Bill Atkinson at Iboga Wellness Center in Costa Rica, 2017. Photo by Bill Atkinson.
Bill at the center in 2017, in a photo he took himself. Used with permission.

TL;DR. Bill Atkinson, the Apple engineer who experienced iboga with us. He created MacPaint, QuickDraw and HyperCard, and gave the world the double-click, died on June 5, 2025, at 74. In 2017, a year after losing his wife, he came to Iboga Wellness Center as a self-described scientist who thought the spirit world was “about as real as Santa Claus.” He left having, in his words, “met my own soul face-to-face.” He spoke about it openly for the rest of his life, and when he announced his cancer diagnosis in 2024 he wrote that because of that iboga experience he did not, “believe” in so-called souls or a creator… to “no existential fear of death,” knowing that his consciousness will continue on. That is the difference between believing and experiencing something. The only way we truly know things is via experience, and we were given the gifts of our senses: to know versus believe. That is the difference between believing and knowing something. The only way we truly know things is via experience, and we were given the gifts of our senses: to know versus believe.

*disclaimer – For guests that come here, we don’t try and get you to believe in anything at all. You have your own experience, and so people from all walks of life: religion, no religion, etc., are welcome.

This is our tribute to Bill Atkinson.

In this article

“Back from Costa Rica — what an amazing and life-changing experience!”
Bill Atkinson, 2017. The first line of the account he wrote for us.

We at Iboga Wellness Center extend our deepest love and respect to the family and loved ones of Bill Atkinson, who passed away on June 5, 2025, at his home in Portola Valley, California.

Who was Bill Atkinson?

Bill Atkinson joined Apple in 1978 as employee number 51 and stayed until 1990. In those twelve years he created QuickDraw, the graphics engine beneath the first Macintosh, and MacPaint, the program that showed millions of people what a computer could be. He gave us the menu bar, the selection lasso, and the “marching ants” that dance around a selection. Later he created HyperCard, a tool that let ordinary people build their own software years before the web existed.

And then there is the double-click. If you have ever opened a file, a folder, or a photo by clicking it twice, you have used Bill’s work, and so has almost every person who has ever sat down at a computer. It is one of the few gestures nearly everyone on Earth has made, and he designed it so that a mouse with a single button could both pick a thing and open it. Purists will point out that Xerox tinkered with the idea first. The version your finger knows is Bill’s. Next time you double-click something, please think of Bill.

After Apple he co-founded General Magic, and in the second half of his life he turned his eye to nature photography, publishing Within the Stone, a book of close-up images of polished stones. He was a rare mind: logical, inventive, and deeply curious about the mysteries of existence.

Most people know Bill for the graphical interface that made computing intuitive and beautiful. Fewer know that he also went looking inward, late in life, and came back with a different view of life, death and spirit.

Why did Bill Atkinson come to Iboga Wellness Center?

In 2017, about a year after losing his wife Sioux to cancer, Bill came to our spiritual community in Costa Rica for an eight-day psycho-spiritual gathering. He arrived, in his own description, a scientist to the core, grounded in what could be seen and measured:

“I went to the Iboga Wellness Center skeptical about the existence of spirits, but curious and willing to explore. With my western science background, I thought the spirit world was a comforting myth, but about as real as Santa Claus.”

He came with a list of questions, a prayer a friend had written for him, and an open mind.

What happened during his iboga gathering?

Bill wrote his own account when he got home and asked us to share it, which we did in 2019. You can read the whole thing here: Bill Atkinson is an American computer engineer and photographer.

He describes sitting around the fire listening to the practitioners speak about life and the Bwiti tradition, the spiritual shower in the river, and two iboga fire ceremonies. The first night he could not find what he was looking for. The second night he did:

“I don’t feel that way anymore. I met my own soul face-to-face, and I saw and communicated with Sioux’s spirit.”

When he asked his soul what love is, the answer came back: “Empathy and Action.” When he asked his true purpose in life: “To Love and to Teach.” When he asked what to do with his nature photographs: “Give them away.” He did.

Bill’s account sits alongside the other written accounts our guests have shared over the years.

What did Bill say about iboga afterward?

Bill did not keep this to himself. In August 2018 he sat down with Leo Laporte for two long episodes of the Triangulation podcast, talking about the early days of Apple, losing his wife, and his work on understanding consciousness, including his iboga journey.

In November 2024, when he told the world he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he wrote:

“From my Iboga experience seven years ago, I know for certain that my consciousness will continue after I leave my body behind.”

“I have no existential fear of death. Actually more anticipation and curiosity.”

In seven years he had gone from “the spirit world is about as real as Santa Claus” to that.

Watch Bill tell it in his own words

Here is Bill on Triangulation in 2018, telling Leo Laporte about his iboga experience. The player is set to play just that part of the conversation, about nine minutes.

What his journey means to us

When people come to us, we do not tell them what to believe. We share a tradition with them. Some of our guests arrive deeply spiritual. Some arrive, as Bill did, believing there is nothing more out there, and that is completely fine. Whatever a person finds, they find it themselves, through their own senses and their own experience. It cannot be read in a book or told across a fire. It has to be lived.

Bill lived it. He met the part of himself he thought did not exist, he sat with the woman he loved, and he went home, in his words, “relaxed, centered, grounded, even serene.”

A farewell

We are honored to have shared a fire with him.

Rest well, Bill. Thank you for the tools, the pictures, and for telling the world what you found.

With love from the Iboga Wellness Center spiritual community

If Bill’s story speaks to you and you would like to learn about joining a gathering, see our schedule or submit a contact form.