15 Sep Aaron Rodgers Says Psychedelics Changed His Life

Whether you love him or hate him (and for the majority of football fans, it’s one or the other – there is no in between), it’s no secret that Aaron Rodgers’ very existence causes debate and strikes controversy no matter what he does.

Earlier this month, the contentious Packers QB sparked another controversy when he admitted to using the psychedelic Ayahuasca on a trip to Peru in March of 2020, and it changed the course of his career and his life. 

Rodgers also credits the psychedelic with paving the way for him to have the greatest season of his long and storied career.

What is Ayahuasca?

Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic tea made by boiling the stem and bark of Banisteriopsis caapi – a woody vine – and the leaves of Psychotria viridis, a small, flowering shrub.

Ayahuasca has been used by various cultures and peoples indigenous to the Amazon Basin for centuries in healing ceremonies, as well as ceremonies connected to divination, artistic expression and inspiration, spiritualism, and warfare.

Recently brought to light Archeological evidence puts the earliest use of Ayahuasca at roughly 1,000 years ago. In 2010, archaeologist Jose Capriles from Penn State University discovered a small shamanic pouch on a dig in Southwestern Bolivia. The pouch, which was crafted by expert hands by sewing together three fox snouts, contained some unidentified dried plants, as well as remnants from numerous psychedelic and non-psychedelic plants, including cocaine, Benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine – DMT, bufotenine – a DMT derivative, psilocin, and harmine – a harmala alkaloid and beta-carboline found in the Banisteriopsis caapi vine.

How Ayahuasca Changed Aaron Rodgers’ Life

On August 3rd, 2022, Rodgers went on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast and spoke with Marcus about his trip to Peru and taking an early morning hike up Machu Picchu with his then-girlfriend, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, two Shamans, and a guide, among other things.

During the conversation, Rodgers said he credited his two incredible MVP seasons – 2020 and 2021 – with the experiences he had while on psilocybin with friends and Ayahuasca in Peru. According to Rodgers, the experiences left him in a better place in regard to his mental health, which allowed him to be a better leader and teammate.

“I really feel like that set me on my course to be able to go back into my job and have a different perspective on things, and to be way more free at work as a leader, as a teammate, as a friend, as a lover and I really feel like that experience paved the way for me to have the best season of my career,” Rodgers told Marcus.

Rodgers went on to detail the healing trip he had while on Ayahuasca, stating that it was a magical experience in which he had the sensation of “a hundred different hands on my body importing a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life from what seemed to be my ancestors.”

One of the most important aspects of good mental health, Rodgers says, is self-love. And he told Marcus that he believes his experience with Ayahuasca taught him how to love himself unconditionally, and through that, he was able to import unconditional love to those around him.

Legal Psychedelic Therapy

While Ayahuasca is still illegal in the United States, things are opening up in terms of legal psychedelic healing. 

In 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin for the treatment of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, under supervision. And as more research comes out and more state task forces are being made to do said research, we will undoubtedly see an uptick in the number of states legalizing the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms” for therapeutic use.

But while we wait for the rest of the country to catch up on the benefits of psychedelic therapy, there is one form of therapeutic psychedelic that is not only legal but widely available at clinics across the country: Ketamine.

While not classified as a psychedelic, Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that remaps and restructures the neural pathways in your brain. This opens up a gateway to the unconscious and causes profound psychedelic experiences, which help you heal.

MY Self Wellness offers Ketamine Therapy in Bonita Springs, FL, for all of those facing treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, addiction, and other trauma.

For centuries – if not millennia – people have used psychedelics in one form or another as a means of learning more about themselves, getting in touch with their spiritual side, and most importantly, taking action to improve their mental health.

The experience that Aaron Rodgers shared with Aubrey Marcus earlier this month is one that people the world over have had and continue to have when they finally let go of the stigma and open themselves up to the possibility of better mental health through psychedelics.

If you or someone you know could benefit from psychedelic therapy, visit MY Self Wellness to see if it’s right for you.