehydrogenation products of this alkaloid.
W.I. Taylor had belonged to the French-Swiss group before he joined Prof. Schlittler's
staff at Ciba Laboratory in Summit, New Jersey, and contributed in particular to the study
of cinchonamine and quinamine (R. Goutarel, M.M. Janot, V. Prelog and W.I. Taylor, Helv.
chim. Acta, 33, 1950, p. 150, 164).27
"Clinical research, the one which is directly concerned with human illness, will be the bearer of great hopes."
Philippe Lazar, Director General of INSERM (French National Institute of Health and
Medical Research), Madame Figaro, No. 14110, 88 (1990)
The pharmacodynamic and clinical research on iboga and ibogaine may be divided into four
periods.
Henri Baillon, who established the genus Tabernanthe H.Bn. at the Museum* in 1889, and
described under the name of Tabernanthe iboga H.Bn. the sample** brought back from Gabon
in 1864 by Dr. Griffon du Bellay, a navy surgeon, wrote: "The root of this plant is
the part that the Gabonese eat. They say that it is inebriating, aphrodisiac, and, with
it, they claim that they feel no need for
sleep".1 However, as early as 1885, Father Henri Neu had written in a manuscript
entitled "Le Gabon" (Neu 1885)42:
"Most Europeans (living in Gabon) have heard about this plant, used in fetishistic
ceremonies. The natives use an infusion of iboga root scrapings as a potent philter that
enables one to discover hidden things and to tell the future. The one who drinks it falls
into a deep sleep during which he is obsessed by uninterrupted dreams which, until the
time that he awakens, he takes to be actual events..."
* The Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris.
** This sample, along with the roots, was displayed at the Paris Exposition in 1867, and
had been reported earlier by Aubry-Lecomte ("Note sur quelques poisons de la côte
occidentale de l'Afrique, Archives de Médecine navale, 2, 1864, p. 264-265). It was then
given to the Paris Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle.
At the beginning of this century, Dybowsky and Landrin (1901)17 isolated a crystallized alkaloid from the iboga roots and named it ibogaine.
The first step in the pharmacodynamic studies began when Phisalix (1901)43 showed that, in
the dog, this alkaloid acts principally on the CNS and produces inebriation similar to
alcoholic drunkenness (though this would be contradicted later).
This was the period of studies by the French pharmacologists, Lambert, 190130, 190231
Heckel, 190128 and Pouchet, 190544.
The results were that ibogaine, used clinically, was recommended as a stimulant in cardiac
"atony" and neurasthenia by Pouchet and Chevalier (1905)44.
This period ended in 1905 with the thesis for a medical degree, "De l'Iboga et de
l'ibogaïne" (de Closmenil 1905)9, defended in Paris by Mme de Closmenil, the
daughter of Landrin, who advocated the use of ibogaine hydrochloride at doses of 10-30
mg/day in convalescence, neurasthenia and asthenia.
Thus, it was the "antifatigue" properties of ibogaine that particularly
attracted the attention of investigators of this period, and another 40 years were to pass
before the study of this alkaloid was resumed.
In 1941, Raymond-Hamet48 published a paper entitled "L'iboga, drogue défatigante mal
connue" (Iboga, a poorly known antifatigue drug), in which he showed that ibogaine
increases the responsiveness of animals to epinephrine and
puts the organism in a state of hypersympathicotonus, and he would later refer to it as a
"sympathicosthenic" agent, in contrast to yohimbines which, according to him,
were "sympathicolytics".
During the same period, Delourme-Houdé prepared a remarkable thesis for a doctorate of
pharmacy which he defended after the war was over in France in 1944. In this thesis, he
discussed the botany, chemistry, and pharmacodynamics of iboga. He also isolated a new
alkaloid which he named tabernanthine (Delourme-Houdé, 1944)13.
Delourme-Houdé determined the LD50 of ibogaine in the guinea pig intraperitoneally to be
82 mg/kg.
In 1941, Raymond-Hamet had demonstrated the "sympathicosthenic" activity of
ibogaine and the fact that this alkaloid suppressed the hypertensive effects produced by
carotid occlusion, that it increases tyramine-induced hypertension, and he further
demonstrated its own hypotensive action, confirmed by Miss Séro (1944)55. He showed that
ibogaine acts as a true antagonist of "sympatholytics" (Raymond-Hamet
1939-1946)47.
Vincent and Miss Séro, of Montpellier, demonstrated the inhibitory action of iboga on
serum cholinesterase (Vincent, D. and Séro, I. 1942)56.
Previously, in 1939, Wurman (1939)57 had published a Doctorate of Medicine thesis in
Paris, entitled "Contribution à l'étude expérimentale et thérapeutique d'un
extrait de T. manii (syn. T. Subsessilis), d'origine gabonaise" (Contribution to the
experimental and therapeutic study of an extract of T. manii [syn. T. subsessilis] from
Gabon).
This extract reportedly contained about 6% total alkaloids including 4% ibogaine, as
determined by the assays of Raymond-Hamet.
According to Wurman, this extract stimulates hematopoiesis in the mouse and has a
hypotensive action.
Therapeutic application: Lambarène, 1939-1970
It was during this period, in 1939, that a proprietary pharmaceutical preparation called
Lambarène in honor of Dr. Schweitzer, was first marketed in France: it was based on a dry
pharmaceutical extract of roots of Tabernanthe manii, with a drug content of 0.20 g of
extract per tablet (about 8 mg of ibogaine), whose therapeutic action, dosage regimen and
effects were, according to package information, as follows: "a neuromuscular
stimulant, promoting cell combustions and getting rid of fatigue, indicated in cases of
depression, asthenia, in convalescence, infectious diseases, greater than normal physical
or mental efforts by healthy individuals. 2-4 Tablets daily. Rapid and prolonged action,
not followed by depression. May be administered to hypertensives."
The fact that it was recommended for physical or mental efforts by healthy individuals
rapidly aroused the interest of post-war athletes (Paris-Strasbourg walking race
competitors, mountain climbers, cyclists, cross-country runners, etc.).
Haroun Tazieff* gave the following description of his experience with Lambarène in his
book, "Le gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Martin" (Arnaud publ.).
"Go ahead", said André (the expedition's doctor), "it will give you
strength. And also swallow this, he added as he handed me a tablet.
Do you think we should already be taking this? Shouldn't we save it until we are
completely exhausted?"
It was Lambarène, a stimulant, a "doping" agent which was supposed to enable us
to find the necessary strength in our exhausted bodies.
"No, go ahead, what we have to do is to prevent fatigue. Later on, we'll be taking
some more, regularly..."
We had just swallowed our third tablet of Lambarène, and we could feel a tonic effect.
I hastened, "doped up" on Lambarène, and jumped from one boulder to the next
with renewed agility...
Despite the Lambarène, I was really beginning to feel worn out and had trouble scaling
the huge boulders which we immediately had to descend to start on the next one, while
insidious cramps crept along the anterior portions of
my thighs. I was hoping they wouldn't get worse... I took another Lambarène. While André
climbed up the ladder, I massaged my legs. Within ten minutes, everything was in order and
in turn I climbed up without any difficulty...
In spite of the fact that I had swallowed a Lambarène, I really didn't feel talkative at
all. Time flowed on, like a stream. One hour passed, and so did the effect of the
Lambarène...
*Celebrated French geologist and volcanologist, Honorary Research Director at
the C.N.R.S.
And, on this last day, this frenzied race toward our discovery, these six hours of
descent and climbing sustained by Lambarène, this day on top of all
others, it was terrible...
Only the stimulant enabled us to keep going. When the effect of the last tablet had passed
and I had no more, I was nothing but a pitiful package of meat miserably dangling at the
end of a wire."
Lambarène disappeared from the market around 1966 and the sale of ibogaine was
prohibited.
Since 1989, this alkaloid has been on the list of doping substances banned by the
International Olympic Committee, the International Union of Cyclists and the French State
Secretariat for Youth and Sports.
The 3rd period covers the time of the discovery of reserpine in the Rauwolfias by
Schlittler (Mueller, J.M., Schlittler, E., Bein, H.J. 1952)40, which prompted a new
interest in plants containing indole alkaloids.
French chemists were outstanding in this field by virtue of their discovery of new indole
alkaloids and by establishing their structures, but we must say that foreign
pharmacologists were mainly responsible for the new research on the pharmacodynamics of
Iboga.
A description of these investigations can be found in the PhD thesis of Dhahir (1971)12,
and in an article by J. Delourme-Houdé which was published in Fitoterapia
(Delourme-Houdé 1977)19.
Structurally, ibogaine is a derivative of serotonin and an indole azepine.25 It was this
comparison with serotonin that was the main subject of Dhahir's thesis (1971)14.
In this thesis at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of
Indiana in 1971, Dhahir established the acute and chronic toxicities of ibogaine:
The intragastric LD50 in the rat is 327 mg/kg. The intraperitoneal LD50 in the rat is 145
mg/kg.
The mouse and the guinea pig are more sensitive than the rat. The toxicity is not changed
by the ingestion of 1 g/kg of alcohol. Alcohol suppresses tremor in the animal as a result
of its depressant effect on the CNS which attenuates the stimulant effects of ibogaine.
Therefore, the inebriation in the dog reported in 1901 by Phisalix is not comparable to
alcoholic inebriation.
Larger quantities of alcohol (2 g/kg) slightly increase the toxicity of ibogaine.
