The Iboga Saves FEAT (Funding Entheogenic Addiction Treatments) Program was created by Awake.net, a 501(c)(3)(pending) charitable non-profit, to provide financial aid for people to recover from opioid addiction. The treatment we subsidize uses ibogaine, a plant medicine that can interrupt cravings in a single treatment and reduce or eliminate withdrawal. It has been used since 1962 both underground in the US, and at clinics and ceremonies abroad where ibogaine is legal or decriminalized. The FEAT Program fills a gap in the current system that does not provide insurance coverage in the US for ibogaine treatments.

Ibogaine is possibly the missing link in the conventional addiction recovery pathway, perhaps the reason why traditional rehab has a 93% failure rate. Ibogaine is a whitish powder that is extracted from the root bark of the Tabernathe iboga shrub and the leaves of the Voacanga africana bush. When Ibogaine HCL is administered in a flood dose to opioid addicts it interrupts addiction in one treatment and resets the individual to a pre-addicted state. It also takes the person on an inner journey lasting up to 32 hours where profound insights are had and renewed energy for life is made possible. While ibogaine does have mind-altering qualities, it is not like other psychedelics for many reasons. For one thing it is more akin to a lucid dream-like experience than a psychedelic vision such as that created by psilocybin or ayahuasca. Secondly, ibogaine also acts on the physiology and “scrubs’ the receptors and resets brain lesions and neurons during the active phase of the treatment thus completely resetting the individual to a pre-addicted state. Thirdly, unlike other psychedelics, ibogaine cannot be taken in a recreational setting. Not only does it cause nausea and ataxia during the active phase, it also increases the QT interval or gap between heartbeats, thus representing a potentially fatal cardiac risk for some people with pre-existing cardiac conditions or other co-morbidities in their system. Iboga, in root bark form, has been used by the Pygmies and the Bwiti people in West Africa for centuries as an initiatory sacrament for a rite of passage into adulthood.

Because Ibogaine is a psychedelic, it was misclassified in 1970 when the Controlled Substances Act criminalized all psychedelics as dangerous Schedule 1 drugs with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Both counts are untrue, especially with ibogaine. Sure, it IS a psychedelic, and Ibogaine can be dangerous, even fatal, if not administered safely, but it has great medicinal value: It’s the only medicine known to man that can actually INTERRUPT severe addictions like opioid or meth and restore the body, mind, and spirit to a pre-addicted state, sometimes within minutes of taking the medicine. There is no other medicine like it that we know of. While other psychedelics like ayahuasca and psilocybin offer psycho-spiritual experiences, only ibogaine also has a measurable physiological effect. It completely erases all traces of the addictive pathways in the body and brain. Because ibogaine has such strong side-effects during the 12-32 hour “active” period, it is not possible to take ibogaine in a recreational setting. It needs full-time medical supervision and monitoring of vitals during treatment, ideally in a clinic or other therapeutic setting.

Most ibogaine treatments are a week-long procedure, though there are some programs that offer more time to detox beforehand or recoup afterwards, both of which are essential aspects of care but can be handled at home as well. The active phase of the ibogaine treatment happens in the middle of the week-long procedure and lasts 36 hours, starting with an 8-12 hour extremely active phase. During that phase one may experience ataxia (nausea upon the slightest movement) and strong waves of energy moving up the body from toe to top. At the same time one enters into a lucid dream-like visionary state where insights, guidance, and teachings are delivered on the screen of the mind. Many people report it to be a spiritual experience where they heal traumas or understand the root causes of their problems or are shown that if they don’t stop using they’ll die. The teaching can be quite candid, as though coming from a stern father figure. As far as what’s actually going on inside these experiences and where this knowledge is coming from, that is open to interpretation, since it is different for each person. Many people report a connecting with a sense of wholeness and joy that really helps them heal and meet life again. On a neuronal level the ibogaine repairs brain lesions and connections and strengthens the GDNF cells which deliver dopamine to the body. It also resets the molecular triggers that cause craving and withdrawal symptoms, giving opioids addicts a clean slate and a true second chance at redeeming their lives. 

The ibogaine clinic you are working with will instruct you on detox protocols and may give you short-acting opiates to sustain you during the weeks prior to treatment. Depending on what combination of prescriptions and drugs you are consuming, your precare detox period and protocols will vary. For example, Suboxone requires a 28-day detox period, while heroin is shorter. In addition to detoxing, the pre-care period is when you will prepare yourself psychologically for an “inner journey” that could have profound implications for your life.

