Addiction: Indonesia and Iboga (video)

VICE/HBO; Seven, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon (ATS), Wisdom Quarterly; Dr. Gabor Mate

The world's biggest Buddhist temple is in Borobudur, Indonesia. It is a mandala shaped like a pyramid topped by stupas or reliquaries and strange "bells" with Buddhas inside, similar to German Die Glocke time-travel technology from WW II (Wisdom Quarterly).

NICOTINE: Tobaccoland

Shamans can cure (I-M)

The dangers of smoking are no secret in the U.S., but in Indonesia, the tobacco industry goes virtually unregulated. The result? Over two-thirds of all males are smokers and tobacco (nicotine with sugar used in curing the leaves, a preservative that makes it much more addictive than in its natural form) addicts. It is commonplace for children as young as six to take up the habit and buy cigarettes legally. Tobacco is a $100 billion industry here, with TV and print ads everywhere. Investigating this phenomenon in Malang, VICE visits a clinic that promises cures to a plethora of modern ailments using tobacco and smoking -- with an intrepid correspondent getting the full "smoke-therapy" treatment.

IBOGA: Underground Heroin Clinic

Heroin is one of the most easy-to-become addicted to substances on Earth. While it cannot be said to be addictive itself, according to Dr. Gabor Mate, many susceptible individuals certainly do become addicts, utterly dependent on it even as it brings about their ruin. ["Addiction" is the interaction of susceptibility from childhood trauma and introduction of the substance to the nervous system, usually for self-soothing rituals]. Some people will do anything to kick the habit.

Enter Ibogaine -- a drug made out of the African iboga root (T. iboga), whose intense, entheogenic and hallucinogenic properties make it a Type-A felony drug (Schedule 1, regarded as having no medicinal or redeeming qualities by the Big Pharma-influenced medical industry as part of the "military-industrial pharmaceutical complex" that pushes artificial, for-profit chemicals and allopathic "treatments" rather than any actual cures).

Bamboo bridge and waterfall (sun-surfer.com)

But many swear iboga is the most effective way to kick heroin and other substance addictions like alcohol -- especially when combined with shamanic rituals that involves a human guide who enters into trance, interacts with the spirit world, does face painting, chanting, and engages in other traditional practices. VICE follows the journey of one heroin addict who travels to Mexico, where Ibogaine is legal, to finally quit drugs.

• Addiction? (recovery)
• Buddhism: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts
• Mind/Body Health
• When the Body Says No
• Childhood Development & Parenting
• AD(H)D (attention deficit)
• Scattered Minds
• Hold On To Your Kids
• Bon Shaman Buddhism: Ven. Wangyal