1.0_Welcome to Iboganautics_AM

Welcome to… Iboganautics: Unveiling the iboga experience for first-timers and shamans alike. I’m your host, AM. Thanks for checking out my podcast on all things iboga. I recorded this episode before recording the other episodes in Season 1. I thought about re-recording it for what I'm about to tell you, but this short description should suffice. Originally, I was going to produce a weekly podcast, but soon realized that that would be too frenetic, too schizophrenic for me. I needed more order to this project. Additionally, I also realized that this podcast will cease one day, whether from my own boredom (highly unlikely), my own death, or accomplishing what I set out to accomplish. I can't choose when or how I will die, but I can choose how I'm going to wrap up the Iboganautics project when I feel like I've covered all the material I wanted to cover. Applying this structure will be beneficial for you and I because each season will be like a mini-course for those in "research mode" or just curious about iboga. I decided that Iboganautics will be a seasonal podcast covering 10 seasons x roughly 8 episodes per season. In this way, each season will have an overarching theme and each episode within each season will correspond to that theme in some way. Further, I plan to release bonus episodes in between seasons that are random one-off conversations with no plan or agenda or prepared questions, just shooting the breeze with friends or whomever about iboga-related topics and more. Season 1: Considering I started out with the intention of doing a weekly podcast, Season 1's grouped topics and guests might seem a bit disorderly. If I had to tease out a theme from what I put together, however, I would say that Season 1 is kind of an extension of my master's thesis, wherein I asked how we might control the psychedelic experience. For example, Rico Mesa (ep1.2) speaks about how he controls his body using calisthenics techniques and I wonder how we can apply such methods to controlling the psychedelically intoxicated and unconstrained mind. I read all five chapters of my master's thesis (ep1.3-1.7) about the potential of modern technologies partially or fully controlling the psychedelic experience one day, and the word "control" can be swapped out for shaping, navigating, or willing parts of the experience. Dr. Claudia Schwarz-Plaschg (ep1.8) speaks about how we imagine and analogize psychedelic experiences, so the manner in which we think about these experiences is a form of control. Psychedelic Integration coach Greg Lawrence's iboga microdosing with cannabis method (ep1.9) is like a form of control, because users dip their toe into iboga headspace without experiencing the usually difficult "flood dose." Dr. Steve Katsikas (ep1.10) speaks about the phenomenology of the ibogaine treatment experience, giving future users a sense of what they might experience while on iboga, so that gives a sense of control through informed anticipation of how the experience unfolds. Last but not least, I invited Yann Guignon (ep1.1), an activist for iboga sustainability, to be my first guest to start this project on the right foot. For more information about me and my work regarding psychedelic technology and philosophy of psychedelics in general, please visit my website at https://amhouot.com/