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Analysis of the Subjective Experience Elicited by Ibogaine - J Psychedelic Studies

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Good read for those interested in psychedelics neuropsychobiology.. one of the most thorough descriptions of Iboga experience .. Sorry post too long.. get the PDF here if interested

A phenomenological analysis of the subjective experience elicited by ibogaine in the context of a drug dependence treatment
Shenberg EE, deCastro CMA et al. Journal of Psychelic Studies 2017: 1(2)

Objective

This report documents the phenomenology of the subjective experiences of 22 patients with substance-related disorders who were involved in a treatment combining cognitive?behavioral therapy and hospital sessions with ibogaine in Brazil

Methods
Participants underwent a one-to-one semi-structured interview exploring the subjective effects of ibogaine. We employed interpretative phenomenological analysis to identify relevant phenomenological categories, including physical sensations, perceptual (visual, auditory, and olfactory), emotional, cognitive, and spiritual. Participants also compared ibogaine with other drugs used in life, including psychedelics like ayahuasca, psilocybin mushrooms, and lysergic acid diethylamide.

Results
The findings reveal that the subjective experience with ibogaine has similarities with other psychedelic substances, but also important differences. These include very strong and unpleasant physical effects as well as, at least in this patient population, a very difficult and challenging experience.

Conclusions
Overall, the descriptions involve heightened memory retrieval, specially related to drug abuse and the perception of one?s own future with or without drug use. Strong perceptual phenomena, especially dreamlike visions, were commonly reported. Based on Revonsuo?s evolutionary hypothesis for the function of dreams and of previous suggestions that ibogaine has oneiric properties, we suggest the subjective experience of drug-dependent patients elicited by ibogaine may be framed as simulations of threat and danger...

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... It's a very strong experience that stirs a lot with us, very intense, very strong [?] IT IS NOT AN HALLUCINOGEN, IT DOESN'T CAUSE HALLUCINATIONS. .." (Julio, 39)

RESULTS


After the phenomenological analysis of the transcripts, the description of the ibogaine experience emerged in the following themes: physical sensations, perceptual effects, visions, cognitive effects, emotional effects, spiritual phenomena, and comparisons to other psychoactive substances. Each theme will be described with samples of patients? transcriptions, but a summary of themes and categories is presented in Figure 1

PHYSICAL SENSATIONS

The onset of effects was frequently noticed through physical sensations, including general discomfort, nausea, cramps, and dizziness: (MOSTLY DUE TO CHOLINERGIC EFFECT OF IBOGAINE)
When it hit, it came very strong and fast. [?] It is very wild, you feel the stomach heavy. (Marcio, 23)
It gives an initial unpleasant feeling for who takes it. (Roberto, 28 )
I felt dizzy, dizziness is part of the process if you to go to the toilet, cause this were the moments I stood up, yeah, you get very dizzy, nauseated. (Marcos, 35)
I felt a lot of nausea, so when I wanted to turn myself, I felt nausea. [?] I felt the sickness coming up, but I stayed there. (Hugo, 32)
Like colics, it came, in a wave, strong waves, became strong and decreased, strong and decreasing. (Julio, 29)


Physical effects continued throughout most of the acute phase and almost always were considered unpleasant and challenging.
The whole process is uncomfortable and you can?t do anything. (Jair, 34)
The physical wear it provokes, it gets close to exhaustion. You need to be physically well because it exhausts you; it consumes too much energy. (Olavo, 53)
Intense feelings of increasing or decreasing heart rate were reported:
I thought I would have a heart attack [?] I started feeling this agony and something so big that my heart burst and then I turned to the side like this to see if it calmed down, it didn?t, I layed on my stomach, and my heart beating ?boom, boom? very strong. (Luiz, 25)
It slows down your heart beat, slows your breathing, as if a part of you had been amputated. (Danilo, 48


Difficulties moving the body and controlling walking were mentioned by some patients, with few others stating these aspects were unaffected:
I stayed with the whole body compressed; I couldn?t move myself. (Roberto, 28
I couldn?t stand up alone, [?] you are trembling like this, as if you had no coordination [?] your whole body is numb, like a layer of anesthesia. (Maria, 33)
A very bad feeling, it pulled me strongly, like this, [it pulled] my body you know? and a headache, my eyes blinking, I couldn?t move and control my body. (Ana, 26)
You lose your coordination completely, you can?t get up, you can?t. If you get up you get dizzy, you have no control over the muscles of your body. (Danilo, 48
I didn?t feel dizzy, didn?t threw up, I could go to the toilet, I ate in the same day, I slept at night. (Joana, 25)


