Aaron Rodgers Opens up About Using Psychedelics

By Ashley Turner

Aaron Rodgers is touting the miracle properties of a popular illicit substance. The four-time NFL MVP said he has "seen the other side" by using psychedelics. AJ Hawk, Rodgers' former Green Bay Packers teammate, asked him if he was afraid of dying on this week's episode of The Pat McAfee Show. Rodgers had a surprising answer to the question during the sports interview. "I had a major fear of death... there was a lot of weird sentiment around Y2K, remember that? The world was going to end," Rodgers said. "For me personally, since I was a young teenager, I was like, man if the world ends and I'm 16, I'm not going to be able to accomplish anything I want to accomplish." The Superbowl champion said he struggled with mortality and was worried about never experiencing big moments in life, such as getting married or playing in the NFL. The psychedelic drug Psilocybin and the psychoactive drink Ayahuasca helped him overcome his fear of death, he explained.

"It relieved a lot of the stress around the idea of needing to accomplish things before I actually die, kind of taking away some of that fear," Rodgers said. "I think when you've seen the other side, it makes the idea as more of a passage and less of an ending. More of just kind of the next chapter of life." Rodgers had previously spoken openly about his use of psychedelics. He spoke on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast about his Ayahuasca experiences, revealing the psychedelic drug helped him find self-love and a sense of well-being. The quarterback said he made the trip to South America before he won the MVP award a third and fourth time. In the aftermath of his Ayahuasca experience, he said, he "knew that [he] was never going to be the same." "For me, I didn't do that and think 'oh, I'm never playing football again,'" Rodgers said, per USA Today. "No, it gave me a deep and meaningful appreciation for life. My intention the first night going in was 'I want to feel what pure love feels like.' That was my intention. And I did. I really did. I had a magical experience with the sensation of feeling a hundred 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."

Traditionally, indigenous groups in South America's Amazon basin use Ayahuasca to perform social and spiritual ceremonies. There is dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the concoction, which can cause heightened senses and hallucinations. The Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London's Robin Carhart-Harris led a study on Ayahuasca published in 2019, which found the brew changed waking brainwaves similar to "dreaming while awake." In August, Colin Cowherd of FS1 slammed Rodgers on his show The Herd with Colin Cowherd for his Ayahuasca claims. "Lots of people have tried this psychedelic tea: They're called hippies, burnouts, and affluent white people with too much time on their hands, and nobody in their life to call out their crap," Cowherd said, per the New York Post. "Aaron's got no owner. No real relationship with his brother or parents, and no wife." 

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