Harambe iboga Detox Retreat Centre - Testimonials

J’ai fait l’expérience Iboga chez Bilal, Catherine et leurs 2 enfants dans leur petit coin de paradis en périphérie de Lliria. Je préfère rédiger en Français car mon niveau d’Anglais ne me permet pas de donner assez de détail sur ce que j’ai vécu. Tout d’abord je souhaite mettre l’accent sur le cadre : Iboga est une expérience très puissante et nécessite un climat approprié de confiance, de bien-être et de nature. Et c’est exactement ce que j’ai ressenti en arrivant chez Bilal et Catherine. Ce sont deux personnes incroyables, pleines de bonnes énergies, de bonnes ondes et très disponibles. Dès mon arrivé ils m’ont mis à l’aise et j’ai senti que je pouvais leur faire confiance, c’est très important de pouvoir accorder votre confiance à un tiers pour un tel voyage. Ils m’ont assisté, rassuré, Bilal a été comme mon gourou pendant mon voyage spirituel et surtout après.

Pour resituer le contexte, je suis arrivé le moral dans les chaussettes, avec des tas de problèmes de sociabilités liés à ma dépendance aux « drogues de soirées » comme la cocaïne ou la MDMA, ecstasy… J’ai toujours été quelqu’un de sociable, d’extraverti, d’aimant et joyeux jusqu’à ce que la drogue me pousse à me poser des questions et fasse ressortir des problèmes profonds. J’ai aujourd’hui 24 ans et mon mal-être s’était tellement développé que l’iboga, qui m’a été conseillé par mon père, représentait la seule solution.

Pour parler de l’expérience, je suis resté dans la yourte tout le long, ils mettent à disposition un masque de relaxation qui permet de faciliter les visions, puisqu’il vous plonge dans le noir total tout en laissant la possibilité d’ouvrir les yeux. Après la prise des gélules, j’ai vécu un bad trip très long de plusieurs heures. En réalité mon mental bloquait toutes formes de visions ou de voyage. C’était un véritable enfer mais cela fait partie du jeu. J’avais déjà fait des bad trip au LSD et à la mescaline, c’est pourquoi j’appréhendais l’exercice et pour le coup, ça n’a pas loupé. Mais rassurez-vous si ça vous est déjà arrivé aussi, Iboga m’a offert la clef, et je pense qu’elle l’offre à tout le monde. Et tout s’est débloqué. J’ai eu des visions, j’ai dû faire face à tous mes plus grands démons, mais je les ai affrontés cette fois-ci et non refoulé comme je le faisais avant. Il m’était très difficile d’accepter la vérité car elle était surprenante et à l’opposé de toutes mes croyances.

Et mon égo étant surdimensionné (j’en ai parfaitement conscience désormais), il faisait tout pour fuir. Mais Iboga est plus forte que tout. Iboga arrive toujours à ses fins. Après une lutte acharnée d’environ 2 heures, j’ai connu la chose la plus magnifique au monde. L’éveil spirituel, la paix intérieure, l’unité, la connexion parfaite avec mon être intérieur. Je me suis mis en tailleur et toutes mes pensées se sont effacées, ont disparu. J’entendais derrière ma tête une vibration très légère, comme un son de basse continu, apaisant et agréable. Je suis resté dans cet état de grâce pendant je dirai 1 heure, sans aucune pensée, pas la moindre. Ensuite les pensées sont revenues mais elles étaient que positives, et m’ont permis de vivre le bon côté du voyage. Je ne m’étendrai pas sur cette partie car elle est personnelle.

En tout cas, depuis cette expérience tout à changer, je pars en Inde dans une semaine alors que j’étais très renfermé sur ma région en France auparavant. Comme si un nouvel homme était né. Je recommande cette expérience à toute personne qui souhaite un réel changement de vie. Finalement le problème de dépendance n’est que secondaire, lorsque j’ai terminé le voyage, c’était une évidence que je ne toucherai plus jamais à rien. J’ai d’ailleurs vomi tout ce que j’avais dans mon corps la première fois que j’ai revu de la cocaïne. Le simple fait de voir le produit a fait réagir mon corps. C’est une libération. Je recommande de lire le livre « Le pouvoir du moment présent » d’Eckhart Tolle avant et après l’expérience Iboga. Il est très adapté au côté spirituel de la plante et permet d’assimiler les notions d’être, d’âme, d’égo, de conscience plus facilement.

