Climbing the Holy Mountain of Recovery

About the Book

This story is about the development of my heroin addiction and my recovery from it. I struggled to escape from my addiction for 17 years, but only succeeded after an ibogaine treatment. It is partly autobiographical, but I only describe traumatic episodes that contributed to the development of my addiction and sketch the highlights and milestones in my recovery. It is partly a memoir, as it offers a thematic view of my life and is moderate in scope; and partly a scholarly essay in which I offer insights about society’s role in addiction. My intent is that addicts and their loved ones may better understand the nature of addiction so that their approaches to treatment are better informed and more compassionate. At 69, I am a gentleman/hipster, a seeker, and scholar. But I’m not an academic who wrote this book by studying some research: I was an addict for 22 years! Now I am blessed to be alive 21 years clean. My mission is to help addicts by educating both the public and the professional community about addiction’s complexity, as well as the efficacy of ibogaine for its treatment. I hope my story sponsors change in social and medical attitudes so that the unheard voices of addicts will be honored as subjects, instead of described as objects that are social problems. My life went into the suspended animation of addiction when I had a third of the credits needed for a bachelor’s degree. 27 years later I returned to school; now I have bachelor’s degrees in Anthropology and Psychology and a Master’s degree in East-West Psychology (EWP). I am currently a PhD. candidate in EWP at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California.

About the Author

Addiction put my life into suspended animation when I had a third of the credits needed for a bachelor’s degree. Twenty-seven years later, I resumed my education, and now I have two bachelor’s degrees (in anthropology and psychology), a master’s degree in East-West psychology, and am currently a PhD candidate in that department at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. At sixty-six, I am a gentleman/hipster/seeker and scholar, but I’m not an armchair academic who wrote this book from a library: I was an addict for twenty-two years! Now I am blessed to be alive and have eighteen years clean. My mission is to help addicts by educating the public and the professional community about addiction's complexity and the efficacy of ibogaine for its treatment. I hope my story supports a change of paradigm to an ensouled one that honors subjective as well as objective viewpoints.