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A great read for those who are considering IBOGA but not quite sure as he openly shares his experience with you. Tavavo!

"This may have been the most profound, positive, and transformative experience of my life.

If I had to rank the most meaningful experiences I’ve ever had, this would likely be number one. And Ikara is an exponentially deeper and more therapeutic experience than the other options. But I will explain why later.

I didn’t come to iboga casually. I came because I was dealing with PTSD, anxiety, and depression that had slowly taken on a life of their own. What began as something manageable gradually intensified over time. My psychology was getting worse, not better. I would wake up in the middle of the night, convinced someone was breaking into my house, heart racing. Small stressors felt overwhelming. My nervous system never truly felt safe.

I was not in a good place when I found Ikara. I was scared that things were going to spiral further out of control. This wasn’t something I chose from a position of comfort. It was out of desperation. I knew I needed something that would fundamentally change the trajectory I was on.

Kuma called me and said, “We have a space that opened up. Do you want to come a month early?” I was like, “Yes!” I worried that waiting even a month would have made things worse. Strangely, I am smiling as I am writing this now.

I had worked with other therapies and psychedelics, including ayahuasca and ketamine, which only scratched the surface. I had known about ibogaine for over a decade through my background in the addiction field and had seen how it can interrupt addiction and save lives. But what I was dealing with wasn’t addiction. It was trauma, anxiety, and depression.

Through research, reflection, and conversations, I came to feel that iboga, not ibogaine, was the right medicine for me. There isn’t a large body of formal comparative research, but based on tradition, lived experience, and the current science currently available, iboga was far more suited to deep trauma, depression, and anxiety work.

With at least 12 alkaloids, Iboga lasts much longer than ibogaine. In herbology, it’s called the “entourage effect.” At Ikara, we worked with Iboga twice. My friend, two weeks prior, had only done ibogaine once, a single alkaloid, and spent twice as much. So by going with Ikara, I got an exponentially more effective experience.

So once I decided on iboga, I searched locally in Costa Rica. Several places felt corporate and procedural. What stood out about Ikara was that when I called, I spoke directly with the medicine man himself. The work felt relational and customized rather than standardized.

Kuma has fully devoted his life to this path. He lives this spirituality. This is not a business model for him. It’s a calling. It reminded me of me when I was working in mental health, which was that I worked my ass off to make sure that this person was going to live.

I later learned that before I even arrived, rituals and sacred rites were being done on my behalf, not just by Kuma, but also his wife, Manga, and his mentor, High Nima, in Gabon. I wasn’t aware of it until the shaman in Gabon asked how I was doing.

The experience itself lasted longer than I expected. Plus, there is time dilation. But long did not mean chaotic or terrifying. Years 
ago, I had a bad mushroom experience that was overwhelming and frightening. Iboga never felt unmanageable. It was grounded, contained, and precise.

Now, since doing iboga, I see PTSD everywhere.

Traumas are like pearls of a necklace.

Trauma feels like a string of pearls, each pearl representing a significant life event, all chained together in chronological order, each one influencing the next.

What does trauma feel like as it's lifted? My iboga experience felt like those pearls were being detached one by one, starting with the earliest and most foundational experiences. Each was examined gently and objectively. My memories appeared visually, often like sepia-toned photographs, usually cryptic. It wasn’t overwhelming. It was observational. It felt like my brain was rewiring as it moved through each one.

Fear did come up, especially around multiple deaths in my family, and I had experienced a deep fear of death I didn’t realize I was carrying. But iboga brings up fear softly. It invites you to look directly at what you’ve avoided without retraumatizing you.
What I realized is that I didn’t need more biohacks, therapists, supplements, gym work, or external optimization. I needed a spiritual awakening.

My entire life, I had suppressed suffering, which only made it worse. Suffering isn’t something you ignore. It must be handled. You have to confront it in a nuanced way and feel into it.

Many traditions, like Buddhism, teach that overcoming life’s suffering is the most important thing a person can do in their life. It’s done through discipline, mindfulness, and wisdom. Suffering is not something you are required to carry forever, but it requires awareness to dissolve it.

I was never able to effectively confront suffering on my own. Iboga allowed me to confront suffering directly. Once I did, I could see my ego clearly for the first time. As longstanding suffering dissolved, my identity reorganized around something steadier.

