Loading...
Home2024-02-23T05:33:26+00:00

Healing Iboga Retreat

Iboga Wellness Center is an Iboga retreat center located in beautiful Costa Rica. Those called to experience this sacred medicine can move through profound life transformations with wholehearted support and care. Located on Costa Rica’s biodiverse Pacific coastline, we are the longest-running shamanic Iboga retreat center in the Western Hemisphere.

Native to Central West Africa, Iboga has been used by the Bwiti people for thousands of years, assisting them in learning about life and about themselves.

mata palo on laurel tree
bwiti okume torche art

At Iboga Wellness, we combine Iboga’s natural source intelligence with ancient Bwiti wisdom teachings to help guests release trauma, illuminate their own innate truth, and master the Art of Living.

Providing Iboga in the shamanic Bwiti way is like using a key. The tradition and the medicine work together to unlock doors to every level of healing — accessing ailments of the mind, body and spirit. Only when these three doors are open can pain be healed at the root.

Healing is an opportunity. It is available to everyone as a part of this beautiful gift of Life. But the journey to wellness is also a choice. When we finally choose to show up for our healing — by clearly identifying what we want for ourselves and committing to doing the work — Iboga becomes our greatest ally.

Iboga is a remarkably unique tool.

A master healer, it moves inside of us the same way it moves in nature. The root energy takes us deep within ourselves, identifying the source of our pain in a very rapid, direct way. Iboga shows us that the ability to heal, and the answers to the questions we seek, have always been inside.

The personal discovery of this truth within ourselves is profound, empowering, and lasting.

Our purpose at Iboga Wellness is to cultivate the conditions necessary for Iboga to properly do its work. We create a space that is free of all judgement, offering a safe and supported environment for guests — both physically and spiritually. Loving guidance, nurturing care, and the implementation of traditional shamanic wisdom teachings and practices are the ingredients that activate an atmosphere conducive to soul-level healing.

Our providers set the stage — and then it’s time to step back and let Iboga run the show.

“Iboga is a tool. By choosing to use that tool, the healing happens naturally. As providers, we are here to hold sacred space safe and take the best care of you. But you’re the one who heals you,” says Iboga Wellness Center Founder Gary Cook of an Iboga provider’s role.

Pura Vida and Bassé
Pure Life (Spanish) and Truth (Bwiti)

Iboga vs ibogaine, what’s the difference

Iboga Wellness Center does not use Ibogaine, which is typically used in drug detoxes. We work only with Iboga root bark and its Total Alkaloid (TA) extraction.

Ibogaine is just one chemically-isolated alkaloid that is found in the whole Iboga root. While TA and root bark contain Ibogaine, they also contain at least 11 additional, deeply healing alkaloids. These additional alkaloids make up the full spirit of the Iboga root, and are vital in the facilitation of a deep, psycho-spiritual journey. Without them, the spirit of the plant is no longer in its whole form, and cannot be accessed fully.

While Ibogaine is beneficial in cleansing the body physically, such as in drug detoxes, journeys with TA and root bark cleanse spiritually as well as physically.

All of the medicine used at Iboga Wellness is grown wild in the jungles of Gabon, and is ceremonially harvested through a 10th generation Bwiti shaman.

iboga plant with fruit
bwiti dancer with torch art

But we recognize the need for balance. Our sessions have been tailored to merge ancient traditions with the needs of those living in today’s modern world. The blending of the Bwiti tradition with a Western awareness makes for a very consistent  success rate. At our center, guests can enjoy rich comforts and amenities, as well as therapeutic services and conscious, whole-being nourishment throughout the retreat. This cultural mergence is an approach to healing that nurtures a full reset, giving guests the space and support to develop a clear understanding of who they are, determine what they want from their lives, and leave with the proper tools for making changes.

Our Iboga Ceremony

Implementing the traditional African wisdom teachings of the Bwiti is a crucial part of our practice. The sharing of their knowledge — which has been passed down for generations as an oral tradition and cannot be found in books — provides guests with tools to master the mind and live with purpose.

bwiti initiation retreat iboga wellness center
iboga wellness amenities

8 Day Psycho-Spiritual Iboga Retreat Overview

  • Nurturing, organic meals prepared with love by our onsite chef, who is able to meet all dietary needs and requests (there are no dietary or fasting requirements leading up to our retreat)

  • Bwiti wisdom teachings are shared by providers during a welcome ceremony, at fireside chats, and throughout the week

  • A private consultation with a provider and staff is held prior to ceremony to discuss intentions, questions, and the journey itself

  • Two Iboga ceremonies (held on days two and five of our 8-day retreat)

  • A guided journey during the Iboga ceremony, led by one of our providers

  • Onsite massage and nature walks (optional)

  • A spiritual shower and cleansing ceremony is held to release what no longer serves us, and in its space invite what we want into being

  • Two offsite excursions to local beaches

  • Closing talks and integration discussions to assist your healing process upon departure

  • Follow-up integration phone calls with one of our providers after you return home

Benefits of Iboga

The benefits of Iboga have no boundaries. Each healing is unique and perfect, tailored to what a person has been through and how they need to experience healing in order to move past their trauma. It is common for guests to notice:

  • A deep and lasting spiritual transformation

  • A sense of inner peace

  • An objective discovery of the root cause of pain or trauma, which moves into acceptance, release, and actualized healing

  • A full body/mind/spirit reset that can eliminate the need for substances, negative behavioral and thought patterns, conditioned beliefs, unhealthy addictions (gambling, pornography, eating disorders, technology, etc.)

  • A discovery of the underlying causes of depressionPTSD or anxiety, acceptance and release, and a healing of the mind, which results in emotional freedom

  • For spiritual seekers, Iboga has the ability to reconnect us to our souls and guide us into our own personal spiritual discovery.

beach art

We love to connect directly with those who are interested in working with this medicine. Please contact us if you have any questions about the process, our center, or anything related to iboga. We look forward to speaking with you and helping you on life’s journey!

Iboga Wellness Center