Harm reduction and psychotherapy

Recently it was brought to my attention that some one struggling with addiction was denied psychotherapy because the therapist did not believe that therapy would be affective while the person was still on drugs. I find this difficult to swallow since most people develop a tolerance and end up only taking drugs to function. Then there is also the double standard that therapy is acceptable if the patient is on anti depressants which can also impede or repress emotion; I regard them as opiates on a receptor level.

This is the kind of outdated thinking that needs to open the doors to harm reduction; anything which minimises risk to the patient.

I also think its counter productive to remove some ones coping mechanism before you have some thing to replace it with.

In a collection of case studies by Andrew Tatarsky "Harm Reduction Psychotherapy" the studies showed that once the patient began psychotherapy and started to work on the issues which lead to or surrounded addiction they were quite willing to change their destructive drug or alcohol usage without coercion.

The point I am getting to is that there is too much emphasis on the drugs instead of the behavior. For instance some one can be drug free but still exhibit the addictive behavior by compulsive shopping; over eating or even using work as a means of escape or to avoid facing the issues that need dealing with. In the end the drugs have little to do with the situation; its all about the behavior; which reminds me of the "dry-drunk" joke: I am still the same ass-hole I just have fewer dents in my car.

In my opinion there is not much point to being drug free unless you are prepared to deal with the issues that brought you to that place. I listen to endless accounts of people who are now drug free but they are not happy in their lives or their work; they have a hard time convincing themselves that everything is better since they are now "on the wagon". To me its about enjoying life without the fear of facing yourself or your baggage.

I would recommend reading anything on harm reduction as an alternative to self help groups that require you to conform to a preset standard which is non-negotiable and turns away people wanting help who do not conform to that standard.

more ibo-illuminated space imagery from my own first experience: Preston Peet

more ibo-illuminated space imagery from my own first experience:



http://www.drugwar.com/pkickingdrugswithdrugs.shtm



snip-



I do, gratefully, get to experience the "movies" I have heard so much about from so many other initiates and various published and anecdotal reports. I keep looking in my mind's eye for some kind of silver screen unfolding across the horizon in front of me, hanging in the vast starscape I keep coming back to each time I drift away, but that isn't what's happening at all. I don't even realize I am experiencing the movies at first, probably for hours and hours, because that's not what they are-they are, to quote PK, "a fucking HoloDeck dood! Yur There muther fucker!"

He is right, I'm right there, but where I haven't much of an idea most of the time, unable to remember much of anything too clearly when I come somewhat to my senses from out of the visions which completely take me away. I do know at one point I'm 5000 years in the future. Again floating out in space, feeling the emptiness and knowing I am ALL ALONE, I can see a bright thin line growing across my view way off in the distance, floating thousands of miles, light years, in front me. I watch as it grows in brightness and turns on end, becoming the tip of a cathedral-like building, very futuristic with weird angles and sharps edges and tall reaching stretching points, all on the vastest of scales, like nothing we can or do manage today. I descend through the air towards an open chamber at the very top of this beautiful building which itself sits at the very highest point of this huge sprawling and towering city. I can see teeming masses of people of all shapes and colors and sizes, but not like in any Sci-Fi movie I've ever seen-this is REAL. I enter the room and see these three gods, or so I perceive them, superhuman, all three so beautiful, with shining alabaster skin, perfect form and spirit, sleeping or hibernating in these cryogenic type coffins or boxes. The woman, whose name I even know but cannot later remember, though it makes my heart ache still to think of it, is the Queen or some kind of noble, with her male consort and advisor lying at each side of her in the other boxes. I think I'm supposed to wake them, or someone is and I'm just along for the ride. The "plot" as it unfolds is that they must somehow combine together to save humanity from utter destruction, as time is ending at the final Big Crunch if they can't bring forth this strange form, this thing that I simply haven't exact words for. I spend a long time living and talking with these three (V tells me later that at one point during the night I spend about 5 minutes speaking rapid fire in some strange language she can't recognize not matter how hard she listens but that I sound completely fluent), taking part in their lives in this far future utopia. What this life-saving thing is they have to guard, to release, this force or being is actually I do not discover because it doesn't make it all the way out of it's cocoon before the end comes. A black, ugly boiling rent in space opens up above the city and its planet and destroys everything, including this beautiful cloud-like, almost fetus-looking massive being thing, gross in its seriously bizarre alien form but not at all icky. It begins to spread wings, pumping out a hot, pure white silver light, full on power and beauty-but this fucking evil darkness, this hole in space eats it all, this new being, these three human/gods, all their peoples, and me.
snip-
p, l, and lr
Preston