Atropine sulfate at doses of 1-2 mg/kg does not affect the toxicity of ibogaine but does
away with the ataxia, tremors and most of the external signs of intoxication.
The study of chronic toxicity shows that when ibogaine was administered for 30 days at a
dose of 10 mg/kg i.p., it caused no liver, kidney, heart or brain damage.
The administration of 40 mg/kg for 12 days to 10 rats produced no pathological changes in
the liver, kidneys, heart or brain.
This is in contrast with the toxicity of serotonin which, at doses four times lower,
causes serious damage to the kidneys: tubular dilatation and degeneration and the presence
of eosinophils.
Thus, ibogaine appears to be a relatively nontoxic alkaloid, particularly by oral
administration, with a wide therapeutic index ranging from 10 to 50 mg as an
antidepressant in humans and, as we shall see later, from 300 mg to 1 g when used for its
oneiric action, the toxic doses being similar to those of aspirin and quinine.
Schneider and Reinehart (1957)51 analyzed the cardiovascular effect of ibogaine
hydrochloride in the dog and the cat and showed that at doses of 2 to 5 mg/kg, ibogaine
exerts negative chronotropic and inotropic effects.
The slowing of the cardiac output is responsible for the drop in blood pressure. These
effects are suppressed by atropine.
Gershon and Lang (1962)16 suggested that the changes in the electrocardiogram of the
unanesthetized dog indicate that ibogaine enhances sinus arrhythmia and potentiates the
vagal effects. They confirmed what had been pointed out by Raymond-Hamet: ibogaine
potentiates hypertension produced by epinephrine and norepinephrine.
They pointed out that the negative chronotropic activity of indole alkaloids is increased
by the introduction of a methoxyl group on the indole ring.
Zetler and Lessau (1972)58 synthesized two azepino-indoles and compared them with four
indole alkaloids. These compounds have direct noncholinergic effects with negative
chronotropic and inotropic actions.
Neuropharmacological studies were carried out by Schneider and Sigg(1957)52 using isolated
cat brain preparations, as well as curarized cats and dogs.
The electroencephalogram shows a typical arousal syndrome when 2 to 5 mg/kg of ibogaine
hydrochloride are given intravenously. They suggested that the site of action of ibogaine
must be in the ascending reticular formation.
Pretreatment with atropine (2 mg/kg) blocks this ibogaine-induced arousal. There is no
effect on neuromuscular transmission.
Numerous researchers were interested in the tremor produced by certain indole alkaloids,
particularly ibogaine. This tremor is of central origin and is suppressed by atropine.
In addition, Schneider explained the morphine-potentiating effect of ibogaine by its
inhibiting action on cholinesterase.53
Finally, in 1972, in a study on the effects of some CNS-active drugs that can interact
with ceruloplasmin, Barrass and Coult (1972)2 indicated that at a concentration equal to
that of the substrate, ibogaine inhibits 50% of the oxidation of serotonin and catalyzes
the oxidation of catecholamines (200%) by the copper-containing plasma globulin. They
classified ibogaine among the hallucinogens and noted that LSD produces the same effects
at a concentration 10 times lower.
It should be noted that Naranjo (1969)41 explained the antifatigue and antidepressant
properties of ibogaine by defining it as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI).
We should add that more recently in France, Wepierre45 studied the influence of
tabernanthine, an isomer of ibogaine, on the kinetic parameters of the turnover of cardiac
norepinephrine in the hypoxic rat. This hypoxia can serve as a model to assess the
protective action of this substance against fatigue.
In addition, at Gif-sur-Yvette, in the CNRS Laboratory of Physiology of the Nervous
System, Dr. Naquet demonstrated that in the cat, tabernanthine produces a calm and
prolonged wakefulness, very different from the one produced by amphetamines. (Da Costa,
L., Sulklaper, I., Naquet, R., Rev. EEG Neurophysiol. 1980, 10, 1, 105)11. This
wakefulness is followed by slow sleep without the anomalies that occur in REM sleep, the
period of dreams (Da Costa, L. 1980).11 1970s-1990
This previous third period lasted about 25 years. It was not until the fourth period,
which runs from the 1970s to the present, that knowledge was acquired, sometimes
illegally, into the nature of the oneiric effects in humans of iboga and ibogaine, on the
one hand through the remarkable studies in the field by the CNRS ethnologists O.
Gollnhofer and R. Sillans and by the ORSTOM (Office of Overseas Scientific and Technical
Research.) ethnologist J. Binet, concerning the Mitsogho Bwiti and its extension to the
different Bwitis of the Fang (Gollnhofer, O. and Sillans, R., 1985); Gollnhofer, O. and
Sillans, R., 1983; Binet, J., Gollnhofer O., Sillans, R., 1972)23,24,4, and on the other
hand through the researches conducted in Chile by Claudio Naranjo (1969)41, and in North
America by Howard Lotsof (1985, 1986, 1989, 1991)32-37. The Gabonese rituals of iboga:
Bwiti of the Mitsogho4,23,24
The original Bwiti or Bwiti of the Mitsogho arose among the Mitsogho when they reached the
territory that is now Gabon. In the remote period, the Bwiti itself was a product of a
syncretism made up of ancestor worship enhanced by the discovery of iboga (perhaps
imparted by the Pygmies of the equatorial forest) and of cultural elements acquired during
the migrations of the Mitsogho.
Among the Mitsogho (and the Bapinzi), the Bwiti is strictly for males, and those who have
been initiated are considered as Masters and sole custodians of the mystery of the visual
knowledge of the beyond given to them by iboga, the "miraculous tree".
This initiation is indispensable for social promotion within the tribe and any individual
who is unable to joint the Bwiti becomes an outcast and is considered by one and all as a
girl.
Iboga brings about the visual, tactile and auditory certainty of the irrefutable existence
of the beyond. Through his spiritually immutable substance, man belongs on two planes of
existence with which he blends, knowing not where birth and death begin. Physical death
loses all meaning because it is nothing but a new life, another existence. "It is
Iboga that conditions the several existences."
Iboga does away with the notion of time, the present, past and future blend into one, as
in the superluminous universe of Régis and Brigitte Dutheil16: through the absorption of
iboga, man returns to the birthplace whence he came.
In order to be admitted to the Bwiti Society, the candidates must submit to a series of
trials or rites of passage that begin in an enclosure strictly reserved for the initiates.
Each candidate has a "mother", who is an old initiate; this is a man who sees to
it that the initiatory ceremony is conducted properly.
This ceremony consists essentially of ingesting scrapings of iboga root (Tabernanthe iboga
H.Bn. var. ñoke and mbassoka).
This "chewing of iboga" is supervised by the "mother" who constantly
checks the dosage of the drug according to the physiological reactions of his candidate
who must take a very large quantity of root bark and stems of T. iboga.
This chewing is preceded by abstinence from sex and food the day before. The rite is very
strict and each manifestation has great symbolic value.
Over a fire, the elders roast squash seeds. The sound they make as they pop symbolizes the
release of the spirit -- which supposedly leaves the body through the fontanelle -- on its
mystical journey. The candidate's skull is struck three times with a hammer to help free
his spirit.
The neophyte's tongue is pricked with a needle to give it the power to relate the visions
to come.
Since the chewing can last several days, the disincarnation and the reincarnation of the
neophyte are reenacted before the visions appear.
The candidate is led to the river, and a miniature dugout canoe made of a leaf, bearing a
lit torch of okoumé resin, is set upon the waters. This rite represents the journey of
the spirit, downstream, toward the West, the setting sun, death, and symbolizes
disincarnation.
A stake surmounted by a diamond-shaped wooden structure is planted
in midstream: it represents the female sexual organ, which the candidate must go through
(in a fetal state) against the current, thus swimming upstream, from the East, the rising
sun, from birth.
For the enactment of this initiatory birth, the neophyte's head is shaved and is sprinkled
with a red wood (padouk), as is done with the newborn.
Finally, as soon as the neophyte's psychological state after the chewing is considered
satisfactory, he is led into the Temple where he is placed on the left side, symbolizing
womanhood, darkness, death.
He remains in the Temple, on the left side, absorbing iboga leaves until the normative
perception of the visions occurs.
During the chewing, the effects of the drug begin to be manifested twenty minutes after
the first absorption of iboga by violent and repeated vomiting: "The belly of the
neophyte (banzi) is emptied even of its mother's milk."
To go to the beyond, one has to die; the body remains on the ground with the elders, the
soul departs.
The physiological manifestations begin with drowsiness, followed by motor incoordination,
strong agitation, tremor, crying and laughter, partial anesthesia with intermittent
hypothermia and hyperthermia, panting that may go as far as choking.
To assess the progress of the intoxication and to adjust the dosage, those in charge take
the pulse, listen to the heartbeat, check the temperature simply by touching the body and
evaluate sensibility by pricking with a needle at different times. According to the
physiological state, the "mothers" regulate the dose of iboga up or down from
time to time.
The oneiric effects do not begin to be manifested until after about ten hours, during
which time the aforementioned rituals take place, partly in public with dances and music.
Among the Mitsogho, the subjects under the influence of iboga go through four stages to
reach an image content corresponding to the required norms. The candidates are constantly
questioned by the initiated elders as to the content of what they perceive. The elders are
the ones who make a judgment as to the initiatory value of the vision described.
The first vision consists of hazy, incoherent, disordered images devoid of religious
significance, whose authenticity is often questioned by the neophyte.
