Our Bwiti

IbogaLife represents the work of Dimitri Mugianis and Robert Payne. Both are initiates into Fang Disumba Bwiti.
Dimitri (Mobengo) is a well-known Harm Reduction advocate, founding member of NY-VOCAL User's Union, Activist and subject of the feature-length documentary “I’m Dangerous With Love.” He has given the sacrament iboga to at least 500 individuals. He has traveled extensively in Gabon and has undergone many Bwiti rites. He is also a poet and renowned public speaker.
Robert (Bovenga) is a well-known ibogaine aftercare innovator and user advocate. He was a presenter at the Sayulita '09 First Ibogaine Provider’s Conference. Bwiti initiated at Ebando under the Fathership of Papa Andre in Libreville. Practitioner at hundreds of ceremonies, he is a Bwiti music expert and plays the sacred bow instrument, mougongo.
Caroline (Inanga) Piers has traveled and worked in several African countries but found a home in the Bwiti of Gabon. Her life has been one of great service, working in international NGOs. She is multilingual and has vast experience working with trauma victims.

We are supported by a small staff, including medical support in the form of a full time nurse, as well as experts on nutrition, Bwiti, permaculture, trauma therapy and plant medicines.

Our experiences in Gabon have led us to incorporate many aspects of Bwiti rites into our ceremonies. We have become informed of the elegance and significance of traditional iboga initiations. We are pleased to offer Bwiti services from our unorthodox perspective. We do so with the explicit blessings of Ebando, the Temple and village associated with Papa André, of Jerusalem, Gabon and TataYo, of Libreville.

Iboga: Gift of the Forest of Gabon

Iboga has been used for certainly hundreds but probably many thousands of years. It is a powerful, activating plant “teacher” and spirit. Its’ origins lie with the pygmies of central west Africa, and it is in popular use today in Gabon and parts of Cameroon. It is the key sacrament of the Bwiti spiritual system, with perhaps 300,000 practitioners.

Iboga is the Bwiti initiation tool, with a surrounding technology to contain and exalt the rite of passage. Iboga comes from the scraping of the second layer of root bark of the shrub-like tree, usually pounded into a fine powder for consumption. Ibogaine is a processed isolate of the single indole alkaloid. It is typically capsulated and is much easier to stomach than iboga.

Bwiti may be the reason Gabon has been called “The Tibet of Africa,” and iboga is at the center of Bwiti spirituality. It is both a sacrament and a traditional staple of initiates. Taken in small doses, iboga stimulates the central nervous system and heightens the senses. In larger doses, it will temporarily provide the initiate with deep visionary journeys, the processing of which can lead to long-term psychological recovery as well as beneficial life changes. The dramatic “peak” experience is what provides the participant with their “Bwiti,” during ceremonies lasting many days.

To be clear, initiation at IbogaLife is a beginning. Finishing the initiation process means starting the rest of your life. Our responsibility at IbogaLife, too, is beginning. We are continually focused on your spiritual self, even as you leave. The process has led to your belonging 'to' the village. Your progress in the world is interesting to us, for you represent us there. And most importantly, you must return to the village as you wish, to reaffirm your connection to us, to revisit your learnings and practice Bwiti.

As our Bwiti becomes stronger, we strive to bring our American Bwiti out from obscurity, and to legally practice within the United States.

Initiations Outside Africa

Iboga was virtually unknown in the west until relatively recently, when drug users realized its effectiveness at attenuating withdrawals from opiate cessation. The miracle discovery was made by Howard Lotsof, our Bwiti father, in 1962 in New York City.

Now there are several thousand iboga initiates in the west, most of them addicts or former addicts. Interest in iboga/ibogaine is now also propelled by a growing group of plant medicine enthusiasts, seekers of shamanic experiences, the entheogenic community, and those interested in traditional African culture and its healing practices.

Iboga/Ibogaine therapy is also being applied to post-traumatic stress disorder and a range of other psychological maladies. It is a common observation that one can accomplish in a few days with iboga/ibogaine what would take many sessions of one-on-one therapy.