Iboga experience report

i just wanted to share my process a bit around having experienced an iboga initiation recently. All i can say is that I am completely blown away by this plant spirit and the incredible container that bwiti has perfected to deliver it. It was probably the most physically and emotional intense experience of my life. Traveling the universe and playing with time and space. Meeting people " ancestors". Insight upon my life. Unlocking my fear and stuck negativity. Cleansing and awakening. What a lesson on taking control of my life and never playing the victim game. It's like an ecstatic explosion over the head. Wake the eff up it screams. no time to waste on bullshit. there is nothing like it. this plant spirit has an uncanny affinity for humans.
I am feeling the beauty and tragic nature of life so intensely. every little speck of life and human interaction makes me tear up, and smile. I can usually be kind of a bitter asshole! I have had a long hx of depression and anxiety in my life and this just snapped me right out of it. I know i have a ton of work to do, but i feel motivated and confident. The self hatred has lost its edge because the illusion of it all has been pierced. Forgiveness of myself is hard. Just act with integrity in the future and don't beat yourself up was the message. It keeps you from sharing the gifts you have with others to tear yourself apart.
And talk about a physical cleansing. the GI health it brings alone is enough for it to be revered as medicine. Also it has a power full effect on libido. I almost feel like it completely reprogrammed my HPA axis. Which might explain how it normalizes infertility perhaps. It scrubbed out my brain. A prismatic collection of alkaloids and metabolites in that sacred root. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I feel weak right now but clear and calm.
And the root bark combined with the ibogaine takes you light years beyond just ibogaine in my opinion. if you can keep it down!. I barely made it, but then i just grabbed it and off i went.
i am so grateful for this medicine.
not to mention it was a blast.

after the ecstasy the laundry.....back to daily life now. but somehow i am a different person. hopefully i can keep that juice alive.
i wish the means and opportunities to all those wanting it.

Also do it with a master like i did. don't do it alone! this experience needs to be more affordable to those who need it in my opinion. although i think it is worth every fucking penny. its too intense to be taken lightly, and bringing down the cost does do that. I see the value in maintaining it's value. those who need it most don't seem to get it though. like most things in this capitalist mess.

just wanted to wax poetic about my iboga initiation

basse!

Low dose protocols of iboga; a report...

Hi Simon. I would like to express my deepest thanks to you for all the help that you have given me. It’s been three months now since I have picked up any narcotic, and this despite the fact that I attend no self-help group of any kind. All that I can say has helped me stay clean is the journey you have facilitated for me through the ancient portal of ibogaine. The current treatment plan you have recommended has worked beyond my wildest dreams, I find my days empty of the craving and uncertainty that I knew before. In fact, I think this period of my life is the first time that it could be said I am really living. In the past I used to be plagued with neurotic thought. I would constantly question myself and my environment, never pleased with the answers given by those around me. I felt superior and misunderstood, as if I was part of this world, and at the same time, part of another. I found myself irritated by the inability of people at support groups, and hated to be associated with them, their lives consumed by petty issues. It was only after I took ibogaine, that my life began to show me the answers in its complex, weaving pattern. I began to understand the meaningless of over-analysis, of ego so desperately bound to this empty shell, That we are all bound to the same cosmic energy, despite differences in cosmetic feature. Now, when I hear the buzzing of the onset of ibogaine, I feel attuned to the universe. I feel neither smaller than or larger than, but instead I feel completely part of. My sense of right and wrong has never been more perfect, for I can now disband these false preconceptions in the comfort of a universal balance, which speaks more clearly, more resolutely. Everyone should have an ibogaine experience. Thanks for your help in allowing to pass through this true spiritual portal.

Before and after,

It will be.


The resonance that binds us all,

That which stretches beyond the confines of science,

The misconception of man.



It wears no face,

Speaks with no voice,

Has no clothes,

Does not spread its message.



Ever present,

A titan above all titans,



It is in the dark,

And shines with light,

Always there,

Never part of,

Yet always guiding..



It is the coarse energy of creation,

The fundamental block,



Absolute truth seeks not to be verified,

For its existence is verification enough,



It lives in the eyes of the hunter,



In the burning stars, it plays.

TdS

image: thanks to SOFT

Javi's iboga experience

Hi Simon, I am writing you because talking on the phone doesn't seem to be working out for some reason. That stuff was something else, I was pretty much out of my body the entire trip, I relieved my prior Iboga experience in San Pancho Mexico, where I thought I was for a majority of the trip. I saw that as a young kid I have always been very honest and truthful which hurt me a lot because many people took advantage of this. This created a lot of pain, fear and confusion about myself that I almost worked through during highshool but then I dropped out and things went down hill from there. during this time I broke my clavicle 3 times in a month which left me with a few scripts of vicodin. Life began feeling like a burden instead of excitement and joy until I was basically totally relying on drugs for any sort of fun.

