Microdosing Experience: Learning Self-trust Through Microdosing Iboga

Dara microdosed with iboga root bark for seven weeks. Read here which effects it had on her mood, productivity and self-reflection.

Dara’s experience

I’ve taken psychedelics for decades and iboga was the hardest for me to stomach. I went to an experienced provider who made us chew the root bark (rather than swallow it in capsules) and it was so awful, I only managed 3 out of 10 spoons—hardly a full dose. (I read somewhere that iboga tasted like battery acid-laced kitty litter, and I wouldn’t disagree!). Since then, I’ve been curious what a full dose would be like, but I couldn’t shake my associations with projectile vomiting.

Motivation

I’m from California, where micro-dosing substances like LSD and psilocybin is popular, so the idea of digesting smaller, manageable doses intrigued me. What would it be like to navigate a normal work day with a mild psychedelic boost? I’m a big fan of taking a hero’s dose to fully surrender to the experience, but personal health issues led me to think micro-dosing would suit me better. The subject repeatedly came up during dinner parties, so it was on my radar and only a matter of time before I took the plunge.

The reasons for micro-dosing are as varied as the users.  Friends of mine have micro-dosed LSD and mushrooms for a better, more creative or productive day, to feel centered, etc. (and yes, slightly buzzed.)  I consider myself a pensive, introspective type so I wanted something that would invite deeper insights—especially as I’d just ended a 10-year relationship. As iboga is often used to help people break addictions, I hoped it could help me break the behavioral addictions and wrong thinking that led me to make my relationship fail.

Routine

Before I began, I read everything I could about micro-dosing iboga, and how important it was to enter the process with an intention, phrased as an affirmation. I journaled for a week about my life to pinpoint exactly what I wanted to release (a therapeutic process in itself—how often do we spend a week dialoguing about our issues?). In the end, I discovered it was my lack of self-trust, which led to faulty life choices and a resistance to fully embracing my life. I repeated my affirmation every morning in the mirror while placing 2 tincture drops under my tongue. The disgustingly bitter taste was immediately familiar. 2 drops is a decidedly low dose, but I was emotionally raw so I opted for the minimal.

Unlike LSD and mushrooms, which are water soluble, iboga is fat soluble so micro-dosing has an accumulative effect. I micro-dosed for 7 weeks and while there were no hallucinogenic effects, I became increasingly attuned to my environment.  

Observations

I’m a writer and I normally finish writing a personal journal every 3-4 months, but with micro-dosing, I did it in 3 weeks! I had to write everything down. Songs, ideas, literature, random conversations, articles and my personal experience—all were all connected, part of a greater continuum. Ideas and insights emerged or bubbled out of every situation, as did synchronicities. I became more creative with problem solving because my mind was flexible, open to new ways of thinking.  

I have been a seeker most of my adult life. I came to psychedelics with sense of adventure, the desire to discover myself, the nature of existence, to experience the ineffable and through all this, gain greater consciousness. Micro-dosing brought my experience down to a very human level. Meaning it grounded me in 3D existence, made the ordinary extraordinary, and helped me better understand the mental traps I set for myself.

Iboga helped me gain the perspective of a neutral observer. My judgements about being an imperfect human disappeared and were instead replaced with gratitude for the purpose those imperfections served. I understood—because I felt it, it was embedded within my entire system—how playing small no longer worked for me.  I was learning self-trust because really, that’s where it all begins.  

In terms of heartache, the tincture worked like a massive dose of meditation, allowing me to calmly tune into my heart space. I listened to its hurts, wept over its losses, celebrated its joys and finally moved towards acceptance (for me, that’s a much longer process). I felt more but with less sting. I understood there was no emotion or life circumstance that was better than any another—they all needed to be felt and experienced to learn.

Time to stop and integrate

7 weeks in, I took my daily dose and went to work but I’d hit a tipping point—I started to feel high. I experienced mild panic because I had to give a presentation thought I managed to fake being sober (but I certainly wouldn’t repeat it.) The next day, I decided to stop micro-dosing because I didn’t want it to affect my work—I had too much on the line at that point.  It seemed the right time to stop and integrate.

I loved micro-dosing iboga and would gladly do it again. It taught me how my mind is a powerful tool and by using it intelligently, intuitively and with trust, I could enrichen my life.

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