Most of the problems in the world are suffering, not pain. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is often our response to pain. For the first time in my life, I was able to release myself from the suffering.
Suffering in life is optional.

Two months later, I feel fantastic. Weeks after finishing, my PTSD symptoms were gone. My depression and anxiety lifted. I also feel physically healthier. It wasn’t just psychological. Something shifted systemically for me.

Kuma and his wife, Manga, are a strong, complementary team. She is deeply kind and generous. The other two staff members assisting had recovered from their own very severe child abuse. One of them arrived at iboga in extremely poor health, having been told by doctors that he was dying. Lyme disease was killing him.  His recovery story deeply impacted me. Seeing someone come back from that kind of state gave me confidence that profound change is possible.

Similarly, I was diagnosed with a fairly undetectable autoimmune disorder called CIRS, where, among other things, the blood-brain barrier begins to leak (when exposed to substances like high MMP9, C4A, TNF-Alpha, and low VIP), and I had lots of anxiety and insomnia as a result.  (Sorry, lots of info there.)

Many people who come through Ikara have experienced profound trauma, depression, and anxiety. Kuma and Manga are prepared for that and function like midwives during the experience. This is not something you do alone. Knowing someone truly has your back while you process deep emotions in a compressed period of time makes all the difference.
In my group of six, I likely had the most active PTSD symptoms going in. That’s okay. Some people carry more. And if that is you, well, you, my friend, are going to get so much more out of it!
What matters is having a steady, experienced team holding the container.

I live in the beautiful jungle of Costa Rica, yet Ikara is set in an incredibly beautiful place.

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER WHEN YOU GO: As you go through the iboga experience, you become deeply aware of the glorious world around you. The crickets, the frogs, the nocturnal sounds of the jungle, the air, the trees. The psychedelic creates a sort ASMR of the jungle whispering in your ears.  It’s divinity.
And while there, sober, there is still a profound reconnection you begin to feel between yourself and nature and the universe. You’ll remember this. Even now, as I hear it in my backyard, life feels more beautiful and blessed. There is a deeper sense of sacredness around than simply being alive on this thin blue skin of a rocky planet.

Today, Kuma, Manga, and I are friends. I ran into them in town today. I told him I owed him a review. We laughed. He asked how I was doing. I had lost weight. I looked and felt different. My energy was different. He could see that I was genuinely well.
I haven’t felt this good in a long time.  

Since doing this, I’ve reached out to friends who are suffering, many with anxiety and trauma, to tell them this exists. Not to sell anyone on it, but because I wish I had known sooner.

This is not a casual experience, and it is not for everyone. But if you feel called to do iboga, to put the past behind you, and to directly confront suffering, to confront depression, anxiety, PTSD, or illness, I cannot imagine a better place or guide."


Photo: Sunset over the Islands of Manuel Antonio as viewed from the deck at Ikara Retreat Center,

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We have decided to cancel our first March retreat (2nd to 6th Mar 2026) to allow Kuma & I to have an extended break and rebuild our energies and bodies which are adversely affected during each ceremony as we absorb energies from our patients. We will do some personal work and return renewed for our second March retreat, however that is already full. If you are wishing to join us for a retreat this year, we encourage you to complete the intake process so that you may reserve the date that you wish as in general, our retreats are now booked out a couple of months in advance.

Our next retreats with availability are as follows::
  • 13th to 17th Apr 
  • 4th to 8th May 
  • 25th to 29th May 

In general, we run a retreat every 3 weeks and will update our schedule for retreats later in the year soon. 


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If you bring order into your thoughts, feelings & relationships, from that point an ability to look deeper emerges.

But is that mechanistic? 

No, because if the order is not there in your daily life, the deeper order of the Universe cannot show. It's like trying to drive your vehicle in fog - all the interesting places are inaccessible, you cannot see them. 

Clarity allows us to unfold and shows us the processes that exist deeper. 

You must become aware of the disorder. You could say that the disorder exists outside of you but in reality, the disorder is actually a reflection of that which originally came from the inside. The disorder inside is projected outwards and reflected back at you. It is the unfoldment of our internal disorder out into the external world. This is the implicate order. Everything is interconnected. All Consciousness is One.

