At 36, Dr. Gibrand Noriega is a force on our medical team at Beond. His drive to heal is as relentless as his athletic pursuits—like the triathlons he competes in during his spare time. In the races, he has to make a physical and psychological commitment to pushing through uncertainty and never giving up.

Dr. Noriega is dedicated to achieving more—he trained for a decade to become the doctor he is. He sets personal goals that require continuing support. This energy allows him to better identify with the journey of the people who are coming to Beond—to see himself in the patients who set their own goals for self-improvement. To see the link between him tracking his progress with his smartwatch and guests noting their improvement in journals and in our charts of clinical datasets.

Dr. Noriega trained as an emergency medicine physician, where he learned to watch over he heart, body, and vital signs. He has continued to train as a physician, to take a holistic approach to patient care, to look after guests’ overall well-being during their time at Beond.

This deep sense of responsibility extends beyond Dr. Noriega, and is shared by the rest of our medical staff—our nine doctors and more than 20 nurses.

“We’ve assembled a truly remarkable team—a collective of the brightest minds and most dedicated medical professionals. But what makes this team exceptional isn’t just individual brilliance; it’s how seamlessly they’ve come together.” says Tom Feegel, Beond’s co-founder. “It’s a unity built on a shared mission, a passion for changing lives, and the understanding that we’re in service to something much bigger than ourselves.”

A Beond Doctor with Top-Notch Training

Ibogaine is an unexpected destination for Dr. Noriega. Before immersing himself in ibogaine—an unusual medical treatment that uses the root of a shrub to induce a psychedelic, dream-like state—Dr. Noriega started off on a more traditional medical path.

He studied medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America, often ranked in the top ten in the region. He completed a specialization in Emergency Medicine in Cancun, and did a second specialty in critical care. “The COVID-19 pandemic was a period of significant stress and trauma due to the high mortality rates,” Dr. Noriega says. (He worked in an intensive care unit.)

Then, as the intensity of COVID quieted down, Dr. Noriega’s attention shifted to another epidemic: addiction. Drug overdose deaths topped 100,000 in the U.S. in recent years. Fatal overdoses have doubled in Mexico in the last 15 years. As a doctor, he’d treat young people on ventilators after overdoses. He’d see older people dying of alcohol use disorder. Alcohol kills 50,000 Mexicans a year.

Dr. Noriega was dismayed that he had no real addiction treatments. Then, he heard whispers of something new.

Ibogaine Can Help Addiction

“People told me about this medicine that helps truly eliminate addiction,” says Dr. Noriega, “but I couldn’t believe it.”

Despite his traditional medical background, Dr. Noriega kept an open mind about an unconventional treatment. “I got curious, which led me to explore this field with the goal of helping to eradicate this addiction epidemic,” says Dr. Noriega.

Psychedelics have been found to battle addiction since the 1950s. Dr. Noriega read that no psychedelic is as successful for addiction as ibogaine. He became sure ibogaine was worth trying.

There was a hitch, though: Dr. Noriega quickly learned that ibogaine is significantly different from LSD or mushrooms in many ways–as an emergency room doctor, the physical aspects stood out the most.

“Ibogaine can have significant side effects, including cardiac arrhythmias, blood pressure alterations, and gastrointestinal issues,” says Dr. Noriega. “It may also interact with other medications, which can be dangerous. Its use may not be suitable for everyone, especially those with pre-existing health problems.”

Dr. Noriega found his specialty, emergency medicine, useful in treating ibogaine’s side effects.

“I started by immersing myself in this area,” Dr. Noriega says. “I dove deep into studying various psychedelic-assisted therapies and the significant results obtained not only for addictions but also for TBI, post-traumatic stress, pain management, among others. Drawing scientific evidence-based correlation between the optimization of the medicine and the effective risk mitigation strategies for our patients, my skills as a health professional contribute greatly to the success of each of these treatments.”

