Ikara Retreat

Attended for my first iboga experience in Aug 2023. I can honestly say I have never experienced dedication such as been shown to me by Manga and Kuma. They truly live this medicine, and I am incredibly grateful for the hard work they put in. Even though it’s only the two of them, at times it felt like there was a staff of 1/2 dozen with the amount they’re able to attend to. They have continued to support me in the months following the retreat. Know that if you come, you will be incredibly safe & held. Iboga’s power to heal is directly correlated with the context in which it is served: you won’t find the medicine being served in this traditional way anywhere else in the west. My life has been transformed, and I am incredibly thankful I found Ikara; I’m not sure I would trust any other westerner to serve the medicine knowing what I know now. If you’re called to the path of Iboga, this is the place!

The place is great, Kuma and Waganda were amazing and attentive. The place is clean and confortable. Food was delicious and the support during the ceremonies was great too as well as their previous guidance.

My experience doing an Iboga Retreat with Melinda and Kuma at the Ikara Retreat Center was life changing and can't recommend it enough.

This was the first true "plant medicine" retreat I had gone on - quotes because that is a Western term and Iboga itself in Bwete thought is taking in a spirit. I found Ikara Retreat Center through Retreat.guru and it was one of the least expensive plant medicine retreats, which was one reason I chose it but also made me a little nervous as to why - was the retreat center less nice? Was it location in Costa Rica? Was it lower doses?

Turns out that Melinda and Kuma are just super dedicated to introducing people to the traditional Bwete Iboga Ceremonies and aren't out to just make a buck like so many others centers. They work directly with the Bwete people in Gabon, running an NGO to benefit the village they work with, and are extremely dedicated to bringing the traditions, ceremonies, and philosophy to Western audiences through their retreat center. You could tell just how much they care and how genuine they are about helping others experience the wisdom of the spirit they offer.

The property itself is also gorgeous. It overlooks the Ocean, has rain forest on the property where we actually bathed in a waterfall at one point, and the grounds are really nice. The housing is nice but very simple in a bit of a monastic way, which is actually perfect for introspection. If you're looking for a super luxury, bougie experience with plush queen beds and big screens in your room, this isn't the center for you, and frankly they keep it simple but comfortable and nice to allow you to focus and reflect. It is very much the way a retreat should be. They also have a no cell phone rule during the retreat, which was so helpful in being able to really be one with everything and present.

In terms of Iboga, we had two ceremonies and I felt particularly well taken care of by both Kuma and Melinda, who when you consider the number of hours they put in to hold their retreats, they probably sleep only 8 hours over 4 days with just how attentive they are to everyone both during ceremony and integrating after ceremony. They're very chill about things too and not the more pushy retreat leaders. Just very caring and very knowledgeable having done so many retreats over the years. I still stay in touch with them now as they check on how I'm doing after and we continue to have a mentorship / friendship post the retreat.

They also administer Iboga grown by the Bwete which has all of the alkaloids of the full Iboga plant, not the synthesized, single alkaloid Ibogaine often derived from plants other than Iboga itself and isolated through chemistry. They also weren't stingy with the Iboga, checking how you were feeling and giving you seemingly whatever amount you felt you needed, though I opted to take lower doses and what they recommended was plenty.

The experience itself was tremendously valuable for me as I was already doing heavy amount of work on unresolved past traumas and it really gave me some epiphanies that resolved certain past memories, improved my self-love, and made me understand some of the things holding me back. Truth be told, some of the breakthroughs and insights may have been equivalent to years of therapy. It also had unexpected positive effects in alleviating a slew of long-Covid symptoms and what I found was that Iboga really resets your whole body and mind. I will say, the hard part of that is I did purge a lot, and that come-and-go nausea resolves over time - sometimes meaning you're tentative with eating sometimes for 24 hours from ceremony but varies from person and just how much your body had to purge. The retreat hosts though were great at giving just the types of foods that would help that process and really making sure you were feeling okay. You do feel it was ultimately a necessary part of your body reseting and also the experience overall is well worth some purging.

Overall it was an incredibly profound experience well worth the money. Honestly, I came away feeling like I got a really great value after seeing all that Kuma and Melinda put into the retreat hours wise including tending to people pretty much non-stop the entire time, then also including transportation to and from airport, providing food, snacks, and healthy drinks, and then the housing at the gorgeous grounds the retreat is on with view and a pool, along with so much else in terms of purification rituals. I'm particularly happy I chose this retreat over others that I had looked into which I now know wouldn't have been as genuine to the underlying ceremonies. They even speak to the head of the Bwete King Adumangana about each person doing the retreat, tying them into the process. You can check out the retreat centers Youtube and Instagram and has more that shows you just how genuine they are about spreading the experience and truth of Iboga. Also, feel free to reach out to them to ask questions because they were tremendously helpful in prepping me for the retreat, dispelling false notions, and just talking to me about how to get the best from the experience.

I will likely go back at some point and have certainly recommended this retreat to friends.