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Paper short abstract

The paper explores relational and spiritual aspects of iboga/ine’s therapeutic efficacy at a European retreat. Here people are taught to relate with iboga/ine as an animated being. This, I argue, can influence efficacy by working as a more-than-human therapeutic alliance that can facilitate healing

Paper long abstract

The Central-African originating plant iboga and its alkaloid ibogaine are known and revered for both their sacred and psychoactive properties. Historically used within and beyond its region of origin for initiatory, divinatory, medicinal, and stimulatory purposes, iboga/ine is now also employed internationally in the treatment of substance dependence and mental afflictions. While reported therapeutic benefits are largely attributed to (neuro)pharmacological mechanisms, relatively little attention has been given to relational and spiritual factors shaping iboga/ine’s efficacy in such treatments.

Based on six months of ethnographic fieldwork at a European retreat-centre where iboga/ine is offered as part of holistic treatments for substance dependence and psycho-spiritual healing, this paper analyses the efficacious role of spiritual beliefs and ritual practices of animating iboga/ine as a volitional being. At this facility, iboga/ine is framed as a “teacher plant” and “sentient being” which knowingly will “give you what you need, not what you want”. Clients are encouraged to relate to iboga/ine in such ways through therapeutic discourses, ritual activities, and shared interpretations for the treatment to be more efficacious. Drawing lines between perspectives on plant animacy, adorcistic spirit possession, and the psychotherapeutic concept of therapeutic alliance, I argue that the mode of relating with iboga/ine that was socially transmitted and practiced at the retreat, installed the clients in a more-than-human therapeutic alliance with iboga/ine. For some, the cultivation of this alliance with iboga/ine impacted their experiences by providing dialogical engagement for healing and establishing a new relation to themselves and their lives.