A group of veterans who have found psychedelics immensely helpful in treating their PTSD and depression symptoms are the subject of a new Netflix documentary.
Out Nov. 3, In Waves and War focuses on a group of U.S. Navy SEALS who take Ibogaine, derived from a shrub native to Central Africa called Tabernanthe iboga. It’s illegal in the U.S., so these veterans have traveled to a clinic in Mexico, and researchers studying Ibogaine at Stanford are following their progress.
In the film, the veterans talk about what drew them to military life, their traumatic deployments, and open up about hitting rock bottom. The film also features snippets of interviews with Stanford researchers and the spouses of the veterans. The goal of the film is to stem the tide of veteran suicides—about 17 a day—by showing those struggling that there is hope.
Here’s what to know about the psychedelic drug and how it helped vets reach a new stage in their recoveries from their deployments.
The therapeutic uses of psychedelics like Ibogaine
In 2021, TIME profiled the latest research on Ibogaine, the U.S. veterans who have used it, and the state of psychedelics research.
Psychedelics are famously associated with the hippie counter-culture of the radical ‘60s, but in recent years, their fast-acting effects are being taken more seriously in mainstream medicine. For example, psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, has been shown to reduce depression and anxiety in cancer patients.
While there’s yet to be a FDA-approved clinical trial studying Ibogaine in people in the U.S., there has been some promising research.
Published in Nature in 2025, a Stanford Medicine study of 30 special operations veterans found that a combination of Ibogaine and magnesium reduced PTSD, anxiety and depression and improved functioning in veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
A 2020 research paper published in the journal Chronic Stress found “very large reductions” in symptoms—including suicidal thoughts, PTSD, depression, anxiety and cognitive impairment—in 51 U.S. veterans who took Ibogaine in Mexico from 2017 to 2019.
For years, pharmaceutical companies have been afraid to go near Ibogaine because of concerns that it may block certain channels in the heart and slow down heart rates, causing fatal arrhythmias.
German pharmaceutical company ATAI Life Sciences is working on developing an FDA-approved drug to treat opioid-use disorder, while U.S.-based Mind Med is looking into a synthetic derivative of ibogaine called 18-MC to treat opioid addiction.
University of California, Davis, researchers are studying a potentially nonhallucinogenic compound called tabernanthalog (TBG) that’s similar to Ibogaine but designed to be less damaging to the heart. It increased neural plasticity, reduced heroin-and alcohol-seeking behavior and had antidepressant effects in rodents.
However, it will be years until such drugs could be widely available to veterans. In the meantime, Veterans Exploring Treatment Solutions (VETS) funds veterans who want to receive psychedelic treatments abroad. TIME’s 2021 feature spotlighted its founders Marcus Capone and his wife Amber, who are also profiled in the Netflix doc In Waves and War, along with vets that their organization VETS is supporting.
How U.S. Navy SEALs reacted to Ibogaine
The veterans featured in the film turn to Ibogaine as a last resort after struggling with mental health issues for a long time. Per excerpts from their interviews with Stanford researchers, they could not find the right combination of traditional medicines to effectively treat their depression symptoms.
In the film, Capone and fellow Navy SEAL veteran DJ Shipley accompany veterans down to Mexico for their first Ibogaine trip, using their prior experience with the drug to help provide moral support.
The film recreates what the veterans say they saw during their trips with animations. Capone says the first time he tried Ibogaine, he heard the sounds of chainsaws buzzing and flashed back to images of his childhood. “I saw difficult moments from my life from a different angle,” he explains, “It made me realize none of this was my fault.”
During Shipley’s trip, he believed he was on the set of The Wonder Years while the cast sat down for a family dinner, realizing, “If I could just create that for my children, maybe I’d put them in a better spot than I was.”
In a therapy session around a campfire, the participating veterans write down on a piece of paper things that they want to get rid of and throw them into the fire. After taking Ibogaine, they lie down on mattresses with pillows and let themselves be immersed in the trip.
One veteran, Matty Roberts visibly sobs. He says he saw himself looking into a mirror and staring at a stranger for a long time—showing he didn’t recognize himself. Capone and Shipley are sitting next to him when the drug wears off, each with a hand on Roberts’ back.
U.S. veteran Elias Kfoury cries tears of joy after taking the psychedelic Ibogaine in Mexico. Netflix
A patient named Elias Kfoury says the headaches that plagued him for 12 years largely disappeared after his Ibogaine trip. During his trip, he sobs and says “thank you” to no one in particular while holding his head in his hands.
Capone acknowledges in the documentary that drugs like Ibogaine may not cure his depression entirely, but that they can help veterans like himself get into a better state of mind so that they can establish the right safeguards for the next time they feel like they are slipping. In a voiceover, while the camera shows him meditating on a beach, he says, “It gives you a new white canvas to paint whatever you want on there, but you have to put plans…in place otherwise you potentially can go back. These are the things that people have to do after they open themselves up.”
In excerpts from interviews with Stanford researchers afterwards, the veterans say they haven’t been feeling down at all. One named Joe even says, “There’s a light in my eye that I haven’t seen since I was a child.” Researchers conclude that they are not showing symptoms of severe PTSD anymore.
The film ends with Roberts de-briefing his therapist about his trip six months later and telling her that he feels more in control of his emotions. “If I go into a dark place, now instead of being in it as a captive, I’m in it as an observer. It doesn’t have to trap me anymore.”
