ibogaine rite of passage

ICEERS
Foundation
The International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research & Service (ICEERS) is a
philanthropic, tax-exempt non-profit organization (charity) dedicated to 1) the integration
of ayahuasca, iboga and other traditional plants as therapeutic tools in modern society,
and 2) the preservation of the indigenous cultures that have been using these plant
species since antiquity on their habitat and botanical resources.
Why ICEERS Exists
ICEERS is dedicated to marshal the forces of the ethnobotanical knowledge of the indigenous peoples and modern
therapeutic practice, responding to the urgent need for efficient tools for personal and social development.
For thousands of years, indigenous and pre-industrial societies mastered special plant species, known for its
psychoactive properties, through religious and ritual use, to address medical, psychological and social issues critical to
social relations and survival. The importance and scope of these plant species for the human family, as tools for
personal and social development, cannot be overstated.
From this perspective ICEERS works towards the acceptation and integration of these ethnobotanical tools in
contemporary society on three levels: Education - Scientific Research - Service
Who We Are
Board of Directors
Joan Obiols-Llandrich, MD, Ph.D - President
He was born in 1951 in Barcelona in a family where psychiatric practice and the
pursuit of scientific rigor in mind-spirit duality was already present. He
simultaneously studied Medicine and Social Anthropology from which he
graduated in 1974 and 1975 respectively. He got his Ph.D in Medicine (1991). As a
psychiatrist he has intented to work in the frame of Transcultural Psychiatry. He has
been a member of the International Committee of the Transcultural Psychiatry
Section (World Psychiatric Association) from 2002 to 2008, serving as secretary of
the Section from 2005 to 2008. In 1992 he did fieldwork in Ecuador in a Shuar
community, known for traditional use of Ayahuasca. Dr. Obiols is currently the
director of the Public Mental Health Department of Andorra (SAAS).
Maria Carmo Carvalho - Vice-President
Maria Carvalho, living in Porto, Portugal, started as a junior research assistant in
projects that studied the most problematic aspects of drug use. For her Masters
research and PhD studies, she developed an interest for drug use by youth
populations in recreational settings. As a lecturer in the field of Psychology at the
Universidad Catolica in Porto she became particularly interested in teaching her
students the evolution the human act of altering conscience has suffered, from a
historically and culturally integrated practice to a “social problem” in modern
societies, and how we see it becoming more recently a tool used by youth in their
understanding of fun and pleasure. There are multiple challenges for intervention in
this field.
Òscar Parés - Secretary
Òscar Parés studied Philosophy and Anthropology, after which he got a Master’s
degree in Drug Addiction at the University of Barcelona. In the 14 years following
he got interested in the use of ethnobotanicals in indigenous contexts as well as
modern psychotherapy through the consciousness expanding techniques. He
currently collaborates in the drug-prevention team of the Program on Substance
Abuse at the General Directorate for Public Health, Department of Health of the
Government of Catalonia. Òscar Parés has done trainings in prevention of
problems related to drug use in schools, institutes, for professors, academici,
public health professionals such as doctors, nurses, therapists, police officials,
night life staff, youth prisoners, etc. He is also involved in diferent european
projects such as Democracy Cities & Drugs, Newip, Club heath conference,
Psychonaut, Drojnet2, etc.
Margot Honselaar - Treasurer
Living in Halsteren, the Netherlands, Margot has been working as an accountant
for over 10 years of which 2 years in Kenya training local personnel, amongst other
activities. In 2002 her daughter got cancer and a very difficult time followed, until
she died in 2006. After a long and devastating mourn process, Margot got in
contact with Ayahuasca which provided a profound integration of her daughter’s
death, giving many answers to unanswered questions about life and death. At
present, Margot has continued her accounting activities for a number of
companies, but in addition started a foundation to help grave or incurable sick
children to express their feelings and emotions. The important role Ayahuasca has
played in her life make her a dedicated treasurer for ICEERS.
Advisory Board
Kenneth R. Alper, MD
Is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University School
of Medicine. He is author of over 70 peer-reviewed publications, books and book
chapters. His research on iboga alkaloids has combined psychopharmacology
and the methodology of medical ethnography, includes a case series on the use of
ibogaine for the indication of heroin detoxification, and a recent paper published in
the Journal of Ethnopharmacology that combined qualitative and quantitative
methods to provide a comprehensive overview on the global use of ibogaine. Dr.
Alper is independently supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse as
investigator in the quantitative EEG in cocaine dependence. His published clinical
research on the neuropsychiatric aspects of epilepsy has included highly cited
work on trauma and abuse in conversion disorder and dissociative
symptomatology, and the effect of psychopharmacological treatment on seizure
threshold.
