Ibogaine

Howard Lotsof Video

Ibogaine | an Interview with Howard Lotsof

The legendary Howard Lotsof will be our guest in December and at that time “Larry King” will ask him these questions, which came in from callers across the country and from this class:

1. How did you discover ibogaine?
2. Why did it affect you 4-6 hours faster than expected?
3. How have people become addicted to heroin?
4. When using heroin are people suicidal?
5. Is ibogaine addictive?
6. Do people who use ibogaine have any craving for it?
7. How long does an ibogaine trip last?
8. What are the negative side-effects of ibogaine?
9. If you knew ibogaine would cure you, would you still have taken it?
10. What did the seven images look like that you saw behind you? Did they mean something?
11. What did the psychologist think when he knew you took more than heroin?
12. What have you done to spread awareness about ibogaine?
13. When did you start advocating ibogaine use?
14. Have you fought to legalize it?
15. Why is ibogaine illegal?
16. In your article, “The ibogaine medical subculture,” you state “Ibogaine is unscheduled in most of the world, with the exception of the US, Belgium, Denmark, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Australia where it is illegal.” Why is it legal in other countries? Are there any nations where you believe ibogaine is looked at favorably, and where it is being used more intelligently than in these nations that ban it?
17. It has been said that ibogaine helps drug addicts by resetting the brain. What does that mean?
18. Does ibogaine have a half-life of 75 days? If so, what is the significance of that? Is that good news for addicts because it gives them a seventy-five day window of opportunity to see the world clearly?
19. Is the United States living in the Dark Ages, as Morris Berman argues in his book Dark Ages America, because we’re puritanical, and hog-tied by a legal and political system that has its head in the sand and moves at the pace of molasses?
20. What is a better “high” experience: heroin or ibogaine?
21. Is marijuana a gateway drug that leads to other drugs?
22. Is ibogaine?
23. What happens if someone overdoses on ibogaine?
24. Would you offer ibogaine to a member of your own family?
25. After they are cured, are people tempted to try heroin again, knowing they have a miracle drug that could cure them?
26. Could ibogaine cure other things besides cocaine, heroin, opium, and alcohol?
27. Could ibogaine possibly be helpful with certain forms of mental illness?
28. Have you ever been to Africa?
29. During the 1972 presidential campaign, why did Hunter S. Thompson spread a rumor that Senator Muskie was using ibogaine?
30. Thomas De Quincey claims he wrote Confessions of an English Opium-Eater to warn people against the dangers of becoming addicted to opium. In that book he describes the nightmarish nature of his opium dreams and hallucinations. If ibogaine had been available to him, do you think it might have cured him and saved him from the agony of attempting to withdraw from his addiction? Could it possibly have allowed him to live longer and write more books?
31. The gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, used many different drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. In 2005, at the age of 67, his health declining, while sitting in his kitchen at Owl Farm, Colorado, he put a .45 in his mouth and ended his life with one bullet to the brain. Do you think ibogaine could have helped him by curing him of his drug problems and addictions, possibly allowing him to write more great books, like Hells Angels?
32. What do you think of the life and work of Timothy Leary?
33. Were Leary’s eccentricities caused, in part, by his heavy LSD usage?
34. What do you think of Aldous Huxley’s contention, in The Doors of Perception, that certain drugs could open the mind to new ways of seeing? Are any hallucinogenic experiences worthwhile?
35. What do you think of Huxley’s contention that certain drugs could be used recreationally?
36. Do you think proper nutrition is valuable? Do you accept the use of vitamins?
37. Ray Kurzweil argues, in his book Fantastic Voyage, that through the use of nutritional supplements, we can extend life. Do you think this is a valid point of view?
38. What do you think of the smart drugs, also known as nootropics, such as vinpocetine, huperzine, rhodiola, tea, pregnenolone and other substances that produce better cognition and thinking?
39. Do you think it is valid for people to use hormones, such as melatonin, as an aid to falling asleep?
40. What do you think of Suzanne Somers' idea that hormones can be used to help the elderly regain their youthfulness?
41. What do you think of the work of Carlos Casteneda and his books, such as The Teachings of Don Juan?
42. What are some countries you have traveled to in your studies?
43. Do you take people offshore to give them ibogaine?
44. What is a typical day like for you?
45. Do people contact you and ask for ibogaine for themselves or family members or friends?
46. What do you think the world would be like if ibogaine were legal in the U.S.? Would you become a billionaire?
47. What is it like to help a person use ibogaine? What do you do during the long hours that such an experience takes?
48. Have you read the work of Philip K. Dick, the science-fiction writer, including Eye in the Sky or his novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch?
49. What kind of music do you like?
50. Do you have an opinion on the Atkins diet?
51. What was your childhood like?
52. Do you consider yourself a prophet of a new way of life for America, one which could be free of drug abuse?
53. Are the slight risks of using ibogaine justified in light of the tremendous good that it could provide for a nation swamped with drug addiction problems?
54. Have you worked with Deborah Mash, and what is your opinion of her work? Where is she today?
55. In your chapter “The Use of Ibogaine in the Treatment of Addictions,” you state (on page 49) “The advantages that patients commonly attribute to ibogaine are higher tolerability relative to other standard treatments for acute opioid withdrawal, and an interval of diminished drug craving that may last days to several months following a treatment.” Is this period of time used to solidify the breaking of addiction with psychotherapy and counseling? Don’t addictive personalities resist counseling and being told what is right and wrong?
56. In the chapter you mention that Robert Goutarel, a French chemist, hypothesized that the dreamlike state caused by ibogaine leads to learning, just as memory can be consolidated during REM sleep. Do you think this hypothesis might be correct?
57. Do you think ibogaine works best in a hospital setting or a traditional (home or outdoor natural) setting? Wouldn’t taking ibogaine in a hospital seem to be capitulating to the very structured authoritarian society that an addict usually rebels against?