In some cases, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and also diarrhea were considered as cleansings:
I had diarrhea, and it is like a cleansing inside my body, very unusual [?] I threw up and then I got very sick, like really very sick, I couldn?t get up, everything spinning, whirling, everything, everything, I watched, watched, I started crying, I started saying ?Why did I take it?? (Julia, 26)
I got sick, vomited. But I knew why I was getting sick, it was like going through a real cleansing. (Jo?o, 26)


A few participants reported the overall physical sensations to be so strong and unpleasant that they described it as a feeling of death, sometimes to a scaring level where they needed to call the doctor to be reassured they were not really dying:
The feeling is of death. [?] I took it and during the effect I thought I was dying, like ?stop it or I?ll die.? (Danilo, 48

PERFCEPTUAL EFFECTS


The most common sensory modalities affected during the experience were visual and auditory. Auditory phenomena were quite common in the beginning of the experience, accompanying some of the physical sensations during the onset of effects:
It started with that noise, like a famous bike or a lawnmower. (Joana, 25)
You start with a buzz in your ear. (Danilo, 48
It starts with a noise in the head, a noise like energy, vibration around like this weird noise. Then you feel a motorbike coming, like an old bike around you, and it keeps ?vroom vrooom vroom vroom vroooom? circling, circling and circling. (Luiz, 25)


Auditory phenomena seems to decrease after the first stage of the experience, but some patients reported heightened hearing capacities in the final stages of the experience, when most of the psychedelic phenomena had subsided:
Then you stay with that wizz in the ear, that silence there, where we take it it?s a clinic, so birds outside are heard. It relieves you, like oh well, no, it?s over. (Danilo, 48
I could hear people in the corridor, I could hear people out of the window, out of the hospital, children, people. (Julia, 26)
The rustle, any small noise seems at your side, you get more sensitive, intensifies, intensifies [?] then noises very strong, birds, all birds singing, nature. (Maria, 33)
Any small noise was hellish, horrible, horrible, horrible. It seemed any small noise went inside my head. (Luiz, 25) EXPANDED SENSORY AWARENESS
A few participants reported hearing voices either with external (hallucinations) or ?internal? (pseudohallucinations) characteristics. Some interpreted this phenomenon as if ibogaine was directly speaking to them:
There was a school and I heard a child screaming, it reminded me of a little boy I cared for in a slum. (Maria, 33)
And there was a voice speaking in my head, saying everything I must do, what I can?t do, everything I can, it said ah? don?t do to others what you don?t want done to you. :)(Luiz, 25)
Ibogaine?s voice came to me always saying patience, patience, patience? this was echoing in my ear. (Marcos, 35)


Only one patient explicitly mentioned olfactory sensations related to vomiting, which were interpreted as the smell of ibogaine leaving his body:
While I was lying down it came, I breathed through my mouth and it came, a very strong smell, a smell from something bad. And it was the ibogaine leaving. (Luiz, 25)

VISIONS


Visions were the most noticeable perceptual phenomena during the ibogaine experience and deserve a separate description. We decided to name them as visions since sometimes it was not possible to distinguish whether the participants visualized these images with their eyes open (hallucinations) or closed (eidetic images and/or pseudohallucinations). In most cases, an elaborate complexity was present, including indigenous people, animals, natural scenes, and landscapes.
I saw an old lady [?] the spirit of ibogaine. [?] Because in Gabon, in Cameroon they have this image of this old lady which is the spirit of ibogaine, the entity of the jungle or I don?t know what. (Danilo,48.) (JUNGIAN ARCHETYPICAL IMAGES of CG JUNG)
I started to see a kind of transformation, in everything, in animals you know, a wolf, a jaguar, many animals, and suddenly a small indigenous man appeared to me and I noticed that it seemed like a swarm of souls, spirits and a big tribe coming. (Alex, 45)


Some scenes were identified as pertaining to memory and past experiences of their lives: (EMOTIONS-TAGGED DEEP MEMORY RETRIEVAL)
Since my childhood, some fights between my parents, happy moments with my sisters, for example, a parrot I did not even remember that existed. (Maria, 33)
You close your eyes, you dream awake, you have a series of flashes, let?s say, images from your life. (Rosa, 28 (UNLIKE CLASSICAL PSYCHEDELICS, IBOGA IMAGES ARE ALMOST ALWAYS OF REAL EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN ONE"S LIFE-SOMETIME SHOWN IN SYMBOLIC FORMS)
It is not a journey of something that does not exist. It is about things you did. (Julia, 26)
Other images combined lived experiences, sometimes real memories, but mixed with fanciful components.