Your failure to understand or to see the disorder inside your thought driven universe, is the cause of all your problems. When you consume IBOGA, you will see the disorder you experience is all your own creation. you will be able to observe your malpatterned thinking and bring it into balance, into order. From this point of clarity, you begin to discover the deeper processes underlying this reality. 

This is the first step towards changing the world.

Begin where you are. 
You are part of the whole.
Only you can find it for yourself.. 

#iboga #krishnamurti #consciousness #ibogaretreat #spiritualawakening
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We live in a Universe that is a. record of God's Electric Mind-thinking (not thinking-mind). Our Universe is electric and our body is a battery. We are but one part of the Universal circuit connected to all others. Every cell in our body is a unit of consciousness manifest electrically to create our physical form.

There are many different ways to charge our biological battery...we may ground our feet to the earth, reconnect to nature, we receive energy from the Sun and the food that we eat. But if the circuitry is obstructed, our battery continues to discharge despite our efforts.

The alkaloids in IBOGA come in and harmonize the Units of Consciousness that compose your cells and form your physical body. IBOGA plugs you into the Unknown Universe, the Still Void from which everything is born. When you consume IBOGA it carries that connection electrically through the body. ALL circuits, everything that carries a current, a movement, in the body, is cleaned, all connections are brushed & reconnected and then the circuits are flushed, on all energetic levels.

You will feel the electrical nature of IBOGA in your body and hear the frequency at which it works. IBOGA being a tool of the Unknown Universe detects anything within the body that has been brought out of balance from your thinking mind and reharmonizes it through a balanced interchange bringing you back in alignment with your still centre.

Your battery is fully recharged. You can start again from there.
Ikararetreat.com/iboga
#iboga #ibogaretreat #biologicalbattery #consciousness #universalknowledge
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​Comparisons, of any sort, are limiting. Do not compare your position with anyone. It is unique..... especially so with IBOGA. Because of this, the possibilities, for each individual, are endless. If you magnify your limitations you create your own prisons. If you enjoy those freedoms that are yours now, you automatically increase them.

But you can not expect a blissful time innocent of problems. That is not the nature of life or of existence.

The solidity of your own unique problems will convince you that they are real. In fact, they are simply creative in nature and designed with great potentials in mind. If you creatively use your problems great things can emerge, but you must learn from them. Do not concentrate upon them or allow them to close your eyes to the great joys and freedoms that are also PRESENT,

You get what you concentrate upon. There is no other main rule.

Do not dwell anywhere, especially in your emotions.

If you seek good health, you must focus on the parts of you that are healthy.

If you focus on your illness, you will become just that.

Awareness is the tool that opens up the application of this to your life now.
From this starting point the unchangeable changes, always without fail, but with patience.
#iboga #ibogaretreat #selfhealing #awareness #krishnamurti #nisargadattamaharaj #robertadams #terencemckenna #awakening
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We are spirit, not the body. The body houses your immortal Self and
it belongs to the earth. It returns there but the Self lives on, contained within the inert gases of the universe ready for your next incarnation. With each new existence in this physical world, you will understand this more until you live a life full of joy, devoid of pain and suffering, where everything happens just as you desire within your Soul, not your thinking mind. 

Quieten the mind and you might just hear the whispering of that voice within you that is waiting for you to awaken to this "Le Don de Vie" (Gift of Life).

No amount of integration, life coaching or online therapy sessions can bring you to these realizations. You have to discover it. 

The sacred plant IBOGA is here on this earthly plane, for you to consume, it becomes one with you, the Greater you, it provides the electrical connection from Spirit to flesh. 

No greater gift can be received.

#iboga #ibogaretreat #spirit #awakening #lovelife #livelife
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The present is where true action, intelligence and your Self realization become possible. Between and compressed within our opposition of electric and electromagnetic light we are illuminated through opposition, suspended and held to become pulsations of thought through the neural network. This is why we say we are in the light when we realize the Self.

When we walk on our unique path of enlightenment we should be alert to those using knowledge but not sharing or becoming their own knowledge, their light is cloaked in darkness and It may be an indicator that you need more of something that will give you more of YOURSELF.

