I Experienced a Miracle

by: Frank S.

I want to share with you my “trip” of a lifetime. I consider what I experienced a miracle because of the extraordinary, powerful and simply special affects this event had on my life.

On March 15, 2006, I headed south of the border to a quaint town just off the Baja California Pacific coast of Mexico. I don’t remember the name of the town, but its just past Rosarita. The place I experienced this miracle is called the Ibogaine Institute. From its rooftop, you can see the waves crashing on the coastline from the Pacific, and although I never saw any, on a good day you can watch dolphins and whales dance along the shorefront if you are patient enough to sit back and catch the sun’s rays from this viewpoint atop the Institute.

For years I have done research on Ibogaine. Most people in the US only know it as an alternative natural cure to drug addiction. But upon my research, I have learned that its powers go far beyond that. Ibogaine is the western term given to this miracle herb. It is a root that grows from a tree only known to exist in Africa. Now don’t try going to the jungles there to pick some up yourself. I have learned that most of this tree root is poisonous and can kill you if ingested improperly. See, this is God’s funny way of playing tricks on us humans. She hides this miracle wonder under the ground protected by a poisonous root of a tree in the most diseased continent on earth. It makes me think that the cure to cancer and all ailments for that matter are another extension of Her sense of humor.

Ibogaine is illegal in the US because the ignorant and politically/capitalistically corrupt FDA decided that because it may get you “high” and because its natural and not manufactured by a pharmaceutical company that pays their officals off every year, you can’t have it or enjoy its benefits. I’m not here to bitch about scandalous corruption in our system. I am traveling the world as I write this and I realize that the United States is unquestionably the greatest country on the planet. But that’s just because we hide our corruption better, have less of it, and ultimately do more for our citizens and the world than any other country. The problem is, if we cure the disease of drug addiction, or any disease for that matter, pharmaceutical companies lose out on BILLIONS of dollars. In fact, an industry vital to our economy risks the potential of collapse, and we can have unemployment like France if we just flat out do what is right for our sick… blab la bla. So now that I’ve put that to rest, let me get on with the story.

In the mid 1960s a New York City heroin addict took ibogaine because he wanted to get “higher”. After taking it, he noticed that for the first time in his life of many years of heroin use that he no longer wanted to stick needles in his arm. After one use of ibogaine, he was cured of heroin addiction. I am writing this on a Eurorail train on my way to Berlin, so I don’t have his name, nor do I care if my grammar is correct for the purposes of this writing. Anyways, this man has launched a crusade for decades to have ibogaine be recognized as a cure to drug addiction. Supposedly there is some kind of brain cell mending or healing magic that reconnects your broken receptors blab la bla – if you care about the scientific and biological terminologies then go do your own research; I’m writing this not because of its drug addiction healing powers but for its miracle magic that goes way beyond that one very important benefit.

Tribes in Africa have discovered ibogaine many moons ago. Was it centuries or decades? I don’t know. They first used it to exorcise demons from the body; to rid a person of evil spirits. I learned from Dr. Gabriel of the Institute that later on these tribespeople, who you and I only know as naked painted blacks in the jungle who have never seen automobiles or cell phones, most commonly use ibogaine for their young men to ingest in their childhood to transcend them into adulthood. The experience is so powerful that these people think that by taking ibogaine, a “high” if you will (its much more than that as I will explain), that during the six hour trip a boy will be made into a man.

Lets get to my experience. I get to the Institute at about 11am. They take a blood test immediately and then two doctors, one of which was Dr. Polanco. He was a Mexican doctor but I will tell you that his professionalism and concern for me was superior to most American doctors I have had over my lifetime. They knew what they were doing. No food in the house… lol. I ate only because I took Dr. Gabriel to lunch at 11:30. By 5:30 after a nap, they gave me a thorough medical exam, finalized by my first EKG test to make sure my heart was not broken. After I passed all tests, I was given my dose of ibogaine. The only advice Dr. Polanco gave me was, “Don’t move your head!!! If you move your head, you will vomit…” I layed there for about an hour and a half, and nothing. Then… it hit me.

I started to feel sick. Even though I did not move my head like the doctor said, I began to vomit. Listen carefully people. This series of vomiting was the most violent and intense non-voluntary actions my body had ever taken. I mean… I threw up everything. Over the course of an hour, I had everything in my body exit… and I mean EVERYTHING. I think I saw the coconut sprinkle from the Starbuck’s I had a day earlier as the last of any possible food or liquid to be thrusted from my gut.

