I am a 24 year old man with no health problem. I was interested in trying ibogaine so I decided to give it a try with Harambe Ibogaine Detox, it turned out to be a very bad idea.

I set up the whole thing with Cathy over WhatsApp. She told me I would be monitored by a nurse with an EKG machine and given magnesium. It didn’t sound super professional, but I figured I was young, healthy, and just needed basic medical supervision, someone who could take me to the hospital if needed.
From the moment I arrived though, it was obvious the operation was even more amateurish than expected: I was received by Cathy and her husband Bilal, in their retreat center which is literally their house, with 2 children and a dog running around. They had me sleep in a damp truilo, outside the house. I still decided to give it a chance.
The next morning, we started the iboga, fasted. At 9:30 they gave me the first pill of ibogaine, to be taken with only a little sip of water. They said it was important to not drink too much on ibogaine to minimize nausea and vomiting risk, something that turned out to be a really bad idea. They told me their ECG machine was broken and that the nurse would arrive later – after giving me the initial test doses.
After ingesting all the ibogaine, they left me alone in the truilo. I was difficult to focus on the trip as I felt my heart racing. At some point, I felt 3 strange violent beats, as if my heart was about to burst out of my chest. This made me panic and I immediately went out and told Bilal I had had arrythmia (in hindsight it was probably not an arrythmia but rather the combination of my tachycardia and proprioceptive hallucinations caused by ibogaine, which is still concerning nonetheless, and they should have taken me immediately to the hospital).
They came back with an oximeter; my heart rate was 120 bpm. Their solution was to tell me to breathe deeply while waiting for the nurse. This was around noon. When the nurse finally showed up, she didn’t do much besides basic reassurance and breath coaching.
They kept me there for all afternoon, trying to help me reach ibogaine insight while my heart stayed consistently above 120 bpm, restricting my water intake to “not throw up”. By 9:30 p.m., my heart reached 150 bpm, Bilal finally drove me to a hospital in Valencia, where I was treated in the ER for tachycardia and dehydration.
Once stabilized, I decided against returning to Harambe and instead booked a hotel room in Valencia and spent the rest of the week recovering. When I asked for a refund later, they refused arguing that they refund “once treatment has started.” The nerve of calling that a treatment is insane. I genuinely believe I’d have been safer doing ibogaine alone at home: at least I’d have drunk water and gone to the ER sooner.

For anyone considering ibogaine:
Cardiac stress during ibogaine is managed through hydration and electrolyte balance. Tachycardia is common due to sympathetic activation but becomes dangerous when combined with dehydration as you’re asking the heart to work harder with less circulating volume. After researching later, I realized that the “restrict water to prevent vomiting” approach was completely medically indefensible. Aspiration risk from vomiting is manageable, cardiac collapse from dehydration isn’t. Vomiting is a side effect you manage, not something you prevent by drying the patient out.
My advice: don’t be cheap with your life. You need to do your due diligence and find a trustworthy clinic with real medical oversight. Ibogaine is unpredictable and even if you’re healthy, it can go wrong fast, as I learned at my expense. If it does, you’d rather be in the hands of trained doctors than some shamans improvising medicine.