Overview of Inside My 72-Hour Psychedelic Iboga Therapy With Julie Piatt
Rich Roll and Julie Piatt discuss Rich’s intense 72-hour iboga experience, why he chose to do it, what the ceremony was like, and what changed afterward. The conversation is both a personal reckoning and a reflection on healing, addiction, trauma, self-love, and the role of feminine-held ritual. Rich is careful to stress that this is not an endorsement or recommendation—iboga is extremely powerful, physically demanding, and potentially risky—and should only be considered with serious research and professional guidance.
Why Rich Chose Iboga
What led up to it
- Rich had previously done a psilocybin + MDMA experience, which opened him up to the idea that psychedelics might be therapeutically meaningful.
- As someone in long-term recovery, he had been deeply wary of mind-altering substances, especially because the idea of “a substance that fixes everything” can be seductive for addicts.
- Despite years of therapy, men’s work, and other healing modalities, he still felt stuck in:
- recursive behavior patterns
- unresolved childhood resentments
- a harsh inner critic / negative self-talk
Why iboga kept resurfacing
- Ibogaine had been on his radar through addiction-recovery stories and increasingly appeared in conversations, media, and his social feed.
- He met a woman in Mexico who runs an iboga treatment center, and Julie felt strongly that she was the right person to hold the space for him.
- Rich ultimately said yes largely because he felt supported by Julie and trusted the practitioner.
Iboga vs. Ibogaine
Important distinction
- Ibogaine is the active alkaloid often used in clinical or Westernized settings.
- Iboga refers to the full root experience, traditionally used by the Bwiti people of Gabon as part of a ceremonial rite of passage.
- Rich describes his experience as being done in the traditional ceremonial form, which he found far more intense and confrontational than he expected.
Why that mattered
- The ceremony included ritual, offerings, music, women holding the space, and a slow unfolding over many hours.
- Rich feels this traditional framework was essential to the experience’s emotional and spiritual depth.
The Experience Itself
What it felt like
- Rich describes iboga as the “Mount Everest of psychedelics.”
- The first night was brutal:
- relentless music
- overwhelming sensory stimulation
- distorted sense of time
- nausea, physical instability, shaking, and impaired motor control
- He felt at times like he was “flirting with madness” and trapped in a terrifying loop of consciousness.
Hallucinations and confrontation
- Unlike his psilocybin experience, he did not get clear, symbolic, or autobiographical visions.
- Instead, he experienced a fast-moving torrent of unfamiliar hallucinations that felt impossible to grasp.
- He says the medicine seemed to be:
- confronting his defenses
- stripping away resistance
- pushing him to encounter himself more directly
The rebirth arc
- By the second and third day, the experience shifted from sheer confrontation into something more regenerative.
- A key theme became:
- being “reborn”
- reconnecting with his inner child
- reparenting himself with compassion and safety
- The ceremony ended with cacao, which Rich had initially mocked as “just hot chocolate,” only to find himself crying almost immediately.
Spiritual and Symbolic Moments
Orion’s Belt
- During the experience, Rich looked up at Orion’s Belt and felt it held profound significance.
- He later connected it with:
- divine alignment
- transformation
- the divine feminine
- childhood memories with his father, who used to point it out to him
- Julie framed this as a meaningful confirmation of their shared path and connection.
The walnut offering
- Rich was unexpectedly asked to bring an offering and had to improvise.
- He offered a walnut that Julie had previously given him during a fire ceremony.
- Julie explains the walnut as “activated” with intention and ceremony, making it a valid and meaningful offering.
The Role of the Feminine
Women holding the space
- Rich repeatedly emphasizes that the ceremony was held by women with a strong, compassionate, and grounded presence.
- He felt the treatment environment carried a palpable feminine energy that was deeply healing.
- Julie interprets this as the feminine acting as a portal to the unseen and as an antidote to the harsh, wound-driven energy often associated with masculine power structures.
What it meant to Rich
- He says the experience made him think the world would be better if women were running more of it.
- The women’s way of holding space felt like the opposite of domination: grace, care, and unconditional love.
Aftereffects and Integration
Immediate changes
Rich reports noticeable changes in the weeks after the treatment:
- less anxiety and hypervigilance
- more patience and groundedness
- more access to joy and gratitude
- less urgency and less attachment to escape
Addiction-related impact
- One striking result: he no longer craved his usual morning coffee in the same way.
- He doesn’t claim to have quit coffee, but his intake dropped significantly.
Inner monologue awareness
- A major takeaway was becoming more aware of his negative self-talk.
- He describes the mind as a constant “Fight Club” of criticism and self-punishment.
- The benefit is not that the thoughts vanished, but that he can now notice them sooner and create distance from them.
Integration is the real work
- Rich repeatedly says the experience is not a magic fix.
- The real value comes in the integration afterward:
- how he behaves
- how he shows up in relationships
- whether the insights become lived change
Impact on Their Marriage
What Julie noticed
Julie says she observed a real shift in Rich:
- less resentment
- more presence
- more willingness to participate without defensiveness
- more tenderness in mundane moments
A concrete example
- Going to the car wash together became meaningful because Rich was simply present, not resistant or preoccupied.
- Julie emphasizes that the shift was not about grand gestures, but about the quality of presence.
A deeper relational insight
- Their discussion turns into a meditation on intimacy:
- real intimacy has no guaranteed outcome
- it requires courage to be fully seen
- love is not about achievement or fixing, but about honest presence
- Julie says the experience gave them a chance to begin again with more awareness, history, and choice.
Key Takeaways
- Iboga was profoundly difficult, not blissful or easy.
- Rich sees it as a reboot rather than a cure.
- The strongest immediate benefit was a reduction in compulsive cravings and a greater awareness of his inner critic.
- The ceremony’s feminine-held container was central to the healing.
- The most important next step is integration, not chasing another peak experience.
- The deepest lesson may be simple: self-love is the foundation for giving and receiving love well.
Cautions and Recommendations
- Rich is explicit that iboga is not for everyone.
- It carries physical risks, including heart concerns, and requires medical screening.
- He urges listeners to:
- research extensively
- consult mental health and medical professionals
- avoid treating his experience as prescriptive
- The main message is not “do this,” but “this is what happened to me.”
Closing Reflection
The episode ends as a mutual expression of gratitude, love, and awe at the transformation they believe is possible through deep healing work. Rich frames the iboga experience as one of the most intense and meaningful things he has ever done, while Julie sees it as part of a larger evolution in their relationship and in Rich’s self-understanding.