The second stage is characterized by a series of apparitions of menacing looking animals
that sometimes break apart and at times form together again rapidly.
In the third stage, the oneiric vision clearly progresses toward the mythical stereotype.
The neophyte grows more and more calm, a sign of a pleasant, peaceful vision that dispels
his doubts as to the objectivity and factualness of the image perceived.
The neophyte feels himself enveloped by a wind that carries him off in the twinkling of an
eye, to the sound of the Ngombi harp, to an immense village without a beginning or end.
We ought to say a word about the symbolic value of the musical bow whose melodious sounds
accompany the ceremony. It represents a link between the village of the men here on earth
and the village of the father in the beyond. The musical bow symbolizes the road of life
and death.
On the way over, voices are heard: "Who is it that you seek, stranger?" And the
traveler answers: "I seek the Bwiti." The voices suddenly take on human forms
that ask the question again and then respond in a chorus: "You are looking for the
Bwiti. The Bwiti is us, your ancestors, we constitute the Bwiti."
The vision tends more and more to become normative. The initiates then tell the candidate:
"You are on the right path, the Bwiti will soon be here. Go further on. Look, and you
will find it. You must not forsake the images; take up where you left off."
A voice gives the candidate his initiatory name. The neophyte is watched constantly by his
"mother", who regulates his psychophysiological reactions to prevent him from
letting terrifying phantoms interfere, for they would lead him down the wrong path, down
the road of death.
The fourth stage, of vision (the one that ethnologists refer to as the stage of normative
visions) is the one marked by the encounter with higher spiritual entities.
After a dialogue with his ancestors, the neophyte suddenly finds "his legs
immobilized, before two Extraordinary Beings" who disclose that he is in the
"Village of the Bwiti" (village of the dead). They ask him why he has come to
this place.
After hearing the answer of the neophyte, the "Fantastic Beings" speak again.
The first one says: "My name is Nzamba-Kana, the father of humankind, the first man
on earth", and the one standing to his left says: "My name is Disumba, the
mother of humankind (wife of Nzamba-Kana) and the first woman on earth." Suddenly,
the "Village of the Dead" is covered with increasingly intense sparks, a
"ball of light" takes shape and becomes distinct (Kombé, the sun). This ball of
light questions the visitor as to the reasons for his journey. "Do you know who I am?
I am the Chief of the World, I am the essential point!" This is my wife Ngondi (the
moon) and these are my children (Minanga) the stars. The Bwiti is everything you have seen
with your own eyes."
After this dialogue, the sun and the moon change into a handsome boy and a beautiful girl.
Without any warning, the moon and the sun resume their original forms and disappear. The
thunder (Ngadi) is heard and calm returns everywhere.
The wind wraps around the neophyte for a second time and carries him to earth among the
living.
The elders greet him with pride: "He has seen the Bwiti with his own eyes", and
invite him to take his place on the right side of the Temple, the side of men and of life.
The candidate has become an initiate by discovering the Bwiti in another reality, that is,
in the other life stemming at once from physical death and initiatory death.
Through the waking dream, he catches a glimpse, in the present, past and future of his own
being, of man, immutable in his spiritual essence, and living on two planes of existence.
However, after the rites of passage, the new member will be isolated from the outside
world for a period of one to three weeks. During this time, his meals will be prepared and
served by a young woman who has recently given birth, because he is considered as a
newborn.
The initiate has seen, he knows, he believes, but as a Mitsogho, he will only make this
journey twice: during the initiation and on the day of his death. It is out of the
question for him to take iboga again under the same conditions.
From then on, the sacred plant will only be used sparingly, to "warm the heart"
and to help him "in physical efforts or discussion."
We can learn several things from this study of the Mitsogho Bwiti.
First of all, there are some striking similarities between the Bwiti initiation and the
freemasonery initiation rites. The end result is the same, the knowledge of the mysteries
of the beyond, which the masons call the "sublime secret". Freemasonry
initiation is preceded by the candidate's retreat during which he is assisted by one who
has been previously initiated. The latter will convey to him, as he makes him pass through
a narrow door, that the initiation is a new birth.
But most astonishing, in the masonry ritual, are the three blows on the head with a
mallet, in remembrance of the assassination of Hiram, the architect of the Temple of
Solomon, by three of his companions to whom he refused to reveal the "sublime
secret". The only difference between the masons and the followers of the Bwiti is
that the latter have the certainty of knowing this secret.
The Bwiti initiation, among the Mitsogho, concerns essentially the passage from
adolescence to manhood, hence the necessity of eliminating the epigenetic elements of
childhood and adolescence in order to reprogram in the young man a new ego corresponding
to the cultural norms of the tribe.
To achieve this, the Mitsogho call on the instrumental deprivation of sleep, as the
initiation lasts for days without sleep or food, as well as on pharmacological deprivation
through the chewing of iboga.
The result is a waking dream without psychotic manifestations during which the subject
remains perfectly conscious and can communicate with those around him, being at once an
actor and a spectator of his visions.
What is remarkable is the fact that iboga intoxication is very gradual, which makes it
possible to observe several stages during these visions.
Ethnologists were able to follow in the field the progression of this intoxication and to
distinguish four characteristic stages during the initiation.
In the first three stages, the visions correspond essentially to what the psychoanalysts
call the subterranean world of Freud.
The fourth stage is referred to by the ethnologists as the stage of normative visions
corresponding to the collective and cultural image of the tribe (cf. Jung).
While, in the Bwiti ritual, we did not fail to bring out certain similarities between the
Bwiti initiation and the Freemasonry initiation, we are compelled likewise to draw
analogies between certain aspects of the vision resulting from the absorption of iboga and
what certain persons see at the time of clinical death. We have discussed this topic in
the conclusions.
The neophyte will have to face initiatory (or real) death that will enable him to gain
access to the things of the beyond.
He can do so only if he has been properly prepared and, especially, if his motivation is
sufficient.
For various reasons - poor preparation, inadequate motivation, fear, psychosis, neurosis -
certain subjects are unable to get past this critical phase. They fall prey to evil genies
who veer them off onto the road of death.
The elders will then decide to stop the initiation by means of an antidote whose
composition is not known. We should note that the pharmacology of ibogaine has shown that
atropine (an acetylcholine antagonist) suppresses all signs of ibogaine intoxication as
well as ibogaine's arousal and inotropic activities.
The Ombudi (or Ombwiri, among the Fang) is an initiatory order reserved for women who
belong to the therapists among the Mitsogho and the Fang.
The women take iboga in smaller quantities than the ones taken in the Bwiti initiation. In
their case, the visions do not go beyond the third (Freudian) stage during which genies,
good or evil, communicate to the women that they are in possession of the causes of the
affliction or illness for which they were consulted.
Bwiti of the Fang
(Gollnhofer, O. & Sillans, R. 1985; Gollnhofer, O. & Sillans, R. 1983; Binet, J.,
Gollnhofer, O., Sillans, R. 1972)23,24,4
Along the coastal portions of Gabon, the Bwiti began to be known by the Fang at the time
that of the explorations of Savorgnan de Brazza, but according to a letter from Lucien
Meyo, secretary of the Prophet Ekang Nwa, "it was in 1908 that the Itsogho and
Bapinzi arrived in Gabon, that is to say, in the Libreville estuary. That is where they
taught the Fang how to eat iboga by the root." Prior to that time, the Fang used the
leaves of iboga and of alan (Alchornea floribunda, an euphorbia from which Mrs. F.
Khuong-Huu29 isolated a new alkaloid, alchorneine, but only the effects of iboga roots
ultimately produce the visions of the Bwiti.
The Bwiti of the Fang, unlike that of the Mitsogho, accepts women as members, but all of
them, regardless of sex, are admitted only after taking iboga.
The iboga root is absorbed not only in the form of fine scrapings but also in a
preparation made of cane juice or sugar, palm wine or milk. While the extraction of iboga
root is reserved for the men, the "galenic preparations" are made by the women
and are referred to as "express" or "automatic".
Such preparations, which reduce the bitterness and partly prevent the vomiting, make it
possible to achieve the phase of normative visions more rapidly.
During the rites of passage, the essential features of the Mitsogho rites are preserved
and the ritual language is Mitsogho.
However, the "mother" is a woman, sometimes accompanied by her husband, who
becomes the "father".
Great importance is given to the retreat and to the confession that precede the
initiation.
The notion of purity is an obsession in the Fang mentality, and the chewing is perceived
as a trial that serves to expiate (by vomiting) the wrongs that have been committed.
The Fang Bwiti is actually the result of an adaptation of the original Bwiti of the
Mitsogho to the traditional ancestor worship (Byeri), with the integration of Christian
elements and concepts.
As a result, the Fang Bwiti is not uniform and is structured through many branches that
are independent from each other, in the midst of which "prophetic and messianic
movements" flourish.
According to Michel Fromaget (1986)18, Chairman of the Department of Psychology of
Libreville University from 1981 to 1983, there are two sorts of Bwiti in Gabon.
The Bwiti of the Mitsogho which has been preserved in a very sober, refined form close to
the original model, the initial Bwiti or Disumba Bwiti, from the name of the first woman,
which has two variants:
The Mitsogho Bwiti of the nganga-a-misoko, seers and divining sorcerers, eminent
therapists who practice psychosomatic healing and a sort of psychoanalysis; but also:
The N'dea Bwiti, a cult of sorcerers, a deviation from the Mitsogho Bwiti
with human sacrifices and cannibalism, whose ultimate goal is magic, the securing of
supernatural powers.