As I was experienced this, I came to the conclusion that my mind was the most powerful thing ever. Not just my mind. Your mind, our minds… are more powerful than we can imagine. That cliché that we only use a small portion of our mind… is as true as the fact that the sun will shine again someday soon. What was happening was, this miracle root was expelling all that was impure about me physically, mentally, spiritually. First it was the vomiting. And I’m sure that if I had any food or fluids whatsoever in me, I would have shit or pissed it out when I had a short breather in between throwing up. Mentally, I could literally feel and see the demons if you will - be exorcised from within. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the constant sweat I broke out in. A slow, oozing sweat, not like any other… nothing like a steam room or hot humid day. This sweat was different. I felt the toxins coming out of me via my pores. Whatever impurities… the drugs I experimented with up until before this wonderful day.. were no longer welcome in my body. So I realized that my mind was purifying not only my body, but my mind… and soul for that matter. It was only then… that I could experience the miracle that was to be.

We have five senses as we know it. Touch, smell, hear, taste, see. At this point… my mind would have none of those limitations. After the vomiting was over… and my sweat came to a halt, I layed there on my bed, sweat, vomit, tears, and again, if I ate and drank like normal, I’d probably be lying in my own feces and urine. My stomach was growling like never before, since it had literally no food whatsoever in it. That was the last I recall of thinking about my body…

My mind – for the first and only time of my life – was free of the physical, free of impurities. It then rewarded me with the experience of a lifetime. I began my journey from the outside… looking in on the Universe. What an amazing perspective! I zoomed through galaxies not yet understood by humankind. I learned languages of other life forms; they all made sense to me. I hope we get to know them soon. They are curious about us too. I then became other life forms here on earth, and zipped through time zones and centuries past and future. I fell asleep a ladybug in the rainforests of Costa Rica and woke up millions of years earlier as a dinosaur in Australia. I witnessed the Renaissance, the Crusades, World Wars, all of B.C and A.D combined… all of it. I missed nothing this world has been through, even when it was just dust in space before it started.

Sounds weird? Let me give my explanation or analogy to what I believe I experienced. A cell phone is worthless unless it has its SIM card. But with a SIM card, it can communicate with millions of others all over the globe. Our mind… is way more powerful than a stupid cell phone. You better believe that. This ibogaine, in my opinion, is like putting a SIM card in your brain, With it, you get to communicate with the Universe. You get to be one with nature; you get to be nature. Ever dream I ever had, was interpreted during this trip. My life made all the sense in the world.

This brings me to my main point. My primary goal to take ibogaine was to have the phsycho-spiritual experience that I read about. The risk is, many people don’t have such an insightful “trip” like I had. In fact, most people who take it are primarily drug addicts. Not surprisingly, most experiences are not pleasant, hence the vomiting, but more importantly, many rate the overall experience as negative. Researchers think its because addicts have plenty of demons to exorcise, etc. and that the ibogaine is a catalyst to rid these negative energies. Some patients report a regression that brings them to childhood,

recalling harsh experiences or even past lives. Not me. Yes I’ve used drugs but I was confident I was no addict. Yes my childhood wasn’t perfect but my parents never abused me and I wasn’t sexually molested. Perhaps I went into the experience with fewer demons than the typical patient at the Institute. But I knew that going in.

I wish I could have easily retained all that I experienced. This commentary would have then turned into a book the length of Gone With the Wind. But what happened was, I started to lose details as I regained my senses. The experience lasts about 6 hours. Then for about 12 hours I was in a state of dizziness. When I tried to walk it took effort to get down and up stairs. Quick head movements could still cause nausea and vomiting, so I took it very easy. I lounged out on the roof top to hopefully get a glance at a whale or dolphin, but to no avail. The idea was to relax. And as I relaxed, the details started to disappear. It was as if they were again being retracted to my subconscious. I’m not upset at that. To me, it means its all still there, ready to be recited if and when necessary… Probably not on a voluntary basis, but knowing that all of that wonder – that miracle – that I was blessed with… is now registered deep inside my mind’s vault. That’s enough for me.

I am now traveling the world. I’m in Germany now but headed to the Czech Republic tomorrow. But the trip I took on March 15th was, in my opinion, my tour of not just the world, but the universe, of times present, past and future. It was the best trip of my life because it was the ultimate spiritual enlightenment I have ever experienced.