Decyzja o przyjezdzie do centrum Harambe potwierdzila mnie w przekonaniu ze nalezy kierowac sie w zyciu swoim przeczucien “wew, glosem”.

W internecie szukalem i widzialem duzo roznych propozycji ale kiedy natrafilem na strone Harambe poczulem, ze tutaj powinienem przyjechac aby odbyc kolejna duchowa podroz. Lecac do Hiszpani mialem pewne obawy czy wszystko bedzie dobrze, ale kiedy tylko poznalem i porozmawialem osobiscie z Bilal’em i Cathy wszystkie obawy odeszly i utwierdzilem sie w przekonaniu ze dobrze wybralem. Cathy i Bilal sa wspanialymi osobami, którzy sprawili ze poczulem spokoj i pewnosc, wszystko dokladnie mi tlumaczyli, odpowiadali na kazde pytania i zapewniali wspaniala rodzinna atmosfere i opieke , dzieki temu tydzien spedzony w Harambe byl wyjatkowy.

Kilka lat wczesniej odbylem podroz do Peru aby odkryc Ayahuasce i teraz nadszedl czas na odkrycie Ibogainy, ciezko jest porownac te dwa doswiadczenia ale musze przyznac ze bylo to niezwykle i wyjatkowe przezycie. Trudno jest mi ubrac w slowa to co teraz czuje ale wiem ze Ibogaina pozwolila mi zajrzec w najglebsze zakamarki mojej podswiadomosci, tego nie mozna opisac to trzeba przezyc.

Rowniez istotnym elementem doswiadczenia Ibogainy bylo dokladne oczyszczenie mojego organizmu z wszelkich toksyn, i musze przyznac ze nigdy w zyciu nie bylem tak fizycznie oczyszczony Podsumowujac polecam centrum Harambe kazdemu kto chce doswiadczyc dzialania Ibogainy i jednoczenie miec wspaniala opieke.

Dziekuje Cathy i Bilalowi za czas spedzony w Harambe.

Bartosz

I’m 27yrs male from Norway, my problem was that I had been abusing Xanax for three years and many other drugs also. Depression, Anxiety and feelings of hopelessness in many aspects controlled my life.

I have tried to quit the abuse myself many times, gone to rehab and counselling for six months before I decided to try Iboga. I had never been successful in quitting the abuse. So strong was my addiction that prior to coming to Harambe that I got high on drugs up until the day of traveling and without knowing I had been in psychosis several weeks without knowing it. I did not follow the precautions but still underwent the treatment.

The experience itself I do not want to go into because everybody have their own personal experience so I don’t see the reason to put false hopes or expectations in people’s heads.

The point is that it works. Bilal and Cathy are extremely welcoming, nice and professional. I went into psychosis in the immediate days after taking Iboga. Its normal to be confused in days to weeks after, but for me it spun my psychosis into a psychotic state bit they handled me extremely well and made me feel safe.

After this wore off, I became a new person. My addiction feels eroded and I as a person feel brand new and upgraded. I am going back to reinforce this state in a couple of months.

Meanwhile I am going to recommend Iboga to everyone with small to big life haltering problems.

And if you wanna do it, do it at Harambe with Bilal and Cathy.

They are simply great and I was not an easy case for them.

Can’t wait to go back for my re-boost!!

The iboga fixed HUGE issues like INSOMNIA (A TRUE MIRACLE), panic attacks, paranoia, the obsessive need of my parents closeness that I always tried to hide even from me by travelling and living all by myself around the world with poor results cause I always ended up crying every night desperately for I missed them and many times got back to Italy just to stay near them although they never imagined this was ever the true reason behind some situations.

The plant gave me the precious gift of its teachings through almost all nightmare-like visions which included, by the way, all 5 senses (I could smell, taste, feel, hear and see everything as if it was truly happening and running through real time). When I could stand up from my bed, I thought several months had gone!!! And couldn’t believe otherwise, I thought they were telling lies to me just to let me stay there away from my problems and they tricked me into staying there for months instead of days…amazing!!! I dreamt for 3 days only; can you believe that?

The most important one and meaningful for me was this one:
I kept on dying in the moment of a planet extinction or at its imperfect birth uncapable to create the necessary conditions for life to flourish or born and ride the steps of evolution. I have been waiting for death to embrace me sleeping into ice caves while the Ice Age was destroying everything over and over again.