The Fang Bwiti, received mediately at a late period by the Fangs, is an astonishing
syncretism with a blend of Christianity and animism.
Bureau (1972)7 mentions 12 subdivisions in the Fang Bwiti. Therefore, we must give up any
thought of studying the Fang Bwiti as a uniform, homogeneous entity, and it would be
illusory and inaccurate to try to look for a "normative Fang vision" comparable
to the Mitsogho Bwiti.
Therefore, within a community in which the initiation is to take place, everything depends
on the relationships that are accepted in that community between the worship of the
ancestors (represented by their skulls), the original Bwiti, and Christianity.
If we compare, in broad terms, the Fang Bwiti and the original Bwiti, we find striking
similarities between the contents of the vision. Only the setting and the figures or
persons represented differ. The latter are entities derived from Christianity and may
appear in unlimited numbers.
However, it would be a mistake to think that the Fang Bwiti has departed completely from
the original Bwiti and from the ancestral culture of the Fangs. The elements are in there,
but are not very apparent. However, they can be if we know the connection between the
figures that are recognized and those that are concealed behind them.
A Christian religious figure may incarnate at the same time several Fang spiritual
entities, and vice versa.
During the rites of passage, we find the same psychophysiological effects as the ones
observed among the Mitsogho.
After a long series of episodes, during his mystical ascension, the subject under the
influence of iboga at its peak feels "as if transported by the wind" to the
beyond before the house of Christ and of God. He is guided to that place by the ancestors,
to the sound of the harp.
A voice gives him his initiatory name and tells him how much money he will have to pay to
be initiated.
During his journey, he sees many saints, Noah, priests in their cassock. Christ, dressed
in gold garments, questions the stranger as to the reason for his visit. And the neophyte
answers: "I am seeking, I want to see the Lord Jesus Christ". "I am the one
you seek", Christ replies.
From one neophyte to the next, the content of the narratives describe encounters with
Christ in some other setting.
The subject first goes through "purgatory, where men suffer", then on to heaven
with its seven planes where angels glide. At the highest plane, the traveler sees a man
bearing a cross, and further on the beard of God the Father.
In other visions, the Virgin Mary, Adam, and Lucifer appear.
The dialogue is practically identical in each vision with the dialogue reported among the
Mitsogho.
In this syncretism, Nyingon (the female principle or the first woman, called Disumba among
the Mitsogho) is assimilated both to Eve and to the Virgin Mary.
As for Nzame, the male principle, the first man, or Nzamba-Kana among the Mitsogho, he is
represented by Jesus Christ.
To certain prophets, Adam and Christ personnify Ngoroyo-Ama, that is to say, the
"Supreme Being", who is never perceived in the Mitsogho vision.
Lucifer, the rainbow-serpent, is present in the Fang vision. He represents evil, that is,
Evus, a well-known notion among the Fangs.
In their lifetime, the Fang can make several journeys under the ritual conditions of the
Bwiti, enabling them to confirm the reality of their visions. The initiates may also
belong to the Ombwiri possession society (reserved for women and called ombudi among the
Mitsogho). This society, which plays a great role in medical diagnosis, is characterized
by the vision, under the influence of iboga, of genies who during the course of public
divinatory sessions will reveal the nature of the affliction suffered by the patient who
has come for consultation.
In the Ombwiri, we can note some similarity with Voodoo in the Caribbean and South
America.
Among the Mitsogho, the normative vision is that of the whole tribe and corresponds in the
initiate to the knowledge recorded orally since in his childhood within the tribe.
With the Fang, we observe many differences because of the changes and turnovers that may
have taken place in the initiatory experience, the influence of Christianity and the
competition among various more or less orthodox messianic and prophetic movements, and the
loss of the tribal notion.
Some whites, most of them French, have voluntarily gone through the trial of chewing of
iboga. A few of them were able to be interviewed. A study of the the interpretation of
these interviews is in progress at this time (O. Gollnhofer and R. Sillans).
(41)
Claudio Naranjo is a Chilean psychotherapeutic physician who, while in training at the
Institute of Personality and Research, University of California at Berkeley, in 1969,
published a remarkable report entitled "Psychotherapeutic Possibilities of New
Fantasy-Enhancing Drugs" in Clinical Toxicology (Naranjo, C. 1969) (41)
Naranjo, in this report, deals with the therapeutic action, at so-called subtoxic doses,
of two alkaloids, harmaline and ibogaine.
C. Naranjo wrote: "Because of the lack of a systematic study of these drugs
(harmaline and ibogaine), from the simple standpoint of chemotherapy they were considered
as toxic at a certain dose.
The fact is that the phenomena of harmaline and ibogaine intoxication are
the points of greatest interest insofar as psychological exploration and psychotherapy are
concerned."
Harmaline was isolated in 1841 by Goebel (22) from the seeds of a plant of the family
Malpighiaceae, Peganum harmala. It has also been extracted from another
South American Malpighia, Banisteriopsis caapi or yage.
Yage bark is the principal ingredient of the beverage used by the Indians of the region of
the headwaters of the Amazon in connection with certain divination rites and practices and
it is known, according to research done at the University of Chile, that this drug was
central to the culture of different Indian tribes as far back as the paleolithic period.
The effects of harmaline and of ibogaine are practically unique among the psychoactive
drugs.
The best term to describe these effects is the one used by William Turner, a yage
specialist, oneirophrenia, to refer to the states induced by drugs that differ from
psychotomimetic states by the absence of any psychotic symptom while sharing with the
psychotic or psychotomimetic experience the preeminence of a primary thought process.
Harmaline and ibogaine are characterized in their psychological effects by a state such
that it involves a dream phenomenon without loss of consciousness or change in the
perception of the environment or any illusions or formal deterioration of thought and
without depersonalization.
In a word, we can say that there is an enhancement of fantasies which is remarkable in
that it does not interfere with the ego.
Such fantasies are more like actual visions than common everyday dreams.
In a study on the psychological effects of harmaline performed in Chile in 1963-64
together with other Chilean physicians and with Indian traditional therapists, Naranjo
pointed out that one of the most remarkable aspects of the fantasy is its great
consistency.
The themes or images that are evoked are mostly archetypes, according to Jung's definition
of the term, namely ancient memories, generally common to all humans, buried in their
collective unconscious.
To cite Voltaire: "The world, according to Plato, was composed of archetypal ideas
that always remained deep in the brain."
Naranjo distinguishes between two sorts of archetypes:
The mythical style similar to the dream of a lost treasure, a kind old man, an ideal
woman, a saint, an ideal community and various so-called noble thoughts, and so on.
The instinctive style such as it may be expressed in a fantasy with aggression, sex,
bloody scenes of all sorts, incest or other practices.
By their spontaneity, these waking dream sequences are more extreme than any other
reported by patients from their usual dreams and do not resemble the visions on mescaline
or LSD. In fact, the effects of the two types of drugs seem to be poles part, those of the
common hallucinogens being a high and angelic domain of esthetic sensations, of a lack of
union with anything else, while the domain of the oneirophrenics is that of Freud's
subterranean world of animal impulse and regression.
Naranjo gives some examples of subjects treated successfully with harmaline at doses of
4-5 mg/kg orally (about 300 mg).
Concerning ibogaine, Naranjo says that he knows less than about harmaline as regards the
use of iboga by the Gabonese and Congolese. He is unacquainted with the Bwiti and
apparently does not know the structure of ibogaine.
He knows that the drug has been used in the European pharmacopeia for its antifatigue
properties at a low dose, which, according to him, is due to the fact that it is a MAOI.
As with harmaline, Naranjo uses ibogaine at doses of 4-5 mg/kg orally and one-quarter of
it intravenously, and describes subjective reactions lasting about 6 hours.
Compared with the effects of harmaline, those of ibogaine appear less exotic. Even though
the archetypal contents are common to both (visions of animals being frequent), the
quality of the fantasy is generally more personal and concerns the subject himself, his
parents and significant others.
At the same time, the fantasy evoked by ibogaine is easier for the subjects to manipulate,
either on their own initiative or through the psychotherapist, so that, more often than
with other drugs, they can stop to contemplate a scene, go back, explore an alternative in
a given sequence, bring a previous scene back to life, etc.
This ease with which the events in a treatment with ibogaine can be manipulated and the
fact that the experience can be directed to the desired area is probably one of the
reasons for the success observed by many psychotherapists who have used this drug.
Naranjo was much more impressed by the effects obtained in an ibogaine session than with
those observed with any other drug.
An example really shows the ease with which the psychotherapist is able to direct his
analysis:
This is a young patient who, when treated with ibogaine, decides to lie down and close his
eyes shortly after feeling the effects of the drug:
"First, he sees the face of his father, facing him as though they were playing a
game, with a restrained smile. His comment at this point is that his father looks like a
little boy to him. It was like someone unfamiliar and yet familiar, like something the
patient had forgotten for many years.
Suddenly his father's features change, distorted by rage. The scene changes and the
patient sees a naked woman hiding her face with her arm, afraid.
Close by, he sees his father, also naked, throwing himself on the woman in a sexual
attack. He feels a controlled rage in the woman whom he now identifies as his
mother."
At that moment, Naranjo asks the subject to have his father and mother engage in
conversation, intending in this way to distance the latent content of these images.
"What is she saying?" "Go away"; "what does he feel?" He
cannot imagine. "I am perplexed", he suggests.
