From Mr. Moderator - Please read before posting

Dear Forum Friends:

My long suffering and grossly overworked friend, brightwillow, and I have been discussing how I could help with some of the work on the Forum.  While I can only aspire to be as dedicated, positive and friendly as Mr. Quendi, I did agree to be to be a moderator of a tiny patch of his turf.

The term 'his turf' is somewhat misleading, though.  Mr. Quendi has made every effort to make this 'our turf' and I expect you all are as appreciative of that as I am.  Anything goes (almost), balls-to-the-wall, full-tilt ahead has been his philosophy.  His philosophy has encouraged us to communicate, to learn and to share.  Thanks Cal!

However, this topic is going to try to be a little bit different.  Here, the bar is going to be set a bit higher.  While personal, anecdotal statements are valuable, Cal and I felt that it would be a good thing to have somewhere on the Forum dedicated to findings of a rigorous, scientific nature.

Most unfortunately, iboga has not been the subject of a large body of experimental and clinical knowledge.  This is due to several reasons:  The Schedule I designation in the USA;  Iboga's role in spiritual ceremonies;  Iboga's image as a hallucinatory drug of abuse;  The adoption of iboga as addiction treatment by an 'unsavory' class of people (addicts).  All these are reasons for the less-than-enlightened establishment to overlook any inherent benefits.  Iboga just does not fit into the tidy picture of the world that so many are desperately trying to promulgate.  Yes, iboga is another in the long list of casualties from the benighted War on Drugs.

(Oops!  Did I display a hint of my apolitical leanings?  Back to the topic at hand...)

So, this is intended to be a repository of experimental and clinical findings.  Hence, any statements of 'fact' will be put to the test.  References from scientific peer-reviewed journals will be required.

Any statements that do not have solid evidence will be deleted, expunged or obliterated.

If you have a theory that cannot be supported by experimental or clinical evidence, just say so.  There is definitely a place for your theories here, as long as they are labeled as such.

And your questions...  Questions lead to answers, they lead us to look harder and deeper.  All questions that can be answered by the scientific method are welcome.

Please use this topic thread or Forum Personal Messages for your comments to me, be they gripes, suggestions or whatever.

I firmly believe that moderation, as all things, should only be done in moderation.

Excelsior!

ET McKnight

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💬 3 comments

3 Comments

brightwillow· 03 Jun 2026

Thanks for the kind words man. I like that we want to reel this in a bit on this board. The main purpose being to make clear distinctions between what are presented as FACTS and those other theories or scientific opinions that have yet to be substantiated. Part of the reason for a site like this is to attract people from all walks of life...lay people, those with higher education, those with plant experience, etc - to help these communities form a consensus out of all this stuff that's so spread out and contested. We can help in this I think. So let's get crackin'

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marlena_wonders· 03 Jun 2026

I'd love to see stuff written for lay people, or even translated. I am that lay person, though I know the words, the chemicals are all new to me. T Psssst! Hi Tia! I'm playing with my new God-like Moderator Powers. Don't tell anyone else! ~e

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guenevere_walks· 03 Jun 2026

Tia & Friends, I agree. One such thing might be a basic pharmacology text book, you think? Or maybe a pharmacy text? Something written in the early to mid 1900s, when pharmacists actually compounded prescriptions instead of just counting pills, would be appropriate for folks making their own preparations. I recall they were fairly easy to read. I just took a look on the web, and all of the new texts I found had very little that appeared valuable. An actual Reference Library for our use would be sweet, no? A DVD that we could search? The PDR? Suggestions ? ? ? In retrospect, I am thinking that there needs to be 2 sections/categories. One with entries as described above containing reference material (research papers, textbooks) and the other for a more freeform discussion. I was thinking about starting a topic for 'Crackpot Theories and Weird Ideas' where we can advance our own theories and ideas free from all restraint. A place where brainstorming is welcome and references are totally optional. It could be a place to discuss ideas, our own observations and ask questions. The disclaimer could be "Believe at your own risk" or something similar. Perhaps, though, there could be a better label than 'Crackpot Theories and Weird Ideas' -- wouldn't want anyone thinking we're just a bunch of weirdo crackpots, do we? ~e

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