These scenes were usually strongly emotional and dreamlike in nature.
I saw many remembrances from childhood [?] I remember perfectly, it was a genealogical tree, and each one came and put his picture in the tree; it was very nice. (Joana, 25)
I saw the devil. I saw my mother, she had two strokes already, my dad one, I saw I was ruining my life. (Ana, 26)
I saw myself going in a rollercoaster and I took my head, instead of a ticket I would give them my head. (Joana, 25)
I started seeing a monster, it ate my brain, and I spoke, I screamed [?] Then again the little girl, I saw her and myself, then she was inside my stomach, and her, and me, we didn?t let each other speak, as when you weep so deeply that you can?t even speak. (Joana, 25)


Others reported visualizing imaginary scenes of how their lives could be, both in extreme positive or negative situations. In these reports, images of a future without drug dependence were presented to patients:
With closed eyes I saw lots of screens, and if I focused in one of those, it was like I was entering inside it. And somehow it showed how it was and how it might have been, showing me [?] where I would go with drugs, it was showing me, my family moving away, my wife leaving me and I living alone in the streets, very skinny, my head shaved. (Luiz, 25)
It was heaven and hell, you see a lot things [?] I saw a lot how it would be if I used or not (drugs), so there was a lot of the good side, but also darkness, darkness like hell really, you know, dirt, all dirty and I being shot, I was thrown up in front of my house. (Joana, 25)
I had visions playing with my son you know? [?] I thought about my girlfriend as well, lots of things you know? (M?rcio, 23)


A few other patients reported seeing religious iconography:
I had many images, many visions, but they were all like shadows, no colors. Then three images came, in front of all the others, three colored images, Our Lady, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary. (Hugo, 32)
I felt like if a hand of God, a protecting hand so to speak, like this in my head protecting me. (Ana, 26)


Some patients reported scenes from accidents or illnesses related to family members:
The truck struck the car and the car ran over my daughter and I was watching my daughter dying, or I tried to save her and the car would crash, and the truck would hit the car and the car would run over us both, I could never save her. (Jair, 34) PAST TRAUMATIC EVENTS RESOLUTION

COGNITIVE EFFECTS


Most patients referred experiencing highly intensified memory recollections, more frequently in visual form (MEMORY RETRIEVAL)
Then I had many memories, it seems like? almost all possible memories came, you know? It was like I relived my life. (Marcio, 23)


Some perceptions about intellectual capacities and cognitive functioning were described by patients using computer and brain metaphors to explain how ibogaine was resetting them or organizing their brain and mind:
Looked like a scene of The Matrix movie so I asked what is this? And I got an answer, and this was funny, the answer was this is your brain being organized. =D=D(Jair, 34) TRAUMA RESOLUTION-BRAIN RESETING
It re-edits your brain, actually it is like if it was a computer right? I mean, the feelings go the feelings folder, because everything was shuffled, and this is more or less what it seems like. (M?rcio, 23)


Some people reported feelings of accelerated thinking to a degree where it was hard to be aware of all the thoughts and having the impression that many hours had passed by. In some cases, this acceleration was associated with an increase in thoughts about what they should or should not do: (BRAIN RESETING - PROBABLY DUE TO NERVE GROWTH FACTOR GDNF RELEASE BY IBOGAINE)
A list of everything I can do and another list of all I can?t appeared [?] as if it was a total madness inside you, a war between good and evil, what?s right, what?s wrong, reliving [?] all your life. (Luiz, 25)
You feel the process speeding up a lot, lots of thoughts, lots of thoughts [?] It was a very fast thinking that I could not connect with the thoughts. (Julio, 39)
(IBOGAINE RELEASED GDNF MEDIATED VTA REWARD CIRCUIT REPAIR )

It seems like you?re reading people?s thoughts, you?re hearing people?s thoughts. I could hear, the thoughts. (Alex, 45)
It speeds up consciousness at the same speed than the unconscious, and then is when you see things clearly. (Olavo, 53)
You become completely lucid [?] Millions of thoughts solved, it is a life in 24 hours. (Maria, 33)
Because many thoughts come, and your mind doesn?t stop for a minute, right? Many things come to your head. (Roberto, 28

EMOTIONAL EFFECTS


Some participants reported emotional feelings similar to what they lived during their childhood, both in positive or negative connotations:
It seemed like rescuing that childhood feeling, a feeling of being small and playing at home with my brothers, with my parents. Very impressive. (M?rcio, 23)
I had something very bad inside me that I could understand and free with ibogaine. It was a sad little girl that I had inside me. (Joana, 25)
You really cry from memories of your life you know? Things you?d forgotten, you didn?t remember anymore. (Daniel, 35)