Naranjo then chooses another tack to make the subject's feelings more conscious and
explicit.
"Now, you be your father. Become your father, to the best of your dramatic abilities,
and listen to what he is telling you."
Then, personifying his father, the patient falls, not into perplexity, but into a great
sadness, suffering and rejecting his anguish.
Shortly after this episode, a drastic change occurred in the way the subject viewed his
parents and, consequently, in his feelings toward them.
The next day, he commented that only now did he know how much he identified
with his mother, looking at things through her eyes, blaming his father, and more than
that, a man, which had interfered with his own masculine aspirations.
In contrast to his usual idealization of his mother in a total love and his perception of
his father as a selfish brute, he then had the feeling of knowing them as they are.
He wrote: "I have seen my mother as a hard person, without affection or fear, and I
no longer look upon my father as an insensitive being who had hurt her in his love
affairs, but as someone who wishes to open the door of his love, without succeeding. Now,
I am full of compassion for my mother."
Compared to the dramatic quality of psychedelic experiences, this episode may appear
insignificant or trivial, and yet it was the key to a radical change in the attitudes of
the young patient.
That might be said of the experiences with ibogaine in general, when we compare its
effects with those of LSD.
Here, the type of contact concerned by the unconscious material is symbolic (rather than
assuming the form of a free-floating emotion, as with LSD), and may
henceforth be assimilated in the form of lasting signs.
Such signs generally occur when a fantasy or a hypothesis that had been unconscious
becomes conscious with such clarity that the ego of a mature person is compelled to become
aware of his or her deep-rooted former error.
Naranjo concludes as follows:
"I do not want to give the impression that I regard ibogaine as a psychiatric panacea
that will bring changes by itself. I believe that many drugs may be used for psychological
exploration, but that these drugs can only be an instrument.
I doubt that there is anything that can be achieved with a drug that cannot be done
without it.
However, drugs can be psychological catalysts that make it possible to compress a very
lengthy psychotherapeutic process into a shorter time and change its prognosis.
Although ibogaine cannot open a door by itself, it can be considered as the oil for its
hinges".
At the time of the publication of his report on drugs that enhance
fantasies, in June 1969, C. Naranjo, together with a Frenchman, D.P.M. Bocher, obtained a
special drug patent in France pursuant to an application submitted on January 31, 1968 and
issued on July 31, 1969, for:
"A new medication acting on the central nervous system that can be used in
psychotherapeutic treatments and as an antidrug preparation".(Bocher, D.P. &
Naranjo, C. 1969).5
The drug was composed of total alkaloids of Tabernanthe iboga roots combined with an
amphetamine in a proportion varying according to the behavior of the patient.
Among the 50 cases studied in psychiatry, Naranjo described four in support of his
application for a "nontoxic drug that clarifies thoughts and permits a very thorough
introspection while preserving the patient's emotional character which is indispensable
for the stimulation of thought and imagination."
However, in this same period, following the resolutions of the World Health Assembly of
May 1967 and May 1968, the American federal government classified ibogaine, through the
F.D.A., among the substances analogous to lysergides and to certain CNS stimulants.
"Whereas, in the interest of public health, certain regulatory provisions should be
applied relating to the manufacture, transportation, possession, sale and distribution,
delivery and acquisition for valuable consideration or free of charge of soporific and
narcotic substances, and of certain substances likely to produce drug dependency or
endanger human health".
These regulations are applicable to the following substances, to their isomers, unless
expressly exempted, to their salts, ethers and esters, as well as to the salts of said
ethers and esters in all cases where such salts may exist.
The list of these substances includes: amphetamines, ibogaine, compounds and derivatives
of lysergic acid, amides of lysergic acids and other derivatives, peyotl and mescaline
[harmaline is not mentioned], hallucinogenic mushrooms, psilocybin and derivatives of
dimethyltryptamine, 4-OH-DMT and 5-OH-DMT".
We shall return later to this decree which was applicable beginning in 1970 in several
European countries, France and Belgium in particular.
The fact is that in France and in Belgium, nothing more was heard about ibogaine and the
sale of Lambarène was prohibited.
(32,33,34,35,36,37)
In the early 1960s, a young American, Howard Lotsof, during the course of a drug party
with some friends, offered six of them the trial of a single dose -about 500 mg - of
ibogaine.
While interest in ibogaine may have started with this drug party, the unique effects of
ibogaine became immediately evident in that it was not a substance conducive to such
parties. There followed a period of six months of lay research which provided a
dose-related response study ranging from 1 mg/kg to 19 mg/kg of ibogaine in both addict
and non-addict human subjects.
Five of Lotsof's seven friends gave up the use of drugs during these six months. As for
young Lotsof, who had permanently recovered, he rebuilt his life, and although he was not
a physician or a psychologist, he dreamed ("I had a dream", he told us the first
time we met, paraphrasing the minister Dr. Martin Luther King), he dreamed that he would
be the one who would contribute to curing drug addicts by providing them ibogaine.
H. Lotsof collected all the available documentation on iboga and ibogaine and, as a good
American and businessman, founded a New York corporation, NDA International, Inc., whose
purpose was partly a humanitarian mission and partly the marketing of a proprietary
pharmaceutical preparation, Endabuse, composed of capsules of ibogaine hydrochloride.
In 1985, H. Lotsof took out a U.S. Patent on a Rapid method for interrupting the narcotic
addiction syndrome,(Lotsof, H. 1985) (36), followed by another one in 1986 on a Rapid
method for interrupting the cocaine and amphetamine addiction syndrome (Lotsof, H.
1986)(35) and subsequently yet another in 1989 for a Rapid method for attenuating the
alcohol dependency syndrome.(Lotsof, H. 1989) (34),
and in 1991 for a Rapid method for interrupting or attenuating the nicotine/tobacco
dependency syndrome (37).
The heroin addiction syndrome had been interrupted in 5 of the 7 subjects described in the
first patent.
A single treatment with ibogaine or ibogaine hydrochloride administered orally at a dosage
ranging from 6 mg/kg to 19 mg/kg made it possible to interrupt the use of heroin for at
least six months.
The duration of the treatment is about 30 hours, and ibogaine exerts a stimulant effect
during this period. An abreactive process takes place during the treatment but does not
become evident until the patient awakens from a natural sleep that occurs after the
primary and secondary effects of ibogaine are diminished.
The drug addicts no longer desire to take heroin and show no perceptible signs of physical
withdrawal. The subjects are relaxed and express themselves coherently. They demonstrate a
feeling of self-confidence.
Lotsof describes the effects of the oral administration of ibogaine and divides these
effects into three stages, comparable to the four stages of the Bwiti of the Mitsogho.
These three stages are described perfectly in the interview by the journalist Max Cantor
(33) with a 44-year-old subject who had been a cocaine addict for more than eight years
and was treated by the Lotsof procedure.
1st stage:
15 to 20 minutes after the start of the treatment, a numbing of the skin is accompanied by
an auditory buzzing and an oscillating sound. Objects appear to vibrate intensely.
The first visions appear after an hour. Suddenly, on the walls, there appears a screen on
which the subject views pictures that may be archetypes, more or less deformed animals, an
abyss lit up by lightning, etc., or more personal episodes related either to childhood or
to more recent events.
The subject may question the persons he sees, identify with one of them, be at the same
time a spectator and an actor. He views a film of his subconscious and his repressed
memories. He looks within himself.
2nd stage:
5 to 10 hours later, the visions cease and cutaneous sensitivity begins to return. This
stage is marked by an unusually high energy that lasts 5 to 8 hours, during which the
subject see flashes of light around him. Then comes what the subject calls the
question-and-answer period. He analyzes the visions that he remembers, seeks an
interpretation and may communicate with the people around him.
Ibogaine shows him where his problem is. He has the impression that a reset button has
been actuated. Everything is erased, everything becomes sharp and clear. He knows where
his life took the wrong turn and what he must do to get back on the right path.
This question-and-answer period may last 20 hours, during which the subject remains under
medical supervision.
3rd stage:
the subject remains awake from a residual stimulation for up to 20 hours and then goes to
sleep for as short a period as two hours and will wake up in top form, provided he is
young and his general health had been good previously, with a new self-confidence, feeling
no more need to take drugs.
Mr. Lotsof, who knew of us, O. Gollnhofer, P. Potier* and R. Goutarel,
through his bibliographical documentation, came to France and contacted us. We were able
to get some appointments, with Mr. Lotsof, at the Ministry of Health when Madame Barzach
was Minister. We must say that we were received with courtesy and some skepticism. And
then, Ministries change...
Our impression was that the people we met with, still impressed with the failures of LSD,
were always afraid of making some mistake for which they would have been held accountable.
And yet, around the same time, in Figaro Magazine of February 14, 1987, there was a story
on a shock treatment administered by the Buddhist monks of ThamKrabok monastery in
Thailand that resembles uncannily what is observed during the chewing of iboga.
A spectacular sequence presented to Madame Barzach and shown on television on the program
7/7 hosted by Madame Sinclair was the vomiting of the patients who, according to the
commentator, had to get rid of the poisons in their system. Unfortunately, the drug was
being kept secret, and it was said that Minister Chalandon had sent an observer over there
to learn the secret.
That secret seems obvious to us, and we know Apocynaceous plants from Asia containing
ibogaine derivatives which, in all likelihood, have the same oneirophrenic properties as
the latter.
