Plant that helps in eternal search for happiness
Clinical psychologist Jennie Ashwal puts the resurgence of psychedelic drugs and the trend of microdosing on natural healing plants down to humans’ eternal questing. “People are always searching for a richer meaning to life and for psychological wellbeing and good health. The likes of ibogaine and psilocybin (magic mushrooms, which are illegal in SA) are showing huge potential and there’s an allure to using ancient healing plants combined with modern methods like microdosing.” Ashwal says research is showing that psychoactive plants have positive effects on serotonin and dopamine – the feel-good chemicals in the brain.
“More than a pseudo-spiritual effect, ibogaine and psilocybin can build and change the brain chemically. They appear to have long-term effects and unlike club drugs there isn’t the aftereffect of depleting feel-good chemicals. Ibogaine also appears to be able to tap into early traumas quicker,” she says.
Her caution is to do the homework in researching distributors, medical professionals and treatment facilities. As she says, “Ibogaine is not play-play; it’s not for fun.” Conventional therapy has its place, as does supervised ibogaine treatment and microdosing in a world where people need to make sense of incessant rushing, isolation and empty goals, she says.
“We need more connection, rapport and love. We need to know that anger, sadness and pain are also healthy feelings and that getting through bad days is how we learn to build resilience and coping skills.” was insane. I remember a presence I call an iboga god sitting on me and I couldn’t move. Everything slowed down and he showed all the parts of me that needed fixing and told me I had to fix it. I was also shown stuff not worth fixing or stuff I would never be able to fix and told to just throw these away,” says Brian.
Five years on Brian has successfully changed his career to be involved in lifesaving, as he had wanted to do before his drugging.
“Your craving for the drugs just goes, I eventually even quit smoking. But ibogaine treatment is hard work – it can kill you. I also had to break from the old relationships that took me to drugs in the first place,” he says.
For Hattingh, meanwhile, his next chapter is just beginning. On the stoep at his parents’ home he sits down to coffee with them and his dog, Kodak. It’s something that hasn’t happened for years. Hattingh’s mother, Anne, talks about her own ibogaine treatment that she underwent this autumn after watching her son’s transformation. At 70, her victory has been coming off years of anti-depressant medication and setting down anxieties and tiptoeing around others.
She says she’s found her voice — she also found her son again.
‘It was a like a nuclear bomb was dropped on my head’ JOHANN HATTINGH PHOTOJOURNALIST