He studied the work of Dr. Deborah Mash, Dr. Nolan Williams, Dr. Thomas Kingsley Brown, and more. Pouring over their research, meeting them when possible, and interrogating their writing to deepen his understanding of ibogaine’s safety and efficacy based on all the scientific literature out there.

Heart-Centered Ibogaine Care

Dr. Noriega began working at Beond over a year ago.

For guests at Beond, Dr. Noriega is more than just their doctor—he’s someone who seeks first to listen deeply and understand, and then takes extra care to ensure they’re both physically and emotionally ready for their journey with ibogaine.

One of the ways Dr. Noriega plays a crucial role at Beond is assessing patients who are on the borderline of treatment; those with whose conditions require remediation prior to treatment (meaning they may or may not be candidates for ibogaine treatment, and may or may not require health/medication plan alterations prior to treatment.)

Dr. Noriega and the whole Beond team drive forward with the best medicine they can. If a guest we thought was cleared for treatment arrives in Cancun with an unexpected issue, Dr. Noriega and the team will investigate further. We won’t be satisfied with a simple EKG, like other ibogaine clinics might use. Dr. Noriega and the team might use deeper diagnostic tools like a CT or fMRI scan, as part of the search for the truth of the health of each patient.

For example, a guest might arrive with a pre-ventricular extrasystole, an irregular heart rhythm that is common—but might be a sign of a larger issue. Some guests who have used stimulants for a long time might have signs of ischemia or necrosis—meaning, part of the heart has died. In those cases, Dr. Noriega will put the guest through a series of additional diagnostic tests. He might put the guests on a holter—a wearable device that monitors their heart rhythms for a full 24 hours. Or Dr. Noriega might put guests on a stress test on a treadmill, to measure the heart’s strength. Or he might do an ultrasound to put eyes on the heart. All of these are routine for our team, but also extraordinary in the world of ibogaine.

With these careful diagnoses, following Beond’s strict medical protocol, Dr. Noriega can rule guests eligible for treatment—or not.

Ibogaine: a Boost In Empathy

“Compassion is the magic word,” says Dr. Noriega.

Beond has changed how Dr. Noriega practices, so he goes beyond traditional medicine. “You have to understand everyone’s purpose,” says Dr. Noriega. “The most important thing to know is if they want to work on themselves.”

Guests all come for the same reason: to grow, heal and change.

“Some people can be aggressive, some of them can be kind, but all of them are human and all of them are looking for this opportunity to change,” says Dr. Noriega.

They are often seeking their true selves. The trouble is that their true selves are sometimes hidden from them by life’s hard knocks. They sometimes see themselves as “broken” or a “problem.” We know this is not true.

We try to give hope, along with our medicines.

“We aim to help everyone come to feel and know that they are actually the solution,” says Tom Feegel, CEO of Beond. The healing is the result of their work, their commitment and desire to change. “They are not machines and we are not mechanics. We are all seeking to change and heal, and at Beond we do it together.”

On our walls are motivational posters. They remind us of the value of self love, compassion, and respect for our guests. We want to treat our guests as humans, not just symptoms.

“Beond has shown me that it is possible to continue being a doctor with greater empathy,” Dr. Noriega says.

Dr. Noriega’s Happiest Time

“My favorite part of caring for our guests is their discharge… the final goodbye ceremony, as they leave to go back to their lives, families and to pursue their dreams,” he says.

Waving goodbye isn’t Dr. Noriega’s favorite part because he wants to be done with them. When guests leave, Dr. Noriega feels a cluster of mixed feelings: inspiration, sadness, relief, and pride. “We notice a huge difference between when they arrive and when they head home… they are back to their true selves but usually have an entirely new vision for their future…” he says.

Our ceremony for guests who are leaving is standard operating procedure. We love it. All staff will assemble in the foyer and play “This is Me” and individually hug the people who are departing for home.

(The song, by the way, is about feeling worthy. It’s from a musical, where it’s sung by a bearded lady in a freak show. She sings, “I’ve learned to be ashamed of all my scars … [told] no one will love you as you are.” Then she finds her heart: “I’m not scared to be seen, I make no apologies—this is me.”