At this time, Mr. Lotsof, who went to Gabon to collect a certain quantity of iboga, is
having experiments pursued in several countries. Excellent results are being reported in
the European and North American press. There have been several interviews with subjects
successfully treated by the Lotsof procedure.
Thanks to him, basic research is being conducted at Erasmus University of Rotterdam, at
the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto, at Albany Medical College, N.Y., and through
the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence of the N.I.H., Bethesda, Maryland, for the
purpose of investigating the different body systems, the CNS in particular, in which
ibogaine is involved. Blockade of morphine-induced stimulation of mesolimbic and striatal
dopamine by ibogaine has recently been demonstrated by the Albany Medical College
researchers.(38)
The 1967-68 resolutions of the World Health Assembly classified ibogaine among the
drugs capable of producing dependency or impairing human health.
When all is said and done, this alkaloid had been found guilty of the charge of being a
hallucinogen similar to LSD, whose hazards for those who use it had recently come to
light.
The fact is, however, that even though ibogaine is considered as a hallucinogen
(oneirophrenic), it produces no drug dependency and it has proved to suppress dependency
to opiates, amphetamines, cocaine, LSD and even alcohol and tobacco.
As for "impairing human health", the Gabonese experience shows that this is
simply not true, quite the contrary.
The 1967-68 decree never did put an end to the illegal trade in amphetamines (the famous
Ecstasy pill), nor to the trade in LSD. However, on that market, one never finds iboga or
ibogaine.
According to Dhahir (1971)(14), the appearance of ibogaine on the illegal drug market was
reported in 1967 by the police of Suffolk County, N.Y., on a single occasion, when it was
used to dilute heroin, and after Haight Ashbury it was reportedly used by young addicts in
San Francisco as a substitute for LSD.
Ibogaine suddenly disappeared from the market and it seems that the drug dealers rapidly
became aware of the fact that its use would deprive them of part of their clientele.
Conclusions
What are we to conclude from this three-phase experience of the role of iboga (or
ibogaine) at subtoxic doses, in the Bwiti, in psychotherapy according to Naranjo, and
finally in combatting drug addiction?
1) In the Bwiti, and the Mitsogho Bwiti in particular in which we must emphasize the
rigorous rites and the motivation inherent in it, the quantity of drug (scrapings of iboga
root) is measured by the "mother", the initiate who accompanies and constantly
watches over the initiate-to-be. It is measured in the number of baskets and cannot be
translated for us in weight of ibogaine. It is adjusted to the behavior of the subject and
makes it possible to go past the first stage to reach the stage of so-called normative
visions, corresponding to the real motivation of he who aspires to see and to know the
things of the beyond.
The intoxication by iboga is slow and progressive, which makes it possible to observe four
stages during the visions. The first three stages are essentially of the Freudian type and
the fourth one, the so-called stage of normative visions, corresponds to the collective
image of the tribe.
Finally, the initiation into the Bwiti among the Mitsoghos concerns the passage from
adolescence to adulthood. Hence the necessity of eliminating the epigenetic acquisitions
from the period of childhood and adolescence in order to reprogram in the young man a new
ego in keeping with the cultural norms of the tribe.
In the Bwiti of the Fang, the ceremony may be accelerated by substituting for the
scrapings of iboga a galenic preparation flavored with milk, sugar or palm wine, known
under the names of "express" or "automatic".
Women can be initiated in the Fang Bwiti, and many differences are observed due to the
changes in the initiatory experience that may have occurred under the influence of
Christianity and the competition among the various more or less orthodox messianic and
prophetic movements and the loss of the tribal notion. Therefore, it is out of the
question to speak of normative visions in the Fang Bwiti, which is a real syncretism
between ancestor worship and Christianity. When all is said and done, the visions
correspond to the culture of the future initiate: Christian and Western culture for whites
who are initiated into the Fang Bwiti.
2) The doses of ibogaine used in psychotherapy according to Naranjo are relatively low,
and the session does not last more than 6 hours. The dose of 300 mg orally appears to be
the minimum required for triggering the visions analyzed by the psychotherapist who
constantly guides the patients as he searches for the deep-seated causes of the neurosis
for which the patient has consulted him. It appears that the sessions have to be repeated.
Naranjo's conclusion is that ibogaine cannot produce the changes just by itself, hence the
need for a psychotherapist.
3) In the treatment of drug addicts, H. Lotsof gives a single dose of about 1 g of
ibogaine hydrochloride orally.
The session is quite long, about 36 hours, which is comparable to what is observed during
the initiation into the Bwiti, given that the slow chewing of iboga and the accompanying
rites are dispensed with. We might note that in the Fang Bwiti, the session also lasts
approximately 36 hours when the so-called "express" or "automatic"
galenic preparation is substituted for the iboga scrapings.
Thus, the first visions appear 2 hours after the ingestion of ibogaine hydrochloride. The
three phases described by Lotsof are comparable to the four phases of the Mitsogho Bwiti,
the first phase being that of Freudian type visions, and the second phase ("questions
and answers") being comparable to the phase of normative visions. Lotsof describes a
third phase, which is one of restorative sleep of short duration.
We should point out that in all likelihood, the success of the Lotsof method also depends
on a deep motivation of the subject who is treated, which is the will to eliminate all
drug dependency.
On November 17, 1989, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary published a
Committee Report on Pharmacotherapy for Illicit Drug Use.
This report deals essentially with a research program, the Medication Development Program
(MDP) entrusted to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in Rockville, Maryland.
Beginning in 1989, the Director of the MDP was given a subsidy of 30 million dollars.
Starting at the beginning of 1990, the research budget was increased to 200 million
dollars. The research, at the time, was not oriented toward developing a chemical
substance that might cure addicted persons, but toward substitution drugs like methadone
that remove the need for hard drugs, particularly cocaine, while creating a less dangerous
dependence.
At the time, ibogaine had not been listed among the products of interest for combatting
chemical dependency.
It was difficult to accept the fact that a chemical could, in a few days, suppress all
dependency to opiates, cocaine or any other drug.
There were then and there are still two opposing schools of thought: the proponents of
substitution chemical drugs and those of gentle, long-lasting psychotherapy that could
sometimes result in a cure.
We can therefore understand that the method of H.S. Lotsof was initially met with
disbelief and even hostility.
Before authorizing clinical trials for a new drug, the government agencies responsible
still require, quite appropriately, that its activity be demonstrated in the animal.
In addition to proving that ibogaine has a low toxicity14 and perhaps potentiates the
analgesic action of morphine32, the pharmacodynamic studies in animals had supplied few
data demonstrating the incredible property of ibogaine to modify the behavior of an
individual and result in a new individuation of the brain by eliminating certain
tendencies detrimental to its full development.
However, new techniques developed by researchers in the neurosciences have recently
provided some definite information as to the mechanism of action of ibogaine in the
treatment of addicts (morphine and cocaine).
Using microdialysis, Di Chiara and Imperato (1988)13 reported that acute administration of
amphetamine, cocaine, morphine, nicotine and ethanol, all known to be addictive drugs,
increases the extracellular dopamine (DA) levels in the nucleus accumbens and to a lesser
extent in the striatum.
I.M. Maisonneuve (1991)38 showed that ibogaine blocks the morphine-induced stimulation of
mesolimbic and striatal dopamine. Curiously, it appears that ibogaine affects brain DA
systems for a period of time that exceeds its elimination from the body and during this
time alters the responses of these systems to morphine.
Furthermore, ibogaine alters cocaine-induced accumbens dopamine neurotransmission
(Broderick, P.A., 1991).6
Ibogaine reduced the cocaine-induced locomotor stimulation when given two hours before an
acute injection of cocaine to mice. This stimulation is also reduced when a second
injection of cocaine is given 24 hours later (H. Sershen, 1992).54
Finally, S.D. Glick (1991)21 demonstrated that ibogaine reduces the intravenous
self-administration of morphine in rats, not only in the hour after ibogaine treatment
(acute effect) but also one day or more later (after-effect). Since ibogaine is eliminated
rapidly14, the persistence of this after-effect suggests the formation of a metabolite of
ibogaine with a long half-life.
Barrass, B.C. and Coult (1972)2 had shown that ibogaine inhibits the oxidation of
serotonin by a monoamine oxidase (MAO), ceruloplasmin, and catalyzes the oxidation of
catecholamines by the same substrate.
Indeed, ibogaine is a potent serotoninergic that has ability to reduce the level of
cerebral catecholamines. This decrease in the level of catecholamines, dopamine in
particular, explains the results described recently on the blockade of the stimulation of
mesolimbic and striatal dopamine induced by morphine or cocaine.
We should point out that ibogaine is not specific to morphine and cocaine but is active in
the presence of all addictive drugs, which justifies the patent applications that followed
the initial patent of H.S. Lotsof.
The decrease in the level of catecholamines and the joint increase in the cerebral
serotonin level result in a suppression of REM sleep and the appearance of the
hallucinatory phenomenon (C. Debru, 1990).12
LSD, like ibogaine,2 is a potent serotoninergic that inhibits the oxidation of serotonin
and catalyzes the oxidation of catecholamines by MAO.
However, there is an enormous difference between these two alkaloids: LSD is active at
doses of less than a milligram. Its activity is difficult to control and the hallucinatory
phenomena produced belong to a high and angelic domain of esthetic sensations, whereas
ibogaine is hallucinogenic only at doses in excess of 100 mg, and the domain of this
oneirophrenic substance is that of the subterranean world of Freud, of animal impulse and
of regression.