The first deaths created anxiety and fear in me while I was waiting for their certain arrival.
After those ones, I learnt acceptance and how holding on a thought of love could erase fear and anxiety children of the false belief of being too late to give a meaning to my death/life: as long as I could think of a moment I have lived where I loved or was loved by my family, for example, nothing was lost, the end could come certain I fulfilled my reason of existing in this world: experiencing love is the only true precious goal one can ever achieve in this only life made to slowly kill us.

Some other visions:
I have been part or spectator of atrocities among children filled with violence, tortures and homicides. I have been experiencing situations where I was abandoned by my parents or chased by both criminals and police around the world hence forced to run and hide in weird places. I have travelled in bidimensional wonderful landscapes imprisoned in a postcard or a mirror and communicated with whoever was watching the frozen scene inventing creative ways to change the image and reveal my presence.

And few beautiful ones:
I ran into a forest and enjoyed the company of an African tribe. The forest was made of lights, amazingly beautiful trees and flowers; there were small monkeys playing with me. I was running barefoot and I stopped moving when all plants, flowers and trees left an orb of light of different colours slowly fly from their core aiming to the sky above, an incredible vision happening all around me and I remember I was afraid to breath too heavily and disturb this nature performance I could feel I had been invited to watch even though I wasn’t part of the tribe that was scattered all around the trees creating a circle I was part of.

Although, most of the visions were made of the substance of nightmares, I never felt scared or powerless. I actually felt peaceful and serene all the time but for the first 3 deaths which happened in the beginning of the iboga trip. However, even in those occasions, the fear and anxiety I felt were 1% of those I usually feel in real life for panic attacks that come when I realize how powerless I am over death and that even just the thought of the void that will follow it is able to kill me before my time comes.

I never stopped thinking about you all. I really love you and I am thankful for crossing the path of my life with yours.

For more than 25 years I have had this constant companion, a deeply negative voice inside my head continuously reasserting that I’m not good enough in any aspect of my life. Inevitably my self-worth became non-existent and my life was full of constant negative self-judgement, self-loathing and always feeling ‘less than’. This way of thinking led to anxiety and panic attacks and maintaining some level of mental balance was a daily struggle with occasional moments of respite…

Unfortunately, this usually took the form of drink and drugs. I became a big binge drinker, where every few weeks/months I’d go on a drinking bender which invariably ended in drug abuse. Inevitably I’d emerge from each episode not only financially damaged, but incredibly remorseful, embarrassed and disgusted with myself, all of which added more fuel to my ever-growing pernicious internal chatter. I’d then repeat the cycle, first with the usual ‘white knuckling’ period of self-hating and disciplined sober existence, only to seek release from the constant mental pressure by drinking, which eventually ended in another binge, and so on for the last 12-13 years…

Before I went to Harambe, I had tried to shift my destructive patterns through a variety of modalities, including (but not limited to) strict dieting/various forms of intense physical training / many meditation techniques / Yoga / Self-Help Books / Counsellors / Psychiatrists / Psychologists / NLP Therapists / numerous types of group therapy / Rehab Clinics / AA-NA-CA Meetings / EFT Therapy / Mediums / Psychics / Hypnotherapists / Crystal Healing / Magnet Therapy / Ayahuasca / Psilocybin / Reiki / DNA Reprogramming / Psych-K therapy / Holographic Kinetics / Scientology / Islam / Buddhism etc but, whilst all helped with various aspects of my perspective, none were effective at removing the destructive side of my persona.

I had heard of iboga 3 years before actually going to Harambe in July 2016 but was terrified of what I had read and watched regarding the extreme physical/mental experience others had gone through (and having had traumatic experiences on other ‘apparently’ less intense psychotropic drugs like Ayahuasca and Psilocybin, this only delayed my decision to try Iboga).

Eventually I had exhausted all patience with how my life was going and decided that I really had nothing to lose by trying iboga. After researching the internet, I found Harambe and everything about the place appealed to me. After speaking with Cathy on the phone a number of times she showed a level of understanding that made me feel this was the right place for me to take iboga.

Upon arriving at Valencia on Sunday July 3rd, Cathy picked me up from the airport and drove the 30 minutes to their lovely house which is in a secluded part of the mountains. On arriving I met Bilal and immediately felt the need to tell him everything about my life as I thought this was required to better the healing experience. He (correctly) told me that using Iboga was a practice of introspection, and I was to work primarily with myself.

Given my perspective on what was the ‘right way’ for me to heal, I felt that not talking wouldn’t be beneficial and sharing my problems was key to moving forward! But I soon realised Bilal was right and it would have been an unnecessary distraction for me, and so began my week-long journey into myself. The first thing is you can’t eat the day before taking Iboga and on top of this Bilal gives you a magnesium flush to really clear your system out to fully prepare for the journey ahead.

