An upcoming book lifts the lid on Aaron Rodgers’ decision to take a psychedelic trip that he later described as life-changing.
The NFL quarterback tried the traditional Amazon Rainforest drink ayahuasca during a visit to Peru with his then-girlfriend, race car driver Danica Patrick, just before the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, author Ian O’Connor writes in Out of Darkness: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers.
The brew, prepared by a shaman or healer from ingredients with hallucinogenic properties, was recommended to Rodgers during a golf game by his friend Jordan Russell, who visited the Temple of the Way of Light healing center in Iquitos, Peru, the previous year.
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O’Connor writes that Rodgers himself credited the beverage for his on-the-field performances during an appearance on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast, saying: “I really feel like that experience paved the way for me to have the best season of my career.
“I had a magical experience with the sensation of feeling 100 different hands on my body imparting a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life from what seemed to be my ancestors,” he added, according to the book.
In 2020, Rodgers was named league MVP for his season with the Green Bay Packers.
Although Russell wasn’t in the Amazon with Rodgers, he says in the book that ayahuasca helped his friend reach his potential.
“I saw into who Aaron is, and I saw the reason that his potential was not being met, because his potential is not who he is on the football field. That is what has given him the platform and profile to give his gift, is the way I see it,” Russell told the author, according to an excerpt in the New York Post.
“I saw him for exactly who he is and it brought me to tears. I stand in awe of him as a man, and in so many ways he’s trapped inside of his own archetype, trapped inside this shell, this ego of a famous football player, when really what he is, is a warrior of a man who has an absolutely gigantic heart and who just wants to love and be loved.”
An NFL spokesperson said in 2022 that ayahuasca would not trigger a positive result under the league’s substance abuse policy.