The toxicity of ibogaine is very low, lower than that of aspirin, which makes this
alkaloid easy to use.
The initiated masters in the Bwiti have an antidote that enables them to interrupt at any
time the course of the visions if, for any reason, the absorption of iboga were to be
actually life-threatening for the neophyte.
Let us note that serotonin is the neurotransmitter of the cerebral parasympathetic system,
catecholamines being neurotransmitters in the cerebral orthosympathetic system, and that
the negative chronotropic and inotropic effects as well as the arousal-producing action of
ibogaine are nullified by atropine, an acetylcholine antagonist, acetylcholine being the
neurotransmitter of the autonomic nervous system.
The long waking dream period that follows the absorption of iboga or ibogaine at a
subtoxic dose (or oneirophrenic dose according to Naranjo) appears to be responsible for a
temporary destructuring of the ego, followed by its restructuring.
This hypothesis is consistent with the observations made by the ethnologists in their
studies of the Mitsogho Bwiti, and may be compared to the hypotheses of Michel Jouvet and
Sir Francis Crick (C. Debru, 1990)12 on the role of dreams in the programming and
deprogramming of basic behavior patterns, resulting in a new individuation of the human
brain.
Normally, the stages of wakefulness of the human brain are: waking, NREM (slow wave or
deep) sleep, PGO (pontogeniculo-occipital) waves, and REM (rapid eye movement or
paradoxical) sleep. REM sleep is the period of dreams.
Michel Jouvet and Sir Francis Crick consider PGO waves to be the principal coding tool
that acts at the cortical level in recording the genetic and epigenetic acquisitions
necessary for the individuation of the human brain.
In addition, through random activation mechanisms, the PGO waves eliminate from certain
types of neuronal networks an informational overload linked to pathological behavior. This
is what C. Debru calls "cleaning out the neuronal circuitry."
REM sleep apparently undertakes a sorting out process among the "residues"
stirred up by the PGO wave sleep pattern and disposes of these residues during dreaming.
Michel Jouvet (letter of November 7, 1990) wrote: "The oneiric effects observed in
humans and which are produced by hallucinogens do not enable us to approach the dream
mechanisms directly, because it does appear that these two phenomena cannot be linked
together as one."
We know, however, that the principal difference between dreams and hallucinations resides
in the way in which the stages of wakefulness are organized, with the suppression of REM
sleep and the intrusion of PGO waves in the arousal (waking) stage and in NREM (or slow)
sleep.
The new organization becomes: waking (arousal) stage, stage of PGO waves, hallucination
stage, sleep stage, and it appears possible that hallucinatory manifestations, the waking
dream, eliminate "residues" stirred up by the PGO wave pattern in the absence of
REM sleep.
According to the Mitsogho, the initiate will see the Bwiti only twice in his life: on the
day of his initiation and on the day of his death.
This means that the visions at the approach of death, what are called near death
experiences (NDE), are the same as those termed normative visions.
We know that at the time of dying, some individuals see their whole life pass before them.
In those who are "rescued from death", a spectacular transformation is observed.
They no longer fear death, they feel stronger, more optimistic, calmer, and contemplate
their life more positively.
Two Americans, the psychiatrist Raymond Moody39 and the cardiologist Michael B. Sabom49
have been particularly interested in the oneiric manifestations of NDE.
After a statistical study of 150 people "rescued from death", M.B. Sabom
established a chart of these manifestations.
Sabom chart
Autoscopic phase
1. Subjective feeling of being dead
2. Peace and well-being
3. Disembodiment
4. Visions of material objects and events
Transcendental phase
5. Tunnel or dark zone
6. Evaluation of past life
7. Light
8. Access to a transcendental world
Entering in light
9. Encounter with other beings
10. Return to life
Most of these manifestations are to be found in the Mitsogho Bwiti. Starting at the 3rd
stage, a peaceful and agreeable vision, disembodiment; the neophyte feels himself wrapped
up by a wind that carries him off to an unknown village without beginning or end; a vision
of two extraordinary Beings, Nzamba-Kana, the first man and Disumba, the first woman on
earth. The village is covered by sparks, then a brilliant ball of light appears, the sun,
and the moon and the stars. The sun is transformed into a handsome youth, the Master of
the World, and the moon into a beautiful woman, his wife, the mother of his children, the
stars. The wind carries the initiate back to earth where he is reborn and is greeted with
joy and pride by the elders.
In the Fang Bwiti, where we have a syncretism between the religion of the ancestors and
Christianity, it is difficult, because of many divergent forms, to describe a coherent
whole corresponding to the normative visions of the Mitsoghos.
Interviews with young Frenchmen
However, interviews with young whites from France who were willing to go through the Fang
Bwiti initiation trial show a set of visions characteristic of their Western and generally
Christian culture, which for the most part fit in with Sabom's chart.
Thus, in the narration of a young man named Christophe, after some personal Freudian type
visions and a few visions influenced by the Fang Bwiti, there is the following
description: an absolute white, an indescribable luminous blue, the joy and perfection of
blue, a cave and a cavernous sound, bright light entering through the forehead like a
third eye, things seen in the astral, the sight of the spiritual world that cannot be seen
with the body, a large sun fueled by our particles, the light of which we are a part.
Paradise that can be reached only through the spirit. The awareness of an envelope
preventing him from joining the spiritual world, etc.
The visions, both in the Mitsogho Bwiti and in the Fang Bwiti, seem to be dominated by
this impression of shining lights that we find at the second stage described by H.S.
Lotsof in his first patent (36) (H.S. Lotsof, U.S. Patent 4,499,096, Feb. 12, 1985).
After a first stage characterized by Freudian type visions, the second stage is marked by
a high energy during which the subject sees lightning or brief flashes of light that dance
about him. During this period, thoughts continue that seem to amplify the meaning of the
visions seen during the primary phase. This is the question-and-answer period described by
one of the subjects treated according to H.S. Lotsof.
What is important is that this luminous phase of questions and answers is followed by a
restorative sleep from which the subject awakens in great form and with a new
self-confidence.
Lotsof notes that the first three stages together last 24 to 48 hours or longer, followed
by only 3 to 4 hours of sleep. This reduced need for sleep may continue for 1 to 4 months.
The persistence of this long-term effect is consistent with the hypothesis (I.M.
Maisonneuve, 1991; S.D. Glick, 1991) of a metabolite of ibogaine with a long half-life.
Some subjects treated according to Lotsof retain for a fairly long time the impression of
being under the influence of ibogaine.
A young Dutch woman wrote: "I lost a great deal of interest in drugs in general,
because the effect of ibogaine goes far beyond their effect, though not necessarily in a
pleasant way", and "Up until four months after the treatment, I kept
experiencing colors and light very intensely."
The conclusion of the report that was written recently by this 25-year-old woman six
months after a treatment with ibogaine shows that this alkaloid produced a real change in
what she calls her "addictive ego", and also shows the necessity of having a
strong motivation.
"Ibogaine was a mental process for me, a form of spiritual purification and a truth
serum in which I had to experience its results through time. It's only now, after six
months, that I can say I am not addicted anymore. It takes time to admit that there is no
way back. Ibogaine is not a solution in itself, although it takes away withdrawal
completely. Ibogaine helps you to realize that all knowledge is available to cure yourself
through will power. It's up to you if you are ready to give up your addictive ego.
The recent decision of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to add ibogaine to the
list of drugs whose activity in the treatment of drug dependency is to be evaluated should
prompt the competent authorities in European countries to engage rapidly along the same
lines. This applies to France in particular, where research on iboga and its alkaloids
began at the end of the 19th century and has continued well beyond the second half of the
20th century.
If we consider all the pharmacodynamic and therapeutic investigations conducted on iboga
and ibogaine, we may conclude that this alkaloid, unjustly condemned as a hallucinogen, is
a key that opens the door of the fascinating realm of today's neurosciences, and we should
like to see the creation of a multidisciplinary organization including ethnologists,
medical doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists, chemists, pharmacists and
pharmacologists, and even technical writers, so that we can get a definite opinion on the
psychotherapeutic properties of iboga and ibogaine, whose use must now take place under
the norms of pharmaceutical development and medical ethical review.
*Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Professor at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, Director of the Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances, C.N.R.S.,Gif-sur-Yvette, 91190 Essonne, France.
Bibliography
1. Baillon, H. 1889. Sur l'oubouélè du Gabon (The Oubwele of Gabon).
Bulletin mensuel de la Société Linéenne de Paris vol. 1(98):782-783.
2. Barras, B.C. and Coult, D.B. 1972. Effects of some centrally-acting
drugs on caeruloplasmin. Progress in Brain Res. 36, 97-104 (1972).
3. Bartlett, M.; Dickel, D.F.; Taylor, W.I. 1958. J. Amer. Chem. Soc. Vol. 80:126.
4. Binet, J.; Gollnhofer, O.; Sillans, R. 1972. Cahiers d'Études africaines
vol. 46(Xii/195):253.
5. Bocher, D.P. and Naranjo, C. 1969. Nouveau médicament agissant au niveau du SNC,
anti-drogue (A New CNS-active Medication for Use Against Drugs). Bulletin Officiel de la
Propriété Industrielle, No. 35, September 1, 1969 (Special Drug Patent P.V. No. 138.081,
No. 7131M, Int. Class. A 61k).