That first day was spent either reading more material on Iboga or going to the toilet – not my idea of a gentle intro! Upon reflection, this experience was absolutely necessary as you are stripped (literally) of your crap and have to really give serious thought and respect to your upcoming experience. Given some of the places I had ended up on my binges, having to go to the toilet regularly and stay with my own fearful thoughts was luxury living in comparison!

The next morning, I took my test dose and it was the most scared I’ve ever been, as I was expecting a much more horrendous experience than I had on Ayahuasca and Psilocybin. An hour later, after no adverse reaction to the initial dose, I was given the rest of my prescribed amount of Iboga and went to bed to wait for the effects to set in. After another hour my experience fully kicked in – and went on for 19 hours! In that time, I couldn’t move without my head spinning – Iboga makes sure you stay in one place thus not allowing you to distract yourself easily! But what became apparent (thankfully) was that I was to remain fully conscious throughout the whole experience, very unlike my other psychedelic journeys. I could now understand what was meant by the ‘waking dream state’ people refer to when taking about Iboga. During the journey I was engaged in a full conscious dialogue with what I can only describe as my inner ‘higher’ self, or my subconscious.

I went through all the issues in my life and was at the receiving end of an incredibly stern ‘telling off’ – which was tough but surprisingly tolerable (I guess because it was me giving me a royal b*llocking!). I came to feel how I had been wasting my life pointlessly, how my inner self craved to live life outside of my current experience, how I was responsible for changing my perception, and all the help I had needed was within me all this time. This is different to rationally realising I was messed up – I always logically knew this but Iboga helped me to actually FEEL this – which was different to what any of the other modalities I had tried in the past had managed.

It’s difficult to fully describe in words the whole experience, but it was definitely something I couldn’t have prepared for – and something that has definitely shifted my base outlook on life. One of the advantages of doing the Iboga experience with Bilal and Cathy is that you get to have a second dose (whereas a lot of other places don’t offer this service) which I had a few days later. The second time proved to be a very different experience for me – I felt a lot of my old negative feelings come to the surface and felt emotionally awful for the duration of the journey and for a good 18 hours after it ended. It’s here that I must mention Bilal and the importance of having someone like him guiding you on the journey.

Throughout the whole experience Bilal proved to be the stable ‘go to’ influence I needed, and was able to read what I was going through perfectly, giving the right amount of support when I needed it. It was by the 3rd day that I fully realised how lucky I was to have come to Harambe – Bilal really knows how to engage with people and help them using his own Iboga experiences – lending an ear when needed and leaving you alone at other times. I came to realise a lot of the initial judgements I had about how the treatment should have been was just another facet of my negative perspective on life – and by the end of the second journey I realised just how clouded I was as an individual when it came to engaging with other people. The experience won’t allow you to hide behind your ego – as Bilal said ‘Iboga brings your ego to the forefront and beats it up’. Given my experience truer words haven’t been spoken!

I’m writing this about a month after my experience at Harambe and can say so far that the negative voice has been turned down significantly. The energy I used to expend on beating myself up is now being used for positive pursuits and opportunities, which would have been (literally) unthinkable 6 weeks ago. I’m also managing to sleep better, which I believe is a direct result of my thought processes being ‘rewired’ by Iboga.

Iboga isn’t the magic pill that I desperately was hoping it would be and didn’t remove all my problems in an instant. But it has been the most important thing that I’ve done in the past 25 years to really help me start existing at a much more connected level within, which is proving to be the key to finally re-start living my life with abundance and love (to which I believe everyone is entitled).

I’ll be going back to stay with Bilal and Cathy in 6 months for a top-up Iboga dose and I would advise anyone thinking of taking Iboga to consider Harambe. If you want pampering, swimming pools, dancing around fires and singing with others then this isn’t the place to go – but if you really, REALLY want to address your inner demons and give yourself the best chance at change (with both a quality Iboga product and support) than I wholeheartedly recommend Harambe.

A quick note to Bilal and Cathy – you guys were great; I loved the family atmosphere and how you made me feel welcome in your home. Looking forward to seeing you guys again in 6 months! Jonathon

My motivations I got in touch with Harambe partly because iboga’s something I’d been wanting to experience for a long time for spiritual insight, and partly because I was in deep depression. I had arranged this years ago with another provider, which fell through, but I have met somebody who was treated by him before, and he said that if any of his friends gave up on their lives, he would really recommend it to them. As I was close to that point, his words got new significance to me.