Dr. Noriega has seen great, positive change again and again, ever since he came to Beond. Often, people have stopped taking harmful substances. People take better care of themselves. For the medical team, it’s uplifting and inspiring and more rewarding than an emergency room.

“In the ER, you don’t usually get to see the breadth and depth of physical, psychological, and emotional healing, or whether we are winning the race against time!” says Feegel. “At Beond, we experience the full spectrum of change and growth and transformation. This is a welcomed and beautiful experience for our clinical team especially”

Beond’s mission is spiritual surgery—with effects rippling outward to the client and the clients’ surrounding friends and family.

Dr. Noriega would like, someday, to slow down and have children of his own. “I feel that caring for Beond guests is similar to having children,” Dr. Noriega says. “I protect them and guide them as best I can.”

The guests aren’t Dr. Noriega’s children, but the bond he builds with each of them is undeniable. And at the goodbye ceremony, Dr. Noriega sends them off into the great big world on their own, hoping that the entire team at Beond has given guests as many tools as we can to help them thrive.

Not to oversell it, but an ibogaine trip is like “open-heart surgery for the wounded soul” — that’s how Talia Eisenberg, co-founder of Beond, puts it.

Why do we want something as drastic as surgery? Maybe we have a malformation or a burden that’s bothering us, limiting us—and maybe killing us slowly. Maybe that’s addiction, distraction, or self-criticism. And when you work with ibogaine, and trust ibogaine, it can be like a healer with a scalpel. Opening you up. Finding the trauma “tumor” or maladaptation. And cutting it out or realigning it.

That’s how the medical staff at Beond sees it, anyway. Our team of 8 doctors and more than 20 nurses work as a tight clinical unit. We take every ibogaine journey extremely seriously. We know the benefits, and we’re aware of the risks without proper supervision and protocols.

Ibogaine is a psychedelic derived from the root bark of a Central African shrub. Ibogaine has been found to quell depression, mitigate the impact of brain injuries, and promote deep introspection and emotional healing.

Ibogaine is, however, more physically risky than other psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms.

On ibogaine, the heart’s QT interval—the dub part of the heart’s lub-dub—becomes elongated. In rare cases, an extended QT interval can lead to an irregular rhythm called Torsade de Pointes, a potentially life-threatening condition characterized by rapid, erratic heartbeats. This is why we consistently work to uphold the highest standards of medical monitoring and quality control.

We respect and love all our doctors and nurses here at Beond, and we want to introduce all of them to you. Our doctors leverage their diverse sets of skills, specialties and expertise to integrate their work with those of our founders, Tom and Talia, and our nurses, including Vianey Perez and Patricia Tovar, to welcome clients and evaluate heart health—to keep guests as safe as possible.

This month, we want to highlight Dr. Edgar Montalvo Diaz, Vice President of Global Clinical Operations.

Dr. Montalvo has a few key jobs: one was to help us scale up our operations while systematically increasing safety. Today, he works hard to meticulously evaluate new patients to see who’s ready for ibogaine and who isn’t. Dr. Montalvo and our whole team, in other words, make sure every heart is cared for.

A Doctor’s Son

Dr. Montalvo is a real, actual surgeon, steady with both scalpel and suture. He keeps Beond steady every day.

Born and raised in Cuba, Dr. Montalvo had a happy and hopeful childhood, and can recall playing with his toys and watching TV, even playing out being a doctor. His father was a doctor, and Edgar followed his dad into medicine.

Becoming a doctor wasn’t easy. His first day in the operating room was serious and scary.

“I was almost fainting from the blood,” says Dr. Montalvo. Hand shaking, he avoided actual cutting. His supervisor noticed his fear and told him, “you have to do the next set of stitches.”

Only then did Edgar start to suture patients, thinking, “this is so scary!” But as he became engrossed in the work of healing, his thoughts shifted to, “this is truly fascinating! Look at how the human body functions, grows and heals!”

