Dimitri Mugianis

Dimitri is a ​community organizer, harm reduction advocate and psychedelic practitioner, who brought these modes to marginalized populations. Once considered the face of underground use of the psychedelic Ibogaine to kick heroin addiction, Dimitri is the first ibogaine provider to be initiated into the Bwiti spiritual tradition in Gabon, Africa, an experience documented in the 2009 film “Dangerous with Love.” “I’ve spent my career working against models that make human suffering into medical categories.  And the new movement to use psychedelics as a way to treat supposed ‘illnesses’ worries me.  I think it’s a power-play, both in medicine owning something that is more art than science, and in furthering the making of people into things that need fixing—most often only with medical expertise. That’s scary stuff.”  Dimitri has performed more than five hundred ibogaine ceremonies in the United States and elsewhere, helping numerous individuals kick problematic habits, and has performed thousands of ceremonies using MDMA and psilocybin, helping individuals with psychological suffering and those interested in general spiritual awakening. “I’ve been doing this a long time, about two decades'' says Dimitri, “and I think the best we can do to help people in their recovery and in their awaking is to ‘create space’ for them, providing them a kind of container that moves and shifts around them as they heal in their own way.”  The adage about psychedelics is that they are only as good as the “set and setting”: Dimitri takes this very seriously, believing that a person’s own mental state, and the way they are guided during a trip, are actually more important than the pill or plant they put in their mouth.  He’s been featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice, HBO Vice, and NPR’s This American Life, and many other articles, podcasts and interviews.  The most recent article about Dimitri covers his work in the founding of psychedelic twelve-step meetings, and the organization that supports them.   Read More