Jordi Riba, Ph.D
Received his PhD in Pharmacology in 2003, at the Autonomous University of
Barcelona (UAB), with a thesis on the human pharmacology of ayahuasca. He is
Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the UAB and Associate Researcher at the
Drug Research Center of the Sant Pau Hospital in Barcelona, where he has
conducted a series of clinical studies with Ayahuasca, which have assessed its
phamacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, including alkaloid disposition,
subjective effects and electroencephalography and neuroimaging measures of
acute ayahuasca administration. The results have been published in scientific
journals such as Psychopharmacology, The Journal of Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics, The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and The
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. He is currently the lead researcher of a study
assessing the effects of long-term ayahuasca use.
Uwe Maas, M.D.
Living in Witten, Germany, Dr. Maas is clinical Pediatrician, trained in Family
Therapy, and passionate violinist. He worked in Germany, Bangladesh, Gabon,
Zimbabwe and Mozambique as a pediatrician and in treatment programs for
people affected by HIV and AIDS. He was engaged in one of the first methadone
detoxification programs during pregnancy in the late 1980th in Berlin. After
extensive contacts with traditional healers in Gabon he underwent the Ibogainitiation of the Mitsogho tribe. Field studies from 1999-2007 led to several
publications about the psycho-therapeutic potential of Iboga, the brain-organic
induction of near-death-experiences, prevention of the cardiac risks of Ibogaintake, and the structure and music- therapeutic effects of Gabonian ritual music.
Uwe Maas was president of ICEERS from 2009 until 2012.
Rafael Guimarães dos Santos, Ph.D.
In his M.Sc. in Psychology, he investigated the acute effects of ayahuasca on
psychometric measures of anxiety, panic-like, and hopelessness in Santo Daime
members. In his Ph.D. thesis in Pharmacology, directed by Dr. Jordi Riba, he
compared the acute subjective and physiological effects of ayahuasca with those
produced by d-amphetamine, and also investigated the pharmacology of two
repeated doses of ayahuasca.
Roman Paškulin, M.D., Ph.D.
He is director and principal investigator at OMI Institute for anthropological
medicine and lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Primorska. His scientific
approach to evaluation of remedies of natural origin aims to bring traditional
knowledge into western medical use. His special interests lie in lifestyle diseases,
especially addiction and most of his work deals with the »soul healing« herbs. He
has conducted field research on iboga, ayahuasca, and mandrake
ethnopharmacology and is author of a series of scientific publications that bridge
molecular genetics with psychological, sociological and spiritual impact of
entheogen use.
Stephan V. Beyer, Ph.D., J.D.
He holds doctorates in both religious studies and psychology, and has taught as
an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the University of
California - Berkeley, and Graduate Theological Union. Expert in both jungle
survival and plant hallucinogens, he lived for a year and a half in a Tibetan
monastery in the Himalayas, and has undertaken and helped to lead numerous
four-day and four-night solo vision fasts in the desert wildernesses of New Mexico.
He has studied the use of sacred and medicinal plants with traditional North
America herbalists, in ceremonies of the Native American Church, Peruvian mesa
rituals, and with mestizo shamans in the Upper Amazon, where he received
coronación by banco ayahuasquero don Roberto Acho Jurama. His current
research centers on the phenomenology of anomalous and visionary human
experiences, particularly in the context of indigenous ceremonial plant use. The
Institute for the Preservation of Medical Traditions at the Smithsonian Institution has
praised his “unparalleled knowledge of sacred plants.”
Executive Office
Benjamin De Loenen - Founder/Executive Director
Director, producer and composer of the documentary ‘Ibogaine-Rite of
Passage’ (2004). After making this documentary, his interest in ibogaine leads him
to further study this ethnobotanical and found ICEERS in 2009, with the objective to
integrate ayahuasca and iboga as therapeutic tools in occidental society. Benjamin
is the engine that keeps alive the agenda and ambitions of ICEERS, through the
motivation and confidence of its employees and volunteers. He has given many
lectures and screenings and formation in various specialized courses about
Ibogaine. In 2012 the documentary ‘Experience BWITI: Renascence of the Healed’
was released and he is developing a new documentary about the therapeutic
potential of ayahuasca. Since 2012, Benjamin also serves GITA (Global Ibogaine
Therapist Alliance) as member of the board of directors.
