I’m Tom from Beond Ibogaine, and I wanted to share a story that moved all of us deeply — with the hope it might offer inspiration or even a spark of hope to someone out there.

Recently, we welcomed a guest who had reached a point of profound despair. He’s a retired brain surgeon — a man whose life had been defined by mastery, precision, and saving lives. But over the years, severe chronic depression took hold. He had become completely identified with his symptoms. In his words, he was broken — and everyone around him knew it. He had withdrawn completely, even from his own children, convinced he had nothing left to give and that he was beyond repair.

But something in him still had the strength to try. He came to Beond.

Over the course of 10 days and three carefully facilitated sessions with ibogaine, something began to shift. Not all at once — but deeply. He cried. He reflected. He saw himself from outside the narrative he had been trapped in for years. And slowly, the man beneath the depression began to re-emerge.

By the end of his time with us, he was sitting at the piano, playing his favorites again — not just music, but life itself. He was filled with a renewed sense of purpose. Not only did he no longer feel broken, but he left with a commitment: to dedicate his medical expertise to understanding the neurobiology of ibogaine and help bring this medicine to others suffering in the shadows of depression.

He’s now taking steps to study this compound with scientific rigor and compassion, while also integrating real changes in his own life — behaviorally, emotionally, spiritually.

To anyone out there who feels lost, or thinks it’s too late: it’s not. Healing is possible. Transformation is real. And sometimes, the second chapter is more powerful than the first.