#59 ep2.0_The Body on Iboga
CLICK HERE to listen to Season 2 Episode 0
Welcome everyone. Season 2 is locked and loaded. Starting today, I will release one episode per day. There will be an episode 7, possibly an episode 8, but once I release them all at once, you’ll have to wait for Season 3 in February 2021, for more content.
Researching and speaking with my guests this season has been a wonderful experience. I’m so honored and grateful to speak with people who are much smarter than me in many ways. I’m confident that you’ll learn a lot about the iboga experience by listening to the Iboganautics podcast, however, I learn much more (sorry, but it’s true) because I have to consume so much information through journal articles, books, and other media in order to develop my questions for guests. That is not to say that you cannot also learn as much as I; below each Podcast Supplement article for each guest I list the sources I used to prepare for our conversation. By all means, dig in and connect the dots that I didn’t.
I much prefer the seasonal podcast vibe than a weekly topic schedule, which is random and chaotic in my opinion. By focusing on one or two main research questions as my “North Star” for each episode, each season then becomes like a mini course on that particular aspect of iboga. This I find extremely exciting not only for me who is living it, but for anyone who is interested in iboga consumption and research.
Another self-critical thing I want to mention about me and my podcast: when I listen to my own podcast, I notice that I slip up and make mistakes during conversations. Sometimes I struggle to find the words, to articulate myself well, or jumble my words and thoughts. There are a number of reasons for this. First, I had a stuttering problem when I was a kid and I find it quite nerve-wracking to put myself out there, that is, in a recorded podcast setting. Second, my mind moves quicker than my speech. I find oration cumbersome, yet on the other hand I love writing because I can write out and revise the fast-moving thoughts that flow into and through my mind. Oration and writing are two different beasts, and I’m learning how to become a better orator. I have a feeling that one day I’ll speak live in front of audiences, and the only reason I would do so is because (a) I believe iboga is something very special that needs to be investigated more closely, and (b) I’m so passionate about iboga and the states of consciousness it produces, in addition to the content of these kinds of experiences. If presenting my work and collaborations on oratory mediums will get iboga the attention it deserves, in terms of recognition, funding, and research, then that’s what I’ll do, and I want to be at the forefront of this knowledge production. Third, I speak with experts from fields peripheral to my own. That’s a source of nervousness in itself. What gives me confidence is that I know how to research and therefore can read something peripheral to my educational background and still get the gist of what the author says. It’s a challenge for me to read texts on neuro-ophthalmology and gastroenterology, but I do it anyway in order to connect the dots between those fields and others and my own interest in understanding, or rather, decoding, iboga states of consciousness.
Updates: My website AMhouot.com is going well. At the moment I have 58 “streams” on my Stream of Consciousness blog, totaling around 58,000+ words, so there is basically a whole book separated into 58 small chapters spanning different subjects and philosophical and scientific musings. And this is only the beginning. I believe there’s more to the iboga experience, psychedelic technology and phenomenology of psychedelic consciousness/perception that I’ll help discover and upon which I’ll help to extrapolate.
I have a research article coming out this October in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies and another to come out in the same journal in February 2021, which is nearly finished. I’m also steadily completing chapters of my first book on psychedelic science. There are other things in the pipeline, but you’ll hear about them when I’m ready to disclose them. I tell you, it’s an interesting experience to be a podcaster, to bring together various and once unconnected voices to create a remix of sorts around a particular topic. It’s fascinating and I’m really enjoying it. I never thought I’d be a podcaster. If you’re passionate about a topic, please do all of us a favor by sharing what you know, what you want to know, and what you can inspire and teach to others. It’s a little bit about you, of course, but it’s more about your role in advancing knowledge and expertise in ways that could not have occurred without your guiding hand. On that note, I hope you enjoy Season 2 of Iboganautics as much as I had in creating it, and I look forward to your comments and critiques.
Best,
AM