Be strong, make choices, trust self, fly high and know, no one owns knowledge. You do!

We are all born with the knowledge of everything & with the potential to be anything. If you are DISCONTENT or with DISEASE you have simply blinded yourself to the magical truth of physical existence.

With IBOGA you are given the gift of awareness and the ability to see the truth. IBOGA has a reputation for being the most challenging plant but the reality is IBOGA works on resistance so it will only ever be as hard as you are on yourself everyday. Now you get to see what you do to yourself each and everyday. You cause your own suffering, your are caught in your own web of thoughts, beliefs and reactions. You free yourself with IBOGA.

Join us for an IBOGA retreat here in Costa Rica!

#iboga . #ibogaretreat #spirituality #soulawakening #higherawakening #spiritualretreat #psychedelicretreat #existence #knowledge #krishnamurti #healing #plantmedicine #suffering # #nisargadatta #truth #entheogeans #sriramanamaharshi #walterrussell
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You can accumulate wealth & material possessions. But what great attributes have you accumulated that can be taken with you and used in your next incarnation? If you participate in the world of distraction, you become a victim to your emotions, trauma, reactions, past events, or the non-existent future. Your lack of Self reflection leads you to believe that only that which you see, feel, smell, taste, touch or think - is real.

Do you know of the dormant soul within you?
You must turn inward or be taken over.


IBOGA is a divine instrument to connect you to your centering point of stillness, it works with you, so that you may come in contact with the invisible world which is the CAUSE of all the EFFECTS you see in this visible world of wave based light. You do not come to IBOGA to "get something". One guest recently said to me "I didn't get anything" after they could barely walk during the first ceremony, their body shaking and vibrating as the electrical connection that IBOGA provides proceeded to rhythmically balance all the processes in their light body. This is expectation, they wanted visions and henceforth were unable to see the beautiful gift that IBOGA was currently providing. They rendered themself totally incapable of accepting what was happening in the actual experience that was given to them by their own Soul. IBOGA completes its work whether the person becomes aware of it or not, they will heal anyway.

True joy and connection results when you turn inward & become acutely focused on your experience. You come to learn the art of non-attachment, through the removal of your conditioning. to realize that point of power within you, which is stillness. Those that return home, with this Knowledge activated within, can continue their own process of Self realization, to become the Creator of all that they experience through a practice of awareness. A part of the illusion has been revealed to them with IBOGA & there are many layers of that understanding to work through till the Self is truly realized.

The accumulation of Self Knowledge is the only "possession" you will be taking with you.

Focus on Self.
#iboga #ibogaretreat #Self
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All the profits that we raise from our spiritual hospital here in Costa Rica are donated to our family in Gabon, Africa through their NGO EBOTA A MAGHANGA There is no one man, or one village, that benefits solely from our work here. The money goes to the NGO to support the village of MBOKA A NDZAMBE, the NGO projects of sustainability, the 7 Babongo villages in Dibois and those who are members of the community but do not live there

...but it does not stop there.

Because King Adumangana continually gives and shares what he has received to those in need - often when we send support, it is used to help those even more in need than our village and those mentioned above. He gives, until he has no more to give, to help those he sees as most in need. Sometimes , there is nothing left for the village itself but they continue to work with great devotion, on white rice, towards the salvation of all humanity.

They give, and they are re-given in spiritual progress. They go without sometimes, and they truly appreciate it when they do have. Their selflessness is born from a grander connection to their greater SELF.

Think of this, the whole of Gabon knows who King Adumangana is, so when they are desperately in need with nowhere else to turn, they contact him, our village, to ask for help. The majority of the Gabonese that pass through the spiritual rebirth ceremony MOSUSU A NDZAMBE in the village do not pay. Our spiritual hospital in Gabon, Le Don De Vie, is there to help those who cannot heal. We do this work for humanity, for the unity and brotherhood of all mankind, so that our consciousness may evolve through the reconciliation of God in Self - IMBUTU.

There is no other village like this left in Gabon.

#IBOGA #MOSUSU #kingadumangana #spiritualhospital #naturalhealing #naturalmedicine #spirituality #christconsciousness #africa #gabon #culture #africanculture #natureshealing #givingback #love