The talk is an informal slide show discussing the actual procedures used in rainforest based initiations using T.iboga, and discussing how these may be applied in a clinical or western therapeutic setting. I take examples from traditional initiations and from the sessions I have facilitated, with brief case studies to illustrate my points. I also draw upon the experience of my own two separate initiations with the Bwiti in Gabon. The slide show is intended to be informative and descriptive, illustrated with images from actual initiations as well as from addiction interruption sessions. I will suggest methods and techniques based on all of these experiences. Much of the understanding of the Bwiti technique involves a feeling for the nature of the ceremony and lifestyle of the people, a quality of interactions that cannot be understood from a reductionist perspective. It is something of this quality that i will attempt to put forth in the presentation.

The Bwiti initiation ceremony is a thousands year old secret rite of passage that takes place in the rainforests of Africa. Its origins are unknown but it is generally acknowledged that the ancient Pygmy folk, the original inhabitants of the Congo basin, passed the knowledge and method on to the Bantu tribes who slowly moved into the basin over the last couple of centuries. The traditional Bantu tribespeople adapted and changed the ritual to blend in with their own practices, but all acknowledge that the central premises remain the same. There are as many variations of the Bwiti ceremony as there are tribes, and more. Christianity has had a major influence in some regions, and church iconography is commonplace. Others are more animist and fetishist, in keeping with traditional African belief systems. But all have one central pervading theme - Iboga and the unseen and subtle world that it introduces one to.

In effect, the plant slows down ones metabolism to such an extent that the compulsive, thinking mind recedes, and what emerges is a state of clear, sky-like mind, wherein all is awareness, stillness and peace. The plant tends to throw one directly into a state of "sacred knowing," a state unclouded by thought. The more profound the stillness experienced, the greater will the initiates insights be, and the more fundamental and abiding will the changes thus be.

Without an adequate and uncontrived setting wherein this state can be catered for by those who understand what the newly awakened mind is going through and needs, the effects are blunted and disturbed. The Bwiti, who understand this state perfectly, have developed a culture of healing around this plant, which is embodied in their initiatory ceremonies. These are musical outpourings of ritualised compassion and caring, which show the indivisibility of healing, art, music, dance and religion in a most perfect and sublime manner. These initiations are held for those people who request it, and only Bwiti initiates (those who have eaten of the plant) are able to initiate others. The Bwiti practitioners' entire lives are suffused with a consideration and an awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. They live in and around the temples, which are the centre of village life, and have a respect for the sanctity of healing, and for the inherent potential for goodness in every human being.

An initiation ceremony is generally a week long procedure, and this does not include the days, weeks or even months of personal preparation and cleansing (internal & external) that occurs beforehand. The core process of the ritual is understood to be:- first phase dying, second phase death; third phase rebirth. The essence of the ceremony is in guiding the initiate through these stages, and bringing him back, reborn, into the world. The experience of death and dying rekindles in the initiate the innate memory of the continuity between life and death. The entire village takes part in the ritual, each individual having a specific role to perform, instrument to play, part to sing, and they know the ceremony intimately. It is a combined effort by the whole village, rich in cultural nuance and significance, and that you, as initiate, as neophyte, are the centre of all their focus, that you are the 'Banzie', makes this a very powerful experience indeed.

The success of this plant in treating addiction is patently obvious going by addict treatment reports from around the globe. In communciations (1) with various addicts who had undergone the iboga / ibogaine treatments, I found that inadequate or incompetent caregiving was often cited as a barrier to greater insight. (To the Bwiti this is the heart of the matter - the sanctity of the temple, it's members, rites and accordances are the foundation of a successful and pure initiation). For a more enduring effect, particularly for those staving off addictions, it seems that the setting is critical to the longer term efficacy of the experience. That this is the case should encourage us to look for guidance from those cultures who have over the last couple of thousand years evolved a symbiotic relationship with the plant and it's healing capacity. It seems that if not used with all the cultural subtleties considered, the plant treatment may not always work as well as expected, but if used with these issues considered, it works better than anything yet discovered.

It may thus be that this plant is the one that forces science closest toward the concept of healing at the level of body-mind-spirit. If we ignore the lesson and logic of the original plant users, the Pygmy and other Bwitists, we may find that we are sidelined, in what might in effect be the first real panacea.