I was really bad with cocaine for a while there too, it lost it's buzz tho so I tried shooting it which got me completely addicted to the needle, shooting MSconton, Oxyconton, fentanyl, and eventually heroin and cocaine as speedball. I thought a lot about what I was doing to my body and my future but I was trapped in addiction and a sad mindset about my life. Luckily I also got into psychedelics, mushrooms were always super confusing for me but LSD showed me the truth many times in an amazing way. I tried DMT, LSA, and Salvia D. as well which helped me on the right path.

During the Iboga trip I saw myself in a room with two grandmothers who were knitting. Their nits were these mountains, and they were connected. They were sitting across from each other and one of the nits was a mirror image of the other. I kept appearing in this room watching them nit and disappearing on a journey through the mountains (that they were knitting) and back again. I revisited a fishing village in Bara De Navi Dad, Mexico where my family and I lived when I was 3.

I spent a lot of time in the rain forest in San Pancho and Bara. I remember seeing an image of tree frogs and tadpoles sliding down pink, orange, purple, blue in moonlight, it was like a little scene in the middle of the rainforest. I also saw that the rainforest totally covered the earth n the past or I think it was future actually.

I also distinctly remember hearing this hummer with a low muffler driving around in the rain forest part of a Mexican cartel basically completely running San Pancho, loaded with guns and drugs,. I kept hearing it drive somewhere then hearing a winch ratchet as it loaded up, then it would drive off, unload, load up, all night long, 24/7. I also saw and went into heroin/cocaine dens in the middle of the jungle, I found myself eventually working for these guys...there was so much and is a lot more a lot of it is extremely hard to put into words.

I went to Costa Rica as well and relieved more experiences in the jungle. I also visited Venice Italy and saw that I was madly in love with the place.

One of the most amazing memories I have is being on the beach in San Pancho and seeing this lady and her daughter that we met down there last time we were there. When her daughter saw me she gave me a hug and said that she saw that I had definitely made it, in that moment I felt completely free of all the crappy feelings.

I also revisited some old towns that I guess I had lived in in a past life or maybe it was purely spiritual, hard to say, but I saw a run down house that I lived in with my girlfriend, we were constantly fucked up, that was life. I was madly in love with the life style too, I can feel the feeling of the place and everything and the shittiness of it was so appealing it's very strange to me now.

I've been smoking a little pot at night to help me sleep but I saw that I have a tendency to get carried away and use marijuana as an escape from reality/boredom too if I'm not careful. I have been very occupied playing drugs, guitar, tying fly's, writing, drawing, resting. I am really looking forwards to working and saving money for once in my life and spending it on the tings that are real. I have been sleeping more and more every night, slept the most tonight (6hrs) I have very little craving and I actually found some paraphernalia that was hidden in yy room, that was a paper with a tiny dot of heroin on it, it felt very dirty and unappealing. The thought of trapping myself up like that again is a nightmare. Another part of the trip
I saw myself having quit but still carrying lots of burden in the form of chains, I was a slave still and I had to drag my chains around everywhere and that was my future if I didn't really stop this time round. I saw I had one other chance after this but I would have to deal with the burden still. I really had to be ready to quit, I think my prior iboga experience didn't have much effect on me because it wasn't as good as quality, and I didn't do enough/wasn't ready to quit. I was damn ready this time though!


I can't thank you enough, you helped me get my life back, my parents and brother/family back, and vice versa. I couldn't be happier!


Much love,

Javier

Cops against prohibitian

Hi everyone. I am retired cop and belong to LEAP. WE are against the
drug war and for legalization. I have been on this list for a year now
for I have an opiate addiction. Mine is physical not mental. I use
opiates for chronic pain. I will mention ibogaine to our
organization. We realize drug war does not work. Legalization and
education is key to this issue. I have arrested thousands for drugs
use/sales. We both have the same agenda . Ending criminalization of
drugs in USA. Visit the web site and watch the video. Cops like me who
were on front line saying drug war does not work. Currently, some
prisons are private now with lobbyists in those areas calling for
minimum sentencing on certain drug charges. Corporate America taking
over the jails and jailing drug users (last group of Niggers in USA).
Patrick is right.. Anyway I am not proud at what I did but realize
what is really going on and what can be done to help. I disagree with
the 12 step model which is used.. Currently it is only thing being
taught at rehabs for enormous sums of money.

Sincerely,
mkl

End Prohibition

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Please join the fight against prohibition by supporting law enforcement initiatives and visiting the link above.