We receive this question quite often and a comparison between the two can be very difficult. Here is what Moughenda has said about Iboga in relation to other medicinal and visionary plants:
“Iboga is the godfather of all plants on the earth. There are many powerful plants out there that people use for visions and for healings. Every plant on the planet has healing properties. You just have to know them. Iboga is the chief plant, like the chief spirit. You have the spirits of the earth, the spirits of the sun, the spirits of the fire, the spirits of the water, and the spirits of the wind. Every element has a chief spirit. Iboga is the chief plant spirit.
Plants like Peyote, Ayahuasca or mushrooms are also very good medicine plants, depending on how they are being used. Still, those plants have limits, especially when you are talking about visions. Medicinally, all plants have different levels. Doing journeys with these other plants for ten years would not be equal to one Iboga journey. I have worked with people who have done Ayahuasca or peyote many times, but they are still in the same spot. Once you come to Iboga, it is one shot. Why do you think that people who have been working with Ayahuasca for fifteen years still have a need to do Iboga? I have no need to do any other medicine plant. Whatever I need or whatever I want to find out, I got it. Iboga can take you to the beginning of time. There is no other plant on this planet, and I will bet my life on it, that will take you to that place. That is why Iboga is the master, the godfather of all plants. The Iboga understands all the plants on earth.
I have not researched these plants on the physical level. I have done research on them on the spiritual level with the Iboga. Everything I am telling you, the Iboga has shown me.”
We are a shamanic healing center that uses iboga only because that is what the Bwiti have used for hundreds of years in Gabon, Africa where iboga is native to. Ayahuasca is a South American shamanic herb and the Bwiti have never used South American herbs in their tradition. We are not dismissing Ayahuasca or other visionary plants, and many people who come to the Iboga house still believe the journeys they provide are unique and very much life changing. However, the one thing everyone always says who has had experience with other plants, is that Iboga is unlike anything else.