After the ibogaine treatment, there is a period up to four months during which the noribogaine is slowly released in the body from where it has been stored in the fat cells. The presence of noribogaine makes it easy to maintain sobriety and the sense of well-being you may have gained from the reset. However, in order to recover fully, the patient will need to change his or her life dramatically, since for many people, years of being in the grip of addiction has created a lifestyle and behaviors that all need to be reformed and the insights gained during the inner journey need to be integrated into life. This requires discipline, contemplation, structure and support, such as with an addiction recovery coach or therapist, or some other spiritual community or perhaps a 12-step kind of circle. Our program includes three months of aftercare with an experienced therapist or coach.

The week-long ibogaine treatment will be provided by ClearSky Ibogaine based in Cancun, Mexico. The pre-care and after-care integration coaching will be provided by Being True to You addiction recovery coaching. 

Please visit our website https://awake.net/blog to read personal accounts of addiction recovery using ibogaine and learn more about the most effective way to treat and cure addiction. Research, media coverage, video, website, and testimonial links coming in February.

The funds we raise for each applicant are kept in escrow until we have the full amount and only then is treatment initiated. In the event that we don’t raise the full amount, you have the option of receiving a refund or choosing to donate it to the FEAT general fund to go towards another person’s treatment. Please indicate your preference on the donation form checkbox.

In the 28 years of my life the only thing that was constant is addiction. 

by Olivia Healey

 Throughout my childhood my family was constantly on the move for one reason or another, every year it would be a new school, new friends, and a new house and the moment I would start to get comfortable in my surroundings my parents would relapse, and we would lose our home and have to relocate starting all over again. In a world that was constantly new and unfamiliar the only thing that felt like home was addiction.

It did not take long for a naïve younger version of myself to start experimenting with drugs. At 12 years old I did Magic Mushrooms, it was the first drug I ever touched. A short time later without a stable home life I found myself entrenched in the “Rave Scene” with that came weekly ecstasy use.

At 16, after an injury, I was prescribed the painkiller Vicodin, At the time I did not realize it but the moment that feeling of warmth and comfort washed over me I was hooked.  I remember that euphoric feeling it would give me, it was what I was chasing for what seemed like my whole life. The turbulent emotions that go hand in hand with reality became optional, if I had these little pills. I rationalized to myself, they were given to me by a doctor so that means they could not be bad for me, right?

These pills seemingly flooded the streets, and it was as if a freight train hit my friend group and my entire generation for that matter. Next thing I know all my friends were doing them. In the beginning I was snorting oxy 30s but by the time I turned 20 I was smoking them on foil.  Eventually it got to the point where I could not afford them anymore, so I started to sell them with a guy that I started dating. We were together for a year when he ended up getting arrested and sentenced to a year in prison.

This was the first time I attempted to get clean. I flew down to LA and stayed with family for a month. Sadly, I wasn’t ready to be clean, so I had my dealer pick me up from the airport and I was back to using. With my boyfriend being gone and doing bad financially my mental health took a turn for the worst. And doing the best mental gymnastics I justified switching over to heroin, it was cheaper, easier to get and felt like less of a risk since I did not have to drive across state lines to get it.

Xanax found its way into my life at this time as well, serving the same purpose the painkillers did some years ago. Soon after I was arrested again in CA for a weapon charged but this time I was not immediately released. I sat in jail for 3 days detoxing and feeling like I was going to die. I had never really gone through withdrawals before.  And the withdrawals from Xanax are terrible. I guess you can die from them. when I got out, I quit the Xanax but was back to smoking heroin within 15 minutes.

This is kind of where my life started to get more dangerous and colder. I was robbed in my own home by two masked men and ended up getting arrested again for possession of drugs then my aunt committed suicide.  I could not handle the trauma and grief, so I continue to numb myself. It was not until I wrote this blog that I thought about everything I have put myself and my family through this past 10 years I’ve distanced myself from those that love and care about me, watched my close friends become unrecognizable, lose their children, or overdose.

There have been so many people in and out of my life mostly those that could care less about my wellbeing. My life has become a depressing cycle.  I do not want to live this way forever.  I just did not know what it was going to take for me to want to change. they say the only way out is to hit rock bottom. I do not think I have, and I refuse to let that happen. I feel like the only thing holding me back are the withdrawals and thought that the no matter what I am going to be an addict for the rest of my life.

Every day I am going to have to fight the urge to use again. I cannot accept that, and I started to do my research when they came across Ibogaine. I read numerous stories of other people’s experiences and became determined to find a way to do it myself. The mind is such a powerful thing and I think what I am most drawn to is that Ibogine helps to show you the root cause of the addiction so one can begin the healing process to a state of mind where you could not ever imagine putting such toxic things in your body.

This grant is my best chance to be normal, healthy, and have a happy life. I refuse to believe that addiction is a disease that I will forever have.