"These 'converts,'" as Dimitri calls them, now work tirelessly with the medicine as part penance, part service, believing that this is now their calling. They are "what back in the day used to be called 'angel jobs,' the arduous process of taking care of a physically dependent junkie in the throes of withdrawal."

Dimitri has since conducted hundreds of one-on-one iboga healing sessions and in the process became driven to delve more deeply into the spiritual roots of the iboga experience. He's made several pilgrimages to the African soil where the plant is grown and studied with the earthly representatives of the Bwiti prepare iboga bark for medicinal use, learning the ritual chants and dances associated with the traditional iboga ceremonies.

Now he's called Mobengo, the name the Bwiti gave him, and his quest has been brilliantly documented by filmmaker Michel Negroponte in a feature film called I'm Dangerous With Love. It opened to rave reviews in New York City and around the country earlier this year, and it'll be screened at the Detroit Institute of Arts on Oct. 20.

As Charles Shaw concludes, "Instead of retreading the tales of misery that are endemic to any addiction narrative, I'm Dangerous With Love quickly becomes a sort of shamanic journey into the underworld, with Dimitri as a kind of Ulysses of the Lower East Side. ...  For those seeking a path out of darkness, this film is not to be missed."

Amen.

 —Detroit

> Email John Sinclair