Botswana Iboga Deep Immersion

This experience will transform you in ways that you never expected, life-changing, positive and as the Spanish name Revela implies, the experience will reveal parts of you that you never knew existed. It will leave you with the beneficial parts of your self and take away those that no longer serve you.

The Botswana retreat is an opportunity to not only uncover who you are but also gets you up close and personal with nature and deeply immersed in working with some of the worlds best known indigenous healers on the planet, the Khoi San bushman. These elder healers carry with them an immense library of ancient wisdom passed down from generations. The foraging skills and plant knowledge in the harsh environment of the Kalahari desert has ensured their survival. An expedition to visit and spend time with these amazing people is a rare opportunity to catch the last of the thousands of years of soon-to disappear history. The healing trance dances, where the women control the men’s movement and he controls his level of trance through his own breath work. Never, will you feel so alien, and never have you felt so involved in anything so ancient and sacred. These ancient people will work alongside our Shaman “Queen Mother” who hails from Ghana. She brings with her years of wisdom around offering Iboga to those who want to experience a true deeper healing experience.

Why Botswana?

When we chose our spiritual sites, we most often chose them, because of the people that inhabit these places. In Botswana, the San people are believed to be one of the oldest, if not the oldest ethnic group on the earth. Genetic research indicates that all humans descend from African hunter-gatherers such as the San. We work directly with the Ju/hoansi San in the Northwestern part of the country. They are among the few that practice traditional customs and spiritual ceremonies. Tsodilo Hills, a place of spiritual significance to the San, is today a national monument and UNESCO World heritage site. However, the government’s rush to create conservation areas for tourism has impeded the San’s access to their lands and resources and their ability to practice their traditions. In neighboring areas, like the Kalahari, diamond mining is also cutting the San off their land and heritage. We aim to help these people regain their heritage and protect what is theirs. In exchange they help us heal. The San tribes are some of the most powerful healers, anywhere in the world. They believe the hills to be a mausoleum for ancestral spirits. You will forever be changed by Botswana in ways that will remain in your heart forever.

Why Iboga?

Most people have heard of Ayahuasca or even San Pedro, but Iboga is a bit more elusive to many.

Tabernanthe Iboga or Iboga for short is a perennial rainforest shrub and psychedelic found native to Western and Central Africa. Iboga translated means “to care for” or “to heal”. It has been used for centuries by traditional communities in West Africa as ceremonial rites of passage and healing purposes.

Traditionally in the Western world, Ibogaine gets used for the treatment of addictions. Mostly, opiates, amphetamines, alcohol, and even nicotine/tobacco. In Africa, they refer to Iboga as a master healer and has been long used as a medicine and a spiritual sacrament. Iboga is not only effective at breaking addictions but also a powerful ally in breaking destructive habits and behavior patterns. How many people, including even yourself that are addicted to a certain emotion, like fear, anxiety, depression. You may be addicted to repeating patterns in your life over and over, like bad relationships. Or, never being able to complete tasks, because of the story you may tell yourself, like “why bother you will never succeed, you will fail”. Most of us are addicted to patterns and it begins in our DNA, our epigenetics. Past experiences that we may not even be aware of that are from ancestral lineage, passed down through our DNA. According to experts in the field of behavioral epigenetics, traumatic experiences in our own past, or in our ancestor’s past, leave molecular scars that adhere to our DNA. Like silt from a half shucked ear of corn, our experiences and those of our ancestors, are never truly gone, even if they have been forgotten. What if your Grandmother’s predisposition for Depression was caused by the neglect she suffered as a newborn? What if this was part of your own molecular residue? What if this was something you could change?

Venturing on an Iboga journey is a personal and therapeutic experience, and it will tend to confront you with your past and elements of your shadow. For many iboga takes the form of a teacher…it is direct yet not overbearing, both powerful and gentle, having a soft touch while being straight to the point.

While under the influence of iboga the user views themselves in a detached state. One is able to view their lives without the full emotional intensity and attachment such experiences may hold. This allows one to process things without being emotionally overwhelmed. Iboga provides a full brain defrag. Many people view iboga as a profound way of pressing the reset button on life, and to provide a fresh start to enact change. After taking iboga it is easier to move in a different direction and gaining new healing perspectives on life.

How Our Iboga Experience is Different

When most people think of Iboga they think, harsh, the stern masculine medicine that gives you the harsh reality of your life and where you have taken the wrong road. Some describe it as scary and unpleasant.

Revela Retreats works with one of the most Globally known Shamans, who has worked on three continents. She has a number of years spent in the jungles of Gabon, learning from the pygmy tribes, their knowledge and practice of Iboga.

We offer a more gentle way to experience this powerful medicine. Microdosing entails using small doses daily and allowing the Iboga to build up in your system. Microdosing can provide many of the benefits of Iboga without the intensity of a journey.

Most times when people research Iboga or Ibogaine on the internet will find some horror stories of how people have died and it is a dangerous plant medicine. According to a study presented by Dr. Kenneth Alper, examing cases between 1992-2008 , it was found the deaths were caused by additional factors: contraindicated medical or psychiatric conditions (we list these on our password protected page), improper dose, inexperienced providers, self-administration or adulterated medicine.

It is helpful to understand the different forms of Iboga. Iboga root bark, total alkaloid iboga extract, and ibogaine

Iboga root bark is the natural plant, containing the ibogaine alkaloid as well as 11 other known alkaloids. The part that is psychoactive, is the root bark part of the plant. It can be taken in different forms, powder, tea, fresh shavings or a highly concentrated natural total alkaloid extract. Iboga is more ceremonial and this is what is given in the Revela Retreat ceremonies, either in micro dosing or full dose. The traditional providers using the plant for addiction purposes are using the total alkaloid extract form of Iboga. It is highly concentrated. Up to 65% of the total alkaloid extract consists of ibogaine, and there are at least 11 other alkaloids that have been identified.

Benefits of Iboga

• Enhanced awareness of unconscious and subconscious patterning. Iboga gives one much deeper insight into the structures of your thinking and habitual use of mind.
• Unlocking of past difficult patterns in the DNA inherited via epigenetics.
• Massive boosts to the brain and central nervous system
• Resetting of the reward pathways in the brain.
• Joy and feeling good as the Iboga gets converted into nor-ibogaine.
• Enhanced willpower- not from a place of force but from a place of understanding the barriers in the way to gracefully meeting the demands of life.
• Relief from trauma