Dr. Montalvo grew to love surgery—both for technical challenges, and for the good it can do.

“The impact is so immediate,” he says. “You have a surgery and a few days later you see the results. And the patient loves you back.”

The Immediacy of Ibogaine Surgery

“The same thing that happens with other types of surgery, happens with our program at Beond,” says Dr. Montalvo. After the intensity of an ibogaine journey, you can see quick changes in people. The root problem—the abscess or blockage of the spirit and soul—is removed or opened.

In scientific language, ibogaine reopens the critical period of social reward learning. Guests return to a childlike state with a malleable mindset (a state of increased neuroplasticity), often highly motivated to grow, change mindset, overcome dependencies, and passionately pursue personal goals. Guests notice what brings them happiness, what relationships are healthy and helpful, and how they can and should relate to the world.

“We see a guest evolve, from arriving with a lot of burdens and struggling, to someone who is decreasing negative symptoms and appreciative of what we do,” says Dr. Montalvo. “They arrive thinking I am a problem and leave with an entirely new outlook. They have this new window of opportunity to make new changes in their lives.

For the first time in their lives they feel that profound shift in perspective – believing ‘I’m worth it again, I’m not the problem…I am the solution.” They often want to help others with a sense of urgency and new drive.

Rooted Expansion

Dr. Montalvo has also set the tone for the medical staff. He led the effort to expand, standardize, and systematize our medical procedures, allowing Beond’s medicine to become more integrated in our care program.

Since joining us, Dr. Montalvo has been enhancing the expertise of the doctors and nurses at Beond, strengthening their communication, research capabilities, and the facilitation of our daily rounds to ensure they are both patient-centric and data-driven.

Under Dr. Montalvo’s leadership, Beond expanded from 7 beds to 21. He helped us hone a treatment room that is the most prepared and safe in the ibogaine world. We haven’t sacrificed safety one bit as we’ve scaled up, thanks to Dr. Montalvo’s protocols and training.

Every staff member knows how to use our systems to keep our guests safer. When we recruit a new doctor, every other doctor on the team has to sign off that they’re ready to join the team, so we can feel safe no matter which doctor is the primary care provider for a Beond guest.

Dr. Montalvo has long been working to deliver alternative medicines safely and at scale. In the early days of medicinal cannabis, he helped open a chain of marijuana clinics. From there, he moved on to be the Vice President of Clinical Operations for Field Trip, an early chain of ketamine clinics.

“These businesses went from illegal to enterprise scale, almost overnight,” says Tom Feegel, co-founder of Beond. “Dr. Montalvo understands standardization, systemization, the scientific and medical aspects of psychedelic medicines, and the unique nuances of patient needs.”

“What his team did in ethical, safe, effective, scientifically-based ketamine prepared him for this role at Beond,” adds Tom.

Meeting the Medicine

After working at Beond for 3 years, Dr. Montalvo had his first ibogaine treatment this summer. “It was an amazing experience,” says Dr. Montalvo. “My takeaway was to stay closely connected to and deeply love my inner child… who was happy and full of hope, playing on that floor in my house in Cuba.”

He tries to bring that childlike joy to his life with his daughter, 8, and his wife. A prospective client or family member may meet Dr. Montalvo via Zoom, rocking in his rocking chair with a uniform with his name on his chest, “Dr. Edgar Montalvo Diaz, M.D.” looking as content as a kid in his living room dreaming of being a doctor.

All of the physicians at Beond are ready and prepared to guide clients through what the physicians call “soul surgery.” It’s a chance to dig deep, to heal from those wounds that no one else can see but that you feel every single day.

And—guess what!—at Beond, a guest can do this surgery without a single stitch. That’s right. We’re talking about a different kind of healing—one that doesn’t involve a scalpel or stitches but instead focuses on the mind, the heart, and the spirit. Beond has built the team, the expertise, and the compassion to help guide each client through their journey, every step of the way. And in the process, we’re helping people rediscover the best version of themselves.