Others emphasized increased fear and suffering, sometimes related to past drug use or overdoses:
Initially it was a fear, you know, fear. (Alex, 45)
I went back to my overdoses and I saw that thanks to God I am still alive, I have to thank God you know? And after that I cried a lot because I saw the devil in front of me. (Ana, 26)
I cried a lot and lamented for everything I did. (Daniel, 35)


Some patients reported strong emotional lability, rapidly and intensively fluctuating between positive and negative moods:
It flourishes in a very big feeling, of guilt, upheaval, regret, forgiveness, care, love, to value life. These are feelings that, with [drug] use, were stagnant, were stuck! (Roberto, 28
Sad thought, then I cried, then other thoughts, soon I would be laughing. Some moments I cried and laughed, all very fast. (Maria, 33)
It was a very deep and profound thing, you know, I can explain what I heard, but I can?t explain what I felt, it?s unspeakable. (M?rcio, 23)

SPIRITAL PHENOMENA


Some participants related to undergo spiritual experiences.
It was a very spiritual experience, very good right? And I remember when the effect was diminishing that I started crying, missing my wife, crying. (Hugo, 32)


In line with ibogaine?s usage in spiritual and shamanic traditions, some participants declared having gone through experiences involving deceased relatives:
I could know that my grandfather and my grandmother, deceased, were all right. And then I left my body, I left and went, above the roof and looking, with eyes closed, I saw the roof and went way above! (Alex, 45)


One participant reported what was interpreted as a spirit of a woman coming to him from Gabon and doing things to his body and traveling with him to Gabon for a shamanic ritual (MOOD, SET AND SETTING-PROBABLY PATIENT HAS READ LOTS ABOUT IBOGA BEFOREHAND..)
I saw a black lady, with white paintings, she danced around me and then I had sex with this woman.(SEX WITH IBOGAINE =D) And I remember I entered a hut, I lowered my head and entered this tent, and it was an experience where someone was ripping something out of me. (Caio, 34)

PARTICIPANTS COMPARISONS WITH OTHER SUSBTANCES


All the participants had extensive experience in drug use, but they highlighted ibogaine as quite different and more unpleasant than anything else, including the closely related hallucinogens:
It is not pleasant, an experience that ?ah I want to do it again?. [?] It?s very different from this. (Carlos, 29)
Most of what you get with drugs is about pleasant sensations, you relax, you get relaxed, you feel nice, momentarily. But [?] ibogaine gives you very bad feelings, you see things you don?t want to see. (Caio, 34)
It?s a very strong experience that stirs a lot with us, very intense, very strong [?] IT IS NOT AN HALLUCINOGEN, IT DOESN'T CAUSE HALLUCINATIONS. It could give and I would prefer it because I would have a little pleasure you know? (Julio, 39)

... and lots more in the original Paper including discussion and comparison with classical psyhedelics..

 
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Based on Revonsuo'evolutionary hypothesis for the function of dreams and of previous suggestions that ibogaine has oneiric properties, we suggest the subjective experience of drug-dependent patients elicited by ibogaine may be framed as simulations of threat and danger..
To learn more about Revonsuo's theory of Altered States of Consciousness, Dreaming and his Threat Simulation theory cf:
Dreaming as a Model of Consciousness
Antti Revonsuo is a Finnish cognitive neuroscientist, psychologist, and philosopher of mind. His work seeks to understand consciousness as a biological phenomenon. He is one of a small number of philosophers running their own laboratories.Currently, Revonsuo is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Sk?vde in Sweden and of psychology at the University of Turku in Finland. His work focuses on altered states of consciousness in general and dreaming in particular. He is best known for his Threat Simulation Theory, which – in the tradition of evolutionary psychology – states that dreams serve the biological function of rehearsing possibly threatening situations in order to aid survival, and his advocacy of the dreaming brain as a model of consciousness... don't miss to attend his lectures if you have a chance.. fascinating!
Or read his books (not promoting his books or anything.. no financial interest whatsover!! just fascinating synthesis of the Neurobiological Basis of Consciousness.. for those interested:

"Inner Presence: Consciousness as a Biological Phenomenon" by Antii Revonsuo MIT Press
" Consciousness: The Science of Subjectivity" by Antii Revonsuo
(both books maybe found on amazon).. enjoy!
 
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