Getting in touch I initially corresponded with Cathy, and we arranged my dates, my medical tests, and she advised me to take a week-long juice fast before the treatment. She later told me that she will be away during my treatment, and her husband Bilal will be with me. Bilal was a bit lousy with correspondence, and didn’t exactly put me at ease at first, but finally after spending a few hours at their house I felt reassured by his confidence.

His style of costumer care is not what you’re used to from Marks and Spencer, but he knew what he was doing and he took good care of me and has never overstepped any of my boundaries. I personally much prefer his extra casual style to those gentle-spoken hypocritically spiritual and enlightened people that you often find around psychedelics. Honestly, I was not 100% cool about giving my life in the hands of somebody I found online, but it reassured me that they allowed me to bring a friend, and Bilal even lent him his car so he could drive to town to do some shopping and look around.

The treatment at Harambe I took the magnesium salt drink that gave me the shits, Bilal explained that the point of this, and the juice fast is to create a clean slate for iboga. I was not allowed to drink during the treatment and the preceding hours, because any water makes you throw up, and when you throw up, it’s really violent, plus you lose any iboga left in you. This makes dosage difficult to keep track of, but Bilal does a good job managing it.

Bilal gave me a bunch of advice and reassurance to prepare me for what’s coming. He didn’t engage much in my story, like reasons to do this and the things I’ve seen, but I think he understood. I don’t know if this is his personal style or he felt that I don’t want to talk much, but I think it was a good thing, because I was engaging too much with my problems, and I didn’t need another person to enable me.

The treatment was in a room in the family home, so it’s very informal and no medical stuff like drips or heart monitor. I didn’t miss it that extra level of safety though. Although this was the most mentally and physically draining experience of my life, I never felt my health was in danger. The visions part of the treatment went like this: the first like 8 hours I was just seeing a lot of stuff. More than I can remember, but a lot. It was really intense, amazing, high frequency, and just exhausting to even witness.

In the meantime, I was conscious all along, but coordination of my body flew right out of the window, I wouldn’t have been able to as much as adjust my pillow. Bilal was next room and told me to call him when I need or want anything, and came in regularly to check on me even if I didn’t. Initially I thought I would feel more safer with somebody right next to me, but when I was in treatment, I understood there would be zero point to having somebody sit next to me, because this is a very internal journey.

My sensitivity to sound and light got incredibly heightened, and Bilal did a great job blocking out all the light, but not so much the sounds. Every noise sounded like it was coming through a big steel pipe pointed at my ear, so even whatever small noises of daily life would snap me out of whatever vision I was having, but the dog yapping away was really doing my head in. I entertained fantasies about kicking him across the valley, and laughed about how unenlightened that is. I didn’t see any particular point of a lot of my visions, and a lot of them were metaphors for things in my mind.

I got to see into my mind like never before, and at one point I could feel my true emotions and values (as in what’s important to me) without the distortion of thinking. The quiet part I was hoping to go deeper and have some breakthrough experience, and when the visions started wearing out, I started beating myself up over not having done so, then I just made the decision to stop thinking, and for the first time in my life I was able to do it COMPLETELY, for many hours. The next few days I could only think if I made a special effort, because my mind felt so exhausted.

Bilal said that this part is a lot more important than the vision stage, and that it matters a lot to stay in this quiet part for as long as possible, because this is what makes the most difference. I now really see why, because we think so much and even if we try, we can’t give ourselves much of a break from it, so several days are a miracle. When after coming home, friends have jokingly asked me if I’ve got enlightened, I said yes, but it’s passed It’s really good that Harambe gives the opportunity to stay for several days after the treatment, because having a space where you don’t have to deal with anything and force yourself to think is really essential to make most of the experience.

My life afterwards Although I didn’t have the kind of breakthrough or the afterglow I read about in many reviews, it really helped with my life. First of all, immediately I put the problem that was causing my depression into place: out of my life. I cannot say out of my mind, but I guess it’s normal, still it was a huge leap for me to be able to act in my own interest again, and stop wasting all my energy, so it flowed right back into my life. I am once again able to take part in my life, and cultivate the things that I really care about: friendships, my work, my health and learning things. As time passed, I noticed that I have changed in few ways. I didn’t become better or worse, but I became more me, I work a bit differently from before, and in a few respects different things sit right with me than before.