6. Broderick, P.A. and Phelan, T.T. 1991 (January 15). The African alkaloid ibogaine
alters cocaine-induced accumbens dopamine neurotransmission: in vivo voltametric studies
on the conscious brain. CPDD Abstract form.
7. Bureau, R., La religion d'Eboga. Essai sur le Bwiti fang (The Religion of Eboga. Essay
on the Fang Bwiti). Thesis, Paris V, 317 pp., 1972.
8. Burckhardt, C.A., Goutarel, R., Janot, M.M., and Schlittler, E., 1952. Helv. chim. Acta
35, 642.
9. Closmenil, A. de. 1905. De l'iboga et de l'ibogaïne (Iboga and Ibogaine).
Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, Paris.
10. Crick, F. 1979. Réflexions sur le cerveau (Reflections on the Brain). Pour la science
Vol. 25(Nov.):168.
11. Dacosta, L.; Sulklaper, I; Naquet, R. 1980. Rev. E.E.G. Neurophysiol. Vol. 10(1):105.
12. Debru, C., 1990. Neurophysiologie du rêve (The Neurophysiology of Dreams), Paris,
Hermann, Edition des Sciences et des Arts.
13. Delourme-Houdé, J. 1944. Contribution à l'étude de l'iboga (Contribution to the
study of iboga). Thesis for Doctor's Degree (Pharmacy), Paris
University; Ann. Pharm. Fr. Vol. 430, 1946.
14. Dhahir, H.I. 1971. A comparative study on the toxicity of ibogaine and serotonin.
Thesis, Ph.D. In Toxicology, Indiana University.
15. Di Chiara, G. and Imperato, A. 1988. Drugs abused by humans preferentially increase
synaptic dopamine concentrations in the mesolimbic system of freely moving rats. Proc.
Nat. Acad. Sci. Vol. 85:5274.
16. Dutheil, R. and Dutheil, B., L'Homme superlumineux (The Superluminous Man), Sand
Publ., 1990.
17. Dybowski, J. and Landrin, E. 1901. C.R. Acad. Sci. Vol. 133:748.
18. Fromaget, M., 1986. Contribution of the Mitsogho Bwiti to the Anthropology of the
Imaginary: A Case of Divinatory Diagnosis in Gabon, Anthropos 81, 87- 107.
19. Gaignault, J.C. & Delourme-Houdé, J. 1977. Les alcaloïdes de l'iboga (Iboga
alkaloids). Fitoterapia Vol. 48(6):243.
20. Gershon, S. and Lang, W.J. 1962. Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. Vol. 135:31.
21. Glick, S.D.; Rossman, K.; Steindorf, S.; Maisonneuve, I.M.; Carlson, J.M. 1991.
Effects and after-effects of ibogaine on morphine self-administration in rats. European J.
Pharmacol. 195(1991):341-345.
22. Goebel, F. 1841. Ann. Vol. 38:363.
23. Gollnhofer, O. & Sillans, R. 1985. Usages rituels de l'iboga au Gabon (Ritual Uses
of Iboga in Gabon). Psychotropes Vol. 2(3):95-108.
24. Gollnhofer, O. & Sillans, R. 1983. L'Iboga, psychotrope africain (Iboga, an
African Psychotropic Agent). Psychotropes Vol. 1(1):11-27.
25. Goutarel, R. 1954. Recherches sur quelques alcaloïdes indoliques et leurs relations
avec le métabolisme du tryptophane et de la dihydroxy- phenylalanine (Research on some
indole alkaloids and their relations with the metabolism of tryptophan and
dihydroxyphenylalanine). Thesis, Doctor of Science Degree, Paris.
26. Goutarel, R., Janot, M.M., Mathys, F., and Prelog, V., 1953. Structure de l'ibogaïne
(The structure of ibogaine), C.R. Acad. Sci. 237, 1718.
27. Goutarel, R., Janot, M.M., Prelog, V., and Taylor, W.I., 1950. Helv. chim. Acta 33,
150, 164.
28. Haller, A., and Heckel, E., 1901. Sur l'ibogaïne, principe actif d'une plante du
genre Tabernaemontana, originaire du Congo (Concerning ibogaine, the active principle of a
plant of the genus Tabernaemontana native to the Congo C.R. Acad. Sci. 133:850-853.
29. Khuong-Huu, F., J.P. Leforestier, G. Maillard and R. Goutarel, 1978. C.R. Acad. Sci.
270, 2070, 2072.
30. Lambert, M., 1901. Sur l'action physiologique de l'iboga (On the Physiological Action
of Iboga), C.R. Soc. Biol., 53:1096-1097.
31. Lambert, M., 1902. Sur les propriétés physiologiques de l'ibogaïne(On the
Physiological Properties of Ibogaine), Arch. int. Pharmacodynamie et Thérapie,
10:101-120).
32. Lotsof, H.S. 1990. Personal communication.
33. Lotsof, H.S. 1990. Personal communication. [The Max Cantor interviews have since been
published in the San Diego-based journal The Truth Seeker: 1990, Vol. 117(5):23-26].
34. Lotsof, H.S. 1989. U.S. Patent No. 4,857,523.
35. Lotsof, H.S. 1986. U.S. Patent No. 4,587,243.
36. Lotsof, H.S. 1985. U.S. Patent No. 4,499,096.
37. Lotsof, H.S. 1991. U.S. Patent No. 5,026,697.
38. Maisonneuve, I.M.; Keller, R.W. Jr.; and Glick, S.D. 1991. Interactions ibogaine, a
potential anti-addictive agent, and morphine: an in vivo microdialysis study. European J.
Pharmacol. 199: 35-42.
39. Moody, R.A.: Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon, Survival of Bodily
Death, Walker & Co., 1988. The Light Beyond, Bantam, 1989.
40. Mueller, J.M.; Schlittler, E.; Bein, H.J. 1952. Experientia Vol. 8:338.
41. Naranjo, C. 1969. Psychotherapeutic possibilities of new fantasy- enhancing drugs.
Clinical Toxicology Vol. 2(2):209.
42. Neu, Henri (Father). 1885. Archives générales des Pères du Saint-Esprit Vol.
148-B-i.
43. Phisalix, M.C. 1901. Action physiologique de l'ibogaïne (Physiological action of
ibogaine). C.R. Acad. Sci. Vol. 53:1077.
44. Pouchet, G. and Chevalier, J. 1905. Note sur l'action pharmacologique de l'ibogaïne.
Sur l'action pharmacodynamique de l'ibogaïne (Note on the pharmacological action of
ibogaine. On the pharmacodynamic action of ibogaine) , Bull. Gén. de Thérapeutique.
45. Prioux-Guyonneau, M.; Rapin, J.R.; Wepierre, J. 1977. J. Pharmacol. Paris
Vol. 8(3):383.
46. Raymond-Hamet & Vincent, D. 1960. C.R. Soc. Biol. Vol. 154:2223;
Raymond-Hamet; Vincent, D.; Parant, M. 1956. C.R. Soc. Biol. Vol. 150:1384;
Vincent, D. & Séro, I. 1942. Travaux Membres Soc. Chim. Biol. Vol. 24:1352. 47.
Raymond-Hamet 1946. C.R. Acad. Sci. Vol. 223:757; 1943. Bull. Soc. Chim. Biol. Vol.
25:200; 1942. Bull. Soc. Chim. Fr. Vol. 9:620; 1941. C.R. Acad. Sci. Vol. 212:768; 1940.
C.R. Soc. Biol. Vol. 134:541; 1940. C.R. Soc. Biol. Vol. 133:426; 1939. Arch. Int.
Pharmacology Vol. 63:27.
48. Raymond-Hamet 1941. L'iboga, drogue défatigante mal connue (Iboga, a poorly known
antifatigue drug). Bull. Acad. Med. Vol. 124:243.
49. Sabom, M.B. Recollections of Death, Harper & Row, 1982.
50. Schlittler, E., Burckhard, C.A., Gellert, E. 1953. Die Kalischmelze des Alkaloides
Ibogain, Helv. Chim. Acta 36:1337.
51. Schneider, J.A. and Rinehart, R.K. 1957. Arch. Int. Pharmacodyn. Vol. 110(1):92.
52. Schneider, J.A. and Sigg, E.G. 1957. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. 66:765.
53. Schneider, J.A. 1956. Experientia Vol. 12:323.
54. Sershen, H., Hashim, A., Harsing, L., Lajtha, A. Ibogaine antagonizes cocaine-induced
locomotor stimulation in mice. (In press. J. of Life Sciences.)
55. Séro, I. 1944. Une apocynacée d'Afrique équatoriale (An Apocynacea from Equatorial
Africa). Thesis, Doctor of Pharmacy, Toulouse.
56. Vincent, D. and Séro, I, 1942. Action inhibitrice de Tabernanthe iboga sur la
cholinestérase du sérum (The inhibitory action of Tabernanthe iboga on serum
cholinesterase), C.R. Soc. Biol. 136:612-614.
57. Wurman, M. 1939. Contribution à l'étude expérimentale et thérapeutique d'un
extrait de Tabernanthe manii d'origine gabonaise (Contribution to the experimental and
therapeutic study of an extract of T. manii from Gabon).
Thesis, Doctor of Medicine Degree, Paris.
58. Zetler, G. & Lessau, W. 1972. Pharmacology Vol. 8:235.
HTML by: Drugs Manager.
Made possible by: the Lycaeum Drug Archives
Modificado em: 18-01-1999