Pep Cura Oliveras - Content Manager
Studied Medical Anthropology at Universitat Rovira i Virgili. He has extensive
experience in adolescent drug education and is presently involved in a number of
social research projects related to heroin consumption and its social impacts. Pep
is also collaborating in the development and implementation of drug policies in
Catalonia at the Catalan Goverment Office.
José Carlos Bouso, Ph.D.
He is licensed in Psychology at the Autonomous University of Madrid. His studies
addressed preliminary data on the safety and efficacy of different doses of MDMA
administered in a psychotherapeutic setting to women with chronic post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of a sexual assault. He also has been conducting
neuropsychological research about long term effects of ayahuasca use in both
Spanish and Brazilian communities. He is co-author of several scientific papers
and book chapters. He currently combines his activity as a clinical researcher at
the IMIM - Institut Hospital del Mar d’Investigacions Mèdiques- with his scientific
work at ICEERS.
Marc B. Aixalà - Project Coordinator
Studied Telecommunication Engineering and while doing his final project in Perú
got interested in the use of ethnobotanical tools as self-actualization and
psychotherapeutic agents. This led him to study Psychology at Universitat de
Barcelona and to get trained in Transpersonal Psychology and Holotropic
Breathwork at Grof Transpersonal Training. He is interested in the development of
protocols to use non ordinary states of consciousness as a psychotherapeutic and
self-development tool in an ethical and effective way, in the context of the western
culture. He combines his work as a teacher with collaboration with ICEERS and his
vocation as a Holotropic Breathwork facilitator.
Collaborators
Jonathan Dickinson
Jonathan is inspired by the intersection between traditional healing practices and
policy reform through psychedelic medicines and their subcultures. He has been
working for ibogaine clinics in Mexico and Canada since 2009, and since
organizing their 3rd international conference in Vancouver in 2012, he has been a
board member of the Global Ibogaine Therapist Alliance. Prior to his work with
ibogaine he was a staff member for the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug
Policy, helping to establish their national office in Ottawa. and to initiate more
conversation about psychedelics and ethnobotanicals in the Canadian drug policy
reform community.
Rosario Quevedo-Pereyra de Pribyl
She is clinical and health psychologist, systemic family therapist, graduate in
Psychoneuroimmunology and intercultural coach, and has completed a PhD in
Medical Anthropology at the University of Vienna (Austria) with a dissertation about
the integration of the traditional medicine into the Peruvian health care system on
2012. She worked many years as psychologist, therapist, lecturer, researcher and
academic advisor in hospitals, health centres, non-governmental organizations,
professional associations and universities in Peru. Her current research focuses on
integrative health care models, transcultural psychology, and the socio-medical
implications of ethnomedical knowledge transfer. She currently works as scientific
consultant for the Committee for Traditional Medicine of the Peruvian Medical
Association and as coach for healers and their clients.
Acknowledgement of Past Contributors
ICEERS would like to express its deepest gratitude for the dedication, creativity and effort of all people that have
contributed to the development of the organization and its activities since 2007, when the idea to setup this non-profit
organization was born. Without their involvement ICEERS would not have grown and evolved to the organization it is
today.
ICEERS’ Legal Status
Since 2010, ICEERS has been recognized by the Dutch government as a non-profit foundation with what is called in
Holland ANBI status (tax-exempt charity). This national recognition is valid in the whole European Union. This means
that donations made from any EU country to ICEERS can be deducted from the donor’s taxes. If you want to make a
tax-deductible donation from outside of the EU, please contact us.
Official Documents
Documents available for download in "Downloadable material" on this section.
DISCLAIMER
ICEERS takes care to ensure that the information presented on this website is accurate at the time of its publication. However, over time new scientific
and medical information becomes available, and laws and legal enforcement polices change. In addition, laws and legal enforcement policies
governing the use of substances discussed on this website vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The reader is advised to carefully consult appropriate
sources for the most current information on scientific, medical, and legal issues. Material on this website is not intended to and should not be used as a
substitute for personal consultation with knowledgeable physicians and attorneys.
The information on this website is offered for informational use only, and is not intended for use in diagnosing any disease or condition or prescribing
any treatment whatsoever. The information on this website is not intended to encourage the use of ethnobotanicals. ICEERS specifically cautions
against the use of ethnobotanicals in violation of the law, without appropriate professional guidance and monitoring, or without careful personal
evaluation of potential risks and hazards. ICEERS specifically disclaims any liability, loss, injury, or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or
indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents of this website. responsabilidad legal respecto a cualquier accidente, lesión o daño que
se pueda sufrir como consecuencia directa o indirecta del uso o aplicación de cualquiera de los contenidos aparecidos de este sitio web.
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