God's Tree

Ten years ago, Emeka Onono took a uniquely powerful psychedelic in an African ritual. He saw a devastating vision of his own death. In this film he takes a journey to try and exorcise what happened to him. It starts in the West where Emeka reveals that the chemical extract of the drug used in the ritual, Ibogaine, is used to cure drug addiction. Addicts describe it as a spiritual purification. He meets scientists who are mystified by the drug's unique ability to combine science, psychology and spirituality in the way it treats addiction.

It was by reading about Ibogaine's anti-addictive properties that Emeka first heard about the drug. He decides to go to Africa because he is mixed race and is looking for an insight into African spirituality. But his experience reveals a darker side to Ibogaine. His journey takes him across three continents, where he shows that Ibogaine has driven some people mad, and has been the cause of disturbing and unexplained deaths. To find the answer of the duality of Ibogaine - it is both a healer and a killer - Emeka returns to Ibogaine's occult roots with the world's leading scientific Ibogaine researcher to take the drug ritually for a second and final terrifying encounter with his own death.

Team Partner

Tom Roberts, producer

Producer / Production Details

October Films